The mighty Marshal Pujis stood on top of Jida’s cap, one mycelium tendril proudly hoisting a strange giant mushroom that shimmered with a psychedelic rainbow glow. It looked suspicious in every way. He dangled it toward Norris in the cockpit and said:

“Here, Norris, open up. Ah—”

Norris looked up at the shadow cast by Marshal Pujis, his face full of resistance.

“Boss, can’t you… can’t you pick someone else to test it on?”

“Norris!” The boss put on an expression of being deeply offended. “What do you mean by that? Do you see me as someone who only plays tricks on you for fun?”

Though he knew nine times out of ten the anger was fake, Norris still immediately caved.

Resigned, he shut his eyes tight, tilted his head back in doomed acceptance, opened wide, and prepared to meet his unknown fate.

“That’s better.”

Marshal Pujis gave a squeeze with his tendril. At once, colorful juice burst forth, splattering messily all over Norris’ mouth and face.

Soon, Norris realized something was off. He even leaned forward of his own accord, trying to catch more of the dripping juice in his mouth.

The mushroom was quickly crushed flat, but Norris still greedily wiped the leftover juice from his face and licked it off his hand.

“Boss! What… what is this?”

He had never tasted anything so wonderfully delicious!

“Hmph!” Marshal Pujis stuffed the shriveled mushroom husk into Norris’ mouth. “The latest Delicious Juicy Mushroom! Take the rest and share with Gray.”

【Delicious LV8】 plus 【Juicy LV2】!

As for the dazzling rainbow glow, that was simply because Lin Jun thought something this powerful ought to look flashy.

This special “Delicious Juicy Mushroom” tasted exquisite even raw, and could also be squeezed to produce sweet nectar as a luxury drink!

The convenience made Lin Jun seriously consider monopolizing the technique and launching this dreamlike beverage exclusively through the House of Pujis for massive profit.

But then he thought of the trouble of coming up with a plausible cover story and temporarily dropped the idea.

A pity that he hadn’t managed to extract [Epidermal Penetration] from the Pale Pilgrimage fruit—otherwise his poisoning ability would have reached a whole new level.

Meanwhile, the situation in the depths of the Divine Tree Dungeon was grim.

If the elves could not come up with an effective countermeasure, the rich ecosystem built up over countless years risked catastrophic destruction.

For Lin Jun, this was hardly good news. In the short term he might harvest more monster corpses, but in the long run it would cripple the Dungeon’s “treasure trove” of sustainable output.

There was nothing for it—he could only hope the elves pulled their weight, while accelerating the spread of the Mycelium Carpet and excavation of network tunnels, striving to reclaim as much as possible before total ecological collapse.

This time, the real credit belonged to the half-demon leader. Lin Jun rewarded him with an entire barrel of mushroom juice, five thousand contribution points, and even approved a month of paid vacation.

At that moment, Bastaldos lounged leisurely in a chair outside his hut, sipping chilled mushroom juice like some retired cadre, watching the other captives toil.

The skill-bow temporarily lent to him, however, had been taken back by Lin Jun.

Not out of stinginess, but because Bastaldos’ archery skills were frankly mediocre—far below the bow’s original owner.

Now, it was time to return it to where it belonged!

“Lightbee…” The elven ranger Pelagel received his beloved bow back from Marshal Pujis’ tendrils, his fingers gently brushing the bow as he whispered its name.

Lin Jun only now realized the bow even had a name.

“Pelagel, I hope you turn over a new leaf and become a true mushroom!”

“Yes, Boss!” Pelagel snapped upright, eyes burning with near-fanatical fervor. “For the prosperity of the Mushroom Garden, I’ll give everything!”

【Status: Cognitive Replacement】

[Too evil.]

“Hm? Evil? What’s evil?” Norris, busy stuffing himself with Delicious Juicy Mushrooms alongside Gray, looked in confusion at the Yellow Book.

In just that short while, Gray had already devoured nearly half the stash, barely chewing at all.

[Do your best, junior!]

Norris blinked, completely failing to understand what the Yellow Book meant.

…

On Sigismund’s side, he could still rely on draining captives and using phantasmal potions to build defenses, barely withstanding Lin Jun’s mental assaults, and only suffering through two hours of tormenting connection each day.

But as a prisoner, the elven ranger Pelagel had nothing but his own willpower, exposed day and night to the ceaseless, invasive erosion.

Under such extreme conditions, his endurance was truly extraordinary.

Sadly, in the end, all that resilience was meaningless.

Through dream manipulation, Lin Jun had experimentally and gradually replaced Pelagel’s deep-rooted zeal for the Ark Organization with devotion to the Mushroom Garden.

He hadn’t expected to really create a “Cognitive Replacement” state.

Would this state shatter if family or friends called to him with heartfelt emotion and shared memories?

Perhaps. But for now, Pelagel had become the Mushroom Garden’s most loyal and fearless warrior!

Of course, such forced restructuring came with heavy side effects—namely, partial memory loss.

To make his new faith in the Mushroom Garden logically coherent, his brain naturally sealed away conflicting memories, leaving clear gaps and disarray.

Even so, Lin Jun still managed to dig useful intelligence from his fragmented recollections:

For instance, that the [Madness] ritual was essentially a form of Abyssal magic designed to pollute the Divine Tree Dungeon’s entire ecosystem and unleash massive chaos.

For instance, that [Madness] spread mainly through emotional resonance—frenzy in close combat made one highly susceptible, while calm, rational mages were the hardest to infect.

For instance, he revealed several names of Ark members—though, unfortunately, all unfamiliar and worthless to Lin Jun.

But Lin Jun was no ally of the elves. He had no intention of reporting to their leaders or meddling too deeply in their feud with the Ark.

Warning the elven squad ahead of time about [Madness] was already more than enough.

Compared to matters in Mordu, the elves’ problems simply weren’t as important.

Recently, the demon spy Clorro, recruited into the organization, brought new intel: he had received orders to confirm the whereabouts of Duke’s daughter Inanna and report at once.