After retracting its tentacle, the lighting Puchi obediently sat motionless on the ground.
After a while, Lin Jun transferred in a few more Puchis.
First, scout Puchis extended perception all around. Besides info cubes and treasure, nothing and no one else was detected.
To be safe, Lin Jun still spread his consciousness like ripples into the distant darkness:
“Lord God of Light, you there?”
“I didn’t mean to peek at your diary on purpose. I just fell in by accident.”
“Um… I also have a heart that pursues light…”
Long silence. No response.
Tch.
Only then did the Puchis start moving openly again.
Lin Jun re-read the [Final Experiment Record]. In a way, this was basically a doomsday prophecy, right?
Even an existence like the God of Light was praying to the “universe” for mercy.
Of course, whether it was really the God of Light was still questionable. Theoretically, anyone who knew how to make these info cubes could sign “Ixyon” at the end. The God of Light didn’t exactly have an unforgeable official seal…
Still, Lin Jun tentatively treated it as genuine records left by the God of Light.
Lately he kept hearing “the world is ending” talk. He was starting to get desensitized.
In the end, he was just a little mushroom struggling to survive under the Empire’s shadow. Even if he wanted to save the world, he had no idea where to start.
Hopefully an ultimate existence like the God of Light could figure something out.
Speaking of which, did this world even have a concept of a “universe”?
He asked Louisa and Aidin—both found the word unfamiliar.
As for “ether,” even Lin Jun himself didn’t know exactly what it was, so naturally they hadn’t heard of it.
But Lin Jun quietly noted the clue.
From the description, it seemed closely tied to the world’s survival.
Another point: the God of Light wanted to create souls. Did that mean the world’s total soul count couldn’t naturally increase?
In other words, were existing souls really just endlessly reincarnating?
Thinking of the souls he stripped clean that directly merged into the world, it now seemed they were being recycled for the next cycle.
A sudden thought struck Lin Jun:
The God of Light’s final solution… wasn’t stealing, was it?
Since local souls couldn’t grow, steal from elsewhere. Stolen souls became Heroes!
Recalling the Hero he met in the archipelago, whose panel name was clearly from his original world—Heroes weren’t native.
But no.
This dungeon only appeared three hundred years ago, while Hero summoning legends were ancient.
So it wasn’t the solution, just a delaying tactic?
Though he didn’t understand how stealing a few souls every few centuries helped, the guess wasn’t impossible.
Imagining the universally revered God of Light secretly being a cross-world soul thief made Lin Jun feel weird.
He temporarily set aside the world-ending info.
About divine artifacts: Blood Calamity was with the imperial emperor, Heartwood had been reclaimed by the old Divine Tree, but “Void Realm” was completely unheard of.
Though the God of Light called them failures because they couldn’t create new souls—useless to him—their side abilities were exactly what Lin Jun craved.
Blood Calamity and Heartwood were currently out of reach, but he could have subordinates inquire about Void Realm.
Finally…
Lin Jun looked at the massive number of other info cubes in this abyss space.
A Puchi reached into another cube.
[Subject Name: Sun Stone]
[19th Experiment Record]
[Test Subject: Soul #734445]
[Soul Grade: B+]
[Continuously severed the soul with Sun Stone… limit reached at 75 fragments…]
…
…
…
As expected, all Sun Stone experiment logs.
This might be the real treasure in this abyss space held!
The divine artifact panel had no proper description. Lin Jun had a complete Sun Stone but could only use it to pinch out a few Mushroom Tribe members.
Meanwhile Emperor Mortis’s Blood Calamity could blanket the sky in crimson terror. Lin Jun was so envious.
If he could thoroughly study these logs, even if he didn’t learn heaven-defying arts, he should at least figure out the Sun Stone’s basic uses, right?
Much more practical than doomsday prophecies.
But just as Lin Jun was about to dive in, a small matter interrupted him.
The Sword Saint was back—but he died and came back.
…
Second rebirth. The Sword Saint skillfully broke out of the cocoon and immediately saw the Marshal Puchi upon emerging.
“Sword Saint, Sword Extremity…” The Marshal Puchi looked down, tentacle poking the Sword Saint Puchi’s cap. “How’d you die?”
“Yeah, why did I suddenly die?” Completely ignoring Lin Jun’s tone, the Sword Saint Puchi rubbed the edge of its cap with a tentacle, pondering the same question.
“You don’t even know how you died? Instant-killed by something?”
“Shouldn’t be. The slimes down there are numerous but weak. The scarecrows in the manor don’t come out either…” The Sword Saint recalled his final moment—one second chopping slimes like vegetables, next second everything went black.
This piqued Lin Jun’s curiosity.
Even as a Puchi, the Sword Saint was still the Sword Saint. Though the granted [Aura Sense] was only LV6—below his lifetime peak—other detection skills were all there.
With [Sword Extremity] realm, no reason to be one-shotted in Scarecrow Abyss.
If it was that dangerous, adventurers wouldn’t go there.
The two Puchis discussed for a long time until the Sword Saint suddenly remembered No. 5 still waiting for him.
When No. 5 learned Fourteen died and returned, it weakly chimed in on the network: “Could it be… mana depletion…?”
The two Puchis stared at each other.
“Doesn’t mana depletion cause dizziness first?”
“You’re a Puchi. Where’s your head?”
“Haha… never been a Puchi before. Not used to it.” The Sword Saint rubbed its cap, unusually embarrassed.
“…”
Losses: one knight-tier body, one S-grade crystal, two skill weapons.
Lin Jun grumbled while preparing the Sword Saint’s second body. Besides this Sword Saint, no one else could currently could delve deep into Scarecrow Abyss to loot.
The Sword Saint shamelessly asked for two more swords this time—making four total.
Fully equipped, the Sword Saint was about to set off when Lin Jun stopped him.
“This time you’re going with her!”
“Who?!”
“Don’t forget to hide your identity!”
…
Great-niece?!
“This is… a new Mushroom Tribe member? Carrying four swords—so cute!” Inanna, freshly rescued via teleport array, happily scooped up the Sword Saint Puchi.
The Sword Saint Puchi originally wanted to dodge, but for some reason its body froze for an instant.
Probably that Fungus Lord!
Though contact was short, Elven had already grasped a bit of Lin Jun’s personality.
This body that didn’t fully belong to him clearly had various restrictions.
But why was Alama’s daughter in the mushroom garden?
The Sword Saint Puchi twisted, trying to escape arms that weren’t actually strong.
Yet no matter how he adjusted force angles or used unloading techniques, he couldn’t break free from Inanna’s embrace.
He quickly realized—this girl’s Puchi-holding technique was extremely professional. She understood Puchi anatomy better than he, the current Puchi, did!
Unless he used brute force and hurt her, escape was impossible—pure skill suppression.
What had this girl spent her time on? How many Puchis had she hugged?!
Watching Inanna’s nimble fingers reach for its mushroom cap, Elven felt his nonexistent old face face an unprecedented crisis!
(End of Chapter)
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