On the vast ocean, a green mushroom cap drifted on the surface, rising and falling with the waves.
This mushroom cap was exceptionally large, with a radius of fully three meters, but the body beneath the cap was merely the size of an ordinary Puchi.
If there was anything else special about it, it was the unusually high number of tentacles—a full twelve of them, making it look like a jellyfish.
Suddenly, the mushroom cap began to contract, folding up like an umbrella, turning into a soft pendant, with only the tip exposing a sharp point.
Then, the folded mushroom cap shrank abruptly, the twelve tentacles gliding simultaneously, and the Puchi suddenly shot forward a great distance.
Repeating this over and over, it accelerated to its limit, like an arrow shuttling through the water, its speed far exceeding that of those sailing ships.
The next moment, the "arrow" struck its target.
In the empty water, a massive splatter of purple blood suddenly erupted, mixed with quite a bit of minced meat.
Immediately after, [Refraction Stealth] failed, and a sea bug nearly the size of a whale revealed itself, slowly sinking toward the ocean floor.
Having killed it in a single strike, Lin Jun didn't linger to fight. Instead, he controlled the Jellyfish Puchi to accelerate again, fleeing far into the distance.
This kind of whale bug was merely Keith's marine transport unit. Apart from its massive size, it possessed almost no combat capability of its own.
Lin Jun attacked it simply because it was the easiest point to break through on this side, while there were large numbers of combat-type Keiths in other directions.
Seeing that its encirclement and ambush had been seen through, Keith no longer hid its tracks. Large numbers of bugs swarmed in pursuit of the Jellyfish Puchi.
These bugs were all marine varieties of Keith, with a wide range of types.
There were sand bugs adept at digging and hiding in the seabed sand, fan bugs capable of using sonic attacks, and varieties with soft bodies and numerous joints adept at high-speed movement in water.
None of them could catch up to the Jellyfish Puchi.
Things that evolved naturally had a limit; how could they compare to the speed-specialized Puchi that Lin Jun had kneaded together by combining the strengths of hundreds of species!
Lin Jun sent out this reconnaissance-type Jellyfish Puchi mainly because he wanted to gather some information after learning there were still survivors on the Archipelago.
He didn't expect Keith to have grown so bold as to actually dare to proactively attack a Puchi.
These bugs were still too evil and warlike. This time, Lin Jun clearly hadn't provoked any incidents, merely diligently spreading Glowing Floating Mushrooms onto Keith's territory, yet it had actually proactively provoked the third great war!
Not only here with the Jellyfish Mushroom, but sporadic battles had also begun on the edges of the Glowing Floating Mushroom fungal mat.
To be precise, Keith had started fighting a guerrilla war.
It had small bugs swarm up, destroying and devouring the floating mushrooms.
Once they spotted combat Puchis swimming over, or if Puchis began to spawn on the floating mushroom fungal mat, they would swarm out of the fungal mat's range and hide far away in the deep sea.
It seemed the previous few battles had allowed Keith to roughly figure out the range within which Lin Jun could control large swarms of Puchis, and it also knew that the fungal mat was the foundation of the Puchis' combat.
In an environment like the ocean, where there was no terrain to speak of, trying to comprehensively protect every single floating mushroom was unrealistic.
Keith utilized exactly this point, continuously launching attacks from all directions.
And Lin Jun similarly began to employ countermeasures.
Lin Jun tried ambushing with Puchis, or spawning Puchis to a semi-complete state before they landed.
Unfortunately, the reconnaissance capabilities of Keith's eye-bugs were equally excellent, let alone the fact that they now had an additional fan bug capable of sonic detection.
Most of the ambushes were seen through, and the occasional ones that succeeded only caught small, under-equipped swarms of bugs; wiping them out couldn't be considered a major victory.
Afterward, Lin Jun poisoned the floating mushrooms. Hallucinogens, corrosives, neurotoxins—large numbers of small bugs would take two bites and die suddenly on the spot.
However, Keith quickly changed to having large bugs devour the floating mushrooms.
Their larger body sizes and formidable vitality allowed them to swim back to Keith's territory before dying, even while poisoned.
And for Keith, as long as the corpses could be recycled, it wasn't considered a loss.
Lin Jun then utilized the ability granted by the [Familiar Maker] title, air-dropping giant Puchis right on the spot.
This time, it truly dealt Keith a heavy blow to the head.
As soon as a giant Puchi spawned, it immediately churned the surrounding water currents. Massive numbers of bugs didn't even have the ability to swim out of the turbulent flow. Forced to counterattack, they found that the damage they caused wasn't even faster than the giant Puchi's regeneration.
In the end, only a small number of Keiths with the strongest swimming abilities, or relatively massive sizes, managed to escape. It could be said they suffered disastrous losses.
This made Keith quiet down for several days.
During these few days, the range of the floating mushrooms expanded further.
Moreover, as the area of the floating mushrooms increased, the excess mana produced by photosynthesis in the center was all directed to the edges by Lin Jun, making the fungal mat's expansion speed faster and faster.
And whenever the floating mushrooms expanded to an area, the Puchis would clear away the fleshy tumors left by Keith in the sea one by one.
For the sake of the homeland behind it, Keith had no choice but to bite the bullet and face them again.
Then it got violently beaten up by the air-dropped giant Puchis again.
However, this time, it didn't cease its activities. Instead, it tragically launched attacks on the floating mushrooms in other directions again.
Then it discovered—there was a time interval for air-dropping giant Puchis.
Soon, based on the intervals between the appearances of the giant Puchis, Keith had figured out that the cooldown period for this ability was roughly ten sunrises and sunsets.
Thus, the war turned into this: during the [Familiar Maker] cooldown period, large forces of Keith fiercely destroyed the floating mushrooms.
Once [Familiar Maker] was ready, Keith would switch back to small units, scattering to prevent the floating mushrooms from continuing to spread. Occasionally massing a slightly larger swarm of bugs was also for the purpose of baiting Lin Jun into using the skill.
All in all, under Keith's strenuous containment, the expansion progress of the glowing floating mushrooms on the sea fell into a dynamic stalemate.
However, the total area was still slowly increasing, just not as rapidly as initially.
Lin Jun wasn't too anxious about this.
Ultimately, what was clashing with Keith was only a portion of Lin Jun's power.
Once the battle in the north ended, Lin Jun would transfer a portion of his Puchi Masters over to coordinate with the naturalized Murlocs; this fragile balance would be broken.
At that time, if Keith had no other cards to play, it could just wait obediently to be decomposed!
Of course, although he wasn't anxious, it was truly annoying.
Right now, there were bugs absolutely everywhere in the sea; normal marine creatures were pitifully scarce.
Every time the Jellyfish Mushroom basked in the sun for a short while, it would be discovered and encircled by Keith again, resulting in the mana within the Jellyfish Mushroom never being fully replenished.
Fortunately, its endurance was long and its fault tolerance was high, which was why it hadn't been caught until now.
Over at the floating mushroom fungal mat, facing the giant Puchis that could be air-dropped, Keith was submissive and overly cautious.
But outside the fungal mat's range, facing the lone Jellyfish Puchi, Keith struck out with heavy punches, acting as if it wouldn't rest until it ate the Jellyfish Puchi.
Hilarious. As if it could actually catch me just by chasing like this.
Slow, stupid bugs.
Rumble—
A muffled sound suddenly came from beneath the water.
That sound was very deep, as deep as the heartbeat of the abyss. The Jellyfish Puchi maintained its high-speed swimming posture, its tentacles dragging long trails behind it, while Lin Jun's attention sank downward. There was a trench there. A dark, bottomless fissure stretched across the seabed, its rock walls so steep they were nearly vertical. Occasionally, bubbles rose from the depths, string after string, wobbling upwards, swelling larger and larger as they ascended, finally bursting a short distance below the Jellyfish Puchi, turning into expanding ripples.
An earthquake?
Lin Jun's thoughts spun rapidly.
Or an underwater volcanic eruption?
A second later, Lin Jun knew the answer.
A massive pillar suddenly rose from the depths of the trench!
That thing burst through the seawater, bringing up surging undercurrents and countless shattered bubbles, crashing straight toward the Jellyfish Puchi.
Its speed wasn't considered fast, but it was too big. So big that there was simply no room to dodge!
As the distance closed, the true appearance of that pillar was also revealed!
A massive tube, its inner walls densely packed with fine, sharp teeth. Those teeth were layered upon each other, slanting inward, every single one wriggling slightly, like countless hungry mouths.
It wasn't a pillar.
It was a mouth?
And on the status panel:
[Race: Keith Hive-Mind]
[Level: LV78]
[Skills: Leviathan, Mental Integration LV10... Mental Diffusion LV8, Mind-System Magic LV8...]
[Title: Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony (All Things are Food)]
The "pillar" enveloped the Jellyfish Puchi, then contracted inward!
Jellyfish Puchi—Killed in Action.
(End of Chapter)
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