Chapter 69: The last Den

Standing at the entrance of the salad shop, Weibai felt he should prepare his words for a moment.

After all, he remembered that before the Illusion Collapse, the Dream Demon lady had been shouting frantically, her emotions running high.

She had even seemed to be crying in panic.

After standing there thinking for a moment, Weibai organized his thoughts and pushed the door open to walk inside.

The layout was the same as the last time he visited, except there were even fewer people now.

It seemed only a few were sitting at the corner tables, eating salad.

“Hello, welcome—”

From behind the counter, a familiar voice began, but soon came to an abrupt halt.

“You again?”

Weibai saw Mei behind the counter shrink her head and fall silent.

He tentatively reached out a hand to greet her.

“Why are you so persistent?!”

The little Dream Demon shot Weibai a fierce glare, then raised her head with a sigh of annoyance and said weakly:

“What do you want this time? Eating anything?”

Looking at Mei, Weibai stared until she felt a bit creeped out.

Mei shivered involuntarily and immediately shifted her body to avoid his gaze.

“I’m not here to eat.”

Weibai stood in front of the counter, staring intently at her.

“If you’re not eating, what are you here for?! This is a salad shop! If you’re not eating, get out!”

Mei said rudely.

She didn’t want to spend even a second with this guy.

“Don’t get upset. I came to see how you’re doing.”

Weibai said.

He had specifically come this time to check if Mei had been affected by the Illusion Collapse and to ask a few questions.

“Oh, well, thanks to you.”

Mei rolled her eyes, shifted into a more languid sitting position, and practically lounged back in her chair.

Watching Mei stretch out freely, Weibai pulled up a chair and sat down in front of the counter.

“Hey! Why aren’t you leaving? Do you really plan to stay here?”

Seeing that Weibai wasn’t in a hurry to leave and even pulled up a chair to sit opposite her, Mei immediately grew annoyed.

This was her turf after all!

How could she let someone else take over the host’s role?

“I want to ask you a few questions.”

Weibai said honestly.

He was genuinely curious about Dream Demons.

Since it was rare to encounter one of their kind, he hoped to have a proper exchange and increase his understanding of this race.

But that wasn’t how Mei saw it.

She just felt that Weibai was buzzing around like a fly, irritating her.

“I have no obligation to answer!”

Mei said, climbed out from behind the counter, and shoved Weibai out the door.

“We’re closed for the day!”

With a loud slam, Weibai was locked outside.

“Wait a sec—”

Weibai wanted to say something else, but he didn’t know what to say that she would actually listen to.

After pondering at the door for a moment, Weibai chose to leave.

Since she wasn’t willing to see him, he would come back another day.

It wasn’t anything important anyway.

“Forget it. It’s about time. I’ll head to the Adventurers’ Guild and have a look.”

Weibai weaved through the crowd in Labia City and quickly walked toward the Adventurers’ Guild.

“Taolani, is this really the last Bandit Plague hideout?”

Rom looked at the cave in front of them and asked hesitantly.

“Yes.”

Taolani raised the Quest paper in her hand.

“This is the last target marked on the Quest.”

The group exchanged glances, hesitant at the deep, dark cave.

They felt like something was lurking deep inside, making the hairs stand up on the backs of their necks.

“Tch, so indecisive.”

Taolani gave Rom a dissatisfied glance, then strode into the cave without a care, leading the way.

Seeing Taolani take the lead, the others dared not lag behind and quickly followed.

The entrance of the cave was still somewhat bright, but the deeper they went, the narrower it became, making it feel cramped.

“Such a small place. Is this really the bandits’ last hideout?”

Rom looked into the depths of the cave, clearly unconvinced.

This place was so small; not even a few people could walk side by side.

Even Taolani, looking at the surrounding stone walls, showed a hint of doubt on her face.

Could the Quest map be wrong?

Taolani channeled a bit of Mana to probe the surroundings, and gradually, her expression grew more serious.

“What’s wrong? Did you find something?”

Jiu pulled her bow and walked over to Taolani, asking.

“It’s not that I found something, it’s more like I found nothing.”

Taolani said.

“I just used Detection Magic, and guess what?”

“Nothing at all.”

Taolani continued, then revealed an even more unsettling piece of news.

“My Detection Magic was blocked by the stone walls.”

“What?!”

The first to react was Jiu, who looked at Taolani in surprise.

The others also realized what that meant and their expressions turned strange.

Taolani was the most proficient in Magic among them.

If even she hit a wall, the rest were even less capable.

“Let’s leave for now.”

Jiu suggested.

For an unknown place like this, normal adventurers would temporarily retreat and come back only when they were fully confident.

“We don’t know the situation here yet. We can go out first and plan later.”

Upon hearing this, the others all nodded in agreement, deciding it was better to go back for now.

Since even Taolani’s Detection was blocked, it might mean this place wasn’t as simple as it seemed on the surface.

Taolani, however, was indifferent.

She actually wanted to stay a bit longer and investigate the cave’s secrets.

Since it could block her perception, that meant there was someone among the bandits with power comparable to hers.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t counter such Spells, but breaking them took time.

But seeing that her companions all suggested retreating, Taolani had no choice.

She nodded and followed them toward the cave entrance.

After walking only a couple of steps, Taolani suddenly stopped and looked thoughtfully in one direction.

“What’s wrong?”

Grey asked, puzzled.

They had already made a decision. What was Taolani up to now?

“There’s something.”

Taolani replied, then left the group and walked toward the direction she had been looking.

The others exchanged glances and had to follow.

Soon, Taolani stopped at a corner.

At her feet were a pile of ashes and two longswords.

“This is…”

Rom saw these items and fell into thought, quickly coming up with an answer.

“These are the weapons of the bandits? And this pile of powder is the trace of their campfire?”

“I think so.”

Taolani said, picking up one of the longswords from the ground and wiping off the dust.

The longsword looked heavily worn, with many nicks on the blade.

But what caught Taolani’s attention even more were two huge gaps in the middle of the blade.

“Such big gaps? How did they get used like that?”

Grey’s eyes fell on the sword, surprised.

“I don’t know, but it seems they went through an extremely tough battle.”

Taolani speculated, then tossed the broken sword back.

“I think we didn’t take a wrong turn. But for some reason, all the bandits have vanished and left this place.”

“Let’s keep going. We’ll head out first and gather information.”

Jiu said.

Taolani nodded and silently followed the others toward the exit.

But just as they were about to reach the cave entrance, something unexpected happened.