The vast cavern system twisted and interlinked, riddled with dizzying branches and paths. Strange crystalline matter covered the surroundings, emitting an unsettling glimmer in the gloom. In some areas, the pale crystals even wriggled and trembled faintly, as though they still contained life—but in truth, these were the death throes lingering in the "limbs" of the enormous structure after its death.
Bright balls of foxfire hovered around Huli, illuminating the path through the cavern. Eileen remained constantly alert, carefully watching their surroundings. Every so often, she summoned a Mass-produced Eileen to guard an intersection, because she was always worried that something might crawl out of one of the branches swallowed by darkness and attack the group from behind.
Xu Jiali, meanwhile, stared at the Mass-produced Eileens that appeared one after another, utterly dumbfounded.
"How many Eileens do you actually have now?" he asked in astonishment as yet another Mass-produced Eileen "flipped" out of a distorted spatial rift. He watched the little thing walk silently to a nearby stone hollow with dead fish eyes, crouch down, and settle in place. He was completely bewildered. "Wait, no. You used to add them one at a time. How did it suddenly become whole groups at once...?"
"Mass production, mass production." Yu Sheng had expected this reaction and cheerfully explained, "The inn's short on staff, you know. There's such a huge valley and so many facilities. We're desperately short-handed."
Xu Jiali's eye twitched. "Generally speaking, when a normal organization is short-staffed, it recruits people from outside."
Yu Sheng waved his hand. "Recruiting can't beat making them on the spot..."
Xu Jiali: "..."
Lingdang walked at the rear of the group, holding her mechanical sphere. Every now and then, she glanced at her "boss," then at Yu Sheng. A trace of doubt flickered in her