’Then I’ll add the True Art of Primordial Energy Absorption to the Mage Academy’s advanced curriculum,’ Chen Yu thought cheerfully, his Gel body seeming to wobble with delight.
’Excellent. It’s settled then.’
...
The Underground City’s labyrinth was quickly cleared out by the Demon Legion. Chen Yu devoured a massive number of Elemental Cores, Magic Organs, and corpses, converting them into increased maximum life and monster talents.
Most of these talents enhanced Spiritual Power, Elemental Affinity, or energy perception, which could indirectly affect his Intelligence and Perception stats.
Among them, a talent called "Spiritual Resonance" caught Chen Yu’s attention.
Simply put, it was the equivalent of a spiritual vocal cord. It allowed a monster’s spiritual fluctuations to be transmitted directly into the consciousness of an intelligent creature through resonance, achieving the effect of telepathic communication.
Although it couldn’t transmit overly complex images or emotions, it was more than enough for basic language communication.
Chen Yu tested it himself and found that in practice, Spiritual Resonance was far more convenient than the Sound Transmission Skill or crystal Magic Items, with almost no delay in communication.
As long as the Slime Kingdom continued to develop, it would inevitably have to interact with other races—to communicate, trade, and even conduct diplomacy with them.
Since Slimes cannot speak, communication was the greatest obstacle.
Although the enlightened Slimes were decent at learning the Common Language, communication couldn’t rely on writing things out word by word, nor could they just casually connect people from outside the Kingdom to the Gel network.
And so, the value of Spiritual Resonance became clear.
Thus, a bold idea began to form in Chen Yu’s mind: to enable all the Slime citizens of his kingdom to speak.
Perhaps this would mark the definitive line between the Kingdom’s Slimes and wild ones. It would allow them to truly shed their status as Low-tier Demons and become intelligent beings, recognized by the other sentient races of the continent.
Realizing this idea wasn’t difficult. He only needed to cultivate large numbers of Moss Monsters with the Spiritual Resonance talent, which could then be continuously harvested into Talent Balls. These would be distributed to every corner of the Kingdom to make the talent widespread.
In fact, the Kingdom was already building numerous Moss Monster farms, though for now, they were only cultivating Moss Monsters with basic talents like Elemental Affinity and energy storage.
Count Brand had complained more than once that when he went to the farms to "visit" these little things, he was nearly singed by the flames of a Fire Moss Monster, or left shivering from the cold by an Ice Moss Monster.
Looking at the ground full of Moss Monsters, he could only stare helplessly with envy.
After all, it was entirely possible he couldn’t even beat these little critters.
In just half a day, the entire Underground City was completely cleared and brought under the Kingdom’s full control.
Finally, in the deepest part of the labyrinth, Chen Yu discovered a rift gate—its frame was made of some unknown black metal, covered in twisted Abyss Runes, and within the gate was a constantly spinning, dark red vortex.
The Elemental Labyrinth alone took up seven floors of the Underground City. Adding the six spacious floors before it, the rift gate likely led to the unexplored fourteenth floor of this Underground City, or perhaps even deeper.
Chen Yu sent a Gel clone to carefully enter the rift gate and investigate. Inside, it discovered scorching magma rivers reeking of sulfur, twisted and deformed abyssal landscapes, and a small number of Low-tier Demons.
According to Adventurers who had ventured deep into the Underground City before, exploring further down could lead directly to an outer region of the Abyss.
Chen Yu had no intention of advancing further. The Kingdom’s current focus was on development, and proactively delving into the Abyss was unwise.
He simply set up a sturdy outpost and a monitoring Magic Array around the rift gate, stationing an elite demon squad to guard it. He planned to leave this newly discovered part of the Underground City for the Kingdom’s future Slime Adventurers as a place for them to train and have adventures.
After returning to the surface, Chen Yu spent the next few days in the Mudu Royal Palace, diligently cultivating three true manuals. He would occasionally chat with Oldes—who was lingering in Mudu with no intention of leaving—about the ancient secrets of the Elf Race and the continent’s history. His days were quite fulfilling.
During this time, Yano finally returned from the White Horse Kingdom. He picked up his wife and child, who had been staying in Fey City, and brought them back, along with the latest intelligence on the situation in the northern White Horse Kingdom.
Because Gor, where the Belmont family resided, was located deep within the Dark Land—a place with no light year-round and a dark, oppressive environment—Yano decided not to bring his wife and child back to Gor. Instead, he settled them in Mudu, which had better amenities, and they finally had their own cozy little home.
He then wasted no time in finding Chen Yu.
"Boss. I think I’ve found some incredible news."
He then recounted everything he had seen and heard in the north, holding nothing back.
After entering Fey City, he had gathered information in several Mage Academies and Adventurer’s Taverns and stumbled upon a rumor—the Snowfield Beastmen seemed to be massing on a large scale, preparing to march south.
Moreover, this wasn’t a simple raid. The Beastmen seemed to have learned of the internal divisions and political instability within the White Horse Kingdom. They wanted to seize this opportunity to invade from the north and completely conquer this fertile land to establish a kingdom of their own.
Whether the Beastmen joining the Kingdom’s conflict was a good or bad thing was hard to say, but one thing was certain: the situation in the White Horse Kingdom was about to become even more chaotic. At the very least, those Demons were in for a major headache.