Crack!Eh? What was that sound?
Duan Li turned around to see just what was going on. What he saw then had turned his eyes wide and his mouth agaped.
"T-that is.. it.. is that.."
At this moment, Duan Li had a trouble in trying to express his thoughts clearly. The words he was about to speak out stuttered in his mouth. It was only after taking a few breaths in that he was able to say it.
"A... A worm?!"
The previously big, egg-like shaped monster core of the Earth attribute just now had cracked open to reveal a worm-like creature that was wriggling and dancing about inside his dantian.
This worm wasn"t that big nor was it long. Just about a metre long and a few inches thick, with its head much more bigger than the rest of its body. However, contrary to the appearance of the usual grotesque worms inside the Earth, this worm was extremely pink in color and its body flawless without any sorts of ugly blotches on it.
Furthermore, it"s eyes were round like that of a rabbit, and both of its pupil was green in colour. In addition, its mouth was quite small and curved into a cute smile.
When this worm saw Duan Li was staring at it with a puffer fish like expression, the worm chuckled for a bit as it spoke out, "Master, I am the Earth origin spirit, Dilong!"
Dilong? Where did I heard of that name before?
As if hearing the thoughts of it"s master, the worm replied, "Dilong is an Earth dragon!" with a wide smile.
Pu!
An Earth dragon?!
Duan Li choked on himself when the little worm called itself an Earth dragon. With an appearance as such, wasn"t that sullying the holy name of the mighty dragon species to call itself as one of them?
Would the heavens even tolerate such blasphemy?
The little worm then pouted its mouth feeling a little bit displeased as it complained, "Dilong am really part of the dragon species! It"s just that Dilong was born recently that Dilong"s appearance is like this now!"
Duan Li casted a suspicious gaze towards the little worm, still having a trouble in believing it"s words.
From the depiction of many drawings of dragons that he had seen so far, even at their initial stage, a baby dragon resemblance to their parents was definitely uncanny!
But this little worm wriggling around doesn"t even look that one bit of how a dragon would look like.
"Humph! Those are but merely the depictions of dragons from ignorant people that based their imaginations of how we looked like by referring to the inferior wyvern species!"
"If master doesn"t believe what Dilong had just said, then master would only have to continuously supply Dilong with an endless supply of Earth attribute monster cores! The more Dilong consumed, the more would Dilong evolved!"
"By then, Dilong would have naturally proven the words Dilong had just said to master!" continued the little worm as it harrumphed haughtily.
Hearing the little worm tried to prove itself, Duan Li was still a little bit dazed but he nodded nevertheless and replied, "Okay... But even if you don"t turn out to become a dragon, you don"t need to feel disheartened by it... I don"t discriminate between a wor- I mean between different species!" he quickly corrected himself.
"Although, what is it that you are capable of?"
"For now, Dilong"s usefulness is quite limited. Like an Earth essence, whenever master have a skill arts or magic spells that is related to the Earth element, Dilong could boost its prowess and effectiveness by at least 10 percent!"
"Also, in the future, Dilong could be summoned out to partic.i.p.ate in battle after Dilong completed a few more evolution stages. By then, Dilong would bring an immense benefit to master!" replied the little worm with a trace of pride and dignity in its words.
Hearing this, Duan Li felt a little bit better. "I see... then I will leave it you then Dilong!"
"En!" the little worm nodded and smiled.
...
After that, Duan Li retracted his consciousness away from his dantian. When he opened his eyes, he turned to look at the sword floating besides him.
"Little sword, what is an Earth origin spirit? And do you know of a dragon named Dilong?" asked Duan Li as he cupped his chin.
The sword was surprised when Duan Li asked this. "Earth origin spirit? That"s the origin of an elemental attribute! To put it simpler, an Origin spirit is the mother of all elemental spirit in its field attributes! Dilong is the name of the mother of all Earth elemental spirit and is part of the True dragon species!"
The mother of all Earth elemental spirit? Part of the True dragon species?
It seems like the little worm was telling him the truth, and holds an impressive amount of influence under its power too!
Duan Li contemplated for a while. He then decided to would just have to wait for the day the little worm were to mature. By then, he would naturally be able to witness just what sort of capabilities does it possess.
"Why do young master suddenly asked about this though?" the sword asked curiously.
Hearing this question, Duan Li smiled wryly as he replied, "Well... after cultivating a lot of Earth attribute monster cores, it seems that they had formed a little worm whom called itself an Earth dragon called Dilong inside my dantian..."
Pu!
The sword choked on itself even though it doesn"t has any mouth. For a True dragon to form inside his young master"s dantian, isn"t that way too terrifying?!
Albeit his young master labelled the dragon as a "little worm" which sounded quite savage and pitiful for the latter, the sword somehow could imagine how the Earth dragon looked like in its infancy stage and thus understood why its master would call the Earth dragon as such.
Still, the sword could not help but to be astonished. He had heard before people cultivating monster cores until they could form an elemental essence or even an elemental spirit, but never an Origin spirit!
Although thinking back to the name of its young master, the sword could naturally accept that it would be the case.
After all, its master is THE Duan Li!
"Okay, since we are done here, let us go to the final route then!" Duan Li stood up as they exitted the secret chamber that has now became nothing more than a desolate ruin.
...
Tap! Tap!
Arriving at the juncture once more, Duan Li could feel the presence of spiritual Qi within this place to be a little bit thick. Thus, he sat down cross-legged to cultivate and absorb them to replenish himself.
After a while, Duan Li could feel that his battle prowess was now back to at least 80 percent of his peak strength before the surrounding spiritual Qi ran dry.
"This should be enough for now... I could absorb some more spiritual Qi at the final chamber later on if I needed to." he nodded.
"Little sword, you hold on onto this grade six elixir! I would count on you if I were to fall into an extreme injury once more!"
The sword then replied, "Okay young master, although I do need to remind this, that the effectiveness of elixirs will reduce with each consumption. It would take a few hours for the body to be able to absorb a hundred percent of it once more!"
"En!" nodded Duan Li as he patted the head of the cub that was poking out of his clothes.
...
Tap! Tap!
Eh? The final route doesn"t have a secret chamber?
When Duan Li arrived, the entrance here doesn"t have a secret wall that needs to be opened with the spiritual Qi. Instead, the chamber was wide open, with a towering pedestal at the very end of the chamber, protected by what seems to be a barrier.
Sneaking warrily, Duan Li poked out his head at the entrance to look left and right. He could see several small pedestals scattered throughout the room.
However, after Duan Li squinted his eyes, what was on top of these small pedestals had caused him to become elated!
"It"s the treasure boxes! I finally found them! And to think that there were a lof of them here too!" he exclaimed excitedly.
"Eh? Those treasure boxes... If I am not wrong, their designs and material, these boxes came from another world called Mirealith!" said the sword, a little bit taken aback by the sight it sees.
"Oh? You know of these tresure boxes?" Duan Li turned towards the sword as he could not help but be impressed with the vast amount of knowledge the other party has.
"En! These treasure boxes were crafted out from the Nine roots tree! Its extremely durable and flexible, able to morph its shape at the user"s will!"
"They are considered to be rare, but to think that so many were scattered around here... the Grand Immortal"s means had never ceases to amaze me!" continued the sword with a tone full of reverence.
Feeling quite curious, and after looking at his surroundings to see that there were no incoming threat or danger yet, Duan Li stepped inside the chamber.
Bam!
Thud!
"Ouch!" He was forcefully pushed forward as soon as his foot stepped inside. As a result, he fell to the ground face first.
"Cough! Cough! What in the world just... Eh?" Duan Li turned around to see who would suddenly push at him, only to see that the previous entrance was now gone without a trace!
A sense of deep foreboding came into him.
ROAARRRR!!!!!
...