This necromancer is going to seduce the beautiful girls who are already dead.

Now it was Flora's turn to snuggle into Abyss's arms.

Abyss smiled and hugged Flora, feeling that his connection with Flora had become even stronger.

The necromancy bond continuously supplied him with Flora's power—Flora had not yet fulfilled her wish, but a considerable portion of her power offering had already been released.

So this was Rebecca's plan all along? She saw through it all along...

Thank you, Rebecca.

Chapter 380 The Not-So-Clever Puppet

"ABC, is Flora awake now?"

Leona asked Abyss during the thought-sharing session.

“No, I stayed up with her until two or three in the morning last night. She just woke up and I persuaded her to go back to sleep. She'll probably be sleeping for a while longer.” Abyss’s reply came quickly.

"Huh? What were you doing staying up all night with her?" Leona immediately became alert.

"Chatting all night, huh? Weren't you guys planning to figure out how to deal with that evil god puppet before Flora gets up this morning? I deliberately kept Flora from sleeping properly yesterday and kept chatting with her. If she doesn't get enough sleep today, she might even have dark circles under her eyes," Abyss said innocently.

"Hmph, you're smart to know what's good for you."

It is now early morning of the second day, a little after six o'clock.

At this time, most people in the town were still resting, but the farmers in the surrounding villages had already gotten up. And the evil god puppet had also begun to move.

This is the perfect opportunity to get rid of him beforehand.

The area where this evil god puppet was active was not adjacent to the place where Abyss and his group planned to have a picnic today, but this guy was placed here by the Lord of Delusions. If left unchecked, it would definitely cause trouble, so eliminating this threat in advance was a very important measure.

"You should stay and rest with Flora. Let her get some rest. If she wakes up with dark circles under her eyes, we'll have to hold you responsible," Rebecca said with a smile. "Sophia will protect the two of you. We three will handle the problem with the evil god puppet."

Sophia's energetic voice came through the shared mind: "I'm all set. There's a breakfast stall at the hotel entrance; the food is really good. Shall I buy some for you?"

“It seems Sophia is doing well too. I’ll leave this operation to you.” Abyss finished speaking and then added, “Although the Lord of Carnival helped us locate the Evil God Puppet, we still know nothing about his abilities. You must be careful and make sure he doesn’t harm innocent civilians.”

"Of course, protecting innocent people is a knight's duty, so you can rest assured!" Leona said confidently.

……

Rebecca, Leona, and Agnes were already standing outside the village where the evil god puppet had been staying for the past few days.

They didn't need to sleep, so they left the hotel early and, based on Agnes's location of the plants, pinpointed the exact coordinates of the evil god puppet's current location, and went straight there.

"Phew... We know nothing about this guy's abilities right now, so we'll decide on the different battle plans we devised last night based on the actual situation." Rebecca composed herself slightly, then earnestly said to the two little ones beside her, "Anyway, three targets, understand?"

“Understood. First, deal with the evil god's puppet; second, don't alert others; third, protect innocent civilians,” Leona said.

“Understood.” Agnes nodded, though she seemed too lazy to repeat herself.

“Okay, let’s get started,” Rebecca said. “Let’s see if we can lead him somewhere else through communication.”

After finalizing their plan, the three headed into the village.

The villages surrounding Xianhu Town also produce flowers, and these agricultural products, which require care, naturally need farmers to get up early every morning to tend to them tirelessly. Although it's only a little past six o'clock now, many farmers have already been busy in the flower fields for a long time, and the villages have long since entered their daily work hours.

People came and went in the village, some carrying things, some pushing carts. Everyone looked at Rebecca and her friends with some curiosity—although they had changed into casual clothes this time, their appearances were still a bit strange. What were such pretty girls doing in such a small village?

The three of them had no time to respond to the villagers' surprised or envious gazes. They quickly found the evil god puppet, whose identity was a cloth merchant from the Eastern Empire, in a corner of the village.

Meanwhile, the evil god puppet seemed to have encountered some trouble.

"I told you, you're not allowed to live in my house anymore. Get out now, there's no room for negotiation!" A sharp voice rang out, sounding rather harsh to those who heard it.

"why?"

The response he received was a very hoarse voice, a hoarseness that was even more unpleasant to listen to than the previous shrill voice.

"Ever since you moved into my house, it's become incredibly damp for some reason—I don't know why, but it's definitely related to you! So get out of here right now! I'm not entertaining you anymore!"

The speaker was a small landlord in the village, a fierce-looking old man.

It seems that during the few days that the evil god puppet stayed here, this small landowner rented his house to him, his caravan, and his mercenaries.

“I have an eye ailment.” The Evil God Puppet was a burly man with a sinister face, and he answered calmly.

"What does this have to do with your eye disease! I'm saying you're destroying my house! Destroying my house! Do you understand?" the young landowner shouted. "If you continue to live here, my house will probably be corroded! My ceiling is damp, there's always a layer of water vapor on the walls, and there's even a layer of mud on the floor! Did you Eastern Empire people swim up from the swamp?"

The landlord's words were rather offensive, and the mercenaries from the Eastern Empire standing behind the evil god's puppet were somewhat dissatisfied, but no one spoke up—they couldn't deny that their group was fine when they moved into that big house, but it just got more and more damp, and they didn't know where the dampness came from.

"No."

"Who asked you if that was right or wrong!" The young landlord stomped his feet in anger.

Leona, watching the somewhat comical argument ahead, turned back and smiled at Rebecca, saying, "This guy doesn't seem very bright, maybe he'll be easier to handle?"

Rebecca shook her head and said, "No, we can't be sure how unintelligent he is yet—if he doesn't even have the ability to think, he's probably the biggest threat, because he'll faithfully follow the Lord of Delusions's instructions to launch attacks directly against us."

“Damp…” Agnes looked thoughtfully at a large house behind the people arguing on both sides.

This is a house that a small landowner usually leaves vacant, and it does indeed look damp now.

Agnes could sense that the humidity inside the house was significantly different from that outside, and even what the young landowner had just said wasn't an exaggeration—the humidity inside was really comparable to that of some swamps.

Is this evil god puppet's ability to make the air humid, or something deeper?

Chapter 381 Preparing to Take Action

"Alright, that's enough talk. So, what exactly are you planning to do by staying in our village like this?"

The evil god puppet's response was not convincing at all, and the small landowner certainly wouldn't let them continue living there.

"..." The evil god puppet remained silent.

"I really suspect you're spies from the Eastern Empire," the young landowner sneered. "Get out of here. You don't need to pay for the house repairs, but don't stay a minute longer, get out of here!"

The mercenaries, upon hearing the landlord's words, began to whisper among themselves.

They were just ordinary mercenaries. Their initial mission was to escort a caravan to the Western Empire for trade. However, after arriving in the Western Empire and conducting several transactions, the boss suddenly went crazy and insisted on staying in this village.

A mercenary mustered up the courage to ask the obviously mentally unstable boss why he was staying in the village, but all he could get out of his mouth was the sentence, "I want to make a name for myself."

What does "to make a name for oneself overnight" mean? If a businessman says this, perhaps he is waiting for some valuable business opportunity?

The mercenaries didn't understand business and couldn't ask many questions. Even speaking a single word to this boss was incredibly unpleasant—his very demeanor made them feel uncomfortable all over.

Moreover, after staying in the village with this boss for a while, they did discover something even stranger about him.

Wherever he had stayed, it would inexplicably become damp. These past few days, staying in the landlord's house in the village, everyone witnessed the process of that once dry house turning into a sauna.

Some people have already started to waver and want to leave this boss. They are all mercenaries, who don't value things like reputation, and as people engaged in a high-risk profession, they are very vigilant about danger.

"What should we do? I feel like this guy is a monster. Should we just run away?" someone whispered to their companion.

"But I can't bear to give up the reward of ten imperial coins a day."

The imperial currency of the Eastern Empire is slightly more valuable than that of the Western Empire, making this income quite tempting for mercenaries.

"Idiot, didn't we already get the same copy we got here? Besides, work is easy, but you only have one life. Based on my years of experience, this guy might be up to something, or maybe he really is a spy."

"Then... should we run?"

"Run! We have to run! Take the rest of us with us; we need to get back home as soon as possible. You know how the Western Empire deals with spies, right?"

The feud between the Western and Eastern Empires is common knowledge. If a spy is caught, it's virtually impossible for them to return home alive. Being imprisoned until death is considered a relatively good outcome; the unlucky ones might even be tortured to death.

"They seem to be discussing how to escape," Leona whispered to the other two, who had been eavesdropping. "Should we help them out? If they run away sooner, they shouldn't get caught in the crossfire when this evil god puppet causes trouble later, right?"

“Okay, then let’s get ready to make our move.” Rebecca nodded. “Now that their conversation is about to end, we need to find a way to distract this evil god puppet and give the mercenaries a chance to leave.”

The evil god puppet was currently having a nonsensical conversation with the landlord, unaware of the mercenaries behind him.

The mercenaries have collectively decided to leave; now they just need a chance to slip away.

"Leave this to me!" Leona patted her chest.

"Are you ever going to stop? If you can't come up with a good reason, then get out of here. I don't want you to stay, don't you know that?" The landlord was almost driven crazy by the obviously mentally unstable evil god puppet on the other side.

No matter what he said, the evil god puppet would always reply with nonsensical phrases like "I have an eye disease" or "I want to make a name for myself."

"I want to make a name for myself," said the evil god puppet.

"Get out! Get out!" The landlord stomped his feet in anger.

"I can't stand it anymore! How much longer are you going to bother this old man?!"

Just then, Leona's angry rebuke broke the deadlock between the two.

Everyone looked in Leona's direction.

The petite Leona stood with her hands on her hips at the front of the crowd of onlookers, her eyes sparkling, looking like a mischievous little girl who had run off to cause trouble.

"Who...who are you?" The landlord was completely confused.

"I'm just a passerby who couldn't stand by and watch," Leona said, pointing to herself with her thumb. "That red-eyed uncle is definitely a bad guy! He's bullying this old man! I'm going to chase this weird uncle away!"

"Huh?" The landlord frowned. He wasn't grateful to the little girl who suddenly appeared. He was, after all, a minor landlord in the village, and no one in the village could bully him yet. In his eyes, this Leona was nothing more than a brat with an excessive sense of justice.

"Young lady, that person isn't mentally sound. You should go back; it's dangerous," an older woman in the crowd advised.

Leona stubbornly shook her head: "No! This strange old man is a bad guy! I saw it yesterday, he gave a letter he wrote to a crow! Crows are the pets of bad mages! This strange old man must be a bad guy too!"

"Ah!?" The landlord was startled.

This little girl suddenly blurted out such a thing; maybe she really has seen it before?

The landlord had always suspected this red-eyed guy was up to something, given how strange he seemed. Now that Leona had mentioned it, he was even more suspicious that this odd fellow might be a spy from the Eastern Empire.

If this guy really is a spy, he'll be in big trouble if he lets him stay here. This landlord knows very well what the crime of harboring a spy is.

"Holy crap, he really is a spy?" The mercenaries behind him immediately erupted in an uproar.

The evil god puppet looked at Leona with suspicion. Of course, he hadn't given the letter he wrote to any raven; it was all Leona's slander.

"I quit! You're a treacherous guy!" At this moment, a mercenary shouted and left the group from the back.

With this mercenary taking the lead, the other mercenaries immediately abandoned their posts, turned around and left, creating chaos.

"Quickly call the town's guards!" The landlord was terrified. In this atmosphere, the guy opposite him was either a spy or a spy.