Not long after leaving the Secret Realm, the phone in Lin Guang's pocket rang. He took it out to see several missed calls and unread messages, all from unfamiliar numbers.

After glancing through the messages, Lin Guang understood their origin. It was as Principal Liu Feifan had mentioned before: "In the coming days, many people will come to bother you." Some were trying to recruit him, while others were asking if he was open to "investment," including publicly-listed companies and several celebrity Spirit Masters.

After some thought, Lin Guang decided not to respond and planned to discuss it directly with the principal and his teachers when he returned to school. He set his phone to a do-not-disturb mode that only alerted him to contacts in his address book.

If it doesn't ring, just pretend I didn't see it.jpg

Although he had a conflict with the young master of the Huai Family, it wasn't just the Huai Family calling the shots, so they wouldn't do something as petty as refusing to send him back.

After taking a car back to the hot spring resort, it was almost 9 PM. The resort was brightly lit, and cars were even coming in from outside.

Lin Guang decided to "splurge" a bit and stay here for the night. After bidding farewell to his three companions, he found a double suite with Vishdair and the little fox.

After a day of rushing around, giving two massages, and fighting a match, Lin Guang was a bit tired. So he decided to get into bed...and meditate for a few hours to relax.

In Lin Guang's eyes, he could feel the Contract Technique being gradually perfected, sense the Sea of Spirit expanding slowly in resonance, and feel himself growing stronger bit by bit. That sense of fulfillment was indeed unmatched by ordinary entertainment.

"Oh, there are playing cards here?"

Picking up a brand-new deck of playing cards from the table, the silver-haired girl, now dressed in her usual home loungewear, turned around with great interest: "Want to play a few hands?"

Before saying anything more, she saw Lin Guang retrieving a green badge from the Ring of Void, preparing to meditate, and immediately swallowed her words.

Have I been slacking off lately?

Vishdair couldn't help but feel this thought arise, but she quickly shook her head.

She had been working hard; it was just that Lin Guang was being too extraordinary.

Even though it was said she was rebuilding and her leveling speed was several times that of Spirit Beasts of the same grade, Lin Guang's leveling speed was even faster—are you from another world too?

Suddenly, Vishdair remembered what had happened at noon. It was the first time she had seen such an expression and murderous aura on Lin Guang's face. She couldn't help but be curious about what that guy had said to make such a well-behaved Lin Guang resort to external tricks and torment him for a while at the end.

After some internal struggle, Vishdair walked barefoot to Lin Guang's side and extended her hand: "Book and notebook."

Lin Guang raised an eyebrow but then showed a relieved expression, as if an old tree had finally bloomed, and took out a Daxia Language textbook and a notebook from the Ring of Void for her, teasing, "Have you finally decided to pay back the thirty Daxia characters you owed from a month and a half ago?"

"Shut it." Vishdair glared at him and ran to the desk to sit down, appearing to be preparing for at least three hundred rounds of battle with the Daxia characters.

Smiling, Lin Guang helped her turn on the floor lamp next to the desk, turned off the room's lights, and sat cross-legged on the bed. Seeing this, the little fox jumped from the large floor-to-ceiling window to the bed with a lurch—it seemed the Fire Attribute Ether's influence hadn't faded so quickly—and found a good spot between his legs to lie down.

"Aren't you going to sleep in that?"

Lin Guang, somewhat amused, pointed at the exquisite bamboo basket on the bedside table, which had been sent by the attendant. It was lined with soft goose feathers and red silk. The little fox merely glanced at it with disinterest and snuggled against his thigh, not knowing whether it was more like a puppy or a kitten.

This made Lin Guang rub the adorable creature's head, and the latter showed an expression of enjoyment before yawning deeply and soon closing its eyes under the gentle stroking.

Seeing this, Lin Guang also closed his eyes and entered a meditative state.

In the distance, the mountain range stood silently under the moonlight, with the silver moon slowly rising into the sky. The gossamer moonlight silently poured into the room, flowing on the ground like water, tinting everything with a faint silver hue. The boy's shadow stretched in the moonlight, and as the hand of time gently guided it, the moonlight receded into the night sky, and the shadow gradually shortened.

Lin Guang ended his meditation and looked at the time. It was now 2 AM.

The little fox was sleeping peacefully. He gently lifted it with both hands and moved it into the "little bed" on the bedside table, then got up and approached the desk.

Vishdair was asleep on the desk, with her right horn pressed against it, looking quite uncomfortable. It was hard to understand how she managed to sleep like that.

On closer inspection, Lin Guang noticed her right hand grasping a pen in a strange position, while her left hand held a notebook filled with Daxia characters, writing densely from the top left to the bottom right, with the handwriting gradually improving from scrawls to an elementary school level.

However, Lin Guang recognized those four characters at a glance.

They were the name he had given her.

Lin Guang bent down and placed his right hand on the girl's right shoulder.

In an instant, the girl's body tensed slightly, and the two red antennae on her head perked up while her fingers curled into claws. Her groggy amber eyes opened a tiny slit, her gaze sharp as a knife.

But upon seeing the boy's face, her eyes closed again as smooth as a Dove chocolate, her body relaxed, and the antennae drooped down softly, showing no signs of waking up.

...which is to say, her previous actions were purely instinctual.

[Species]: Explosive Imp (Vishdair)

[Origin]: Terra Continent

[Status]: Ore Disease (Mild), Potential Development Potion (Digesting), Potential Enhancement Potion (Digesting), Water and Fire Body (Time remaining 45 hours 27 minutes 32 seconds)

[Level]: 10

[Affinity]: 65

Lin Guang turned off the panel and observed her sleeping face for a while—the moonlight shone on her forehead and her red horns. Her long lashes trembled gently with her deep breaths, serene and exquisite.

"Thank you for your hard work."

The boy whispered softly in her ear.

His other hand gently slid down to her knees and softly lifted the girl back onto the bed.

And he himself also returned to the bed, quickly falling into a deep sleep.

...

Inside an unknown laboratory.

The surrounding walls were covered with silver-white metal panels, and the floor was smooth black ceramic tiles, faintly reflecting dim light, with a weak mechanical hum and the chilly scent of disinfectant permeating the air.

The laboratory was not small in size, but it didn't appear desolate. On both sides of the walls were rows of large jars filled with blue-green liquid, emitting an eerie fluorescence. Inside floated various forms of Spirit Beast specimen bodies, not naturally formed.

One specimen had a massive wolf-like Spirit Beast head, sharp teeth gleaming with cold light in the glow, but the body beneath was bizarrely covered in black chitinous shells, and the limbs joints were noticeably insect-like and reversed.

Another specimen predominantly featured a fox Spirit Beast with fiery red fur, but its six tails were wooden, stiffly spreading out like lifeless dead branches, with root tips protruding from its limbs but clearly no longer active.

Most of these specimens were fusion creations of this style, with bubbles occasionally rising in the liquid and bursting soundlessly on the surface, possibly leaving a psychological shadow on anyone who saw them.

In the center of the laboratory stood a coffin-like metal device, akin to a large cultivation tank. Several thick pipelines connected from the device, while a nearby table held many sealed glass containers filled with various organs, even a heart still beating, all evidently from Spirit Beasts judging by the sizes.

It's uncertain whether they were cultivated from somatic cells or directly extracted from living beings.

Beep, beep, beep.

The green light on the coffin-like metal device flickered several times before eventually switching to the red light at the bottom.

Hiss——

The liquid inside the device slowly drained through the pipes, and the cover began to open slowly from the middle to both sides.

Yet amid this terrifying scene, no alien monster appeared.

Instead, it revealed the silhouette of a girl.

Her appearance was unearthly, as if stepped out from a painting, with delicate and harmonious features, smooth lines, and a cold disposition between her brows and eyes, yet exuding an irresistible allure.

The girl's inner hair was dyed bright red, cascading over her shoulders, moistly clinging to her fair and lustrous skin, concealing the proportionally balanced curves of her front.

The most eye-catching feature was her wolf-like ears atop her head, alongside a dog-like tail behind her.

Metal wires hung from the inside of the device, with silver electrodes affixed on her forehead, temples, clavicle, and half of her back, flickering with blue-white light along the wires as she breathed.

Her long eyelashes trembled lightly, and the girl slowly opened her eyes—striking orange-red eyes void of emotion.

"How do you feel?"

In the darkness, an indifferent female voice sounded, though phrased as a question, it held no inquisitive tone.

"..."

The girl stepped forward, stepping out of the capsule, peeling off the electrodes from her body, her small feet touching the laboratory's black ceramic tiles, with remaining orange liquid sliding down her body, dripping onto the floor.

She moved her body slightly, not caring about her current nakedness, but rather turned her gaze towards the profound darkness.

The wolf-like pupils allowed her to see clearly even in the faint fluorescence of the specimen liquid, allowing her to lock eyes with someone in the shadows.

Their emerald green eyes were likewise observing her.

The girl stayed silent for a moment, eventually speaking, "Feeling much better than last time..."

"That's good."

The other person said faintly, "I've recently gathered some information and made some progress, hence set up a new adjustment system."

"According to my estimation, the occasional instability issues between previous care sessions should improve significantly."

"Understood."

The girl ceased the eye contact with her observer, simply picking up her clothes nearby, heading towards the bathing area, saying in the same calm tone, "If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving now."

"..."

The person remained silent for a moment, then replied, "Alright."

The woman wearing a white lab coat just watched the girl leave the room, subsequently emerging from the deepest shadows, lowering her gaze to the newly printed assessment report in her hand.

[Fusion Progress: 61.475%, not much alteration from the last time.]

[Internal Stability Improvement: 86.7%, with fitting Spirit Rune Array drawn using Heart of Terra extraction, the target's status improved markedly upon activation, judged as highly compatible.]

The woman's gaze lingered briefly on the words Heart of Terra, shifted away, and placed the report in the drawer, soon hearing her customized phone ringing from her pocket.

She opened the screen, starting to reply to messages, and the phone screen similarly reflected her pose.

Her face appeared intricately sculpted, with shoulder-length silver-white short hair, and a pair of cat-like emerald green ears atop her head.

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