Chapter Twenty-Four: The Cemetery

Although Zhou Tian had been mentally prepared in advance, when the little snakes no longer brought him magic cores, he still felt a sense of loss. He had grown accustomed to sitting at home, waiting for the snakes to deliver the magic cores to his hands, and now he found himself reluctant to seek them out on his own. Unfortunately, whether Zhou Tian liked it or not, all the magic cores buried nearby had already been cleared out by the snakes. If he wanted to obtain more, he would have to devise another method.

While Zhou Tian was somewhat disappointed by the lack of magic cores underground, he was not particularly anxious. After all, he could not gather enough spiritual energy to purchase the more advanced items in the system shop any time soon, and as for the lower-tier goods, his current spiritual energy was more than sufficient for a considerable period. In contrast, it was the snakes who grew restless.

If they had never tasted the gene potion, the snakes would not have cared whether there were magic cores underground, since only magical beasts could consume them to evolve. For the snakes, swallowing a magic core was more likely to kill them from excess energy than grant them evolution. But now, after several rounds of evolution through Zhou Tian's gene potions, the snake colony had unwittingly developed an ambition to increase their strength.

To grow stronger, they needed gene potions, and to obtain those potions, they needed magic cores. Thus, with the supply of magic cores underground exhausted, it was the snakes who became most desperate.

While Zhou Tian had already given up on searching for more magic cores, the snake colony not only continued to scour the underground but also sent many members out to search elsewhere. In times before concrete roads, snakes were not as ubiquitous as cockroaches or mice, but they could often be found in remote places.

As the snake colony helped Zhou Tian gather a vast number of magic cores from below, Zhou Tian did not neglect them; his spiritual energy in the system shop soared, and he rewarded the snakes with nearly ten bottles of gene potion. Though each snake received only a few drops, every snake under Zhou Tian's command could now be considered a king among ordinary snakes.

Now, as most of the colony ventured out to search for magic cores, any snake could easily dominate the wild snakes in any area it entered. As a result, without Zhou Tian's knowledge, nearly every place within a hundred miles had been searched by his snakes.

Undoubtedly, as one of the most common resources in this otherworld, even if there were no more magic cores underground, the snakes' search would still yield results. In fact, when Zhou Tian saw the snakes bring him another batch of magic cores, he was startled.

Magic cores from underground differed from those found on the surface. Beyond the question of whether their internal energy had dissipated, surface cores were generally much cleaner than those buried below. Even though Zhou Tian had not paid much attention before, when he saw the marked difference between the new batch and the previous ones, he could not help but notice.

"Where did you find these magic cores?" Instead of accepting them right away as before, Zhou Tian first asked about their origin after the snakes placed them down.

"...Cave...many...dangerous..."

The snakes answered his question without any hesitation, but their limited intelligence meant their explanations were vague and confusing. Despite their efforts to convey what they had witnessed, Zhou Tian could only make out bits and pieces and had no idea what they were really saying.

Since he could not understand their account, Zhou Tian abandoned the idea of having them explain further. After absorbing all the magic cores, he rewarded the snakes with another bottle of gene potion and commanded, "Take me to where you found the magic cores."

Though he knew it would be safest to stay put and avoid attracting the attention of beastmen, Zhou Tian was too curious about the place the snakes had discovered. Since there were no beastmen around, he decided to follow the snakes. If they had simply stumbled upon a batch of magic cores, then so be it. But if there were more to be found, Zhou Tian might be able to gain another trove of spiritual energy today.

The place where the snakes found the magic cores was not far from their den, and had Zhou Tian been more familiar with the area, he could have found it himself. The distance was short, but the location was troublesome.

Zhou Tian had considered many possibilities, but never imagined his snakes would find magic cores in a cemetery. No wonder the magic cores they had delivered to him were so similar in attributes—they had come from such a place.

Zhou Tian swore that if he had known from the beginning that the magic cores came from this kind of place, he would never have followed the snakes here, not for anything.

Cemeteries were common among any sufficiently powerful and social creatures. If the cemetery belonged to humans or beastmen, it was relatively safe—though full of traps, it posed little real danger to someone like Zhou Tian. The problem was that the place the snakes had brought him to was clearly a magical beast cemetery. Realizing the peculiarity of such a site, Zhou Tian felt a strong urge to punish his snakes.

There were two things outsiders must never tamper with in magical beast families: their young, and their cemeteries. The young represented the future of the family; if anything happened to them, the family would suffer grave damage, even if not outright destroyed. Anyone who harmed a magical beast's young could expect relentless vengeance.

Cemeteries were not as vital as the young, but they were the resting place of deceased elders. No creature wished for their ancestors' bodies to be desecrated by outsiders.

If the magical beast family whose cemetery this was discovered Zhou Tian and his snakes had emptied the magic cores left by their elders, there was no way they would let it pass without consequence.