Inside the fortress tree hall, bright sunlight streamed through the skylight onto the extinguished fire pit, with specks of dust floating in the air.
"I."
During morning reading time, Count Bran stood on a wooden stump still bearing green leaves and branches, holding an oak twig in his beak, pointing at the Common Tongue character written on the smooth wooden board.
"Me."
Beneath this makeshift "blackboard," the little slimes crowded together, pressing close to Slime Mother, colliding and emitting pheromones, looking exactly like students diligently repeating after their teacher.
Count Bran listened blankly—of course he couldn't understand the slimes' pheromone communication, but as the court tutor entrusted by His Majesty with this important task, he needed to maintain an image of profound knowledge and unshakable composure before these students.
"Ahem, very good, as expected of this Count's students. Such simple words can't possibly trouble you."
"Now let's move on to the next one..."
"You."
Continuous slime collision sounds filled the classroom, carrying over to the astronomical observation area of the tree hall.
There, a green figure was using a telescope to curiously observe the sky while carefully writing and drawing on paper with a pen held in gel.
This slime was none other than Little Flower.
As the top student among the slimes, she had already mastered these elementary-level knowledge points and didn't need to relearn them with the crow teacher.
Thus she enjoyed greater freedom to pursue entertainment activities that interested her.
Soon, time quietly slipped away during learning and exploration. Just as morning reading ended, the lord of this territory, Chen Yu, appeared as if he had just emerged from busy territory construction, riding Little Ka and returning covered in dust.
In reality, it was because he had stayed up late last night researching the Goblin Shredder and drawing talismans, then collapsed into deep sleep.
It wasn't until Arthur entered Rootwhisper Forest that he was finally awakened.
As soon as Chen Yu bounced into the spacious tree hall, the little ones immediately became excited, hopping over while shouting "Brother, brother!"
"Time for breakfast."
Chen Yu activated the "Qian Yuan Spirit Nurturing Art," using essence, qi, and spirit to condense Spiritual Feeding. Threads of spiritual light drifted down onto the slimes' heads and, under their curious gazes, silently merged into their gel, nourishing their still-developing spiritual intelligence.
"Caw! Your Majesty, I want some too!"
Count Bran, thinking it must be something good and adhering to his principle of never missing out, also came closer.
"Oh, com...comfortable." After absorbing the Spiritual Feeding, Count Bran couldn't help but shake his sleek black feathers, his voice trembling.
Although he didn't know what this stuff was, it was definitely something extraordinary.
After absorbing it, he felt like his brain had become much sharper.
But before he could enjoy it for long, Chen Yu ended the spell.
The slimes then dispersed reluctantly, going off for their break activities.
Count Bran nervously approached.
"Your Majesty, any news about my foolish retainer?"
"Of course, this Count is just asking, not actually worried, ahem... if there's no news, just pretend this Count never asked."
"This... this Count remembers there are some Gray Gravel Crystals left uncollected by the riverbank, so I won't be teaching the noon class. Please have that Stone Knight teach instead."
Chen Yu found his behavior of wanting to ask but feeling too embarrassed quite amusing.
He originally wanted to scare him, but fearing his little heart couldn't take it, he decided to tell the truth:
"Oh, we discovered a forest inhabited by dryads..."
Before he could finish, Count Bran immediately jumped up, his tone quite exaggerated.
"Dr...dryads?! You mean those dryads as stubborn as mules?"
"Oh, may the Lady of Contrariety bless poor Arthur. An undead intruding into those old fossils' territory will surely suffer plenty."
"Actually, the lady named Viola was quite tolerant and has already permitted Arthur to stay temporarily in the territory."
He thought these words would comfort Count Bran, but instead they made him caw in panic.
"Vi...Viola?!"
"Caw! It's over! It's over!"
"Of all places Arthur could go, why did he fall into this Count's mortal enemy's hands?"
Flapping his wings frantically, he hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, you absolutely must not let that old fossil discover this Count's existence, otherwise she'll definitely dismantle Arthur into a pile of bones."
"You... just say you don't know me."
"Do you have some feud?"
"A great feud! A blood feud!"
Count Bran was so angry that black smoke emerged from him.
"Back in the Shadow Mountains, that old fossil went crazy for some reason, chasing after an elemental lord and beating him up, almost flipping the entire Shadow Mountains upside down!"
"This Count was just passing by, but she insisted on falsely accusing me of being an accomplice, chasing me for three whole days and nights, and even plucked out several of my beautiful feathers!"
"Although this Count escaped that old fossil's clutches through clever means, there's no guarantee she won't remember me someday."
"Your Majesty, this Count is leaving now, going out to lay low. Remember not to mention me."
Without waiting for Chen Yu to stop him, he flapped his wings and disappeared into the sky, fast as a black shadow.
"Is she really that terrifying?"
Chen Yu muttered to himself, but still reminded Arthur through the little slimes not to mention Count Bran's name in Rootwhisper Forest.
Although dryads worship nature and have relatively gentle dispositions, when they truly encounter enemies, they won't hesitate to deliver fatal blows.
Better for Arthur to keep a low profile.
After feeding Spiritual Feeding to all the magical creatures in the territory, large and small, Chen Yu returned to the tree house and resumed pondering the magic formation.
The Goblin Shredder-Type I contained spirit stone formation foundations, talisman formation patterns, and one extremely important formation pivot jade talisman.
Setting up the formation foundations only required spirit stones, which was the simplest requirement. The talisman formation patterns required some practice time but weren't particularly difficult either.
It was this formation pivot jade talisman that needed an entire piece of spirit jade engraved with the pivot talisman.
In this godforsaken swamp, where could he find spirit jade?
Unless he could use a complete Gray Gravel Crystal as substitute.
It didn't need to be large—just palm-sized would suffice.
Not an excessive demand, right?
But he truly didn't have one.
So Yano had returned to Ironboot Town early this morning with treasury funds Chen Yu provided.
In the human kingdom, Gray Gravel Crystals were also important spellcasting mediums or alchemical materials. When ground into powder, they could be made into expensive magical dust to optimize mana environments, making them favored crystals among most mages and the reason human merchant caravans frequently visited the riverbank demi-human tribes.
Where there's market demand, there's circulation—perhaps he might actually manage to buy one.
"Ah, great journeys are always filled with thorns and obstacles."
Chen Yu shook his body to cheer himself up.
But the more difficult the journey, the sweeter the fruit of success.
He could already imagine the scene when his cultivation cannon was completed—blasting entire groups of goblins to smithereens with single shots.
"Today's great journey begins with drawing a perfect talisman."
Chen Yu bounced around arranging his talisman-drawing tools, pulled out a magic paper cut neatly into a long strip, recalled the Energy Gathering Talisman's drawing method, and quickly began.
For some reason, he felt in exceptionally good form today. Starting from the talisman's beginning with a single connected stroke, he felt no obstacles at all, looking like he might succeed on the first try.
"Grrrr!!"
"Ahhh!!!"
But just then, insane howls and screams suddenly came from outside the window, causing him to lose focus momentarily. His brush tip strayed, and he... drew it crooked.