What was this thing?
An incomplete corpse and a hammer head slid out from the torn-open belly of the clumsy beast.
The body had been severely dissolved by digestive fluids. Lin Jun could only make rough judgments based on the exposed skeletal frame.
Humanoid, with horns on its head, and the crystal in its chest was... embedded?
A puffshroom extracted the crystal from the corpse on the ground.
Unlike the crystal-clear transparency of magic crystals, this crystal had intricate, layered internal patterns. Unfortunately, it was already cracked, making it impossible to discern anything meaningful.
"This... is probably a demon descendant's demon core. It's very important to demon descendants, but for others... find a skilled craftsman, and with luck, you might be able to forge a skill accessory from it." Louisa, who had been summoned over, gave her assessment after examining it for a few moments.
"What are demon descendants?"
"A race that carves power into their flesh and blood," Louisa explained. "They hunt the strong, strip away their power, and etch it onto newborns' flesh in the form of 'demon patterns' to seize that strength. Their natural talents are also quite formidable—among the Empire's Twelve Pillars, one is composed of demon descendants."
She paused, her gaze falling once more on the gruesome remains, a barely perceptible sneer curling at the corner of her mouth: "However... since we encountered this in the far north, it's most likely one of those failures."
"Failures?"
Louisa snorted softly: "They lack the absolute power to make others obey them, yet refuse to bow their heads to the strong before them. In the end, they're nothing more than those who relied on His Maj— the Emperor's momentary mercy to barely survive, exiled to scrape for food in this land of ice and snow—what else would you call them but failures?"
"Oh! I've heard of a group of demons being driven north. So it was them! Looks like their living conditions are pretty harsh!"
"Initially, over ten demon races migrated north, forming dozens of tribes. But after several hundred years, most either disappeared in the ice and snow or gradually returned to the Empire. There shouldn't be many still stubbornly guarding a pile of ice blocks," Louisa lightly kicked the remains with her boot tip. "Anyway, when I was in the Empire, I hardly heard any news from the north."
"So you're saying," Lin Jun summarized, "these are humanoid creatures with war potential but no allegiance, and their numbers may not even be significant?"
Humanoid creatures?
Louisa found her boss's description somewhat odd, but still nodded.
Then, she added with scholarly precision: "Boss, strictly speaking, they still pledge loyalty to the Demon Lord."
"Didn't the Demon Lord die long ago?"
"There's no concrete evidence that the Demon Lord has already..."
Before Louisa could finish, Lin Jun said dismissively: "A Demon Lord who's been silent for three hundred years—what else could that be but dead? Even if not dead, it's probably no different from being dead! Masterless demon descendants... excellent! Excellent indeed!"
A puffshroom rubbed the broken demon core, carefully wiping away the blood and stomach acid, as if polishing some treasure.
Meanwhile, Norris and Little Black were also escorted by puffshrooms through the fissure into Mushroom Garden No. 3, where cleanup work had yet to be completed.
Little Black had barely touched the ground for two minutes before she tucked her tail tight and tried to burrow back, only to be reluctantly restrained by the puffshrooms.
Her [Cold Resistance] was also Level 7, which meant survival here was no problem, but she still felt somewhat cold.
Left with no choice, Lin Jun had to summon several burrowing puffshrooms to idle near Little Black, generating heat.
Little Black wasn't afraid of the heat either—she grabbed one scalding puffshroom in each claw, hugging them tightly, and only then let out a comfortable sigh.
As for Norris... a four-meter-tall Jida covered in hard plating also stood in Mushroom Garden No. 3.
Since the third round of enhancements had started before the decision to let them stay, there hadn't been time to install [Cold Resistance] for Norris, so he simply crouched inside the Jida and refused to come out.
Although the prototype Jida had performed poorly in testing—the combined entity's combat power was even less than the elite puffshrooms fighting separately—Norris had grown fond of the feeling of controlling the Jida.
Lin Jun's assessment of this was—good taste!
Since Norris's reward for training the cave dwellers hadn't been given yet, Lin Jun simply spent some time crafting a complete version of the Jida for Norris to pilot. After all, in combat, it would definitely be stronger than Norris himself.
Considering the environment of Kith's territory, this new batch of puffshrooms naturally came standard with [Cold Resistance LV7].
With Norris nestled in the sealed Jida cockpit, plus that warmth-generating ring, he could move freely in this area.
...
Although Kith no longer confronted Lin Jun directly, it engaged in plenty of small-scale harassment.
Taking advantage of its familiarity with the terrain to circle around and ambush the rear fungal carpet, destroying some tunnels and passages to create minor troubles for the puffshrooms.
But with insufficient raw power, no amount of small tricks could do more than slightly delay the fungal carpet's spread. Kith's living space was being gradually eroded every minute and second.
What Kith didn't know was that its concentrated harassment in one direction had actually exposed its intentions, leading Lin Jun to focus more forces in that direction and ultimately discover a passage leading to the castle above...
With his Jida, Norris volunteered for the scouting mission outside, and Little Black insisted on accompanying him.
Originally, Lin Jun wouldn't have been comfortable letting either of them go alone—one lacked strength, the other lacked brains—but since they were going together...
After teaching Norris a scale-plucking wish technique, he let them go.
As for the Yellow Book... it was still under a deep-zone puffshroom's bottom, unaware that Norris had completed his transformation.
---
*Thud—thud—*
*Scrape—scrape—*
Strange sounds echoed through the deep castle corridors, heavy like objects being hammered, mixed with harsh scraping noises.
Qiong's just-lifted foot instantly froze in place.
"Go!" Kith's voice appeared in Qiong's mind again.
But this time, Qiong clearly sensed its near-panicked urgency—what was Kith afraid of?
Seeing that Qiong still hadn't moved, Kith seemed to want to use its old trick of threatening with Shou, but at the end of the corridor, the source of the sound had already appeared first.
Around the corner, a towering figure over four meters tall stepped out! Its entire body was covered in thick plating, with what looked like a mushroom cap atop its head—utterly bizarre.
Behind it followed a creature less than half the giant's height, covered in thick black scales with wings on its back...
"A dragonkin!?"
Having grown up in the far north, Qiong could barely recognize Little Black's dragonkin identity through those distinctive features.
As for that bizarre plated giant and the two strange, buzzing, heat-generating creatures the dragonkin held in her arms, he had never seen their like.
Though unfamiliar, there was no doubt—none of these three creatures belonged to the Stone Castle dungeon!
"Hiss—"
The Kiths let out threatening growls.
But Qiong noticed this was completely different from their previous cold, silent hunting posture during combat.
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