Start With Contracting Sprites

At the back of Lake East Hill…

Flap, flap!

A crow with a sprig of flaming red feathers on its forehead was flying about in the forest.

While flapping its wings, it circled one round before returning and landing on Su Hao's shoulder.

Su Hao pressed the button on the timer.

"56 seconds. Not bad, you've improved."

"Squawk!"

"Then let's go for another round. Aim for 54 seconds this time."

"Squawk?"

"If you manage to do it, I'll give you extra goodies for lunch."

"Squawk!"

Little Fire Crow flapped its wings and swooped outward at once.

Su Hao looked at the other side.

In front of a huge rock riddled with holes was Silkworm Baby with a stern expression. Its big and moist eyes were focused straight ahead.

After a moment's mental preparation, at last, specks of green light appeared in front of Silkworm Baby's mouth and converged into a tiny green ball.

The ball expanded swiftly. In the blink of an eye, it was already the size of a fist.

Energy Ball!

From Su Hao's angle, it looked just like two concentric circles stacked on top of each other.

The inner-circle was filled with rich and dense wood-element energy, while the outer circle was translucent. One could see a large volume of tiny green specks vibrating wildly.

This ball of energy was already showing signs of instability.

Silkworm Baby hurled it out swiftly.

The fist-sized ball of energy shot out with a whoosh. It stayed close to the ground, sending countless fallen leaves flying as it whooshed about.

The ball of energy shot past and crashed right against the large rock.

Boom!

An explosion rang out.

Smoke and dust pervaded the air, and bits of rock flew everywhere.

Su Hao looked over.

The impact made a shallow pit the size of a basketball's cross-section in the large rock.

It didn't contain a lot of power. After all, this was just an entry-level Energy Ball. It didn't fully maximize Silkworm Baby's spiritual force that had already reached 90 points at this point. However, it was already much stronger than Granule Machine Gun and Charging.

"Gurgle~"

"Not bad, not bad. Your battle system has basically already taken form." Su Hao went on. "What you should do next is to continuously accumulate your spiritual force and compress it until you reach your limit. After that, you can prepare to break through."

"Gurgle~"

"Evolve? You have to break through to entry-level before you evolve, so as to avoid wasting your potential. Understand?"

"Gurgle…"

Although Su Hao didn't understand why Silkworm Baby was so hung up over evolving, this was something positive. With a goal now, Silkworm Baby indeed showed an explosive and different training condition.

…

After Silkworm Baby's Energy Ball reached entry-level, its improvement was visible.

It was also close to mastering String Shot.

He didn't need to worry about the rest of Silkworm Baby's training anymore.

Little Fire Crow, on the other hand… Where was it?

When Su Hao went looking for it, he spotted Little Fire Crow perching on a tree branch and quietly… Musing as it stared at the leaves.

"I had already nurtured Silkworm Baby to maturity, but here's another Little Fire Crow to worry about now."

Su Hao pressed his fingers against his temples and mulled over this.

Suddenly, he got an idea.

He approached Silkworm Baby, which was currently in the midst of practicing its Energy Ball.

"Silky, I have an important mission for you."

"Gurgle!!"

Silkworm Baby shot several meters backward and looked at him with wariness in its big eyes.

Look at what had happened the last time Su Hao said that!

It won't fall for it anymore!

Su Hao stiffened slightly.

Silkworm Baby must hold some kind of misunderstanding toward me. But alright, nevermind.

"Silky, let me ask you something. Is Little Fire Crow your underling or not?"

Silkworm Baby thought about it and nodded slowly.

"In that case, is it reasonable and logical that you, as its senior, guide your junior?"

Silkworm Baby shook its head resolutely.

Su Hao's expression froze in embarrassment.

His mind ran at full speed. After thinking for a while, he asked, "Do you know what the most important thing is if you want an underling whom you can order around?"

Silkworm Baby continued to stare at him warily. It didn't answer.

Su Hao went on. "It's prestige.

"Right now, in Little Fire Crow's eyes, you're just an experienced senior. If you wish to order it around just by relying on this aspect, this won't be enough.

"This is because you don't hold enough authority in Little Fire Crow's eyes."

He paused for a moment. When he noticed Silkworm Baby showing a contemplative look, Su Hao struck while the iron was hot. "But if you guide Little Fire Crow in its training so that it becomes stronger, you'll be an impressive and reliable senior in its eyes.

"If you want it to fly to the east, it'll never fly toward the west.

"It's only when that happens that you truly have an underling whom you can order around."

Silkworm Baby thought for a moment.

In the end, it thought that what Su Hao said made sense.

In order to gain an underling which can assist it, it shall… Accept this important mission!

"Gurgle!"

While watching it run toward where Little Fire Crow was, a comforting smile appeared on Su Hao's face.

"Silkworm Baby shall take care of Little Fire Crow's foundational training. When it reaches a certain point, I'll unlock the unique skills that Little Fire Crow needs to learn, and that'll do.

"I can finally concentrate on my own affairs now."

What was he busy with? Earning money, of course!

Buying Little Fire Crow cost him 200,000 yuan.

He had only been left with 30,000 to 40,000 yuan previously.

Zhao Liangcai was willing to pay 200,000 yuan for him in advance, but Su Hao didn't agree to it. If he really couldn't afford it, owing someone a favor wasn't that big of a deal—after all, he had the ability to repay it.

However, his family was able to provide this sum of money.

Right from the start, his parents had already prepared 300,000 to 400,000 yuan as a year's worth of expenses for him in the Sprite stream.

Apart from the 180,000 yuan used to purchase Silkworm Baby, he hadn't touched this sum of money much.

Su Hao initially didn't plan to use it either, but he was too destined to be with Little Fire Crow.

If he missed out on it this time, he might not even be able to contract a sprite like Little Fire Crow with 300,000 to 500,000 yuan in the future.

He wasn't an inflexible person.

He would spend when he should.

But after spending, he would need to quickly earn the money back.

"I'll go for duty at the Sprite Care House on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays in the afternoon after school, as well as the whole of Saturdays and Sundays, from now on."

The Sprite Cultivators at the Sprite Care House seemed to have already earned enough money. Apart from the stipulated half-days where they were required to be on duty, they rarely appeared.

What would happen if customers came and couldn't find a Sprite Cultivator? They would come again another day, of course.

Sprite Cultivators were simply this impressive.

Su Hao decided that from now on, he would head over whenever there were no Sprite Cultivators on duty.

"Also…"

He accessed the Union of Sprite Trainers' intranet on his cell phone and logged in to his account.

A red dot, signifying a notification, appeared at the upper right corner.

Su Hao's eyes lit up.

When he opened it, a message appeared.

"Dear elementary-level Sprite Cultivator Su Hao, your 'Improved Charging' has passed the verification check. It has been listed for sale at a retail price of 1,000 yuan."

"Ding! You have received 300 Union Points."

Su Hao took a look at the explanatory guide. Union Points were used to increase an account's access privileges. Previously, his access privileges were at Level 1. It had advanced to Level 2 now, so the content he could browse and products he could buy had increased quite greatly.

"But those aren't important."

Su Hao filtered the unique skills for sale in the marketplace. At last, he saw the Improved Charging, which he had uploaded.

"The evaluation given by the Union's verification officer is pretty good."

"There's actually even small-scale promotion for it."

Su Hao took a look.

In just mere minutes after it had passed the verification check, Improved Charging had already sold more than 100 times.

"If I can get 500 yuan per sale, 100 sales would be…"

Su Hao's eyes turned into dollar signs.

It seemed like whether or not he went for duty at the Sprite Care House wasn't that important anymore.

He was the picture of arrogance now!