“This is…”
Ailin stared in shock at the surroundings of the camp.
Just now, a small group of Swamp Pythons surged out of the river water.
It was May, exactly the season when these amphibious magic beasts shed their skin in the water.
It wasn’t unusual to encounter them by chance; Ailin insisted on camping here because she knew there wouldn’t be any overly powerful magic beasts nearby.
With the strength of their Violet Team, they could handle it just fine.
She had even thought that Li Si didn’t want to camp here just to take care of Lili Ya.
After all, although Lili Ya’s level had increased, rumor had it that she had always been carried by Li Si, and her actual combat ability was still that of a useless priest.
But now that she had actually spent time with her, it seemed very different from the rumors.
Lili Ya stood high on a treetop, her index finger slightly bent, hooking onto a tough strand of spider silk.
Her bandaged finger was unaffected as she pressed down with force.
The silk bent, and in an instant, a complex web of spider silk stretched taut around the camp.
The web contracted rapidly as it appeared, binding most of the Swamp Pythons that had slithered close to the camp to the surrounding trees, rocks, and pre-hidden stakes.
Ailin’s mouth hung open as she said in shock, “When did you do all this…?”
Spider silk traps were the most common hunting traps, but the usual method was one thread per snare.
She had never seen such a wide-area setup where a single strand of silk precisely controlled multiple strands.
“Still not skilled enough.”
Lili Ya reflected out loud.
Although most of the Swamp Pythons had been bound, there were still about a dozen that slipped through.
If it were Li Si, she would never have missed that many.
She sighed, not bothering to respond to Ailin, and immediately began dealing with the prey.
Ailin was stunned for a moment.
The Lili Ya who felt completely different a second ago suddenly became familiar again.
Lili Ya took her staff and went duang, duang, duang, needing ten hits to finally kill a level 5 Swamp Python.
Ailin smacked her lips.
A Swamp Python happened to swim to her feet, and she casually cut it in half with a single sword stroke.
The Swamp Python group was not small, but the highest level was only 10, and the Violet Team were all level 15 professionals, so clearing them was effortless.
By the time Li Si returned to camp with Jian, Ailin had already started processing the python corpses.
When Lili Ya saw Jian standing next to Li Si, her eyes flickered.
She went over and quickly explained the situation to Li Si.
The situation was simple: a group of Swamp Pythons had come ashore from the water, possibly just passing through or attacking.
Lili Ya speculated, “It’s the molting season recently, so there might be more Swamp Pythons in the river, but they don’t seem to want to move camp…”
By the end, her tone was clearly a bit unhappy.
Li Si reached out and rubbed Lili Ya’s forehead, saying softly, “Treat it as a nighttime training exercise.”
“Mm!”
Lili Ya immediately smiled, happily ran to the open space, and continued the training she had stopped earlier.
Stare——
Li Si turned around in confusion.
Jian’s eyes were wide open, looking from Lili Ya to herself, making a suspicious sound from her throat.
That sound seemed to be brewing, as if she wanted to demand an answer but didn’t know what to ask.
Jian rolled her eyes, then trotted back to the carriage.
Li Si’s mouth twitched.
Jian reminded her of someone—a princess who also never said thank you.
Shaking her head helplessly, Li Si looked at the merchant caravan.
The old village chief had resumed making a fire to cook.
Noticing her gaze, he explained awkwardly, “I accidentally triggered the distress signal just now. Sorry for making you rush back in such a hurry.”
‘Was it really just an accidental trigger?’
Li Si looked at the two young men.
They were huddled together whispering, but when they noticed Li Si’s gaze, they suddenly stopped and smiled awkwardly at her.
Li Si merely nodded faintly, then turned to see Yadana giving a Swamp Python corpse mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Her eyelid twitched.
“Phew—Haki ah, although I couldn’t revive you, this crystal will be your pledge of allegiance. Next time I meet your descendant, I’ll appoint it as strategist.”
Yadana happily blew a pitch-black crystal out of the python’s mouth.
She held up the crystal and immediately boasted to Li Si, “Boss! Look what treasure I found!”
Li Si’s eyes flickered.
Demon Realm Crystal, pitch-black all over, was proof that a monster had obtained the qualification to evolve.
With this crystal, a monster could become the master of a Dungeon.
This item only appeared after the monster mutation, and since the mutation had just begun, there weren’t many produced yet, and few had seen them.
“What kind of gem is this? It seems to contain experience points.” Ailin curiously approached.
She had just dissected several Swamp Pythons without finding anything like this, but after Yadana took one corpse, it produced this.
She wasn’t envious, just a bit curious.
“I can indeed feel that crushing it would increase experience.”
“Is it a product of the Miasma Invasion?”
“This should be quite valuable, right?”
The other four members of the Violet Team also gathered around curiously.
As they spoke, all four looked at the pile of Swamp Python corpses, suddenly eager to try their luck.
Li Si casually played with it for a moment, then tossed it back to Yadana.
This thing could indeed increase experience points, but it was too small.
It had probably just crystallized inside the Swamp Python recently, at most a few dozen experience points, insignificant.
However, the reaction of that merchant caravan was a bit strange.
Faced with such a novel item, they didn’t even glance at it, and instead clearly avoided looking this way.
Li Si thought for a moment.
Seeing that the meal was almost ready, she stepped forward to help, casually chatting with the old village chief, and naturally steered the topic toward the priest in the caravan.
“Suoda is the only priest in our village. His main purpose this time is to go to the Holy Hall to inquire about Respawning Points.”
Village Chief Luolun spoke cautiously, apparently not deliberately hiding the fact that the caravan had a priest.
As for the young woman, she was indeed a warrior.
“Luola is a level 15 ax fighter, the captain of the village defense squad. Your observation, milady, is truly sharp.”
In response to the probing, the other party’s answers were quite honest.
As for the reason for hiding their true strength, the old village chief explained it was just for an extra layer of security.
Li Si could understand that, but the attitude of these three toward the Demon Realm Crystal was less about avoiding the topic and more about dismissiveness.
“Hm?”
Li Si raised an eyebrow.
A faint thread suddenly appeared on the female ax fighter named Luola.
The thread wrapped around her and drifted far into the night sky in a certain direction.
Although she couldn’t see it, Li Si could sense that the thread was drifting toward Hot Spring Village.
[Kind Mother]: You have the most encouraging insight.
Kind Mother’s guidance target seemed to have some connection with this Luola.
Speaking of which, the feeling of a distress call that Kind Mother had sensed was becoming clearer as they approached Hot Spring Village, even stronger than when it was Lili Ya before.
Clearly, something seemed to be happening over there, yet these three hadn’t said a word about the village’s situation.
Just as she was thinking, Li Si suddenly turned to look at the carriage.
A small head in the carriage quickly ducked back inside.
Jian excitedly looked at the photo she had secretly taken with a skill and hurriedly sent it to her fan group.
[Gold and Silver Flower Team]
[Jian: (Li Si sitting by the campfire.jpg)]
[Jian: See, I didn’t lie to you! This is the demon Li Si! I’m right next to her!]
Just as Jian sent the message, she felt a surge of energy.
Outside the broken carriage, the demon Li Si suddenly stood up and walked toward her.
“Wh-what do you want!”
Jian quickly shrank back, afraid that Li Si would reveal her demonic nature.
But Li Si just silently fixed her gaze on the wooden boards of the carriage.
She extended her fingertip and gently stroked the smooth wooden board.
Suddenly, everything clicked.
‘These three are hiding something.’