Hello, is this a letter addressed to Demon Fortress?

Not long after, the person who had finished writing the letter ran to the guild.

A long, winding queue had already formed in front of the Adventurers' Guild.

The place was bustling with noise, like a noisy marketplace.

People clutched the letters tightly in their hands, their eyes gleaming with a mixture of hope and anxiety.

"Listen carefully! Write the recipient's full name!"

"Describe physical characteristics in as much detail as possible! Be sure to include the address if you know it!"

With his left hand, Lin Gui held a simple tin megaphone and shouted loudly to maintain order.

His right hand deftly collected the copper coins and neatly folded letters.

At that moment, he looked just like a street vendor energetically hawking his wares in a market.

His usual aloof and cold demeanor had completely vanished.

This sight drew the attention of many adventure teams returning home weary from completing their missions.

Their faces were filled with astonishment and bewilderment.

That wandering monk who always kept to himself and had a cold expression.

At this moment, he was rolling up his sleeves and huddled among a group of civilians?

This scene was so utterly anachronistic that it defied their understanding.

Ross, the leader of the Lions, the highest-ranking order in New Testament City, happened to be passing by with his members.

He stopped, his heavy boots, inlaid with armor, making a dull thud as they stepped on the stone slabs.

His gaze swept over the noisy scene with disdain, as if he were looking at a pile of unsightly garbage.

"Hmph, a wandering mage who rose from beggar's roots can't shake his ingrained baseness; he truly deserves to mingle with these peasants."

He spoke in a low, mocking tone, his voice filled with icy disgust, as if looking at him for even a second longer would offend his eyes.

A year ago, he condescended to invite Lin Gui to join the group, but was resolutely rejected.

At that time, Lin Gui looked at him with an indifferent gaze, as if he were looking at a stone on the side of the road.

No, it was more like looking at roadside trash; that look still bothers him to this day.

"Commander, do you think... he can really get to Karan City?"

Beside him, a young member of the group, whose face still looked childish, couldn't help but ask in a low voice.

There was a hint of barely perceptible expectation in his eyes.

"Absolutely impossible!"

Ross interrupted abruptly, his voice rough.

"The demons in the wild have long since become rampant, far from being as docile as they were a year ago."

"He's all alone; that's suicide, he's just feeding the monsters!"

"But...but didn't he come back from an even more distant magical city? Isn't it more dangerous there..."

The group member's words came to an abrupt halt under Ross's indifferent gaze, forcing him to swallow the rest of his sentence.

"Let's go, don't waste our precious time in a place like this."

Ross snorted coldly and led his guild members through the guild's magnificent gates, unwilling to spare them another glance.

Outside the guild, Lin Gui had thought the meeting would end easily in an hour, but unexpectedly...

He underestimated how quickly the news spread among the people.

And the longing that had been suppressed for ten years by high walls, a long-accumulated mountain of yearning.

The guild is located on the city's main street, where there is a constant flow of people.

More and more people rushed over upon hearing the news and joined the group.

The team not only did not shorten, but became even more bloated.

Until the setting sun dyed the sky orange-red.

The last old woman slipped a crumpled piece of paper into his hand.

The backpack, which could originally hold quite a lot of things, was now bulging out.

The fabric was taut, and there was a slight hissing sound at the seams, as if it was about to tear.

"Hey, system, how many letters have I received?" Lin Gui thought to himself, clicking his tongue in amazement.

[A total of 679 letters, host.] The system's cold, electronic voice sounded precisely on time.

[Important Reminder: Receiving more emails than the limit will not result in any extra rewards.]

[You could have completed this step by step as a follow-up commission.]

This is tantamount to wasting at least 600 basic rewards for beginner-level magic.

The system's voice seemed to carry a hint of human speechlessness and helplessness.

"Sigh, it's not like... once you open a hole, it's hard to close it."

Lin Gui rubbed his throbbing temples and sighed.

Of course, the deeper reason is that he genuinely looked down on those basic magic rewards.

As a high-level mage, spells like Fireball and Illumination were... utterly ineffective against him.

What truly interested him was the extra reward promised by the system.

Magic power increased.

If one were to rely solely on meditation to break through to the extraordinary level, it would likely take three years...

[Host, you will soon regret this.]

"Regret? That's impossible!"

Lin Gui tightened the straps of his backpack, which were about to burst.

He patted the bulging "Mountain of Longing" with a confident air.

"Old Green, let's go!"

He flipped over and mounted the monitor lizard.

The giant lizard let out a deep hiss, and with its powerful limbs, it carried him shakily toward the city gate.

The guards were already used to his unusual mount, and after a brief inspection, they let him pass.

Just as we were about to leave the city gate, a familiar guard captain with a scar on his face hurriedly stepped forward, looking rather embarrassed.

He handed him two tightly sealed letters from home and two shiny gold coins, lowering his voice.

"Lord Lin Gui, I beg you... send a message to my elderly parents in Karan City, tell them... their unfilial son is still alive."

Not long after leaving the city gate, shouts suddenly came from behind.

The sound was muffled by the wind, but the urgency and sincerity in it were still evident.

"Master!"

"Please come back safely!"

Lin Gui turned around and saw only the gray-brown city wall.

A group of residents who had just delivered their letters had gathered there, though it was unclear when they had gathered.

They crowded behind the barricade, waving their arms at him with all their might.

His rough face was etched with genuine longing.

Lin Gui felt a warmth in his heart, as if he had been gently warmed by the winter sun.

He waved to them nonchalantly.

Riding the giant lizard, they resolutely stepped into the vast wilderness where shadows were growing darker and dangers were lurking everywhere.

Forty years ago, a demon god descended upon the world, the sky wept blood, and scarlet raindrops poured down.

All intelligent beings touched by the filthy raindrops of blood were instantly dissolved into foul-smelling blood.

The mindless mountain beasts transformed into terrifying monsters that knew only how to kill.

That world-destroying rain of blood lasted for seven days and seven nights.

The population of the entire continent of Akara has plummeted by three-quarters, and the flame of civilization is flickering on the verge of being extinguished.

The national and racial systems have completely collapsed, and the survivors huddle together in towering city-states.

The cold, towering stone walls protected them, but also severed their connection with one another, thus beginning the Dark Ages.

At first, there weren't many demons in the wild.

Although monsters are terrifying, most of them are muddleheaded and rarely launch large-scale invasions of human territory.

At that time, there were still some fragile routes of communication between the remaining city-states.

Until the nightmare known as the "Black Tide" arrived.

Some say that the Black Tide, like the Blood Rain, is another calamity brought to the continent of Akara by the Demon God, affecting all living beings.

Some say it was a man-made disaster caused by the seventy-two demon kings under the command of the demon god, targeting living beings.

But no one can deny that the Kuroshio always appears without warning, as if it were born out of thin air.

Each time, it gathers hundreds of millions of crazed demons, like a black tide that destroys everything, flattening all the city-states along its path.

Then, the tide will inexplicably recede, leaving countless demons in the wilderness, where they can wander, roam, and multiply.

The Kuroshio Current occurs every two years, like a chronic disease that recurs regularly, and it has now happened a total of 20 times.

A terrifying number of demons, far exceeding the total population of the existing continent, were repeatedly "injected" into the wild.

This makes the world outside the city walls increasingly dangerous, with every step potentially leading to a death trap.

Fortunately, apart from one tributary influx, no main Kuroshio flowed into the border region.

Therefore, the density of demons in the wild has not yet reached an absurd level that would cause utter despair.

Even so, this land is no longer easily crossed by ordinary high-level adventurers.

Every trip is like stepping halfway into the gates of hell.

Lin Gui patted the old green lizard beneath him, and the giant lizard obediently quickened its pace.

He glanced back at the receding silhouette of New Testament City, then resolutely turned away.

Facing that unknown wilderness shrouded in twilight.

The 679 letters in his backpack were heavy, pressing not only on his back but also on his heart.

Each letter represents a hope waiting to be delivered, a possibility for a broken family to reunite.

"Alright, let's get to work," he muttered to himself, his eyes sharpening. "First stop, the Black Demon Forest."