Chapter 78: Chapter 78

“Works for us,” the Mountaineering Club and Huo Shaobai’s team nodded as well.

The other squads and solo players had no objections either. After all, they could barely handle the ghouls even when working together, and they needed Mu Ying’s help even more.

“With so many of us—basically most of the territory’s fighting strength—why don’t we form an alliance?” Huo Shaobai suggested, seizing the opportunity. “We can act independently most of the time, but when there’s a major threat or something that affects the whole territory, we unite.”

He’d always wanted to rally all the active forces in the territory to stand together against outside threats.

Mu Ying shot him a surprised look. Now that’s talent—official people really do think differently.

She didn’t mind either way.

She’d considered forming her own team or building a faction, but her personality wasn’t suited to dealing with all the interpersonal drama. She preferred focusing on her own cultivation and improvement.

Besides, with her own territory as a backup, the benefits of forming a faction were limited and would only take up her cultivation time—not to mention it would make it harder to keep some of her secrets.

Her identity as a lord wouldn’t stay hidden forever. There were already plenty of forum posts analyzing the territories, and not long ago, someone had even come forward claiming to be a lord, calling for others to join them.

It wouldn’t be long before people realized the difference between claimed and unclaimed territories, and the anomaly of Qingshan Village would be exposed.

People’s hearts are unpredictable, and relying on a faction for protection isn’t safe. The only thing she could truly rely on was her own strength.

Still, she wouldn’t allow any single faction in her territory to become too dominant, in case it threatened her.

But Huo Shaobai’s idea of a loose alliance wasn’t bad—some cohesion, but not too much power or restriction. She could get on board with that.

After thinking it over, she nodded. After all, the ghoul dungeon wouldn’t be the only situation where teamwork was needed. Having an organization was better than everyone going it alone.

The other teams thought it over and nodded as well.

After all, the alliance Huo Shaobai described wasn’t much different from how they were already teaming up to fight monsters. They didn’t even need a formal leader.

The only difference was that, when teamwork was required, they could use the alliance to coordinate strategies and keep each other accountable, ensuring everyone got their fair share from group activities.

Every team and individual would be both a manager and a participant in the alliance.

No matter their strength, influence, or whether they were a team or a lone wolf, everyone had the right to refuse alliance orders.

And so, the Green Mountain Alliance was born.

But aside from the name, not much changed. With the alliance in place, everyone felt more at ease about dividing up loot after battles and didn’t have to worry about being stabbed in the back.

Mu Ying’s life became easier too. When teams ran into monsters they couldn’t handle, they’d come to her for help, giving her more chances to practice without having to hunt for monsters herself.

She resumed her routine of planting trees and farming: collecting seeds from the forest each day, nurturing them in the nursery, and then transplanting them to the forest’s edge.

Whenever a ghoul appeared, she’d rush over with the help of the sparrows’ messages. With her movement skills, forest traversal, and enhanced attributes, she could travel through the woods at incredible speed.

The few people who’d tried to sneak into the dungeon for easy loot at the start never showed up again—almost certainly dead. After that, no one else tried their luck.

From then on, scouts from each team kept watch on the dungeon. Whenever something happened, they’d alert the whole alliance, and everyone would gather to hunt the ghouls together.

For the first four days, a few ghouls emerged each day, sometimes more, sometimes less, usually between dusk and midnight.

All these ghouls were taken down outside the dungeon. After harvesting their tongues and claws, the rest of the bodies were burned to prevent other ghouls from dragging them back to eat.

But starting two days ago, no more ghouls appeared.

They waited another two days, but still nothing. Many people grew impatient and wanted to go in and take a look.

Mu Ying held out for another day before deciding to enter the Ghoul dungeon with everyone else.

That was partly because the dungeon allowed free entry and exit. With so many people, even if there was danger, they wouldn’t all be wiped out at once.

She wanted to see what was going on inside—if they could fight, they would; if not, they’d come back later. Either way, they needed to know what they were dealing with.

Since ghouls were nocturnal, Mu Ying and the others chose to explore the dungeon at high noon.

But the moment they stepped through the dungeon gate, Mu Ying realized their plan was futile.

Inside, it was pitch black—not a single ray of light.

Before anyone could light a torch or cast a light spell, the chorus of howls and footsteps sent everyone scrambling back toward the dungeon entrance in panic.

There were far more ghouls than they’d expected.

Mu Ying saw clearly: in the darkness below, there were at least a dozen or twenty ghouls sniffing the air and looking their way—more than had ever emerged from the dungeon before.

And these ghouls were all noticeably bigger and stronger than the ones they’d fought outside; their levels must be higher too.

It was a sizable crypt. The dungeon gate was on a raised platform at one side of the main hall. In the very center, atop an opened bronze coffin, sat a creature even larger than the other ghouls.

Mu Ying took one last look at them, then stepped back out through the dungeon gate before the monsters could get close."

"After Mu Ying and the others ran a good distance away from the dungeon entrance, they finally breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that no ghouls were chasing after them.

But then, everyone was shocked by what Mu Ying said next.

“A level 5 demon ghost? Nearly twenty level 3 ghouls?”

Right now, any human who’d reached level 3 could make it into the top fifty of the rankings.

They all felt a lingering sense of fear—thank goodness they’d listened to Mu Ying’s warnings.

“With monsters at that level, it’ll probably be a while before they can leave the dungeon. We don’t need to worry for now,” Mu Ying said.

She had expected this outcome, which was why she’d repeatedly emphasized their escape plans. Even she was ready to run at the first sign of trouble.

Unfortunately, their lucrative business of collecting ghoul tongues and claws would have to be put on hold for now. The ghouls that could leave the dungeon had probably all succumbed to their hunger and been “fully utilized” by the team.

Seeing everyone lament the loss of another source of income, Mu Ying shook her head.

Humans really are terrifying creatures. Ever since they’d figured out a method for hunting ghouls, those monsters had gone from being terrifying threats to valuable, mobile resources in everyone’s eyes.

But their hopes of making money weren’t dashed just yet.

Mu Ying thought of something and, feeling a bit of anticipation, headed back toward the territory.

The team, pockets empty and faces full of disappointment, was stunned the moment they entered the territory.

Where did all these little mushroom people come from?

“Aren’t these...?” Myconids?

Lu You swallowed the rest of his words.

After losing track of the Myconid dungeon, they’d even started to suspect that the dungeon itself was constantly moving. Who would have thought they’d see these familiar mushroom folk right here in their own territory today?