The atmosphere instantly turned tense.

  The eight-gate cloud was too precious. If one obtained it, as long as they used it appropriately, their clan would be able to prosper for a thousand years.

  Who wouldn’t want such a rare and precious mysterious species of darkness?

  Chen Anfu’s eyes emitted killing intent. If it wasn’t for him expending too much spirit qi in the battle earlier, leading to him unable to kill these people, he would surely silence them all.

  Swish

  The cloud in the shape of the eight trigrams appeared again. It then flew into the air with unbelievable speed.

  Sun Mo used Divine Sight to observe some data, but his eyes weren’t able to track its movements. “Let’s leave!”

  Jin Mujie instructed.

  “Teacher Jin!”

  Yi Jiamin called out. An ownerless and priceless mysterious species of darkness would belong to whoever had the capability to snatch it. Why would she want to give it to Chen Anfu?

  “Can you win against him?”

  Jin Mujie’s voice was ice-cold. “I won’t object to it if you want to remain behind.”

  Jin Mujie retreated. Sun Mo and Gu Xiuxun immediately followed her.

  After seeing this, Yi Jiamin glanced in the direction where the eight-gate cloud was hiding. He stomped fiercely on the ground, not daring to remain behind. If not, Chen Anfu would surely be able to kill him with ease.

  “Are you guys resentful about my decision?” Jin Mujie gazed at Sun Mo and Gu Xiuxun. “Nope. Under this situation, we would surely not be able to snatch it.”

  Sun Mo knew his own limits. “That cloud still wants to play tricks, getting everyone to fight over it. Interesting!” Gu Xiuxun naturally wanted that mysterious species of darkness. However, she wasn’t anxious. Given the intelligence displayed by the eight-gate cloud, it couldn’t be captured easily. Hence, she could take her time and come up with a more detailed plan.

  Jin Mujie started a bonfire. As the smoke rose into the sky, Pei Yuanli saw the signal and immediately led the students over here to gather.

  “Because the incident was too sudden, the tour of the new student group will conclude here. We will begin our return journey now.”

  Teacher Jin gathered the teachers and spoke of her plans.

  “What’s wrong?” Pei Yuanli frowned.

  “Chen Anfu is attempting to capture the eight-gate cloud. If we stay behind, we might be killed by him!”

  Jin Mujie explained.

  “Teacher Jin……”

  Yi Jiamin grew anxious. (How can you tell others such a huge secret? Wouldn’t that be increasing the number of your own competitors?)

  “What did you say? An eight-gate cloud?”

  “The creature that’s ranked #10 on the mysterious species list?”

  “It can’t be, right? How can such a valuable species appear on the first level of the Darkness Continent?”

  All the teachers were completely stunned. After that, heat rose in their chests. If they could capture this species, their lives would begin to rise to the peak.

  “Teacher Jin, are you sure?”

  Zhang Qianlin asked.

  “The few of us saw it with our own eyes.”

  Since it was impossible to keep it a secret, Yi Jiamin immediately gave a suggestion. “How about we form a team? After we obtain the eight-gate cloud, we can share it among us. What do you guys think?”

  Everyone fell silent. After all, everyone would want to have the sole rights on such a creature.

  “I don’t care what you guys want to do, but we have to guarantee the safety of our students. After we sent them back to Jinling, you guys can do whatever you want.”

  Jin Mujie frowned.

  “Teacher Jin, if we return now, it would at least take five days for the journey. At that time, everything would already be too late.”

  Yi Jiamin grumbled, “In addition, all the teachers of the Myriad Daos Academy know the secret as well. They would definitely track that mysterious species of darkness immediately.”

  “Why don’t we arrange two teachers to escort the students back? The rest of us will track the eight-gate cloud.”

  Even Zhou Shanyi, who had always taken things easy, was now filled with greed.

  “You all……”

  Jin Mujie was vexed. “Where are the responsibilities you all ought to have after becoming teachers?”

  “Teacher Jin, you can’t put it this way. If we managed to capture the eight-gate cloud, it would be beneficial to the school as well.”

  Zhang Qianlin also engaged in sophistry for his selfishness.

  “It’s only returning to Jinling, what danger can there be?”

  Even Pei Yuanli felt Jin Mujie was making a mountain out of a molehill.”

  “Alright, since we can’t see eye to eye. There’s no need to say anything more. You guys can do whatever you like, I will escort the students back to Jinling.”

  After Jin Mujie spoke, she rose and departed.

  Sun Mo swept his gaze over the teachers and followed after Jin Mujie.

  Gu Xiuxun felt conflicted. But after some hesitation, she still decided to chase after Jin Mujie.

  Upon seeing this, Xia Yuan initially planned to leave but she was stopped by Du Xiao.

  “Sister Xia, this is a rare opportunity. Why don’t we gamble on it?”

  Du Xiao and Xia Yuan had quite a good relationship. If the two of them work together, the chances would be slightly higher.

  “You are willing to give up on that mysterious species of darkness?”

  Sun Mo surveyed Gu Xiuxun.

  “No.”

  Gu Xiuxun felt that the eight-gate cloud would surely not be easy to capture. By sending the students back first, she could improve her image in their eyes, letting them know that she was concerned about them. At the same time, she could use the opportunity to purchase some equipment in the city as preparation.

  Naturally, Gu Xiuxun had another thought. When these people fought each other for the eight-gate cloud, she would act as the fisherman, getting the benefits after the fish fought each other for the bait.

  Jin Mujie was concerned about the safety of the students, but the students weren’t grateful and didn’t appreciate the kindness. When Yi Jiamin ‘carelessly’ exposed the eight-gate cloud’s secret, most of the students didn’t want to leave.

  “Teacher Jin, we wish to capture that mysterious species of darkness too!”

  The gazes of the students were filled with a fiery expression. They basically didn’t consider the fact that they might die. All of them were fantasizing about how they would use the eight-gate cloud to climb to the peak of life after capturing it.

  These were all new students and their presence already made it so that the tour group wasn’t that united. And now, under the temptation of enormous benefits, the sense of unity completely crumbled.

  In order to stay behind, the students spoke all sorts of excuses.

  “Alright, since that’s the case. Please sign a life-and-death letter!” Jin Mujie said.

  After signing a so-called life-and-death letter, a student would be responsible for their own actions. Even if they died, they couldn’t blame anyone.

  “Yi Jiamin, ‘well done’.”

  Jin Mujie glared at Yi Jiamin, her expression was filled with rage. “I will report this to An Xinhui and suggest for her to fire you!”

  “When this daddy gets the eight-gate cloud, why would I still care about being a part of that broken school?”

  Yi Jiamin coldly laughed.

  Time would wait for no man. The teachers and students like Zhang Yanzong, who didn’t suffer from spirit pressure allergies, formed a temporary group and went to search for the eight-gate cloud’s traces.

  This cloud intentionally showed itself sometimes. Only after people saw it did it floated toward the depths of the Spiritwind Canyon.

  This action could be considered poking the hornet’s nest. Now, even the students with spirit pressure allergies wanted to go.

  There was no solution to this. Money would always stir the hearts of people. In addition, the eight-gate cloud was something rare to encounter even once in 1,000 years. It was even more valuable than money.

  “You are not allowed to go!”

  Jin Mujie shouted.

  This was a bottomline. Students like Zhang Yanzong had enough strength. With a little luck, they might really be able to capture the cloud.

  But for the remaining students, there was absolutely no hope.

  “Sigh, being able to see it but not possess it feels so painful!”

  The students sighed as though they had just encountered doom’s day. However, they also understood that Jin Mujie was doing this for their own good.

  The Myriad Daos Academy also formed a temporary group of students and sent them to track the cloud’s movements.

  Upon seeing this, Jin Mujie’s mood became much better. It seemed like this situation was unavoidable for both sides. After all, if she was more unyielding, those teachers and students might have chosen to quit the Central Province Academy on the spot.

  “Teacher, we should hurry and move out too!”

  Tantai Yutang urged. “Move out where?”

  Sun Mo counter-asked.

  “Eh? Are we not going to catch that mysterious species of darkness?”

  Ying Baiwu was surprised.

  “No, we are not!”

  Sun Mo stared at his six students, observing their expressions.

  Lu Zhiruo was Sun Mo’s crazy fan. No matter what her teacher said, she would just do it. Although Li Ziqi felt regretful, she didn’t really mind not catching the cloud.

  Ying Baiwu was very conflicted, but she didn’t dare to defy Sun Mo’s orders. Jiang Leng’s face was as cold as a corpse’s. Sun Mo wasn’t able to read his thoughts.

  “Not going is correct. I heard that the cloud is extremely cunning. The number of those tricked by it and died is at least 8,000 if not 10,000.”

  Xuanyuan Po blew his nose. “I don’t believe that you really don’t want it!” Tantai Yutang teased.

  “One’s strength is the greatest reliance to get ahead in the world. As for those who want to depend on a cloud to change their lives? I can only say that they are thinking too much.” “As expected of a combat addict with muscle for brains.”

  Tantai Yutang flashed a thumbs up.

  mi

  Under Jin Mujie’s lead, the tour group embarked on their return journey. They didn’t manage to travel far in a day as all the students were distracted. Even if they couldn’t obtain the eight-gate cloud for themselves, it would also be good if they could watch who managed to obtain it.

  On their way back, Sun Mo decided to open his treasure chests. In the end, out of his five black-iron chests, he opened two clumps of dark soil, one spring beauty medicine packet, one ancient whale oil, and one bottle of condiment. It could be said that these items were very bad. This caused Sun Mo to no longer dare to continue. He decided to leave the golden treasure chest aside for now.

  In the temporary camp, after dinner, everyone was still absent-minded.

  “Sadly, there are no more hot springs. If not, it would be a good idea to soak ourselves in one!”

  Sun Mo recalled the mission given by the system. He had to make all of his personal students break through by one level. It seemed like it was impossible to accomplish that now.

  “Teacher, why don’t I give you a massage?”

  Li Ziqi came over. “It’s fine. If you guys have any questions, you can ask me now. If there are no questions, you guys can just go and rest!”

  Sun Mo added a few sticks of wood to the fire.

  Lu Zhiruo returned to a little tent. She then took her bag and was preparing to search the surroundings to see if there were any hot springs. It would be good if she could find one for her teacher.

  Jiji!

  The loach jumped out of the bag.

  “Little loachie, I want to go and look for a hot spring for Teacher. You should just stay in the tent obediently and not run around randomly, alright? If not, if someone caught you, they might try to cook you in a stew.”

  The papaya girl stretched her index finger out and dabbed the loach’s head lightly.

  Jiji!

  The loach cried out and curled itself around Lu Zhiruo’s arm.

  “Mn? You want to go with me?”

  Lu Zhiruo hesitated a little but eventually agreed. It would be good to have a companion.

  The papaya girl knew that if her teacher discovered her intention, she would surely not be able to go out. Hence, she stealthily snuck out of the camp. After that, she fell into a daze when she looked at the auroras casting their light down on the earth. Which direction should she head to?

  Lu Zhiruo thought a little and picked up a tree branch before propping it out on the ground. After that, she let go of her hand. Pak! The tree branch fell in the 10 o’clock direction.

  “Alright, let’s head there then.”

  After Lu Zhiruo decided on the direction, she immediately widened her steps and broke out into a run.

  The little loachie was sweating. (I’m planning to find a hot spring for you, but you settled things yourself? Can your luck really be that good?)

  Naturally, to prevent Lu Zhiruo from having to take detours, the ‘little loachie’ would occasionally call out and correct her path.

  About half an hour later, Lu Zhiruo managed to find a hot spring.

  Chapter 252 From Today Onward, Call Me Lu Ouhuang (Lu Zhiruo)

  “Teacher!”

  Lu Zhiruo bustled with energy as she rushed over, entering Sun Mo’s tent. “Teacher, I’ve found a hot spring. Let’s go and soak in it!”

  “Mn? You went out?”

  Sun Mo furrowed her brows. Although the Spiritwind Canyon was basically safe during these few days, it was still very dangerous for a young girl to go out at night. Naturally, Sun Mo was also moved. He had merely said ‘it’s good if we can soak in a hot spring’, and the papaya girl immediately went to find one.

  Even if he had a daughter, his daughter might not go to such an extent.

  “Eh!”

  Lu Zhiruo lowered her head, and her eyes averted to the side, evading Sun Mo’s gaze.

  “I……I……”

  The endearingly silly papaya girl didn’t even know how to lie.

  “In the future, just don’t go out at night.”

  Sun Mo reminded.

  “Mn!”

  Lu Zhiruo nodded.

  “You’ve worked hard!”

  Sun Mo rubbed the papaya girl’s head. “It’s not tiring at all. It’s very easy to find the hot spring. Little loachie helped a lot!”

  After Lu Zhiruo spoke, she wanted to take the loach out of her bag.

  Jiji!

  The loach continued to hide in the bag, refusing to come out.

  “It helped too?”

  Sun Mo furrowed his brows. “Yeah!”

  Lu Zhiruo didn’t want little loachie to be boiled in soup. Besides, she wanted to prove that she didn’t waste one spirit stone on buying it; hence, she credited it for her achievement.

  Truthfully speaking, although Lu Zhiruo was a little silly and stupid at times, her senses were extremely sharp. She knew that without the help of the little loach, she wouldn’t be able to find the hot spring so quickly

  The loach was pulled out from the bag by Lu Zhiruo. It could only bare its teeth at Sun Mo.

  “Little loachie, you cannot be so fierce to Teacher, alright?”.

  Lu Zhiruo used her finger to dab little loachie’s head, reminding it.

  Upon seeing such an intelligent loach, Sun Mo decided to activate Divine Sight and observe it. He felt that even if the loaches here on Darkness Continent were different, they shouldn’t be sentient. However, when his Divine Sight revealed the name of the creature, he almost choked to death on his saliva.

  “Sp……spirit qi roaming dragon?”

  Sun Mo had a face full of disbelief. He rubbed his eyes to ensure that he didn’t see it wrongly.

  Jiji!

  The spirit qi roaming dragon, whose appearance looked almost completely identical to a loach, focused on Sun Mo. It looked like it was preparing to attack.

  Spirit qi roaming dragon, 99 years old, at the adolescent phase.

  To creatures of the dragon-species, if they weren’t 100 years old, they would be considered at the adolescent-stage.

  Sun Mo continued peering at the information below for more details.

  “It’s very sensitive to spirit qi fluctuations and loves to build its nest in locations where spirit qi is in abundance. It can be said to be an innate mine-finding expert.”

  “After it reaches the adult-stage, its combat strength will rise rapidly.”

  Note: After being injured, it will shed its dragon form and begin its second-stage transformation to avoid being hunted.

  “So this is the case!”

  After seeing the information, Sun Mo understood. Everyone in the Spiritwind City knew about this spirit qi roaming dragon. This indicated that it had met many enemies before and had been injured badly. If it wasn’t for it transforming into a loach to flee, it would have died.

  Such a racial ability was equivalent to lizards breaking their tails to leave. It belonged to the life-saving category.

  It was also ranked very highly on the mysterious species list. It was very rare, and the number of people who had seen it before was also very few. This was why only not a lot of people knew of this racial ability of the spirit qi roaming dragons.

  “I heard from Ziqi that you used one spirit stone to buy it. Is it right?”

  Sun Mo looked at Lu Zhiruo. Right now, she was shining golden in his vision, brimming with the aura of extreme luck.

  A random loach that she bought off the street was a spirit qi roaming dragon ranked #36 on the mysterious species list. If the papaya girl said that her luck was number two in the world, who would dare to claim that they were number one?

  “Em, I saw it being abused and was very pitiful. Hence, I saved it!”

  Lu Zhiruo explained. She was deeply afraid of being punished. It was her compassion and kindness back then that made her buy the loach.

  Some girls were like this. When they saw the little rabbits in cages, they would feel it was too cruel to eat them. But when the rabbits were cooked in a spicy stew and served to them on a plate, they would eat it faster than anyone else.

  “The three students who sold it are from Ming Lan?”

  The three male students would go crazy if they learned that they had handed a spirit qi roaming dragon away for one spirit stone. “Mn!”

  Lu Zhiruo nodded. This was what Li Ziqi told her.

  The little sunny egg took special note of this because those three fellows had dared to threaten her junior martial sister to extort one spirit stone. She had noted down this debt and would definitely repay it via revenge in the future!

  When Sun Mo looked at how Lu Zhiruo was acting, he knew that she still hadn’t discovered the true identity of ‘little loachie’. He wanted to remind her to quickly establish a soul contract with the spirit qi roaming dragon, but after hesitating a bit, he gave it up. Maybe, the loach decided to follow the papaya girl because of her pureness. If a soul contract was mentioned, it might be frightened away instead.

  “Forget it, I’ll just let nature take its course!”

  Sun Mo patted Lu Zhiruo on her head. “Go and inform Ziqi and the others. We shall take a

  soak!”

  “Right!”

  Lu Zhiruo ran off.

  “System, open the chest!”

  Sun Mo instructed.

  The golden chest clicked open, leaving a glowing sheepskin parchment.

  Ding!

  “Congratulations on obtaining the Spirit Rune Drawing Technique – Flame Explosion. Proficiency level: expert-grade. Once this spirit rune is activated, the user can release a giant fireball to blast his enemies. The effect is like a rocket launcher from an RPG game!”

  “What?”

  Sun Mo scratched his ears.

  The system naturally wouldn’t reply to such a boring question.

  Sun Mo then crushed the parchment directly.

  Pak!

  The sheepskin parchment turned into a beam of light that shot into Sun Mo’s forehead. An instant later, data germinated in his mind, imprinting deep inside it.

  “Congratulations on learning the Flame Explosion Drawing Technique. Proficiency level: expert-grade.”

  As the notification rang out, Sun Mo took out his spirit rune tools and started to draw, wanting to complete one.

  Li Ziqi’s group arrived. However, Sun Mo got them to wait. About half an hour later, he completed the flame explosion spirit rune.

  Sun Mo walked out of the tent and informed Li Ziqi. “Let me inform Teacher Jin first.”

  Because Zhang Yanzong and the others wanted to catch the eight-gate cloud, Gu Xiuxun was worried about their safety and decided to follow them. Hence, the only teachers in the camp right now were Jin Mujie and Sun Mo.

  “Alright, remember to pay attention to safety.”

  Jin Mujie didn’t reject it. Right now, her impression of Sun Mo was too good. He wasn’t like other teachers who treated the mysterious species of darkness as something more important than the students.

  Ding! Favorable impression points from Jin Mujie +30. Friendly (260/1,000). “Many thanks, Teacher Jin!”

  Sun Mo then gathered with his six students and told Lu Zhiruo to lead the way to the hot spring

  After 20 minutes, everyone arrived at a ravine with strange stones everywhere. After many turns, they finally arrived at a hot spring about half the size of a basketball court.

  “Zhiruo, how did you find such a remote

  place?”

  Tantai Yutang glanced at the huge strange-looking rocks around them and felt very speechless. If ordinary people came here, they would definitely lose their way. “Alright, start to soak. Girls first, the boys will wait outside!”

  Sun Mo instructed.

  Ying Baiwu leaped into the pool. After that, she frowned. “The spirit qi here is very ordinary!” Sun Mo used his senses to probe. Indeed, even if one were to soak themselves for half a day here, it wouldn’t be significant.

  The spirit qi roaming dragon curled its body up and rested on Lu Zhiruo’s head. It didn’t have any intention to get into the water. The spirit qi here was too little, and it disdained to soak itself inside it.

  “Oh!”

  Lu Zhiruo stretched her hand up and patted the spirit qi roaming dragon. “Little loachie, is there still another hot spring with a denser concentration of spirit qi?”

  Jiji!

  The loach cried out and used its tail to point toward the south.

  “Little loachie says there is one, but it is quite far away!”

  Lu Zhiruo reported.

  “What are we waiting for?”

  Ying Baiwu urged. From her point of view, if the spirit qi in the water was dense enough, it should be enough to make up for the time they wasted in coming here.

  The group of seven set off again. This journey lasted for a total of three hours.

  “Where are we heading to?”

  Tantai Yutang was speechless. (I’m a sickly person, alright? By tormenting me like this, are you guys worried that I wouldn’t die fast enough?)

  “We will reach it after a little while more!”

  Lu Zhiruo explained in a low voice.

  “Ignore him!” Li Ziqi spoke. Her eyes kept glancing at the little loach on the papaya girl’s head. It seemed that this fellow was the one leading them.

  All of a sudden, Xuanyuan Po and Ying Baiwu stopped. Their sharp perception told them that the gust of the night wind contained some spirit qi within. The spirit qi here was indeed much denser.

  As they continued walking, their spirits were lifted. The spirit qi in the air was already so dense to this extent. How much denser would it be in the hot spring?

  About tens of minutes later, a hot spring appeared in the eyes of everyone. The temperature wasn’t too hot, but there were bubbles on the surface. After the bubbles popped, spirit qi could be felt leaking from them.

  “At least, this wasn’t a wasted trip!”

  Tantai Yutang was a doctor. Just by looking at the water, he knew that soaking in this hot spring was equivalent to soaking in a peak-grade medical bath. The spring water here not only contained spirit qi, but there were also all sorts of minerals that were highly beneficial to one’s body.

  The spirit qi roaming dragon sniffed the air and then jumped into the water with a splash. After that, it floated up and seemed to glide through the water’s surface.

  The girls entered the water first. As expected, the experience was much better compared to earlier. They could feel that even their skin cells were eagerly singing as they absorbed the content of the spring water.

  Sun Mo tossed a giant medicine packet into the water.

  The spirit qi roaming dragon found it strange and took the initiative to swim over. Its tail fiercely smacked into the water giant.

  Pak!

  A part of the giant exploded, transforming into spirit qi that enveloped the spirit qi roaming dragon, causing it to cry out in comfort.

  “This hot spring seemed to be a spring mouth?”

  Li Ziqi discovered the reason why the spirit qi here was so dense.

  After the girls were done, it was time for the guys to soak themselves. Sun Mo tossed another giant medicine packet in.

  “Teacher, that loach……”

  Li Ziqi walked over and spoke in a low voice.

  “There’s no need to concern yourself with it. Just pretend you don’t know.”

  Sun Mo reminded.

  “Alright then.”

  The little sunny egg decided not to ask anymore.

  “Teacher! Teacher! There’s another even better location. Should we go together?”

  Lu Zhiruo ran over and pulled on Sun Mo’s hand.

  The spirit qi roaming dragon had a helpless look on its face. (I told you about it to repay your kindness, why are you telling it to this fellow?)

  [1] Ouhuang is a term in chinese slang that denotes an extremely, extremely lucky player