Chapter 791 - 777: The Move
Chapter 791: Chapter 777: The Move
Elf Forest, within the Royal Palace.
"Your Highness, the mist has landed ashore and is more ferocious this time. Lord Eco feels the forest needs some preparations and hopes to discuss it with you."
"Understood, please have Eco wait for me in the council hall."
Faced with urgent business, Galadriel, who was in the garden, had to halt her daily morning pet-walking routine. She tied the leash to the branch of an ancient tree nearby.
Squatting down, she softly said to the Sword Saint wrapped up like a dumpling in various sealing tools and only led by the leash, "Elvyn, it seems we won’t have time for a walk today. Please wait here for me. I’ll be back by noon."
With that, she moved the Sword Saint Puki, who was completely unaware of his surroundings, repositioning him onto a small patch of fungal mat to replenish magic power, then left.
The nine seals on Elvyn assured her that the opponent couldn’t escape again unless aided.
This was her private garden within the palace; who could breach in and take away this Puki?
However, unbeknownst to her, after she left, the fungal mat beneath Sword Saint Puki suddenly came alive. The previously small patch of mycelium intertwined and quickly spread over the surrounding ground, followed by the outline of a temporary teleportation array on the fungal mat.
A violent burst of magic power flashed and vanished, so when the elf guards arrived following the palace’s defense alarm, only half of the sealing leash tied to the tree remained on the ground.
...
Sword Saint Puki slowly awakened, his senses expanding, everything around him appearing in his mind.
The feeling of seeing daylight again... so good!
"You’re awake? I’ve reassembled your body without any displacement." Two Pukis beside him helped the Sword Saint up.
Elvyn moved his short legs—this time, none were incorrectly attached.
From afar, another Puki ran over, stuffing four swords into Elvyn’s arms with its tentacle, "Only two are skill weapons, the others are just good swords. The situation is urgent; make do for now."
Hanging the weapons on himself, Elvyn asked, "What’s happened that you even thought of me?"
"What is Sword Saint saying? I just haven’t been disturbing your personal life." The Puki beside handed several bottles of Water of Life to the Sword Saint, "The mist has rampaged, for some reason rushing from the Empire, the situation is urgent. Just ten miles behind you is a city, and the duty to block the mist and protect the city can only fall upon you now, Sword Saint."
"Mist rampage? Got it."
Hearing it was indeed serious business, Elvyn immediately became earnest.
After a brief explanation, Lin Jun disassembled all the Pukis using the fungal mat to avoid causing unknown effects within the Sword Saint’s Illusion Realm.
Once completed, Lin Jun swiftly shifted attention to other areas that might face the mist’s impact, arranging defenses.
The mist, veering from the Empire’s direction, did indeed catch Lin Jun off guard.
Lin Jun deeply suspected this was the doing of some malicious Slime.
After all, if the Empire was so incompetent it couldn’t block the mist, leading to complete defeat, the mist should be spreading from south to north, not as it is now, spraying diagonally from the southwest to the northeast.
Supposing this truly is the Slime Demon King’s tactic,
From another perspective, the Demon King shouldn’t expect merely relying on the mist to defeat or severely damage Fungus Castle; he must have some other tricks.
Therefore, aside from organizing resistance against the mist, Lin Jun also had Little Pig mobilize the Fungus Castle army, guarding vital routes and strongholds on the possible Empire’s attack path.
Then, several High Tier scout Pukis were generated, prepared to bypass the mist and fly within the Empire’s territory to investigate the situation.
However, before the scout Pukis set off, Lin Jun discovered an anomaly through the fungal mat.
Yet this anomaly didn’t occur in the south but in the region where the east borders the mountains.
...
The junction of the Northern Territory and the mountains.
Here, the fungal mats connected into patches that spread across the wild hills.
No matter how hard the dwarves tried to clear the fungal mats, in these areas close to the Northern Territory, they had little success.
Through these fungal mats, Lin Jun witnessed a baffling scene.
At the end of the mountain path, a black line was slowly advancing, like an iron python.
That was a dwarf army, and it was the most elite heavy armor phalanx of the Black Steel Clan.
The forefront consisted of Shield Warriors, tower shields as tall as their bodies, thick and ornament-free shield surfaces, their bodies clad in heavy full-body armor, resembling moving iron blocks.
Behind the shield formation were axe soldiers, spear bearers, crossbowmen...
At the rear were several large rune crossbow carts and several unknown weapons mounted in iron coffins.
Besides this Black Steel Clan army, Lin Jun also spotted the Fire Beard Clan army from another direction.
An impending army, what do the dwarves intend? Stir up war? At such a time?
Lin Jun was aware of the anti-mycelium parasitic wave within the mountains, even suspecting the Empire’s involvement.
Yet those tactics ultimately could only slow down Lin Jun’s infiltration into the mountains, not altering the big picture, hence the priority in handling these matters ranked behind the mist, Ancient Dragon Path, and Chis’ significant issues.
But now...
The dwarves must be crazy! The largest enemy, the Empire, hasn’t been dealt with yet, and they’re eager to turn against me?
Fortunately, the fungal mats revealed their movements early, granting enough time for Fungus Castle to mobilize the army and set up defenses anew.
However, shifting troops to the east, the southern defense line would inevitably weaken. It was difficult to say whether the Demon King bastard had calculated this precisely.
Lin Jun had no choice but to relinquish parts of the southern occupied territory, creating a buffer zone to at least fend off Empire’s sneak attacks taking advantage of an opportunity.
Though it was a loss, surrendering key strategic valleys was necessary, but for Lin Jun, the populace is the most valuable resource.
Meanwhile, after the dwarf army stepped onto the fungal mats, although Lin Jun couldn’t identify any issue reflecting on their panels, he sensed a peculiar feeling.
Upon careful distinction,
"Psychic Field?"
Lin Jun couldn’t directly confirm; this aspect required a real expert for verification.
Thinking this, a Yellow-covered Book was teleported to the front line on the spot.
[Ah! It’s gonna split! It’s gonna split aaahhhh!]
Puki rolled up the Yellow-covered Book, flipping its surfaces to check, noticing nothing splitting; just a few ordinary scratches slowly healing on the cover.
"Stop howling, quickly check over there if there’s your kind of psychic field?"
[Ah——Ahhh——!]
Lin Jun placed the now-thick Yellow-covered Book back on the fungal mat, the teleportation array was outlined once more, the target location just five meters away...
[Wait!]
[Boss, I’m feeling much better]
[Hmm... there indeed is a psychic field over there, but it seems slightly different from mine. To precisely understand the difference, one must find a way to enter the psychic field to perceive it]
Great, at least it’s confirmed as the Slime’s doing.