This dungeon has mushrooms growing on it.

Chapter 201.200. Demonic Descendant
The far north ice sheet, the end of the world.

The wind is the only king of this frozen land.

As far as the eye can see, there is only pure, suffocating whiteness—the ice field stretches to the horizon, until it merges with the leaden sky.

This is the desolate graveyard of elements, devoid of any sign of life except for the wandering, chilling spirits.

However, in this desolate world, there is a group of demons who do not belong here, who survive by relying on an ancient underground city.

At this moment, on the ice, two figures are carrying a huge object forward, which is a snow-white worm several meters long.

The two were clad in tough armor made from monster hides, which tightly encased their muscular bodies.

Between the gaps in the armor plates, a faint blue light flickered with each heavy breath—these were the cold-resistant magic runes that grew on the flesh, marking their constant operation.

"Hunting!" Qiong, who was walking behind, said with suppressed excitement, "How long has it been since our tribe has hunted a Fimbulb of this size? We've really hit the jackpot!"

Hunting even had a rare smile on his face: "Judging from its size, its cold resistance must already be level eight. We'll have the elders infuse it into the 'Cradle' later, and we'll be able to add a new member after so long!"

"Oops!"

"What?!" Hunt tensed up instantly, and grabbed the bone spear handle on his back with his other hand.

"My horn... it's poked in! Ugh, the fluid's flowing out! It's sticky and disgusting!" Qiong said angrily.

As Shou relaxed, he looked up and saw the outline of the tribe's wall, built of huge ice rocks, faintly visible in the snowstorm.

"Just bear with it, we'll be there soon."

……

"Such a huge fat beast!" The guard, who had climbed down from the watchtower, looked at the two in astonishment as he struggled to push open the heavy ice door. "Hunter, Qiong, you didn't go down to the lower level, did you?"

"How is that possible?" Shou Jiang unloaded the heavy burden on his shoulders. "We don't have the ability to cross the middle level. It was pure luck that we stumbled upon it on the upper level."

The guard clicked his tongue, his frost-covered eyebrows twitching slightly. "Tsk, what luck..."

"Stop talking!" came Qiong's exasperated voice from behind. "Come help! My horn is stuck!"

The guard peeked out and saw Qiong desperately trying to pull his head out of the worm's corpse; his head was completely embedded in the fat flesh of the worm.

He stepped forward, grabbed the slippery insect body, and pulled hard, separating the insect from the dome. He then teased, "Who told you to have horns that are even more upturned than a ibex's, and to dare to use your head to balance this thing?"

"Mind your own business!" Qiong finally broke free, disgustedly shaking the sticky liquid off her arm.

After handing the heavy prey to the other tribesmen who had arrived, Qiong immediately rushed to the snow-melting pool to clean it.

Shou wiped the ice shards from his face and went alone to the entrance of the "Cradle".

The so-called cradle is the only stone house in the tribe built of black stone.

The heavy stone gate isolated the outside world from the bitter cold and deathly silence. The elders spent a great deal of effort setting up a magic array inside, barely maintaining a small space rich in magic and with a pleasant temperature, as a place for the tribe to nurture new life.

A silent clansman stood guard at the entrance. Upon seeing Shou arrive, he merely nodded slightly and stepped aside to make way for him.

The stone house was warm and quiet, with a dry smell permeating the air.

At the center of the ground, a complex magic circle composed of strange metals and luminous ores was emitting a soft, pulsating, eerie blue light.

At the core of the magic circle was a groove about half a person's height, which was now filled with fragments and powder of some kind of crystal.

Without pausing, Shou walked straight to the edge of the magic circle. He untied the straps of his leather armor, revealing his chest covered with intricate magical runes.

In the very center of his chest, a deep blue crystal the size of a pendant was deeply embedded in his flesh, emitting a faint, rhythmic pulsating glow. All the magical runes originated from this point.

He took out a file, his wrist held very steadily close to the crystal surface, and carefully scraped off a very thin layer of powder that shimmered like stardust, placing it into the groove.

Demons are not a naturally occurring species; they are a race of servants created by the previous Demon King. They are not purely flesh and blood beings, nor do they have a gender distinction.

Their method of reproduction is as follows: the trace amounts of essence powder naturally extracted from individual magic cores, or the fragments of magic cores from deceased brethren, are piled up layer by layer in places rich in magic. New magic cores will then quietly condense and grow under the nourishment of pure magic, eventually giving birth to new members of their race.

"Can't you let me in to take a look?" Qiong's complaining voice suddenly came from outside.

Unfortunately, the cradle, being one of the most important places in the tribe, was not a place that just anyone was allowed to enter, and the guards stood silently in front of Qiong.

"Qiong, stop fooling around." Shou pushed open the heavy black stone door and stepped out, bringing with him the warm atmosphere of the stone house.

"I really envy you, you're already at the level of Sacrifice Dust!" Qiong immediately turned to him, speaking rapidly, "I'm not kidding! It was the elder! He sent someone to look for you, and the messenger searched the entire tribe but couldn't find you. I guessed you were here!"

"The elder is looking for me?" Shou frowned slightly.

“Yes! It’s not just you, all the senior warriors have been summoned to the main tent. The atmosphere seems a bit off, but no one else knows what’s going on.” Qiong took a step closer and lowered her voice.

Shou's expression hardened, and without saying another word, he turned and strode toward the main tent, with Qiong immediately following closely behind like a shadow.

Shou glanced at him sideways, and Qiong immediately grinned, a hint of slyness in his eyes: "Don't worry, I know the rules! I won't go in, I'll just wait outside the tent."

It was obvious he was trying to eavesdrop, but Shou was too lazy to expose his little scheme. He simply looked away and quickened his pace.

……

"Those snake people in the south have been recruited by the Empire! Now that land is empty, we should fill it immediately!" A rough voice boomed in the tent, filled with an undeniable urgency.

"Fill it in? The frozen soil to the south is so rough it hurts to the bone! Can its resources really compare to the underground city next to us?" The person who objected slammed his fist on the stone table, his voice hoarse.

The third person suddenly stood up, his shadow stretching long in the flickering campfire: "Don't you know what's going on in the Stone Castle dungeon? The magic is getting thinner and thinner, the monsters are getting fewer and fewer, and it's hard to even hunt a slime in the upper levels! The power that's trapping that thing in the middle level is also weakening! Once this damned dungeon completely shuts down, and those things crawl out, we'll all have to be its snacks!"

“He’s right!” another figure wrapped in thick fur chimed in. “Going south, at least the wind won’t be so biting! That way, the cold resistance level of the prey needed to breed new members can be relaxed a bit!”

Hengyan, who had been observing coldly, suddenly sneered, his sharp gaze sweeping over the soldiers who advocated moving south: "After all that talk, I think you're just drawn by the empire's allure, wanting to fawn over it and become its lapdogs, hoping for a peaceful meal."

"Henyan! Dare to say that again?!"

When Shou lifted the heavy animal-skin curtain and stepped into the main tent, he was immediately confronted with this tense scene.

The core of the tribe was crammed into a small space, and the campfire illuminated several faces distorted by excitement or anger.

In a tribe of several hundred people, including myself, there were only seven senior warriors.

“Hunting.” A deep, aged voice came from the head of the table, drowning out the noise.

The elder, shrouded in worn fur, with only his eyes shining brightly in the shadows, said, “They told me you hunted down a fully grown Fimbulfat. Very good… Cradle, at least it can shine again.”

"Elder." Shou bowed slightly, his voice steady.

His gaze swept quickly across every face in the tent, finally settling on an empty seat next to Heng Yan, which was now completely empty.

Where is Yao?

As a new generation member who is not yet a hundred years old and whose name is still written in a single character, Yao is like Shou, a senior warrior among the new generation and the future pillar of the tribe. His absence is particularly glaring to Shou.

"Yeah! Where did Yao go?" Someone immediately realized, their voice filled with doubt.

"He's dead!" Sugihiko suddenly said.

"What?!" Exclamations and questions erupted instantly. "A high-ranking soldier is dead! Why didn't you say this from the beginning?"

Heng Yan remained expressionless: "That's exactly what I wanted to say. His death brought about something more important than his life."

He looked around and said, slowly and deliberately, "His partner risked his life to bring back news—we've found it! We've located the 'brain' of Qis, which is entrenched in the middle level of the Stone Fortress underground city!"

　The new chapter is being written a bit slowly; the next update will be around 10 PM.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)