Chapter124

That night, in the middle of the night,

Elara was still half asleep when Uno gently picked her up from the bed. He wrapped her in a thin blanket so she wouldn't get chilled by the night wind, then carried her silently up to the rooftop of the inn. His low voice rang directly in her slowly waking mind.

"Your Highness, we've found all the hiding places of the Gu users. They've started to act."

Elara slowly woke up from the cold wind brushing her ears.

Forced to "work" in the middle of the night, her body was really weak and useless. She didn't even try to stand up and just wrapped the blanket tighter around herself, snuggled deeper into Uno's warm chest, and lazily opened her eyes to glance into the inn.

Along the second-floor corridor of the inn, rows of smiling waiters stood outside the windows where Elara and the others were staying. Like ghosts, their faces stuck to the paper windows, casting faint shadows on the dim surface.

They pressed their cheeks to the glass. Once they were sure the people inside were asleep, they carefully poked small holes in the corners of the windows with long thin smoking pipes. Then they pushed the pipe tips through the holes and took deep breaths to blow air into the rooms.

At the same time, a few small spiders crawled out from their arms that were holding the pipes. These spiders were horrifying, their swollen bellies stretching out and even showing half of a blood-colored worm sticking out from the back.

They were Gu bugs, half-parasitic in the spiders' bellies, crawling into the rooms.

Seeing such a disgusting and creepy scene in the middle of the night, Elara let out a quiet tsk.

It looked like the Gu users hiding in the town had really set their sights on them and wanted to turn them into "smiling face people" too.

She watched for a while, but she was honestly too sleepy. She turned her head back, buried herself deeper into Uno's broad chest, rubbed against it, and mumbled with her eyes half shut, "Do it."

Last night Oswyn had said that when the Gu users controlled their puppets, most of their minds would be occupied. That was the best time to catch them.

Uno felt her soft cheek brushing his chest and his breathing hitched slightly. His body tensed without thinking, but he forced himself to relax right away so the muscles wouldn't be too stiff and ruin her sleep.

"Yes."

With the guards from the Wei family and General Qi's men there, Elara leaned on Uno's chest, feeling relaxed and comfortable.

Soon, faint sounds of fighting came from inside the inn, but they didn't last long. The townsfolk under the Gu users' control were all just ordinary people. They had no martial arts and couldn't fight back.

After quietly taking care of the inn, the next step was to deal with the Gu users themselves.

The Puppet Cult was skilled at using Gu to control minds and bodies. They were good with poison, but had almost no martial arts strength.

So once their hiding spots were found by the Wei guards, the arrest ended quickly and efficiently.

There were eight Gu users in total. Their clothes and appearance were similar to what Elara had seen before in the Divine Doctor Valley.

Just as these Gu users were dragged out and forced to kneel on the street in front of the inn, Oswyn, who had been watching from the second-floor corridor, suddenly shouted,

"Knock them out!"

The guards under General Qi and the Wei family immediately moved to restrain the puppet-controlled people, but they were still a bit late.

Although the eight puppet hosts didn't communicate, they all seemed to act in sync at the same moment and bit their tongues to kill themselves.

Even though they were knocked unconscious before they could finish the act, the townspeople who had been standing still and motionless due to the control suddenly went wild and viciously charged at General Qi's men.

At the same time, from the surrounding forests, countless snakes, rats, birds, and beasts howled and charged toward the town in a frenzy.

There were already six or seven hundred people in the town, and now there were too many wild creatures to count.

With only a dozen people on Elara's side, they were truly surrounded and looked like they were in serious danger.

Elara was still being held by Uno, standing at the top of the tavern roof.

Looking down at the people about to be surrounded, she yawned, snuggled deeper into Uno's arms, and said tiredly,

"Tell General Qi not to wait. Try not to hurt the townspeople if possible."

"Yes."

Uno's arms gently tightened as he hugged her closer, using his tall and broad frame to block the cold wind coming from every direction.

His dark eyes looked down at General Qi and transmitted his voice using inner force.

General Qi looked up at them, then took out a small eye-shaped object from his pocket.

He lit it with a firestarter and sent it into the sky.

The moment it ignited, the three thousand elite soldiers who had been waiting outside the town rushed in at once.

In an instant, they surrounded the rampaging beasts and crazed townspeople from all sides.

"Knock them out! Just knock out the townspeople!"

Seeing the soldiers preparing to clear the area, Oswyn quickly shouted again, "They're only being controlled by the parasite inside the host who sensed danger and tried to protect itself! Just knock them out, I'll handle the rest!"

The chaos was quickly brought under control.

As night continued, the town of Anqu slowly quieted down. The elite soldiers cleared the beast corpses, and Oswyn worked non-stop to remove the parasites and treat the people.

Throughout it all, Elara remained in Uno's arms on the rooftop, watching everything unfold with her eyes half open.

Time passed slowly until the sky began to brighten.

After working almost the entire night, Oswyn finally cured the last infected person. His body, now without any inner strength, nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

Elara, who had been curled up in Uno's arms all night, was now barely awake.

She lifted her eyelids and glanced at the town below, which had started to return to normal.

She turned around in Uno's embrace and buried her face into his chest again, rubbing against him until she could barely keep her eyes open.

Then she squeezed his arm and murmured, "Carry me back to the room."

"Yes, Princess."

Back in the room, Elara washed up and finally felt fully awake.

She changed her clothes, pulled Uno to join her for breakfast, and while eating dessert afterward, she sat in her room thinking about everything that had happened in the town.

Half an hour later, there was a knock at the door.

Wearing a smile that looked forced and nearly on the verge of tears, the old man from yesterday was helped in by a servant who had brought sweets to Elara.

"Noble one!"

As soon as he saw Elara, the old man fell to his knees in tears.

The parasite in his body had only just been removed. His usual smile mixed with his grief and mourning turned his expression into something twisted and hard to describe.

Elara stepped forward to help him up. "Sir, there's no need to kneel."

After helping him, she sat down again and gestured for him to sit across from her.

But the old man shook his head and remained standing. He was the wealthiest man in Anqu Town, even more respected than the mayor, but now he stood before Elara carefully, with pain and gratitude on his face.

"You saved us. My family and this whole town are deeply grateful! That evil puppet cult has been here for more than half a month. When we tried to drive them out, they used sorcery to control most of the town's young women and wives. They were like puppets, and the cult treated their lives like animals, killing them at will!"

"Thankfully you came. If not, the whole town would've ended up dead under those wicked people's control!"

"Sob sob sob… and it was all my fault! It's my fault! I caused not only the loss of many families but also my two grandsons, especially the youngest one! They were all taken away by those people!"

Elara was just about to ask why he said it was his fault when the old man suddenly dropped to his knees again.

His white-haired face was filled with sorrow and desperation as he bowed again and again.

"Noble one! You saved us, and we are forever thankful. My family will do anything for you. Please, I beg you, can you also save my two grandsons and the young women from our town who were taken?

Without them, this town has no future, and my family line ends here. I, Anqu Shanlian, won't be able to face my ancestors in the afterlife!"

The old man, in his seventies or eighties with a head of white hair, cried in front of Elara with overwhelming sorrow.

Elara helped him up again and gave him a cup of tea.

After his emotions settled a bit, she looked at him and said,

"Sir, please don't panic. At least let me first understand what happened. Only then can I decide what to do."