Start With Contracting Sprites

"Squawk? Squawk…"

Bang!

Upon seeing Little Fire Crow fall right down, Su Hao wrote down a note in his little notebook.

Sprite Commandeering needs to be practiced more and form a habit. Otherwise, it's not an assistance but a disservice.

After using Sprite Commandeering: Accelerate twice, Su Hao didn't feel anything himself.

He glanced at the interface—his soul power had dropped by about two points.

"According to Old Chen's description, so long as I maintain adequate sleep, the soul power consumed can be restored within a day. But consuming too much soul power would cause a sharp decline in mental state and even fainting."

At school yesterday, Su Hao had already been able to use Sprite Commandeering.

At that time, Old Chen had told him not to continue using Sprite Commandeering when he felt tired.

Su Hao felt nothing now.

"I can try Summoning."

He spread his fingers and shouted in a low voice.

Tap…

Tap…

Two pointers lit up, so he followed the soul contract's instinct and chose to summon Silkworm Baby.

After an instant, he felt a strand of soul power being drawn out.

A dumbstruck Silkworm Baby appeared at the position in front of him, as high as his arm.

It dropped rapidly.

In midair, it flipped its body to maintain balance and landed stably.

"Gurgle?"

It saw the stupid crow hit the tree trunk and ran over to supervise it.

Then it used the gaze of a senior.

Stare~

Under the gaze, Little Fire Crow shakily flew up again, looking pitiful and helpless. It flapped its wings and continued to fly among the densely foliaged woods. It turned up and down, passing among the branches.

Suddenly, a force shrouded it. Little Fire Crow seemed to have a booster installed on it, and branches were quickly enlarged in its eyes.

It dodged and dodged again, but still got tripped by a branch and got sent flipping outward.

"Squawk, squawk, squawk…"

Its sound faded away.

While looking at Little Fire Crow's disappearing figure among the trees, Su Hao fell into deep thought.

Maybe, we should still start practicing in simple environments? Even if sprites are thick-skinned, they have to fall in the right places.

As Su Hao pondered over it, he felt a spell of dizziness. His legs felt weak, and he had to squat down.

"I consumed too much soul power?"

He had it more convenient than others.

On the interface, he saw that only less than 3 points of soul power were left.

Before I used Sprite Commandeering: Accelerate, there were 3.6 points of soul power left. I was only a bit tired, but it wasn't obvious. But after consuming a little more, the impact on my state got a little bigger.

1/3 is probably a critical threshold. When soul power is less than 1/3, one's state would be very obviously affected.

To use Sprite Commandeering would not be advisable then, as he himself might fall before the enemy did.

When Silkworm Baby saw Su Hao squatting on the ground and his hand supporting his forehead, it ran over nervously.

"Gurgle, gurgle!"

Don't die!

…

Autumn passed, and winter came. In a blink of an eye, it was the end of the semester.

As a Sprite stream student, Su Hao also had to undergo the regular final examination for the semester, just like his peers in Arts and Science streams.

The exams he had to take were subjects unique to the Sprite stream, such as Sprite History, Sprite Cultivation, and Sprite Analysis.

There were also exams for ordinary compulsory subjects like Chinese, Mathematics, and Moral Education.

This year, the examination date was even earlier to leave sufficient time for the five-school joint combat practice.

In the classroom of Class Two…

In his thick winter school uniform, Su Hao held a pen and kept writing answers on the exam paper.

The hot air breathed out from his mouth turned into white mist, dissipating in the air.

Finally…

Slap!

He finished the last question.

The bell rang. Su Hao turned in the fully filled Moral Education exam paper.

"It was too hard!"

The air he breathed out turned into white mist again.

Su Hao finished answering the exam questions for Sprite stream with great ease. The difficulty level of the final exam was far below the written exam for Sprite Cultivators.

Unfortunately, he still had to take exams for ordinary academic subjects. This was hugely difficult for Star Student Su, especially since he hadn't spent much time revising.

"It's alright. I don't know if it's my illusion, but it feels like my memory and thinking abilities seem to have both improved a little."

Perhaps it was due to the increase in soul power.

After finishing the exam paper for the last subject, Su Hao walked out of the classroom. A light yellow figure leaped toward him, which then quickly slowed down when approaching him.

"Gurgle~!"

Su Hao caught Silkworm Baby. Then he saw a Little Fire Crow drop onto the top of his head, flopping.

"Gurgle!" Silkworm Baby yelled a little.

"Squawk," Little Fire Crow replied weakly. It flew up again and fell down on Su Hao's shoulder.

Silkworm Baby crawled onto the top of his head, satisfied.

Su Hao was rendered speechless.

Did you ask for my opinion?

…

After the final exams, they had a rare few days of holidays.

When Su Hao arrived at the classroom the following Monday, they received the result slips.

As he expected, he only got half a mark or one mark deducted for the several subjects of Sprite stream… It must be the teacher reminding him not to be arrogant.

"117 for Chinese, 138 for Mathematics… all pretty good."

After all, Sprite Cultivation and real combat had the highest weightage. Su Hao's requirement for himself on ordinary academic subjects was to simply not be a burden.

Then…

Liu Ren approached, gave it a glance, and yelled, "Wow, Old Su, you are sure to get into a prestigious university already!"

He was too clear about Su Hao's abilities.

Between the two contracted sprites, Little Fire Crow was only cultivated for a short period of time, so it was hard to say, but Silkworm Baby actually could already beat Coach Xiong's Little Wind Horse in November.

Presently, Silkworm God was probably close to even entry-level.

"But, my Master Tortoise's spiritual force is also already more than 110, it can reach its maximum during this winter holiday. Thinking this way, it seems that my progress is pretty fast too, right?"

Liu Ren knew who was responsible for this. As compared to the previous Sprite Cultivator's plan, Su Hao's was too awesome. Otherwise, it would be very difficult for Little Charcoal Tortoise's spiritual force to even reach 100 points.

"Hey, Su Hao, what do you think my Master Tortoise's spiritual force upper-limit should be?"

"Probably around 140. With your cultivation progress now, in about 40 days, you can cultivate Little Charcoal Tortoise to its limit before entry-level." Su Hao gave Liu Ren's result slip a glance and said, "If you get the grades for these subjects up, it is not impossible for you to give prestigious universities a try."

When Liu Ren heard that, his eyes brightened, then a sad expression appeared on his face.

We are still good brothers if you don't mention grades!

He changed the subject and asked, "Your silkworm's spiritual force has reached the maximum, right?"

"Pretty much."

"Then my Master Tortoise isn't that far behind your Silkworm God as well, huh."

Su Hao smiled and said nothing.

Silkworm Baby had indeed approached its maximum state. Some sprites' maximum states were at 100 points of spiritual force, and some others were at 130, or 150.

However, Silkworm Baby's spiritual force had already… Reached 176!

It had also achieved small compressions at the stages of 120 and 150 points of spiritual force.

Su Hao had also unlocked Speed-Enhancement Cultivation and Physique-Enhancement Cultivation.

Even Su Hao himself couldn't say for sure how strong Silkworm Baby exactly was right now. He only knew that several of the huge rocks at the back of Lake East Hill had been destroyed, so he dared not continue staying there anymore.