Chapter 637
636 New Landmark
Chapter 637, Section 636: The New Landmark
Deep within the Puji underground city, the cave passages meander and extend.
Two rows of fluorescent mushrooms growing on the rock face emitted a faint blue and pale green glow, providing a soft illumination for the passageway.
However, the cave at the end of the passage was completely dark, and the air emanating from it seemed to carry some almost imperceptible groans.
Footsteps sounded, and Norris emerged from the darkness, clutching a jar of freshly squeezed "Blood Jade Wine" tightly in his hand.
Recalling the fleeting glimpse he had just seen in the dark cave, he still felt a chill run down his spine.
Being a bad guy in the boss's territory has extremely serious consequences.
Passing by Ming's arena, Ming, covered in blood and still in the middle of a battle, greeted his senior Norris warmly. The next moment, he was struck by a huge fireball, and the smoke and dust kicked up were followed by the roars of battle and the cries of the dying.
On his way back to Junbao, he easily pushed open the wooden door of an inconspicuous lounge in the government affairs center area.
"Sister Xue, I brought you some food." He tried to make his voice sound as relaxed as possible.
He still clearly remembered that a few days ago, his boss suddenly called him. When he went over, he saw Louisa lying in a pool of blood, which startled him. He thought he was being asked to come and collect the body.
After learning a little about what happened, one can only sigh that the vampires' method of increasing power comes at a truly terrible price.
Louisa lay on the bed in the lounge with her eyes closed.
Norris tried calling out twice, but seeing that Louisa didn't respond, he could only sit down to the side.
After waiting for a while, Norris curiously stretched out a finger and pried open Louisa's mouth, revealing the scarlet fangs unique to vampires.
Although he had been sucked blood several times, this was the first time he had the opportunity to observe vampire fangs like this.
Then he saw Louisa's scarlet eyes staring at him.
Norris jerked his hand back and raised the jar in his hand with an embarrassed look.
Louisa didn't say anything, and didn't even move her body.
However, it wasn't that she didn't want to, but that she couldn't.
The blood-stealing ritual was indeed successful thanks to the abnormal restorative power of the Water of Life, but it also had significant side effects.
In the last ritual, she successfully seized the target's power, and instantly leveled up several times upon completion of the ritual.
This time, most of the energy of the vast blood essence within Cassinar was consumed in the struggle and attrition between the two forces.
The ritual only barely allowed her to break through the inherent upper limit of her bloodline power, without directly bringing about a leap in level.
Not only that.
Although the Water of Life repaired the terrible physical damage caused by the confrontation, and the alien blood power was forcibly forced into her body by the ritual, the essential conflict between the two forces did not stop, only the intensity was reduced to a level that would not cause her to explode and die again.
This has left Louisa in a state of near paralysis; apart from her head, her entire body is immobilized due to continuous internal strain and she needs someone to take care of her.
This task was naturally assigned to Norris, with whom Lin Jun had a fairly good relationship.
Fortunately, the little pig was still conscious and could continue to help Lin Jun direct the entanglement with the Empire.
In fact, out of consideration for her subordinates, Lin Jun had suggested that Louisa rest and recuperate first until she was fully recovered.
However, after seeing the battle damage data generated by the boss during the day he was unconscious, Little Pig still insisted on having his command authority restored.
The reason I didn't pay attention to Norris immediately was because I was directing a small battle.
“Come here, Blood Sister.” Norris skillfully inserted a hollow, thin tube into the sealed opening of the Blood Jade Wine Jar, and carefully brought the other end of the tube to Louisa’s lips.
Norris had absolutely no reluctance in taking care of Louisa.
In the mushroom garden, the only ones who wouldn't deliberately trick him are Senior Dylan and Louisa.
Louisa did not suckle immediately, but instead turned her eyes slightly to look at the window of the lounge.
“What is that?” Louisa asked.
Outside the window, a brand-new, towering building is rising from the ground.
The project had already begun before Louisa woke up, and from the angle from which she was lying, she could see Puji and the fungi working busily. In just a few days, the construction seemed to be nearing completion.
What puzzled Louisa was that the building, located in the core area of Fungus Castle, had an unusually simple structure with almost no complex features, and its exterior was only engraved with some basic, stable runes.
The rapid construction speed is largely due to this minimalist design.
But what is the purpose of building such an ordinary building in such an important central location?
Louisa had been pondering this question for two days without finding a solution, and today she finally couldn't help but ask it.
“That one,” Norris said, following her gaze, “I heard from Starfire that it’s a clock tower. The boss personally ordered it to be built urgently, and it seems to be going into operation for the first time tomorrow at noon.”
"The clock tower?" A hint of confusion flashed in Louisa's crimson eyes.
……
The next day, when Norris once again carried the blood jug into the lounge, the clock tower outside the window was already completed.
The gray-white tower contrasts subtly with the other buildings in the mushroom castle. At the top of the tower, a huge clock face is in place, its hands reflecting the sunlight in the morning.
Many residents of the mushroom fortress gathered around to see what was so unusual.
Most of the villagers, who came from a tribal background, looked up with curiosity on their faces; many of them had never seen a bell tower in their lives.
Meanwhile, the fungal people who had once been slaves of the empire whispered among themselves in the fungal web, wondering if this clock tower that appeared in the north was any different from the clock towers in the empire.
Norris held the straw to Louisa's lips again, and she slowly sipped the [Delicious LV10] Blood Jade Wine, her gaze fixed on the clock tower outside the window.
At noon, on the clock tower, the heavy metal minute hand and the even shorter, thicker hour hand slowly overlapped at the twelve o'clock mark under the gaze of countless eyes.
"Click".
A crisp sound came from inside the towering clock tower.
Immediately afterwards, at the position on the tower body corresponding to the twelve o'clock mark, a hidden compartment slid inward, revealing a square hole about half the size of a person, through which the midday sun shone.
"Uh...ho...oh oh oh oh!"
A groan, a mixture of pain and pleasure, suddenly burst forth from the hole!
The sound, amplified by the special structure inside the clock tower, echoed with a buzzing sound and instantly spread throughout the entire central square of the mushroom castle.
The sound was all too familiar to the citizens of the mushroom fortress gathered below!
That was the voice of the original vampire outside the door.
"I was wondering why it was so quiet when I went to knock on the door today. Turns out they moved here!"
The mushroom enthusiasts below, who were quietly engaged in lively discussions within the mushroom netting, were now exchanging ideas.
The painful yet pleasurable cries echoed for a full minute, accompanied by the continuous sunlight.
As the minute hand finally moved slowly away, the hidden compartment on the tower slid back into place with a "whoosh," blocking out both the sunlight and the screams, and silence returned to the outside of the clock tower in an instant.
The mushroom enthusiasts continued their discussion with lingering interest, and some of those with free time did not leave immediately but lingered there, gazing up at the mushrooms with anticipation.
One o'clock in the afternoon.
"Click".
The hidden compartment corresponding to one of the markings pops open.
"No! Spare me... Hoaaaaah!" Another completely different, hoarse and shrill vampire howl rang out right on time.
Lin Jun carefully selected vampires with different timbres, volumes, and even scream rhythms, and placed them in the corresponding hour slots.
This newly completed clock tower is a solar-powered clock with a built-in punctual timekeeping function.
Although the initial intention was to train sunlight resistance, seeing that the door-calling vampires had become a source of spiritual sustenance for the fungi, Lin Jun couldn't just cut it off completely.
The current arrangement is good; it doesn't disturb the residents and preserves the unique features of the mushroom castle.
As for the other vampires who were not selected... they were all placed far away from the fungus fortress, continuing to work hard every day to improve their [sunlight resistance] training progress.
(End of this chapter)