Chapter 50 - 20: [Radiant Sun’s Scheme, Night King’s Poison]

Chapter 50: Chapter 20: [Radiant Sun’s Scheme, Night King’s Poison]

Carefully angling their bodies, Samael and Talia used the ruined walls of the ancient Empire’s beacon tower to conceal their silhouettes. They crept across the wasteland near the Bandit Camp, ducked behind a charred tree, and peered out to ensure the Randall Squad could neither see them nor hear their conversation.

"The words on that bag..." Samael lowered his voice.

"We have to pretend we didn’t see anything," Talia interrupted. "Besides, we didn’t actually know! This is just a massive coincidence—maybe they have nothing to do with Valak! They’re probably just ordinary bandits who happened to rob a supply convoy heading to the Underground City."

"Pretend you don’t know what?" a voice abruptly rang out from above.

The two snapped their heads up. A massive Feather-crowned Demon Crow perched on a charred branch directly above them, glaring down with cold, blood-red eyes.

Its feather crest had fanned out like an open folding fan. The crown of stiff, pitch-black feathers was covered in blood-red eyespots, a clear manifestation of the Monarch’s fury.

"Valak, we don’t know anything!" Talia argued.

"You don’t know?!" the Demon Crow let out a loud CAW. "Then you must know the terms of our agreement, yes? Don’t tell me you forgot so soon, you half-blood brat from the Ronov Family?"

"We never even entered your Underground City! We’re hundreds of kilometers away from it!" Talia defended herself.

"You killed my servants!" the Demon Crow squawked loudly. "This place is too far from my Underground City, beyond the reach of my sovereign Spiritual Energy. My beast packs and the Nightmare Legion can’t set foot here. I fed these wild dogs and told them to work for me outside my domain! And you slaughtered them all!"

"They... they were just a pack of wild dogs. You can’t be petty enough to hold a grudge over a few mutts, right?" Talia stammered.

"The wild dogs aren’t important, their mission was!" the Feather-crowned Demon Crow roared. "Two hundred and twelve adventurers, all tier six and above, are currently squatting in the third ring of my Underground City! That includes thirteen tier-nine adventurers, two tier-tens, and one damn tier-eleven! They’ve formed an unprecedentedly massive party of 212 people, pitched camp right at my front door, and proceeded to slaughter my pets, uproot my gardens, excavate my armory, pry open my safes, and steal my Divine Era Relics! I’ve sent my beast packs, Demon Race hunters, and human servants—both Demonized Warriors and Demonized Wizards. Hell, I even sent my slave laborers to harass them in shifts just to restrict their movements!

"Do you know what it takes to force them off my territory? Hmm? Do you know, you foolish girl?" The Demon Crow leaned down from the branch, glaring at Talia. "They can’t consume the resources within a Spiritual Ecosystem! All their food has to be shipped in from the outside directly to the third ring of the Underground City! Once their food supply is cut off and they can’t replenish their stamina, all 212 of them won’t last even seven days on empty stomachs!

"I fed those wild dogs and told them to intercept and destroy the Alliance’s supply convoys for me!

"The Advanced Adventurer camp at my front door has been out of food for two days already. I was on the verge of success! And right at this critical juncture, you killed the very dogs I tasked with this crucial mission?"

The Demon Crow shrieked with a deafening CAW.

"Are you trying to start a war with me, Ronov? Do you think I’m actually afraid of a few adventurers? At worst, I’ll just abandon the beloved architecture I spent over a decade building! I’ll go crush those idiotic adventurers myself right now, and you two will be next! Just wait for the Earth Roar!"

"Wait, Valak! Wait a second!" Talia cried out in panic. "We... we can replace those wild dogs! We can take care of the supply convoys for you!"

"You?" The Demon Crow narrowed its eyes, its feather crest retracting slightly.

"Tell us when the next supply convoy will arrive at the Kana Plain," Talia replied. "We’ll intercept them for you."

"Huh?" Samael stared blankly.

Talia stomped on his foot.

"Hmm..." The Feather-crowned Demon Crow pondered, hesitating slightly.

"Can we do this without killing innocent people?" Samael asked quietly.

"Please, Little Prince, let’s just survive this mess first before worrying about anything else!" Talia whispered back.

"Isn’t there another way? What if we just... what if we only deal with the food?" Samael asked in a low voice. "Make the provisions disappear? Or render them inedible?"

"You ruined my plans. Merely making up for the mission isn’t enough." The Demon Crow sized up the whispering pair and shook its head.

"Uh... ah, right! Wait, Valak. Have you tried putting Spiritual Fungi in their food?" Inspired by Samael’s words, Talia suddenly looked up. "Contaminate their food and make it moldy! That would deplete their rations even faster!"

"They’ve assigned dedicated guards to rotate shifts at the granary in the Underground City outpost camp. It’s impossible to slip it in." The Demon Crow looked thoughtful.

"If we put Spiritual Mold into the provisions on the Alliance’s supply carts and contaminate the entire shipment, the effect will be the same—even better!" Talia explained. "Mold contamination is invisible at first. If they bring the tainted bags into their granary, the contamination will spread to all the food in the adventurer camp’s storage. Nourished by the sovereign Spiritual Energy of the Underground City, the mold will reproduce at a much faster rate. Its spores will infect the entire granary within a single day! Once their food supply is completely cut off, they’ll leave naturally.

"This way, you won’t have to wait another five days. You can force them into a retreat in just a day or two!"

The Demon Crow hesitated for a few seconds.

"Fine," he scoffed. "If everything goes smoothly... I can let you off. The latest supply convoy will arrive at the Kana Plain sometime tonight and cut across the desolate path on the edge of the Beast Bone Hills. Figure it out yourselves."