Following Inanna's stiff dance steps swaying left and right like an ancient shaman, Puchi emerged from the creep beneath her feet at an incredible speed.
Fully grown Puchi would actively leave the creep that spawned them and begin wandering around the valley in their new environment. Most of the original Northern Territory soldiers just watched this unprecedented scene with amazement, discussing in low voices.
But those Puchi Handlers were practically dumbfounded!
As "professionals," how could they not know how long the Puchi birth cycle took? Even using corpses to fertilize and accelerate, it was absolutely impossible to reach this speed!
While everyone was still in a daze, the adjutant was first to snap back.
He joyfully began organizing personnel, guiding those newborn Puchi, attempting to establish mental connections with them and bring them under Puchi Handler command.
And Alama, taking all this in, had only one huge question mark circling in his mind: Was this reasonable?!
"Perhaps... a method similar to nature magic?" Lorenzo rubbed his chin, trying to find a plausible explanation from his knowledge base.
But the two exchanged glances, both still somewhat worried.
As dukes, they naturally knew some speculations about Puchi, but faced with demon pressure, these hidden dangers had been ignored.
However, allowing Inanna to keep a few Puchi as pets in the safe duke's manor, and this obviously eerie "spawning ritual" before them that seemed tightly connected to some unknown force, were completely two different severity levels of matters!
Alama grabbed Inanna's adjutant, lowered his voice, and pressed for what exactly was going on. However, the adjutant also looked completely bewildered and innocent.
"Probably... Miss Inanna's undiscovered 'talent'?" The adjutant scratched his head, guessing uncertainly.
"Talent?" Alama's brow furrowed even tighter.
"Before we came, we also didn't know the miss could command storm elemental spirits!" The adjutant tried to make his explanation more convincing. "These... these might all be talents Miss Inanna never had the chance to display before."
The adjutant felt that compared to commanding over a thousand storm elemental spirits, speeding up Puchi production a bit didn't seem too outrageous.
But after he finished speaking, Alama felt an even bigger headache: "Wait! You're saying those storm elemental spirits outside earlier weren't lured by your strategy, but were brought by Inanna?"
When they discovered the situation outside the valley, battle had already begun. They'd always thought this relief force used some clever stratagem to direct that region's disaster toward the demons. Turned out this was also his daughter's doing?!
He turned to look at Lorenzo: "Can Elemental Spirit's Favor achieve this extent?"
Lorenzo thought about it and shook his head.
This skill had historical records, but it didn't seem to mention being able to achieve this extent.
The adjutant wasn't clear about any Elemental Spirit's Favor. He just boldly stated his view: "My lord, forgive my bluntness! I believe these are all Miss Inanna's talents. Before, she was just... protected too well, without a stage to display them. She's actually a genius who can bring victory!"
Looking at the increasingly excited adjutant before him with shining eyes, Alama opened his mouth, momentarily unable to find words to describe his current complicated feelings.
As an observer, Lorenzo saw more clearly. He patted his old friend's tense shoulder and consoled: "Alright, Alama, this isn't a bad thing. At least right now it can increase our combat strength. I think this young fellow makes some sense. You really did keep grand-niece wrapped too tightly before, shutting her in the duke's manor all day. Look at my two brats at home—I threw them out to train long ago."
Alama: ...
...
Lin Jun was actually quite restrained already.
The batch continuously produced right now were just cannon fodder Puchi distributed to Puchi Handlers to replenish battle losses.
If he truly let loose, he could completely make Puchi bounce out in waves like dumplings being dropped in water—"pop pop pop."
To avoid scaring these provincials in the valley who hadn't seen the world, he deliberately lowered production efficiency and slowed the spawning rhythm.
Could only make Pink Puchi work harder dancing a bit longer.
Moreover, what Lin Jun did behind the scenes went far beyond just replenishing Puchi.
Thanks to accurate intelligence provided by agent Little West, he clearly knew that the demon army having just experienced a brutal battle needed rest, but Dragon's Roar Valley only had one day.
Tomorrow night, Sigmund would launch another attack. Looking at the valley's current defensive strength, it would probably be a difficult brutal battle then. Whether they could even hold was hard to say.
Therefore, just as everyone's attention was drawn to Inanna's peculiar dance and newborn Puchi, Lin Jun was driving mycelium at full force to spread underground and across the cliff faces.
Covering the entire valley interior might not have enough time, but merely covering the pass area's ground and rock walls on both sides was easy as pie for him.
Thus, in everyone's eyes, accompanying their pink-haired commander's tireless bouncing, the creep devoured the valley entrance's land and stone walls at a speed visible to the naked eye...
...
Three differently colored moons hung high in the night sky. Cold radiance fell on the re-equipped demon army's armor, reflecting glints of cold light. After a day's rest, this army had already recovered its edge. Just awaiting one command to launch the final fierce attack on Dragon's Roar Valley.
In the pre-battle atmosphere of slaughter, Sigmund stood before the formation and rarely initiated conversation with the roommate in his mind: "Speaking of which, you should have also been a Puchi Handler before, right?"
Unexpectedly, the roommate's reply carried an unprecedented sinister chill as if seeping from abyssal cracks: "You... want to investigate my origins?"
Sigmund paused briefly: "Just seeing those Puchi on yesterday's battlefield inevitably produced some associations."
"Little West, listen to my advice," the roommate's tone recovered somewhat to its usual manner. "My identity is a super, super big secret. Those who know it won't have good endings. You just need to know that now we share this body—we're already grasshoppers on the same rope. Though there are some minor frictions daily, at the root, I stand on your side."
"Heaven-sized secret..." Sigmund suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. In his view, this roommate was still afraid that after he traced his identity, he'd leverage previous relationships to control him. "What if I insist on investigating?"
"You will die." No anger, no threatening tone. Just three matter-of-fact words, yet they made Sigmund clearly perceive the roommate was serious.
"Even if it means mutual destruction?" He probed further.
The voice in his mind completely fell silent, no longer giving any response.
"I understand."
After the brief mental exchange ended, Sigmund raised his arm and waved: "All troops listen—enter the valley!"
Over ten minutes later, leading the vanguard troops, Sigmund saw a bizarre scene.
What should have been a valley entrance full of scattered rocks and defensive fortifications was now completely covered by a patch of creep. On the creep, clusters of luminous mushrooms grew like weeds. They emitted hazy various colored ghostly lights that intertwined with each other, illuminating the entire valley entrance like a dreamland.
The scene before him almost made Sigmund want to order a retreat to confirm whether he'd taken the wrong fork. However, Dragon's Roar Valley clearly had no forks.
It clearly wasn't like this a day ago?!
(End of Chapter)
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