Chapter 1618 - The Shelter (1/2)

If not for the sprite leading the way, Hao Ren felt that he probably be lost in the crystal pillar zone for a hundred years and not finding the entrance into the deeper layer.

As the entrance was not something physical!

The group followed the sprite deep into the crystal woods. There was an already lake of solid crystal. Before the corruption of the Mad Lord, this was the place where life flourished the most, and many wondrous beings and active energies gathered here. But now, the lake had frozen into a block of crystal and along the lakeside were the crystalline remains of the once lively creatures.

And on the mirror-like frozen lake, a light beam shot up from a crystal pillar in the distance and refracted on the surface of the lake towards the sky.

That was the pathway to the planet’s core.

“Just follow this pathway upwards!” the little sprite was pointing all over in the holographic display, pride beaming on her face, “You need to go upwards only will you reach the planet’s core. The sprite’s creativity is awesome yeah?”

Hao Ren and his crew were all gawking. This is already beyond the question of creativity! There’s actually such a function?

What others thought Hao Ren would not know, but the first thing this reminded him was a drunk climbing a staircase of light from a torch. Yet over here, with the sprites’ incredible powers, the steps materialized.

The path towards the planet’s core really was a beam of light, and you could literally climb it…

“You sure we won’t fall off following this?” Lily was picked to be the first to try and she stood where the light had refracted as she looked on suspiciously at the slanting light beam before her that extended deep into the planet’s crust. “Have a feeling that climbing up with this looks darn stupid.”

“You are worried about that?” Vivian rolled her eyes at Lily. “Just do it, we’ll cheer you on. With your body, you won’t die if you fall anyway.”

“And you can bloody fly! Why aren’t you the first one to go?!” Lily glared back at Vivian with her arms on her waist, before pouting. “Forget it, I agreed anyway. I’ll go up first. Don’t mess around though, no blocking the light!”

In truth, based on the sprite’s explanation, the light was just a guide, but even without it the hidden pathway would not disappear, but it seemed like that werehusky was not paying attention…

With a gallant expression mixed with nervousness, Lily took the first step on the bright light beam.

And found herself standing firmly on the surface of the light.

“It…. it actually works!” The husky’s nervousness instantly gave way to excitement and curiosity, “And there’s no feeling of slanting or vertigo! Interesting! Mr. Landlord! I’ll be going up to check things out~”

As she said that, the werehusky that was so reluctant a moment ago ran up the light beam, and in a blink of an eye was a few hundred meters away. At the back, Hao Ren leaped angrily as he saw it. “Eh wait… Oh bloody hell, she really…”

The group then quickly followed the werehusky on the ‘secret path’ to the sanctuary, and after going along the path for a while, Hao Ren realized that the path was exactly what the sprite had said, it was a ‘miracle path’ that was beyond normal dimensional structures.

As when he looked down, the forest was no longer visible, even when in reality they were barely a thousand-odd meters away from the starting point.

All sorts of bizarre scenery started appearing around the light beam as light and shadow flowed by the sides like an aurora, some even formed the image of a palace and towers and disappeared fleetingly after a few moments.

As they head forward, the scenery disappeared and Hao Ren felt the whole trip did not take more than ten minutes, the objects around him became from ghostly light into a physical object: Thick rock layers and large crystal prisms appeared around them, they were originally just shattering fragments floating in the air, but as Hao Ren went farther in, the objects appeared more solid: The team was going through a crust of rock and crystals.

“Wow!”

Lily, at the front of the team, let out an awed gasp and Hao Ren quickly followed behind and a vast, vibrant scene greeted him.

The path had come to an end, and the team had passed through the divine-created crust covering the planet’s crust, and within it was a vast space. As Amantir was the goddess of creation’s creation, the planet’s core did not have the oppressive heat of a normal planet’s core. Conversely, it was a vast space with a very comfortable temperature. At the center of the spherical dimension, a tiny, even ‘cute’ little planets floated.

These were crystal balls that were about a few thousand meters wide. Well, calling them crystal balls was a misnomer as they were not processed or refined as rocks and crystals were still meshed together, more like a rough orb made out of rock and crystals.

This was the Origin Crystal that the sprite was talking about, the semi-finished products during the process of creating the resonance crystals (or rather the conduit crystals).

While semi-finished, these items were still massively useful, and Hao Ren noticed countless lines on the tiny planets, that was the runes and magic circles across the planet and these facilities left by the goddess were operating. They were projecting a series of moving, reforming and morphing pictures around the mini planets and drove anyone looking at it dizzy at first, but at the same time looking seemingly arcane and regulated.

“Those symbols…” Y’lisabet glowed with the spark of interested, “Are these the goddess’ left behind know…”

“Those are puzzle bobbles.” the sprite in the projection said nonchalantly.

Hao Ren and Y’lisabet went, “Huh?”

“It’s a puzzle bobble,” the sprite had a ‘that’s right’ smug look on her face, “The goddess of creation got bored while creating planets and while she was carving magic circuits on the planet’s crust she had added a puzzle bobble in the matrix. You wanna play? It’s very fun! The sprite usually…”

“No, stop there.” Hao Ren gestured for the sprite to stop as he facepalmed, “That’ enough, any further will kill our morale.”

“?” The little sprite gestured.

“Anyway, lets head down,” Vivian pursed her lips as she said, but she at least managed to keep her emotions in check. “I’m seeing many tiny lights gathering there. Are those your friends coming to get you?”

“Ah, the sprites! The sprites!” The tiny sprite indeed yelled happily as she drove the MDT to get over there. “Fly! Fly! I wanna let the others see my new mount!”

“You’re the mount, your entire family consists of mounts!” The MDT snapped and bellowed angrily. “I am a high-tech gadget, high-tech, you know?”

As they spoke the group had reached the skies above the mini planet, and even at this distance, Hao Ren could see a wide arc on the ‘land’ underneath his leg and on the surface of the crystal and rune encrusted “core”, a group of tiny sprites had already gathered.

“Outsiders! Outsiders!”

“This sprite had brought outsiders! The sprites are nervous!”

“Are these humans the energy reaction detected earlier?”

“The sprite’s earlier reports was that they are not baddies…”

“What happened above? I saw many runes were heating up…”

“These outsiders are so weird, that one is a few meters tall!”

Hao Ren felt a sense of friendliness among the chatter. This was a scene that he was used to… at least when he is with the sprites.