Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?-Chapter 1032 - 679: A Traitor Among the City Lords!

"In short, a demon soul has infiltrated among the dungeon lords."

Sain Dungeon, the City Lord's room.

Red Teeth said this to Gong Qiying with a serious face, his tone reminiscent of their first meeting.

Back then, he seemed like a steady and reliable old man, unlike now with the label of a lecherous old man.

Gong Qiying couldn't take him seriously anymore when he thought of Red Teeth's reaction to seeing pretty dragons.

"Ahem," he coughed to adjust his expression, then asked normally, "Weren't there already dungeon lords from the demon clan?"

"Those demon lords are all holed up in the west, but this time it's different."

Red Teeth said, "In our human stronghold, an unidentified demon has infiltrated."

"!"

An exclamation point popped up above Gong Qiying's head, his surprise stemming from—

He almost forgot that Red Teeth was also human!

No matter how he appeared, the other party didn't seem human at all; his habits and hobbies are now completely like those of a giant dragon.

"How did you figure it out?" he continued to ask.

"Demons have appeared in Youlesa's dungeon."

Demons are everywhere, they can pop out from any nook and cranny, so it's not solid evidence.

Red Teeth realized this too.

"The mere presence of demons is not enough to prove much, but," he suddenly placed a small bottle in front of Gong Qiying, containing black mist swirling inside, "this is miasma from the Western Continent collected from those demons."

Miasma, a unique feature of the Western Continent, has always hindered humans from fully eradicating demons there; it's their natural protective shield, and due to its toxicity, it's favored by some ruthless alchemists as a prized ingredient.

Gong Qiying, having spent time in various libraries gaining knowledge, knew the properties of this miasma, saying:

"I remember that once this stuff leaves the Western Continent, if not stored tightly, it will completely dissipate within a few days."

"That's right, but this miasma has been collected from the demons."

Now Gong Qiying understood Red Teeth's implication.

The demons carry dense miasma, and when leaving the Western Continent, they also take miasma with them. But the gas surrounding demons will completely dissipate within a few days, except there's no way to keep it aside from sealing it.

In other words, demons entering Youlesa's Bonds Dungeon left the Western Continent less than a few days before the miasma dissipated?

Gong Qiying unfolded the world map in the air, locating the position of the Bonds Dungeon.

It was on the border of the Warrior Country, having entered another nation's territory, whose name was...

"Ten Thousand Religions Country - Scameroon."

"This place is far from the west."

To rush out from the Western Continent and reach Scameroon within a few days, these demons must either be a locomotive or rely on a wondrous power: teleportation.

"Setting up a teleportation array requires a lot of time and effort, and the magic power fluctuations of a teleportation array are enough to be noticed even in remote places. If demons really established a teleportation array here, these humans must be incredibly oblivious."

Red Teeth offered his sharp critique.

The answer was obvious. Excluding the slim possibility that demons set up a teleportation array, the only way they could quickly reach Scameroon was through the dungeon route.

"Dungeons with mutual teleportation permissions between main and sub-cities like yours are rare, but the demon clan might have some too. So currently, we consider it most likely that a demon has appeared among the dungeon lords." he said.

Actually, my teleportation ability isn't a permission; it's built into the resource library, Gong Qiying thought.

"You're suggesting a dungeon lord might internally be demon clan, now aiding some demons to teleport over, right?"

"That's right, and I've roughly outlined a range where these lords are suspicious."

Red Teeth circled a spot on the map.

The circle contained over a dozen dungeons, concentrated on the border of the Warrior Country and inside Scameroon. Shockingly, Red Teeth even included himself, and Gong Qiying saw familiar dungeon names inside.

"Among them are several veteran lords known to everyone, not requiring major investigation. The ones needing attention are the new generation lords. Many have only recently grown and unlocked exchanging permissions among lords, so everyone is still unfamiliar with them. Having demons among them is possible, and they need to be thoroughly investigated."

By now, Gong Qiying roughly understood why Red Teeth had come to him.

"Interested in taking a tour? I'll throw in a sub-city for free."

Red Teeth revealed his first smile today.

Gong Qiying also revealed a smile, saying with a smirk:

"You want me to investigate a dozen Dungeons?"

Is this wanting to treat him like a college student doing a summer job? Even the conditions for black slaves aren't this bad!

"Of course not, there are a few other trusted old fellows involved too. You just need to investigate three Dungeons. Coincidentally, there's an unused Dungeon among those three that you can use. The only problem is... the seal of that Dungeon is a bit loose, so we have to beat up the Sealed Item first."

"Can't I just beat up all those Dungeons?"

"That's really a comment filled with your personal style, but unfortunately, doing that might cause bad effects. Even if it's explained clearly that it's for checking on the Demon Clan, those innocent Dungeons affected might still hold grudges."

The giant dragon shook its head, saying with some sentiment:

"After spending a long time it's finally made the relations between the City Lords not as tense as before. I don't want to ruin the current situation."

At this point, Gong Qiying nodded his head.

Initially, when he saw the notes left by the previous Gedwin, he thought the relations between the City Lords were like the Dark Forest, where they must fight to the death whenever they met.

Back when Red Teeth first became a City Lord, it seems the relations were indeed that cruel. No idea how much effort he spent to forge the current peaceful situation.

To be fair, Gong Qiying is quite satisfied with the current state. After all, if he had to stay extremely vigilant whenever interacting with every City Lord, life would be too uncomfortable.

Yet, even with that, he still had to complain a bit:

"...Is there any good news?"

"There absolutely is, Scameroon is currently at war, so the demand for Dungeon resources has skyrocketed. If you go there to open a branch city now you'll be making a huge profit."

Red Teeth smiled again, saying: "Also frankly, the location of the branch city you need to go to is quite good, right at the fiercest battlefield area. Among the recent trusted newcomers, only you can handle it there. You're the only choice."

Gong Qiying felt like Red Teeth was an NPC in a game issuing tasks to him.

But unlike an NPC, if he refuses, Red Teeth won't insist further. If he agrees, the other side will surely go out of their way to provide plenty of benefits and help.

Moreover, if there really is a Demon Clan member who became a City Lord and managed to stick around until now just to reveal themselves, such powerful individuals definitely need special attention, I mean handling.

"Scameroon, eh? I haven't really ventured there yet," he murmured to himself.

That statement was quite obvious in its hint. After listening, Red Teeth immediately understood Gong Qiying's meaning, and reassuringly patted his back with its claws, speaking about a lot of help it could provide.

The investigation target list of a dozen Dungeons was split among several trusted veteran City Lords, with Gong Qiying being the only newcomer among them.

"Here's where you need to go."

On the map, a Dungeon located at the center of Scameroon was marked out.

Surrounding that unopened Dungeon, three rich colors stood out: gray-white, fiery red, and warm yellow.

The scales of these three Dungeon colors were similar, evenly matched, completely covering the unopened Dungeon.

"The gray-white represents the White Blood Dungeon, known for Vampires, whose City Lord has an eccentric but generally kind nature. During the parasitic incident at Red's side, he provided assistance, honestly it's uncomfortable to list him as a suspect, but for thorough scrutiny this is unavoidable."

"The warm yellow represents the Holy Light Dungeon, from the name, you know it's filled with indications of the Holy Light Church, with items related to Holy Light God inside. Its City Lord is a follower of the Holy Light God, if you understand Church ways you might get along well with him."

"The fiery red represents the Blast Flame Dungeon, which is filled with Fire Element Creatures and remnants of the Fire God's influence, with a City Lord whose nature is as fierce as flames."

At this point, Red Teeth exhaled, asking:

"Do you know why we request you to investigate these three?"

Gong Qiying looked at him with a "you're asking me?" expression.

"You really didn't hear about it?"

Now it was Red Teeth's turn to be a bit surprised. When introducing these three Dungeons and seeing Gong Qiying's unchanged expression, he was already feeling surprised.

Gong Qiying indicated he had completely no knowledge of these three Dungeons, and did he have any necessity to react to them at all?

"Because these three Dungeons..."

Red Teeth paused, then said:

"All three openly dislike you, hate you profoundly."

The reason they disliked Sain, seems quite obvious to guess?

"Oh? You truly understand me, Red Teeth Grandpa."

Gong Qiying's expression finally changed, even laughing aloud.

"I just love running up to those who hate me."