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

Ron said coldly, "He's been holding a grudge against me for a long time. This time, it's just making it even more ingrained in his memory."

In the stone chamber of the Carnival Maze, Bacchus threw his armor on the ground, sat down heavily, and looked like a dark cloud looming over the city.

The Red Claw Battalion and the Mist Axe Squad suffered heavy casualties, and half of the Abyss Hunters' ballistae were destroyed.

“Ron—” he gritted his teeth, “You just wait.”

Meanwhile, at the Black Language Cave, the supply line was operating as usual, and the challenge teams began queuing to enter again.

It was as if this bloody battle had never happened.

Deep within the carnival labyrinth, in a stone chamber, firelight illuminates fragments of armor.

Many of the remnants brought back by the Crimson Claw Battalion had lost their armor and were only wrapped in makeshift strips of cloth. The Mist Axe Squad was almost completely wiped out, and the Abyss Hunter Regiment was left with only half of its ballistae, which were too heavy to even move.

Bacchus sat on the stone chair, remaining silent for a long time.

The man in black robes tentatively spoke: "This time... the losses are considerable."

Bacchus raised his hand, signaling him to shut up. After a moment of silence, he said coldly, "We won't attack Black Language Caves in the short term."

The man in black robes was taken aback.

“Change targets.” Bacchus’s tone was sinister. “Don’t fight him head-on—take care of the people around him first, then find an opportunity to lure away his allies. Leave him isolated and helpless in Emerald Town.”

At the Black Language Cave, the battlefield had just been cleared when the guild members arrived.

Amata, accompanied by several high-ranking officials, inspected the outer perimeter. He was secretly astonished by the coordinated actions of the falling rocks, the pitfalls, and the monsters.

“That was a brilliant fight,” Amata said in a low voice. “It will be hard for the guild not to side with you.”

Ron just smiled faintly.

He knew very well that this victory not only stopped Bakus, but also established his image as a "tough nut to crack" in front of the guild.

What the guild needs are lords who can defend their territory, not burdens who are constantly begging for help.

Two days later, in the taverns and markets of Emerald Town, adventurers were talking about nothing but that great battle.

"I heard that he set up a three-layered rockfall formation, which crushed hundreds of people to death."

"The combination of the Sand Snake and the Slime is a nightmare."

"If anyone ever says the Black Language Caves are dangerous again, I'll be the first to retort—danger is what makes the challenge worthwhile."

Taking advantage of the hype, Ron doubled the challenge points rewards for Black Whisper Caves and opened a new loot exchange platform.

As soon as the news broke, teams signed up even faster than before the big battle.

Amata privately warned him, "Your reputation is too high now. Bacchus will definitely try to smear you through public opinion."

Ron was already prepared.

He had Lilith secretly contact several influential adventurer guild branches, inviting them to send teams to Blackwhisper Caves to "observe the challenge," and promised to provide free supplies and accommodation throughout the trip.

The trick is simple—let more adventurers from outside witness the challenges and rewards of the Black Whisper Caves firsthand, and the power of public opinion will naturally shift to his hands.

Meanwhile, Bacchus was also making his move.

He didn't send out an army, but a group of lobbyists—responsible for going to the neutral territories and adventurer branches to spread the story that "Blackwhisper Caves is a deadly trap," even embellishing it to portray the challengers' deaths as Ron's deliberate act of "killing the guests."

He knew very well that as long as anyone believed this claim, Ron would be distracted by explaining, and explaining was a sign of weakness.

When Ron received the intelligence, he simply smiled and said, "He wants to play the media game? Let him walk into the pit himself."

He arranged for his guards to pose as "victimized adventurers," feigning resentment in front of Bacchus's lobbyists. When they couldn't resist trying to extract information and told even more outrageous lies, he would record it on the spot with a magic recording stone.

A few days later, these "rumor records" were posted on bulletin boards in taverns, markets, and adventurer gathering areas.

Overnight, Bacchus's propaganda offensive backfired, turning him into a "loser who stirred up trouble."

Amata couldn't help but laugh and said, "You're slapping me in the face with a counterattack."

Ron said calmly, "Let him understand that not every stone can be thrown at him without getting hit."

However, he also knew that Bacchus wouldn't give up so easily. That man was a venomous snake, temporarily hiding, waiting for the most fatal opportunity.

Ron looked up at the energy graph on the control panel, already thinking about his next move—

If Bacchus had changed his approach, he might not have attacked the city directly, but instead had gone around to a deeper and more difficult-to-defend location.

He had to block that road in advance.

Deep within the Black Language Grottoes lies a unique crystal vein.

These crystals are not ordinary ores, but a crucial medium for maintaining the entire energy cycle of the lower city. The core energy vein relies on these crystals for energy storage and conduction; if a problem occurs, not only will the monster spawning rhythm be disrupted, but the entire defensive array will short-circuit.

This method is rarely known to outsiders. Ron only mentioned it to Lilith, Claudia, and a few of his personal guards.

But that morning, Lilith handed over an urgent report:

"The crystal troughs in the northern mine were disturbed last night. The lizardman captain guarding the mine said that there were unfamiliar smells and footprints deep within the mine."

Ron pointed to the entrance to the North Mine on the map: "This passage is the only way into the North Mine. If someone finds their way here, it means there's an inside man leading the way."

Claudia frowned: "You mean—Bacchus has his eye on the mine?"

“Eighty percent.” Ron put away the diagram. “If he can’t win on the outside, he’ll switch to his weak points. He doesn’t want to fight tough battles anymore; he wants to go straight for the heart.”

Ron immediately sealed off the main passage to the North Mine and sent his personal guards to follow secretly.

Unsurprisingly, they found several dead lizardman miners at the end of the passage—all with their throats slit by short blades, the movements clean and efficient, indicating they were skilled killers.

Worse still, the crystal behemoth guarding the mine has vanished. That thing is enormous and slow-moving; it couldn't have wandered off on its own. It must have been lured away.

Ron had already made up his mind: the team that Bakus sent was not an ordinary sabotage squad, but a "heart-stripping hunter" specifically targeting the lower city's ecosystem.

Chapter 131

The deep passage was very quiet, with only the occasional sound of dripping water.

Ron and his guards descended the mine and soon spotted several thin, elongated rune marks at the edge of the vein—these were the pre-embedded wires for explosives.

Once detonated, this explosive will not cause a large-scale explosion, but it will shatter the energy crystals inside the crystal, causing it to completely lose its energy conduction ability.

Ron crouched down to inspect and discovered that the explosive wire was still extending, meaning the enemy was still setting up positions inside.

He signaled his guards to split into three groups: two groups would sneak along the mine wall, and one group would follow him to the front.

Ten minutes later, a faint sound of stone chips falling to the ground came from the front.

Ron raised his hand, and everyone stopped. In the darkness, two assassins, completely shrouded in gray-brown cloaks, were chiseling crystals, securing the explosive wire deep into the vein.

The moment they switched tools, Ron threw a short crossbow bolt.

With a loud "bang," the explosive wire snapped, and sparks lit up half of the mine tunnel.

The assassin reacted swiftly, immediately drawing his short blade and lunging forward. However, his bodyguards on both sides simultaneously attacked, pinning one of them to the mine wall and slashing the other to the ground.

Ron asked coldly, "How many people are still inside?"

The man's mouth was bleeding, and he gave a cold laugh without answering.

The next second, a deep rumble came from the depths of the mine—as if some enormous thing was moving.

As stone chips fell, a gigantic lizard-like beast slowly crawled out of the shadows of the mine.

However, its eyes glowed with an eerie red light, and its breathing was rapid, clearly indicating that it had been driven into a frenzy by a control talisman.

Ron cursed inwardly—Bakus didn't even spare the crystal behemoths guarding the mine, using them directly as weapons of destruction.

"Keep your formation together, don't fight head-on!" he whispered.

The lizard beast opened its gaping maw and spewed out a corrosive liquid that sizzled as it hit the crystals. Several crystals were instantly corroded, their luster rapidly dimming.

Ron raised his hand and pressed the communication token on his wrist: "Claudia, bring up the backup crystal team from the South Mine, immediately!"

For the next half hour, the depths of the mine became a hellish battleground between humans and beasts.

Ron used the terrain to his advantage, luring the lizard beast to a narrow spot in the mine tunnel, where his guards struck its spine repeatedly from both sides with shock spears.

Finally, the lizard beast let out a long hiss and collapsed to the ground. Ron personally plucked its control rune and crushed it into powder.

However, the damage to the northern mine was still severe, with at least five core crystals corroded and rendered unusable.

Ron stood at the entrance of the mine tunnel and took a deep breath: "I will pay you back for this, Bacchus."

The atmosphere in the stone chamber of the carnival maze was oppressive.

The man in black placed a report on the table and whispered, "Operation North Mine... total annihilation. The lizard beast guarding the mine was also killed."

Bacchus's face was as cold as frozen ice: "His reaction was too quick, which means he's keeping a close eye on that vein."

He slowly stood up, walked to a thick iron box in the corner, and opened it.

Inside were rows of dark metal cans, each with its opening sealed with thick cloth. A faint, grinding sound could be heard beneath the cloth, like countless claws scraping against metal.

The man in black robes took a half step back: "This is... an explosive energy worm?"

Bacchus nodded: "Yes. A one-time use weapon, it won't last long, but it can pierce through any crystal and energy conduit in a very short time."

He added in a low voice, "It's also the last resort."

Three days later, an unassuming caravan set off from the Carnival Maze and successfully passed through the outer checkpoints of Emerald Town.

The driver was an honest-looking middle-aged man. The cart was covered with a canvas, and no one knew that underneath were more than a dozen metal canisters containing explosive insects.

According to Bacchus's plan, the truck would first be delivered to a warehouse near the Black Language Cave, and then his inside agents would slowly transport it into the vicinity of the core outer ring.

Once released, the swarm will attack the core energy channel like madmen, paralyzing the entire defense array within minutes.

Ron received the intelligence the next morning.

Claudia handed him the coded message from the scout: "The caravan entered the city last night; there's something wrong with this shipment."

Without hesitation, Ron immediately brought up the external monitoring of the control panel and marked the energy fluctuations of several major warehouses in the city.

Soon, he detected an anomaly in a remote warehouse in the eastern district—the energy fluctuations were dense and short, like some kind of life form agitating under pressure.

“That’s it,” Ron said in a deep voice.

He took two bodyguards and headed straight for the warehouse.

The warehouse gatekeeper visibly panicked for a moment when he saw Ron arrive. Ron immediately raised his hand, and his personal guards pushed the door open and entered.

Inside the warehouse, the canvas was lifted, and metal cans were neatly arranged on wooden shelves.