Li Ban had gained another squad of men.
It was not a large group—just ten people.
In a camp of five hundred where nearly everyone was a fighter, this was hardly a significant force.
However, many of these men were veterans with solid combat experience. They had been assigned to Li Ban specifically so he could lead them on difficult missions.
When Lu Shi handed them over, he had warned Li Ban that if any of these squad members were lost, it would be very difficult to get replacements.
Li Ban did not mind. He simply added Zhu Yao and Ed to his squad.
After forming the team, he held a brief meeting with the new members before leading them straight into the Building Graveyard to continue gathering supplies.
It was no different from his previous routine.
The group split in two, with him and Zhu Yao each leading a team.
The main reason Li Ban did not use this opportunity to secretly practice his spells was that he needed to venture deeper into the buildings to collect more waste elements.
In the Recycling Station, elements could not be actively used, but they had still permanently enhanced the physiques of the spirit practitioners.
Because of this, most of the powerhouses here were spirit practitioners, and being a spirit practitioner meant they carried elements within them.
When these powerful spirit practitioners went out on expeditions, they often ventured into the most dangerous zones in search of higher-value loot.
Places like the very depths of the Building Graveyard.
Li Ban stood in the center of the formation, his bow in hand.
This six-person team was only a temporary assembly, and their coordination was merely passable. Some of them might even be secretly pocketing smaller pieces of loot.
Li Ban did not care about any of that, as long as they superficially followed his orders.
Besides, they could not secretly stash away the specific things he was looking for.
They had now pushed into the third city block.
The monsters here were much denser than before.
Two filthy avian monsters suddenly flew out from behind a shattered window alongside the street.
One of them lunged at squad member Chu Ke, only to be shot dead by Li Ban's arrow.
The other panicked and tried to fly away, but another member, Liu Yi, reacted instantly and hurled an axe, striking it down.
Willis, the most agile man near Li Ban, took the initiative to run over and retrieve the two monster corpses.
Monsters used to be human, which meant their bodies might contain elements or waste elements.
As long as the corpses were not too far away, Li Ban made sure to inspect them every time.
Although Willis did not know why Li Ban always checked the bodies, he had already started actively trying to curry favor with his new deputy captain.
Besides Willis, Liu Yi and Chu Ke, who were taking the lead, were also eager to interact with Li Ban.
Of course, where there were eager members, there were also those who kept their distance.
Ming Kai and Xie Xiaowu, who were assigned to cover the rear, did not like getting too close to him.
Fortunately, they were merely distant, not foolish enough to deliberately hold the team back.
And Li Ban was not going to ostracize them just because they had not immediately pledged their loyalty.
The people in this squad were generally not the trusted aides of the camp's elites. Most of them had decent strength but found themselves in somewhat awkward social standing within the camp.
In fact, Ming Kai, Xie Xiaowu, and Liu Yi used to be Hemira's subordinates.
Aside from the somewhat blunt Liu Yi, the other two felt very awkward around him.
Li Ban could guess exactly why they felt that way.
They likely knew that Hemira disliked him for rejecting her, but they probably had no idea that she had once tried to use bandits to get rid of him.
Otherwise, the looks they gave him would not be merely awkward, but terrified.
After checking the corpses Willis brought back and finding no waste elements, Li Ban casually tossed the small monsters aside.
Near the camp, monster corpses had to be crushed and thrown into mud pits to prevent other creatures from being attracted by the "food."
But in a monster nest like the Building Graveyard, they simply ignored the bodies. It was impossible to manage them all anyway.
Leaving them out in the open meant that sooner or later, passing monsters would devour them.
At that moment, Liu Yi, who had been clearing the path ahead, ran back. "Deputy Captain, if we go any further, we might enter the territory of the nest monsters. Should we change direction or keep moving forward?"
"Nest monsters?" Hearing the word "nest" reminded Li Ban of the bandits' lair. Intrigued, he asked, "What are they like?"
Liu Yi was about to speak when he noticed Xie Xiaowu, who was standing behind Li Ban, shooting him a warning look.
Li Ban caught Liu Yi's hesitation and simply turned around. "You all can speak up too. If you have any thoughts or opinions, feel free to share."
Though he wouldn't necessarily listen to them.
Xie Xiaowu pressed her lips together before speaking bluntly. "D-Deputy Captain, a monster nest isn't like the areas we've been in. They hold massive numbers of monsters that have started to learn pack tactics, and their abilities can complement each other. If we enter a nest's territory, we'll lack both numerical and geographical advantages. It will be hard to achieve anything, and we'll likely just get ourselves killed."
Xie Xiaowu was a short-haired woman, but to adapt to combat, she had replaced her limbs and lower abdomen.
With her buzz cut, she looked no different from an ordinary muscular man, save for the slightly softer lines of her face.
Liu Yi offered a milder explanation. "Deputy Captain, the truth is that we just don't have enough people right now. If we could organize a hundred-man squad like the camp leader does, we could definitely take down a monster nest."
Li Ban nodded. "I know, but the losses would outweigh the gains, right?"
A hundred-man squad could certainly conquer a nest, but would the loot inside be enough to pay everyone's share?
"Where is the nest?" Li Ban asked.
Xie Xiaowu snapped her mouth shut and stayed silent. It was Liu Yi who pointed out the direction.
"Deputy Captain, it's in that building right ahead. The third block from the left used to be a gym, and now quite a few monsters are entrenched in there. The most dangerous one is an eyeball cluster monster attached to the ceiling. It seems capable of controlling the other creatures in the nest."
"Alright, find a hidden spot. You all wait there while I scout ahead."
Zhu Yao had once said that the monsters near the rift gathered in swarms, like a boundless ocean.
The number of monsters in a nest certainly could not compare to those near the rift, but it would give Li Ban a chance to understand how these swarms fought.
The way he had become a Priest was different from the rest, and even now, he had not experienced many large-scale battles.
Whether he wanted to pass through the insect tide to reach Heaven Beyond Heaven, or cross the rift, neither would be a simple task. It never hurt to gather more intelligence.
"This—" Liu Yi hesitated.
Beside him, Chu Ke immediately chimed in, "Please be careful, Deputy Captain. Make sure you don't get too close."
Willis shrank his neck back. Although he followed Li Ban during combat, he had no desire to risk his life in a monster nest, and silently prayed that Li Ban wouldn't call on him.
Instead, Ming Kai, who had not spoken for a long time, stepped forward. "Deputy Captain—I'll go with you."
Everyone looked at Ming Kai in surprise.
Li Ban could not figure out what Ming Kai was thinking either, but he had no intention of bringing anyone along.
"No need. I'm just going to take a look." He glanced around, then pointed at a collapsed corner tower. "Go hide over there and wait for me. I'll be back within an hour."
Without waiting for anyone to object, he sprinted straight toward the building Liu Yi had pointed out.
As he neared the nest, the smaller monsters became much more frequent.
Li Ban casually dispatched a black creature that leaped out from the shadows. This time, he didn't even bother checking the corpse before slipping through a shattered window.
He did not enter the floor where the nest monsters were directly gathered, choosing instead to slip into a floor two levels away.
The windows of the floor that once belonged to the gym were now entirely covered in an unknown black substance.
It had replaced the original glass, blocking out all the light.
From a distance, it wasn't too noticeable, but up close, the stark contrast between the black substance and the other empty window frames was glaringly obvious.
Especially upon closer inspection, the black substance actually seemed to be squirming.
It was likely a type of monster itself.
After entering from the adjacent floor, Li Ban immediately noticed how different this place felt from the outside.
The light seemed much dimmer here.
Even though he was standing right next to a glassless window.
Is there something in this room absorbing the light?
His gaze swept over the ruined furniture and the cracked walls.
Stepping toward the wall that bordered the gym, Li Ban leaned in for a closer look.
Is there—a layer of fuzz growing on the wall?
It looked a bit like the fine fuzz on a peach, casting a hazy, blurred filter over the dilapidated wall.
He drew the dagger at his waist and gently scraped a small patch off the surface.
The fuzz doesn't react. It's like moss.
Li Ban flicked the fuzz off his dagger and traced his eyes along the wall.
This wall had originally been the ceiling, and now this fuzz had spread from it onto the other walls.
Even a small patch of the floor beneath Li Ban's feet was covered by it.
He avoided stepping on it for now, although he knew that if he wanted to get closer to the gym, touching the fuzz would be unavoidable.
Li Ban stepped to the side and vaulted through a doorframe suspended in midair, crossing into another room.
He proceeded this way until he reached an outer corridor.
The deeper he went, the darker it became. There was almost no Luminescent Moss to be seen here, but the nearly invisible fine fuzz grew thicker and thicker.
In the stairwell on this floor, the fuzz had completely overrun the stairs, walls, and handrails, and was steadily spreading to other floors.
This fuzz must be growing outward from the nest. Is it some kind of byproduct of the monsters?
Li Ban pondered for a moment and still chose not to step on it.
For some reason, even though he didn't sense any hostility from the fuzz, it made him deeply uncomfortable.
So, he chose to fly.
Although using his spiritual rhinoceros before confirming any loot ran the risk of "operating at a loss," this was his first time exploring a monster nest, so he could afford to be a little extravagant.
He floated up the stairwell, flying directly to the floor where the gym was located.
Upon reaching the entrance, he found that the corridor door leading to the gym was also blocked by the bizarre black substance.
This black substance, on the other hand, did not give Li Ban that same sense of discomfort.
However, he only wanted to sneak a quick look this time. If he touched the black substance, he might alert the monster swarm inside.
The nest has been here for a long time. It seems to have turned this place into its private domain.
It's sealed up tight. If I use Shrinking Ground to an Inch to get past it, I might end up crashing straight into something inside.
Let's take a peek first.
Li Ban approached the black substance.
Rending Technique!