After identifying the direction of the noise within the gloom of the command pavilion, it began to scuttle over.
The Scorpion looked at the bubbling, pitch-black sludge within the hollowed-out behemoth skull. Its jagged pincers clicked together nervously, but it did not begin feeding.
It sniffed the volatile, glowing core-sludge, then stealthily backed away from the edges of the skull.
It turned away with a projected aura of absolute disgust.
It burns... it burns the soul...
Sunny did not know what to say. He thought to himself,
This entire concoction is literally made from highly corrosive, weaponized spirit-cores. Of course it burns! But you're a demonic poison fiend! You literally drank Abyssal Sludge yesterday! You're telling me you're afraid of a little indigestion? You must be a disgrace to the entire Demonic Path!
"Consume it. Every drop. If you do not gorge yourself, you will not survive the ascension," said Sunny in a freezing, unforgiving tone, his glowing crimson eyes boring into the insect's shell.
After the Scorpion reluctantly submerged its mandibles and drank the violently bubbling core-sludge without leaving a single drop, Sunny gave a microscopic, relieved exhale.
The Scorpion immediately became sluggish.
Its obsidian carapace began to glow with an angry, unstable purple light. It quietly found the darkest corner of the pavilion to lie down in, curling its deadly tail defensively over its body, entering a state of agonizing metamorphosis.
...
Miles away from the Vanguard's front lines, beside the Rotting Marrow Swamp, was a jagged, lightless ravine.
There, from the depths of a subterranean tomb, a swarm of pale, multi-limbed horrors slowly crept upward.
Their multiple eyes were a milky, blind white, and they tasted the ambient death aura of the air.
Nearby, emerging from a thicket of weeping blood-vines, a heavily armored Paladin of the Radiant Peak rode a Golden-Scaled Gryphon, its feathers glittering obnoxiously under the bruised sky.
One of the pale horrors unhinged its jaw and shot a massive, pressurized stream of necrotic, gray ash. The ash sprayed everywhere, coating the Paladin's radiant armor and the Gryphon's wings.
Upon contact with the holy light, the gray ash violently reacted, instantly solidifying into a heavy, suffocating crust that drained spiritual energy.
The Golden-Scaled Gryphon shrieked, struggling to break away from the rapid calcification, its movements becoming sluggish as if it were encased in hardening clay.
The Paladin roared a righteous incantation and raised his sun-forged broadsword, transforming his aura into a blazing pillar of holy fire. He swung his blade, attempting to shatter the crust.
By channeling his inner light, his strikes became a flurry of blinding, explosive arcs.
The necrotic ash could smother weak auras, but against a concentrated strike from a Paladin commander, it offered little resistance.
As the crust shattered, the Paladin thought he could finally spur his mount into the sky and escape the ambush.
However, another massive wave of the necrotic ash rained down from the ravine walls above.
The suffocating gray crust kept accumulating, rapidly burying the Golden-Scaled Gryphon. The swarm of pale horrors surrounded the Paladin like a tide of maggots, continually spewing the draining ash from all directions.
Finally, a massive, solid mound of gray stone formed.
No matter how the Paladin burned his life essence, he could not break free of the unending deluge of necrotic ash. His radiant aura was entirely snuffed out.
He finally lay unmoving beneath the crushing weight, his soul entirely drained, as the horrors slowly approached to harvest his marrow.
From that subterranean tomb, an endless number of the pale horrors poured out. It must have been a forgotten, sealed catacomb that had just broken open.
...
"Quartermaster Jin, bring me the tribute. Fifty pounds of Blood-Lotus Roots," Sunny said as he stepped into the Resource Hall pavilion. It was the eve of the Blood Moon, and he had just left his isolated refinement tent. He was too exhausted to use his jade slip to demand delivery, so he decided to physically intimidate the Quartermaster to speed up the process.
"Fifty pounds?" Quartermaster Jin squeaked, dropping a ledger. He was a sweating man who always looked like he was one step away from the executioner's block.
Many of the Vanguard disciples were used to treating him like dirt, but around Sunny, he acted like a frightened mouse.
"I beg your absolute forgiveness, Supreme One! We only have ten pounds of the Blood-Lotus Roots left in the entire camp's repository today," Quartermaster Jin said, pressing his forehead to the dirt floor apologetically.
"As you can see by the empty vats here..."
Sunny was internally surprised, but outwardly, he just narrowed his eyes and said,
"If ten pounds is all the sect can provide, I will take it. Seal it in lead."
Sunny walked through the sprawling, chaotic market tents of the Vanguard camp, only to find that Blood-Lotus Roots had been entirely out of stock among the black-market smugglers for a few days already.
From what he remembered of the sect's logistics, Blood-Lotus Roots were highly restricted, but they were not exceptionally rare for someone of his status to procure.
If these smugglers were all out of stock, it probably meant that the supply lines from the Inner Sect had been completely severed.
Because Sunny's terrifying reputation preceded him, the smugglers were quick to offer information to avoid his wrath.
One of the scarred smugglers, missing an eye, respectfully whispered to him, "It is not just the Blood-Lotus Roots, Young Master; quite a few volatile dark materials have stopped arriving entirely."
"Explain," Sunny demanded, his voice dropping the temperature in the tent.
Although the System could utilize alternative materials to push the Shadow-Ghoul Ape toward its next tier, it had already consumed over two hundred pounds of Corrupted Spirit Stones.
Changing the elemental balance of its diet now would drastically lower its compatibility rating for future fusions. He needed the specific toxins of the Blood-Lotus.
"The sect's supply caravans harvest the Lotus Roots and other highly toxic flora from the Rotting Marrow Swamp near the southern borders. Because the ambient death aura there is thick, the flora grows rapidly," the smuggler paused to glance nervously around before continuing.
"Perhaps the casualty reports have not reached your high pavilion yet, but that swamp borders the sealed catacombs. About a week ago, a swarm of Ash-Weeping Fiends broke their ancient seals and poured out. They not only consumed the entire crop of Blood-Lotus Roots, but they are calcifying everything in the swamp.
According to a surviving scout, if he hadn't burned his own soul to escape, the entire harvesting crew would have been turned to stone. The Grand Elders have declared the entire southern swamp a forbidden dead-zone. I fear you will not be able to procure any Blood-Lotus Roots for the remainder of the siege."
"Ash-Weeping Fiends..." Sunny wracked his panicked brain to think if he could recall any mention of such monsters in the sect's survival manuals.
"That is just the crude name the mercenaries use. The Elders call them the 'Grave-Ash Horrors' or something equally ominous," the smuggler bowed deeply, keeping his remaining eye fixed on the floor.
"If there is anything else your dark eminence requires, I have some fresh Paladin bones..."
Sunny ignored the smuggler's offer and turned toward the chaotic, blood-soaked pathways of the war camp.
It was the preparation hour before the night raids. The camp was a frenzy of activity, and he could see disciples brutally whipping their fiends into a frenzy while sharpening their rusted blades.
Screams of agony and the roars of starving beasts filled the air. In this hellish landscape, the demonic cultivators and their parasitic summons painted a picture of absolute, desperate survival.
Sunny exhaled a silent, ragged breath and left the tent, his lead-sealed box floating behind him via a minor telekinetic charm.
He needed to hurry up and secure a stable supply chain so he could go back to his pavilion and check if his Scorpion had survived its violent evolution.
Blood-Lotus Roots were in incredibly high demand because they were the foundational tonic for poison-attribute ascending fiends. Sunny did not dare to relax his terrifying facade.
He immediately marched through the various high-ranking mercenary pavilions in the camp, utilizing his status as the "Supreme Flesh-Crafter" to forcibly confiscate all remaining Blood-Lotus Roots from their private stashes.
In the end, through sheer intimidation, he managed to extort over one hundred pounds of the roots.
But that meant there would be absolutely zero left within the entire Vanguard camp.
After that, he went to the Blood-Bounty Board in the center of the camp to carve a high-priority, anonymous commission rune, offering three thousand Corrupted Spirit Stones for a bulk delivery of three hundred pounds of Blood-Lotus Roots.
There were still roots deep within the forbidden Rotting Marrow Swamp, but the area was now swarming with the Ash-Weeping Fiends. To harvest them would be a suicidal endeavor.
But in the Demonic Sect, if he could accomplish such a task by throwing a massive amount of spirit stones at greedy mercenaries, there was no need for him to personally risk his life in a forbidden zone.
Back in his heavily warded pavilion, Sunny activated the sect's intelligence array through his jade slip to search the scout reports for "Grave-Ash Horrors."
Channeling his Qi into the array produced a flurry of glowing red text hovering in the air.
"Catastrophic Breach! Ancient, soul-draining horrors awaken..."
"Sole Survivor's Report: The swamps turn to stone. Do not engage the ash..."
"A forgotten swarm of necrotic fiends have emerged from the sealed tombs. The Rotting Marrow Swamp is now entirely quarantined! The Elder Council mandates immediate execution for any disciple attempting to enter the zone."