Ding Longyun grunted in acknowledgment. "Looks like we really need to prepare to leave this place."
Leaving the corpse boat, the four returned to the building. Ding Longyun and the others asked Su Li about the death of the Nightmare Beast. Su Li didn’t hide it and told them about the Corpse Mother hidden deep underwater. Of course, he didn’t mention the Spirit of Talent or his awakened talent, "Enhanced Blessing"—after all, everyone has a few small secrets they’d rather keep to themselves.
"So the Nightmare Beast died alongside the Corpse Mother. Who would’ve thought such a terrifying monster was lurking down there." Ding Longyun clicked his tongue in amazement. Since Su Li hadn’t mentioned cutting off the Corpse Mother’s roots to kill it, Ding Longyun assumed it had perished together with the Nightmare Beast.
Su Li handed the machete he was holding to Gong Xiao and said to Ding Longyun, "Sorry I lost your steel shovel."
Gong Xiao didn’t take it. "Keep the machete for yourself. I saw you lost your weapon too. I still have my baseball bat."
Su Li didn’t stand on ceremony and accepted the machete.
After that, the four took a short rest. Ding Longyun’s prepared dinner had long gone cold, so they reheated it. By the time they finished eating, the night was already deep.
"With everything that happened today, I think we should turn in early. There’s no way we can hunt tonight." Ding Longyun glanced at the clock on the wall and saw it was already ten at night.
Gong Xiao looked a bit disappointed. "No hunting tonight? The monsters are evolving every day. If we don’t push ourselves, I’m afraid..." She was eager to grow stronger, especially after witnessing Su Li’s performance today. She felt increasingly anxious, wanting to catch up to him or even surpass him.
Su Li was just one Spirit Source away from leveling up and was very curious about the "Enhanced Blessing" talent. He’d been itching to try it out, but because of the Nightmare Beast and Corpse Mother earlier, no monsters were left in this stretch of water—the living ones had all been scared off. Otherwise, he’d have found a way to hunt one by now. He wasn’t sure if the fleeing monsters had returned yet, but he wanted to give it a shot.
"Ten isn’t too late. Gong Xiao’s right—these monsters are getting stronger every day. Just like the Nightmare Beast showing up today, who knows if something even more terrifying will appear tomorrow? We can’t afford to miss any opportunity." Su Li decided to try again. He wanted to grow stronger. Getting the Corpse Mother and Nightmare Beast to fight each other today had been a stroke of luck, but no one could count on that every time. He needed to become powerful enough to survive better and protect the people he wanted to protect.
"Alright." Seeing that both Su Li and Gong Xiao agreed to continue hunting tonight, Ding Longyun nodded in approval.
The four prepared briefly. Su Li kept using the machete as his weapon, Gong Xiao picked up her original baseball bat, Ding Longyun took the axe left behind by Fang You, and Xu Xuehui stuck with her dagger and hammer.
They blew out the candles in the room, closed the door, and climbed to the rooftop.
Although the Nightmare Beast had smashed through several walls and left plenty of big holes, the building was still sturdy enough and showed no signs of collapsing yet.
Half of the large pile of corpses that had been on the rooftop had been thrown into the water by Su Li earlier. Now only about twenty remained.
"Let’s toss eight down first and see what’s going on tonight. Who knows what effect the Nightmare Beast’s appearance will have." Ding Longyun spoke as he picked up two corpses, walked to the edge of the rooftop, and threw them down.
Su Li followed suit, tossing two more down.
Soon, they had thrown eight corpses into the water and watched for changes below.
The eight bodies slowly sank, but the water surface remained still.
"What’s going on? Did those monsters really get scared off by the Nightmare Beast and that Corpse Mother thing?" Ding Longyun frowned.
Su Li said, "This building is their lair. Even if they were spooked and fled, they should have come back by now. Maybe it’s not enough corpses. Let’s add two more."
They threw two more bodies down.
In total, ten corpses had been tossed in, leaving only about ten on the rooftop. Everyone waited, with Gong Xiao, participating in her first hunt, being the most anxious.
After a full four or five minutes, the water below finally showed a reaction.
First, a human head emerged—a Corpse Beast. Then a second one.
Soon, eight Corpse Beasts appeared.
Su Li activated his "Peep Rune" and saw that among the emerging Corpse Beasts, five were low-level and three were high-level.
"Just as I thought—they’ve evolved again." Eight Corpse Beasts, with three being high-level—that was a startling ratio. Last night’s hunt, with all those low-level ones, had only produced two high-level Corpse Beasts total.
The Corpse Beasts began climbing up, especially the three high-level ones, moving with remarkable speed.
"Careful—three of them are high-level. These high-level ones are tough to deal with." As Su Li warned, the three high-level Corpse Beasts had already climbed up, while the other five low-level ones lagged behind, just reaching the thirty-first floor.
"Gong Xiao, be careful with the high-level ones." Ding Longyun had learned his lesson from fighting high-level Corpse Beasts before and worried Gong Xiao might not know.
"Got it." Gong Xiao nodded, gripping her baseball bat tightly. As a high-level Corpse Beast’s head emerged over the rooftop edge, she struck first, swinging the bat with a gust of wind toward its head.
The Corpse Beast twisted sideways, incredibly agile, and its right arm shot out at the same time.
"Huh?" Gong Xiao’s lips parted slightly, her eyes narrowing sharply as she noticed scales like fish scales covering the surface of the Corpse Beast’s outstretched right arm. The baseball bat hit that scale-covered arm with a dull thud like striking old leather.
The high-level Corpse Beast extended its right hand, grabbed the bat, and yanked hard.
Gong Xiao felt a surge of force and her face paled slightly as she struggled to hold onto the bat, pulling back.
The Corpse Beast took advantage of the moment, leaped onto the rooftop, released the bat, and lunged at her.
Meanwhile, Su Li and Ding Longyun had engaged the other two high-level Corpse Beasts.
Xu Xuehui gripped her hammer tightly, slowly closing in, looking for an opening to strike.
She was already a Level 2 Spirit Source user. After several battles, she’d gained some experience and no longer felt as scared as before.
The high-level Corpse Beast Su Li faced had a mutated right leg covered in a hard shell. Instead of attacking while it climbed, Su Li deliberately stepped back, letting it get onto the rooftop smoothly before swinging his machete at it.