Under Chen Yu's command, Fardoern emitted a series of low hums. Its lush silver oak leaves trembled gently as pure natural energy, flowing like a rushing stream along its massive roots deep underground, instantly spread across an area over twenty meters in radius.
[Plant Growth]
[Greater Plant Growth]
An emerald green field expanded outward with Fardoern at its center. Within this domain, countless plump acorns fell from the branches. The moment they touched the ground, they sprouted, grew shoots, and matured at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In just a few breaths, they had grown into saplings over a person's height.
"Yah! Yah! Yah!"
As if granted temporary life and combat awareness, they pulled their slender root systems from the ground one after another. Like miniature Treant warriors, they brandished their branches and began sweeping towards the nearby Filthy Descendants.
"Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!"
The saplings whipped their branches against the Filthy Descendants' carapaces, preventing them from approaching Fardoern.
The moment their figures materialized, it signified a deadly harvest.
The cold glint of daggers flashed. Often, before the enemy could even react, their throats had already been slit or their hearts pierced.
And their primary targets were precisely those large-bodied Bugbears.
Instantly, the battlefield descended into chaos. The Goblin Army and the Filthy Descendants' offensive rhythm was completely disrupted, showing signs of collapse.
"Hsss!!!"
The massive war Filthy Descendant let out a hiss, opening its giant maw once more to spew a wide spray of corrosive acid, attempting to repel the ever-advancing green plant domain.
Simultaneously, the Magic Leaves etched with runes on Fardoern's branches once again erupted with dazzling light as arcane energy converged.
"Crack! Crack!!"
Thicker, azure thunderbolts, like thrown lightning spears, rained down one after another upon the war Filthy Descendant.
Electricity danced across its thick carapace, charring its shell black. The internal muscles seemed to have been cooked through, even emitting a faint, tantalizing aroma of roasted meat.
This made Chen Yu feel a bit hungry.
This big guy was bulkier than ten swamp monitor lizards. Who knew how much high-quality protein was packed inside that thick shell...
His thoughts began to wander.
It could probably be used as food reserves, fed to the Queen Wasps to speed up the Blood Legion's expansion.
However, it seemed that although this war Filthy Descendant was thoroughly electrocuted, it was still somewhat defiant, struggling to stand back up.
"Need to crank up the voltage."
"Fardoen, the left side is getting a bit charred, hit its right side."
Under Fardoern's continuous "electrotherapy," this colossal war beast finally couldn't hold on any longer.
Its massive limbs convulsed violently, no longer able to support its heavy body. With a thunderous crash, it slammed heavily onto the ground.
"Squelch!"
The unlucky Filthy Descendants beside it, unable to escape in time, were instantly crushed by its enormous weight, bursting and splattering copious amounts of acidic fluid.
At that moment, the Poison-stinger Wasp logistics teams sent out to collect blood also returned to the city wall one after another. Their abdominal blood storage sacs were swollen and bulging, clearly indicating a bountiful harvest.
With ample blood reserves, the Blood Legion was ready for action.
[Blood Baptism]
"Hum!"
A pale red blood energy field once again enveloped the city wall. The Blood Legion, replenished with blood energy, all beat their wings and took to the air.
[Blood Molding]
Dozens of re-condensed blood spheres, like drops of death, rained down in a blanket bombardment upon the enemies thrown into disarray.
"BOOM!!"
The originally pitch-black tide gradually receded under the multi-pronged assault, finally retreating along with the remaining Goblins, leaving behind only a vast number of corpses and shattered carapaces on the battlefield.
"Clean up the battlefield," Chen Yu instructed, standing on Fardoern's branch.
All of this was good stuff. Forget the scattered Magic Organs littering the ground, even these corpses could serve as food reserves for the wasp swarm, useful for expanding the Blood Legion.
Due to Fardoern's slow movement speed, it could only remain in place, using its roots and branches to assist in stabilizing the battlefield and conducting preliminary cleanup.
The task of pursuing the remaining enemies was handed over to the more mobile Blood Poison Wasps.
Under Beet's command, the Blood Poison Wasps hunted down the fleeing enemy forces, not stopping the pursuit until they had driven them all back through the planar rift.
Then, the fortress gates slowly opened once more.
The long-waiting Slime engineers and Beetle transport teams emerged, beginning to methodically clean the battlefield.
They piled up the corpses of Goblins and Filthy Descendants, preparing to transport them back to the Eastern Swamp for processing via cart.
The faintly glowing Magic Organs were carefully collected by them and respectfully piled up before Chen Yu.
"Phew... lucky those guys ran fast enough," Nilly's figure emerged from the shadows behind a rock. She patted the dust off herself, her expression looking relatively relaxed.
Behind her, Yano and the other Stone Descendant assassins who participated in the assassinations also returned one by one.
Yano, needless to say, was brimming with vitality;
the burden of Shadow Traversal wasn't much for him.
It was the other Stone Descendant assassins whose lips were somewhat pale, breathing rapidly, clearly exhausted.
However, their assassination results were remarkably fruitful: all six Bugbears, serving as the army's backbone, had been beheaded.
One Bugbear had even tried to match strength with Yano, only to be kicked flying by him. Before it could even get back up, the following Stone Descendant assassins cleanly severed its head.
Its wide, dead eyes were filled with confusion.
Even in death, it couldn't comprehend how an assassin could possess such immense strength.
Meanwhile, Chen Yu was still stuffing Magic Organs into his seemingly bottomless gel belly, enjoying the fruits of victory.
Nilly strode over boldly, curiously watching him "eat." She picked up a slimy-looking heart Magic Organ and weighed it in her hand.
"Are these things really that tasty?"
Chen Yu, while diligently digesting his bellyful of loot, asked vaguely via telepathy, "How's the battle tally looking?"
"The remaining Goblins and those black demon bugs all fled back through the rift. We didn't pursue deeply," Nilly said, spreading her hands.
"What about that ogre? I remember him a bit."
He recalled seeing this ogre mage during the last Riftrock Fortress assault;
he should count as a minor leader.
Right after he asked, he saw Yano pulling out a mucus-covered bone staff and a few tattered mage robe fragments from... the rear end of the war Filthy Descendant's corpse, with some effort.
"Uh, Boss, this guy seems to have been mostly digested already."
Hearing this, Chen Yu looked at Nilly, who had pursued this ogre earlier.
Nilly spread her hands with an innocent expression. "Don't look at me. This guy insisted on burrowing under this big lump's backside himself, probably trying to use it as cover."
"But his luck seems pretty bad. When this war Filthy Descendant fell, it probably crushed an acid sac and accidentally 'digested' this ogre along the way."
"Alright then..." Chen Yu was speechless internally.
Who would have thought this guy's final resting place would be burrowing under someone else's rear end only to be accidentally digested... What an undignified way to die.
But thinking about it, no wonder this war Filthy Descendant acted so violently earlier.
However, searching through the tattered robes, he found a magic ring set with an olivine.
"Boss, this ring seems to have a protective-type enchantment."
Chen Yu inspected it and found the ring could automatically activate a short-duration magic shield. Though its strength was average, it might save a life at a critical moment.
Since Yano was about to embark on a dangerous exploration of the Gargoyle nest, Chen Yu gave the ring to him.
"Wear it. It can block a hit at a crucial moment."
"Thank you, Boss," Yano said happily, accepting the ring, almost wanting to hug and kiss him on the gel.
Furthermore, the wasp swarm responsible for cleaning the battlefield successively retrieved several alchemical seeds used by the Goblin Shamans.
Chen Yu naturally accepted them all without refusal, stuffing these into his belly as well.
Finally, his round, bulging belly almost touched the ground. He was so stuffed he didn't want to move at all. He simply hugged his belly and lay down unceremoniously beside Fardoern's roots, starting to "slack off."
Nilly looked at his state, giggled, and said nothing.
Then she waved at Chen Yu, signaling the tired Stone Descendant assassins to first lead the youngsters back to the Stone Fortress. She herself turned and vanished once more into the shadows of the Fluorescent Forest.
It seemed she was in a hurry to return and discuss this invasion incident and subsequent countermeasures with the shadows of those Stone Descendant ancestors.
...
The harvest from this battle was truly immense. Chen Yu spent a full day and night digesting before he barely finished processing the devoured Magic Organs.
[Devour Digestion Lv.7 → Devour Digestion Lv.8]
[Acid Secretion Lv.6 → Acidic Breath Lv.8]
[Fire Resistance Lv.5 → Fire Resistance Lv.7]
[Hixiulong Part One Lv.1 → Hixiulong Part One Lv.2]
[Devour Digestion Lv.8 triggered — ??? characteristics recorded. Talent incubating (1/3).]
Hmm?
A new World Tree talent is incubating?
Chen Yu's spirits lifted. This is good stuff.
The effect of "Hixiulong Part One" was already impressive enough;
the new World Tree talent surely wouldn't be bad either.
He tested it. The influence range of Lv.2 "Hixiulong Part One" expanded from the previous one square meter to two square meters, and the effect of accelerating plant growth was noticeably faster.
As for the improvements to "Acidic Breath" and "Fire Resistance," they were within expectations. However, after "Devour Digestion" reached Lv.8, there seemed to be some subtle changes.
Chen Yu suddenly felt an impulse and experimentally opened his non-existent "mouth."
"Ah—"
A miniature black hole seemed to form within the gel. Both air and stones were uncontrollably drawn in, squeezing into his gel body before vanishing into the unfathomable dark depths.
Huh?
He paused, then opened up and sucked again. This time, he even forcefully swallowed a stone several times larger in volume than his own body.
Not long after, he was surprised to discover that his maximum health had permanently increased by a tiny bit.
"Well, I'll be an abyssal big belly."
Chen Yu was shocked.
After Devour Digestion leveled up, can it increase health by eating stuff?
If this talent levels up a few more times, in the future, when encountering enemies, no matter what they are, as long as their size isn't too outrageous, just swallow them whole in one gulp.
Fighting isn't as interesting as this.
Seems he had previously underestimated his belly's capacity.
After carefully exploring a bit more, Chen Yu finally spread his gel wings and wobbled as he flew to the front of the planar rift.
At this moment, Slime guards were holding simple spears polished from Gray Gravel Crystals, vigilantly guarding the area around the rift.
Seeing him arrive, they immediately revealed their nature, cheering and hopping about excitedly.
Yano also happened to return from scouting through the planar rift. Seeing Chen Yu approach, he waved.
"Boss, you're here. Auntie came by earlier, said she has something for you."
Saying this, he carefully placed the Slime on his shoulder, then retrieved several small crystal vials from his chest.
Inside the vials was a type of pitch-black powder that seemed capable of absorbing all light.
"She said these might be the shadow creature corpses you wanted... the residual essence powder left after shadow creatures naturally perish or are purified."
Chen Yu looked at those few vials that together might hold less than a handful of sand's worth of black powder and was instantly speechless.
He shook discontentedly.
"Why so little, Yano? Your auntie is too stingy."
"I seem to remember that bottle of Shadow Dust she gave you last time had more than this."
Yano coughed lightly, somewhat embarrassed, and explained, "Boss, actually, that bottle of Shadow Dust Auntie gave me last time was mixed with quite a bit of black rock sand. The truly pure shadow powder wasn't much."
"And just this small vial of pure shadow powder seems to require a long time to collect."
"Auntie also said that just this small vial contains the concentrated essence left after the demise of at least ten shadow creatures. Its market value is as high as several hundred Gold Coins."
"Oh? That precious?"
Chen Yu was half-convinced, half-doubting. "Let me taste it."
His gel body surface generated suction, swallowing one of the small crystal vials from Yano's hand, vial and powder together, into his belly.
The moment he swallowed it, a panel popped up.
[Shadow Traversal Lv.1 → Shadow Traversal Lv.4]
[Devour Digestion Lv.8 triggered — Shadow creature characteristics recorded. Talent incubating (4/10).]
Huh? It really is essence.
Chen Yu was surprised.
Seems Nilly was quite honest this time, didn't trick him.
After sucking the remaining few vials of shadow powder from Yano's hands into his belly, the panel refreshed again.
[Devour Digestion Lv.8 triggered — Shadow creature characteristics fully recorded. Talent acquired: Shadow Vision Lv.4]
[Devour Digestion Lv.8 triggered — Shadow creature characteristics fully recorded. Talent acquired: Shadow Affinity Lv.4]