The next day, Su Hao woke up early, his head resting on the soft, pillowy belly of the Electric Bear.
He took out a collapsible basin, had the Water Qilin gather moisture from the air, brushed his teeth, and washed his face, feeling much more alert.
"Time to eat."
Su Hao pulled out pre-prepared sets of various attribute jade powder from his backpack and laid them out one by one.
The Electric Bear, lying on its back on the moisture-proof mat, twitched its ears. The big, chubby bear suddenly sat up straight, turned its head, and stared fixedly at the Thunder-type jade powder set, drool practically dripping from the corner of its mouth.
"Owoo?"
Seeing Su Hao nod, it grabbed the jade powder set and finished it in a few bites, feeling full but still wanting more. It licked the container clean.
After licking, it nibbled on some 'snacks' that wouldn't really fill it up.
Su Hao started preparing his own meal. He borrowed a bit of fire from the Fire Crow, boiled water, and cooked noodles. In no time, a steaming bowl of noodle soup was ready.
"Slurp, slurp." Full and satisfied, Su Hao patted his belly and looked around.
The faint light of dawn appeared, and the sky gradually brightened.
Su Hao swung himself onto the Water Qilin. A big white bear led the way ahead, while Butterfly and the Fire Crow flew low...
The second day of treasure hunting had begun.
...
"Only worth three credits and takes up space. Don't need this."
Hearing Su Hao say that, Butterfly reluctantly dropped the black mineral in its hand... and buried it in the ground.
Even if it didn't want it, it had to hide it well to ease the sting.
"Gu no~?"
"This? Worth about eight credits, I guess. Put it in the backpack."
"Gu no (?＞▽＜)?"
It happily placed it inside.
The exploration wasn't always smooth. High-value rare materials often had wild spirits guarding them.
A few ordinary elite-level spirits didn't faze Su Hao's group, but if it were a few peak elite-level ones, he'd have to think twice.
Not that they couldn't fight, but the risk-to-reward ratio wasn't worth it.
"In the wild, avoid fights whenever possible. Keep the spirits' condition above baseline."
Supplies in the wild were limited. Even if injuries could be treated with medicine, it took time.
During that time, the spirits' combat power would drop, making encounters with strong foes more dangerous.
Unless they had a healing-type spirit skilled in full recovery.
As Su Hao thought this, suddenly, several Death Locusts flew toward them.
They looked formidable and locked onto them immediately.
"Plan one!" he said.
In an instant...
Boom!!!
The Fire Crow activated its Flame Feather stance, its feather blades lengthening. With a flash, it slashed straight at a Death Locust.
Fire Crow One-Blade Slash!
Full power!
All that could be seen was a red streak flashing by.
The Death Locust, about half a meter long, fell from the air.
The other Death Locusts, sensing danger, grabbed their companion, flapped their wings, and vanished into the forest.
The buzzing faded.
The Fire Crow retracted its flames.
Su Hao spoke, "Let's move quickly. That commotion probably caught the attention of several spirits."
He didn't know what level of spirits were on the island, but safety came first.
Especially, he couldn't let the Dull Crow get too carried away. If it wore itself out, Su Hao's group's combat power would take a big hit.
Clop, clop!
Clop, clop!
The Water Qilin galloped through the mountain forest. Sunlight filtered through the treetops, casting dappled shadows.
"Stop!"
Su Hao suddenly called out, "Go back, go back."
The Water Qilin didn't understand but obediently turned around.
Su Hao spoke again, pointing in a direction, "North, head north."
As his position shifted, the nearby map displayed on the panel moved with him.
After a moment,
Su Hao finally found what had caught his eye earlier.
"Another cluster of spirits?
"Could it be another explorer team?
"Wait, what are those spirits...?"
Su Hao clicked on one of the icons. A spirit-like figure, radiating light, appeared.
— Dawn Spirit.
A pure Light-type spirit!
Looking at the clustered spirits, they were either Light-type, Wood-Light-type, or Thunder-Light-type...
"Since when did Light-type spirits become so common?"
He knew that the conditions for a Light-type spirit to be born were extremely苛刻. Any Light-type spirit was rare.
Those that evolved from Wood-type or Thunder-type often had very high evolution requirements.
"There must be some special factor causing so many Light-type spirits to appear."
Su Hao's eyes widened as he searched the panel.
Finally...
He found some other icons hidden beneath the spirit icons, "Light Element Crystals, more than one."
In the rare material guidebook, a fist-sized Element Crystal was worth as much as an Attribute Core.
It was a precious treasure.
Long-term exposure to an Element Crystal could subtly enhance a spirit's potential and overall abilities. Some spirits even needed to absorb small amounts of Element Crystals during their final evolution or advancement.
Seeing those icons, Su Hao knew they were about to hit the jackpot.
As he said this, Butterfly had already turned into the shape of money.
"Calm down, stay steady!
"That's clearly the lair of Light-type spirits. Whether we can get the Light Element Crystals is uncertain. If the danger is too great, we'll have to give up...
"Anyway, let's scout it out first."
Su Hao set off.
The spirits all lowered their voices and lightened their steps.
After walking for a while, the fog grew thicker, hazy and impenetrable even to sunlight. Silence reigned all around.
Suddenly, a steep cliff face appeared ahead.
"No path?"
The panel map only showed icons; the actual terrain was unreliable.
Su Hao's group had to explore to both sides.
After a long trek, circling from the south where the Light-type spirits clustered to their north... Su Hao still hadn't seen any trace of the Light-type spirits.
He hadn't been able to get close!
Su Hao stared at the panel map, wandering around from morning to afternoon, until he finally discovered a gap at the base of a rock wall.
He crawled in, walked a few hundred steps further, turned a corner, and the view opened up. Blinding light hit Su Hao's eyes, nearly forcing them shut.
"That is..."
Before him was what seemed like a completely enclosed valley, surrounded by towering, steep cliffs.
Logically, the light should have been very dim.
Yet...
Above the valley, about several dozen meters up, hung an object emitting a blazing, bright white light, like a sun.
Dazzling, glaring.
Birds, pure white and radiating soft white light, flew around the orb, occasionally cooing.
"Doves, Light Birds, Holy Birds."
Those were spirits of the same evolutionary line.
Su Hao looked elsewhere.
He saw a humanoid Holy Mantis Warrior wielding two light swords;
He saw a Moonlight Rabbit, jade-like, hopping on the ground;
He saw a Prayer Light Butterfly flapping its wings, scattering showers of radiance;
He saw a Seven-Colored Deer trailing ribbons of various colors;
He saw a Wood-Light-type Fluorescent Sprite holding a clump of grass, its tip glowing like a lightbulb;
He also saw numerous floating light clusters and the many Dawn Spirits, along with...
The evolved form of the Dawn Spirit—the Holy Radiance Spirit.
They had humanoid bodies, bare with no coverings, covered in twisted patterns, and behind them were pairs of light wings like glass mirrors, radiating dazzling brilliance.
Su Hao and Butterfly hid behind a huge rock, poking their heads out to observe quietly.
"In this valley, the strongest should be those Holy Radiance Spirits."
Seeing them in person, cross-referencing with the panel, more detailed data emerged.
Su Hao felt the situation was tricky.
At the same time,
Not far from Su Hao, there was another gap in the Radiance Valley.
Outside the gap.
A thin young man compared the surroundings and suddenly exclaimed, "There! That's where I saw the holy light back then!"