Chapter 548 - 546: Opportunity

Knowing the thing was underground was one thing; figuring out how to get underground was what stumped Hilia.

She hadn’t found any traces of digging nearby.

Most of the land here was flat or gently sloping, with very few mountains, so there were basically no natural caves.

"Don’t tell me they dug a hole, stashed the goods, and then filled the hole back up?"

Hilia looked at the wooden hut between the three trees, deep in thought.

"Could it be that the cave entrance is inside that house?"

Hilia looked at Rose.

Rose smiled and nodded.

Confirming her guess.

Hilia: "..."

So she still had to go in and face those two guys?

Rose chuckled softly. "No rush. Wait for the right moment, then we go in."

"What moment?"

"The moment those two Tier Five Mages leave the house."

"All right then."

Hilia settled into stealth; fortunately, most of this area was perfect for covert operations.

As a Tier Four, unless it was a Mage of her tier or above, no matter how sharp their observation, they wouldn’t find her.

However, Hilia noticed another problem—

"Why are those two glued to the spot, just staying in the room all the time?"

Hilia was a bit dumbfounded.

If she remembered right, those two were adult men. Even though they wore black robes and she couldn’t see their faces clearly, she could be sure they weren’t in there spreading love and life.

Inside that house, aside from the two Tier Five Mages, there seemed to be several guards, all apparently Tier Four and above.

The defense was very tight.

Not a sliver of opportunity.

Hilia waited a long while before she couldn’t help looking at Rose. "Lord Rose, how much longer do we have to wait?"

Rose let out a light laugh. "What’s the hurry? The opening will come very soon."

"Okay then."

Hilia forced down the impatience and unease in her heart.

Inside someone else’s stronghold, she was under a lot of pressure, even with Rose around.

"While we’re waiting, take some time to feel out the Array of this base. Once you understand it, you won’t have to worry about invading similar Arrays in the future."

Hilia nodded. "Mm!"

Time slipped by silently.

The sky began to dim.

Just as Hilia was wondering whether to make a tactical retreat, Rose’s voice sounded: "The opening is here."

The girl’s spirits lifted, and she immediately felt a disturbance from the Array. Alarm bells sounded from one direction and swiftly spread through the entire cult base.

With the alarms, the whole camp flipped from calm to boiling in an instant.

A figure dashed over, and as the two Mages ran out, he shouted loudly, "My lords, enemy attack!"

One of the Tier Five Mages frowned. "What are you panicking for? Explain what’s going on."

The subordinate stammered in fear, "It’s the Bishop and City Lord of Dawn City, and some Mage we don’t recognize. They brought a whole lot of people, like they’re here to wipe out our entire base!"

The two Tier Five Mages met each other’s eyes, then shot into the sky, flying quickly toward where the alarms originated.

Hilia’s eyes lit up. "So this is the opening?"

So Dawn City really did send people, and it was the Bishop and City Lord, the main ones in charge.

That reliable, huh?

Hilia couldn’t help recalling the conversation she’d overheard between those two Tier Five cultists earlier, her expression turning odd.

They had just said Dawn City would never be able to find this place, and yet here they were already.

"But aside from the two Tier Five Mages, there are still several Tier Four guard Mages inside. I have to figure out a way to take them out."

Hilia carefully observed for a moment, and when the Tier Five Mages and the mass of cultists rushed off to repel the attack, she quietly approached the wooden hut.

Once she got close, she didn’t even need Rose’s help to sense the Tier Four Mages hidden in the hut.

She only had a vague sense of them, though, not their precise locations.

Just as she was about to do something to lure those Tier Four Mages out, she suddenly found their positions growing clear.

Hilia couldn’t help giving Rose a glance, and saw him wearing a smile, looking at her with a cheerful expression.

"Going in guns blazing, or trying to pick them off one by one?"

Hilia thought about it, then shook her head. "I don’t have the power to one-shot a same-tier Mage, unless I use a charged skill and catch them completely off guard."

After pondering for a bit, a thought suddenly flashed through Hilia’s mind.

"Maybe I can make use of the battle outside."

The base’s Array was extremely sturdy; even under bombardment from Tier Five Mages, it didn’t budge an inch.

Of course, that was because all the high-tier combat power of the base had rushed out to defend.

Hilia looked at the dazzling flashes of various Magic in the distance and felt them carefully. Before long, her eyes narrowed. "Now!"

A holy beam of light fired from one of the Mages outside. Hilia activated her Array permissions and, at the moment the beam appeared and was about to slam into the Array, she quietly opened a gap and let the beam slip into the base.

The beam carved a straight line and in an instant struck the wooden hut before her. The Tier Four guard Mages hidden within were immediately blasted flying.

Hilia sprang up, and before those Tier Four Mages could react, she rushed into the hut’s ruins, quickly found the entrance to a hidden passage buried in the wreckage, and dove in without hesitation.

...

Outside the base, Flora froze for a second, staring in surprise at the unexpected development.

"The Array broke? No, not broken—must’ve been some glitch in how it’s running."

Her eyes narrowed.

"In that case, let’s do it a few more times!"

While she attacked the Array, City Lord Bois and the Bishop were dueling the Tier Five cultists who had rushed out of the base.

The City Lord controlled a Magic Puppet which cooperated with him to block the Tier Five Mage. He laughed heartily. "I thought we were dealing with a couple of stray kittens at most. Didn’t expect such a nice surprise."

The Bishop was equally relaxed, pinning down the other Tier Five Mage and still having the leisure to chat with the City Lord. "Doesn’t feel like a coincidence. Judging from the ruined base we found earlier, someone might have been guiding us here from the shadows."

"No idea who it is, but it doesn’t matter. However you look at it, all the weirdness around here is tied to these damned cultists. Kill them all and you can’t go wrong!"

The two Tier Five cultists facing them exchanged a look, their eyes filled with doubt and alarm.

From that conversation, they realized this force had been able to pinpoint their location because someone had tipped them off.

A traitor?

The word flashed through both their minds, but they quickly denied it.

Because there was another possibility—

Some other power had set its sights on them!

And that mysterious power knew their location like the back of its hand!

"Damn it, don’t let us find out who it is!"

Both were furious, but there was a hint of dread in their eyes.

They were afraid of that mysterious power—or mysterious individual.

That mysterious power or person had not shown themselves; they had no idea where the enemy was, or whether they had already infiltrated.