Storm

"What exactly were you two doing?"

Little Pig crossed her arms, her scarlet eyes staring coldly at the two of them.

Ming and Norris knelt on the ground, their eyes staring at the floor, not daring to speak.

"I let you practice a bit and get used to the battlefield atmosphere, but look at you, charging directly into the enemy formation. Do you think you're not dying fast enough?"

"Especially you, Ming!"

Louisa's fingertip poked fiercely at the forehead of Ming, who had already fully recovered by relying on the Water of Life.

Feeling like she had poked a large iron gate, Louisa calmly retracted her finger and continued scolding.

"Disobeying commands and acting without authorization. Do you think the battlefield is your personal stage? Do you know that this time you not only made Norris suffer along with you, but also disrupted the delaying plan formulated by the Boss? Do you only know how to cause trouble for the Boss?"

Cause trouble for the Boss!

These words made Ming tremble visibly to the naked eye, bean-sized tears falling drop by drop.

Norris on the side looked at Ming's appearance, thought of the other party's age, and couldn't help but want to speak a few words for him.

However, just as he looked up, Louisa glared the words back into his throat: "And you! Why didn't you hold him back immediately? And why didn't you contact me the moment he disobeyed orders? Did you have to wait until you truly encountered danger to think of seeking rescue? Are you also just a few-year-old child?"

"I was wrong, I was wrong..."

[Hehehehe] On the side, the Yellow Codex, which had thinned by two layers, relished the emotions of the two with schadenfreude.

...

Ming not listening to Norris's command was just a minor problem.

Just give him a small punishment as a major warning later so he learns his lesson.

Lin Jun could even use Little Black; let alone Ming, who had normal intelligence and was cultivated since childhood.

However, he indeed disrupted Lin Jun's delaying plan this time.

With the main general dead and the right wing collapsed, the Empire army began to retreat.

The two Dukes would highly likely not take the Northern Territory lightly anymore like they did before.

But it probably wouldn't directly attract the Empire's attention. Ultimately, it was just two Northern Territory "experts" launching a surprise attack and killing a Palace-tier general. The situation was still within a controllable range.

Lin Jun was still very satisfied with the performance of the flying Puchi swarm this time.

In the past, although Puchis could fly, due to body shape issues, flying was quite strenuous and slow.

Grateful to that Red Dragon whose name he had already forgotten for bringing the precious skill [Flight Mastery] to the Puchis.

From now on, the sky will also belong to the Puchis!

On the other side, the Abyssal Laboratory had already begun operation.

Calling it operation, it was actually just Lin Jun entering the abyss every day to fish around here and catch things there, seeing what he could touch.

Following the records on the Book of Miracles, he indeed discovered a few rather useful abyssal magics. After becoming familiar with them, he could try using them.

Finally, there was the issue of faith in the Mushroom Fortress.

In this war, although almost everything was within Lin Jun's control, there were still casualties among the Mushroom Fortress soldiers.

A total of eighteen soldiers died from beginning to end.

Since they all died on the fungal mat, Lin Jun naturally tried to stuff them into Puchis.

But in the end, only three soldiers successfully transformed into Puchis. As for the souls of the other fifteen, although they had a little bit of adhesiveness, it was not enough to support them ascending to mushrooms.

This wouldn't do.

As his base camp, the conversion rate in the Mushroom Fortress couldn't be this low.

Ultimately, although they liked the life in the Mushroom Fortress, they lacked a clear faith.

Lin Jun had to figure out a way to increase propaganda and guidance in this aspect.

Fortunately, unlike other regions where he could only spread faith sneakily, the Mushroom Fortress was his base camp; Lin Jun could propagandize however he wanted.

Including these three soldiers who successfully reincarnated this time, they could also be openly brought out as demonstration cases.

Even the object of worship didn't have to be the somewhat ethereal "Mushroom Lord," but the tangibly existing Marshal Puchi.

In short, it was time to erect a handsome statue for the Marshal Puchi.

Coordinated with propaganda on faith. The propaganda needed a resounding name, let's call it... the Mushroom Garden Truth!

As for the specific content, this kind of clerical work could be handed over to Xinghuo to research!

...

Regarding the news brought by the routed army, Duke Eugene's first reaction was disbelief.

"Say that again."

That trusted aide of Renard was still wrapped in bloodstained bandages. The empty sleeve of his left arm hung by his side, and his face was covered in dirt and ash. Without the Water of Life, an ordinary person couldn't recover perfectly in a short time like Ming.

"The General... died in battle!" he said the news of the general's death again with grief.

"That bunch of tribesmen, how dare they? Weren't they pressing forward again just before? How did they turn around and get defeated and killed?" Shock, anger, incomprehension. Suddenly losing a capable subordinate, Eugene also felt extreme heartache.

The general's trusted aide spoke tremblingly, recounting the situation of that battle.

"Lord Duke, you must avenge the General!"

After listening, Eugene's expression had returned to normal.

He gave a hum, waved his hand, and had someone take this trusted aide of Renard down.

Eugene leaned back in his chair, beginning to reflect that he seemed to have somewhat underestimated this Mushroom Fortress.

Those two tribesmen who killed Renard weren't the most important part. The subordinate explained clearly just now: one was blasted half to death, the other was trapped, and both sides suffered heavily.

Ultimately, it was just a hard-fought battle at the Palace-tier level. The Empire didn't lack such people, and neither did he.

The key was that swarm of flying Puchis!

He had also collected a lot of relevant information on this new profession called Puchi Master recently.

It was similar to using contracts to control monsters for combat, just that replenishing them was more convenient.

But it also had its own flaws.

For example, everyone had a control limit, averaging around twenty.

Also, for monsters controlled by contracts, once an order was given, they would continue executing the order even if separated.

But Puchi Masters couldn't. Their range of controlling Puchis was locked within a thousand meters.

However, that swarm of flying Puchis, whether in quantity or distance, obviously didn't fit this description.

Then what did this signify behind the scenes?

Could it be that the development of Puchi Masters in the Northern Territory was even higher than in the United Kingdom where this profession first appeared?

This time was okay; it was just a setback. Although Renard was gone, the loss of the army itself was still within an acceptable range.

He didn't want to be like Sigmund, getting beaten up by Puchis and still recruiting troops and buying horses to recover his vitality even now.

After thinking about it, he contacted Duke Dean of the Demon-kin again to discuss the next joint operation.

And this time, he was going to go all out. He was even willing to pay some price to seek the help of other lords whose territories were not in the north.

After all, he didn't want to be constantly threatened by the tribesmen rising in the north in the future.

What surprised him somewhat was that Dean, who only had a small portion of his territory border in the north, gave an affirmative reply immediately after receiving the news, seemingly even more proactive than him.

What he didn't know was that Ming, whom he didn't care about, was exactly the reason Dean was so proactive.

Dean wanted to figure out whether Ming's performance surpassing [Physical Resistance] was due to his extraordinary natural talent, or if those Northern Territory Demon-kin had developed a stronger usage method for magic crests.

The former would be fine. Although geniuses were rare, they weren't that uncommon. Try to recruit him with threats and promises; if that failed, just nip the threat in the bud early.

But if it was the latter, that meant this was an opportunity to raise the overall strength of the Demon-kin once again. As the leader of the Empire's Demon-kin, how could he possibly let this possibility slip by!

...

A storm was brewing in the northern part of the Empire, while on the other side at the Mushroom Fortress, the Mushroom Citizens met the first batch of three "Ascended Mushrooms."

(End of Chapter)