A slight undulation ca from the soft mushroom bed beneath Norris, stirring him awake from his half-asleep state.
"Sorry, did I wake you?" Qiong carefully opened the door a crack, and seeing him awake, apologized with a hint of guilt.
"Ah... It’s fine, I probably should wake up by now." Norris rubbed his drowsy eyes and instinctively reached for the edge of the bed, searching for his tool used to file his nails, but found nothing.
He then rembered that the tool was still in his Mushroom House, which had been taken over by Xiao Hai, and he had chosen to temporarily stay in Qiong’s Mushroom House.
Outside the house, the drink barrels were already empty.
Half of the drink ended up in Xiao Hai’s belly, successfully appeasing her and allowing him to avoid a potential scale-pulling crisis.
The other half was shared with a few Demon Race friends, making for a pleasant atmosphere.
Norris stretched his slightly sore muscles from curling up and happened to see Louisa’s tall figure leisurely walking out of the passage leading to the dungeon.
There was a sar of fresh blood at the corner of her mouth, evidently just finished with her "breakfast."
Noticing Norris’s gaze, Louisa nonchalantly wiped the blood at the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand, then smiled at him, her teeth also stained with blood...
The sight didn’t scare Norris; instead, he naturally greeted her.
He had been bitten several tis himself and had grown accustod to it.
If he really had to choose between being bitten by Louisa and having scales pulled by Xiao Hai, he would choose the forr without hesitation.
The slight numbness when the vampire’s fangs pierce the skin, the unique feeling of blood being drawn out, when savored carefully, even carries a subtle, indescribable comfort.
Next to him, Qiong was controlling a Jida, loading various herbs into a wooden cart.
[Spiritual Integration] is the prerequisite skill needed to control Jida, and the leader has bestowed it to most of the Demon Race.
Unfortunately, the manifestation of the sa skill differs for everyone.
For soone like Norris, who can finely control multiple Pukis to perform different actions simultaneously, achieving the conditions to drive Jida, is quite rare.
Most people simply increased the maximum number of Pukis they could control, ranging from a few to dozens more.
Among them, Xing Huo’s talent was the most astonishing, as he could command over 150 Pukis at the sa ti!
Occasionally, they would encounter mbers of the Demon Race whose skills showed no change, and during those monts, the leader would always mumble sothing about a "wasted spirit root, unable to cultivate," leaving people bewildered.
After the herbs were loaded onto the cart, Qiong used resilient fungal threads to link several Cow and Horse Pukis to the cart.
Turning back to Norris, he said, "I’m heading to the tribe, you can sleep in my Mushroom House for the next few days."
At Norris’s request, the leader had regenerated another Mushroom House for him, but without accelerated growth, it would take about a week to mature, so in the anti, Norris had to continue borrowing.
However, Norris still wanted to go to a busier place.
"I’ll go there with you, at least I can help a bit!" Norris commanded his Jida closer to him.
...
In the last battle, the tribe was mostly destroyed, and the leader said it was all Gallon’s fault for not staying put and getting blown up.
Fortunately, they were prepared, so there were no casualties.
Considering that most of the Demon Race had already settled in the Mushroom Garden No. 3, Shou suggested that they should relocate the whole tribe into the Underground City, abandoning this area.
However, the leader vetoed this idea.
The leader’s intention was to transfer the cradle and the Demon Core to the safe Mushroom Garden, but not to abandon the original tribe’s location. Instead, it was to be transford into a front-line fortress.
The exact words were, "This way, we can increase the strategic depth!"
Norris didn’t understand what ’strategic depth’ ant, but most of the ti, the leader was right.
This ti, Qiong was also transporting so military supplies over.
Upon reaching the destination, the sight before Norris was almost unrecognizable. This was no longer a simple tribe, but had beco a budding fortress!
The simple walls built of ice blocks and logs were completely dismantled, replaced by thick stone walls made up of countless Heavy Armor Pukis.
The surface of the fortification was uneven, with the unique "lump-like" texture characteristic of Puki construction, not neat but extraordinarily sturdy.
Inside the fortress, the warehouse for storing supplies and the Mushroom House for rest have been prepared.
An underground passage connecting the fortress to the Underground City, allowing the Demon Race to pass quickly, is being excavated in overti.
Gallon, as a level sixty combat personnel, wouldn’t be an insignificant figure in any faction.
Especially not in the relatively rare Demon Race.
Revenge is definitely coming, it’s just a matter of ti.
The Demon Race who has joined the Mushroom Garden completely have no choice but to fight to the end, naturally investing all their efforts into battle preparation.
And the boss is busy setting up invisible self-destruct Puki around, saying more tunnels to the traps should be dug, seeming quite attentive about it.
However, Norris always feels, unlike the Demon Race’s worried mood, the boss seems quite expectant?
Perhaps it’s just an illusion.
Just as Norris was about to help transport the excavated rocks and ice, a commotion sounded not far away.
Two Demon Warriors ca pushing a figure bound tightly with fungal ropes, struggling constantly.
The figure was clad in thick animal hide, their exposed limbs covered in earth-colored scales, with a lizard-like head and tail—a Lizardman!
"Caught a sneaky peeper!" A Demon Warrior gave a vigorous shove, sending the Lizardman sprawling into the center of the crowd, stirring up dust.
The Lizardman grunts from the fall, struggling to get up, but is tightly bound by tough fungal ropes, helplessly coiling up on the ground, eyes sharply surveying the surrounding hostile Demon faces.
Hun walked over through the crowd, holding a pitch-black spear casually against the ground, yet it brought considerable pressure to the Lizardman.
"Na, tribe, purpose." Hun’s voice is deep, without any nonsense.
The Lizardman’s eyes rolled, forcing a stiff smile, revealing fine teeth: "Hey, brother, misunderstanding! I’m... I’m from the ’Earth Scale Tribe’, called Tock. Sent over just to say hello after so long, no malice!"
"Say hello?" Hun narrowed his eyes slightly, voice turning colder, "Hiding behind a snow hill three hundred ters away, using your Lizardman’s pitiful ’Thermographic Vision’ to peek for most of the morning? That’s how your Shuiyan Tribe ’say hello’?"
On the Fungal Mat, there are no secrets.
Tock’s clumsy lie was exposed on the spot.
"I... I..." He stamred, still trying to argue.
Poof!
Hun’s spear pierced through the outer thigh of Tock! The spear tip penetrated the scale armor and muscle, deeply embedded into the frozen earth below!
"Ah——!!!"
Tock’s body twisted frantically, the severe pain contorting the scales on his face, while blood gushed along the spear shaft, quickly dyeing the snow beneath him crimson.
Hun’s hand steadily gripped the spear shaft, not even a hint of trembling. He leaned in slightly, saying: "Last chance. Purpose. Or the next spear will pierce your lung."
Tock gasped heavily, tears and mucus streaming, voice distorted by pain and fear: "Don’t! Don’t kill ! I’ll say! It’s the Empire! The Empire sent us!"
The crowd stirred.
"The Empire promised us!" Tock shouted hoarsely, enduring the pain, "The Empire’s officials said... if we can get your Demon Race’s ’Demon Core’ and bring it back... we won’t have to be cannon fodder on the battlefield! The Shuiyan Tribe... the whole tribe, would directly receive the fertile river valleys of the south! No longer starving or freezing on the frozen soil!"
He suddenly glimpsed Norris’s distinctive silver scales in the crowd, as if grasping the last straw, eyes bursting with intense survival desire: "Lizardman?! No... Half-Lizardman? For... for the sake of sowhat being the sa clan! Please help speak to them! I really don’t want to provoke you! It’s all the Empire’s fault! Spare ! Spare !"
Norris gazed at the earth-colored Lizardman, the initial sympathy rapidly turning into coldness, if he were to issue the order, he would kill him now...
On the other side, Hun’s face was as dark as the lead clouds of the Far North. Although ntally prepared, the pressure still furrowed his brow as the Empire’s pawns appeared right before him.
Just about to beckon for the Lizardman to be taken down and imprisoned, several Puki suddenly erged from the Fungal Mat beside the Lizardman.
The Digestive Mucus splashed onto him, and after a brief wail, the Lizardman was lifeless.
The Fungal Mat quickly spread over the corpse, with deliberate acceleration, within re minutes, the Lizardman’s flesh was entirely decomposed, leaving only the skeleton and scales.
The Speech Puki climbed onto the empty shell, its frightening voice clearly transmitted to everyone present:
"Only sending a Lizardman Tribe over? Hehehe, gentlen, I love war!" The surrounding Pukis trembled in sync.
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