Above the pitch-black, barren, and flat earth, countless coffins were arranged neatly.
Row upon row, column upon column, neatly extending toward the end of the field of vision…
[Skip]
Another humanoid mist monster with a fishtail and shrimp claws, twisted in form, grew mushrooms after being completely parasitized by mycelium, thoroughly becoming a puppet.
Since the internal threat of the Tidal Sanctuary was cleared, the monsters that subsequently surged from the mist one after another not only failed to pose new pressure on Lin Jun, but instead became another sustainable source of troops.
Lin Jun ordered his subordinates to screen out the stronger individuals among the mist monsters, sparing their lives to convert them into controlled puppets as a supplement to the undersea combat power.
The only side effect was that every time Lin Jun parasitized mycelium onto these monsters, such a picture would always flood into his consciousness.
Although the perspective position viewed each time was slightly different—sometimes standing inside a coffin, sometimes overlooking the entire array—the core elements were nothing more than coffins, high mountains, and the pitch-black sky.
After watching it several times, Lin Jun lost the sense of novelty. Thereafter, every time the image emerged, he would use his powerful mental strength to skip it directly the instant it appeared.
Ordinary people wanting to proactively wake up from this kind of image flooding into consciousness would probably have to expend some effort, but Lin Jun, with his massive mental strength, did not have this trouble.
Nowadays, everything was proceeding according to plan!
Over at the Mushroom Garden, the reserves of conventional troops and Combat Puchis were already saturated. Even the “Ji-God Soldier” composed of a large number of Puchis, which could be called a strategic weapon, had completed assembly and could be activated at any time.
The reason they were still all huddled inside the Puchi Fortress was purely because the temperature had dropped so low that even [Cold Resistance LV10] couldn’t allow normal outdoor activity.
Just waiting for Inanna to return from the Dwarven territory carrying the Imprisonment Ring, to subdue and stuff that Ice Elemental Lord in the Northern Territory who constantly radiated severe cold into the ring as well.
At that time, the Mushroom Garden would expand comprehensively, truly incorporating the entire Northern Territory into its map!
And on the Empire side, No. 13 was also arranged to infiltrate the interior.
Duke Elinore… her mind wasn’t sharp, making her an ideal breakthrough point.
Something like fungal mat, once spread out easily, wanting to clear it later would be as hard as ascending to heaven.
And according to what Lin Jun learned from the Little Xi intelligence network, Elinore had been tormented by Qisi recently until her head was burning. Under such a predicament, how could she resist the temptation not to use a Mushroom Tribe force that actively delivered itself to her door?
As for Qisi…
This guy indeed slipped into the sea. Looking at it now, it actually developed quite well!
Although it was a defeated opponent, Lin Jun didn’t underestimate these bugs.
If given more development time, it might really become a serious confidant trouble.
For this kind of guy who could snowball and become stronger just like himself, the best way was naturally to crush it to death at the appropriate stage!
When Qisi just escaped back then, its strength was weak, the bug swarm was scarce, and it lurked in the deep sea, so Lin Jun indeed found it hard to lock onto its tracks.
But it was different now. As its family fortune grew thicker, it was forced to go out to forage on a large scale, so its whereabouts were thoroughly exposed.
This navy under Lin Jun’s command, aside from dealing with the sea mist, was originally prepared for Qisi.
Recently, several new types of Puchis had been cultivated:
Floating Mushrooms that could float their mushroom caps on the water surface, connecting surrounding mycelium algae to perform [Photosynthesis] and store mana; Sea Monster Mushrooms relying on the [Giant Entity] skill to form mobile fortresses in the sea by themselves, and capable of carrying a large number of Torpedo Puchis; and new versions of Mecha-Puchis relying on jet propulsion to achieve high-speed maneuvering underwater and equipped with multiple underwater skills.
Lin Jun was working overtime to produce these new varieties of Puchis, seeking to quickly increase naval power.
Meanwhile, more and more Fishmen connected to the mycelial network.
The old Fishman Gulgulu behaved quite cooperatively.
After retaking the Tidal Sanctuary, he allowed Lin Jun to absorb Fishmen and spread mycelium algae throughout the dungeon, while he devoted himself to repairing those damaged statues.
Unfortunately, in Lin Jun’s perception, even if repaired, these statues no longer possessed the initial state of flashing spirituality. Some unknown function seemed permanently lost.
The only one still retaining that soul glow was the one initially rescued by Norris and Ming.
Although the Fishman race cooperated actively on many affairs, they stubbornly insisted on one thing alone.
That was, those dying clansmen must die in their sacrificial rituals.
Since mycelium parasitism endowed the host with extremely strong survival ability, this ritual was now mainly targeted at those naturally aging Fishmen.
Regarding the point of being unable to decompose corpses, although Lin Jun felt dissatisfied, considering the Fishmen submitted voluntarily, plus he wasn’t short of this bit of skill revenue right now, he temporarily let them continue their tradition.
Lin Jun had even observed the ritual as a bystander many times. The process was indeed similar to the ritual of that Hand of Passage cult gang.
The only difference between the two lay in that the Fishmen sacrificed themselves, while the Hand of Passage sacrificed others.
And through the [Inspiration] perspective, Lin Jun also truly saw the changes in their souls during the ritual process.
The gray substance attached to the surface of the soul of the one to be sacrificed peeled off in large patches under the traction of the ritual, all absorbed by the old Fishman presiding over the ritual.
Reflected on the panel, this process was the disappearance of skills.
This coincided with Lin Jun’s past speculation: those attachments on the soul surface were very likely related to skills, or were even the skills themselves.
However, this was still somewhat different from being decomposed by Lin Jun’s [Greed].
First, the ritual clearly couldn’t strip the attachments thoroughly like he could. When the soul detached from the ritual and merged into the world, quite a lot of gray substance still remained on the surface.
For the soul itself, it wasn’t known if this was good or bad.
Second, although the old Fishman responsible for presiding over the ritual absorbed a large amount of attachments, over the years, his soul in Lin Jun’s spiritual vision had almost been dyed dark black.
Yet these absorbed attachments didn’t bring him any new skills.
In summary, in Lin Jun’s view, he didn’t see any benefits from such a ritual for either the old Fishman himself or the sacrificed.
Perhaps… with perseverance, that so-called Death God would finally descend a grace?
Just like that [Wise One] title on the old Fishman?
Moreover, Lin Jun was somewhat curious.
What would happen if he decomposed the old Fishman who had accumulated so many attachments on his body?
Would he only obtain the old Fishman’s skills?
Or could he obtain the skills of those Fishmen sacrificed by the old Fishman in the past together?
Lin Jun remembered that the normal lifespan of Fishmen in this world was only thirty or forty years.
Looking at the old Fishman organizing Fishmen to carefully repair the statues, unfortunately, the panel didn’t display age, so he didn’t know how much longer until he died of old age…
Suddenly, Lin Jun, who was pondering the essence of attachments with a scientific spirit, paused.
[Level Up: LV69 → LV70]
Hmm?!
Finally…
Lord Mushroom! Grandly making an entrance!
Lin Jun couldn’t wait to pull open the panel, dragging that long skill bar to the very bottom, and clicked on the new “+” appearing at the end!
(End of Chapter)
