Chapter 28: Undercurrents Stirring

Overall, Lu Sheng truly was not as excited as the others. The reason was exactly as he had stated. The abundance of treasures he had acquired earlier had already stirred his excitement.

Within the large dungeon space, Fei Liuhuo had already made a round, but not a single monster worthy of their attention was to be found. He wasn’t surprised; this was perfectly normal. High-level monsters only allow those at least two tiers below themselves to survive nearby. The absence of other third-tier monsters in this dungeon was expected by everyone.

“Since there are no monsters left here, let’s return,” Fei Liuhuo said, leading his group out of the dungeon space.

Li Kuang, upon seeing Fei Liuhuo and his team leave, also exited. Their sole purpose in coming to this large dungeon was to assist Fei Liuhuo; now that their task was complete, there was no reason to linger. They had followed Fei Liuhuo because the agreement stipulated they would help eliminate any creatures within the dungeon space that might threaten their settlement. Li Kuang watched as Fei Liuhuo fulfilled his promise. Now, it was confirmed that only second-tier monsters remained in the dungeon, so their settlement would not face any danger from this space.

More and more people left. Whether they had merely wandered aimlessly or truly hoped to profit from the dungeon, nearly all squads from the settlement departed.

No one noticed that, underground, beside a massive shed snakeskin, coiled a two-headed serpent. Judging from the snakeskin, it had originally possessed only one head; the residual slime on its body attested to a recent molt. The two-headed serpent raised its head, flicking its tongue to gather information from the air…

Meanwhile, Yan Dao, who had escaped, had already traversed a vast forest and returned to Bull City. As he made his way back, his expression was dark and brooding, his mind obsessing over the sudden appearance of those twenty extra people. In his view, they absolutely weren’t from Liuhuo Gang. He was determined to uncover where those twenty had come from; it was their unexpected assault that had thrown his elite squad into disarray and led to their total defeat. Otherwise, even a surprise attack by Fei Liuhuo would never have caused such devastating losses.

Back at Heaven Blade Gang, Yan Dao convened a meeting, his gaze vicious and cruel. “Fei Liuhuo, since you dared to strike first, then let’s see who survives in the end!”

At the Heaven Blade Gang meeting, Yan Dao’s ruthless, manic glare chilled everyone. His subordinates, uncertain about his mood, hardly dared to breathe, afraid their very breath might provoke him.

…

The seemingly calm surface of Gale Settlement had been drawn into an invisible whirlpool by this operation. Li Kuang, who had just broken through to the third tier, was still basking in his triumph, convinced their actions had been sufficiently covert and that no trouble would come his way. If anyone sought vengeance, it would be against Liuhuo Gang, since he himself had been acting as one of their men at the time.

But he had no idea that Heaven Blade Gang, as Liuhuo Gang’s equal adversary, was intimately familiar with their strength and capabilities. How could they fail to notice the abrupt appearance of twenty extra fighters? Perhaps if Li Kuang had joined the operation from the beginning, acting together with Liuhuo Gang and not so suddenly, Yan Dao would not have grown suspicious.

In the end, the greatest victor was Fei Liuhuo, who had played both sides with nothing more than a single third-tier spirit fruit. By not letting Li Kuang join him right away, he ensured Yan Dao wouldn’t see their uneven forces and either refuse to appear or act with extreme caution, always on guard—a result Fei Liuhuo did not desire. So he had Li Kuang join later, only after the battle had grown heated, to enter as a surprise force.

The outcome was just as Fei Liuhuo had hoped: he successfully wiped out fifty of Heaven Blade Gang’s elite.

As for Li Kuang and his men being targeted by Yan Dao because of their abrupt appearance? That was none of Fei Liuhuo’s concern. If anything, he could only blame Li Kuang’s poor luck. Fei Liuhuo’s treasures were never so easily won.

...

The day passed swiftly. Lu Sheng settled the Queen Ant in her new home. He summoned all his worker ants to attend her, and within a single day, a nascent ant nest had taken shape. The workers busied themselves building the nest, feeding the queen, and tending her egg clutch.

The Fangtooth Pig once again became the primary source of food for his livestock. Yet as the queen’s voracious appetite revealed itself, Lu Sheng found himself troubled—thirty piglets devoured in an hour, leaving nothing behind. To mosquitoes, piglets were sizeable prey, but to the colossal Queen Ant, they were woefully small. What’s more, the queen was a terrifying reproductive machine, requiring even more sustenance.

Even with the ability to exploit bugs and endlessly reset the piglets, Lu Sheng wasn’t satisfied. It was too great a waste of his time, and time was his most precious resource. Moreover, given the current pace, upgrading the Fangtooth Pig was inevitable, and he possessed enough cards to do so. He decided to enhance the Fangtooth Pig immediately.

He spent one hundred and fifty Bloodthirsty Mosquito cards, successfully advancing the Fangtooth Pig to the late stage, hoping for some improvement.

[Fangtooth Pig]
Quality: White
Tier: Late First Tier
Skill: Piglets
Piglets: Summon fifteen piglets to assist.

The quantity increased by five, but this wasn’t what Lu Sheng wanted; he hoped to replace piglets with adult boars, which would ease his worries about the Red Fire Ants’ food supply. For now, he had no choice. His cards were depleted, and further upgrades would have to wait until the Bloodthirsty Mosquito matured tomorrow.

For now, he used the bug to secure the queen’s daily rations. He had the Fangtooth Pig use its daily summoning, bringing forth fifteen piglets, which, combined with the original thirty, totaled forty-five. Then he summoned forty-five Red Fire Ants to repeatedly slaughter the piglets.

Soon, the ground was littered with piglet corpses, hundreds piled into a small mountain—a scene of utter carnage. The power of the Red Fire Ant’s mandibles was clear: gripping a piglet’s head was like seizing a block of tofu—one squeeze, and it was severed.

The breeding problem was finally resolved, but Lu Sheng noticed a flaw that had not yet fully manifested: doing everything himself was exhausting. As he bred more and more species, their food requirements could not always depend on his personal attention.

Lu Sheng had already conceived a direction for the future. He would build an ecosystem, allowing all creatures to breed freely within his sub-dimensional space: Fangtooth Pigs would reproduce on their own, Red Fire Ants would hunt them, and Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes would seek out blood from other inhabitants.

He would simply monitor the situation, culling any species that became too numerous to prevent dominance. This way, he would no longer need to worry about food supplies for his livestock—the current mode was essentially captive breeding; the next phase would be free-range.

For now, the idea was merely taking shape in his mind; to implement it would still require some time.