Under the dumbfounded gazes of the demons, the chubby puffshroom leisurely pulled out mushrooms by the handful from its belly, piling them up into a small mountain.
After unloading their cargo, the two puffshrooms didn't linger for even a moment, turning around and heading back toward the dungeon.
"Qiong..." Shou's voice carried strong confusion and a barely perceptible hint of wariness. "These... did you get all of these from the dungeon?"
"Shou," Qiong took a deep breath, avoiding the burning gazes of his surrounding clansmen, "let's go back and talk."
Shou nodded, instructing the clansmen to gather the mushrooms scattered on the snow, then walked back toward the tribe with Qiong.
Not far from the tribe, an invisible reconnaissance puffshroom hung upside down, monitoring every movement of the tribe.
After a period of observation, Lin Jun had already figured out this tribe's strength.
Only one and a half Diamond-rank, about ten Gold-rank, slightly more Silver-rank, with a total population under three hundred.
They posed absolutely no threat to him, but they seemed to have plans for migration.
Lin Jun had seriously considered exposing the rift and the Amethyst Dungeon on the other side to the demons.
The rift wasn't really much of a secret—humans had also discovered it, yet showed no desire whatsoever to explore it.
Lin Jun would only allow demons who had been parasitized to go to the other side, and he would try to avoid humans as much as possible.
The biggest uncertainty was probably this tribe's relationship with the Empire.
By all logic, there shouldn't be much of a relationship—if relations were good, they wouldn't have settled in such a desolate place. But a few days ago, Lin Jun had seen two Imperial demons visit, which made him uncertain again.
Originally, he had wanted Qiong to sleep in the mushroom house so he could extract all the information, but unfortunately, Qiong hadn't lain down on it, and it wasn't appropriate for Lin Jun to use force right now.
The worst-case scenario would probably be the demons figuring out the situation on the other side, then notifying the Empire, which would dispatch a unit to launch a surprise attack on the humans' rear.
It would be a surprise attack rather than a full army because of the harsh weather conditions—a large army coming over would probably freeze half to death...
In this worst-case scenario, Lin Jun would most likely enter the Empire's line of sight as well.
But Lin Jun wouldn't give the demons a chance to pass on information.
From the moment Qiong returned to the tribe, any demon heading south would be intercepted and killed by Lin Jun.
Without the fungal carpet, he couldn't deploy large forces, but using [Familiar Control] to command a small number of elites for short-range assassinations was still easy enough—worst case, he'd send out Little Black!
As for the entire tribe migrating south?
They were short on food, weren't they? Although the mushrooms he provided were plentiful, with just Shou and Qiong alone, there was no way they could earn enough food for an entire tribe.
If they wanted more mushrooms, they'd have to let some demons "voluntarily" accept fungal parasitism to gain employment qualifications.
And after parasitism, they'd essentially be half of Lin Jun's people!
When it came time to discuss migration, wouldn't they have to consider whether their condition was still suitable for leaving the fungal carpet?
Moreover, Lin Jun's grease worm breeding operation had already started. Raising and eating them simultaneously, it shouldn't be long before [Cold Resistance] reached level 8.
Once Lin Jun could spread out the fungal carpet, this demon tribe would completely become something in his palm, unable to stir up any trouble.
To increase the appeal of employment, Lin Jun had also added many good items to the exchange list, such as the limb regeneration that Qiong and Shou needed most!
Lin Jun didn't have this ability himself, but he could buy limb regeneration potions from the humans—just have Aiding run some errands.
Of course, based on the price, it would require quite a lot of contribution points.
The best scenario now would be to smoothly assimilate the entire tribe without using violence, with everyone happily coming to work under him.
As for the worst-case scenario...
The kind-hearted puffshroom didn't want to see such a scene!
...
The contribution point system was also something Lin Jun had carefully thought through. As the organization gradually grew larger, he couldn't be as casual as before.
To make most people willingly follow, visible and tangible "benefits," along with necessary constraints, were both indispensable.
Rewards couldn't be randomly bestowed on a whim either—unequal rewards and punishments could easily cause internal disputes.
As the organization grew larger, a clear and fair set of rules was indispensable.
Of course, it was still somewhat rough around the edges, with details needing constant refinement. When he had time later, he'd have the core members hold a meeting to brainstorm and improve it.
—
On the demon side, he still needed to wait for things to ferment internally. Lin Jun temporarily turned his attention back to the Amethyst Dungeon.
The pioneering force advancing toward the core had finally approached their destination!
The five-hundred puffshroom army hadn't encountered much resistance along the way—all the truly powerful monsters had been slain by the Sword Saint.
Lin Jun had even seen the corpse of a giant earthworm, severed into three sections, even larger than the one Lin Jun had killed!
Unfortunately, by the time the fungal carpet spread over, this earthworm had long been picked clean.
Due to the nourishment from its corpse, that area even had more monsters than other caverns, delaying the army for quite some time.
And now, Lin Jun had finally reached the core area!
Vastly different from natural caves, there was a massive platform paved with some kind of smooth, cold black stone.
An ancient instrument covered in thick dust sat on the platform.
And at the platform's far end stood a pitch-black gate, with two statues over ten meters tall flanking both sides of the gate.
No monsters approached this platform.
Continuing forward, the leading puffshroom soon encountered that familiar air wall.
[Native monsters, entry denied]
Ah~
That familiar notification full of discrimination and oppression!
It had been so long since encountering it!
[Hero, restrictions lifted]
Fortunately, it wasn't him being discriminated against!
The puffshrooms swaggered onto the platform, and even the fungal carpet began spreading upward.
After examining that old, broken instrument, he couldn't make heads or tails of it—it was a bit too complex for Lin Jun.
The core must be beyond that gate.
The yellow book had said it could clarify the specific problem just by going into the core to take a look.
But honestly, Lin Jun found it very difficult to trust it.
So before relying on it, Lin Jun still planned to go see for himself first.
A puffshroom walked along the platform toward the gate. When it crossed the midline, purple light blazed up in the hollow eye sockets of the two stone giant statues!
Accompanied by the thunderous sound of heavy stone grinding, they slowly stood up, their massive forms casting suffocating shadows!
How to put it... completely expected.
In front of such an important core gate, with such magnificent stone statue wonders standing guard, what other explanation could there be besides gatekeeping?!
He just didn't know if they'd show some consideration for the hero's sake...
Before the thought could finish!
One of the stone statues swung its arm in what seemed slow but was actually lightning-fast motion!
The massive stone staff in its hand, accompanied by the sharp whistle of tearing air, precisely swept across the position where that puffshroom stood.
How could a puffshroom withstand such an attack? It exploded on the spot into a large cloud of fungal threads.
That wasn't the end of it—the stone statue breathed out flames from its mouth, reducing all the fungal threads and spores to ashes before slowly returning to its original position.
Well, it seemed even being a hero wouldn't work...
Looking at the current forces on scene, he wondered if five hundred puffshrooms would be enough for this fight.
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