Start With Contracting Sprites

Su Hao was a little confused.

So was Butterfly.

Its eyes were originally "¥^ ¥", but in an instant, they became "@ o @". The whole butterfly was upset.

The man and the two sprites looked around.

The damaged building exuded a faint light, illuminating the surrounding hundreds of meters.

When he arrived, Su Hao didn't look carefully, but now that he took a look, he realized that the safe area, which wasn't affected by the water pressure, wasn't that big.

It was only one to two hundred meters from one end to the other.

Su Hao tried many methods, including digging, demolition, unicorn demolition, spiritual orb demolition, running in circles, and so on, but he still couldn't enter that illusion.

He pondered. "Senior Wu said that one would be kicked out after staying in the Mirage Ruins for a period of time. This should be the kicking method. There's no indication at all."

"It's just that one can clearly stay in the ruins for five to seven days. Why is it that it's only been a short day for me?"

Most of the time, it was still Butterfly dismantling the gray fog while he and Dumb Unicorn ate nuts.

The time it really took to explore was less than six hours.

This shouldn't be happening!

The ruins must be jealous of my handsome face!

"Fortunately, I brought the Mirage Energy Orb out. It's not like I got nothing."

He lowered his head and looked at the milky white pearl. He could vaguely see airflows drifting inside.

There weren't any icons on the interface at first, so how did the treasure appear?

Mirage Ruins were too mysterious.

But after seeing those sculptures and the illusion of the Sea Serpent, Su Hao was more inclined to… think that these traces of civilization were left for sprites.

He was just about to let Butterfly study the Mirage Energy Orb when suddenly, waves of repulsive force descended.

He felt that he was being pushed out.

The pushing force slowly increased.

He knew that after being kicked out, he would not be able to step into the ruins for a long time.

But...

Couldn't he take his time!

I'm just taking a break!

So angry!

Su Hao didn't dare to stay any longer. He found the Trading Puppet and boarded it. Under the cover of Psychic power, he broke through the deep lake water and rushed up.

...

Ten-Thousand Wood Manor.

Heavenly King Wu was holding a large pair of scissors and trimming the flowers and plants in the courtyard neatly.

Suddenly, he felt something and looked up in a certain direction.

At the end of the horizon, a figure flew over.

In an instant, it appeared in front of him. When it landed, its psychic power raised waves of wind, blowing the plants in the courtyard into disorder again.

Heavenly King Wu looked at the Trading Puppet with a black face.

Then, he saw Su Hao and was stunned.

He felt that something was wrong.

Didn't he just go for a day?

Heavenly King Wu reassembled his thoughts.

The people exploring that ruin could stay inside for at least half a day, or even six to seven days.

Usually, the longer one stayed, the greater the benefits they gained.

In order to prevent himself from being shocked again, Heavenly King Wu had already raised his expectations infinitely.

He felt that even if Su Hao broke the record and stayed inside for nine days, ten days, or half a month, he wouldn't "f*ck" anymore.

But he never expected that Su Hao would be kicked out after only staying for a day.

"Perhaps his good luck has been used up. During the collective training, Little Junior was extremely lucky to have discovered the Land of Light. This time, he's relatively unlucky. He's not compatible with the ruins, so he could only stay for a day."

Heavenly King Wu was a little disappointed.

But then he thought that his junior might be even more disappointed, and couldn't help but provide words of comfort.

"Even if you don't gain anything…"

Before he finished speaking, he saw… a map in Su Hao's hand.

He couldn't help but pick it up. At first glance, he saw the large words "Sea Serpent Ruins Map" right above.

Below was a coordinate map with some markings.

He looked.

It only took two to three seconds for his gaze to change from confusion, to bewilderment, to shock, and then to bewilderment.

The map was very messy, but Heavenly King Wu was also someone who had explored the ruins. He took a few looks and recalled, and realized…

The buildings marked on it, the size and position, were actually all matching the ones he explored back then!

He flipped to the next paper.

It was a map of the Dragon Palace, marking the locations of the Sea Serpent Pillars.

Sea Serpent?

"What… I, what exactly did you see?"

There was nothing to hide about the exploration process.

Su Hao listed them one by one.

The illusion that could be destroyed, an orb, and… Butterfly had become much stronger.

"That's all. After all, I only had one day."

"Cough, cough!"

Heavenly King Wu almost suffocated, but he was, after all, a calm Heavenly King Wu. He only slowed down for a few seconds before throwing away the shock and emotions and started thinking. "…Does this mean that solidified spirit power has the ability to break the illusion?"

"If you can verify this discovery, you'll have made another great contribution! It can be used in many places!"

He said and looked at the Trading Puppet.

Five fist-sized, silver-white crystal balls flew out of the puppet's sleeve.

They were formed by pure spirit power.

They reflected light under the sun, like the most perfect gems.

It was obviously very valuable… Cough, cough!

But in the end, that was just orbs solidified by spirit power, not the same as the secret manual "Spiritual Orb". Su Hao didn't know whether it could demolish the tower in the illusion.

A moment later, the two of them arrived at a training room in the manor.

"Your Reverie Butterfly's spirit power is already very strong. If not for the form restriction, I'm afraid it would already be extraordinary."

"But right now, it's not impossible to break through the limit by working hard."

The upper limit of Reverie Butterfly's race was probably the elite-level limit.

Under the circumstances that its cultivation was very perfect.

But Su Hao had already made a plan. What he needed to do now was familiarize himself with the power after it had risen sharply.

Butterfly started dancing in the training room.

It split into mirror-like clones and made different actions.

At the same time…

Su Hao controlled the equipment in the room. Cannon muzzles appeared behind the wall one by one—the training room in Senior Wu's manor was fully equipped.

Energy gathered at the muzzle of the cannons.

"Well… The lowest attack is entry-level."

A beginner entry-level Energy Ball blasted out, directly hitting a mirror-like Butterfly that didn't dodge.

It blasted.

The mirror image clone also disappeared completely with a bang like broken glass.

"Its resistance to attacks is too weak."

He wasn't too satisfied.

Heavenly King Wu clicked his tongue in wonder. "Is that the power that came from the Sea Serpent?"

"There is no such 'Sea Serpent' sprite in the Sprite Commandeering Illustration Book, but the Union has also discovered sculptures similar to Sea Serpent in other areas… If they really exist, they are very likely to be like the legends."

He turned and looked at Su Hao. "Don't ask for too much. The spiritual force consumed by the illusion clone is already very low to begin with. Even if it upgrades to a physical body with a certain level, the consumption isn't high… That's the biggest advantage."

Su Hao understood too.

Compared to the Feather Clone, the Mirror Image Clone could split into more than ten at once, and it was also lethal.

He still needed to think about how to develop the corresponding tactics.

At this moment.

He heard Butterfly call out.

Then, a wisp of gray airflow flew out of the Mirage Energy Orb in its arms, and the airflow sank into one of the mirror images.

There didn't seem to be any changes.

But...

"Gurgle~!"

"You mean to continue attacking?"

He didn't expect that once Butterfly got serious, its clone would blow up so easily.

Su Hao locked onto the clone, pressed a button, and fired.

In an instant…

A transparent white ball of energy flew out with a whoosh and hit the Mirror Image Clone.

Boom~!

Energy exploded, and the clone was blasted flying, hitting the wall. It looked miserable.

But Su Hao was extremely happy.

"So that Mirage Energy Orb can strengthen illusions and increase its influence on reality."

Su Hao fired another shot.

The Energy Ball directly blasted the clone with insufficient health.

In the broken mirror shard, he saw a wisp of gray airflow fly out and enter the Mirage Energy Orb in front of Butterfly.

...

Ten minutes later.

Butterfly's mirror image clone exploded dozens of times.

"So that's how it is. There are a total of 100 strands of Sea Serpent Energy within the Mirage Energy Orb. It is consumed every time it is used, but as long as it is stored in the Mirage Energy Orb, the depleted Sea Serpent Energy can be restored."

It was a very valuable piece of equipment.

Butterfly packed it in a small bag, put on the chain and hung it on itself.

But this way, it had too many hanging items on itself.

Spiritual Orns, Mirage Energy Orb, Wood-element elemental crystal, and Marrow Jade. It was just a tiny sprite the size of a small doll.

It couldn't bear to let go of any one of them.

It had to evolve.

Only when it grows up can it hang more accessories, gurgle ~!

At this point, Heavenly King Wu praised.

"Your Reverie Butterfly's learning ability is too strong. It has great potential. As long as it can evolve, its future achievements will definitely not be ordinary."

He deliberated for a moment and asked, "Do you have an idea on its evolution conditions?"

"A little."

Su Hao said, "Back when I was writing the Reverie Butterfly Evolution thesis, I was wondering what its next stage of evolution would be."

He paused, and a look of 'recollection' appeared on his face.

Back then, 'recollection' had hit a wall time and time again, researching and experimenting.

That was so, so difficult.

"But after more than a year of research, I also have some ideas.

"And now, Butterfly has encountered a bottleneck, so I plan to arrange an evolution for it in the next few days."

"Are you confident? How much?" Heavenly King Wu asked.

He wasn't asking about the success rate of evolution.

It was the probability of triggering evolution.

Only by swallowing the elemental essences and being in a suitable environment would light cocoons interweave. Only then could it be considered the start of evolution.

As for whether it could complete its evolution, that was another matter.

"As long as you can trigger the evolution, it means that you are in the right direction. The rest is just a matter of time, for you to attempt and research multiple times."

Faced with Senior Wu's question.

Of course, Su Hao couldn't say that he was 100% confident. He thought about it. He was just a newbie among advanced Sprite Cultivators, an ordinary one.

So…

He tried to give a number. "50%."

Heavenly King Wu: "…(What the f*ck)"

...

Over the next few days.

Butterfly was training its unique skill "Mirage" and its newly learned "Illusionary Transformation" ability.

"Illusionary Transformation" was not a unique skill, but a special ability.

At first, Su Hao didn't understand how special abilities could be "comprehended". After thinking about it, it should be related to the Sea Serpent Energy that Butterfly had inhaled.

Before Butterfly evolved, it had to make sufficient preparations and truly grasp the gains from the ruins.

Su Hao was also preparing.

He published a new thesis to create momentum.

"Strictly speaking, Fairy Butterfly is my first evolved form discovered by independent research."

"The Reverie Butterfly Form and the Bright Night Spirit Form are both said to be due to strokes of luck."

Su Hao wasn't afraid that others would read his thesis and get flashes of inspiration.

In Dragon Nation and even the whole world, apart from his Butterfly, he believed that there was no other Reverie Butterfly that could meet the evolution conditions.

That was how confident he was!

Apart from preparing the thesis — the thesis he already published and the thesis he would publish after Butterfly evolved — Su Hao started to order the materials needed for Butterfly's evolution.

There were a total of 32 types.

Among them, there were 15 portions of wood-element essences and 15 portions of illusion-element essences.

Many precious materials such as Dream Crystals and Dream Flowers were rare materials in the outside world.

"If I were just an ordinary high school student, even if I had ten million yuan, it would be very difficult to gather all the materials."

"But now, I'm a Whale Island University student who doesn't lack credits."

It was very simple.

He threw down a few hundred credits and got whatever he wanted.

...

Time: April 8.

Auspicious day.

Nine o'clock: Lucky.

Plan: Butterfly Evolving.

At 8 a.m., Su Hao arrived at the Mirror Forest of Whale Island University and started setting up the venue.

As far as the eye could see, the whole forest was formed by mirrors. It was the basic area for training spirit power in Whale Island University.

There were originally quite a lot of people here.

But today, a one-kilometer radius of Mirror Forest was booked by Su "Not Lacking Credits" Hao.

He booked it for half the morning.

It wasn't that he didn't want to book it for a longer period of time, nor was it that he didn't want to buy the whole Mirror Forest with a wave of his hand… rent it, in case the school didn't agree.

But there were still people here.

Su Hao glanced over.

There was Senior Wu and Master Yao.

There were the three fellow townsmen Liu Ren, Gu Lingyao, and Li Songting.

"Why are Heavenly King Bu, Instructor Ma, and Instructor Sun all here? Who exactly was the big mouth!"

Without a doubt, it wasn't Senior Wu.

It was Big Mouth Liu!

The Big Mouth Liu told Li Songting, and Li Songting knew. His teacher, Heavenly King Bu, also…

Having completed a whole class of sightseeing with Butterfly during its first evolution, Su Hao felt that it was fine.

At this moment…

There were many sprites around.

Because Su Hao booked the whole venue and didn't use tickets, the Lava Dragon Turtle, the Tide-Calling Spring Sprite, and the others all came.

Butterfly waved and greeted them. "Gurgle, gurgle ~"

"The sprite is in pretty good condition. It's not nervous at all."

Master Yao said.

Heavenly King Wu also nodded slightly. "I was originally a little worried. After all, it was just an attempt to evolve. Now that I look at it, Little Junior doesn't need me to worry at all. I believe that even if he fails, he will definitely be able to summarize the way to success."

In the Mirror Forest.

All kinds of precious materials had already been arranged according to their positions.

A few dozen meters away, several cameras were also ready, aimed at the center of the field.

Time ticked, it was finally nine o'clock.

"Let's begin."

Su Hao said.

Butterfly flew up from the top of his head and landed in front of a bunch of bottles.

"Butterfly God, you can do it!" Liu Ren shouted over there.

The sprites also cheered.

"Howl howl!" "Fufufu ~!" "Neighhh ~!" "Hum ~!" "Squawk ~!"

Butterfly waved.

Its Psychic power enveloped 15 emerald green wood-element essences and 15 hazy pink illusion-element essences floated up and flew to its mouth.

One, two, three portions…

The moment the elemental essence entered its mouth, it turned into the purest energy and surged into various parts of its body.

In that instant…

The emerald green patterns on the butterfly's wings glowed brightly.

The whole butterfly became bright and dazzling.

Without any delay, it immediately flew to the center of the evolution field and began the ritual.

All eyes looked over.

There was nervousness and anticipation.

Under the light, Butterfly's body appeared with one, two, and countless threads. They intertwined and intertwined, weaving into a huge light cocoon, wrapping around it.

"The evolution ritual has been triggered. The first step has succeeded!"

"Now, it depends on whether I can complete the final evolution!"