Team Up (Prologue pt. 4)

Deep within an underground cave, a youth trekked through the various branching paths.

After the trouble with the Sapphire Flower, Luo Ling got a major power-up. Anything that would've posed a threat to him before was now just minor and not worth his attention, whether they be a plant or a beast.

He continued picking up rare herbs and plants on the way. The sole reason he didn't mine the Blackstone earlier was that it would take a lot of time to mine. But with these plants, they only took at most a minute to harvest.

The map on his hands gradually got filled. When he ended up on a dead-end, a moment was all he needed to get back. Eventually, the map only had two unexplored routes left. Whether either of those routes led to more was out of Luo Ling's knowledge.

He headed towards the first route, going to the northwest side of the cave, at least according to his map.

That route didn't lead anywhere — a dead-end waited for him there.

Luo Linger was disappointed, but he had high hopes for the last route.

During his exploration of this cave, he noticed something peculiar. The walls didn't seem naturally made. They looked like they were mined by humans like him, but who knew if his guess was right.

In any case, he had nothing else to do except go there. If it was empty like this one, he would dig upwards and exit the cave system. He wouldn't stop until he found the Gemstone Mirror.

He injected energy into certain points in his feet according to a technique called the Ice Trail. A bookworm as he was, he read too much and visited the library too often.

As he got ready to run all the way to the other route, an explosion echoed throughout the cave. The whole underground shook as dust fell off the ceiling and stalactites broke off and crashed onto the ground.

Luo Linger formed a thin yet dense barrier made of Frost and Light energy around his body. It glowed brightly yet emitted a cold aura.

Curiosity filled the youth as he decided to change his route.

.....

Flesh stood tall before Lan Yunhao, who struggled to escape the monster.

He used all of his techniques, even going so far as to use his most precious dagger, but none of them made any significant damage to the enemy. At most, a small wound appeared on the wall of flesh.

'Since this guy is a Shadow Beast, he doesn't have any weakness against my Shadow element... How do I escape this?'

Luckily for him, his clothes were resistant against the bile of the Ground Eater. If that wasn't the case, he would be long dead by now.

Finally, he sighed in his heart. 'I have to use my trump card then...'

Lan Yunhao was well-aware of the brat's cultivation. The youth and he had the same level, so he kept a trump card lest things go south in their eventual fight.

He didn't expect that he would be forced to use it before he even faced that brat.

An item popped out of his interspatial ring. He swiped it from the air and opened his hand.

The item was a small red pearl. It convulsed in his hands, contracting and expanding.

He stuck it on the grand wall of flesh that troubled him for too long. The pearl suddenly grew larger as it left Lan Yunhao's hand.

The emperor flashed to the other side of the large stomach and watched.

The red pearl that was originally as small as a pebble expanded until it possessed the size of a cauldron! A crack appeared on its surface, and a red aura emitted from the tiny fissure.

Soon, the crack enlarged as more and more popped up on the formerly smooth surface of the red pearl. The rifts connected with each other, the red aura leaking becoming stronger.

At that moment, Lan Yunhao closed his eyes.

Boom! Bam!

Flesh fell from the sky as the explosion caused by the red pearl made a way to exit through the thick flesh.

Suffice to say, the Ground Eater wouldn't be digesting anything soon, or ever for that matter.

Lan Yunhao opened his eyes as he wiped the crimson blood off his face and clothes. He flicked his hands to get rid of the sticky liquid as he walked out of the decaying body of the Shadow Beast.

"Huh, now where am I?" Lan Yunhao scanned the surroundings. Numerous cracked rocks filled the floor of the cave, and some remnants of the flesh of the Ground Eater spread across.

Then—!

He sensed a presence, approaching him from afar. The speed was unprecedented, even a cultivator with 15 fully illuminated gold-stroked gems wouldn't be able to run that fast.

'The only way is to have at least one platinum-stroke — the likes of which has not appeared within a century of my reign.'

The emperor was certain that the presence running toward him was a human. He got eager as he thought of inviting him to his empire.

However, Lan Yunhao didn't let his guard down. He hasn't made sure yet if the person was a friend or a foe. So far, all he knew was that it was a person with a cultivation of at least 1 illuminated platinum-stroked gem.

A second passed, and the cultivator got nearer to Lan Yunhao, which let him gather the information that the person cultivated Frost energy. He didn't pay much attention to the small trace of Light energy — it was impossible to have double elements, after all.

Lan Yunhao grew wary and put up a thin barrier around him, cloaking his presence.

At this moment, Luo Ling arrived at the site of the explosion. Streaks of snow on his legs dimmed down as he stopped circulating his Frost energy on his legs.

'Whew, this Ice Trail is really efficient. If I used my other movement skill, Lightly Step, I would've taken longer.'

He scanned the location. A scene of destruction — that was the thought that came into Luo Ling's mind.

"This can't possibly be natural, someone else must be down here." Luo Ling squinted his eyes.

Meanwhile, Lan Yunhao felt cold sweat all over his body.

'This brat... is unexpectedly a Platinum stage cultivator?! Moreover, he uses Frost energy? That really isn't what I expected!'

From the information given to him by his most loyal soldiers, the brat was only at 12 gold-stroked gems, the same level as him. He also cultivated Light energy, so Lan Yunhao had confidence in taking him down.

Light and Dark were each other's weakness. When one made contact with the other, they would be mutually annihilated. Lan Yunhao thought that as long as he struck first, he would be able to beat the kid.

The disturbance in the emperor's mind made a fluctuation in his control of the energy, leaking a tiny amount of Shadow energy.

However, that trace of energy was all Luo Ling needed.

The youth immediately put his guard up. 'A Shadow Cultivator, why is he hiding?'

"I know you're there!" For now, Luo Ling tried to provoke him. He stared at the ground to look enigmatic.

Pairing with that action, he also unleashed his cultivation strength — 11 platinum-stroked Ice gems! He didn't expose the fact that he had Sun gems inside of him.

Lan Yunhao widened his eyes. If he still dared to come after the brat, he would just be seeking death.

Eleven platinum-stroked gems!

Just one was enough to give him a run for his money, what was he supposed to do against eleven? He needed to collect his thoughts and calm down.

He definitely needed to stop harboring thoughts about killing him. There was already a nil percent chance he would succeed if he attempted to.

'First... I should take the initiative in revealing myself — I won't wait for him to come find me.'

With this, Lan Yunhao removed the Shadow Cloak that surrounded him.

Luo Ling spun around to see a curtain of shadow disappearing, revealing a vagabond middle-aged man.

He used some Light energy to enhance his vision, and some Frost to cover the fact that he had Light energy.

On closer inspection, the middle-aged looking man was actually Lan Yunhao, the emperor of Swordlight Empire!

"Papa Xiao!" Luo Ling uttered unconsciously. Right after, he covered his mouth.

The nickname that the brat gave to him dumbfounded Lan Yunhao. "You brat..!"

Clearing his throat, Luo Ling spoke once more, "What are you doing here, Emperor Lan?"

Before, he was a tad bit afraid of the emperor. After all, he commanded an impressive authority in this continent. When he got his upgrade, his brazen personality reared its ugly head.

"I..." Lan Yunhao had no idea what to say. He obviously couldn't reveal that he went to the Caliginous Forest just to hunt him down. "...I came to find an artifact for my daughter!"

Luo Ling clasped his hands. "What a coincidence, me too! Let's join hands then."

At that moment, the brat's disheveled appearance looked welcoming to Lan Yunhao.

"Actually, I've already mapped this whole cave out. I only need to head to one more place to completely explore it." Luo Ling took out a worn out piece of paper from his ring and showed it to Lan Yunhao.

"Hmm? What are you trying to look for, exactly?" Other than his desire to kill the brat, Lan Yunhao felt curious about this matter.

"Hopefully, I'll find the ancient artifact, the Gemstone Mirror." Luo Ling's tone was as normal, but the emperor felt a certain desperation hidden deep within.

Lan Yunhao's killing intent dissipated. He knew that he could not put all the blame on Luo Ling for his daughter's dire situation. If so, then he should share part of the blame as well, for not finding her before all of this happened.

Now that he witnessed Luo Ling's sincere desire in healing Xiao Yueyue, the emperor couldn't help but be moved.

The two dashed towards the last unexplored location. They didn't worry much if they couldn't find the Gemstone Mirror in this cave. After all, the Caliginous Forest was huge. This cave they were in was just a small, albeit unknown, part of the forest.

Luo Ling purposefully slowed his pace down so that Lan Yunhao could follow him.

As the two arrived, Luo Ling noticed that the walls became more unnatural than before.

The previous cave walls were rough, but these ones were relatively smoother. Colored a darker shade of brown, the difference between the two would be unnoticeable if they didn't have Luo Ling's cultivation level.

Bright Eyes of Ice — the name of the Sight skill that Luo Ling used. Frost energy didn't bide well with the eyes, so no Sight skills were made for the Ice element.

Luo Ling came up with it himself by using the various Sight skills he browsed in the library as a template. He protected his eyes with Light energy, while using his purer and superior Frost energy to enhance his vision.

This skill was suitable only for himself. After all, nobody on the continent cultivated two elements at the same time. Everybody who attempted to either died or got crippled because of violent explosions inside their body due to the incompatibility of their energies.

"Let's stop here first." Luo Ling felt that this pathway stretched for too long. They had only traveled for a quarter of a minute to arrived at the spot on his map. But a whole three minutes already passed without the path showing signs of ending.

Lan Yunhao also felt something suspicious from the start, but he thought that his suspicions were a bit unfounded and never brought them up.

Stretching his hands, Luo Ling touched the wall with his palm. 'It is smoother... but only a little bit more than before. Is this a sign that we have a long way to go?'

The two continued on their journey.

This time, it took 5 minutes before they found their next clue — a skeleton. The collection of bones had a pick on his right hand.

As they traveled deeper into the path, the skeletons became more frequent.