Chapter 245 - 149: Collecting the Eye Demons (Part 2)
The sprite, having completed its task, ignored the other brawling mummified corpses and left the building.
Then, a new, clean, and uncontaminated sprite appeared at the entrance.
Seeing this, the brawling Eye Demons stopped fighting. They instantly drained the bodies they were parasitizing and scrambled toward the sprite.
Once an Eye Demon entered the sprite’s body, the others began to wail as faint spatial fluctuations appeared around them.
However, the parasitized sprite immediately turned and left the building, and a new sprite entered.
The nearest Eye Demon instantly burrowed into the sprite’s body. The spatial fluctuations around it then vanished, while those around the other Eye Demons grew increasingly intense.
Before the next sprite could enter, they vanished. They had all been expelled from the continent, sent back to their respective lords’ territories.
The remaining Eye Demons now understood the sprites’ pattern: as soon as one was parasitized, it would leave, and a new, viable host would enter.
So, the Eye Demons stopped scrambling for a host. Instead, they formed a line, waiting for the sprites and Slimes to enter so they could parasitize them in an orderly fashion.
In this way, all the sprites and Slimes were soon parasitized by Eye Demons.
...
After all the sprites and Slimes had been parasitized by Eye Demons, Lin Kong re-entered the building with the Death Devourers.
He glanced at the faint traces of life and the few remaining mummified corpses, then ordered the Death Devourers, "Kill the rest of the Eye Demons. Creatures that can control life are too dangerous to leave here."
Each Death Devourer released a cloud of deathly energy, neutralizing all signs of life. They then directed this energy to sweep through the entire building. Once he confirmed that all the Eye Demons were dead, Lin Kong led the Death Devourers away.
A moment later, Phantom returned with the soldiers who had finished searching the city.
"All taken care of?" Phantom glanced at the Eye Demons inside the parasitized sprites and Slimes.
"Done! Phantom, did you find anything on your end?"
"Nothing. The city’s clean, nothing of value. Too bad we couldn’t get into the Lord’s Mansion. There might have been something good inside. Let’s go. We’ll escort them back first."
Escorted by the soldiers, the sprites and Slimes began their journey home.
When the party arrived back at the Teleportation Gate, a scout was already waiting for them.
As soon as he saw Phantom and Lin Kong, he immediately ran over.
"Sirs, we’ve discovered a territory with signs of activity."
"Oh? Where?" Lin Kong’s eyes lit up.
"It’s on the mountain range to the west." The scout pointed to the faintly visible mountains in the distance.
Lin Kong and Phantom exchanged a glance. "Go take a look?"
"Let’s take a look!"
The pair watched as the sprites and Slimes, escorted by the Guard, entered the Teleportation Gate. Then, they boarded a Floating Car and flew toward the mountains, with the scout transforming into a bird to lead the way.
「Over an hour later.」
Following the scout’s lead, the two arrived at a mountain peak.
A city stood atop the peak. Judging by its size, it was somewhat larger than the Eye-Pleasing Demon’s city they had seen before.
By now, sentries in the city had already spotted them. Shadowy figures moved atop the walls; it was clear the lord of this territory was on edge.
"Who are you?" a voice called out from the wall.
"Just passing through!"
"Passing through? What are you doing here?"
"There’s not a soul down in the valley. You’re the only people around, so we came to ask about the situation."
There was no reply from the wall. After a while, another voice called out.
"You’re not members of a nearby lord’s territory, are you? Is there a Teleportation Gate at the foot of the mountain?"
"How could you tell?" Lin Kong was surprised they had figured it out so quickly.
"Heh! Anyone who walked here wouldn’t be asking that question. Wait, you’re not from another continent, are you?"
"No, no, we’re from this continent."
"Enough with the chatter. State your names and the name of your lord. I’m going to run a check."
"Our lord is Li Hua. Our names are Phantom and Lin Kong," Lin Kong replied with a chuckle.
The wall fell silent again.
After hearing the names Lin Kong provided, Xiong Liang immediately tried to send Li Hua a private message. Unfortunately, Li Hua had also disabled messages from strangers, so he couldn’t get through. Still, it proved the two people below the wall at least knew of Li Hua.
Xiong Liang thought for a moment. His intuition told him the two below were probably trustworthy.
"Did you see the city at the foot of the mountain? Since you came up from there, you must have gone inside."
"Yes, we saw it. The city was empty, which is why we came up here to check."
"The lord of the territory that city belongs to is named Mei Yuan. For the rest, you can ask your own lord."
After saying this, Xiong Liang instructed the guards on the wall to remain vigilant and was about to return to the Lord’s Mansion.
However, another question from below the wall stopped him in his tracks.
"We heard that in Mei Yuan’s Northern Expedition Legion, the lowest hero tier is Excellent. You’re so close to him, do you know anything about that?"
"That’s right, the Northern Expedition Legion is indeed like that. All Fine-tier heroes have been promoted to Excellent-tier. Is there a problem?"
"You’re so sure?"
"Of course. I saw him upgrade a Fine-tier hero to an Excellent-tier hero with my own eyes."
"You saw *how* he upgraded them?"
’Strange,’ Lin Kong thought. He knew the city below belonged to Mei Yuan, and he recalled the building for the Eye-Pleasing Demons inside. He also remembered some of the lords from Mei Yuan’s Northern Expedition Legion boasting in the chat channels, "The lowest-tier hero in our Northern Expedition Legion is Excellent. How can you possibly fight us?"
’He must be using Eye Demons to parasitize Fine-tier heroes, leveraging their traits to boost the heroes’ stats to the Excellent tier.’
’But now, hearing this lord say he’d personally witnessed the upgrade process, I’m not so sure. If anyone saw Mei Yuan using Eye Demon parasites to upgrade his heroes, word would have spread through the chat channels long ago.’
"Oh, not exactly. I handed my Fine-tier hero over to Mei Yuan, and he had someone take my hero into his city. A little while later, my hero came out as an Excellent-tier."
Xiong Liang’s answer made Lin Kong and Phantom excited. ’Now we have a sample! We can finally confirm if Mei Yuan is using Eye Demons to upgrade his Northern Expedition Legion’s heroes.’
"You have heroes that were upgraded by Mei Yuan?"
"Yes, I had Mei Yuan help me upgrade eleven Fine-tier heroes. What about it?"
"Why not upgrade more?"
"Something just felt... off. I didn’t dare upgrade too many."
"Hahaha, you’re quite cautious, my Lord! Could you let us come in and take a look at the heroes you had upgraded?"
"Hm? What are you planning?" Xiong Liang asked, a bit wary.
"We just have a few questions that need to be answered in person. Sir, this is your territory. With all your troops and heroes here, you have nothing to worry about."
Xiong Liang considered it. ’He has a point.’ He turned to a hero beside him and ordered, "Cole, go out and meet them. Don’t worry, we’ll be watching from the wall. We won’t let you get hurt!"
Cole’s eyes flickered. He glanced at his companion beside him and nodded in agreement.
A nearby soldier produced a rope, secured one end to an anchor point, and tossed the other over the wall. Cole then slid down the rope and walked up to Lin Kong and Phantom.
"Alright, what do you want with me?"
Lin Kong gave Phantom a look. Phantom understood, took two steps forward, and extended his hand in a handshake gesture. "Hello there!"
Cole slapped Phantom’s hand away. "If you have something to say, say it. Don’t get handsy."
A flash of anger crossed Phantom’s eyes. ’Fine. If he won’t cooperate, I’ll have to get rough.’
His hands moved, leaving an afterimage as he pressed them directly onto Cole’s shoulders. A surge of Wind Spiritual Energy instantly immobilized Cole.
"What are you doing?" Cole flared up instantly.
"My bad, I forgot!" Phantom waved his hand, and another surge of Spiritual Energy wrapped around Cole’s mouth. No matter how he shouted, no sound escaped.
Seeing that Phantom had Cole under control, Lin Kong moved behind him and pulled up his shirt, exposing his back.