Reincarnated as a bamboo rat, it begins its extreme survival struggle.

The team leader just watched the people in the group keep moving forward, and finally left himself to bring up the rear of the group.

"Thanks for your cooperation."

Opposite the retreating group were the Blood Hand Mercenary Group members. The leader of the group spoke indifferently and casually.

Among the Bloodhand Mercenary Group members behind him, quite a few were already sneering.

Just as the leader of the Long River Adventure Team, filled with helplessness, was about to turn and leave, the people evacuating in front of him stopped.

The intense tremors on the ground drew everyone's attention.

About a minute after the ground began to shake, a strange purple light appeared in the sky, attracting much attention.

Everyone looked in the direction from which the light came from, deep within the bamboo forest.

"What happened?!"

"Such a large-scale phenomenon, could the legends be true!"

"Ruins deep within the bamboo forest..."

In an instant

All the adventurers who had ventured into the bamboo forest remembered the widely circulated but never-found secret of the ruins.

Everyone seemed to have a lot to say, but they looked at each other in silence, just before things got noisy.

The previously indifferent leader of the Bloodhand Mercenary Group coughed and spoke to the leader of the Long River Adventurer Group, who was escorting the procession:

"Please remember the contract: for the next twenty years, the main members of the Long River Adventure Team shall not directly participate in any missions related to the Bamboo Sea."

After he finished speaking, the team leader and the high-level adventurers who were originally caught in a complicated emotion all changed their expressions.

The team leader's lips suddenly fell down, and then he turned away without saying a word.

The Long River Adventurer Group has signed a contract with the Blood Hand Mercenary Group. In exchange, the Blood Hand Mercenary Group will exchange the people detained in their base for all of the Long River Mercenary Group's business in the Bamboo Sea.

Within twenty years, the main members of the Long River Mercenary Group shall not directly participate in missions related to the Bamboo Sea.

When the contract was signed, all the main members of the Long River Adventure Team present signed their names on the contract scroll; they had no choice but to sign.

In this magical world, contracts are very binding, and at least these adventurers cannot break the cursed contract they have signed.

The team leader eventually left with his group, leaving the losing side looking rather dejected.

The atmosphere in the Long River Adventurer Group was somewhat somber, with only occasional hushed conversations. After all, with the leader's grim expression, even the lowest-ranking adventurers and miners couldn't speak loudly.

But people's joys and sorrows are not shared. For a nobody like Edu, the conflict between the two adventure groups and the strange events in the bamboo forest are beyond his comprehension.

The perceptive Edu, though remaining silent within the team, had already started chatting with Bell in a beast language inaudible to humans.

"Mr. Bell, do you know what that purple light is?"

"I can't come."

Lying in his hood, Bell wasn't particularly concerned about the conflict between the adventure groups, but the purple light shimmering deep within the bamboo forest made him ponder.

Bell recalled the group of adventurers he had encountered, who were excessively strong.

This group of adventurers, whose strength was clearly inferior to that of the bamboo forest, came deep into the bamboo forest in search of some ruins.

"Don't overthink it, little guy. Even if there really are some ruins, the treasures inside won't be of much concern to us."

Bell was quite casual about the ruins; he knew that if they were truly discovered, a large number of adventurers would definitely go to explore them.

Bell, a white-haired mouse, paired with Edu, a bard who hadn't even begun to learn the ropes, were practically committing suicide if they tried to compete with these people for the treasures in the ruins.

"Let's be rational and go to school honestly."

"Yes, I also want to become a bard's apprentice before the end of the year."

Chatting about all sorts of things, Edu followed the group slowly out of the bamboo forest.

As you walk further out of the bamboo forest, the once lush and dense bamboo gradually thins out, and a smooth official road, often repaired by people, appears before you.

As the team continued to move forward, the originally orderly team split into two groups.

Eighty percent of the people were preparing to return to the Long River Adventurer Group's base, since they had all settled there.

Edu and some adventurers set off for Azure Star City.

Don't let Edu's poor living fool you; his mother left him a house in Cangxing City, making him a true Cangxing City native.

This also makes Edu's cost of living in the city lower, since he doesn't have to worry about accommodation costs.

Chapter 58 As expected of a good product

By the time they returned to Cangxing City, it was already late at night.

Unlike the ancient city Bell imagined, this great city that adventurers always talked about did not have towering walls that blocked outsiders from entering.

As a truly great city, Cangxing City is constructed from a vast and astonishing architectural complex.

Following the official road outside the bamboo forest, about ten kilometers outside Cangxing City, the occasionally worn and flat official road turned from a dirt road into a solid stone road.

Compared to easily worn-out rammed earth roads, stone slab roads are more durable. And the roads ten kilometers outside Cangxing City are even more advanced than ordinary stone slab roads.

The roads here are all paved with solid square stones, each two meters wide, five meters long, and half a meter thick.

The magically sculpted stones are flat and sturdy, and the drainage ditches along the roads ensure that these stones can be used for thousands of years once laid.

Those who have traveled many different paths will sincerely feel that this road is extraordinary when they step onto the stone road of Cangxing City.

As a high-quality material, stone pavement is expensive, as is typical of high-quality materials.

The construction of the stone road requires the participation of a monk.

The mages would use magic to liquefy the soil and rocks, then recast them in a certain proportion, finally shaping them into complete square stones.

As we all know, mages are all people who are obsessed with money. They are extremely good at making money, but their ability to spend money is not to be underestimated.

In order to obtain more compensation, the Mage Guild and the Mayor of Cangxing City negotiated back and forth for several months before finally signing a contract.

The mayor of Cangxing City was ruthless; he managed to lower the price of each square stone by one silver coin from the base price quoted by the Mage Guild.

It's important to understand that this was robbing money from the usually powerful mages, a move that truly shocked the other professional guilds in Cangxing City.

It was during this consultation with the Mage Guild that a sentence uttered by the mayor of Cangxing City became a famous saying in Cangxing City.

'It's truly a good product, and it's only one dollar cheaper.'

In Cangxing City today, after a normal business transaction, if the two parties have a good relationship, the seller will give the buyer a silver coin as a token of goodwill.

This is a peculiar custom that gradually evolved after the mayor of Cangxing City negotiated a price with the mage.

This peculiar custom also reveals just how difficult it is to get money from the Mage Guild.

"Gah-"

With a sickening creak as the wooden door creaked open, Edu pushed open his front door.

After a day's journey, Edu finally returned home. He breathed a sigh of relief, and his heart calmed down immediately.

Edu walked to the table and lit the candles, illuminating the room.

"Wow, your house is quite big."

Bell jumped off Edu and entered the room, looking around.

Edu's house is not small; it's a small two-story brick house with a shop on the first floor, filled with empty shelves.

According to Edu, his mother made a living by selling groceries in her shop when she was still alive.

Going up to the second floor, there is a two-bedroom apartment plus a small living room.

"I had planned to sell the house after I turned 18 and use the money to study."

onto the old rattan chair

With a limp, Edu began to talk about his life plans before he met Bale.

But as he spoke, he started laughing again.

Things he never dared to imagine before suddenly appeared before him; it all seemed too surreal.

He has a music teacher who teaches him music, he has tried to play magical melodies on his own, and someone is even offering to sponsor his studies at a music academy...

Most importantly, Bell was there for him, and finally someone could talk to him.

Since his mother's death, Edu has never confided in anyone about his troubles.

Edu is an anomaly, unlike normal humans. He has no human friends of the same age, and there are very few humans who are kind to him.

Every time Edu goes out, he needs to cover himself up completely with clothes and repeatedly check that his demi-human features are completely concealed before he can go out on the street normally.

Although he had long been used to this kind of life, it was impossible not to feel uncomfortable.

"Mr. Bell, have you ever heard a song about mothers?"

Edu closed his eyes as he lay on the wicker chair. Back home, he could relax and recover the strength he had lost from the long journey.

He suddenly remembered his mother, the one who worried about whether he could be independent and strong even on her deathbed.

"Do you want to hear it?"

"I want to learn."