Chapter 17: Intelligence
Click, click, click…
Mechanical parts rubbed against each other as the entrance to the underground room opened. Lilith, who had been resting, looked up, but saw nothing unusual. Soon, the entrance closed, leaving her utterly confused. She didn’t think Su Xiao was the type to idly open and close doors for fun.
“Woof.”
A dog bark made Lilith freeze in place. She turned her head stiffly to find a large dog with black-and-white fur and glossy coat crouching beside her.
“??”
Lilith was dumbfounded. In her perception, this dog had never appeared before.
“This is an ally from the Demon Race.”
Su Xiao suddenly spoke.
“Huh?”
Lilith was even more puzzled.
“Woof (I see).”
Bubu Wang looked Lilith up and down. Upon seeing her goat hooves, he became interested and turned to Su Xiao with an inquiring look: “Master, this demon girl seems a bit dull. Are all demons this slow?”
“This should… be a minority.”
“Woof~”
Bubu Wang’s dog face leaned closer to Lilith. Seeing Bubu approach, Lilith didn’t resist; instead, she patted Bubu Wang’s head.
“Hello.”
Lilith rarely initiated greetings, and the fact that she hadn’t attacked when Bubu Wang first appeared near her suggested that this demon girl had a fairly high fondness for canines.
Bubu Wang’s ears perked up, and he raised a paw to greet Lilith.
However, innocent Lilith had no idea that Bubu Wang would drastically change her impression of canines—no, it would be a complete upheaval, the kind that shatters one’s worldview.
“Bubu, don’t tease the ally.”
Su Xiao took out a map and spread it flat on the table. Bubu Wang looked utterly innocent.
“The goal is simple: find the Ashen Sprout. The problem now is that we have no idea what the Ashen Sprout even is.”
Su Xiao raised his hand and drew a circle on the map, first excluding the outermost area of the Penitent Heights.
“Ashen Sprout?”
Lilith seemed to want to say something but didn’t know how to start.
“Do you know what this is?”
Su Xiao turned his gaze to Lilith. After all, this girl was from the Demon Race.
“Never heard of it.”
“…”
“…”
Bubu Wang’s expression nearly twisted into a grimace. When he heard Lilith’s doubtful tone, he had thought she knew something.
“Based on my deduction, the Ashen Sprout is most likely in this area, possibly related to the Soul Vine.”
Su Xiao pointed at the central area. Bubu Wang understood and raised a paw to pat his chest, signaling that he had it covered.
“If things go wrong during reconnaissance, retreat.”
“Woof.”
“Lilith, after this, go stir up trouble in the Black Swamp’s territory. Make up any excuse. Find a way to lure out the Black Swamp’s leader.”
“No problem.”
Although Lilith lacked experience, she had one advantage: she liked to observe quietly, using that to compensate for her shortcomings.
“Good. Let’s begin.”
Su Xiao stood up and walked out of the room. Currently, he was in the neutral zone. Investigating the situation in the Penitent Heights wasn’t difficult. Bubu Wang would handle the Ancestor faction, Lilith would handle the Black Swamp, and Su Xiao would secretly observe Lilith’s side. He needed to first determine the Black Swamp’s situation. If the Black Swamp didn’t have the Ashen Sprout, he would focus all his efforts on the Ancestor faction.
…
Five hours after splitting up, in Su Xiao’s underground dwelling.
Bubu Wang was crouched on the sofa, his hind legs trembling uncontrollably. His despairing look was as if he had fallen into a pit of shit.
Seeing Bubu Wang’s state, Su Xiao barely suppressed a smile, though the corner of his mouth twitched.
Noticing Su Xiao’s expression, Bubu Wang let out a howl, clearly meaning: “I’m scared out of my doggy mind, and you’re laughing at me? Give me a cigarette, I need one to calm down.”
“Spill it. What did you find?”
Seeing Bubu Wang’s expression, Su Xiao knew this drama queen must have made a major discovery.
“Woof.”
“Found it?”
“Woof!”
“So that thing really is in the central area.”
Half the weight lifted from Su Xiao’s mind. Although he had previously guessed that the ‘Ashen Sprout’ was in the central area—the Ancestor’s territory—he had no solid evidence and couldn’t change his actions based on speculation.
Bubu Wang hadn’t actually fallen into a shit pit; he had fallen into a corpse pit—a living corpse pit with hundreds of thousands of living corpses.
Originally, Bubu Wang had infiltrated the central area through a mountain peak, but who would have thought the mountain was hollow? Due to long-term weathering and erosion, some parts had become brittle, like traps, and Bubu Wang had fallen straight in.
Suddenly dropping into a corpse pit, even while blending into the environment, Bubu Wang nearly went into shock. If he hadn’t frantically pinched his own ‘philtrum’ at that moment, he might have passed out.
“Continue.”
Su Xiao rubbed his forehead. Heaven knows whether Bubu Wang even has a philtrum. Bubu Wang cleared his throat and continued his account.
After that, things were simple. Bubu Wang’s location was a large canyon. When he walked out of the hollow mountain, he saw an altar. Floating above the altar was a cluster of ashes—that was the Ashen Sprout.
“Bubu, near that altar, did you see any transparent vines?”
“Woof.”
“The whole area was covered in those vines?”
Su Xiao’s mind raced. The Black Swamp side was no longer relevant; the Ashen Sprout had no direct connection to them. The situation was now clear: the Ashen Sprout was in the Ancestor’s territory, and it was related to the Soul Vine.
What the Ashen Sprout was didn’t matter, nor did whether it was symbiotic or spawned by the Soul Vine. What mattered was how to snatch it.
With Bubu Wang’s arrival, things were gradually turning in Su Xiao’s favor. This was the power of intelligence.
“Bubu, how much impact do you think that thing can withstand?”
“Woo~”
Bubu Wang scooted backward, already guessing what Su Xiao was planning.
“Is that so? One hour from now, we enter the Ancestor’s territory.”
“I have to come too?”
For some reason, Lilith suddenly felt an instinctive resistance—she didn’t want to participate in this, not at all.
“Of course.”
“O… kay.”
Lilith nodded thoughtfully. If she had a chance to choose again, she would learn to refuse.
An hour later, Su Xiao packed an arm-thick glass test tube into a travel bag. From the exposed part of the tube, it was wrapped in a metal frame. Bubbles rose from the solution inside, and something was soaking in it.
Click, click, click…
Su Xiao pulled back the string of a crossbow, the tension palpable.
“Let’s move.”
Su Xiao tossed the travel bag to Bubu Wang. Although Bubu caught it in his mouth, he handled it with extreme caution.
Watching Su Xiao’s retreating figure, Lilith felt a sense of surrealism. Were they going to attack the Ancestor’s lair? With just these people? Wasn’t this suicide?
Yes, Su Xiao was indeed going to attack the Ancestor’s lair, but he wouldn’t confront the Ancestor faction head-on.