Duke's expression was ugly. He put back the wooden planks at the entrance and disguised himself as before. Then he walked back to the tower as if nothing had happened and ordered his men to wake up the Guardians that were knocked out.
Locke took the opportunity to ask secretly, "Captain, what happened? You don't look right."
Something was definitely wrong. There were only three people in the mercenary corps who knew about this entrance. Now that someone had slipped in without a sound, he had to suspect that there was a mole in the mercenary corps. But the problem was that the captain couldn't tell others about this. After all, the entire mercenary corps was his private property. He couldn't share his property with outsiders.
The other one was the strategist of the mercenary corps, High Magician Uppur. He couldn't tell outsiders about this entrance either. He was the captain's son and the legal heir of the mercenary corps. So, excluding the two people who were the least likely to betray the secret, the most likely person to be the mole was himself.
Duke's expression became even uglier at the thought of this. He even began to wonder if he had been "framed" by the captain's family. They deliberately told outsiders about the secret of the entrance and then pushed the blame to him so that they could take the opportunity to kill him. Duke thought about what he had done in the past few years. Indeed, he had secretly embezzled a lot of the mercenary corps' property, nearly a hundred gold coins. But this was not a crime that deserved death. If the captain really wanted to use this matter to get rid of him, then he must be prepared in advance. As soon as something went wrong, he would immediately take the opportunity to escape.
While he was thinking about this, a light purple magic signal rose in Pine Wind City. Because the sun had completely set, the signal was very conspicuous in the air.
Not long after, the sound of hooves could be heard outside the woods. Soon, seven people appeared in front of the tower. The leader was a middle-aged man with a big beard. He was wearing a common chain armor. His body was very burly, and his face was very long and weathered. At first glance, one could tell that he was a very dignified and very bold leader-level figure.
Beside him was a young man with fair skin. He wore a brown magic robe. His appearance was very delicate, and his smile was very sunny. At first glance, one could tell that he was a particularly gentle and polite young man. In fact, although he was the heir of the mercenary corps, he had never acted superior because of this. No matter who he met, he would first smile. He felt that this person was quite comfortable.
The seven of them jumped down from their horses. The leader of the White Bear Mercenaries walked in front of Duke and asked, "What happened?"
Duke explained everything that happened, then said, "I've already disguised the entrance. My team members don't know that there's an entrance hidden behind the tower. Now I'm just thinking, other than the three of us, who else knows the location of the entrance?"
The mercenary leader's sharp gaze moved up and down Duke's body. Puzzled, he asked, "Duke, you seem very nervous?"
Every muscle on Duke's body tightened. "Hehe, Commander. Are you kidding me? "
The mercenary leader smiled and said, "Don't be nervous. I don't doubt you. Someone knows about this secret entrance. It's not necessarily that we leaked it, but it's also possible that they guessed it from our usual actions. You're an old member of our mercenary group, so how could I suspect you? "
Duke let out a sigh of relief. He said gratefully, "Thank you for your trust, Commander. I'll show you the entrance right now."
After saying that, Duke turned around and walked towards the entrance of the ruins. But before he took two steps, his body suddenly stopped. Then, he lowered his head in disbelief and looked at the tip of the sword that was stained with blood on his chest. His vision gradually turned white and then black. Then, he couldn't see anything anymore.
The mercenary leader waved his hand and threw Duke's body to the side. He said coldly, "Only the three of us know the secret of the entrance. Since it's impossible for me and my son, then who else could it be other than you!"
The handsome Uppur walked close and looked at Duke's body in pain. "Father, I don't think it's Duke who leaked the information. There are no eternal secrets in the world. Even the private affairs of the gods can be spread to the human world. Besides, the White Bear Mercenaries have occupied the Northern Dawn Woods for such a long time. It's not strange that someone smart found the secret entrance."
"Son, you've been learning magic in the Yellow Magic Tower. The people there are noble and proud. They worship great power and believe that all the schemes in the world are meaningless with power. It's normal that they despise the petty schemes of the mortal world. However, your current strength has not reached the point where you can look down on everything. Let me teach you a lesson right now. In order to eliminate unnecessary future troubles, you must kill all suspicious people, whether they are innocent or the real suspects. "
Uppur closed his eyes and said solemnly, "Father, that's too cruel. I can't do it."
The mercenary leader looked at his son with both relief and helplessness.
At this moment, the mercenaries finally found out that Duke was dead. They were all surprised and looked at everything before them in disbelief. The mercenary leader walked over and said, "Duke colluded with outsiders and leaked the biggest secret of our mercenary group. I've already killed him. Now, we're going to hunt down the outsiders who trespassed on our territory. If you're willing, close your eyes and follow us. If not, you can die here."
Locke and the other mercenaries looked at each other and had a brief exchange of glances. Then, they closed their eyes at the same time.
The mercenary leader waved his hand, and the mercenaries behind him walked over and covered the eyes of Duke's men with rags. Then, they covered their own eyes as well.
Uppur took another look at Duke's body and then let out a long sigh. He cast a mental spell on the blindfolded men. They felt themselves flying and the wind blew past their faces. They flew for a long time and then landed on the ground.
But in reality, they hadn't moved at all. Finally, Uppur ended the spell and had them walk to the entrance of the ruins hand in hand. He ordered them to jump in one by one.
After everyone entered the underground passage, Uppur covered the entrance again and waited for them to walk through the passage. After they entered the ruins, the mercenary leader asked them to remove the black cloth covering their eyes.
Then, they were stunned by the scene in front of them.
The mercenary leader didn't give them much time to be surprised. He then said to Green Hat, "Locke, follow their footprints and find them. We'll follow behind you. "
"No problem!" Locke was indeed a professional scout. He squatted on the ground. He squatted on the ground and picked up the soil with his hand, tasted it, and then said, "Leader, they've been gone for more than an hour. One of them is a spellcaster. I can feel the magical elements cheering."
Liang Lidong did use magic, but it was a magic scroll. It was a small-scale Lightening spell. It could increase the movement speed of the target and slightly reduce their weight. It could save a lot of energy when moving for a long time.
The ruins were exactly the same as in the game three hundred years ago. Nothing had changed. Time seemed to have frozen here. They were all relatively agile people, and with the effect of Lightening, they moved very quickly.
Liang Lidong led them through the huge ruins, turning left and right without a moment's hesitation. They avoided many gathering points of major monsters. It had been nearly two hours since they entered the ruins, and they hadn't experienced a battle yet.
Katerina followed behind Liang Lidong. She asked in a low voice, "Sir, are you familiar with this place? Have you been here before?"
"Yes, that was when I was a mercenary." Liang Lidong replied casually, "My friends and I spent a lot of effort to figure out the terrain here and the distribution of major monsters. It took us almost a week. You can say that. The topographic map of this place is already in my head. "
Back in the game, in order to go to the center of the ruins and get the water from the Well of Light, Liang Lidong and his friends had died an average of three times in the ruins. He died an average of three times in this relic before he finally obtained the Light Well Water. In fact, the reason why this mission was so difficult was that they didn't know the distribution of magical beasts at that time, and they had walked into the territories of those troublesome magical beasts several times. Then, they were crushed by the powerful magical beasts, or chased by a large number of small magical beasts.
This time, Liang Lidong had two missions. One was to get some kind of rare alchemy material, and the other was to get the water from the Well of Light for Tina.
The alchemy material used to make Tifa's bracelet was called the Luminous Mushroom. It grew in the dark, but it was also a place where large amounts of light element gathered. There were very few places that could meet these two conditions, and one of them was the ruins of the Ancestral Kingdom, which had the water from the Well of Light.
Liang Lidong led the group left and right. In the quiet underground ruins, apart from the occasional roar of a monster in the distance, there was only the sound of their footsteps on the ground.
This kind of sound spread in all directions, and then came back in the form of an echo. If one listened carefully for a long time, they would feel that there were people walking towards them from all directions. This was a kind of auditory illusion, and it was easy to appear in quiet places. It was especially embarrassing.
After walking for a while, Katerina couldn't take it anymore. In fact, it wasn't just her; her subordinates also looked constipated.
"How far are we from the first target?" Katerina asked.
"We're here!" Liang Lidong suddenly stopped.
In front of them was a grand temple. It was a pyramid-shaped altar made entirely of dark blue stone. This pyramid-shaped altar was about 200 meters tall, and in front of them was a half-closed door. Looking at the other half of the door, it was pitch-black inside, as if it was the gaping throat of an evil spirit.
"After entering from here, there will be a staircase that leads to the altar. There are a total of 37 levels, and the alchemy materials I need are probably grown between the 17th and 20th levels. There aren't many of them, but if I collect all of them, it should be enough for me to use. The second target is at the top of the altar. There is a spring there, and it's very precious spring water. I need it. "
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go up now! I don't want to stay in this damn place for a second longer!" one of the assassins said impatiently.
Katerina glared at her subordinate and then asked, "There will be danger inside, right?"
"Yes!" Liang Lidong pointed to the top of the altar and said, "There is a kind of insect living there. It looks similar to the white cabbage insects we usually see, but the insects here are very big. The insects at the bottom are about half a meter long, and the closer it is to the top, the bigger the insect is. I remember that the insects at the top should be four meters long. They are magic beasts, and they know some light magic attacks. Their power is not small, and what is more disgusting is that they are used to the dark world, so their hearing and vibration sensitivity are very strong. If we want to sneak in, it is almost impossible."
"In other words, we can only force our way in?" Katerina asked.
Liang Lidong nodded and said, "Yes, this is also the reason why I hired you. When it comes to fighting in the dark, no profession is a match for you. "
Katerina smiled and said, "You have a good plan. We are indeed good at fighting in the dark, but what about you? You are a spellcaster. Are you going to use magic like light magic? "
"These worms are all light magic beasts. Although they live in the dark, they yearn for the light. If they see a bright light source, they will be ecstatic, even violent, and rush toward the light source regardless of anything. In that case, we will be very passive. "
"In battle, we need a formation." Katerina looked at Liang Lidong and said, "Do you have any good suggestions?"
Liang Lidong said, "You are professionals. I will listen to you."
Katerina nodded in satisfaction. It was pleasant to work with experienced people. At least they were not in a hurry to show off or randomly give orders. She looked at her subordinate and said, "As usual, one, two, three formation. Mr. Beta, you will follow behind us."
Liang Lidong nodded.
The so-called one, two, three formation was actually an arrow formation. After they took their positions, the seven of them walked into the entrance of the altar. It was pitch-black inside, and it took a while for their eyes to adjust to the almost complete darkness. They didn't walk very far before they saw a worm with a faint fluorescent light crawling in front of them.
Generally speaking, light magic beasts would emit a white fluorescent light, which was a sign that the light magic element in their bodies was the majority.
Everyone stopped moving and even their breathing slowed down. The worm should have crawled past them dozens of meters ahead, but for some unknown reason, it suddenly stopped and stood half its body towards the location where Liang Lidong and others were. It gently swayed left and right, as if searching for something.