“Come on, Gray, eat a little more.”
One after another, Puji stuffed with acid filling crowded around Gray, pushing themselves at her, nearly jumping into her mouth.
Mouth open, Gray chewed half a Puji before it slipped out and plopped onto the ground.
After a long pause, she suddenly tossed aside the Puji in her hands and scrambled up a mushroom tree, hiding at the top of its cap.
The Puji couldn’t reach her and just milled around below.
Seeing this, Lin Jun could only disperse them.
It seemed her stomach wasn’t bottomless. She usually ate endlessly, but when force-fed, she’d max out at… sixteen.
Still, for a humanoid only one and a half meters tall, putting away sixteen half-man-sized Puji was impressive.
It took half a day before she climbed back down, refusing any more acid Puji and demanding only mild-flavored mana Puji.
The “forced feeding” plan failed. He’d just have to collect normally every two days.Unfortunately, most of it was gaseous breath; condensed acid liquid barely filled half a vial.
After a week, he’d gathered just over one vial. Lin Jun divided it into ten doses.
At the rift’s edge, bat Puji flew down one by one.
From the barren cliff wall, nutrient supply tubes of woven mycelium pushed the fungal carpet toward the mayfly territory.
At the border, they spun layered platforms like bird perches, where the bat Puji hung upside-down in rows.
When the first batch settled, three faster fliers darted out.
Though all bat Puji, this was a mixed force—these three were speed-specialized, serving as bait.
They descended a distance, soon breaching the mayfly territory edge.
Below, the rift teemed with mayflies—clusters or solitary higher ranks.
Lin Jun had scouted carefully, picking this zone with relatively low density and no individuals above LV50. A “simple” target, relatively speaking.
The moment the bait Puji entered, seven mayflies whirred their wings and slithered their segmented bodies over.
With 【Vibration Sense】, their detection range was vast.
Perfect—bait could lure them from far away before retreating.
But Puji bodies weren’t made for flight. Even with 【Acceleration LV6】, they lagged behind the mayflies’ natural speed.
Since they hadn’t flown far, the bait soon flapped back onto the fungal platform.
When the seven mayflies gave chase, they flew straight into a storm of upside-down fungal cannons.
The sub-LV30 mayflies were shredded instantly, their corpses tumbling into the bottomless abyss.
Lin Jun winced.
This was why he’d avoided the rift route at first!
Never mind the difficulty and logistics—the kills yielded no corpses. Zero gains. Just wasted effort.
Still, the bait flew again.
Minutes later, they dragged six more mayflies into the trap—this time, including a LV41 elite.
Its body was bulkier, segments more numerous.
After the barrage, the lesser ones dropped, but it still powered upward.
【Spit Arrow LV5】
A glob of black liquid struck its head. Its sturdy shell melted like paper, toxin seeping into its brain.
Within seconds, the elite collapsed like the rest.
Gray’s venom was best saved for these tough targets.
Theoretically, the easiest method would be just bringing Gray down. She could fly, and would likely devastate the swarm.
But this wasn’t a contained dungeon floor—it was an unknown, sprawling deep zone.
Without the fungal network, if Gray dove out of sight, Lin Jun couldn’t guarantee finding her again.
Better to let the Puji struggle for now.
As the outermost mayflies thinned, bait runs grew riskier.
The farther they flew, the harder to escape. Even flapping desperately, the Puji barely outpaced pursuit.
Close calls forced the use of backup skills.
【Jet Stream LV4】
Gas burst from under them, blasting two Puji upward, widening the gap.
But the third spun out of control like a leaking balloon, only to be skewered midair by a mayfly. Sacrificed.
It couldn’t be helped. Their control was clumsy. A sixty percent survival rate for emergency jets was acceptable. They had spares anyway.
With each wave cleared, mycelium extended deeper, laying new fungal platforms every hundred meters or so.
They also had to burn away mayfly silk webs.
For that, Lin Jun created a magic Puji specialized in casting Fireball.
…
By the second day, they’d advanced a kilometer.
At a fork leading toward another swarm cluster, Lin Jun opted not to split forces. He stationed a squad to guard the passage, preventing incursions that could sever the carpet.
By the fourth day, they’d pushed over two kilometers—and Lin Jun saw something new.
A nest.
Clinging beneath an inverted peak, woven from mayfly silk into a massive cocoon.
He saw some mayflies carrying prey into its gaping holes.
The nest itself was one thing, but the fact they carried prey meant they were close to the surface. That lifted Lin Jun’s spirits.
These endless days of gainless slaughter were draining him. At times, entire waves had charged, inflicting heavy losses on the Puji.
But with ample reserves, progress never halted.
Now, gazing at the nest, he commanded a winged magic Puji to fly up, conjuring a massive Fireball.
Earlier, they’d burned strands one by one. But here, with threads woven thick—it would burn gloriously.
The fireball struck, igniting the silk, flames spreading in a rush.
Within minutes, the entire cocoon blazed like a torch.
Mayflies shrieked, bursting out in numbers—only to be blasted down by the cannon array.
It seemed this passage was nearly secured. Soon only cleanup would remain…
But as the silk burned away, something else emerged.
A colossal body, coiled beneath the inverted peak.
【Species: Thousand-Spindle Mayfly】
【Level: 65】
【Fixed State: Cocooned, Stasis】
Lin Jun barely had time to read the panel before the final state vanished.
The monster stirred, its long-immobile body uncoiling, half-moon eyes glowing red.
Though it had no pupils, Lin Jun felt its gaze lock straight onto the Puji.
So… what the hell kind of ecosystem was this!?