Foodie Sect (2-in-1)

Under Anmusu's incredulous gaze, Bai Xiaowen stood up, walked to the slightly dilapidated giant snake statue, and gently turned a snake scale.

The giant serpent stone sculpture has its mouth open.

Bai Xiaowen climbed up to the giant snake's mouth in two steps and put his hand into the mouth of the giant snake stone sculpture. He quickly felt a movable wooden stick and immediately smiled.

"Stop, Profaner!"

Anmusu roared, broke free of the ropes, and charged towards Bai Xiaowen.

Li Shuyi blocked Anmusu's way.

Anmusu let out a sharp shriek, and Li Shuyi's body immediately stiffened. Anmusu's eyes were cold as he pulled out a small dagger from his pocket and forcefully stabbed it towards Li Shuyi's heart.

However, at the same moment, a beam of yellow light shone down, instantly relieving Li Shuyi's stunned state. It was Bai Xiaowen who summoned the Bone Warlock and cast the Yellow Heaven skill on Li Shuyi.

Li Shuyi pursed her lips slightly, drew her twin swords, and lunged forward, narrowly missing Anmusu. Two jets of blood shot up with a hissing sound.

Anmusu staggered two steps. He was an Elite Tier with Mental Specialty, and in close combat, his control skills had failed, putting him at a significant disadvantage.

Anmusu muttered incantations, and a faint green light flickered at the tip of the dagger.

Li Shuyi gave Anmusu no chance at all. After her two slashes, she stopped, turned around, and suddenly accelerated to unleash Savage Charge!

At the same time, Anmusu completed his spell, and a green light was projected at Li Shuyi's feet, attempting to Imprisonment her.

Unfortunately, the skill ignores controls with a priority of 5 or lower during Savage Charge, rendering it ineffective. Li Shuyi's Savage Charge knocked Anmusu away, followed by Twin Blades Whistling and Triple Slash...

"Those hateful heretics..."

Anmusu fell, leaving behind only a silver treasure chest.

Bai Xiaowen had already pulled the movable wooden lever at the mouth of the giant snake. A rumbling sound rang out in the hall. Around the stone base of the giant snake statue, large, rectangular Boulder slowly sank down, revealing a slightly eerie entrance to a stepped cellar.

The entrance to this cellar seemed to be shrouded in a faint green light, giving it a mysterious feel.

A notification message regarding the Spirit Realm Rules arrived:

"You have discovered a hidden dungeon: the Serpent God Dungeon."

"Special Elite Tier Side Quest: The Scavenger, now open."

"Mission Objective: Kill the High Priest of the Silent Tongue Sect and destroy the Golden Snake Disc."

"Mission Difficulty: S"

"Mission Deadline: None (equivalent to your remaining time in the Ramses Plane World)."

"Mission Reward: Luck Coin."

[Luck Coin: Used at the end of this level's settlement screen. Select one loot item obtained during this Spirit Realm adventure to obtain a copy of it. You need to pay a corresponding amount of Psionic Points for valuation. If you do not have enough Psionic Points, the copying will fail, and the Luck Coin will not be refunded. 1 use, disappears after use.]

[Special Note 1: Luck Coin can only be used on the current level completion screen. If you do not use them and return directly to Earth World, the Luck Coin will disappear.]

[Special Note 2: This special side quest, "The Scavenger," and its rewards are classified information, with a security level of 3. You may not disclose any information about this side quest to anyone else in any way (unless the other party already knew such information), otherwise you will be subject to a level 3 penalty.]

Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock in each other's eyes.

"Security level 3... Level 3 punishment? Could you tell me exactly what the Level 3 punishment entails?" Bai Xiaowen asked tentatively.

The Spirit Realm Rules did not respond.

"Xiao Wen... I know a little about the classified information,"

Li Shuyi slowly said, "Starting from Advanced Awakened, there are certain confidential messages that cannot be revealed to lower-level Awakened Ones, such as information about world Grand Unification and the advancement of Evolver. These confidential messages are classified as '0'. Violation will result in a Level 0 penalty, where a sum of Psionic Points will be paid according to the importance of the message and the extent of the leak."

"And this 'Scavenger' mission and its confidential information are classified as Level 3! Although we don't know what the Level 3 penalty is, it's best not to violate it," Li Shuyi concluded.

Bai Xiaowen nodded and said with a smile, "It seems we've stumbled upon some incredible inside information during our collection of sets. I'll try to see if I can bring the Egypt soldiers into this Underground Palace to continue using them as cannon fodder... I doubt it will work."

Sure enough, Bai Xiaowen tried to get two Egypt soldiers into the Serpent God Dungeon, but they were blocked by a thin green light barrier and couldn't squeeze in no matter what they did.

"It seems the hidden instance is only accessible to Awakened Ones," Li Shuyi said.

"That's right."

Bai Xiaowen nodded and said to the two Elite Tier Egypt officers leading the team, "This small temple hides an evil secret, and the Snake God Faith is highly likely to have betrayed the kingdom. You take those priests and monks back to Memphis, and leave this place to me."

"Yes, Your Excellency."

After the two Egypt officers saluted, they ordered the soldiers to take the priests and monks away.

In terms of combat strength, these priests and monks, numbering less than a hundred, were stronger than a hundred Egypt soldiers. However, they dared not resist, for to resist would be tantamount to a complete betrayal of the Egyptian Kingdom, with no turning back.

Bai Xiaowen had precisely anticipated this, which is why he brought his army here. If it were just him and Li Shuyi, they would never have been able to find the underground Underground Palace so easily.

Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi then stepped into the Underground Palace. Sure enough, the pale green light curtain did not hinder them at all, as if they were passing through a thin film. After a slight disorientation, they found themselves in front of a downward-extending circular staircase, deep and dark.

Li Shuyi has already opened Anmusu's treasure chest. Unfortunately, this Rare Elite treasure chest didn't offer much of a surprise, only dropping a Blue Gear Bind on Pickup, [Nug Bai Robe], which increases Spirit by 3 points, making it rather lackluster.

They walked up the stairs to the bottom, and after turning a corner, they found themselves in a deep, dark passageway.

"This reminds me of the Shadow Labyrinth. However, this tunnel is smaller than the Shadow Labyrinth, so it's probably not suitable for my summoned creature group combat," Bai Xiaowen said.

"This also means the enemy can't fight us outnumbered, which is advantageous to us," Li Shuyi said confidently. "Which way should we go?"

Bai Xiaowen recalled for a moment, and the three-dimensional structure diagram of the Serpent God Dungeon flashed through his mind.

"According to the priests' testimonies, the Serpent God Dungeon actually has two levels, but Tiya's map only roughly marks the route to the upper Underground Palace. It is in this upper Underground Palace that the names of three priests, including Tiya, are recorded."

"There are three vertical corridors on the upper level, and horizontal corridors connect them. We are now at one end of the central corridor, while the rooms containing the names of the three priests are at the other end of the corridor."

"To be on the safe side, let's go to Tiya's room first to gather some detailed information about the Silent Tongue, and also to find out the difficulty of this hidden dungeon," Bai Xiaowen said.

Going directly to the priests Moaitaihe and Ahmose would be a reckless move. Unless there's no other way out, Bai Xiaowen rarely chooses to act impulsively.

After walking a short distance along the left-hand longitudinal path, Bai Xiaowen led Li Shuyi onto a right-hand transverse path. After walking a while, they took another right-hand transverse path, then turned left... After going around in circles for a long time, they returned to the leftmost longitudinal path.

Bai Xiaowen's detour was not without reason. The three vertical paths seemed to lead straight to the end, but in reality, each was separated by a gate mechanism. On Tiya's map, those seemingly simple lines and Hieratic Script actually had deeper meanings, outlining the correct path through the direction of the lines.

Only a priest of the Snake God Edjo could decipher the true mysteries of that map. Bai Xiaowen had previously searched online and could only decipher a few names.

A significant portion of the difficulty in this hidden dungeon comes from its terrain.

Most awakened individuals who find this hidden dungeon do so stealthily. The intricate tunnels alone are a headache, and the soul-devouring traps are even more terrifying. They often suffer several setbacks before even reaching the priest.

Bai Xiaowen led the official army to occupy temples, kill people, and establish his authority. He then ordered experts to interpret the map. This series of seemingly useless actions actually reduced the terrain difficulty of the hidden dungeon by a large margin.

The only challenge facing the two was man-made difficulty – the hidden dungeon, the Silent Tongue cultists and priests in the Serpent God Dungeon.

After traveling about a third of the distance, Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi encountered their first group of cult members.

The first group of followers consisted of only three people, a small patrol team—the fact that a patrol team was stationed in such a remote and hidden Underground Palace made Bai Xiaowen question the priest's sense of crisis...

The three followers are all Elite Template, possessing strength, agility, and mental attributes, making their division of labor quite reasonable. Their individual skills are well-known, but it's worth noting that regardless of their specialization, each follower has a universal skill in addition to their three combat skills.

[The Doctrine of the Silent Tongue LV1: Increases Life Value by 100 points and main attribute by 10 points.]

This one extra skill transformed three ordinary Elite Tier into powerful creatures whose attributes rivaled those of Rare Elite!

It increases extra Life Value, which is common among High Elite Tier. However, an increase of 10 points in the main attribute is quite powerful, equivalent to the bonus of two extra pieces of Gold Equipment.

Fortunately, they only have enhanced attributes; in terms of skills, they are still not as powerful as Rare Elite, so they are not difficult to deal with.

Bai Xiaowen summoned Rageclaw and Skeleton Champion, and together with Li Shuyi, they took down the three Silent Tongue Elite Tier cultists in less than two minutes.

"Three Silver Treasure Chest!"

Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi were both somewhat surprised. For their team, killing Elite Tier without getting any treasure chests was already quite normal. Normally, these three Elite Tier might drop one treasure chest, but they all did.

"The difficulty of the hidden dungeon has increased, so the drop rate of treasure chests might also have increased. Let's open it and see."

The Battle Rating were all low, only D-Tier or C-Tier. Fortunately, all three treasure chests contained items.

[Sweetgrass Stalk: Food; restores 15 Life Value immediately upon consumption.]

[Juicy Lettuce: Food. Consuming this food immediately restores 20% of your Divine Might, and then restores 2% of your Divine Might per second for the next 15 seconds.]

[Dried Fig: Food. Consuming this item immediately removes negative status effects and control effects. This item has an additional priority of (3).]

Three treasure chests yielded three different kinds of food. Li Shuyi exclaimed in amazement, "All three treasure chests contained food! Are we lucky or unlucky...?"

"Perhaps it's a unique feature of this hidden instance..." Bai Xiaowen said.

"You mean the monsters in the Serpent God Dungeon are all gluttons?" Miss Li's thoughts were working very quickly.

"Well..."

Bai Xiaowen smiled and said, "Whether they're foodies or not is another matter, but seeing this Juicy Lettuce, we need to be careful... Maybe the Vengeful Spirit's mana drain won't be as effective in this dungeon."

Li Shuyi nodded in deep agreement. Bai Xiaowen glanced again at the Doom Bracelet on his left wrist; the face on it had a serious expression. He felt slightly relieved and continued forward.

After walking for a while, the two encountered another group of Silent Tongue cultists.

There were as many as six believers present this time, seemingly a temporary combination of two patrol teams.

Bai Xiaowen summoned the Butcher to block their position, Bone Warlock was also summoned to provide ranged attacks. Together with Bai Xiaowen's own gun attacks, after a fierce battle, they took down another six opponents.

This time, six more Silver Treasure Chest have been discovered!

Upon opening the treasure chest, this time three "Sweetgrass Stalk," one "Juicy Lettuce," and one "Dried Fig" were found.

In addition, the last treasure chest contained a new type of food.

[Dried Radish: Food. Restores 2 Life Value per second for 10 seconds after consumption.]

Li Shuyi: "..."

Bai Xiaowen: "... Let's hurry, let's get going."

"Why?" Li Shuyi asked.

"The last wave had six people... I suspect the next wave might have nine. This dungeon might have a mechanism where the difficulty increases over time," Bai Xiaowen said, offering his guess. "The longer we explore the Underground Palace, the more enemies we encounter, and the stronger they become."

"Is it really that difficult?" Li Shuyi said. "Luckily, you know the map. If it were those awakened ones who didn't know the map and just wandered around randomly, it would definitely take them much longer. How were they supposed to clear this instance?"

"How am I supposed to get through it? Well, I guess I won't..." Bai Xiaowen laughed. "After all, it's an S+-Tier Elite Side Quest, on par with Capture Kyo Kusanagi. In terms of difficulty, it's not much different from A-Tier Hero Tier side quest..."

"As for the increasing number of enemies, from a realistic perspective, the Spirit Realm Rules can also provide a self-consistent explanation. For example, the enemy has communication methods, and as time goes by, more and more patrol teams will know about the invasion and rush over... If it drags on too long, the BOSS might even come on its own."