Start With Contracting Sprites

At the entrance of the Cloud Forest in the Congyun Province was one of the 28 World Entrances announced by Dragon Nation online.

In other words…

This was a World Entrance that was open to the public.

The nature of the entrance of the Japanese Nation and other small countries was the same—after all, Zone 096 was an ordinary area. It wasn't dangerous and had medium resources. It was suitable for ordinary independent Sprite Trainers or Sprite Trainers to explore and develop.

However, at this moment, the base had clearly already started to be under martial law.

A group of unaffiliated Sprite Trainers was blocked outside the gate. Very few were let in, but those that did also had to go through very cumbersome checks.

It was the situation that Su Hao sensed in an instant with Butterfly's scanner when the transport plane had just landed.

"I have to say, after possessing a little special ability, it became even easier to connect with Butterfly. There was no need to go through the transference of illusion, and without the intermediate link, the risk was reduced."

Buzz—

The cabin door opened. Su Hao got up and waved to the two arrest officers. "Let's go. Don't let the higher-ups of the base wait for us for too long."

…

"Please take the special passage here. We will settle your procedures as soon as possible, but there will still be some necessary checks."

"Special times, we understand."

Su Hao and the other two followed two Sprite Trainers who held high positions in the base. They walked straight into the special entrance guarded by two elite Sprite Trainers.

It made the dozen or so Sprite Trainers who were still waiting in line to be examined widen their eyes.

"How come they get to take the special passage?"

A fair-looking Sprite Trainer questioned.

He was wearing a luxurious protective suit made of greenery and a limited edition tactical wristband. Beside him was a rare sprite… No matter how one looked at it, one could tell he was rich.

Xu Rongxuan was indeed very rich.

He was a rich second-generation heir.

Usually, when he came to this base, he would take special passageways. The inspection would be done in ten minutes.

But for some reason today, many Sprite Trainers weren't allowed to enter. Even he could only wait slowly at the VIP passage.

After waiting for more than half an hour, there were still more than ten people in front of him!

Xu Rongxuan was very frustrated. Then, he suddenly saw that three people had actually been allowed to enter through the special passage that was clearly forbidden!

It made him ask involuntarily.

But once he asked, he regretted it.

Thinking about it carefully, at this time, those who could take the special passage were either Sprite Trainers with missions on hand, or second-generation Sprite Trainers with more power than him.

He couldn't afford to offend either of them.

Xu Rongxuan gave in.

But…

As soon as he spoke, many of the second-generation heirs who were waiting impatiently seemed to have found their backbone and questioned him one after another.

"Silence!"

A loud voice came from behind.

Accompanied by a wave of pressure, Xu Rongxuan and the other second-generation heirs felt as if they were targeted by a ferocious beast. Their hair stood on end.

Their sprites had sharper senses and were already trembling at this moment.

Turning, they saw the huge Ground Wolf in front of them. Its brown fur stood on end, reflecting the light like steel needles. Its body was four to five meters tall, and just standing there took up a lot of space. It was much larger than the usual strong Ground Wolf.

It was… it was an extraordinary sprite!

The second-generation heirs felt apprehensive.

Regardless of whether they were already sincere or still unwilling, they all shrunk their necks in front of a master-level expert and didn't dare to make a sound anymore.

Then, they heard the master-level Sprite Trainer say,

"This is a special period. Anyone who violates the order will be immediately expelled and placed on the blacklist of the Shuanglin Base. Is that understood?"

…

Su Hao didn't care about what happened in the tunnel.

At this moment, while waiting for a simple investigation, he listened to the higher-ups of the base in front of him tell him about the intelligence regarding the Dark Society's stronghold.

"The news came from two days ago. Now, it's basically confirmed that there's definitely a relatively large Dark Society stronghold within a few hundred kilometers of our entrance. But now, the exact location of the stronghold has yet to be found."

The higher-up of the base said, "Because we determined that there are strong people from the Dark Society in the stronghold, we applied for support from the higher-ups. Currently, there's already a 100-man team from the arrest department searching in Area 096. Apart from that, we have also called in many strong people from the instructors of high schools, including Rain Forest University, as well as the experts from our provincial guild in Congyun Province."

He said, looking at Su Hao and the other two, "Thank you very much for coming to support us. I hope that we can uncover the location of the Dark Society as soon as possible and eliminate those malignant tumors."

Su Hao already had a rough concept in his mind.

After thinking about it, he asked, "Was the operation to annihilate the Dark Society led by a Heavenly King guarding Shuanglin Base?"

The higher-ups of the base shook their heads. "Because of the existence of the Dark Society's stronghold, Heavenly King Lin is busy and has to oversee the city to prevent the Dark Society's experts from doing anything crazy. Therefore… the operation to encircle the Dark Society's stronghold can only be entrusted to you."

"Understood."

…

Crossing through the entrance and arriving at the Spirit Summoning World, the air became much fresher. Su Hao himself could also feel the elemental particles in the world becoming denser than when he was on Planet Aquamarine.

But he was a human, and he still couldn't absorb the particles.

At this moment…

Led by a higher-up from the base named Cheng, they went straight to the eastern gate of the city.

"The battle command post isn't in the city, but about 100 kilometers away from Shuanglin City. It's relatively far. Please follow me."

The senior officer surnamed Cheng opened his palm and summoned a well-built, bright-feathered Forest Griffin.

It was an extraordinary-level sprite.

He grabbed onto the sprite and leaped, riding on the back of the Forest Griffin, and looked at Su Hao and the others. "There's no time to lose, we…"

Before he finished speaking, he saw the youngest of the three speak.

"Old Brother Cheng, just point the way. We'll use my mount to fly. It should be faster, and there's no need to leave behind the sprites that can't fly."

Mr. Cheng: "???"

The two arrest officers also had puzzled looks on their faces as they looked at the Flaming Spiritcrow, Butterfly Fairy, Water Qilin, and the unknown sprite in the black and white dress in Su Hao's team…

Uh, indeed, among the five sprites, all of them could fly except for Thunder Roaring.

But…

Flying sprites that could carry people were different from flying sprites that could carry clumsy sprites.

The easiest way was to keep the sprites that couldn't fly and summon them when they reached their destination.

At least this was what they thought.

Suddenly, they felt the ground beneath their feet turn soft.

Looking down, they realized that they were no longer stepping on the ground. At some point, the ground had already become a soft cloud, lifting them up and floating upwards.

Silently, just this move alone made the two arrest officers secretly shocked.

As expected of a Sprite Trainer who could apply for the intern inspector assessment.

The sky-blue cloud lifted the other three, as well as the sprites such as the Forest Griffin, the Great Titan, and the Armored Dragon Hawk.

Tong Jia was just about to ask if bringing so many cumbersome sprites would affect their flying speed.

But before he could finish speaking, the whole cloud flew out with a whoosh and flew towards the sky at an extremely fast speed, leaving only the scenery of rapidly retreating on both sides of his vision and the dense forest that he could only see with his head lowered in a flash.

"This speed. So fast!"

Even if they were flying hundreds of meters in the sky and despite the lack of obvious references, Tie Yu and the others could still feel the extreme speed.

They couldn't help but look at the water qilin who was standing at the front of the cloud and constantly stepping on small steps.

What was the purpose of this small step?

The Sprite Trainer surnamed Cheng was still thinking when he heard, "This direction, right?"

"Ah… right!"

He stretched his neck and looked at the continuous mountain range at the far end. "It's that mountain range. The temporary command post is at the foot of the mountain range. You can see it when you fly lower there."

"Wait…"

He suddenly realized something. "We're almost there? How long have we been flying? I remember it's more than 100 kilometers?"

They looked at the scenery as they traveled… After flying for a while, they arrived near the mountain range.

The Dumb Unicorn flew at a low altitude. With Su Hao's eyesight that was already comparable to Hawkeye's, Su Hao didn't need to use "Sprite Commandeering: Visual Sharing". With a casual scan, he discovered…

Cough, big trees were lush and full of leaves. As far as the eye could see, it was green.

There didn't seem to be any command post.

Su Hao turned his head and saw confusion in Sprite Trainer Cheng's eyes.

"Did we go to the wrong place?"

"Gurgle ~!"

Butterfly called out.

Su Hao looked to the direction Butterfly was signaling at. After carefully identifying, he discovered that some tree crowns at a certain location were abnormal.

They had been fixed.

There were traces of wood-element sprites undergoing construction—just like the traces of tree-building forest he often saw at Senior Wu's place.

Su Hao thought for a moment. "Disperse the concealment illusion enveloping us."

Once the contract command was given.

Instantly…

Two sprites flew out of the dense forest below and stared at them warily.

At the same time, their wristbands vibrated.

…

After a moment, Su Hao and the others arrived at the temporary command post, at a camp hidden in the woods.

"There are really quite a lot of Sprite Trainers here. Looks like the scale of the operation is even larger than I imagined."

"Exactly, but why do we have to stay in the command center! We can clearly search for the enemy on our own, don't you think so?"

Beside him, a Sprite Trainer who looked like a university student complained.

His companion shook his head. "Instructor gave the order to ensure our safety. After all, we're only elite-level. If we really encounter the experts of the Dark Society, I'm afraid we won't even have the chance to send out a distress signal."

"I know that too! It's just that I can't wait to find the Dark Society stronghold and go into battle to kill the enemy!"

Those two seemed to be students from Rain Forest University. They mumbled and then looked at Su Hao. "By the way, classmate, which school are you from? Are you the only student here? Did you come with three instructors?"

Su Hao :"…"

He casually replied, "I'm from Whale Island University."

"What the f*ck, Whale Island, wait, why is a student from Whale Island University here…"

The president of the Sprite Trainer Association of Rain Forest University, Lin Gu, thought about it. The people that were called here should not include members of Whale Island University… After all, it was very far away.

Then, he saw several Sprite Trainers wearing the combat uniforms of the arrest department walk out of the command center.

He was already very familiar with the person in the lead.

It was the big boss in charge of the whole operation, the team leader-level expert from the arrest department, Mo Tao.

He…

He took a few steps forward and shook hands with the Sprite Trainer suspected to be a student from Whale Island University just now. He seemed to have some respect as he welcomed the person and turned to enter the command center.

Rain Forest University student: "???"

…

In the command center.

Apart from Captain Mo Tao, there were also other master-level Sprite Trainers representing various forces.

There were instructors from domestic Rain Forest University and some ordinary universities.

There were experts sent by the Congyun Province Association.

There were also reinforcements from the Japanese Nation and other small countries.

Although Zone 096 involved many countries, this operation was carried out in the name of the Union.

Their goal was to eliminate the Dark Society's base.

The experts of the various countries might not know Su Hao's exact background, but many people had long known that an intern inspector would come to provide assistance.

At this moment, apart from being secretly surprised by Su Hao's youth and handsomeness, there wasn't any displeasure on their faces.

On the contrary, they were glad to see him and gave him praise.

It made Su Hao a little embarrassed.

He had originally prepared a few plans to intimidate everyone and prove his strength.

But why…

Why was it different from what he read in novels?

He could only imitate the others and gave praises of his own.

After that, Su Hao looked serious. "What's the situation now?"

When the head of the arrest department, Mo Tao, heard this, his expression became much more solemn.

He organized his thoughts and said, "Since noon yesterday, we've been searching for traces of the members of the Dark Society in Area 096. Up until now, we've been able to uncover a range. The enemy's stronghold is in the mountain range in front of us, but we still haven't found its exact location."

"And with our experience dealing with the Dark Society in the past, more than a day is enough for the Dark Society to sense that something is wrong, especially now that the informant has stopped providing us with news… We don't have much time left."

As he spoke, he looked at Su Hao with a consulting look.

In terms of position, the intern inspector did indeed have the authority. If Su Hao wanted to, he could directly take over command and order the others.

But…

If he did that, he would just be a layman commanding blindly, and that would just cause problems.

Su Hao shook his head. "I still have to entrust the command of the battlefield to Brother Mo. When the time comes, I'll take care of the Dark Society experts on the battlefield."

Mo Tao heaved a sigh of relief. "Please be careful. There's very likely a quasi-Heavenly King powerhouse in the Dark Society's stronghold."

He continued, "But the advantage is with us. A Dark Society stronghold may have a few experts, but the number of master-level Sprite Trainers will definitely be far less than ours. Our mission is also to capture those master-level, the ones in the more important positions!"

At this moment…

Apart from Mo Tao and some representatives of the various forces, the other master-level Sprite Trainers had already gone deep into the mountain range to search for the location of the Dark Society's stronghold.

Su Hao was preparing to let Butterfly, Dazed Crow, and Dumb Unicorn search separately.

Then…

A Sprite Trainer rushed over and said anxiously, "We found the Dark Society's base, but they seem to be moving!"

The Sprite Trainer who sent the message immediately marked the location of the stronghold on the map.

Mo Tao's eyes widened as he looked at the representatives of the various factions. "Quickly organize your teams and seal this place, this place, and this place! I'll bring a group of elites and go over first."

He looked at Su Hao.

Su Hao nodded.

Outside the command center, in the sky above the camp, lush trees were directly pulled down, revealing the blue sky. Many Sprite Trainers climbed onto flying sprites and were ready to go.

With a "Neighhh", Dumb Unicorn made the blue-white cloud appear. However, it couldn't bring all the sprites with it. It only lifted Tie Yu, Tong Jia, Sprite Trainer Cheng, Mo Tao, and the few master-level subordinates under Mo Tao and flew into the sky.

Before long…

From afar, Su Hao saw flames appearing somewhere in the mountain range.

He saw a few Sprite Trainers from the Union who were resisting the bombardment of the members of the Dark Society. Several sprites had already fallen.

As for the people bombarding them…

The members from the Dark Society targeting them weren't strong.

"They must be moving something. We can't let them leave!"

Mo Tao shouted.

Dumb Unicorn's blue-white cloud descended.

Sprite Trainers like Tie Yu and Tong Jia as well as the others were summoning sprites one after another.

Su Hao had already gone far ahead. Alone, he shouted at the dozens of Dark Society members who were blocking the narrow entrance of the valley.

"You've already been surrounded!"