Chapter 105: The Hidden One

This was a sight Li En had never seen before.

Perhaps this was the closest place in the entire underground to the starry sky.

Glowing moss shimmered on the ceiling rocks and surrounding pillars; between the interwoven pillars hung wooden platforms suspended on woven nets, together forming a floating village with the pillar-houses.

Fortunately, the underground world had no wind, so the wooden platforms and nets remained remarkably stable.

Otherwise, life here wouldn't just be about fear of heights—lose your balance for a moment, and you'd drop straight down without a parachute.

Woven net-bridges formed the foundation and linked each stone-pillar tower.

The hollowed stone pillars weren't just single-family homes; some were large enough to have six doors and eight windows, capable of housing dozens.

The glowing moss had clearly been deliberately transplanted, yet the town's faint light made the rock-wall village seem even darker compared to its surroundings.

This seemed to be a form of protection—making it harder for beasts below and in the air to notice this place.

As for lighting, it wasn't much of an issue.

Or perhaps some didn't know: despite having eight eyes, spiders had abysmal vision—they mainly sensed light; their true primary senses were touch and smell.

Even if spider-people evolved a dominant pair of main eyes, the decorative extra compound eyes on their foreheads were mostly for show. Some specialized evolutionary strains could use them as potent weapons.

"Our village doesn't need outsiders' protection—our Ghost-Faced Spider Warriors can handle everything."

These spider-warriors were clearly among them—their compound eyes were wide open, white irises against black sclera, terrifying to behold.

It was said their "Ghost Eyes" contained sorcery and curses, capable of paralyzing, hallucinating, and instilling terror in those who met their gaze.

Though it sounds subtle, if you fight them, you must stare at their faces—and one misstep, and you're already cursed.

Li En had broadened his horizons: he'd seen so many spider-people at once, and they were nothing like the folks from Huicheng.

Most Huicheng spider-people were heavily wrapped up, as if ashamed of their slightly delicate bones.

These wild spider-people, however, wore far less clothing—strikingly alluring. Most outside were female spider-people; the males, fewer than a third in number, dared only peek from behind windows.

The knowledge he'd been taught was true: without armor or robes to hide them, the females' bodies were visibly twice the size of the males'.

In conversation, these female spider-people were overwhelmingly dominant, especially the warrior leaders—none of whom were male.

Thus, Lari became their primary point of contact; his male disguise meant nothing to them—they only spoke with powerful female chieftains.

Their habit of recognizing only the strong meant they didn't accept the purpose of this relocation. They held little regard for Labol, even believing the current male head had no right to lead them.

In their traditional view, if this wealthy relative from the city couldn't defeat these rural farmers, why should they obey him?

Yet the caravan hadn't been driven out yet—meaning they wanted to leave, they just wanted a better price.

Li En listened for a moment and realized no one paid him any attention. To these local spider-people, a small, iron-clad warrior with weak aura (a First-Rank Paladin) and male gender was likely just a servant or lackey.

The strongest among their own kind, Lari (a Third-Rank Paladin on the verge of evolution), was their accepted interlocutor—but her linguistic ability was decidedly un-Paladin-like.

Some Paladins truly put all their talent points into looks and mouth, and could travel the world effortlessly.

Lari grew more frantic but made no progress.

She looked utterly helpless; she was simply bad with words, so she gritted her teeth and insisted her family meant no harm.

Her clever sister, Nocturna, originally slated to negotiate, was too weak to speak at all—even pushed out of the conversation circle.

Nocturna, squinting in fury, still forced a smile and tried to communicate with her rural relatives.

Even the tribe's children looked down at her with disdain. How many abs do you have, to dare speak to me?

Sometimes, even wealthy city folk had no answer when facing such rural tribes.

Others in the caravan watched with amusement; they didn't want Labol's family to grow stronger again.

As for wasting time chatting to gather intel, they didn't care.

Aside from Sallyman, their mission was already done; most had already begun preparing to return.

"Senior! You're back!"

Seeing Li En, Lari's eyes lit up—she immediately gave him a pitiful, puppy-like look, as if begging for rescue.

Her cry drew the attention of all the fur-clad local spider-people.

"Your boss? How tiny."

A Ghost-Faced Spider-Woman, much taller than Li En, stepped forward, lowering her head as if curious to touch his head or tail—she couldn't tell his species.

This was clearly disrespectful. But to them, there was never any need to respect males!

Watching her reaching hands, Li En instinctively gripped his sword hilt.

But the next moment, he saw Lari's helpless expression—if he acted now, the recruitment would be over.

Fine. Let's show a little respect to the "allied family."

"Pah!" Li En didn't bother with the "pretend to be weak, then reveal power" game—he simply shook his space bag.

Shook, shook—out came a severed dragon head, eyes still wide open.

Shook, shook—out came a severed dragon claw.

Shook, shook—out came a red pair of boxers. Er, quickly put that away.

"Hmm. I'm his boss. Let me talk to you."

Li En responded calmly to their skepticism.

"That cunning Shadow Dragon! Impossible—this thing killed many of our warriors!"

"Impossible—he's so small, and his aura feels weak."

But at this moment, they had to rein in their arrogance.

The prey was a warrior's honor—the sword marks on the dragon claw still faintly carried the scent of holy energy.

Li En reached up, pushed back his short hair, revealing his round ears on both cheeks.

"Degenerate!" In that instant, the warriors showed respect—even bowed slightly, hand over chest in salute.

A warrior who rose again deserved respect.

"I was once stronger than now—they called me Grand Knight. Now I'm fallen, but I'm just starting over."

Li En glanced at Violet Rose—he'd borrowed her spoils.

But Violet Rose smiled, giving him a thumbs-up.

Her eyes, speaking clearly, urged him to go ahead.

Now that Li En had seized the floor, he wouldn't serve only Labol's interests.

"From the Shadow Dragon, we learned that a group of masked people once lived here—masks with a single eye. They may have been slender, tall, and possibly bore antlers."

Li En wanted to reach the next city quickly—to ask the most critical question directly.

For some reason, Sallyman, the one supposed to lead, remained in terrible condition—she should've stepped forward long ago. Since he now called himself Sudar, he'd help her.

Li En's communication skills weren't bad, especially since he spoke the local dialect.

The spider-people's language was so obscure, even Nocturna barely understood it—and once the locals felt respect, they spoke more freely.

The more he listened, the more uneasy he felt—the situation was dire.

They not only knew the "Single-Eye Masks," they'd even lived alongside them for a time.

"A village of at least twenty people?!"

Years ago, these people operated nearby—they even had a small settlement, staying in the area for a while.

At first, they seemed normal, even trading with the village—but later, things turned sour.

"They hid their faces, sure, but they spread some strange religion claiming they could change fate. One of our foolish males believed them—and never came back."

Clearly, the Beast Cult had been active here long ago.

This was a grim reality—if they'd operated here long-term, they likely had ties to the dark elf city, possibly even became allies.

As for the Magic Girls, they knew nothing.

To them, they were just a spellcaster with a staff—nothing special.

As for food supplies, the answer was equally ambiguous—not useless, but not helpful.

They lived by hunting; nearby, there was a mushroom tribe that sold delicious fungi.

They were one of the rare benevolent creatures underground—but even if you took the entire tribe and their mushroom fields, it wouldn't feed Huicheng for a single day.

With Li En's help, communication improved greatly—finally, the underground spider-people agreed to relocate.

In truth, even if Li En's group hadn't come, they'd have fled soon anyway—the underground now teemed with flying creatures threatening their safety.

Underground monsters had undergone multiple rounds of culling and grown far stronger; their hunting warriors now returned wounded often, with no medicine to treat them.

The mosses they cultivated couldn't sustain a tribe that had swollen several times over.

This was the inevitable reality caused by larger forces—other intelligent races had already fled; they'd merely held on longer thanks to their village's geographic advantage.

"We truly thank you for your help." After the conversation ended, Lari and her sister immediately came over to express gratitude.

Li En shook his head, speaking plainly.

"Without me, you'd have managed it too—just taken longer."

At this point, there was no need to rush.

The caravan was now preparing to split paths.

Some had completed their tasks—their main trade targets had left; continuing further held no meaning.

Cutting losses now meant returning home—perfect timing to travel alongside these underground spider-people.

Sallyman and others, naturally, would proceed to the dark elf city to complete the remaining mission.

Good news: several elite warriors from the tribe accepted Sallyman's employment and joined the temporary squad.

Though abandoning this wondrous town was a pity, as long as people lived, hope remained—if these crises could be resolved, these underground spider-people might return.

"They won't come back. Once inside the city, who'd want to return?" Li En smiled helplessly—even with its darkness and hardships, once you entered, leaving was no longer realistic.

The addition of these elite warriors (who were earning relocation fees for their tribe) made the caravan livelier and its defensive perimeter more stable.

But at this moment, a minor incident occurred.

Only half a day's journey from the underground elf city, when everyone disbanded for the night, one tall female spider warrior suddenly pulled Li En aside.

She hesitated, then spoke.

"You're the Princess's Invested Knight, aren't you? I heard it from others."

Li En nodded. He didn't know why she was being so serious—was there some secret she couldn't share with the others?

"Then you must be trustworthy. I've trained outside before, so I know more than the rest. The cult's outposts have had outsiders visit—some wearing robes. They disguised themselves, but I recognized them: the holy symbols they held in their hands when casting spells."

The warrior glanced at someone nearby, lowered her voice, and leaned close to Li En's ear.

"Exactly like the holy symbol on Larry's chest."

Li En was utterly stunned.

The enemy was already inside the True Faith Church—even within the Good Deity's Church?!

Why didn't you say this sooner! It's too late to warn the surface now—will they be stabbed in the back again?!

(End of Chapter)