In Mushroom Garden No. 3, Norris was holding the Yellow Book, reading its long-lost exclusive cult stories.
[Mary’s hundredth birthday banquet was so grand, attended by all those blood clans worthy of being called dukes!]
[They each came forward to offer Mary their blessings, making her the most dazzling star of the night.]
[Although Mary felt that a few people’s gazes toward her were strange, since they were all great figures, she couldn’t interrogate them as casually as she would with other lowly blood clans.]
[Mary was happy. Her father loved her so much. For a hundred years, no matter how many mistakes she made, he always forgave her, always stood by her side, and now prepared such a wonderful birthday banquet. He even… cried for her at the banquet!]
[Mary, touched, threw herself into her father’s arms, only for him to embrace her with such force that it nearly snapped her waist.]
[As the banquet drew to an end, in front of all the guests, Mary’s father wept as he drained the struggling Mary into a withered corpse.]
“???”
Norris tilted his head back slightly, utterly baffled. “I don’t understand… what was the point of that…”
[Not understanding is the point!][I’m telling you, vampires are all insane perverts. Don’t bother trying to figure out what they’re thinking!]
Almost reflexively, Norris glanced into the distance. Louisa was absorbed in drawing blood from a captured prisoner, experimenting with skills.
She was so focused that she hadn’t noticed the prisoner was nearly drained dry.
Or perhaps she noticed, but simply didn’t care…
Suddenly, the boss’s voice rang in his head: “Doo-woo—doo-woo—doo-woo—”
“Boss, what’s ‘doo-woo’ supposed to mean?” Norris couldn’t help but ask.
“You can’t tell? It’s an alarm! The old one’s here! Everyone, retreat back home immediately!”
Norris thought alarms were supposed to sound like the “dong-dong” of a great bell, but clearly this wasn’t the time to argue.
The entire No. 3 Mushroom Garden sprang into motion.
First the core members, then the demonic beings, and finally the captives being herded under the guidance of the Marshal Pujis and other mushroom people.
As for these captives, Lin Jun had never given them access to the Spore Network. Until now, they only believed that the “boss” was a Marshal Pujis.
The evacuation wasn’t exactly orderly. The sudden transfer, coupled with their first glimpse of the colossal rift, spread anxious whispers and unease through the captives’ ranks.
But no one dared raise questions or attempt to escape. After nearly ten days of discipline, all the troublemakers had already been weeded out. Those very same troublemakers now stood flanking the ranks, maintaining order.
Since most of the supplies had been relocated in advance, the transfer was completed smoothly in just two hours.
Afterward, under computational control, the rift steadily shrank until it stabilized at half the size of a palm, hidden beneath the Mycelium Carpet.
It wasn’t cowardice on Lin Jun’s part—this particular “old one” was simply far too ancient!
【Level: 84】
With purple blood swirling across the sky as he flew into the Mycelium Carpet’s range, he was impossible to miss!
The panel might not have displayed skills like [Sword’s Extremity], but that unprecedented level alone was enough to make Lin Jun avoid direct confrontation.
…
Beneath the northern skies stretched a foreboding purple-blood canopy, sweeping across the frozen wasteland at incredible speed under the guidance of a bat.
Ever since leaving Imperial territory, every living thing along the way had become Prince Vesalius’s moving blood reservoir.
Whether it was the two small tribes he passed, or the insects lurking under frozen rivers that knew how to hide themselves, all were slaughtered, absorbed into the canopy.
Those demonic beings, and the people behind them, dared to kill his beloved jewel of a daughter—this would not stand!
At this very moment, even His Majesty the Emperor would have to understand his grief, and tolerate his absence from duty.
Yet after flying for another full day, what lay before him was nothing but an empty fortress, with no trace of demonic presence.
As for other signs of life…
A massive purple blood blade swept down, splitting the thick crust of the Arctic Fortress with ease, revealing the armored Pujis within, all in a state of feigned death.
Clearly, these were the monsters mentioned in reports—the ones controlled by demonic beings to aid in battle.
Vesalius descended to the breach, intending to investigate, to find some clue…
The fortress exploded without warning!
A cataclysmic detonation devoured everything in an instant. A violent shockwave hurled boulders, ice shards, and dust into the sky, forming a roiling, murky mushroom cloud!
But the swirling dust was cleaved apart by a fierce blood blade, revealing Vesalius floating above the enormous crater.
An explosion strong enough to wipe out hall-level powerhouses hadn’t harmed him, though much of the purple blood around him was consumed.
The remaining blood poured downward, spreading across the ground, tearing apart every strand of mycelium in sight.
Soon, however, he ceased this pointless destruction.
With such an expansive Mycelium Carpet—especially with the countless underground tunnels he had discovered—he couldn’t possibly purge it all.
That would require massive manpower for long-term cleansing, something the extreme northern climate could never support…
So he abandoned that and focused on seeking the demons’ trail.
But even after thorough searching, he found nothing.
Not even in that unstable, half-abandoned underground city—there, too, lay only the ever-present traces of the Mycelium Carpet, without a single living person.
Lin Jun’s palm-sized rift did catch his attention. On the other side lay what seemed like a barren hollow, impossible to determine where it connected.
At that size, nothing but fluid monsters could pass through.
By comparison, the slowly but steadily collapsing lower levels seemed far more suspicious.
Standing at the edge, Vesalius gazed into the chaotic space. He couldn’t be sure whether the demons had risked hiding within, but what other possibility was there?
If that were truly the case, then he had to admit his enemy’s ruthless resolve.
Even he risked peril if he were to enter that broken space.
“If you want to hide, then stay hidden forever!”
Vesalius withdrew. Behind him, the surging purple blood condensed and transformed into several seals, completely sealing off the lower levels of the stone fortress dungeon.
Only after circling the area for another entire day, finding no further signs, did he finally set off back toward the Empire.
He couldn’t waste endless time here. The eastern campaign against the dwarves of the mountains still required his leadership, and His Majesty’s tolerance had limits.
…
Once Lin Jun confirmed that the old monster had truly departed the Mycelium Carpet’s range, he withdrew the computational control from the rift’s edge. In about a week, it could be reopened to human size.
As long as a rift wasn’t shut down completely, he could always restore it with control over the system’s computational power.
If that old bat had tried to squeeze through earlier, Lin Jun would have shut it completely—either slicing him in half or trapping him inside.
The deep levels only held captives now. Lin Jun had already moved the demonic beings and core members up to the seventh layer, ready to shift them further to the Divine Tree Dungeon if necessary.
Then he could arrange for the humans to “accidentally” discover it.
Teleportation was expensive, but if the target was a high-ranking vampire, surely humanity wouldn’t hesitate…
Of course, all of this was only if the other party was the kind of reckless brute who would dive headfirst into any hole.
In truth, no such brute could ever survive to such a high level… well… except dragons.