Crack~
Su Hao stepped on a broken twig, walking across the thin layer of snow covering the ground. A faint halo of light enveloped his body—he had actively activated "Spirit Guardian: Protection" to keep his clothes from being torn by branches.
"You've got experience, little brother," said the burly man named Zhong Yunrui with a laugh. "You move much smoother than those other spirit cultivators, especially that Luo Cheng guy..." He shook his head. Having dealt with many people, he could instantly spot Luo Cheng's smugness as Professor Meng's student. Sure, Spirit University was hard to get into, and graduate programs related to spirits were even tougher. But in the end, he was just a grad student in an ivory tower. An intermediate spirit cultivator? Still just a spirit cultivator!
"Even a big shot like Professor Meng asked for Captain Lu's opinion when setting up camp, but that guy actually wanted to assign us defense tasks... You should've seen his face turn black as a pot when he found out you're an intermediate spirit cultivator." An amateur trying to boss around the pros—no wonder Zhong Yunrui didn't like him.
Su Hao didn't have much fondness for the guy either, but he wouldn't say he hated him. He was here to contract new spirits, not to latch onto some big shot—and that guy wasn't one anyway. He looked back. The four spirit cultivators had split up but weren't too far apart. He had Old Zhong by his side for protection, while Tang Xin and Tang Qiwen each had an elite spirit envoy escorting them. Only Luo Cheng had two people flanking him, left and right, and he was moving sluggishly, dragging his feet. Likeability -20.
Su Hao moved through the bare trees, his eyes constantly scanning the surroundings. Old Zhong's two spirits were on alert nearby, driving off wild spirits. One was a nearly elite-level Earthwalk Wolf. The other was an Elephant General. It was Su Hao's first time seeing an Elephant General in real life. It stood about two meters tall, broad-shouldered, with a long trunk swinging back and forth. It wore stone armor, as if carved by a master craftsman, with neatly arranged scale-like plates. In its right hand, it held a gray stone warhammer as tall as itself, topped with a spiked ball. It looked incredibly imposing—one swing and any troublemaker would get a physical headshot.
Su Hao had initially thought about sparring with Old Zhong's Elephant General when he had time, but after checking its stats, he decided against it for the sake of his Dream Butterfly's fragile body. 'If I were to break down elite levels, this Elephant General is at least high elite.' Elite, Transcendent, Monarch—unlike the beginner level, these tiers weren't subdivided, but the gap in strength within a single tier was actually larger. Su Hao had some experience by now. The leader who attacked the convoy, Instructor Xiong, and President Luo—their spirits were mid-elite. The spirit hunters he'd met in Sigh Valley were low-elite, the kind that barely scraped through. And Huang Tianhu's Winged Tiger was undoubtedly peak elite—with the chance to evolve into a Crimson Flame Qiongqi, it could cross into Transcendent fairly easily.
"Even though spirits can have high potential if raised well, it's true that those with higher potential break through bottlenecks much more easily." Try making a White Feather Moth break through to Transcendent—that's just forcing the impossible! That's why he didn't want his spirits to evolve too early.
"Old Zhong, have the Elephant General hold back its aura, or it'll scare all the spirits away." The primitive zone couldn't compare to the New World—the strongest spirit Su Hao had seen so far was just a mid-beginner level, though that was partly because they hadn't gone deep yet. As the Elephant General's aura receded, they started getting harassed by wild spirits. Zhong Yunrui had already instructed it to drive away any spirit that came within ten meters. But unexpectedly, a hunched Forest Wolf burst out from the trees, lunging at Su Hao, who looked weaker. The Elephant General raised its hammer and took a step, only to see an energy ball fly out and hit the charging Forest Wolf square on. With a bang, the Forest Wolf was stunned into a daze. Through the smoke, it saw the Elephant General approaching with its hammer raised, let out a whimper, and fled with its tail between its legs.
The Dream Butterfly's reaction speed and attack timing made Zhong Yunrui truly take notice. "Not bad—your spirit's level is decent, and it's got plenty of battle experience... And you're just a high schooler? Already an intermediate spirit cultivator!" Compared to Luo Cheng's showboating, Zhong Yunrui couldn't care less. But this seemingly low-key Su Hao... was way too impressive! He thought about how many years it took him to become an elite spirit envoy. Then he looked at that beautifully patterned, perfectly raised Dream Butterfly with its solid combat skills... "Can't help but admit defeat."
"Gu nuo~ (￣▽￣)" The Dream Butterfly fluttered over and landed on Su Hao's head, warily scanning the surroundings. This silly Su Hao, I'll protect him, gu nuo~
With Old Zhong and the Dream Butterfly handling security, Su Hao relaxed and observed the spirits around him. "This area has Forest Wolves, Spotted Mushrooms, Dry Leaf Locusts, Snow Wool Dogs, and such. Since they're wild, some haven't evolved, but over long years and with rich spiritual energy, they've broken through to beginner level. Some are native spirits, some are from the New World..." The same type of spirit could have subtle differences depending on origin. He could tell them apart by sight, and if he wasn't sure, there was always the stat panel—it even listed the "place of origin" in detail.
"This patch is a Spotted Mushroom habitat, with lots of fungi growing. That one... is that ginseng? Looks like it's been around for years!" Su Hao approached. Then he saw the ginseng move. Leaves on its head, long roots tangled together like a pair of pale, slender legs suddenly popping out of the ground, it sprinted off and vanished in a flash. Su Hao: "..." To be fair, those long legs were pretty nice, but unfortunately... he saw the head first.
"That's a Ginseng Doll, a specialty spirit of the Changbai Mountain primitive zone," Zhong Yunrui remarked. "And there's a Lingzhi Tai Sui too." Su Hao pointed into the distance. Under a giant umbrella-like lingzhi mushroom, a translucent little old man clung tightly to the trunk. Seeing Su Hao and the two—no, four—spirits approaching, he hugged the umbrella and hopped away. "Sure enough, there are plenty of wild lingzhi and ginseng." Su Hao recorded the spirits' data and the surrounding environment, listening to the occasional chime of intelligence value notifications, his mood gradually lifting.
They stayed at the foothill camp for three days, nearly covering the entire area's environment and spirits. After that, the research team pushed deeper into the primitive zone, trekking intermittently for two days until they cleared a flat, open space in a forest and set up a new camp. As they went deeper, Su Hao spotted wild elite-level spirits. They were elusive, but intimidated by the many powerful spirits in the group, they didn't dare approach. During the day, the five ordinary teams merged into two to ensure more strength against wild spirits. At night, it was free time. Elite spirit envoys not assigned to night watch would take off with a quick goodbye—they were off to find spirits to contract. Su Hao was itching to go too. The deeper they went, the easier it was to find rare, high-potential spirits. But he didn't dare leave camp alone. So he found Old Zhong and Old Huo, whom he'd gotten to know over the past few days.
Zhong Yunrui laughed and said, "We were thinking of asking you to join us. I know how sharp your eyes are—you spot spirits others miss at a glance and can instantly tell their strength. So we want your help picking out suitable spirits." The three of them agreed without hesitation.