Deep within the Puchi Dungeon, the cavern passages twisted and extended.
Two rows of fluorescent mushrooms growing on the rock walls emitted faint blue and pale green light, providing dim illumination for this passage.
However, the cavern at the end of the passage was pitch black. The airflow passing through from there seemed mixed with some almost imperceptible groans.
Footsteps sounded, and Norris walked out from the darkness. He tightly squeezed a can of freshly squeezed "Blood Jade Wine" in his hand.
Recalling the scene he had hastily glimpsed in the dark cavern just now, he still felt a chill run down his spine.
Being a bad guy in the Boss's territory had consequences that were truly too severe.
Passing by Ming's arena, Ming, who was covered in blood and still in battle, enthusiastically greeted Norris, this senior. Then in the next moment, he was hit by a huge fireball spell, and angry roars of battle and dying wails immediately came out from the stirred-up dust.
Returning all the way to the Mushroom Fortress, he familiarly pushed open an inconspicuous wooden door of a rest room in the government affairs center area.
"Blood Sister, brought you something to eat." He tried to make his voice sound relaxed.
He still clearly remembered a few days ago when the Boss suddenly called him over, only to see Louisa collapsed in a pool of blood. It startled him, making him think he was called over to collect her corpse.
Learning the details slightly afterward, he could only sigh inwardly that this method of vampires enhancing their power came at a truly tragic cost.
On the bed in the rest room, Louisa lay with her eyes closed.
Norris tried calling her twice. Seeing Louisa had no reaction, he could only sit aside.
After waiting for quite a while, Norris stretched out a finger somewhat curiously and tugged at the corner of Louisa's mouth, revealing the scarlet fangs unique to vampires.
Although he had his blood sucked a few times, this was his first opportunity to observe vampire fangs like this.
Then he saw Louisa's pair of scarlet eyes staring at him.
Norris shivered and retracted his hand, lifting the can in his hand with an embarrassed face.
Louisa didn't say anything, not even moving her body a bit.
But it wasn't that she didn't want to, but that she couldn't.
The Blood Snatching Ritual indeed succeeded by relying on the Water of Life's almost abnormal recovery ability, but the aftereffects were also not small.
During the last ritual, she successfully snatched the target's power, and the moment the ritual was completed, she leveled up consecutively by several levels.
But this time, the massive blood essence within Cassinar's body had most of its energy consumed in mutual confrontation and attrition.
The ritual only barely broke through the inherent upper limit of her bloodline power for her; it failed to directly bring a leap in level.
Not only that.
Although the Water of Life repaired the terrifying physical trauma caused by the confrontation, and that foreign power of blood was forcibly suppressed into her body by the ritual, the essential confrontation between the two powers had not stopped. It just lowered in intensity to a degree that wouldn't make her explode and die again.
This led to Louisa's current state being nearly paralyzed. Except for her head, her whole body was immobile due to continuous internal friction and needed someone to take care of her.
This job was naturally assigned by Lin Jun to Norris, who had a fairly good relationship with her.
Fortunately, Little Pig's consciousness was still considered clear and could continue to help Lin Jun command the entanglement with the Empire.
In fact, Lin Jun, adhering to the mushroom persona of "showing sympathy to subordinates," had actively proposed letting Louisa rest quietly first and wait until she recovered completely.
However, after seeing the battle damage data the Boss produced during the day she was unconscious, Little Pig still insisted on resuming command authority.
Not paying attention to Norris immediately just now was because she was in the middle of commanding a small-scale battle.
"Come, Blood Sister." Norris skillfully inserted a hollow thin tube into the seal of the Blood Jade Wine can, carefully offering the other end of the tube to Louisa's lips.
Regarding taking care of Louisa, Norris wasn't the least bit reluctant.
In the Mushroom Garden, the only ones who wouldn't deliberately trick him were Senior Dylan and Louisa.
Louisa didn't suck immediately, but slightly rolled her eyes, looking toward that window of the rest room.
"What is that?" Louisa asked.
Outside the window, a brand-new towering building was rising from the ground.
That was a project that had already started before Louisa woke up. From the angle she lay, she could just see the busy figures of Puchis and Mushroom Citizens.
In just a few days, the building seemed about to be completed.
What confused Louisa was that this building located in the core area of the Mushroom Fortress had an unusually concise structure, almost devoid of any complex structures, and its exterior only had some basic stabilization runes engraved.
The construction speed being so fast was largely due precisely to this extremely minimalist design.
But in such an important central location, building such an ordinary building, what on earth was it used for?
Louisa hadn't figured out this question after thinking about it for two days, and finally couldn't help but ask today.
"That," Norris looked in the direction of her gaze. "Heard from Xinghuo, it's a clock tower. The Boss personally gave the order, requesting rushed construction. Seems it will formally operate for the first time tomorrow at noon."
"Clock tower?" A trace of puzzlement flashed in Louisa's scarlet pupils.
...
The next day, when Norris stepped into the rest room carrying the blood can again, that clock tower outside the window had already been completed.
The grayish-white tower body formed a subtle contrast with other buildings of the Mushroom Fortress. At the top of the tower, a huge clock face was already in place, its hands reflecting light under the pre-noon sun.
Quite a few citizens of the Mushroom Fortress gathered over to see the novelty.
Mushroom Citizens of tribal origin mostly looked up, their faces carrying novelty. Many of them had never seen a clock tower in their entire lives.
And those Mushroom Citizens who were once Empire slaves whispered among themselves in the mycelial network, guessing whether this clock tower appearing in the Northern Territory would have any difference from those clock towers in the Empire.
Norris offered the straw to Louisa's mouth again. She slowly sipped the [Deliciousness LV10] Blood Jade Wine, but her gaze was firmly locked on the clock tower outside the window.
At noon, on the clock tower, the heavy metal minute hand and the thicker, shorter hour hand, under the gazes of countless eyes, slowly overlapped on the twelve o'clock mark.
Click.
A crisp sound came from inside the towering clock tower.
Immediately after, at the tower body position corresponding to the twelve o'clock mark, a hidden compartment slid inward, revealing a square hole about half a person's size. The midday sunlight shone into that dark hole.
"Urgh... Hah... Oh oh oh oh!"
A groan mixed with pain and enjoyment abruptly burst out from the hole!
That sound, amplified through the special structure inside the clock tower, carrying a buzzing echo, instantly spread throughout the entire central square of the Mushroom Fortress.
This sound, to the Mushroom Fortress citizens gathered below, was simply familiar beyond familiar!
That was the voice of that initial vampire outside the gate.
"I was wondering why the Screaming Gate over there was so quiet today; turns out he moved here!"
The Mushroom Citizens below quietly burst into enthusiastic exchanges in the mycelial network.
That painful yet enjoying cry, accompanied by the continuous irradiation of the sunlight, echoed for a full minute.
When the minute hand finally slowly moved away, the hidden compartment on the tower body slid back to its original position with a swish, sealing off the sunlight along with the tragic screams. Outside the clock tower instantly returned to quiet.
The Mushroom Citizens discussed with lingering interest. A portion of Mushroom Citizens with free time didn't leave immediately, but continued to stop and look up with some expectation.
One o'clock in the afternoon.
Clack.
The hidden compartment corresponding to the one o'clock mark sprang open.
"No! Spare... Hah ah ah ah!" Another completely different, more hoarse and sharp vampire howl sounded punctually.
Lin Jun had carefully selected vampires with different timbres, volumes, and even screaming rhythms, arranging them in the corresponding hour grid positions.
This newly completed clock tower was a solar-powered "Screaming Clock" with a built-in punctual time-reporting function.
Although initially wanting to train [Sunlight Resistance], seeing that the Screaming Gate vampires had already become the spiritual sustenance of the Mushroom Citizens, Lin Jun couldn't just cut it across the board either.
Like this now, it wouldn't disturb the residents, and it preserved the Mushroom Fortress characteristics. Pretty good.
As for the other unselected vampires... they were all skewered in places far away from the Mushroom Fortress, continuing to work hard every day to advance their [Sunlight Resistance] training progress.
(End of Chapter)
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