Chapter 119: Letter and the Origin of the Rat People

Chris clutched her bottom, her face twisted in a pout as she floated beside Rod.

Damn it!

I just peeked a tiny bit, is it worth whipping me several times!

And you made me lift my skirt for you to whip! I'm an adult female ghost, you know, I have dignity too!

I will take revenge! I must take revenge!

Forester Rod! Just you wait!

Oh no, I wonder if scars will be left behind.

Chris couldn't help but touch it, and her body trembled.

It hurts, but why is there a faint trace of pleasure?

Rod ignored the Banshee's thoughts.

While driving the carriage toward Shi Ying Town, he read Lily's letter.

The letter began by recounting events after the two parted ways.

It turned out that after parting, Lily had sent someone to Emerald City to notify the army of Scorching City of the anomalies.

But unfortunately, it was not taken seriously, and the massacre still occurred.

And after the terrifying ritual ended, she immediately embodied the spirit of the Hero Alliance, entering the city to help the suffering commoners.

Because of this, she comprehended new insights from the residual magical traces.

Making her magical thinking even clearer.

After that, she and a group of Hero Alliance companions disguised themselves as bards, attempting to enter Scorching City to investigate.

And discovered some interesting details—

【

Since defecting from Aethelorn, Scorching City has imposed curfew rules, greatly increasing its defenses, so only I and a nimble Cat Lady could investigate (what a pity, she's not your type, her chest is very small).

At first, we believed the shortage of Violet Berries was the main cause of the rebellion, after all, humans make up the majority here; without Violet Elixir, they cannot survive long.

But after our investigation, we found that the shortage of Violet Berries was intentional on Scorching City's part; at the same time, we learned that several months ago they significantly relaxed control over the Holy Fire Squad, causing some humans, unable to afford Violet Elixir, to turn to worship of the Holy Fire, believing they should not resist but rather integrate.

At this point, we guessed this was an invasion plan initiated by the Fire Lizard People—

The Koi Tribe outside Scorching City corrupted, or rather assimilated, some high-ranking Fire Lizard People within the city, using faith and reaction to reclaim their territory.

But this guess had a huge flaw.

The legendary mage in the city is a human sent by Aethelorn; this is a legendary mage who comprehended the 【Explosive Flame】 domain, with absurdly high fire resistance, completely unafraid of high temperatures; why would he voluntarily submit to the Holy Fire?

The investigation stalled for a long time.

Just as we were about to give up, the Cat Lady accidentally learned that the Yige Sect had briefly come here to preach and had held a meeting with that legendary mage.

After our visits, we discovered that five days after meeting the Yige Sect was when Scorching City secretly relaxed control over the Holy Fire Squad!

We shifted our investigation direction and indeed found countless connections between the Holy Fire Squad and the Yige Sect.

And near the hot spring source of Scorching City, we discovered numerous ritual arrays for summoning demons.

That legendary mage has been at the Seventh Tier for many years; his magical pathway is already aged and severed; even if he sacrificed more people, there would be no possibility of advancement.

He obviously could not accept this, so he had connections with both the Netherworld and the Yige Sect.

And one of these two certainly gave him a method to advance.

But unfortunately, the investigation has reached its limit here.

A newly advanced Eighth-Tier legendary mage is far beyond our reach; we cannot access direct evidence.

We will publish the investigation report in all famous newspapers across the continent; if you are interested, you can go check.

Sorry for saying so much; you must find it boring, right?

I just miss those days in Emerald City so much.

I don't know why, though they were just small events, I cannot forget them for a long time.

Next, I will cross the Waterfall Mountains and head to Deepwater City in the south.

I heard an old green dragon there tricked a wealthy local family into becoming paupers; quite interesting.

Ah, I really wish we could investigate together again.

But the Hero Alliance will never stop moving, right?

(If you want to reply, you can send it to this address XXXXXX, which is the address of a female friend of mine.

Of course, I don't necessarily need you to reply; if you find it annoying, feel free to ignore it.)

PS: Is Chris okay? You didn't lay a hand on her, did you?

—Your eternal partner, Lily.

】

The Yige Sect and the Netherworld, huh.

Upon hearing the word Yige, Rod felt uncomfortable.

These damn things really love causing trouble everywhere!

However, reading to the end,

Rod's mood improved; he smiled and picked up his pen to write some of his own recent news.

He also expressed his longing.

Shi Ying Town does not have many magical resources.

If we don't count the goblin merchant Pete who comes often, the Spiritual Guild is the only one.

The Spiritual Guild, well, those who know, know; the things inside are very low-level.

Magical Nutrient Solution is really not easy to buy.

Rod thought it over and decided to go find the witch Witch Di Mi Ya.

She hadn't come to the forest lately; from what he'd heard, affairs in Shi Ying had kept her too busy to spare any free time.

Before long.

Town Hall, inside the office.

"A magical nutrient solution for plants, you say."

Witch Di Mi Ya sat behind a broad mahogany desk, the surface piled with stacks upon stacks of documents.

She thought for a moment, then pulled half a bottle of pale-green potion from her spell pouch.

"I had half a bottle left over from when I was developing the new sand-willow. Looks like it's a bit past its expiry date — still want it?"

Free is free.

Rod took it.

Speaking of which.

Witch Di Mi Ya didn't have the proud temperament Lady Kali had, and now that she already had a strategy in place, she had her own things to do — she'd stepped back from the sand-willow modification research, leaving the elf to carry on alone.

Kali didn't much mind either; she mainly wanted to prove a point, and working solo suited her just fine.

"By the way, how's the investigation into those rat-men at the mine going?"

Rod settled into a sofa in the corner.

While sizing up the magical power and spirituality inside the perception potion, he chatted idly.

"More or less wrapped up."

The witch gave a wry smile.

She didn't even lift her head, kept writing something on the desk the whole time.

"You remember the corpses from the Ruins Brotherhood? To prevent plague, the original plan was to cast 【Plague Ward】 and 【Purify】 first, then burn them all together."

Rod nodded.

That handling was fine.

Because of the spiritual presences in this world, simply burning the corpses wasn't enough to remove the threat.

Without those two spells, not to mention undead possibly showing up, certain special plagues could even spread through the thick smoke of burning bodies.

Yes, that's right — plagues in this world really are that absurd!

Appearing across the continent like invisible borers!

"The job was handed to a mid-level Town Hall clerk named Artur — Hubert's nephew."

Hubert, that old man who'd fallen for his own stepdaughter.

Witch Di Mi Ya said, vexed:

"Who would've thought that Artur had the nerve — not only did he pocket the casting fees for both spells, he even swallowed the cost of the matches, and dumped every corpse straight into an abandoned mine shaft! That's what drew the rat-men up from underground!"

(End of chapter)