The scout puffshroom quietly retreated without alerting the cave dwellers.
Now that he knew the location of their nest, Lin Jun wasn't worried about them escaping. Since this scout puffshroom was controlled through [Familiar Manipulation], it couldn't directly connect to the mycelial network that might or might not still exist over there. Lin Jun still planned to first spread the fungal carpet over.
Even the frontline offensive could be temporarily postponed.
......
"What? Retreat!?"
Louisa, who had just used a blood spike to blast apart a snake head, could hardly believe the command she'd received.
This snake den was filled with numerous snake monsters, but the terrain was narrow and complex, preventing the puffshroom army from utilizing their most skilled long-range suppressive fire.
In the snake den, almost every bit of progress came at the cost of puffshroom sacrifices.
Combined with the expedition force already being reduced by half, their advance was extremely slow. But by now, they were nearly at the creatures' core area.
"Boss, we're almost at their nest! Once we eliminate the young snakes in the nest, they won't be able to reinforce anymore. Retreating now would mean giving up all the territory we've already occupied—these past few days would be wasted!"
It wasn't that Louisa felt particularly loyal to the mushroom garden. Those young snakes—if she could extract the blood essence from each one, they'd make quite a decent delicacy.
"How much longer would it take?"
"Just two more days would be enough!"
"Too long. The situation here is more important." After saying this, Lin Jun shifted his attention away.
Louisa frowned, reaching out to grab a venomous snake that had just emerged from a small hole, crushing it viciously.
She looked ahead reluctantly at the branching snake den, then turned and withdrew—the boss's orders were absolute.
......
Compared to being able to fight magical beasts and occasionally drink fresh blood during the great expedition, the work of spreading fungal carpet to the cave dwellers' homeland was much more boring.
Since they were following the "safe passage" discovered by the cave dwellers, enemies were quite scarce—mostly just some wandering, isolated magical beasts.
So throughout the journey, Louisa appeared listless.
Although she still had stored blood packs, they weren't fresh enough... not potent enough...
After feasting for so many days, Louisa was once again unable to accept day-old blood.
The food was secondary—the key issue was that the Sacred Tome was also on this mission...
Though she consistently addressed it as "Sacred Tome," Louisa's understanding of the Sacred Tome came entirely from missions.
But from the obviously well-informed demons' deeply cautious attitude toward the Sacred Tome, it wasn't hard to see that everyone deeply feared this evil book.
The boss actually let a tailless lizardman casually carry this book around—how dangerous!
In Louisa's view, this Sacred Tome should be sealed away. More extremely, throwing it into one of the commonly seen rifts in this area wouldn't be unreasonable either.
Working alongside the Sacred Tome?
It truly made her uneasy.
Louisa was wary of the Sacred Tome, and the Sacred Tome didn't like her either.
[Little Norris, don't stand so close to this female troll]
[Be careful she doesn't suddenly go into a frenzy and drain you dry]
[When that happens, I, just one book, can't save you]
"Senior... if you don't intervene, she shouldn't go into a frenzy, right..."
Having spent so much time together, Norris had some understanding of the yellow book's conventional methods.
Unexpectedly, the yellow book suddenly became aggrieved.
[How can I still influence her?]
[Look at me, I've become so thin]
[I'm almost turning into a useless book]
[My life is so miserable, little Norris!]
Feeling the yellow book in his hands that had indeed become much lighter, Norris didn't know what to say.
The yellow book did seem quite pitiful, but it also seemed self-inflicted...
Watching his subordinates get along so harmoniously, Lin Jun felt deeply gratified.
Calling them all on this mission demonstrated Lin Jun's emphasis on the cave dwellers.
Louisa was for frontal assault, while the yellow book and Norris were responsible for capturing those cave dwellers who might escape through other passages.
Of course, violence wasn't necessarily required—if the cave dwellers could surrender readily, Lin Jun would be happy to save a step.
But Lin Jun also noticed that among his three subordinates, except for the honest child Norris, the other two weren't very enthusiastic about this mission. He still needed to offer some carrots.
So when they finally reached the vicinity of the old mushroom garden, sensing the still-active fungal carpet behind the living wood castle, Lin Jun made promises.
"Louisa, do this well and I'll let you drain a few dry."
"Yellow book, if you can guarantee no fish slip through the net, I can give you two cave dweller souls as well."
"!!!"
[!!!]
Blood power surged around Louisa as she began counting the elite puffshrooms under her control.
The yellow book's text appeared line by line, all teaching Norris what to do later.
Looking at his highly motivated team, Lin Jun suddenly felt his group's efficiency in utilizing enemies was quite high.
Let Louisa drain the blood, let the yellow book absorb the souls. Too bad Norris refused to eat humanoid cave dweller meat...
Agreeing to let the yellow book absorb two souls was also calculated.
The yellow book would replenish pages by consuming souls and lose souls by tearing pages.
After tearing so many last time, giving it two to replenish was harmless.
He still needed to give the yellow book some hope to prevent it from constantly trying to deceive Norris.
As for the potential threat from consuming too many souls?
Next time he caught it in the act, he'd just tear it again...
Why was Lin Jun willing to give up several precious cave dwellers for them to squander?
Lin Jun didn't know when the cave dwellers had occupied this place, but clearly when they arrived, the mushrooms in the old mushroom garden hadn't gone extinct.
The remaining mushrooms were preserved and even cultivated by the cave dwellers as a stable food source.
Now, when Lin Jun's fungal carpet approached, these mushrooms that originally belonged to Lin Jun's carpet naturally integrated into the mycelial network.
This also opened up Lin Jun's vision inside the living wood fortress.
Inside, Lin Jun discovered some cave dwellers who couldn't be put to use.
They were fat-headed and big-eared, broad and corpulent, raised like pigs—clearly unsuitable for labor.
To have them command puffshrooms, would he need to assign four specifically to carry them around?
Honestly, Lin Jun didn't quite understand.
Logically, with harsh conditions in the deep layers, even if cave dwellers had a slave system, the leaders shouldn't be eating so fat. They should at least have some strength to deal with challengers.
But the fact was, not only were there such fat ones, there were several of them. How strange.
But there was no point overthinking it. They were just snacks for Louisa and the yellow book anyway. Hopefully they wouldn't mind the excess fat.
......
When the Three Generals Under the Mushroom led the puffshroom army toward the cave dwellers' nest, they had long been prepared.
Actually, cave dwellers had come to scout when the fungal carpet was only half-spread, and were subsequently captured by Lin Jun.
As a tribe with some organization, when scouts didn't return, they naturally understood danger was approaching.
At this moment, the traps in the passages had doubled from what was seen before.
Groups of cave dwellers gripped spears or stones, densely packed inside and outside the living wood exit, holding their breath in wait.
However, when the puffshroom army appeared before them, the cave dwellers' formation immediately wavered—there were simply too many!
They couldn't perceive the depth of leader Louisa's strength, but the number of puffshrooms was clearly discernible.
Overseers used vines to whip those cave dwellers who were cowering backward, barely stopping the commotion, but their trembling hands and feet still exposed their inner fear.
Lin Jun wasn't a barbarian. Facing cave dwellers who were also an intelligent species, even if they were so ignorant, Lin Jun still chose courtesy before force.
The puffshroom ranks split to both sides, clearing a passage.
A cave dweller scout covered entirely in mushrooms walked out with stumbling steps, roaring toward the cave dweller formation.
The cave dwellers' language was crude and primitive. Despite this cave dweller's prolonged shouting, the meaning expressed was very brief—submit, or die!
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