Ambushed and Killed on the Way

However, the stronger the lord and the weaker the territory, the longer it will take to rebuild it.

The authority of the dungeon had long been solidified, and the giant city lord had existed for an unknown period of time, making it virtually impossible to strip away that authority.

"To snatch chestnuts from the fire, we must get the giant moving—with the strength of the abbot and the three elders, they can easily hold it off."

The Daoist temple's interests align with his own; the underground city must fail, but for Lin Xu, it's crucial to strike the right balance.

"The best outcome would be for the Underground City Lord to severely injure or even kill the Temple Master, and then for me to personally kill the Underground City Lord. Only then, with the momentum of a great victory, would we have a chance to seize the Xuanwei Monastery."

He has no intention of developing feelings for NPCs, and if Daoist Xuanzhen survives, he will not hesitate to accept the position of Supreme Elder.

With a multitude of thoughts swirling in his mind, Lin Xu directed the Red-Robed Ghost to silently traverse the underground, observing the complex magic circuits and avoiding one magical trap after another.

He disassembled and reassembled the complex magic circuits in his mind, attempting to analyze the magical structure of the entire city's core area in preparation for future actions.

Lin Xu didn't stop until two days later.

At this moment, seventy percent of the core array diagram had been constructed in his sea of consciousness, while the remaining thirty percent was hidden in the chaotic frequency of the Earth Vein folds and the Dungeon Heart. Unless one could directly contact the Dungeon Heart, it would be impossible to see the whole picture.

The complex magic circle diagrams constantly shifted in my consciousness, each change corresponding to the rhythm of the Earth Vein's ley lines.

Guided by this incomplete array diagram, Lin Xu located three weak points in the Earth Vein resonance, which were the only gaps that might allow him to bypass the magic array's warning mechanism.

"Now, it's time to add fuel to the fire..."

As Lin Xu thought to himself, he directed the Red-Robed Ghost to quietly break free of the magic circle and wander towards the battlefield in the city.

The battlefield had shifted, and the three flying swords, traveling together, entered another cave.

Beneath the magnificent magical dome, buildings shimmering with magical light are collapsing in a violent explosion.

The monsters in the dungeon howled and charged at the flying sword again and again, only to be easily shredded by the sword's light.

Protected by the city's rules, these monsters always manage to survive with their last breath and largely retain the integrity of their limbs.

In a corner overlooked by the three Daoist priests, little imps darted swiftly across the magic tiles, dragging heavily injured monsters into a dark tunnel and placing them in their resting place to recover.

Charge, get badly wounded, recover, charge again.

This cycle, as natural as breathing, firmly restrained the swordplay of the three Daoists, preventing them from ever truly threatening this magnificent underground city.

What Lin Xu needs to do now is to add fuel to the fire in this situation.

"Jingshu, you will lead the team to infiltrate the dungeon and act according to my orders—" Lin Xu looked solemnly at the Ghost Bride, "Do not act on your own; there are dangerous magical traps everywhere!"

"Yes, Master," Yan Jingshu replied.

The ghosts, now numbering over three hundred, detached themselves from their paper doll bodies and disappeared underground.

Although the dungeon was equipped with a sophisticated magic matrix, it was not without its flaws.

Perhaps because there had been no large-scale spirit intrusion incidents in the past, or perhaps to conserve magic power, the magic matrix covering the entire dungeon did not have the ability to scan the depths of the underground.

With Lin Xu's guidance and the ghost's special vision, the infiltration went very smoothly, and no magical alarm was triggered until they reached the battlefield area in the city center.

"Seal off all passages in the battlefield area and target the wounded!" Lin Xu, using the Ghost Bride as a tool, continued to monitor the situation deep underground. "Be careful not to attack any unharmed monsters!"

Pick the softest persimmons to crush; those monsters that crawled out of the rest room had already recovered from their injuries and were tough nuts to crack with full combat power.

However, those monsters that were attacked by flying swords and fell to the ground severely injured had lost all their fighting ability and even fell into a coma.

As a little imp dragged a fallen Fire Salamander and ran swiftly towards the rest area, Red-Robed Ghost suddenly appeared in the middle of the road and launched an attack.

Ah~

Upon encountering the Red-Robed Ghost, the little ghost screamed and ran away, leaving the unconscious Fire Salamander in front of the intruder.

Fire Salamander are earth-dwelling pseudo-dragons with fire dragon bloodlines. They can bathe and swim in lava, and high-level Fire Salamander can also breathe fire dragon breath and unleash fire magic. Their combat strength is equivalent to that of a mid-level professional.

But at this moment, this 5-meter-long dragon beast was nothing more than a lamb to the slaughter.

Several Red-Robed Ghost quietly approached the Fire Salamander, devouring the pseudo-dragon's immense life force.

The Fire Salamander's once plump body shrank slightly as its life force faded, and it suddenly breathed its last.

The dungeon's life protection is not absolute; if left unattended, even a slight delay can lead to death.

The Fire Salamander had an extremely strong vitality. Dozens of Red-Robed Ghost took turns drawing its life force until the giant beast turned into a dried-up corpse.

At this moment, in the city centered around the underground battlefield, the Red-Robed Ghosts lurk in five winding passages.

Whenever a little ghost drags a badly injured monster back to the rest room, Lin Xu commands the ghosts to ambush and kill it halfway.

After several hours, the giant city lord finally noticed something amiss—the number of monsters he could summon in the city was dwindling, causing the battle at the front lines to rapidly deteriorate.

"What's going on?" The giant city lord, having regained his senses, used his authority to scan the ground. As a warrior, he was rather clumsy when wielding spells and authority.

It scanned the battlefield again and again, only to see that the flying swords remained as sharp and unparalleled as ever, killing and wounding the attacking monsters time and time again.

Occasionally, an unlucky monster, after being severely injured and falling to the ground, triggering its life protection, is then hit by falling building debris or magical attacks, resulting in its immediate death.

This is normal, after all, the "Life Shelter" of a city is not absolute.

Puzzled, the city lord expanded his search area and finally found the desiccated monster corpses scattered all over a passage.

"How could this be?" The giant was both shocked and furious, his anger surging as he looked at the monsters' withered and hideous faces.

It silently watched as the imp dragged a severely wounded and unconscious dark warrior along the underground corridor, only to be intercepted by Red-Robed Ghost that emerged from underground.

"So it was you!" The city lord roared in fury, clumsily manipulating the Lord Authority and hurling magic into the passage.

In the dimly lit underground corridor, violent flashes of lightning quietly appeared.

The crackling of lightning echoed through the corridor, instantly engulfing the three Red-Robed Ghost.

"So you finally figured it out?" Sensing the deaths of the Red-Robed Ghosts, Lin Xu immediately guessed the reason.

The lord is almost a god in his territory, but this is only the basic condition. If the lord himself does not have enough control and understanding of his authority, the effect of using it will be different from the expectation.

Take this giant, for example; it didn't even notice that the covert battle outside the main battlefield had already been going on for several hours.

"Stop attacking, let them pass," Lin Xu instructed Yan Jingshu. "We've done enough; let things take their course from here on out."

The giant city lord's reaction was slower than he had anticipated, and in just a few hours, the dungeon lost dozens of monsters.