If not for the sprite leading the way, Hao Ren felt that he would not be able to find the entrance to the deeper levels even if he wandered for a hundred years.
Because the entrance was not a physical one at all!
Under the sprite's guidance, the group came to the depths of the Crystal Jungle, where there was a lake that had turned into solid crystals. Before the power of the Mad Lord infected this place, it was once the most lively place in the Crystal Jungle, with countless wondrous creatures and active energies gathering here. But now, the lake seemed to have frozen into a single piece of crystal, and the empty space by the lakeside was only the remains of creatures that had turned into broken crystal fragments.
On the mirror-like frozen surface of the lake, a beam of light shone from the crystal pillar in the distance and reflected off the surface of the lake, slanting towards the sky.
That was the path to the core of the planet.
"Just follow this path up!" The sprite gestured on the holographic projection with a proud look on her face. "You have to go up to reach the core of the planet. Aren't the sprites very creative?"
Hao Ren and his companions were stunned. This was no longer a matter of creativity! Was there such a thing?
Hao Ren did not know what the others thought of him, but the first thing that came to his mind was the story of the drunkard climbing up the flashlight beam. But here, with the incredible power of the sprites, the joke had become a reality.
The path to the core of the planet was really a beam of light, and one could really climb up along the light …
"Are you sure you won't fall if you climb up this thing?" Lily was chosen to be the first to try. She stood at the spot where the beam of light reflected off the surface of the lake and looked suspiciously at the beam of light that was slanting upwards and disappearing into the dome of the planet's crust. "It feels stupid to climb up along this thing."
"You're still worried about this?" Vivian gave Lily a sideways glance. "Don't worry and climb up. We'll cheer you on from below. Anyway, with your physical fitness, it's not a problem if you fall down halfway."
"You can even fly! Why don't you go first? " Lily put her hands on her hips and glared at Vivian. She then pouted and said, "Forget it. Since I've agreed, I'll be the first to go up. But don't you guys mess around. No one is allowed to block the light!"
In fact, according to the sprite, this beam of light was just a pointer. Even if the light beam disappeared, the hidden passage would not disappear. However, it seemed that Lily did not pay attention when she was explaining it to him …
With a face full of righteousness and nervousness, Lily stepped onto the bright light beam that shot diagonally into the sky.
Then she stood steadily on the surface of the beam.
"It … it really works!" The werehusky maiden's nervousness turned into excitement and curiosity almost instantly. "And I don't feel anything when it's tilted like this! This thing is so interesting! Mr. Landlord, Mr. Landlord, I'll go up and see what's going on … "
With that, the werehusky maiden, who was very reluctant a second ago, ran up the beam of light like a runaway. In the blink of an eye, she was already hundreds of meters away. Hao Ren was hopping mad when he saw this. "Just you wait … F * ck, she's really going to …"
The group followed the excited werehusky maiden on the secret path to the sanctuary. After walking up the beam for a while, Hao Ren found that the path was just as the sprite said. It was a 'Miracle Path' that was outside the normal structure of space and time.
When he looked down, he could no longer see the jungle. Although they had only moved a kilometer in physical space, there were all kinds of bizarre scenes around the light beam.
All sorts of bizarre scenes began to appear around the light pillar. Light and shadows that resembled auroras and rivers flowed and floated in the void on both sides. Some of the light even condensed into the images of palaces and buildings before disappearing after a very short period of time.
As they moved forward, these scenes dissipated one by one. Hao Ren felt that the whole journey had actually lasted less than ten minutes. The things around him had changed from illusory light and shadow to common sense. Thick rock layers and huge crystal prisms appeared around him. They were just broken pieces floating in the air at first, but as they moved forward, they formed a solid whole. The team was passing through a layer of stone and crystal spherical shell.
"Wow …"
Lily, who was walking in front of the team, suddenly let out an exaggerated exclamation. Hao Ren quickly followed her and saw the scene before him suddenly open up.
They had reached the end of the path, and the team had passed through the layer of divine shell that covered the core. Inside the shell was a very wide space. As Amantir was a planet created by the goddess of creation, the core was not as hot and pressurized as the core of a natural planet. On the contrary, there was a large space and a suitable temperature. And in the middle of the vast spherical space, there was a cute little planet floating quietly.
It was a crystal ball with a diameter of a few thousand meters. It was not appropriate to call it a crystal ball, because it was obviously not processed or polished. The rock and crystal were still mixed together, and it looked more like a rough ball of stone and crystal inlaid with each other.
This was the 'Primordial Crystal' that the sprite mentioned, a semi-finished product when the goddess of creation created the Resonance Crystal (or Node Crystal).
Although it was a semi-finished product, it was obviously very useful. Hao Ren saw that there were countless flickering lines on the surface of the little planet. It was the runes and magic circles that covered the entire sphere. These facilities that the goddess had left behind were in operation, and they projected a large number of automatically moving, combining, and changing geometric patterns around the mini planet. It was a dazzling sight, but it seemed to contain extreme rules and mysteries.
"Those symbols …" Little Y 'lisabet's eyes gradually lit up with interest. "Could it be the god's knowledge …"
"It's Fun Candy," the sprite in the holographic projection answered crisply.
Hao Ren and Y 'lisabet, "… Huh?"
"It's Fun Candy," the sprite said matter-of-factly. "The goddess of creation was very bored when she was building the planet, so when she was carving the core magic circle, she added Fun Candy into the magic circle. Do you want to play? It's super fun! The sprites usually have nothing to do … "
"No, that's enough." Hao Ren covered his forehead with one hand and stopped the sprite from continuing. "Let's stop here. It will be a devastating blow to the team's morale."
The sprite, "?"
"Anyway, let's go down first." The corner of Vivian's mouth twitched, but she managed to control her expression. "I see a lot of little light spots gathering over there. Are they coming to welcome your compatriots?"
"Ah, it's the sprites, it's the sprites!" As expected, the little sprite immediately shouted happily and urged the MDT to fly over. "Fly, fly, I want to show the other sprites my new mount."
"You're the mount, your whole family are mounts!" The MDT suddenly flew into a rage. "I'm high-tech, high-tech, do you understand?"
As they spoke, they had flown over the surface of the mini planet. Even at such a close distance, Hao Ren could clearly see the 'earth' under his feet had a large arc, and on the surface of the 'core' inlaid with crystals and runes, a large group of sprites had gathered.
"An outsider! It's an outsider! "
"The sprites have brought back a group of outsiders! The sprites are very nervous! "
"These people are the energy reactions we detected earlier?"
"The sprites sent back a message saying that they are not bad people …"
"What happened on the surface? A lot of runes have been heating up since just now … "
"This group of outsiders looks so strange. The one over there looks like he's a few meters long."
Hao Ren even felt a sense of familiarity from the chattering. It was indeed a familiar atmosphere … It was always like this when he was with the sprites.
Vivian looked around at the group of little things that had gathered around and gently touched Hao Ren's arm. "Sure enough, all sprites have that characteristic."
She was referring to the black and red ahoge on the top of the sprites' heads: all the sprites here had the same ahoge, which seemed to be the only characteristic left on these wonderful creatures by the power of the Mad Lord.
At this time, the sprites also noticed the state of their companions, who appeared in a holographic projection above the MDT. They immediately gathered around and began to ask why they had become like this.
"The sprites are temporarily living in this iron lump!" The little sprite (for convenience, Hao Ren decided to call her Little Sprite One for the time being) proudly crossed her arms in front of her chest. "These people are here to deal with the monsters. They also intend to blow up the corrupted planetary battleship, but before that, they want to take the sprites away. The way to take them away is to let the sprites stay in this iron lump for a while!"
The MDT let out a long sigh. "This is the worst time I've been tricked."
"Are they reliable?" "Is there a lot of space in this iron lump? Can they really stuff the sprites in? "" How does it feel to live in it? "" Do you want to have a round of fun? "" What's the world on the surface now? "
Little Sprite One patiently answered the questions of her compatriots. It seemed that the sprites who were chosen as scouts to carry out the mission on the surface were indeed different from the normal sprites. While they did not look smart, they had much more patience and observational skills than the normal sprites. They could actually describe their experiences in the upper levels clearly.
But just as she was about to happily have a round of fun, Hao Ren could not help but speak up. "We have limited time, let's discuss how to solve this mission first."
The sprites immediately exclaimed. "Oh, right, you guys want the Amantir crystal, right?" "The Amantir crystal is connected to the Lair of Nightmares!" "I've already told them that." "So to get the Amantir crystal, you have to first deal with the big monsters in the Lair of Nightmares!" "Or else you will be discovered in an instant, and then drowned by the monsters that come out from the ground!"
"I want to know, what suggestions do you have?" Hao Ren looked at the sprites who had gathered by his feet and were looking up at him curiously. "We have gotten the general information about the Lair of Nightmares from your compatriots. We know that there are many monsters in there, and there's an extremely powerful guy dreaming inside. We want to know if there's any way to take the Amantir crystal without alerting these monsters?"
"Without alerting? I'm afraid that won't work. "A slightly more mature sprite walked out." The Amantir crystal has already become the energy source of the Lair of Nightmares, and there are many deeper connections. There's no way we can take it away without alerting anyone. "
"You seem to know a lot about this?" Hao Ren looked at the little one in surprise. "You are …"
"She's an expert among fairies!" cried one of the little ones, skipping up and down. "She knows the most! Especially about the Amantir crystal and the control center, there's nothing she doesn't know! "
"I used to be a support sprite in the control center, in charge of monitoring the status of the Amantir crystal and inputting data into the central computer." The more mature sprite puffed up her chest and said softly. "My crystal is still in the control center, and it hasn't been destroyed by the monsters. Because my crystal is directly connected to the Amantir crystal, the monsters wouldn't dare to do anything. Through resonance, I can feel that the connection between the Lair of Nightmares and the Amantir crystal is very tight, and the birth of every monster in the lair is related to the Amantir crystal. While I don't know why the relic left behind by the goddess would become the 'material' for the monsters to create their comrades, but something in the Lair of Nightmares is definitely drawing energy from the Amantir crystal. "
Upon hearing that, Hao Ren and Vivian looked at each other, while Y 'zaks stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Looks like we'll have to go to the Lair of Nightmares … We'll have to make a trip there."
Vivian frowned and shook her head. "But we have too little information. We don't know the number and strength of the monsters in the Lair of Nightmares. It's not wise to rush into that place without enough information."
Hao Ren nodded. "If it's another Lockmarton in there, things will get tricky."
Lockmarton could be said to be the toughest enemy Hao Ren's crew had ever fought. While the monster was ultimately destroyed by Hao Ren's series of arrangements, and the final battle was an instant kill, that was achieved with the combined efforts of a dozen inspectors and the home ground of the Surface World. At that time, it was Hao Ren's home ground, and Lockmarton was surrounded, but the situation here was the exact opposite: this was the lair of the Mad Lord.
If they were not careful, the ones who would be surrounded and beaten up would be Hao Ren and his companions.
"We don't have to worry about an enemy as strong as Lockmarton, because Lockmarton's combat power is comparable to a planetary battleship without the doomsday weapon activated. If the festered monsters really had such a trump card, they would have used it against the guardian army." The MDT shook its body after a simple analysis. "That monster is still in the Lair of Nightmares, responsible for producing soldiers, and that proves its limitations. Its ability is limited to producing soldiers, and its combat power should not be that strong."
Nangong Sanba shrugged. "Even if it's not strong, it's not a weakling. Summoning is the most disgusting."
"Are you guys going to the Lair of Nightmares to find that monster?" At that moment, a cheerful voice rang out from the sprite. "I think … if you guys are stronger than the guardian giants, then you might be able to do it."
Hao Ren was a little surprised as he looked at the little guy. "Hmm? What do you know? "
"I am in charge of monitoring and researching the Lair of Nightmares!" The sprite rattled like popcorn. "While we can't see the monster in the Lair of Nightmares directly, we can still sense some of its activities. In order to continuously produce new soldiers, the monster must be in a dream state, and there are not many guards around it. Our guess is that the guards in a conscious state will affect the effects of the nightmare, so the monster's body in the real world is easily destroyed. As long as you guys can get close to it. "
Vivian frowned. "It won't wake up?"
"It will, but as long as the Amantir crystal is not directly stimulated, the monster will wake up very, very slowly! To ensure the efficiency of monster creation, the dreamer has sunk very, very deep into the dream, and its main perception of the outside world is through the Amantir crystal above and the temple's network. In other words, the monster does not have much of a defense against attacks from underground. "
A sprite started to yell. "Because Salaman's guardian army has never attacked Amantir for so many years!" "So the monster never thought that it would be attacked in its lair!" "It never thought that there was anything to be wary of underground Amantir …"
"How much time do we have?" Nangong Sanba asked.
"From the moment the Lair of Nightmares sensed the attack, about thirty minutes. We have calculated it. But the sprites do not have the ability to attack, so we just calculated it …"
Hao Ren rubbed his chin. "If the monster really does not have the ability to fight back in the real world, and we have half an hour to act, then the possibility is high, but we need to be able to break through the barrier of the Lair of Nightmares in a short time and directly reach the monster, or else half an hour is not enough for us to break through the defenses outside."
At that moment, a timid voice suddenly rang from among the sprites. "If … if that is the problem, there should be a solution."
Hao Ren looked down, trying to find the one who was talking among the group of little sprites. Then, a short sprite with short hair came into his sight.
"I … I used to be responsible for monitoring the crystal pillar layer and the crustal stabilizer," the little sprite said nervously. "I … I have been monitoring the Lair of Nightmares' geological and spatial changes around it ever since I hid here. I found that the Lair of Nightmares has solidified in the crust, and it and a large area around it are supported by … by three crystal pillars, and that part of the geological structure is very weak due to the Great Equatorial Rift, if …"
Hao Ren had a stroke of inspiration as he finished the little one's stuttering sentence. "If we blow up those crystal pillars …"
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