Chapter 239: Scared Senseless by the Dog Players

Given Ji Ming's current status and position, actually, whether it's the Sovereign of All Spirits or JiMiYin, it's no longer appropriate to directly go out and confront the envoys sent by other forces.

After all, diplomacy also requires a just cause and equal standing; even letting Chief Bastet himself come might not qualify him to meet the sovereign, let alone his daughter.

So Ji Ming gave it some thought and simply kicked the ball to the players.

【Main Quest: The Cyclops' Visit】

【Introduction: The Magic Spirit Tribe has been acting strangely lately; what are they trying to do?】

【Objective: Talk to Valiya, the daughter of the chief sent to the Underground City, to obtain relevant clues and information】

【Reward: Ten exchange points】

"Damn, the officials are hitting us with another surprise attack!"

This is precisely the third round of the team tournament; the big waves wash away the sand, discarding all impurities.

The remaining seventy teams are the elite among players; they may not be that professional, but when it comes to battle they are absolutely serious.

So everyone was busy preparing for battle and scouting opponent intel, but the officials just had to release the main quest at this time.

Moreover, it's clearly the start of a series of important tasks—those who act first get first dibs.

"Young Master Fan, this won't be a pick‑and‑choose mission, will it? Are we supposed to temporarily give up the match to handle diplomacy?"

"No, stay calm, let me think carefully……"

Gazing at the several screens hovering around him, Fan Tao Zhu seemed to grasp an inspiration in a flash.

"Right, why must we go find her?"

"Isn't there a possibility to have her come find us?"

Saying is doing—he directly posted his guess in a small group.

The presidents of several top guilds put their heads together and realized that this actually seems to be the case.

Although the lizardmen are usually arrogant and often provoke the Magic Spirit Tribe, Valiya doesn't have a good impression of them.

But having learned of her people's invasion of the Scale Armor Tribe, seeing a group of lizardmen dutifully guarding the city gate still gave her a sense of absurdity.

And when she saw the long‑awaited underground city gate finally open, and an old yellow dog from the pack slowly ambled up to her, Valiya was completely bewildered.

Combat has someone in charge, logistics has someone in charge, and now even the development of the entire underground city has someone overseeing it.

The elderly Big Yellow Elder can only gradually step back to the sidelines, becoming more like a mascot.

But at this moment, being partly an insider and partly an outsider, he really is the most suitable diplomatic envoy.

"Greetings, friend from the plains; this is a happy community of ours—you needn't be so formal."

He tapped the ground with his cane and spoke in a hoarse voice.

"Please come in; today is our celebration, and you can take a look around."

"May we go in?"

The Pioneers have been active in the underground plains for a while, yet the various tribes still can't quite figure out who these mysterious people are.

If you speak well of them, they slaughtered over a thousand lizards in a single night and turned the entire Scale Armor Tribe into toiling slaves.

If you speak ill of them, they never short‑change in trade, highly value reputation, never bully the weak, and even offer help.

So, as the first delegation invited into the underground city, what exactly will we see?

Although I had braced myself mentally, seeing the old man's kind… wow, his smile is truly lewd…

All in all, she still felt a bit uneasy in her heart, hesitated a moment, then replied.

But only after Valiya entered did she realize the massive walls were like a barrier between two worlds.

Outside the city gate arch, although Ji Ming had used his designer privileges to repair it, it was still just a vast expanse of utterly ordinary fluorescent grass.

But inside the gate arch, everything was neat and bright, as if every inch of tile and every blade of grass had been meticulously designed in a huge architectural complex.

Especially at the end of the road stood a towering castle directly facing the gate.

Under the glow of countless magic lanterns, its handsome black walls flickered with a dim light, practically a legendary mythic edifice.

"Hehe, small scene, normal!" said an old dog that had been scared stiff the first time it saw it.

After a brief moment of surprise, Valiya discreetly checked her attire.

With such high‑end architecture, the so‑called celebration must be here; if we want to settle the cooperation, we need to make a good impression……

Moreover, her heart was a little excited; the castle's exterior is so luxurious—what could the interior be like?

Long tables, lanterns, oil paintings, ornaments…… could it be just like those described in storybooks?

Yet the dog guard escorting the delegation showed no intention to stop, marching straight past the castle gates.

Although Big Yellow's abilities might not achieve much, in worldly affairs and reading people's expressions, his experience is still extremely high.

So he instantly saw the shock and disappointment in the delegation representatives' eyes and spoke softly.

"If your intentions are friendly, then after you meet the Pioneers' representatives, they will surely not stint on letting you tour here."

"Oh oh, okay."

But after passing through this architectural complex, what came into view was another area.

Only here, the buildings are all lined up along the wide boulevard, neat and uniform, with exteriors extremely similar.

Valiya didn't rush to ask; instead she looked left and right and noticed that seemingly every building's doorway hung various signs of sub‑humans and magic beasts.

"Haha, nice, huh? Haven't seen it before?"

Big Yellow counts as half a guide on this trip, after all "fully demonstrating the underground city's strength" is something the players have emphasized, so he gave a casual introduction.

"This is the Pioneers' combat training camp; inside, monsters of all kinds respawn automatically, and defeating them yields experience."

"They appear automatically……"

"Does that mean we can gain experience without limit?"

"Exactly, and you can also adjust the number and ratio of monster spawns yourself—it's very intelligent."

"Case cracked!"

No wonder the players' levels change every time they meet; it turns out they have such a place in their base?

But if what they say is true, how did the Pioneers manage it?

Resurrecting corpses? Or creating something out of nothing?

The underground plain is relatively closed off; even for the cyclopes, the only way to acquire knowledge is the library in the Tribe.

Even if a proper academy from a prestigious school came here, seeing such a miraculous combat training camp, they'd probably find it unbelievable.

Thus, Valiya's mind instantly filled with various terrifying descriptions from ancient records.

For example, necromancers who can raise flesh and bone, control the dead's movements, and mad alchemists who sew corpses to create living corpse puppets.

In an instant, she even felt that everyone around her seemed like corpses, and the endless white buildings were like graves and tombstones...

No!

When I get back, I must remind my father: absolutely, absolutely cannot go to war with these Pioneers; they're not even human!

But the old man is rather considerate; Big Huang saw their expression was off and chuckled twice.

"Haha, grinding monsters here is indeed convenient; if you'd like to try, you can also..."

"No thanks, no thanks!"

Ah, as expected of a noble lady from the great Tribe, she's just polite.

Fortunately, when designing for players to level up right after clearing monsters, Ji Ming placed the arena relatively far south.

Thus, after leaving the combat training camp, the group only needed to cross a large, ordinary drill field to reach it.

This is a heavyweight figure who can earn ten exchange points just by striking up a conversation.

The players naturally wouldn't slight them, directly inviting the envoy to the VIP seats.

At this moment in the arena, it's Justice Team facing off against other players.

Although their overall strength isn't as good as the other two teams, each member has fierce moves, and definitely they are the most entertaining to watch among players.

So as soon as Valiya sat down, she heard a burst of cheers from the arena, startling her into an "Ah ya!"

But that shout didn't matter; almost all players noticed a quest-completed prompt pop up in the lower right of their view.

Ji Ming: "What the heck logic is this system? Turns out this also counts as dialogue?"

【Please, surely you don't want to watch over 1,400 players line up to greet the envoy? That would be too refined and vulgar】

【Or do you really want to see the cyclops lady drooling and rolling a huge white eye?】

……

"No way!"

Although cyclopes are something everyone has surely seen in artistic works in the real world.

But seeing a group of tall cyclopes actually appear together still surprises one a bit.

"Brothers, I'll zoom the camera for you—look, the stands opposite are full of cyclops aliens!"

【One look and it's confirmed: pure Sheldon (angry)】

【Damn, someone's badmouthing my brother again—Sheldon, get out here and apologize!】

【Holy crap, digging a one-eyed stone man out of the Yellow River would cause an uproar; the players have dug up so many underground—could they really be about to smash the game world?】

【This is hard to judge, after all the open beta will surely be no-limit】

Meanwhile, the guilds that had finished the third round of battle each sent representatives to formally contact the envoy of the Demon Spirit Tribe.

……

Weird, wasn't Old Huang supposed to be hospitably received?

How come this big group of cyclopes looks all timid and shrinking?

Damn, if you also saw other factions' people gathered in an arena, watching their own kind fight like beasts with no psychological pressure, going all out until one side was brutally slaughtered, you'd also be stunned speechless!

"Don't be afraid, we're all good people."

"Right, right, right!"

"You don't need to be so agitated; we mean no harm!"

"Ah! (startled cry)"

After talking at cross-purposes for a long while, the players finally figured out what the other side was afraid of.

——Oops, tried to show off muscles to intimidate them, but accidentally ended up showing a coffin!

"How should we explain this? Should we just tell them we're game players?"

"No good, someone already tried that; they wouldn't understand what we're saying."

Still, a closed‑test player vaguely recalled the game's limited opening animation and offered a constructive suggestion.

"If you ask me, we should just push everything onto the Soul Spirit Throne— isn't that a ready‑made scapegoat?"

"Well, then we could say we're… we're their summoned beings, tasked with spreading the Sovereign's glory, so we can revive when we die!"

"Great, that explains everything at once!"

But after hearing the players' impromptu explanation, Valiya's expression changed dramatically.

"With such power, could the Sovereign you mentioned actually be a great deity?"

"Or perhaps He… controls life itself?"

Player: "Um, we didn't think it was that complicated, but…"

"Yes!"

"Who wouldn't want a strong backer? So everyone looked resolute."

"You get it now—we have divine protection, friend!"

Thus, under the witness of the Sovereign of All Spirits, in response to the collective invitation from the Pioneers' major guilds, the Demon Spirit Tribe dispatched a diplomatic envoy led by the chieftain's daughter Valiya to pay a friendly visit to the underground city.

Analysts noted that the primary purpose of Valiya's visit to the underground city was to enhance friendly trust.

Whether cultivating basic friendships among the upper echelons or gaining a deeper understanding of each other's thoughts and preferences, it holds great significance for the development of relations between both sides.

Therefore, after jointly enjoying the Pioneers' friendship match, both sides came to High Tower Castle to hold a negotiation meeting.

Wa Li Ya, representing her side, proactively put forward a trade request, hoping the Pioneers could provide more and more advanced arms……

???

The players had long thought that acting as arms dealers everywhere was already infamous, after all, the Ox‑head Chieftain A Ge Si had privately protested this behavior.

"Please stop selling these weapons; the small tribes near the Southern Stream are about to have their brains blown out."

No one wanted to offend this pure‑love old ox, so after securing a stable source of light‑industry products, the players reduced the proportion of arms exports.

"Why buy so many swords and spears, you blind spear? Who are you risking your life for all day? Come buy your wife a bag, designer brand, won't rip you off……"

"Hey, after going back and forth, we discovered that trading luxury goods actually makes more money than selling arms—it's a genuine hundred‑fold profit business!"

So everyone's washed their hands of wrongdoing, ready to be good people—how come the most laid‑back one‑eyed shut‑ins are the ones acting crazy?

But no matter how the players hinted around, Wa Li Ya merely showed a troubled expression.

Only after they promised to sell a red‑clad cannon did this female giant look at the other envoys and then firmly decide, speaking softly.

"Not long ago, a group of humans arrived at the Magic Spirit Tribe, calling themselves the Mountain Folk Mercenaries, coming from outside the Underground Plain……"

"Incitement and troublemaking are the basic skills of this armed bandit gang—after all, if the locals don't first fight among themselves, how can they leech off them?"

After discovering the Underground Plain, An De Lu Qian's first move was to trick the Mountain Folk Red Dragon's unlucky lot into becoming cannon fodder, and his second was to find a suitable partner.

After a search, he set his sights on the seemingly mild Magic Spirit Tribe, which didn't even bother to leave the Magic Forest.

Because he was careless, he discovered that, as the strongest being in the Underground City, Bartist himself seemed to have plans to unify the Underground Plain.