Chapter 88: The Tunnel's secret

As multiple needles shot out of the small holes in the wall, the guard closed his eyes as he braced himself.

He knew that his life would soon come to an end.

A few seconds passed but he felt nothing. He heard the voice of his comrade, saying, "Open your eyes now."

The guard blinked open his eyes. No needles had punctured his skin, he noted. When he turned around, he noticed a strew of needles on the ground at his side.

"Let's continue moving. But be more careful. There will be even deadlier traps ahead." Shun spoke with an indifferent voice.

After walking for some time, they finally saw the end of this red path. Shun's subordinates let out a breath of relief.

But Shun looked slightly tense.

"Prepare yourself for a battle. The array over here has suppressed everyone under 6 Star Rank to 3 Star Rank. I have no idea how many people might be inside but by an estimate, more than 30 warriors are probably staying here. Their cultivations would be either 2 Star Rank or 3 Star Rank."

Those statements were intended to prepare them for the approaching conflict, but they inadvertently lowered the guards' morale. They were just seven people, including Shun. It would be exceedingly difficult to beat 30 warriors, each with a cultivation level equal to or greater than their own.

Shun found the lack of response from his team odd. He looked at them and just one look made him understand what he was wrong.

'I made a fatal mistake. I unconsciously compared them to the Inquisitors who fought under me. The Inquisitors have a thirst for battle and they want to prove their superiority over their opponent in a fight hence, those words would have raised their morale. But these people seemingly believe that the results are decided by the numbers and cultivation base only. It's not their fault alone though.'

"All you have to do is relax. I can handle most of them even as a 3 Star Warrior. Just be prepared to deal with any unexpected circumstances." Shun's solemn words calmed down most of them.

After giving some additional instructions, the five walked forwards.

After a sharp cut, something similar to a building had been constructed in this tunnel. It had many rooms. This area was surprisingly well lit.

Shun no longer needed to use his golden sphere to show the way.

However, Shun noticed that the upper part of this building had been destroyed by the branches of some trees. In fact, roots were forming a network on the upper side of the tunnel.

His team also saw this and was shocked to see such a scene.

'Just what the heck is this growing right under our city?!'

According to their estimation, they were right under that white land that was unsuitable for agriculture.

"W-What is this?" One of them asked with a fearful look.

Shun calmly answered, "This is the reason for the city's despair. They absorb the nutrients of the soil and prevent any other crop from growing on this land."

The roots on the walls of the tunnel were throbbing. They were clearly alive.

Shun and his team then looked near the ground. They saw 6 men standing just ahead of that building. Clearly, they were the guards.

"Watch the show now," Shun spoke before quickly moving towards those warriors.

The guards looked in Shun's direction and were surprised to see him, "Who are you? How did you enter?!"

These guards asked Shun since the only way to cross that scarlet path was by the information provided by their master.

If not, there was no way someone would have crossed that scarlet path.

However, they weren't familiar with Shun's face at all. They wondered if their master had recruited another soldier.

"Lord Barret assigned me here to reinforce the defense and change our battle formation. There is a new mayor of this city. In case he finds this place, you need to be prepared for a drawn-out battle." Shun quickly made up an excuse.

The guards looked relieved when they heard his words. According to them, since he knew that they worked under Barret House then he was someone of their own side. One of them spoke with a smile, "Aah. It was Lord Barret. Welcome…"

"My name is Shun."

Shun's subordinates heard those guards speak in a warm tone when they heard that Shun was sent by Lord Barret.

They remembered Shun's previous words when he had accused that it was Barret Noble House that had constructed this tunnel.

Now, he had shown them evidence through the words of these guards.

Shun muttered underneath his breath 'This should suffice.'

He slowly neared the guards and suddenly punched one of them strongly.

"What are you doing?!" One of the guards asked as they saw their comrade fly away.

Shun's comrades immediately jumped forward as well as they all launched themselves at these guards.

At that moment, the guards understood that they had been conned.

"ENEMY!"

A loud voice resounded in the tunnel.

Following that loud voice were multiple footsteps. Shun left these guards for his subordinates and moved into the building.

Multiple men charged at Shun with swords in their hands from both sides. Shun noticed that there were more warriors behind them but they hadn't moved.

They were preparing some long-range attack.

Once he felt the timing was right, he suddenly grabbed the swords with his bare hands.

They heard a shout, "Get aside."

The warriors yelled this, alerting their two teammates engaged in a close fight with Shun to step aside since they were about to attack.

The warriors were preparing to make an attack when Shun saw them. He shoved the two warriors with a powerful force at that same instant.

The warriors had unleashed Lightning and Flame Attacks from afar, but they had failed to hit Shun. The two warriors who had come to engage Shun in close battle defended them from these strikes with their bodies.

The attacks weren't strong enough to kill them but they did injure them greatly. They couldn't fight any longer.

Shun then raised both his arms and aimed at both these groups.

Suddenly, both the groups felt that they were blasted by an invisible source of energy. No… It felt as if they were attacked by Pure Ardor.

But if that was so then the Ardor required to attack them should have been quite significant. Atleast, it should have exhausted Shun's entire ardor since his cultivation had been suppressed to a 3 Star Rank right now.

Yet, Shun looked absolutely fine. He didn't look tired.

Soon, Shun's subordinates finished dealing with the guards outside the building and entered as well.

They were surprised to see that Shun was still unharmed and none of the enemies was standing.

Shun spoke, "Capture 2 of them and kill the rest."

His subordinates remained calm as they heard his order. One of them went on to capture the men while the other raised their weapons to slaughter the people here.

Shun decided to move down the hallway and saw even more enemy warriors.

He didn't waste his time and directly killed them with a strong invisible shockwave. This was the same method in which he had injured the two groups of warriors on both his sides.

His subordinates soon joined him and they killed all the enemy warriors except two people. These two warriors were restrained using some Anti-Ardor Ropes carried by the guards.

After their hands were tied by those Anti-Ardor Ropes, the warriors couldn't use their cultivation any longer.

They were harmless flies.

Even those warriors who had been captured knew that they wouldn't have a good result now that they had been captured.

One of them was quite resolute and he bit his tongue.

The guard near them saw that he had bit his tongue and the other was about to do the same. He didn't bother saving the one who had already bit his tongue and focused on the other individual.

Before the other person could bit his tongue as well, the guard held his face in his hand and forcefully opened it. There was a ball of cloth in his other hand and he shoved it in his mouth, preventing the warrior from closing it.

Thus, this man could no longer bite his tongue and try to die.

Meanwhile, Shun had already reached the other side of the building.

On this side of the building, he noticed a massive field. There were many different kinds of plants and trees as far as the eye could see.

Shun had a slight smile as he looked at the scenery. The situation was exactly as he had guessed.

Soon, his subordinates joined him. They were completely awe-struck as they saw this landscape under the ground.

The sunlight couldn't reach this location so there had been some arrays that could recreate the effect of the sunlight.

If Shun's guess was right then the array formation at the top of this tunnel was transmitting the sunlight from another location to this place.

This not only lit up the tunnel but also provided these plants with the necessary nutrients to grow.

"This is a herbal garden! The barret family was actually growing their herbs here?!" One of the guards uttered with a shocked look.

"Fearful daisy, Miracle Fig, Royal Ink Plant, Ice Heart's Lotus, Lunar Cane, Serpent Pine, Death Milkweed, Urband Mulberry, Wicked Silkweed…" The official directly under Shun continued to list out the herbs and other plants he recognized.

He took a deep breath and tried to calm down, "These are the raw herbs and materials provided by the Barret Family! There is no mistake, this was definitely created by the Barret Family."

One of the guards, who had chided Shun over accusing the Barret Family felt rather embarrassed now. He now understood that he was just a fool. He wanted to find a hole and hide in it.

"I was more or less sure that it was the Barret Noble House because someone among them visits this city once every 3 months. Though sometimes, it's 4 months on average, we can consider it 3 months. The men stationed here have probably been given supplies for nearly 3-4 months." Shun calmly explained.

However, his subordinates were still confused. One of them asked him, "But how did you know that someone had schemed against our City?"

"When I came to know that the City of Vanta was quite prosperous 300 years ago, I looked for clues why it would suddenly fall from grace. Either some sort of curse befell the city or it was all a scheme. But what can reduce a prosperous agricultural land to a barren land? The answer was that someone was sucking its vitality. But for it to occur for 300 years straight meant it wasn't just one plant or person. It had to be something bigger."

"Because they had to extract the life of the entire agricultural field, they needed to do so from under the ground. In addition, as the City of Vanta was slowly sinking into despair 300 years ago, another region saw explosive growth. It wasn't because its main competitor was no longer in business. I'm sure this was a factor, however, I believe it was more due to the introduction of these herbs."

"A lord won't grow these herbs in his own land because the nutrients required for their growth as too much. The crops would suffer and there would be less yield of food. Thus, it was best to grow such plants or herbs in a small garden or a competitor's territory."

Shun finished speaking his reasoning. He looked at the faces of his subordinates. Their expressions were filled with pure admiration and respect at this moment.

They never expected that their young lord was actually so smart.

This had been a major issue for the City of Vanta for 300 years. To think it would be solved in merely days.

"Why are you making such a look? I have dealt with merely one problem pestering the city. There are a lot more."

"I will go and disable the arrays here. After that, bring our men here and harvest everything that you can. We will keep dozens of plants of each herb and destroy the rest. With sufficient manure, the land should show changes."

"Yes, Mayor!"

The guards immediately got to work as Shun went and first disabled the array of suppression. Its trigger was hidden in the building. He destroyed it and recovered his cultivation base.

He then destroyed the entire scarlet path, dealing with all the hidden mechanisms. Now that he had recovered his 5 Star Rank cultivation base, he could deal with all these mechanisms without an issue.