Norris accepted Vera’s team’s gratitude with a slightly complex expression. He seed to want to say sothing but ultimately remained silent, rely standing behind the returning Edin.
As the right-hand man of Fa’er and a key figure in Mushroom City, Vera naturally knew Edin.
Once again, they expressed their gratitude, which Edin brushed aside with a wave of his hand.
At this mont, Gavin and his subordinates had all retreated to the basent and activated the defense barrier.
The light purple curtain sealed the entrance tightly; it’s unclear what they were doing inside.
As per the leader’s request, Edin had already crushed the alarm crystal, and Fa’er should be sending soone over soon.
Gavin’s judgnt upon seeing Edin wasn’t wrong. Even if they fled now, escaping would be difficult.
Faced with Gavin, Lin Jun could also take action. Regardless of the defensive power of a magic array, it’s ultimately fueled by magic power.
But how long could such a hastily set-up defense magic array withstand consecutive self-destructions from Puki?
Doing so would leave too obvious a trace, not to ntion the witnesses like Vera present.
Without certainty of adequate reward, Lin Jun chose to leave the matter to the authorities.
With Edin present, the final intelligence would eventually be shared with him.
Fa’er reacted swiftly; just two hours later, Solalin arrived on horseback with more than forty fully ard knights.
By then, Norris had quietly left, leaving only Edin and Vera’s squad standing guard.
"Lord Edin." After a brief understanding of the situation, Solalin imdiately commanded his subordinates to launch a fierce attack on the defense magic array.
Under the intense magical and physical attacks, the hastily constructed barrier crumbled in less than ten minutes.
Edin, holding a Puki, followed the pathfinders into the basent.
It took everyone by surprise that there was neither desperate resistance nor pleading despair inside.
What lay before them were corpses peacefully deceased, and a large sacrificial magic array drawn on the ground.
The cultists who had retreated had beco sacrifices within the magic array.
Even more nauseating, there was a pile of semi-decomposed corpses in the corner, filling the basent with a stifling stench.
Everyone covered their noses, except Edin, who remained unfazed.
Yet, there were still two living people in the basent.
A middle-aged man cowered in the corner, crying incessantly. He was one of the mushroom farrs who besieged Vera and, for so reason, hadn’t fallen like his fellow cultists in the sacrificial magic array.
The other was Gavin, charred and unrecognizable.
"Silver light purifies the soul bones, the ritual forms the path, do not worry, do not fear..." Gavin knelt at the edge of the magic array, murmuring indistinct prayers.
Even as everyone intruded, he remained oblivious, still muttering to himself:
"My God, I am ashad of failing your expectations, unworthy to enter the cycle of reincarnation. Let bear this guilt alone, I beg you, have rcy, save their souls!"
Solalin’s gaze swept over the piles of corpses in the corner, her voice filled with uncontainable anger and disgust: "Sacrificing innocent lives to gain the rcy of a wicked god? You heartless madn!"
Gavin slowly raised the blade in his hand, prompting Solalin to imdiately assu a defensive stance, while the surrounding soldiers gripped their weapons tightly.
"It’s just your ignorance." Gavin’s gaze flitted to the man still sobbing in the corner, his tone arrogant, "Just like him."
Before finishing his sentence, the blade in his hand suddenly struck out at an unexpected angle.
Not at the ready Solalin, but piercing through his own skull.
Gavin died instantly, beyond any possibility of rescue.
Watching everything through Puki, Lin Jun felt goosebumps rising from nonexistence.
At first, he thought it was so evil mage dabbling in abyss magic, but they were truly madn!
Evil mages may be evil, but it’s about their thods, not their minds. Evil mages still have pursuits common to normal people... power, authority, money, fa, and such.
Even those in the Ark who always speak of "sacrifice" primarily sacrifice others in essence.
But this group of cultists was entirely different; they were genuinely deranged, worshipping so existence. They wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice others and could easily discard even their own lives!
More terrifying, this evil deity actually existed!
Disgusting!
From the [Inspiration] perspective, all those bodies were empty, soulless.
Lin Jun already knew which god they worshipped—Death God Nevrilla.
If a diamond-level wants to commit suicide, Solalin and the others can’t stop it.
They could only escort the sole surviving captive back for interrogation, while dispatching people to catalog the corpses in the basent, attempting to identify the victims.
Vera’s squad wasn’t allowed into the basent until the end. As soon as they got halfway down, the pungent stench forced them to cover their mouths and noses.
Upon seeing the horror below, the support mage Fei Yin was the first to break down, rushing back to the surface, while the others turned pale as paper.
Their employer, Barton, suddenly lunged at the most decayed corpse in the corner, embracing it while crying out for a friend’s na.
This was Vera’s team’s first confrontation with the deeds of the cultists. Despite their victory, each person’s heart felt weighed down as if by a boulder.
The subsequent clean-up of the farm was managed entirely by Solalin.
Victims’ identities were gradually confird; those with kin were inford, and the naless were buried in the mushroom-overgrown cetery.
Lin Jun tried disassembling one of the corpses, but as expected, it yielded nothing.
The captured survivor easily confessed under questioning:
"Priest Gavin was looking for a ’high-level vessel’; I really don’t know what a ’high-level vessel’ is either! I just followed the leader’s instructions to capture so people, that’s all! They made do it; I didn’t dare disobey them!"
"Why did you join the Hand of Death initially?"
"They said... joining would lead to ascension in the next life, not like this life, being talentless, struggling all this ti just to remain at the bottom... I truly didn’t know it would be this evil initially!"
"Then why didn’t you die there like the others?"
"It was a sacrifice! I saw it; the ritual was just like those before! I... I didn’t want to be sacrificed! I didn’t... I..."
"Besides that farm, do you have other strongholds?"
"Previously in an abandoned village, but that’s been abandoned, other than that... I really don’t know..."
...
After the personal interrogation, Solalin remained deeply troubled.
This coward was obviously just a peripheral mber, and his information was of limited value.
The most crucial issue is...
Solalin stared at the list she had compiled.
The number of victims from the basent didn’t even reach half of the missing persons reported.
So, where are the rest of the missing?
Clearly, the cultists lurking in the shadows aren’t limited to just this group; the threat is far from over!
In the days following, Mushroom City’s security patrol force doubled, and even the Church sent a few squads to aid in the hunt for the lurking cultists.
This caused the D Level personnel list at Mushroom Garden to remain unchanged for a long ti...
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