Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?

Did the operation against the sealed item fail?

Gong Qiying couldn't help but feel curious upon seeing the contents of the letter.

The only time he had come into contact and battled with a sealed item was the Burning Demon, and it was a joint effort with several other city lords led by Red Teeth.

That campaign couldn't be considered simple, but it was quite uneventful, because Red Teeth had methods specifically targeting the Burning Demon. Thus, this group of sealed items, which once caused major upheavals in ancient times, couldn't even escape the dungeon, and died in frustration.

Monsters capable of causing significant disasters in ancient times may not necessarily make a name for themselves today. This was the information Gong Qiying learned from that battle.

As long as targeted measures are well prepared, these disasters can be nipped in the bud.

So he was curious as to why the Bonds Dungeon failed. Isn't a city lord confident enough to reseal an escaped sealed item expected to have made adequate targeted measures?

However, curiosity aside, he hardly knows the Bonds Dungeon, nor is he free enough to be helpful everywhere. Moreover, if there's an issue with the sealed item, Grandpa Red Teeth would likely take action.

Hence, Gong Qiying didn't reply to the Bonds Dungeon.

Until, on the third day, an incident served as a catalyst for him to reply.

A bounty commission was announced from the Royal Palace for everyone.

[Bounty Target: Yarn Hunter]

[Target Appearance Area: Fran Fort]

[Defeat the Yarn Hunter to obtain its recovery item "Blood Collection Bottle"]

[Commission Bounty...]

Due to the generous bounty and no limit on the number of collected blood collection bottles, this bounty temporarily became popular, attracting many adventurers' participation.

However, the appearance rate of Yarn Hunters is very low, and even upon arrival at Fran Fort, one may not encounter them. Even if they do meet, ordinary teams can't defeat them, since Blood Collection Bottles currently seem to be only necessary for King Ainz III, and aren't needed for other adventurers. Production is maintained at a small scale.

The Royal Palace naturally also sent knights into Sain Dungeon to try their luck in finding Yarn Hunters. It was in these knights' conversations that Gong Qiying gathered a lot of useful information.

How did he gather information, you ask?

By having the dungeon automatically record the entire adventure of interesting individuals, and replaying it as needed, just like watching Black Chao Meng.

From the knights' conversations, Gong Qiying summarized two interesting things.

First: The interrogation results regarding the remnants of the Light Eagle Group are out.

The Royal Palace successfully learned about the existence of the Fallen Demon Egg, which sparked a vigorous campaign to collect these items throughout the country. It's said that quite a few people have been caught.

At the start of this campaign, a star chef from the Chef Federation voluntarily surrendered, claiming to have been gifted a Fallen Demon Egg by some strange people.

But when the soldiers asked about the whereabouts of the Fallen Demon Egg, the chef shook his head and said it self-destructed.

According to the chef's information, it was during a competition with Curipa's head chef when he tasted the luxurious dish made from Sain Dungeon ingredients and felt immense happiness and satisfaction. By the time he snapped back to reality, the Fallen Demon Egg had disappeared on its own. There might be a connection.

Subsequently, it was naturally discovered that emotions are linked to the Fallen Demon Egg. Experimentation revealed that the Happiness Egg, an ingredient that brings happiness, is almost a natural enemy of the Fallen Demon Egg. Even if it can't completely eliminate it, it can at least enhance human resistance to it.

Thus, according to the knights, recently, the Royal Palace seems to be preparing to reclassify the Happiness Egg from a food ingredient to a necessary medicine, even establishing regulations requiring every citizen in the Kingdom to consume a Happiness Egg periodically.

Initially, the Royal Palace intended to use the influence of the Holy Light Church to further promote the effects of the Happiness Egg and the dangers of the Fallen Demon Egg. However, recently, the Holy Light Church seems to be caught up in a difficult awakening craze due to a certain individual, causing chaos with the awakening of even the Divine Blessings, leaving them overwhelmed.

Second: The parasite monster chaos in Red Country was identified by Ainz III as the work of the Evil God "Hidden Dull Star."

Although the crisis in his own country had temporarily subsided, the old king hadn't forgotten about Red Country, a fellow victim plagued by the Evil God.

As the domestic situation in Yanor Kingdom stabilized, he remembered Red Country, which was still suffering from the Evil God's chaos.

He then released the news that the disasters caused by the Evil God in Red Country are contagious.

The Yanor Kingdom couldn't traverse a thousand miles to aid Red Country in overcoming the disaster in a short time, but by circulating this news, neighboring countries should be quite "willing" to lend them a hand.

The Warrior Country has already dispatched an army for aid, and it's said that the female general leading the force is both a strong and famous warrior. Presumably, she should be able to assist this country effectively.

However, why hasn't there been any news from the army thus far?

These actions by Ainz III have earned him considerable goodwill. People believe that with the awakened old king, the gentle yet tenacious princess, along with the ministers and generals, Yanor Kingdom is thriving!

Back at the Sain Dungeon.

Gong Qiying was already keeping an eye on the Evil God's movements. No matter what, the two are now at odds, and if the Evil God's forces grow stronger, it's hard to say whether it might endanger Sain in the future.

So, upon learning that the chaos of the Hidden Blood Parasite in Red Country was guided by the Evil God, he made a decisive move—

He wrote a letter to establish contact with the Bonds Dungeon.

Shortly after sending the letter, the Bonds Dungeon quickly sent an invitation for an in-person meeting, as the matters regarding the Hidden Blood Parasite couldn't be fully explained in a letter.

Unexpectedly, when Gong Qiying met, he found that this Dungeon Lord looked like a normal human figure, not a slime, red dragon, or other alien appearances. She appeared to be just an ordinary young woman seen everywhere on the street.

"Thank you, City Lord Gedwin, you are the third one willing to help me." The Bonds Dungeon Lord — Youlesa expressed her gratitude, looking quite sincere.

"The third one?" Gong Qiying was a bit surprised, thinking the lords would be more eager.

"The first was Red Teeth, and the second was White Blood; both helped me before I even started."

Youlesa sighed, regrettably disappointing the first two lords.

Gong Qiying wasn't good at comforting girls, so he put on an official expression and asked:

"Tell me about the situation with the Hidden Blood Parasite, why did the operation fail?"

The person across seemed to enjoy this straightforward approach and explained everything thoroughly.

"The Hidden Blood Parasite is a parasitic monster that once destroyed several ancient kingdoms. Its characteristics include strong reproductive power, undying nature, concealment, and spiritual manipulation power over hosts."

"They possess only monster-level intelligence but can distort the host's thoughts, making them think only for the parasite."

"These parasites can spread through bodily fluids, and their most notable feature is fusing with the host's blood, with no means of separation. The parasitized will be controlled by the parasite, becoming mindless puppets with mutation possibilities. Gathered Hidden Blood Parasites can give birth to stronger entities, extremely terrifying."

"They tend to parasitize hosts with excellent blood quality, and the better the blood quality, the more powerful they can become. Their undying nature makes them hard to kill. If a densely populated area is infected, the emergence of an Insect King is just a matter of time."

Youlesa rubbed her temples, saying with a headache:

"Even if you kill the host, the Hidden Blood Parasite can escape with the blood, surviving for several days, sufficient time to find a new host."

"Currently, my solution is to use monsters with better blood quality than humans to attract the Hidden Blood Parasites to parasitize, lure them into the Dungeon's monsters. Everything will be fine once they enter the Dungeon, for this, Red Teeth and White Blood have provided me with Dragon Blood and Blood Clan Blood, which are superior to human blood."

Gong Qiying listened and nodded; it's indeed a sensible approach. If it were him, he would probably do the same. After all, this method could be combined with the Dungeon's attraction characteristic to fleeing Sealed Items.

So, why did it fail?

"It happened very suddenly."

Youlesa showed a puzzled expression.

"For some reason, these Hidden Blood Parasites lost interest in any non-human blood, no matter how powerful a creature I threw to entice them; they weren't interested and flocked only to humans."

Ah, this could very well be the work of an Evil God.

Gong Qiying informed Youlesa about a series of events surrounding the Hidden Dull Star, and after hearing it, she fell into a brief silence.

"So that's how it is." She gritted her teeth and said, "This so-called Evil God is clearly a cancer to the world!"

Her voice was full of disgust, with hatred seemingly etched into her bones, her rather decent face twisted.

"Sorry, for showing you that." She quickly composed herself, explaining, "I became the Dungeon Lord after being sacrificed by a cult to an Evil God."

That's understandable then.

Gong Qiying rubbed his clean-shaven chin in quiet thought. What could he do in this situation?

The Hidden Blood Parasites may have developed an exclusive interest in human blood under the influence of the Evil God...

He suddenly lifted his head and asked, "Do you have any live parasites now?"

Youlesa nodded, conjuring a transparent box out of thin air. Inside, parasites like fine red threads swam quietly.

"What do you want to do?" she asked.

"Test a hypothesis."

Gong Qiying conjured a glob of dark crimson blood and placed it in front of the parasites.

The parasites showed no interest, not even glancing at it.

"Then let's add a little something and see."

He created another glob of scarlet human blood and fused the two together.

"Huh!"

The parasites in Youlesa's hand suddenly became agitated, violently colliding with the box, almost causing her to drop it.

"What's going on?" she exclaimed in amazement at Gong Qiying, "I've never seen them so excited. What kind of blood is this?"

"A unique formula."

Gong Qiying looked at the parasites and the blood in his hand, gradually formulating a plan, and said to Youlesa:

"Give me the authorization for the Sain Dungeon."

"Huh?"

"I'll solve it."