You promised to wreak havoc on the dungeon, but instead you've got Dragon Slime!

In reality, these passages either lead to a deep pit or a loop that leads back to the entrance.

With this setup, if someone gets "insider information" and rushes in, there's only one outcome—utter humiliation.

Meanwhile, the guild's investigation team was on their way. Amata had informed them in advance that they would be there this afternoon to witness the entire challenge.

Ron knew very well that these people were mostly pushed over by Bakus, and their mission was to find "evidence of violations" in the Black Whisper Caves. So he had changed several seemingly "compliant" monster combinations in key areas beforehand, and even hung "risk warning" signs next to several killing formations, doing his job of putting on a good show.

Vanessa arrived as usual in the morning. When she came in, she made a point of going around to the entrance to check out the newly opened passageways. Ron pretended to be busy checking the energy nodes with Claudia and ignored her.

Lilith stood silently behind her, noticing that her cuff moved slightly, as if she were squeezing something inside.

Ron pretended not to see it, but a faint red dot soon lit up on the runestone.

He chuckled to himself—sure enough, the fish had taken the bait.

In the afternoon, the investigation team arrived. Three mages wearing guild badges, accompanied by several recorders, entered the Black Whisper Caverns. Ron greeted them politely throughout, like a well-behaved lord, explaining the monster combinations and trap setups in each area.

The investigation team members took notes along the way, occasionally glancing around, and found nothing obviously illegal, which was even a bit surprising.

Just as they turned to the other side of the entrance, a gasp came from afar.

It was a team that had just entered—they had "insider information" and rushed straight into the newly opened passage, only to fall into a 30-meter-deep pit in less than two minutes. The entire team was forcibly teleported back to the entrance by the system.

The members of the investigation team looked at each other, and one of them whispered, "Maybe it was their own carelessness."

Ron remained calm on the surface, but he knew very well that this move not only made the investigation team lower their guard, but also caused the people in the shadows to suffer a great loss for the first time.

He looked up at the entrance, his lips twitching almost imperceptibly: "Keep delivering, I can wait."

After the newly opened passage tricked the first challenge team that had been collecting intelligence, the taverns and markets throughout Emerald Town were buzzing with discussion.

Some say the challenge team was stupid, while others suspect that Black Language Cave deliberately dug a pit.

The one who was truly anxious was Vanessa.

Chapter 118

She returned to her temporary residence, closed the door, and immediately took out a tiny crystal from her sleeve.

Half of Bacchus's face was reflected in the crystal, his voice low and menacing, like a suppressed fire.

"How could the route you gave me be a dead end?"

Vanessa explained in a low voice, "I saw it with my own eyes. The entrance is a newly opened passage, and the sign says it leads directly to the middle section. I don't know why..."

"Enough with the nonsense," Bakus said coldly. "What I need isn't a reason, but a way to get my people into the core of the Black Whisper Caves. If you send any more useless information, don't bother coming back."

The crystal flashed twice, and Bacchus's image disappeared.

Vanessa gripped the cold crystal, her heart pounding. She knew she had not only embarrassed Bacchus this time, but also caused his men to stumble in public. If another mistake occurred, she might not be an ally, but a pawn to be discarded.

The problem was, she had no way of knowing which path in the Black Language Cave was real. Ron's layout was like a living thing, constantly changing.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

She opened the door, and standing there was Claudia.

"Lilith wants you to go to the warehouse; she says she needs to move a batch of scrolls into the cave."

Vanessa nodded instinctively.

Inside the warehouse, Ron was bending over and rummaging through a row of wooden shelves when he saw Vanessa come in. He pointed to a stack of scrolls and said, "These are spare terrain scrolls. Could you help me move a couple over there?"

Vanessa had a sudden inspiration—an opportunity.

While moving the scroll, she lightly rubbed her finger on the sealing wax, imprinting her talisman onto it. This talisman appeared ordinary, but once unfolded, it would leave a brief energy fluctuation when the scroll was used, enough for those outside to receive it.

Ron appeared not to notice, but the runestone on the control panel had actually lit up for a moment. He continued searching without making a sound, but a barely perceptible smirk appeared on his lips.

After Vanessa left, he secretly replaced the two tampered scrolls with "fakes"—once used, they would generate a seemingly safe plain on the map, which was actually the core of the sand snake colony's activity.

This setup is specifically aimed at Bacchus and his group.

That evening, as expected, an unfamiliar team carrying the scrolls entered the Black Language Cave. They jogged along, bypassing the first few waves of monsters, and headed straight for the "Plains Area".

Less than ten seconds after they stepped inside, more than a dozen sand snakes simultaneously emerged from the ground, their poisonous mist, tail whips, and coils creating a chaotic scene. Within a minute, the entire team was wiped out.

The people in the spectator area were completely dumbfounded.

There were no monsters in this place before, but today they've sprung out like a nest has been blown up.

Ron stood on high ground, his fingers gently stroking the runestone, and whispered, "Thank you for the route."

He knew that this second false intelligence would be enough to infuriate Bacchus. Even better, Vanessa's location remained unexposed—because she was merely a messenger; the one who truly failed was the person Bacchus himself had sent in.

Vanessa sat in Lilith's yard, holding a cup of warm tea in her hands, feeling as if a block of ice had been stuffed into her heart—she could already sense that Bacchus's trust was slowly disappearing.

Deep within the carnival maze, Bakus sat on a chair covered with animal hide, clutching an intricately carved magic crystal card in his hand. Floating on the card were lines of intelligence records, the latest being the fate of the "Straight to the Plains" team that had met their end at the Black Whisper Caves that day.

In just a few dozen seconds, they were all wiped out.

Bacchus threw the cards on the table, causing his wine glass to shake.

"Investigate." He looked at the man in black robes beside him. "Keep a close eye on her—write down every route she takes in and out of Emerald Town, everyone she meets, and everything she says. If she says anything she shouldn't, you know what to do."

The man in black bowed his head to accept the order, then turned and disappeared into the firelight.

Bacchus didn't speak again, but slowly poured himself a glass of wine, his Adam's apple bobbing a few times. His hands tensed slightly—Vanessa was the most prominent pawn he had placed beside Lilith. If something went wrong with this pawn, he would lose a secret passage leading directly to the Black Whisper Caves.

He didn't believe that the two intelligence failures were a coincidence.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Emerald Town, Vanessa was still helping out at Lilith's house. Her movements were as meticulous as ever, but the unease in her heart grew stronger. She knew Bacchus's temper; these two mishaps had made her a prime suspect.

As evening fell, she made an excuse to go to the market to buy some fresh magic mushrooms and slipped away alone through a side alley. Just as she turned the corner, a short man wearing half a metal brace was watching her from the shadows. The bone flute hanging from his waist was the mark of a spy from the Carnival Maze.

He followed, keeping a distance, without making a sound.

On the other side, Ron was sitting on the observation platform in the Black Language Cave, the runestone flashing red—this was a signal that Lilith had just sent back from outside, Vanessa was being watched.

Ron smirked, placed the runestone next to the control panel, and began setting up a new wave of traps.

This time, he didn't just intend to trick the scout team sent by Bacchus; he wanted to find solid "counter-evidence" against Vanessa.

He picked out a specially drawn "guide scroll" with an extremely detailed route, from the entrance to the core in one go, and the monster configuration in between was a combination that seemed harmless—anyone who came into contact with this scroll would think they had found a huge benefit.

However, this route actually contains at least seven key points that will trigger a chain of killing formations. Once you follow the map, you will be instantly surrounded in the core area, with no chance to escape.

Ron sealed the scroll tightly, put it in an ordinary storage bag, and then handed it to Lilith: "Find an opportunity for her to 'steal' it herself."

Lilith didn't ask any questions, she just took it and casually stuffed it into the bottom of the cabinet where she usually piled up odds and ends.

That evening, Vanessa returned home and, as expected, while Lilith was in the kitchen, rummaged through the cupboard a few times, her fingers quickly finding the bag. She hesitated only for a moment before putting it away.

In the labyrinth of revelry late at night, the brazier burned brightly, and the firelight made the animal skin walls in the stone chamber glow slightly.

Bacchus was facing a rough wooden table, on which lay a brand-new roll of route map. Vanessa had just delivered it—the seal was intact, and the pages smelled of fresh ink.

The route map was extremely detailed, stretching from the entrance of the Black Whisper Caves all the way to the core area. It marked the distribution of monsters and safe resting spots, and even the locations of terrain traps. According to the map, this was a relatively safe passage.

Bacchus looked at it several times and nodded in satisfaction: "That's more like it."

He immediately summoned an elite team he had personally selected—all veteran adventurers transferred from other territories, whose level was no lower than that of the orcish groups.

Chapter 119

"Follow the map, don't deviate, don't overthink. You only have one task—get to the core and bring out the control node I marked."

The elite team received the order, and without further ado, turned and disappeared into the teleportation light.

Meanwhile, Ron sat on the high observation platform of the Black Language Cave, tapping his fingers lightly on the runestone. The red dots on the runestone indicated that the group had already entered the entrance area following the scroll's route.

The path was indeed safe at first; slimes and mermen were avoided, and they only encountered some low-threat monsters along the way. The elite team advanced smoothly, even taking the time to replenish their resources at a few rest stops.

But they didn't know that the real trap was hidden in the last 300 meters before the core area.

The first trap was a sinkhole disguised as sand. The moment the front-line soldiers stepped in, the ground collapsed with a deafening roar, revealing a nest of rolling sand snakes. A dozen sand snakes burst forth from the ground like bombs, and poisonous mist immediately enveloped the entire passage.

The elite team's priest hurriedly activated a purification field, but the poisonous fog was too dense, and several archers on the edge coughed so hard they could barely hold their bows. The team was forced to retreat, but before they had even taken ten steps, the second trap was triggered—the barbed stone array on both sides of the passage suddenly popped up, completely sealing off the exit.

The third trap was a chain of killing formations deliberately set up by Ron. At the top of the canyon, dozens of mutated stone-winged beasts swooped down simultaneously, their shrill cries causing eardrums to ache, their stone wings slicing through the air like knives towards the crowd.

In just half a minute, the elite team was surrounded on three sides—sand snakes in front, a barbed stone formation behind, and stone-winged beasts overhead.

Shouts of battle erupted in the passageway as mages unleashed a barrage of wide-range attacks, but the sheer number of sand serpents and stone-winged beasts made it impossible to eliminate them all.

In less than two minutes, the first person was swept away by the sand snake and dragged directly into the nest; immediately afterward, the two in the back row were picked up by the stone-winged beasts, lifted into the air, and dropped, their bodies mangled and bloody.

The priest tried to rush to the barbed stone circle to clear a path, but he was whipped away by the sand snake's tail as soon as he got close and crashed heavily into the rock wall, losing consciousness on the spot.

Ron watched from the observation platform as the energy curve surged like a heartbeat, indicating that the killing formation was fully activated and the monster had entered a berserk mode.

In the third minute, the battlefield fell completely silent—the elite team was wiped out.

A system notification sounded in the spectator area: "Challenge failed, success rate 0%."

The crowd watching gasped in disbelief. This group was Bakus's elite, yet they were wiped out before even getting close to the core.

At the other end of the carnival maze, Bacchus stared at the scroll that had been transmitted back, his fingers slowly tightening. A sense of unease weighed heavily on his heart—this was the third time the intelligence had backfired, and each time they had precisely stepped into a trap.

He suddenly thought of a possibility:

Someone is feeding us false information.

The source of this information was Vanessa; there was no one else.

Bacchus rolled up the scroll, tossed it on the table, and said in a voice as cold as ice, "Tell her to come see me."

Before long, Vanessa was led into the stone chamber. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the scroll on the table. She knew it was the one she had sent out.

"Did you draw the route?" Bacchus asked bluntly.

Vanessa suppressed her anxiety and nodded: "I've checked it myself, it's the new channel that was recently adjusted."

Bacchus stared at her for two seconds, then suddenly changed his tone: "Very good. Although this time it failed, perhaps it was a problem with the team. I'll give you another chance—come up with another route."

He pushed a black storage bag in front of her, which contained several small magical items of considerable value.

"Consider it a fee for your hard work."

Vanessa breathed a sigh of relief, thinking she had temporarily escaped danger. But she didn't see that the black-robed man behind Bacchus was secretly pressing a tiny tracking talisman onto the fabric of the storage bag. As long as the bag was in her possession, all movements would be transmitted back to the Carnival Maze.

On the other side, the Black Language Cave.

Ron had already seen the signal fluctuations from the runestone indicating Vanessa and Bacchus's meeting. Instead of acting rashly, he had Lilith place a half-true, half-false map from the warehouse in the most conspicuous spot, waiting for Vanessa to "steal" it.