The Scout Pujis No.4 that flew back to the sixth layer ultimately found nothing.
As for that group of elves, needless to say, they had long since fled, and he didn’t run into them on the way down either.
And the tree demon in a frenzied state had also disappeared without a trace.
In fact, Lin Jun couldn’t even find a single tree demon within the sixth layer.
Were they active deeper inside?
Lin Jun couldn’t figure it out—was it that group of elves who deliberately dragged a tree demon into the sixth layer, or did a wandering tree demon just happen to bump into them?
Scout No.4 tried to keep exploring downward, but on the seventh layer, it was eaten by a Giant Demon Frog.
[Optical Invisibility LV7] wasn’t without flaws. It still left faint distortions in the light—most people and monsters couldn’t tell, but some creatures clearly could.
And that big frog was obviously one of them.
What was worse, Lin Jun hadn’t expected its tongue to launch thirty meters in an instant. Caught off guard, the Puji was snatched.With No.4 gone, Lin Jun temporarily gave up on probing deeper.
For now, opening the map down to the sixth layer was enough. His Mycelium Carpet was going to spread toward the surface anyway—the Elven Graveyard was still waiting for him.
Expansion of the Mycelium Carpet in the Divine Tree Dungeon region was progressing smoothly. The key was that this area lacked monsters that could massively destroy it.
Slimes and Mud Monsters did exist, but the former were rare and scattered, while the latter had fixed activity zones—easy enough to avoid.
Some other monsters did nibble on mushrooms, but for the most part they ignored the Carpet itself.
Only when digging underground tunnels did Lin Jun encounter a nest of Monster Rats, which liked to bite at the digging Pujis’ rears.
Following the tunnels, Lin Jun spread poison all the way, and after some effort, wiped them out completely.
Meanwhile, inside a certain tree hollow, Scout Puji No.1 had just performed “surgery” on itself—removing the symbiotic mana crystal from the middle of its body.
Originally, Lin Jun had implanted mana crystals into the Scout Pujis to strengthen their combat abilities. But now that No.1 had infiltrated the elf city, it didn’t need combat power as much. On the contrary, having a crystal inside might expose it. So, better to take it out.
But this was no simple matter. Cutting open the body to peel off the fused crystal—one slip and it could be suicide.
It was only because Lin Jun could monitor the health bar on the panel in real time, controlling the depth and scope of the operation with precision, that this high-risk procedure barely succeeded.
Now, the B-rank mana crystal, still laced with mycelium, lay in the hollow.
The Scout Puji itself lay limp nearby, its body split by a terrifying wound, waiting for the [Mycelium Reconstruction] skill to slowly heal it.
With its body torn open, it couldn’t walk—only its mycelium tendrils could move.
At a time like this, if even a random monster came by, it might be the end for it.
Fortunately, Lin Jun had thought ahead. Before the operation, he had carefully chosen this elf-rare area and cleared out all nearby wild monsters that might pose a threat.
Within the elf city’s boundaries, aside from tamed beasts, there were hardly any wild monsters above Gold rank. Clearing them was easy work for a Scout Puji.
For now, best to just lie low for a day…
——
“Little Ji—!” Ailawen’s clear voice rang through the forest, startling a few birds into flight.
“Actually… you don’t have to call so loudly.” Salian beside her reminded helplessly.
His long hands were lifted before him, palms up. Floating above them was a translucent, slowly turning sphere of light.
At its center, a miniature projection of him and his sister was displayed, with a sixty-meter radius fanning outward.
Whether behind ancient trees or beneath soil roots and insects—everything visible was shown in fine detail within this magical projection.
Eighth-tier magic—Spatial Exploration.
Third-tier magic—Illusion.
Salian had ingeniously combined the two, forming this probing sphere that moved along with them.
It wasn’t a simple overlay. It required profound understanding of both spells, and even more—long study of the subtle resonance and conflict between their magical nodes when intertwined.
This one-of-a-kind spherical projection was his personal research achievement.
If he continued down this path, he might even create a new evolved variant of Spatial Exploration magic.
And now, this promising mage was using his half-finished prototype to help his sister search for that lost mutated Puji…
Weary, Salian dispelled the projection, pulled a vial of sapphire-blue mana potion from his robe, and drank it down.
Two straight days of sustaining this unoptimized combined spell had exhausted even him.
“Maybe… it already ran far away?” he tried to phrase gently, hinting that perhaps his sister should give up.
Fresh from a draining negotiation, without rest before being dragged into this search, Salian felt utterly worn out.
“No way!” Ailawen spun around, her face filled with worry. “Little Ji is just a Puji! Even here in Ishildorin, it’s too dangerous for it! What if a fierce Forest Owl or a Burrow Lizard snatches it? It saved me, and I brought it out of the dungeon—if something happens to it now, that would be my fault…”
Salian’s mind instantly replayed that Puji flattening her other monsters with ease. His lips twitched: “For it, Ishildorin… might not be as dangerous as you think.”
“You scared it away!” The shorter Ailawen locked her clear green eyes on him.
Finally, Salian sighed in resignation: “…Fine, fine. Let’s keep searching.”
He focused again, mana gathering. The translucent probe sphere rose in his hands once more, and the siblings’ figures vanished beneath the forest canopy.
They searched another two days—still nothing.
By the fourth day, Salian was too drained to leave his house.
So Ailawen went to continue the search alone, combing through the treetop market districts they hadn’t yet checked.
…
By this time, Scout No.1 had fully recovered.
The mana crystal it had dug out was casually buried by Lin Jun.
A B-rank mana crystal was hardly worth keeping—Lin Jun had plenty.
The reason the Scout Puji hadn’t returned to Ailawen’s little house was that Lin Jun’s attention had been caught by an elven magic potion shop!
Silentwind Town also had potion shops, but their shopkeepers at best could brew basic Mana Potions and basic Healing Potions—most others had to be imported.
But this elven shop was clearly on a different level. Every potion inside was concocted by the shop itself!