Chapter 158: Traces of the Cave Dwellers

In the largest passage of Cave No. 3, the Niu Ma Pu Jis were busily scattering spores.

Although letting the mycelial mat spread on its own was an option, Lin Jun clearly intended to speed up the progress.

This Huang Pishu possessed ability, but its heart was not united; every day it was plotting its own little schemes.

The passage wound and extended, its end connecting to a desolate cave.

Inside the cave there were only a few mosses and tiny insects; though the space was not small, it offered almost no cover, making it impossible to hide anything.

The only monsters were a type of sluggish giant snail, huddled in twos and threes within their shells, quietly adhering to the rock walls.

Compared to the snake cave that the Little Pig was currently assaulting, this place seemed far more desolate.

Moreover, no cave dwellers were seen.

Lin Jun did not immediately turn back to confront the Huang Pishu and demand accountability; instead, he had the Pu Jis search the area thoroughly, and indeed they found something—a set of footprints with three toes.

These matched the characteristics of the cave dwellers Lin Jun had encountered.

Unfortunately, this could only prove that cave dwellers had been here; it did not reveal where they came from.

Unlike the soft soil within the cave, the passages had been reinforced by earthworms, making it very difficult to leave traces.

And this cave, like most in the deep zone, connected to more than a dozen passages.

Lin Jun did not resort to any exhaustive search method; he currently had very few idle Pu Jis on hand. The Great Expedition was like a bottomless pit; no matter how many Pu Jis were thrown in, it was never enough.

Those footprints were relatively fresh, indicating that cave dwellers had passed through recently.

Lin Jun ordered some mimic Pu Jis to take the form of stones and wait for the rabbit by the stump.

They waited for two days; during this period, even one mimic Pu Ji was targeted by a giant snail that smelled it, and by the time Lin Jun noticed, half of it had already been eaten.

Fortunately, in the end, Lin Jun's wait was not in vain.

Seven cave dwellers carried a huge piece of curved tree bark, emerging from a passage with a relatively gentle slope.

Upon emerging, most of them immediately lay on the ground and began gathering moss to place onto the carried tree bark.

So that was it; eating moss did fit their image and status.

It was just... why was one still standing there, not working?

Only that standing cave dweller held a crude long spear; the other cave dwellers had empty hands.

A lookout?

Since cave dwellers could use simple tools, it seemed natural that they would divide labor and cooperate.

However, the one holding the spear did not give Lin Jun the feeling of a sentry.

It neither kept watch in all directions nor drove away the snails that came close and interfered with the cave dwellers gathering moss.

It simply hugged the long spear, leaned against the rock wall, and waited for the other cave dwellers to fill the tree bark with an attitude that Lin Jun considered extremely lazy.

A word spontaneously floated into Lin Jun's mind—overseer.

Mainly because its behavior fit this identity too well; the meaning of its existence seemed to be merely "being present," using oppression to drive the slave laborers to work while it itself needed to expend no physical labor. The long spear in its hand served a purpose of intimidating its own kind far greater than defending against external enemies.

And the scene that unfolded next almost confirmed this guess for Lin Jun.

While one slave laborer was vigorously scraping a large patch of thick moss, its movements were slightly too large, and it accidentally flung a piece of moss with wet mud out, which happened to splash onto the foot-claws of the "overseer" leaning against the rock wall.

"Siga!" A sharp, grating hiss suddenly erupted from the overseer's mouth, carrying obvious rage.

It did not even wipe the mud from its foot-claws; instead, it stepped forward violently, and the long spear in its hand, cutting through the wind, thrust fiercely at the slave laborer who had raised its head in terror!

The target was not a vital point, but the slave laborer's tail.

"Puchi!" The stone spear tip penetrated the slave laborer's tail with slight resistance; obviously, even this crude weapon was barely usable even when used against its own kind.

The slave laborer let out a cry of pain, clutched its injured tail, curled up on the ground, and emitted fearful whimpers.

The movements of the other slave laborers instantly froze; they all lowered their bodies, trembling, not daring to even breathe heavily.

The overseer seemed very satisfied with this effect. It casually rubbed the blood-stained spear tip on the moss, paid no further attention to the injured slave laborer, and simply emitted a series of low, threatening sounds from its throat, as if warning everyone to continue working without stopping.

The injured slave laborer endured the pain, grabbed a handful of moss with trembling claws and pressed it onto the wound to stop the bleeding, then gritted its teeth and continued scraping moss, its movements far more cautious than before, filled with fear.

Seeing this, the "overseer" slowly paced back to the rock wall and resumed its leaning posture.

It simply did not know that a stone ten paces away was actually a mimic Pu Ji, and that some existence had watched its entire performance with great interest.

Indeed, with great interest.

A group of cave dwellers had actually developed a slave system!

Moreover, it was not a slave system maintained purely by individual violence; the gap between the overseer's and the slave laborers' panels was negligible; if these few slave laborers rushed at once, they could easily tear the overseer apart.

Yet, faced with the overseer's abuse, they dared not resist.

This indicated that the cave dwellers' slave system had already become a relatively complete social form.

They were clearly the same species; clearly there was little difference.

However, this was good news for Lin Jun.

Originally, he thought they were merely primitive beings; now it seemed their level of intelligence was even higher than he had expected.

He did not have the Pu Jis suddenly attack and seize these cave dwellers; instead, he quietly watched them fill the large tree bark with moss mixed with a little soil, and then, under the overseer's command, carry it back.

Meanwhile, a scout Pu Ji, under the control of 【Kin Manipulation】, followed them from a distance.

Although cave dwellers also possessed the skill 【Vibration Perception】, its level was only around LV3.

Lin Jun's detection skill level was higher than theirs, and his range was greater than theirs; tracking them was completely effortless.

The cave dwellers moved upward all the way, passing through several completely barren caves with no monsters; these must be "safe passages" explored by the cave dwellers.

However, Lin Jun always had a strange feeling...

When they arrived at a special cave, riddled with holes drilled by earthworms, Lin Jun understood the source of the strangeness—this was the place where he had fought the earthworms back then!

So this was not far from their hometown?

The cave dwellers actually lived right nearby?

Lin Jun had definitely never seen cave dwellers before; so it seemed the cave dwellers indeed arrived during that wave of the Demon Tide.

Watching several cave-dwellers climb a familiar tunnel, a guess surfaced in the mushroom cap.

No way...

Following the cave-dwellers, he walked along the familiar path and familiar tunnel.

After hours of trekking, the cave where the old mushroom garden lay finally appeared in his perception...

So, after he left, the cave-dwellers took over this place?

The scene before his eyes bore no resemblance whatsoever to the mushroom garden of his memory.

The tunnel entrance once guarded by the fighting Pujis was now completely sealed by a massive living giant tree.

The giant tree's thick, deep-brown main trunk, knotted like blood vessels, was driven deep into the rock.

On the side of the giant tree facing the tunnel, there was glaringly an irregular entrance crudely excavated, its edges bearing the marks of claws and gnawing, like an ugly scar.

Several cave-dwellers holding crude weapons guarded this entrance.

At this entrance, Lin Jun even discovered the traps they had set.

Several pits covered with vegetation; huge stones suspended by vines.

These traps were not overly concealed, probably because their usual enemies were unintelligent monsters they couldn't recognize.

The scene before him could well be described as a primitive, crude castle.

Clearly, it was no accident that these weak cave-dwellers could survive in the Deep Zone.

It's just... they seemed not to have cleared away the mushrooms originally growing here; through the living wood fortress, Lin Jun could sense a vast amount of mycelial mats, mushrooms, and even... Pujis?

(End of this chapter)