Start With Contracting Sprites

In the dark and silent environment, footsteps came from afar, making Su Hao's body instinctively tense up.

But a moment later…

"Gurgle~"

"Could it be another explorer?"

He relaxed a little and remained on guard as he looked towards the right passage.

The footsteps became louder and louder. A giant-shaped sprite, four to five meters tall and translucent, made of wind and gas, appeared in his vision.

Wind Giant Spirit.

The Wind Giant looked over with a wary expression, but it quickly relaxed again.

Seeing this, Su Hao knew that the Sprite Trainer of the Wind Giant Spirit… recognized him.

Just several seconds ago, Su Hao had also recognized the other party.

Su Hao looked at the interface again. On the empty map, apart from the Wind Giant Spirit, there were only a few other sprites at a distance away from him.

They were all wind-element.

Storm God Hound, Mist Feather Swallow, Flying Python.

The icons on the interface moved quickly.

Not long after, a big white dog carrying a long black-haired girl ran out of the right passage.

Behind the big dog was a sprite that looked like a swallow and a… large black snake with a pair of small wings.

One moved with its paws, another flew, and another slithered inaudibly on the ground.

"Howl—"

Only the big white dog that rushed out greeted them warmly.

Ever since it had a taste of how wonderful Su Hao's battle tactics were, the dog couldn't stop himself from being friendly.

"Howl ~!"

The big white dog that came up to Su Hao was very friendly. Su Hao couldn't help but reach out and pet it. It was only until he had finished petting did he awkwardly look at Lan Qing who was getting off the Storm God Hound. Seeing that the other party didn't react, he couldn't help but compare the difference between petting a dog and petting a bear.

"Howl—" Big Fat Bear suddenly sensed danger and let out a roar.

The big white dog also roared, "Howl—"

The two sprites were stunned. They looked at each other and saw doubt in each other's eyes.

Su Hao ignored the silly sprites. In the dark environment, he looked at Lan Qing, who had an ethereal aura and looked especially like a lady from hell. He asked, "You… came here after completing the stage?"

"Yes."

"There's probably several of those squares in the ancient city."

Lan Qing's sprites were all extraordinary-level. Within the exploration team, she was considered to be very comprehensive and all-rounded, and was at most only slightly inferior to Su Hao himself.

However, she lacked Butterfly's illusionary and investigative skills.

A team without investigative abilities was incomplete when it came to exploring unknown territories… As expected, Su Hao was still better.

"Do you… want to go?" Lan Qing asked. "To… the exit."

"Exit?" Su Hao was confused.

There were also countless forks underground, like a maze.

His map wasn't very useful either. Butterfly's perception detection was only limited to life forms and items that contained energy… He had been wandering around for a long time.

If he kept on like this for a few more days, he would probably be listed as one of the missing people by the exploration team.

Lan Qing pointed at the road closest to the sculpture and said, "The wind told me that there's an exit in this direction."

Su Hao was rendered speechless.

As an ordinary college student, he despised those who used special methods to cheat!

...

The underground space was much wider and more complicated than he had imagined.

After walking for a while, a fork appeared, and then another fork appeared. He couldn't help but wonder if there was a need to build such a complicated place for nurturing talent.

The layout made it seem more like a human defense facility.

"Hmm? That seems possible too…"

He thought about it and almost got a fright when he saw Lan Qing, who was walking with a fluttering gait, suddenly turn around.

"I was thinking, since the ancient civilization has expanded so much, could it be that they were building defensive facilities? At that time, the ancient city civilization might have faced some kind of danger."

But he had doubts.

Were the inhabitants of the ancient civilization intruders or natives? Or were they similar to the inhabitants of Planet Aquamarine.

It didn't seem like they had encountered a major crisis. After all, apart from the fact that the ancient city had become a little more dilapidated with the passage of time, the barrier was intact, and it didn't look like it had been attacked.

They couldn't find any corpses that were left behind either.

When Lan Qing heard this, a contemplative look appeared on her face, and then…

Su Hao was still waiting for her to express her thoughts, but she never said anything.

Was this how cheaters always acted?

Buzz ~ Buzz!

The wristband vibrated and Su Hao opened it. It was actually a picture.

It was a panda with a tilted head and a hand supporting its chin. There was a line of black text "I agree" underneath.

Su Hao was stunned for a moment before realizing that it was an emoticon from Lan Qing.

Yes, it was true that they could use wristbands to communicate… but couldn't she have said that to him in person since they weren't that far away from each other?

Buzz ~ Buzz!

Lan Qing: But why did they just disappear?

Lan Qing: What do you think.jpg?

Su Hao looked up and glanced at Lan Qing, who was still walking. She walked casually, as if there was nothing wrong.

Hmm!

He opened the wristband and replied: Look with your eyes, girl.

Lan Qing: Can't think, so here's a big white dog.jpg.

Su Hao was rendered speechless.

That dog looked a little familiar. Could it be that she had made her own emoticons?

Why was she so different from the rumors? Where was the Dragon City genius girl Su Hao had heard about?

The way she talked… oh, never mind, she didn't even talk.

As the two attacked each other with emoticons, Lan Qing suddenly said, "We're here."

She spoke in a faint voice, almost scaring him out of his wits again.

Lan Qing had already come to a stop. Su Hao took a few steps forward, stood beside her and looked out.

Beyond the end was actually… an underground town!

A small town under the ancient city.

Su Hao saw several stone monolith-shaped buildings. They were slightly smaller and shorter than the ones on top, but circles of light spread on several of the stone monolith buildings. These circles of light were functioning barriers that served as an illumination source for the underground town.

Boom!

A ball of dazzling fire exploded. At the center of the town, the halo outside a certain stone monument building shook and seemed to have faded a bit.

Thanks to illumination from the flames of the explosion, Su Hao was able to see… a figure and a sprite there.

The figure stood on the top floor of a building with his hands behind his back. It was a man with a very eye-catching hooked nose.

Flying beside the man was an especially large Bursting Flame Bat. It opened its mouth and spat out scorching fireballs.

"That Bursting Flame Bat looks strong. It's best that we don't go over."

The reason he said this was because the contractor of the Bursting Flame Bat had a Japanese name.

"I… know him."

When Su Hao heard what Lan Qing said, he didn't continue.

The corners of his mouth twitched. As expected…

Buzz ~ Buzz!

Lan Qing: He's the head of the Matsumoto family, a Heavenly King. He's very dangerous.

Lan Qing: Stay passive.jpg.

It was written as calligraphy with capitalized letters. Su Hao had gotten the message.

He replied: Smart.jpg.

He indeed couldn't afford to offend that person. The Bursting Flame Bat had pseudo monarch rank strength. If it was supported by the Heavenly King Domain, it could even fight wild monarch ranks.

Of course, he wasn't scared either.

How could words like "fear" be the same as being "passive" or "steady".

"Can you find the exit leading outside?"

Lan Qing shook her head and replied with a "The area is too big.".

"Then what are your plans?" Su Hao asked again.

"Let's look around."

"Well, then let's split up and look for exits and treasures. If there's any news and we can't contact each other, we'll return here and make a mark."

"Alright."

After saying that, Lan Qing jumped down from the passage. She really did jump. Without riding the big white dog, her whole body floated down to the ground as she disappeared into the darkness.

Su Hao glanced at the Wind Giant Spirit that she had abandoned. After thinking about it for 0.2 seconds, he decided to leave Big Fat Bear behind to accompany it.

Big Fat Bear: Don't abandon Bear Sob ~

But Su Hao had already flown down on the Dumb Unicorn.

...

After arriving at the underground town, the number of precious materials on the interface map increased immediately.

But after he made a comparison, it was mainly still concentrated near the stone monuments shrouded by lit halo barriers

"No wonder that Heavenly King Song wanted to blast open the barrier. So it's where the treasure vault is."

But unlike him, Su Hao wasn't able to blast it open.

He wondered if Senior Wu was also in this town.

Su Hao urged his horse… and ran carefully.

Occasionally, Su Hao would also provoke wild ghost-element sprites, but before they could even attack, they would be KO-ed by Butterfly's Psychic Piercing.

As he attentively traveled, Su Hao searched for items according to the scattered treasure icons.

Some of the treasure he found were sealed inside storage facilities, but the energy contained in them had already dissipated a little. Only ghost-element materials remained fully intact.

Shadow energy tended to linger.

"Speaking of which, the shadow energy seems to be very rich in this town."

But Su Hao didn't have a ghost-element sprite, so he couldn't sense the shadow elements clearly.

As he searched along the way, he saw many valuable materials scattered here and there. However, the documents he wanted most, or rather the documents the Dragon Nation desired most, was nowhere to be found.

The books were all gone and the profound symbols were no longer seen. As time went on, the number of scattered icons was decreasing.

Suddenly, a unique and almost overlooked icon appeared on the map.

"Why is this icon pure black?"

He opened it directly, and a brief message appeared on the interface.

[Black Stone: Contains a sprite[???] that is being bred]

[Breeding Progress: 99.99999%]

...

...

"Black Stone that breeds mysterious sprites?"

Was it an earth-element sprite? Or was it a ghost-element sprite?

The stone itself was earth-element. Sprites born from mountains, rocks, and earth were all earth-element.

But this was Ghost City, thus it was more likely for it to be a ghost-element sprite.

"Besides, sprites never formed icons in the past."

Su Hao's interest was piqued. After finding out that the location of the black stone was not in the center of the town, he headed there in peace.

At this moment…

Rumbling sounds still came from the center of the town. He looked over occasionally. The halo of the stone tablet had dimmed a lot.

"There are indeed a lot of precious materials there. I wonder if there are any other Sprite Trainers in the town apart from me, Lan Qing, and that person."

The location of the black stone was on the left side of the town. If the whole town was divided into four rings, then the first and second rings would be the core area, and the fourth ring would be the periphery.

As for the black stone, it was in an ordinary position in the West Third Ring.

But after searching around, Su Hao couldn't find a second black stone in the map, nor any other icons for sprites.

...

"We're here."

Su Hao arrived at an ordinary stone tablet-shaped building, the door was wide open, and it looked very chaotic inside.

He picked up many black rocks, but after observing them for a long time, he discovered that they were just ordinary rocks.

"So where's my black stone?"

He compared it and confirmed that his position had already overlapped with the black stone icon.

But after searching all three floors of the building, he still… didn't find anything.

"Is it above, or underground?

"It shouldn't be on the ground. Although the interface map is two-dimensional, it also indicated that the stone isn't on the uppermost level but on the same level I'm on."

"In other words, the black stone should be hidden under the ground level of the underground town? But it shouldn't be very deep."

In the building.

Butterfly and the others were also busy searching everywhere.

Dazed Crow had already slashed through a lot of things while Dumb Unicorn tried to cover as much ground by stepping on the walls and the ground.

"Fufuis ~ Fufuis ~!"

The Bright Night Spirit looked left and right. It was still inexperienced so it didn't know what to do.

"Gurgle~!"

At this moment, Su Hao looked at the wall that Butterfly was pointing at. Just now, the two Illusionary butterflies that Butterfly released had pierced through the wall and discovered that it was hollow inside.

Another secret room!

Su Hao looked at Dazed Crow.

"Squawk—" A feather blade with a power output of 10% slashed down and hit the wall. It actually made a "clang" sound of metal colliding.

Just now, Dazed Crow was able to cut open the items effortlessly like cutting tofu.

"There's indeed something wrong with this wall!"

The Dumb Crow increased its damage output. Finally…

Boom!

The Flaming Blade blasted a hole in the wall. Su Hao's gaze swept across the few sprites. Well, Big Fat Bear wasn't here, so…

"I'll leave the scouting mission to you," he said, giving Dumb Unicorn a "I have faith in you" look.

...

Three minutes later, in the secret underground room.

"I still can't find the black stone!"

This place was very spacious and empty, taking up at least ten times the area of the buildings above. The arrangements were also very solemn. The stone sculptures here were carved so vividly and lifelike. Su Hao even saw a sculpture with a protective halo around it.

Apart from the sprite sculpture with a crown in the center, there was a palm-sized crystal in front of each of the other sprite sculptures.

He suspected that the inheritance information of sprites was stored in those crystals!

But there was no evidence that suggested this!

"The crystals seem to have already exhausted their energy. The barrier halo protecting the stone sculpture also looks very dim, as if it would break with just a poke."

He came to a black stone slab.

It was placed diagonally on a stone table the size of a four-person dining table.

Butterfly said that there was weak energy contained on the stone slab.

Su Hao reached out and touched it. Instantly…

Profound symbols appeared on the stone slab one after another.

[… years ago, we discovered this world…]

[This world contains special… It can awaken all things and make them into spirits. We call this place the 'Spirit Summoning World'.]

[…]

[I see, the Spirit Summoning World is actually… We have to protect ourselves!]

[Today, the parliament finally agreed to the 'Ghostly Gate' plan. As long as it can reproduce the graceful bearing of that sprite, no matter what the price is…]

[There's no time, no time]

The symbols stopped abruptly. The energy contained in the black stone slab was completely exhausted. With a crack, it actually broke into two along with the stone platform.

Bang~!

The stone slab and stone platform fell on both sides, revealing the inside of another small stone platform.

On the stone platform was a black stone surrounded by shadow energy.

From time to time, wisps of black smoke would appear from the void and directly enter the black stone. During the whole process, the barrier halo surrounding the black stone did not fluctuate at all.

"It's that mysterious black stone!"

Su Hao reached out. Buzz… His whole hand bounced back, and he fell down on his butt. The protective screen flashed and disappeared.

"Fufu ~?" The Bright Night Spirit called out weakly. It seemed worried.

Su Hao petted its head. "It's alright…"

"Smash this barrier!"

Before he finished speaking, Butterfly was already scattering its energy.

Like suicide bombers, illusion butterflies crashed themselves right onto the barrier, carrying with them Butterfly's anger.

With every illusionary butterfly that disappeared, the halo of the barrier dimmed a little.

Finally…

Crack ~ The whole halo of the barrier completely dimmed, cracked into countless fragments and dissipated.

The mysterious black stone was exposed in the air. Instantly, the shadow energy in the whole secret room seemed to be dozens of times richer.

A cold wind blew.

"Should I take Black Stone away directly, or…"

Su Hao looked at the interface. The breeding progress was still [99.99999%]. He couldn't figure out whether that mysterious sprite was about to be born, or whether he would have to wait a few more months or years.

Or perhaps, he needed to fulfill a certain condition.

He tried several methods, but there was no response. After thinking for a while…

Su Hao pierced his finger, and a dark red bead of blood dropped onto the mysterious black stone.