Four hours of nonstop drilling later, Inala reached the entrance that led to the Parute Tree farm. After it had been opened by Gudora’s youngest son, it wasn’t locked.
After chucking his corpse out, the Empyrean Zinger King casually closed the door after adding a layer of bone to the underside of the door.
“Heup!” Inala grunted and used his psychokinesis to control the layer of bone underneath the door, using it to lift open the door and reveal the passageway to the Parute Tree farm.
He descended the flight of stairs, covering his nose with the fabric of his sleeves due to the heat that had been trapped inside when the female Centingers razed Ellora City into the flat plains.
He arrived at the Parute Tree farm and observed the state of the forty Parute Trees, “Good, they aren’t harmed.”
He couldn’t use the technique harnessed by Gudora’s youngest son to harvest the Parute Fruits, since one needed a Human Avatar made out of Haddlyok for that. But that wasn’t an issue, as he had the Mammoth Clan’s technique for the same.
By activating Mystic Bone Art, Inala condensed a faint amount of Prana at his fingertips and gently nudged a Parute Tree with it. Immediately in response, all the ripe Parute Fruits fell off.
This ability was so simple that it couldn’t even be considered a Skill. It was one of the first usages of Mystic Bone Art taught in their Academy of Refinement.
And unlike the techniques of the Ganrimb Royalty where only Body Stage cultivators with Haddlyok Human Avatars could harvest Parute Fruits, the Mammoth Clan’s technique could be used by even Spirit Stage Mammoth Clansmen.
The harvesting speed and efficiency were many times superior too. This was all thanks to the Mammoth Clan’s history and accumulation of knowledge that remained intact throughout generations.
Inala harvested as many Parute Fruits as he could and stuffed them in his Two Storey Storage Lantern. He then closed shut the entrance and left Ellora City, making a beeline to the next city.
“Ugh, it stinks!” He covered his nose and mouth with a cloth, coughing at the intense stench of the rotting corpses. He looked around, noticing segregated hills of corpses in different locations of the city.
Each hill was the game hunted by a Centinger.
Blood had turned murky black, mixed with fat and all sorts of substances, becoming no different from toxic grease. The floor was slippery, strewn about with body parts of people.
All the buildings were reduced to rubble.
Inala was slow in walking, unable to handle the horrors displayed around, “Blehh!”
Upon staring at the mashed face of a child embedded into a broken wall like a piece of carving, he was unable to endure anymore and hurled everything in his stomach.
“Damn, this is horrible.” He fled the city and slumped along the foot of a tree, downing some water to clear his mouth. ‘I thought I could endure it, but this is too much.’
Every City Lord ought to have a few Storage Lanterns. Inala’s goal was to fish for treasures. Unfortunately for him though, the gores of war were beyond what he could endure, especially in his uninfluenced state.
Primary Nature—Life Bomb!
Inala threw a bunch of them on the nearby Slump Lizards, using their Prana to hatch a new batch of Empyrean Zingers.
After two hours, the number of Empyrean Zingers reached ten. If not for the Slump Lizards being too weak, he could have increased the number of Empyrean Zingers by a lot in these two hours. “Go, find the Storage Lanterns in the city.”
Since he couldn’t stomach the scenes of gore in the city, he instead delegated the tasks to the Empyrean Zingers. While they were searching, he patiently hatched more of them.
Six hours later, an Empyrean Zinger approached him, holding a One Storey Storage Lantern. It had already unlocked it using the owner’s corpse.
“Good, continue,” Inala said, careful to not touch the Empyrean Zinger to avoid causing his Tertiary Nature to be activated. The moment it happens, he would have access to all its memories.
As long as he subconsciously accesses them, he will puke once again. 𝑂𝑽𝔩xt.𝒸𝑶𝓜
The battle had been tough. Hence, the Storage Lantern was empty. Anything of worth within had already been consumed during the battle.
Inala communicated with the Empyrean Zingers through their shrieks, getting a better understanding of the city, ‘This City was weaker than Ellora City. There are no survivors.’
Ellora City was different only due to his involvement. After all, once he created the Theatre, they had visitors from all over the Kingdom, causing the economy of the city to grow in response.
Many troupes that gained recognition in the Theatre were supported by Inala, allowing them to reach the Body Stage. Even though they only built Humana Avatars out of Kirenal, they were still Body Stage cultivators at the end of the day.
Due to the cheap costs involved in the creation of such Body Stage cultivators, many cultivators in Ellora City reached the Body Stage, collectively raising its overall strength reserve.
The influx of money assisted the city in various areas, raising its overall power. Hence, Ellora City managed to kill the 38 Centingers that had targeted it. Even though the number of survivors was only fourteen, they still managed to emerge victorious.
Of course, thanks to Inala’s actions, over forty thousand people were rescued and transported in advance.
Since none of those variables existed in other cities, they were destroyed. Once the soldiers were killed, the Centingers carefully probed through the ground and ended up finding the shelters.
They brutally massacred everyone.
Moreover, the Royalty of this city hid some of their people within the Parute Tree farm which was the most secluded in the city. Unfortunately for them, even that was somehow discovered.
When the Centingers unleashed artillery strikes to level the city, a crack formed in the City Lord’s estate, revealing a tiny gap to the Parute Tree farm. When a Centinger unleashed its Prana for detection purposes, it sensed the Parute Trees through the crack.
The kids of Royalty hiding there were casually slaughtered by using a few spikes of their artillery strikes, controlling them like Spirit Weapons. Once that was done, the Centingers harvested all Parute Fruits, consumed them to replenish their Prana and made their way to other cities.
Armed with this knowledge, they barged into the Parute Tree farms of other cities. It was unknown in which city was their existence first discovered. But in the end, the Parute Tree farms of all cities were intruded upon. Anyone hiding within was slaughtered while all the Parute Fruits were harvested for consumption.
Spending the next three days roaming through all the cities, Inala found one more Storage Lantern. Storage Lanterns were made from the tusk of an Empyrean Tusk. Therefore, despite being the toughest material of Sumatra Continent, it was still susceptible to a Centinger’s Primary Nature.
Hence, most of the Storage Lanterns were destroyed. Inala obtained three Storage Lanterns from Ellora City. And after combing through the remaining cities, he got two more. Four of them were One Storey Storage Lanterns while the last was a Two Storey Storage Lantern.
They were better than nothing. With that thought in mind, Inala made his way to the Capital City. There were only ten days left for the mating season to end. Hence, the war must have approached its climax.
“I’ll try again,” He muttered and drilled an underground path to the Capital City, ‘I’ll be more careful this time.’