Chapter 133: 143 Advancement

"Come, Xiao Hei, eat some more."

Puji, each containing a core of strong acid, gathered around Xiao Hei, pushing themselves toward her so eagerly they were practically trying to crawl into her mouth.

Xiao Hei kept her mouth open, but a half-chewed Puji fell out and landed on the ground.

After a long while, Xiao Hei suddenly discarded the Puji in her hand, scrambled quickly up a mushroom tree using all four limbs, and hid on top of the mushroom cap.

The Puji couldn't reach Xiao Hei and could only mill about aimlessly under the mushroom tree.

Seeing this, Lin Jun could only let the Puji disperse.

It seemed Xiao Hei’s stomach wasn't infinite after all. Usually, watching her eat endlessly, one would think she could just keep going... well, she managed 16.

Of course, for a humanoid creature only 1.5 meters tall, being able to consume 16 half-human-sized Puji in a row showed a pretty impressive digestive capacity.

It wasn't until half a day later that Xiao Hei jumped down from the mushroom tree, refusing to eat any more acidic Puji and opting only for the mild-flavored, ordinary magic Puji.

The forced-production plan failed; they would have to stick to the normal two-day collection cycle.

Unfortunately, most of it was gaseous breath, and only a small half-bottle of concentrated acid could be collected.

Over the course of a week, they had only collected a little over one bottle, which Lin Jun divided into ten portions.

At the edge of the rift, the bat Puji flew down one by one.

On the bare rock wall, nutrient supply tubes woven from several mycelial threads pushed the fungal carpet to the edge of the mayfly habitat.

At this location, they wove a multi-level platform, much like a bird perch, where the bat Puji hung upside down one by one.

Seeing that the first batch of Puji was mostly in position, three faster Puji flew out.

Although they were all bat Puji, there were actually multiple varieties this time; it was a composite unit.

These three were speed-specialized, acting as bait Puji.

The three bait Puji flew down a distance and soon reached the edge of the mayflies' territory.

Below the rift, it was all mayflies, either in swarms or high-level individuals.

After scouting them one by one, Lin Jun chose this area, where the mayfly density was lower and their levels did not exceed lv50, making it relatively "simple" to conquer.

As soon as the three bait Puji appeared in the Thousand-Pivot Mayfly territory, seven mayflies immediately vibrated their wings and flew over from afar, dragging their segmented bodies.

Mayflies possessed [Vibration Sensing], so their detection range was quite large.

This allowed the bait Puji to lure the mayflies and retreat from a sufficient distance.

The Puji’s bodies were truly not suited for flight; even with [Acceleration lv6] added, they were no match for the Thousand-Pivot Mayflies, which were natural flying magical beasts.

Because they hadn't strayed too far, the three Puji quickly fluttered back to the mycelial platform.

When the seven mayflies caught up, they were greeted by a dense array of mushroom cannons hanging upside down on the mycelial rack.

The seven ordinary mayflies, all under lv30, were killed almost instantly by the mushroom cannons, their broken bodies falling straight into the bottomless abyss below.

It made Lin Jun feel terrible.

This was exactly why he hadn't planned to take the rift at the start!

Setting aside the difficulty of the conquest and the supply issues, once they were killed, the monster corpses couldn't be retrieved. There was zero profit; it was pure effort for no reward.

After finishing, the three bait Puji set off again.

A few minutes later, they brought another six mayflies into the trap.

However, this time, there was a big one at lv41.

It was larger than its peers and had more body segments.

After a round of mushroom cannon fire, the other mayflies fell, but it alone remained in the air, charging toward the position.

[Spit Arrow lv5]

A glob of black liquid shot onto its head; the sturdy shell was instantly corroded like brittle paper, and the venom dripped directly into its brain.

Within two seconds, this large mayfly fell just like its companions.

Xiao Hei’s venom was limited; it was best suited for precision-killing high-level units.

In reality, the simplest method would be to bring Xiao Hei down. Xiao Hei could fly, and taking out these Thousand-Pivot Mayflies likely wouldn't be too difficult. But the problem was, what lay below wasn't a fixed stratum with limited range, but a deep zone of unknown size.

Without a mycelial network, if Xiao Hei charged off and disappeared, Lin Jun had no confidence in finding her again.

To be safe, it was better to let the Puji suffer a bit.

As the outermost mayflies were lured away, the work of the bait Puji became increasingly dangerous.

Due to the increased distance, even as the Puji struggled to flutter back, the Thousand-Pivot Mayflies began to barely keep up with the bait Puji.

Seeing they were close, the bait Puji had no choice but to activate their backup skills.

[Wake Jet lv4]

Gas sprayed from beneath the Puji, and two of them suddenly surged upward, shaking off the mayflies a little.

But the other Puji lost control due to the jet propulsion, spinning wildly in the air like a leaking balloon, until it was skewered by a mayfly and sacrificed.

There was no helping that; the Puji’s self-control was just like that. As an emergency skill, a 60% survival rate was acceptable. Anyway, there were plenty of bait Puji...

As the mayflies below were cleared, the mycelium spread downward. After spreading about a hundred meters, it began to generate new mycelial platforms, advancing bit by bit.

Along the way, they also had to clear out all the silk webs laid by the Thousand-Pivot Mayflies.

For this, Lin Jun specifically molded a magic Puji to specialize in casting Fireball to burn the mayfly silk.

The next day, after advancing a thousand meters, Lin Jun encountered a fork.

The branching direction seemed to lead to another mayfly gathering spot. Lin Jun chose not to conquer it simultaneously, but instead stationed a batch of Puji there to guard the entrance.

He couldn't let stray mayflies cut off the fungal carpet in the rear.

By the fourth day, having advanced more than two thousand meters from the starting position, Lin Jun finally saw something different—a nest.

Attached beneath an inverted mountain peak, it was a giant cocoon woven from the silk spat by the Thousand-Pivot Mayflies.

He could see some mayflies entering and exiting several holes, carrying prey from below.

Setting the nest aside for a moment, seeing the mayflies carrying prey meant they were likely not far from the ground, which cheered Lin Jun up quite a bit.

The last few days of profitless fighting had almost made him sick, and from time to time, they would encounter a collective charge of mayflies, causing significant losses to the Puji.

Fortunately, there were plenty of backup Puji, so these losses didn't delay the advance.

Looking at the nest below, Lin Jun controlled the winged magic Puji to fly up and hand-craft a large fireball.

Previously, the silk had been burned strand by strand; burning this silk, which had been gathered into a nest, would certainly be much more satisfying.

The fireball smashed into it, igniting a patch of insect silk and spreading rapidly.

In less than a few minutes, the entire nest became a burning fireball.

Many Thousand-Pivot Mayflies shrieked as they crawled out from inside, and those that flew upward were blasted down by the mushroom cannon array Lin Jun had prepared in advance.

In that case, this passage could be considered conquered, right?

After this, there would only be a little bit of cleanup work...

The insect silk of the nest soon burned away, revealing a giant insect body coiled at the base of the inverted mountain peak.

[Race: Thousand-Pivot Mayfly]

[Level: lv65]

[Fixed Status: Cocooning, Stiffened]

Not long after Lin Jun opened the panel, that last fixed status disappeared right before his eyes.

The giant insect began to move its body, which hadn't moved for a long time, and red light reflected off its semi-circular insect eyes.

Although the Thousand-Pivot Mayfly had no pupils, Lin Jun felt its gaze was already locked onto the Puji.

So... what the hell kind of ecology is this?