Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 688: Chapter 677: Finale

The speed of the black shadow was insanely fast.

Dean’s subordinates acted instantly when Eugene was taken away.

A spiral arrow whistled in pursuit, followed closely by an electric arc.

However, both missed their target, the arrow disappearing over the horizon and the arc exploding on a distant rock.

The black shadow was too fast.

Dean himself gave chase.

As one of the elites among the Demon Race, his speed left most of his kind in the dust.

But now, he could only watch helplessly as the black shadow ahead grew more distant, the gap widening bit by bit.

Behind him, another speed-specialized Demon Race member barely kept pace, but catching up seemed impossible.

Noticing they were being chased, Xiao Hai, who was carrying Eugene in one claw, flew even harder.

One of its claws gripped Eugene’s head tightly, the Duke’s face showing pain and confusion through its fingers.

Xiao Hai’s other claw wasn’t idle either. It was occasionally scooping at a spot just above Eugene’s head where nothing was visible, yet it scooped earnestly, its claw tips brushing past Eugene’s hair each time.

From her perspective, there floated a huge translucent gemstone.

The gemstone was not only beautiful but also slowly rotating, tempting her.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t grab it.

No matter how she tried, she couldn’t catch it.

The more anxious she became, the harder she tried, Eugene’s head almost on the verge of being crushed.

"That’s an image; you have to bring him back to get the real thing!" Lin Jun explained through the Fungal Network.

"Awoo!" Only then did Xiao Hai stop trying.

She took one last careful look at the two Demon Race members still pursuing behind, confirmed nothing was above their heads, then accelerated and completely shook them off.

In her claw, Eugene finally broke free from the initial dizziness and the pain of having his head squeezed.

But he didn’t struggle immediately; he thought instead.

He didn’t understand.

He had used his last resort, sacrificing a large amount of blood power to remove all the magic tracking marks on him and burst forth with speed far beyond normal to get here.

Even if the other side somehow knew this means ahead of time, it was still impossible to locate him with such a large escape range.

If there was a large army blocking the entire border, he would accept it.

But now, the Dragon Man painfully squeezing his head clearly acted alone and must have known his precise location.

The enemy commander Louisa, although he’d only crossed swords with her a few times, he could feel she was the type to have a full plan before action, unlikely to let such high-end combat power wander idly in the rear.

So how exactly did the enemy locate him?

Catching a glimpse of the endless Fungal Mat below, Eugene’s pupils suddenly contracted.

"I see now..."

Why was he found and caught up to?

Why couldn’t spies penetrate the Northern Territory?

Why could some Puki act over a long distance even without their Puki Master nearby?

In a moment, all doubts were resolved.

The answer was right under his feet the whole time. Why hadn’t he noticed before?

No, it wasn’t that he hadn’t noticed.

Even if he thought of it, he quickly dismissed this answer.

Using the Fungal Mat to monitor the entire Northern Territory?

In other words, each piece of mycelium was equivalent to a scouting Magic Array.

And there had to be someone to process such massive monitoring information.

This was completely illogical.

But now, apart from this possibility, there was no other explanation.

"No wonder we lost so miserably..." Eugene’s single eye, squeezed between Dragon Claws, turned towards the endless northern icefields and mycelium. He was now certain, Louisa was not the true leader of the Fungus Castle, "What kind of monster is he?"

Unfortunately, he couldn’t satisfy his last curiosity.

"Ha... Haha, trying to capture this Duke alive?"

"No matter what you are, you’re wrong!"

"Your biggest mistake was not killing me right away!"

"Blood Manipulation—End!"

The next moment, Xiao Hai’s claws were empty, as Eugene suddenly exploded into countless droplets of blood.

Unlike in a blood burst for escape, the blood didn’t coalesce but directly burst apart, shooting in all directions!

And in Lin Jun’s perspective, his panel disappeared immediately.

Most of the scattered blood fell onto the Fungal Mat after traveling some distance, except for one strand that flew back in a small circle, splattering across Dean’s face.

At the same time, brief but shocking information was transmitted into Dean’s consciousness upon contact.

After a brief digestion, Dean incredulously looked at the Fungal Mat at his feet.

Nearby, the Demon Race member who barely kept up saw Dean suddenly stop and couldn’t help but ask, "Chieftain, aren’t we pursuing?"

"No need, retreat!"

"Retreat... does that mean back to the troops?"

"No, retreat to the Empire, immediately!"

"What?"

The Demon Race member wanted to ask why.

What about their kin with Eugene?

But Dean was already hurrying back, and he could only suppress his questions for now.

Just as he prepared to catch up with the chieftain, a complex Magic Array suddenly lit up beneath his feet.

"There wasn’t..." His brief shock caused him to miss the opportunity to dash out.

On the other side, a Magic Array also suddenly appeared under Dean’s feet.

Although he didn’t recognize what kind of Magic Array it was, nor how it came to be,

Dean responded immediately.

[Trample LV10]

The ground split open, and a large pit was stomped into the center.

This large-scale terrain destruction directly caused the yet-to-start Magic Array to collapse, a massive release of magic power inducing a few sizable Magic Bursts.

After confirming there were no follow-up attacks, Dean looked back at the Demon Race member.

But the latter had already been reduced to third-order fragments by now.

Dean’s face was terrifyingly dark.

He leaped forward, smashing the ground again, extracting the Demon Core from the fragments, and after one last glance northward, he headed back without turning around.

...

It seems using temporary Magic Arrays to trap and kill experts is unrealistic.

Neither Dean nor the Demon Race member were spellcasters or sensitive to magic power, otherwise, they would have detected the Magic Array before its final activation stage.

But even so, Dean easily destroyed the temporary Magic Array.

And the only success was the sneak attack during his contemplation, clearly not a viable conventional attack method.

Although reluctant to let Dean return, the main force was still at Gong River, and only Xiao Hai and some scattered cleanup troops were here; it’s not realistic to hold Dean and his forces.

After all, it was unexpected that someone like Eugene, a Duke, would commit suicide so readily.

Lin Jun had thought these immortal beings would be increasingly reluctant to die.

However, it’s not a big deal.

He changed his previous strategy of feigned weakness, consuming Eugene completely this time because, after gaining new insights from Fei Xi, he decided not to play dumb.

The Northern border of the Empire was meant to be taken into possession!