"Phew. That's good to hear."
I wiped the perspiration off my brow when I heard the report coming from other cultivators. the city was secured, the shelters remained untouched, and the enemy had been purged. The demonic cultivators had been hunted down and either apprehended or killed, and the spirit beasts had been slaughtered or driven out. The demonic cultivators were one thing, but we didn't bother pursuing the spirit beasts that fled.
Without direction from human controllers, they wouldn't deliberately attack humans unprovoked. As long as they returned to wherever habitats they came from and stayed there, we had no reason to disturb them. Unlike my summoning techniques, whatever insidious influences the demonic cultivators used to corrupt the spirit beasts weren't permanent. In fact, they didn't really tame the spirit beasts but instead drove them berserk and then pointed them toward human targets for them to rampage. That was why the demonic cultivators in Huo Yan Valley located themselves so far away from the spirit beasts they had set up to guard the volcano. They didn't want to get dragged into the fight too.
"I'm glad the both of you are all right!" Mom was delighted when Myria and I showed up in the shelter she was in, accompanied by dad. Jun Hai appeared a few seconds later, and I was relieved to see that they were all fine.
"Yeah, we're good. We just came back, and I didn't expect the city to be under siege."
Coincidentally, we had just helped out Huo Yan Valley City with demonic cultivators and spirit beasts too, foiling their schemes to activate a spirit array that might set off a chain of apocalyptic volcanic eruptions that would have destroyed a province.
And now we returned home, only to be met with an assault from another sect of demonic cultivators and the spirit beasts they had corrupted. At least we had a proper standing cultivator militia here to defend the people before it turned into a mess.
"You just told me about what you've been through in Huo Yan Valley!" Dad guffawed as he thumped my back. "And now you have to go through the same thing here again? I hope it wasn't as bad here."
"No. We were pretty much on our own in Huo Yan Valley, but at least you and the other cultivators are here to help."
"You were the one who helped us! I wouldn't dare imagine what kind of disaster it would turn out to be if you and your girlfriend hadn't shown up to sow chaos into their ranks. We were being pushed really hard back then, you know."
"Jun Wen did everything," Myria said. "He was the one who shot the Blood Boars and a few of the demons from a distance."
"Hey, you were protecting me from enemies that had gotten close while I was sniping their leaders and the spirit beasts."
"That wasn't much. You had your own spirit beasts covering your back too."
I wasn't sure, but somehow Myria didn't seem pleased. I hoped she wasn't sulking. Fortunately, mom was on hand to salvage the situation.
"Regardless of the case, you helped my son, and also contributed a lot to defense of Xia Hai City! Even though you're not even a citizen here. You've only lived here for a day, and then spent a few weeks away, yet you did so much for all of us. I think you deserve a lot of praise for that!"
"No…not at all." Myria seemed embarrassed. I wondered why. As a princess, she should be used to flattery and praise, but I guess mom's sincerity threw her off. Maybe it was because it was the first time someone who didn't know she was a princess was complimenting her.
"Anyway, good job, everyone. With the condition red alert lifted, it's finally okay for us to go home. So let's go home." Dad placed an arm around mom's shoulders and led her. We followed in their wake, with Jun Hai skipping toward me.
"Good job, bro and sis-in-law."
Myria turned red at that, but somehow she maintained a straight face and nodded.
"I'm just glad everyone is safe."
After that, the rest of the week passed by without incident. We still had no idea where the demons came from and why they were suddenly so active, but investigations were ongoing. Apparently, it wasn't just Huo Yan Valley and Xia Hai. While I finally got used to being at home, I learned from online news that there were multiple demonic attacks throughout Hua Xia.
Several cities had come under attack over the last couple of weeks, being raided by demonic cultivators and their accompanying entourages of spirit beasts. Some, like Huo Yan Valley City, had suffered spirit beast waves. Others were the targets of more conventional warfare like Xia Hai. In all cases, the defenders successfully repelled the demonic invaders and resecured their cities, but not all were as fortunate as Xia Hai City.
Some, like Nan Jing, had suffered enormous casualties. The cultivators there were caught off guard and their civilians were massacred before most of them could reach the shelters. In the end, they required reinforcements from other provinces and nearby cities to drive the invaders out. I heard Shi Zhuan also suffered similarly, with over half the city razed by Mystic ranked spirit beasts before a coalition of Earth ranked cultivators working directly in the military arrived to annihilate them and the demons who had set them loose on the population.
The government was in panic mode right now, demanding answers and pointing fingers. Fortunately, the military higherups, particularly the most powerful cultivators, were not interested in shoving responsibility. After a heated session where the commander-in-chief of the cultivator army told the politicians to shut up and let the warriors do their job, they stopped making too much noise. With the cooperation from the domestic police agencies and other defense organizations, they were trying to find out who these demonic cultivators were and where they came from. The most popular theory was that they all came from an alliance of hidden sects who had kept their existence secret all this time while bidding their time to conquer Hua Xia.
Well, none of this was my business. Let the proper investigators play detective and find out who these demons were. I didn't have the intelligence or cunning for that. I might be knowledgeable because I read a lot, but I wasn't sharp enough to figure out what these scheming demons might be plotting or where to find them. I was going to wait for the higherups to point me in the right direction and fight when I was told to.
Made life easier, and I wasn't keen on assuming responsibility anyway.
Oh, and one more thing. A week after I returned to Xia Hai City, I was alone in my room. Myria was telling the truth when she said she had her own accommodation, and while she visited regularly, she had already gone home that night. I had been to her apartment once, and it was a nice studio apartment with clean amenities, its own bathtub that she could enjoy, and a comfortable bed. She didn't bring much of her possessions from Atlantis, and so it looked bare, but she was fine with it.
"This is just a temporary home," she explained. "I'll be here for a few years before I move."
"Where are you going to move to afterward?" I asked, feeling a bit lonely at the thought. "Are you returning to Atlantis?"
"Of course not, silly." She laughed. "I'll be moving in to live with you after we get married!"
…wasn't she getting ahead of herself? That was still several years later, after we both graduated from college. One thing was for sure. Her determination and dedication were to be admired. If she still felt that way five years later, then I would be more than happy to marry her. In fact, I hoped she remained that way.
It felt nice having such a devoted girlfriend. Or fiancée, but I didn't want to get too ahead of myself right now. As they said, plans changed and we couldn't predict the future.
Anyway, apart from that one visit, Myria came over. She had dinner with us that night and I had just sent her home before returning. Once I was back, I went straight to my room to carry out my own plans. Since it had been a week, that meant my dungeon's upgrade was completed.
"Hey, Long Wang! How's things going?"
"You have one new Colossal Crab," the steward reported with a bow immediately after I teleported to my dungeon. "And we have expanded the workforce of Collector Crabs and Construction Crabs. They are enjoying the amenities of your dungeon. A lot of them are happy drinking in the bar."
"…crabs can drink?"
"Why not? They have feelings too. After a day of hard work, it's only natural that they want to relax over a cold beer."
"That's not what I mean…wait, actually, crabs can drink beer?"
"Why not?"
…never mind. I had to remind myself that they were spirit beasts, not normal crabs. So they could do things and drink stuff that normal crabs couldn't.
"We have like more Little Anglers, and they accompany the crabs out in searching for spirit stones and food. I have also assigned them to carrying out marine agricultural work."
"Excellent." The marine farm had been my idea, where I put aside a section of the seawater lakes in my dungeon for farming. The Little Anglers had been cultivating edible seaweed and a myriad of other marine plants there for food. Most of it was used to feed the residents of my Deep Sea Palace, but lately I had traded them for money in the surface. People enjoyed eating seaweed, after all.
"We haven't suffered any attacks, and any stray spirit beasts that get too close to your dungeon have been slain by the Guardian Golems and Colossal Crabs standing sentry."
"That's good to hear. Speaking of sentry, how long until the upgrade is complete?"
"A few minutes, from when I last checked." Long Wang nodded toward the dungeon core. "It should be done anytime soon."
A holographic timer was hovering above the dungeon core, and I saw that it was now a few seconds. Twelve, to be precise. Eleven. Ten. I watched, transfixed, as the last few seconds counted down before the notification window appeared to inform me that the upgrade was finally complete.
-The dungeon has been upgraded. More previously unlocked sections are now open for construction. The territory of the user's dungeon has expanded vastly, more than ten times the size. A node of spirit stones has been discovered within the dungeon itself. Components for ten Defensive Siege Towers and protective spirit arrays have been unlocked, including a barrier-type. –
"Amazing." My eyes widened when I saw all the different functions unlocked before me, depicted by the sprawling holographic map that gradually unfolded like petals of a blossoming flower. There were icons of ten Defensive Siege Towers, located strategically between fortified walls. The spirit arrays too were automatically unlocked, their glowing runes replicated in smaller detail in the holographic array. "Now we don't have to worry about invasions from other dungeons."
"Not really."
Long Wang poured water on my parade. I turned to him, feeling chilling dread.
"What do you mean? Are the other dungeon masters and their armies more powerful than we anticipated?"
"No, though you are probably right. But it's just that even though you've unlocked them, you can't use them yet." Long Wang sighed and waved at the various defensive siege towers. "First, you need your Construction Crabs to build them. They are currently dismantled and in pieces, so you'll need them to assemble them from scratch, and with our current workforce, it will take a while. Furthermore, to activate the spirit arrays, you will need to power them with spirit stones. The discovery of a node in your dungeon will help greatly, but I'm sure you're aware that the expenditure to maintain such an upkeep is enormous. There won't be much profit for you to make, my lord."
"That's fine," I assured him with a smile. "The priority now is to fortify and complete the construction of our dungeon, and increase the population here. Don't worry about profits. This a long-term plan, and I'm patient enough to wait for the results. I'm sure you are too, right?"
Long Wang laughed. "Sure. I've waited thousands of years to break free of my seal. I'm probably infinitely more patient than you, my lord."
"Then it's settled. I'll leave the running of our dungeon to you and see what I can do. Let me know if you guys need anything, and I'll help as much as I can. In the meantime, I think we'll just take it slow and steady. Growth might be important, but ensuring we have a solid foundation for it is even more imperative. Even the highest tower will collapse if it isn't built upon a firm foundation."
"Well said, my lord. It will be as you command." Long Wang bowed and smiled. "I look forward to seeing what the future brings for you and your dungeon."