I Found It

It's a trap! Jiang Hao was certain.

Back in Graycastle, the Elder Evil Crawling Walker had shown no sign of intelligence. But the humans transformed into worms had clearly retained their human minds. They might well have laid this trap.

"That adventurer named Ve is suspicious. So is the one who told everyone the innkeeper was a Scholar."

He watched them covertly through the Eye of Horus.

They chatted happily with their companions, but Jiang Hao caught a slight stiffness in their movements.

"They haven't been turned into worms, but they must be under its control."

"From what I can see, neither the Crawling Walker nor the Evil Worms are targeting these adventurers. If they were, they could strike right now. Most of these adventurers are low- or mid-ranked Practitioners. Not one of them would escape."

The inn had become part of the Crawling Walker's body. The adventurers inside it might as well have been swallowed. Jiang Hao suspected it only had to close its mouth to digest them. There was no need to set a trap.

"Their targets must be the Clergy of the Church of Dawn, the Church of Justice, and the Order Church. You can tell from the fact that Ve said there was a reward for providing the Three Great Churches with a lead, but didn't mention killing the Black Scholar and taking his head to the Three Great Churches to claim the bounty..."

The Three Great Churches had just declared the Church of Knowledge a heretical cult when they received news of a Black Scholar Practitioner. They would certainly send Clergy here to destroy the Black Scholar. But once they entered the body of the Elder Evil Crawling Walker, they wouldn't be the ones destroying the Black Scholar—the Black Scholar would destroy them.

"If that's