At the rear of the tribe, hidden Jida suddenly leaped out.
The moment Qisi’s army began moving, Lin Jun knew its target. He immediately had his own forces force-march to occupy the tribe first.
As for the original tribespeople?
Lin Jun carefully had them protected and sent to the fortress for refuge.
The Stone Face tribesfolk, lacking enough warriors to defend themselves, willingly followed the grand Puchi army.
Watching them leave home and hearth, Lin Jun couldn’t help sighing at his own kindness; he couldn’t bear to see intelligent humanoids die for nothing.
He would protect their tribe in place of the fallen warriors… and of course, crush the innately evil Qisi to avenge them!
Justice! Must prevail!
“Second volley, fire!” Norris’s order rang through the Jida squad channel on the mycelial network. Every Jida aimed its shoulder-mounted resonance cannon at the last remaining evil eye in the sky.
This time, Qisi finally reacted.
The toothed beast raised countless tentacles, shielding the lowered evil eye.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Several tentacles exploded. The monster’s deafening pained roar made the snow beneath tremble.
The tentacles failed to block everything. One resonance cannon still struck the evil eye.
A single shot shattered its magic shield into slag and left the eye reeling, retreating a great distance. But it was saved.
What was that?
What attacked me?
Qisi quickly spotted the culprits.
Though slightly different in shape, it had seen them in Stone Fortress. Mushrooms!
Qisi’s entire army halted instantly.
Though the Jida were few, with the toothed beast as cover, the insect swarm could still charge.
But those were mushroom underlings!
Several eye bugs rushed out.
As expected!
In their perception, the snow ahead was packed with enemies!
Trap! Trap! Trap!
Another mushroom trap!
The two-legged prey were mushroom bait. It still wouldn’t let Qisi go!
Without the slightest thought of fighting, Qisi’s forces turned and fled full-speed the way they came.
Or rather, routed.
Only the already slow and now wounded toothed beast charged the opposite way as rearguard.
Even Lin Jun had to admit it was an excellent on-the-spot decision.
Too bad some outcomes couldn’t be changed by one or two good calls.
The instant eye bugs flew out and exposure was confirmed, the all-out pursuit order had already rung in every lizardman’s mind.
Countless Puchis burst from the snow, swarming the toothed beast.
A casual tentacle sweep killed masses of Puchis.
Yet most had already self-destructed. The snow plain rang like endless firecrackers.
One sweep left the tentacle crippled.
In just two minutes, more and more Puchis leaped onto the toothed beast, wrecking it.
Five minutes later, the toothed beast buried under the Puchi sea went still.
The twenty-plus Jida squad didn’t pause a second for it. They chased the other fleeing Qisi units.
Alongside them: Puchi war chariot troops.
Simply put: groups of rolling Puchis pulling sleds carrying controllers for high-speed movement. In attack, release the rolling Puchis to self-destruct.
Unfortunately, this unit only worked in the north; four-wheeled Puchis couldn’t pull fast.
The first caught was the remaining evil eye.
Qisi naturally knew the evil eye’s speed couldn’t outrun pursuit, so it had the eye climb higher, trying to escape into the sky.
But Jida range was long. Though accuracy was iffy, the Jida squad had trained constantly, and the evil eye itself was huge.
Barely a thousand meters up, the evil eye was hit by a resonance cannon from below. Mana exploded inside, killing it instantly. It plummeted, splattering everywhere.
Norris wasn’t satisfied and continued leading the chase after the remaining Qisi.
In the tent entrance, Broga and Rama stared dumbly at the scene.
The insect army had come aggressively, fled without fighting, and now couldn’t even escape properly. The turnaround took less than ten minutes.
A lizardman followed by several Puchis noticed the two demons. “Not resting?”
“Ah? Oh… oh… yes, resting, resting…”
They obediently shrank back into the tent. Neither mentioned the escape plan again.
Both demons shared the same thought: the north was about to change.
…
Norris led his team ever closer to Qisi’s remnants. Occasional resonance cannon shots caused massive casualties.
But Norris had begun using them sparingly; continuous firing had nearly drained the Jida’s mana. Fortunately, Jida strength wasn’t only cannons.
Or rather, a fight that ended just with cannons would feel a bit boring to Norris.
Seeing the distance shrink, Qisi knew it couldn’t continue.
Qisi’s forces began splitting, scattering in all directions with single eye bugs as cores.
This move did annoy Norris. As he considered pursuit, all Qisi units suddenly fell into chaos, as if their controller had no time to manage them.
Norris naturally seized the opening and began rapid harvesting.
…
Mid-Luo River.
Shattered ice floated half-submerged. Though no demon corpses were visible, spreading crimson blood showed what had happened.
But now the water held new things: purple-blooded insect corpses and countless Puchi fragments.
Little Pig hadn’t joined the ambush on Qisi’s army because she had a more important task.
What was more important than Qisi’s “heart”?
When departing, Lin Jun had thought the enemy was the tribes; the whole army was standard Puchis.
Even if he had prepared, Puchis only trained to the seventh layer underwater probably weren’t Qisi’s match.
But that didn’t mean Lin Jun was helpless against Qisi.
Massive numbers of Puchis were thrown into the river from both banks, then exploded in towering water plumes.
And while exploding, burrowing Puchis drilled new holes in the ice. Insect corpses constantly floated up from the depths.
From start to finish, scout Puchis kept locked on Qisi’s “heart.”
【Race: Qisi-Heart】
【Level: LV64】
【Racial Talent: Qisi Gestation】
【Skills: Mental Integration LV9, Kin Manipulation LV8, Cold Resistance LV8… Mental Diffusion LV8, Mental Magic LV7, Physical Resistance LV6… Split Body LV1】
This guy’s Split Body was only LV1 now? Looks like Qisi hadn’t had it easy outside…
(End of Chapter)
