Chapter 321: A Brief Stay

Rod finally watched his own simulacrum get smashed to pieces.

For some reason, a sense of sadness welled up.

In the end, it could only copy Rod's physical constitution, not use his spiritual arts or various domains.

In the distance, Hayli descended slowly, a cold, proud look on her face.

Her wide mage robe was lifted by the air, fully revealing white short shorts printed with a strawberry pattern.

Seeing this, Rod silently gave Ona an affirming nod.

Meaning: "This must be the Star Spirit people's style of dress."

The rabbit-girl began doubting herself a little too.

Mainly thrown off by Hayli's seemingly very confident and proud demeanor.

"I told you, so-called mental attacks are useless against me."

The Star Spirit mage said this right away.

Apparently she was still unhappy that Rod hadn't let her handle the crown earlier.

Rod, helpless, gave her a thumbs-up.

Of course, if you had dared to look straight at the crown openly instead of eagerly turning your head away, the persuasion would have been even stronger.

He passed by Hayli.

He went over to the deep crater blasted out by the spell to inspect.

The simulacrum formed of mana had already dissipated; the golden crown still shone brilliantly, lying on the dirt.

The disgusting flesh buds on the active mycelia slowly shrank back, returning to their former radiant, holy appearance.

"The spore message from the Mycelium Clan mentioned this as an 'evil object,' and it does seem to be exactly that."

Rod thought for a moment.

He rubbed a ball of 【Grudge Pain Fire】 together at his fingertips and flung it onto the crown.

Sizzle—

The active mycelia on it, the moment they touched the pink-purple grudge fire, rapidly blackened and charred, hurriedly curling up, even actively severing the parts tainted by the grudge fire.

After burning, it gave off an indescribable stench, a mix of rot, mold, and blood.

"It works."

After all, she was a Cursed Wyrm; her grudge fire still had quite the presence.

After this scorching, none of the active mycelia dared to roam outside, all burrowing into the crown one after another.

It became an utterly ordinary-looking golden crown.

Think hiding inside means you're safe?

Rod flung out another ball of grudge fire, this time increasing the intensity, intending to burn and melt it down.

Ona noticed the commotion and came over to look.

As for Hayli, she was trying to reattach a severed arm to her ghoul, and in the process shot Rod a look full of resentment.

"You want to destroy it?"

The rabbit-girl asked.

"Earlier I thought this was a treasure cherished by the Mycelium Clan, but now it doesn't look like that at all. Better to destroy it, lest it bring disaster to the world."

"Actually, you could turn it in to the Containment Division; the Mage Control Association would give you the corresponding internal points. Besides, I'm quite interested in this thing's properties."

"You mages are just too curious."

"Precisely because of curiosity, magic has the chance to take a step forward."

Rod stopped the grudge fire.

Since Ona had said so, he couldn't really do anything more, though the more important thing was the internal points.

Certain items in the Market District had one very unpleasant point — they only accepted internal-point transactions, not Jin Along.

The golden crown in the spell crater had already been blackened for a large stretch by the grudge fire, and even a section of its circular head-ring had been melted through.

A far cry from its former brilliant, shining appearance.

"The mental-influence effect has failed."

Ona said in surprise.

"Heh, still a bully who picks on the weak and fears the strong."

"As expected of Rod, to have even mastered such an unusual flame."

"Hahahaha—"

Just to be safe.

Ona still set up 【Zhe Bi Wu Pin】 and other illusion spells, then used Mage Hand to pack it into a specially made magical preservation box.

The group found the dazed mushroom-person Noah.

Following his guidance, they continued searching along the Mycelium Clan's escape route.

The Kor Plain was truly no small thing.

Not long after heading south, they arrived at a boundless grassland, and only crossed it after traveling nearly a hundred li.

There were quite a few ranches and farms along the way.

But due to the spread of the beast-transformation disease, the tents and houses had all been destroyed, the flocks of sheep and cattle trapped in fences, dying in great swathes.

The massive number of corpses had the potential to spread into a plague.

Rod frowned at the sight.

At this rate, even if the beast-transformation disease on the Kor Plain eased somewhat, the problems that would extend from it going forward would surely not be few.

This stretch of exploration was even more directionless than before.

And after crossing a branch of the Hansen River, they completely lost the spore signals of the Mycelium Clan.

It was already late.

The group simply stopped the search.

During this time, Rod had the half-deer person Xiao Ke spare a moment to perform a low-cost prophecy.

Although they could tell that most of their members had survived, the group had used spiritual arts to conceal their star-fates to prevent pursuit, making it impossible to prophesy their location.

"There's actually a survivor camp nearby. We could try our luck there, and if there are no leads, we can at least rest for the night."

Haili suggested.

"Agreed!"

Tally raised her hand from the shadows in agreement.

She was hungry and wanted to eat.

No one could stop a succubus from eating.

"Exactly, exactly. Time to rest."

The mushroom-person Noah also expressed his agreement.

If Haili hadn't been carrying him along the way, he probably would have sat down and gone to sleep long ago.

The other three were top-tier in strength, but they didn't feel tired either.

However, with the mushroom-person guide going on strike, it wouldn't do to force the issue.

So the group changed direction.

After flying for about ten minutes, the guide led everyone to the outskirts of a heavily fortified abandoned labyrinth.

This place sat on a slightly elevated hill, with a narrow entrance—easy to defend, hard to attack.

Haili took charge of the communication.

It was well known among the Star Spirits that they couldn't be infected with beast-sickness, so the tense survivors at the outpost all breathed a sigh of relief.

Moreover, the Star Spirit Association had been active locally for a long time and was already a familiar face.

So after a magical inspection, the group entered smoothly.

"Hahahaha—welcome, welcome!"

The leader of this outpost was an enthusiastic half-elf old woman named Helena, a fifth-tier mage.

The other survivors were all local humans from the surrounding villages.

Those with combat ability were mostly fourth to fifth tier; not a single one was sixth tier.

Their ability to hold out here mainly relied on the terrain and their sheer number of mages.

Although their tiers weren't high, there were at least twenty mages among these people.

In Shi Ying Town, excluding mercenaries and outsiders, there weren't even this many local mages.

So if they coordinated well, they could produce quite decent ritual effects.

Helena enthusiastically shook hands with each of them, then led them to eat.

She was very talkative along the way and paid attention to every single person, without the slightest hint of neglect.

After the meal, everyone was assigned a room.

Rod found it convenient—after all, he still had to feed the succubus.

But after Tally kissed his face full of saliva, when he was about to take off his pants, he discovered that between the rooms here there was a small observation window; they weren't completely sealed off.

The rooms on either side of Rod's happened to be Auna's and Haili's.

The rabbit-person girl was of the chastity faction, sitting upright on the ground with closed eyes, her cheeks slightly red.

The Star Spirit's expression

was hard to read, since she was translucent and it wasn't obvious.

But after she noticed Rod's gaze, she let out a hmph and turned away.

Rod laughed awkwardly.

He could only hurriedly pick up the aroused succubus, quickly leave the outpost, and have a picnic outdoors instead.

(End of this chapter)