Chapter 1088: Chapter 603: Breeding Plans (2)
Or maybe it was the power of faith condensed from years of Pigmen’s religious Sacrifice?
But compared to the Sacrifice itself, all that seemed a bit unimportant.
Divinity +3, I’m out.
Lance turned back the way he came and quickly returned to that breeding room that had already been slaughtered once.
Back then Paracelsus had done his work here—the marks of corrosion, and the bones left behind after the Corpse Decomposition Spore devoured the Flesh.
Looking at the scene, that anger which had originally dissipated flared up again.
That damn old ancestor!
Always leaving these messes behind!
Lance really wasn’t wrong to curse, because the Pigmen were made by the old ancestor, and it was under his step‑by‑step guidance that they became what they are now.
He had originally planned to go back and lie flat, but the task Paracelsus had given him, plus the emotions that had just surged up, wouldn’t allow him to just go back like this.
So he immediately turned and went deeper into the Beast Lair.
Really wanted to find something to punch a few times...
The Beast Lair was built on top of the ancient sewer system; it used to be the place where the old ancestor handled his Experiments and disposed of test subjects.
Those failed creations, like the God of Pigmen or other all kinds of messed‑up existences, didn’t die. On the contrary, these intolerable deformities survived after being banished into the sewers, then developed, all the way up to today.
Simply put, the current Beast Lair was dug out and expanded by Pigmen and Heretics on the basis of the sewer system.
You have to know, a city itself is built relying on its sewers.
So doesn’t that mean you can directly use the Beast Lair to walk the sewers, bypass the ruins, and enter the old ancestor’s dungeon?
Could it be that the old ancestor fostered the Pigmen precisely to block off the route through the sewers into that place?
And the reason he placed the immobile God of Pigmen there was to control the Pigmen’s area of activity and have them watch the gate for him.
When this thought crossed his mind, Lance himself couldn’t help admiring his own wild imagination a little.
But if you really followed that line of logic, it actually seemed quite possible.
Even though he had already opened up the Bay; as long as you climbed the hundred‑meter sea cliff you could bypass to the back of the old house.
But that route has no retreat and isn’t suitable for a large army to go up.
If he could punch through the Beast Lair and use it to launch a surprise attack, maybe even the old ancestor wouldn’t see it coming...
You never complain about having too many shortcuts; every extra path is an extra chance.
Lance, who had originally come with a mission, suddenly got interested. He gave up those minor sidelines and charged straight toward the direction of the ruined old house.
After that last battle, the Pigmen really had declined; not only was their spiritual pillar knocked down, their numbers were knocked down too.
Lance wandered around in there for so long and didn’t run into them again at all, forcing him to give up on his urge to find a target and throw a few punches.
Position No. 3 wasn’t far from the ruins to begin with; after crossing the spot where he’d just killed the Pig God and moving on a bit, he noticed something off.
Lance unconsciously slowed his steps and raised the torch to light up the surroundings.
He quickly noticed that the closer he got to the ruins, the fewer signs of Pigmen activity there were.
The simplest indicator was excrement and other waste—this was an important basis for judging the range of Pigmen activity.
There were few traces of living, but what was weird was that there were a lot of traces of battle left behind here.
On the ground you could frequently see coarse iron plates and weapon fragments in that distinctive Pigman style.
Lance squatted down with the torch and examined them, finding that those iron plates clearly bore marks of heavy blows that had broken them; there was a helmet that was completely caved in, a Shield that had been torn to pieces by something...
But that wasn’t the main point; the main point was that he didn’t find any Pigman corpses nearby. Even if the Flesh had rotted away, there should at least be bones, right?
Nope. The surroundings were so clean it was like someone had tidied up, leaving only these broken pieces of equipment.
Lance had considered the Flesh Devourer, but that thing’s secretions can corrode even metal.
If it had been a Devourer, the metal left at the scene definitely wouldn’t look physically smashed like this; it should look dissolved.
It’s not like the Pigmen would pull off those iron plates nailed into their bodies themselves, and just toss their weapons all over the place, right?
Then the only explanation was that the Pigmen had run into some terrifying monster—leading to an even more interesting guess.
Lance was very familiar with the spread of Pigmen; they’d practically dug through the ground under the wilderness, so why would they give up this area?
Before, he had thought that the old ancestor was using the name of the God of Pigmen to limit Pigmen’s expansion in this direction through religious faith.
But now his guess had changed. Maybe... the Pigmen were actually driven out by something.
He couldn’t help but have that thought, because the deeper he went, the more similar scenes he found, as if he could see the past moment when the Pigmen were slaughtered here, fleeing in disarray, throwing away their helmets and armor.
As he went deeper, a sound rang out in the passage—familiar yet strange. That rhythmic tapping made Lance’s expression change, then shift into a look of surprise.
No way? No way? I was just thinking of it and it shows up?
This made Lance quicken his steps, and sure enough he caught up to the Flesh Devourer rapidly slithering through the passage.
He directly pulled out the conch horn and activated his ability; the Enchanting Voice made that worm‑like Flesh Devourer stop.
This thing had no eyes, but dissections had shown it did have hearing, and quite a developed one, and also had the ability to sense vibrations.
Paracelsus had speculated in his report that it relied on this kind of ability to perceive the outside world, but for Lance that wasn’t anything special.
Because sound is just a carrier; the real effect comes from the mysterious power contained in it.
The Flesh Devourer’s intelligence was far worse than that of Pigmen, and trying to control this thing was in fact harder.
Fortunately, Lance had previously tried controlling a Giant Pincer Tidestealer and knew how to deal with brainless types. Very soon Lance was like one of those Indians controlling snakes with a flute; relying on the power of the conch horn, he quickly lulled the Flesh Devourer into sleep.
Capture successful!
Lance immediately put down the conch horn and approached, looking at the Devourer curled up into a ball, not bothering to hide the joy in his heart.
That easy?
It was like completing the mission as soon as he walked through the door. This feeling of picking up money off the ground for nothing made things feel a bit unreal to Lance.
Looks like even the heavens think I’ve been working too hard.
This was the first time Lance had caught a live one; naturally, this made him seriously consider the possibility of raising Devourers.
After all, hunting is the least efficient way, and it also destroys wild populations; keep killing them and they’ll go extinct, and then there won’t be any in the future.
This is also why many ancient Potion recipes have become invalid—no concept of sustainable development; once the materials are gone, the recipes are gone too.
As a youth of the new era, Lance knew that if he wanted a constant supply of raw materials, breeding was the most stable method. Although there were many problems to solve, at least it was a viable path.
Very soon Lance finished collecting the secretions and also drew some blood.
Sure enough, that stuff was corrosive; but with this, Paracelsus should be able to make the Panacea.
It could even cure leprosy; at that point all injuries and illnesses would be wiped out.
Once the Panacea could be widely distributed, it would remove a "mountain" pressing on all of humanity’s shoulders; even the Church wouldn’t be able to block such an achievement.
Of course, that was just thinking out loud. Lance lowered his head to glance at the slumbering Devourer at his feet, then couldn’t help but cast his gaze into the darkness further ahead.
Were there more materials in there?
Since he was already here, and the smooth start had unconsciously led him deeper, he might as well keep going and gather more materials.
As for this guy—it weighed over a hundred pounds even when curled up; since he couldn’t put it in the Exhibition Room, Lance had no way to carry it. He could only dump it somewhere randomly and come back later to see if it was still around.
There really was no helping it, because trying to confine them right now was unrealistic—after all, they can even corrode metal...
Lance suddenly seemed to realize something. He hurriedly took out a piece of equipment from the Exhibition Room—one he’d gotten from the Bay, that Shield of the Deep Sea Guard.
He dripped some of the Devourer’s secretion onto it, and sure enough, unlike with steel, there was no sign of corrosion.
Seeing this, Lance immediately understood something. A material that could sit for thousands of years in the environment of the Bay without rotting—aside from the maintenance of the Deep Sea Force by its wielder, the material itself must also be special.
Namely, its anti‑corrosion ability was extremely strong, and its strength was no worse than ordinary steel while being lighter.
In those ancient civilization manuscripts, there seemed to be a method for making this special metal. Once he found a way to imprison them, then the matter of breeding would have crossed the most difficult step.
