Chapter 138: Expansion of the Nest

With a single command from Li Ju, the soldiers he had brought directly took over the entire territory before the original territorial officials even understood what was happening.

"Sea Snake gold coins... these officials are truly capable of immense greed."

Li Ju looked at the report in his hand with a sigh.

This money was what he had confiscated over the past two days from the original officials within the territory by raiding their properties.

Before even arriving at the territory, he had anticipated that the local officials must have embezzled a substantial amount of taxes in the past. Therefore, the moment he arrived, he wasted no time and directly sent people to ransack their homes.

Since he had already requested enough competent personnel from Count Iron Gold before coming here to assume the role of lord, and given his own formidable strength, he had no fear that lacking these local snakes would cause management difficulties or paralyze the territory.

This could not even be considered getting rid of the donkey the moment it finishes grinding the mill; it was purely harvesting a crop of wheat.

"Gold coins... Who knows how much of the family's tax revenue these fellows embezzled? They truly deserve their deaths."

Rama stood beside Li Ju, shaking his head upon hearing these words.

The monetary system within the Sea Snake Kingdom followed a simple three-tier standard of gold, silver, and copper, calculated in units of a hundred.

For an ordinary knight-tier noble lord, having a few gold coins to his name in total was already considered quite good.

Without exaggeration, if these corrupt officials had pooled their embezzled wealth, they could have directly bought a piece of land and become landed nobility themselves.

"Where are those officials now?"

Li Ju lowered the report in his hand and asked.

"They are locked up in a house by the soldiers."

Rama replied.

"A house?"

"It seems I will need to take some time to build a prison later."

Li Ju stood up.

"Well then, to thank these officials for their massive contribution to my treasury, I will spare their lives. Let them all become slaves and spend the remainder of their days contributing to the territory through labor."

Guided by the principle of making full use of everything, Li Ju spoke thus.

"Very well."

Rama nodded.

"Now, let us go take a look at my Armored Ant Lair."

With these words, Li Ju walked out of his villa and entered the courtyard outside. On the ground within the garden, a dozen soldiers were guarding a large hole in the earth.

Upon first arriving at the territory, he had deployed the lair directly beside his residence. This was the usual practice for nobles in this world; placing the lair next to one's dwelling provided the maximum level of personal security.

Li Ju walked up to the edge of the pit, and a panel of information surfaced before his eyes.

"Lair: Armored Ant (Level 9) (Knight-tier)
Producible Lair Creatures: Armored Ant (1 every 5 days)
Status: Deployment Complete
Time until next Armored Ant production: 1 minute
Lair Lifespan: 200 years"

"It seems I will be able to see my first lair creature very soon."

Li Ju stepped forward and walked down into the large pit, while Rama remained waiting at the entrance.

Entering someone else's lair without permission was considered a serious taboo.

Past the entrance lay a narrow, dim tunnel. After walking a few paces, he reached a vast hall with walls covered entirely in white eggs. Countless writhing, blood-vessel-like tendrils connected at one end to the white eggs, while their other ends converged into the mouthparts situated at the center of the hall.

This was the feeding apparatus of the lair. Every time the lair birthed a creature, it required the consumption of resources. Wild lair creatures in the wilderness typically fed their lairs through hunting, whereas landed nobles who controlled lairs had to bear this resource consumption themselves.

Fortunately, compared to the benefits a lair could bring, its consumption was completely negligible.

Li Ju's gaze settled upon a white egg on the wall. Compared to the surrounding eggs, this particular one was larger, its outer skin lighter in color, and vague movements could be faintly perceived stirring within it.

Suddenly, that white egg burst away from the wall with a sharp snap and plummeted to the ground. With a dull thud, the egg ruptured, leaving behind a giant ant standing one meter tall and clad in heavy, impenetrable armor.

The moment this ant was born, Li Ju sensed that the number of targets he could control had increased by one.

"Armored Ant (Level 9) (Knight-tier)
Description: A giant ant clad in heavy armor with matchless strength. Both its defensive and offensive capabilities reach the absolute peak of knight-tier lair creatures, and its comprehensive strength is even comparable to a Level 10 Baron-tier lair creature.
Evolution Path: After the lair is deployed, it can undergo lair evolution by feeding it the core of a Fierce Ant Lair."

*Clang, clang.*

"The hardness is quite good."

Li Ju stepped forward and tapped the carapace of the Armored Ant.

"This Armored Ant will certainly suffice to support the early-stage defense of the lair."

The lair of every landed noble was guarded by creatures born directly from the lair itself. First, having humans keep watch over a lair was unsafe—if the guards harbored malicious intentions, they could easily tamper with the lair. Second, under normal circumstances, human strength fell far short of the might possessed by lair creatures.

"Now that the lair has been deployed, I should make a trip to that Fierce Ant Lair."

A glimmer crossed Li Ju's eyes as he recalled the description of lair evolution that Roche had previously told him about.

He had a premonition that the evolutionary paths attached to each lair on his system panel might become his greatest asset in clearing this dungeon world.

Ordinary people seeking to control powerful lairs either had to wander the wilderness relying on luck or kill a landed noble to usurp his lair. Li Ju, however, only needed to continuously exploit the evolutionary paths to elevate his own lair to an unimaginable degree.

Of course, this assumed there were no restrictions on lair evolution.

Moreover, it was not merely for the sake of clearing the dungeon; even the enhancement of his own personal strength compelled Li Ju to master powerful lairs.

Upon deploying the lair core, this physical body of Li Ju's received a blessing from the lair. Naturally, this blessing—which could transform an ordinary person into a knight-tier powerhouse—meant little to Li Ju in terms of raw physical power. The crucial point was that Li Ju actually sensed his spiritual intent strengthening under the lair's blessing.

Though it was merely an infinitesimal trace of growth, it was enough to shock Li Ju. Given the current strength of his spiritual intent, it was no longer something that ordinary rare treasures could enhance, yet a mere knight-tier lair in this world was capable of strengthening it.

If a knight-tier lair could achieve this, what about the subsequent Baron-tier, Viscount-tier, and Earl-tier lairs?