Black Rocky Plains (2)

After a small amount of time to prepare, Shui headed for Black Rocky Plains. Like he had read, there was a myriad of evolved beasts and mutated flora in the area, however, Shui felt no danger. While he could sense several beings that might cause him trouble, none of them were near the location he was looking for.

Before departing from that town, the red spirit referenced the map that he bought and drew a circle around the elemental crystal deposit. Since he had a good idea of where it was, Shui dashed towards the location without stopping for a moment. There were a few creatures that interested him, so if he came across one, he would kill and store it in one quick motion. Since no time was wasted, it didn't take long before Shui made it to a certain cave.

The last team that made it here sensed a sliver of natural energy coming from the cave, but Shui could see more than that.

'Spirits.'

Inside the cave, he could pick up traces of spirits with killing intent. Considering that spirits were pure creatures, Shui thought that this was an odd pairing, but the red spirit was different.

"So they've been attracted, huh?"

"Do you know why they're here?" Shui asked.

"It's simple. While I'm of a higher status than they are, we all have the same preference."

"Preference? Then, did they come for the elemental crystals too?"

"That's right. There's no need to worry about the ones who couldn't make it any deeper, but I don't want any brats touching what's mine so let's go."

"Wait, why do these spirits seem more, ruthless than I remember?"

In response, the red spirit rolled her eyes and answered, "Isn't it obvious? Even a child knows to protect its treasure. What? Did you think spirits were 'too' innocent to kill?"

The red spirit was spot-on, but Shui shifted his gaze away instead of acknowledging it. He knew that it was his fault for assuming he understood their nature because he read a lot of books, but he didn't want to reveal this mistake to Miss Spirit.

In an attempt to divert the conversation, Shui cleared his throat.

"Well then, I'll be careful."

He then entered the cave with the red spirit landing a seat on his head. At first, he couldn't sense anything other than a normal cave, but as they went deeper he began to feel their interference. Like the team that was here before him, the spirits were trying to confuse his senses before leading him into a trap.

Spirits carrying out such malicious tricks didn't match his image of them, but when he thought about the red spirit he stopped worrying about it.

"Oi, are you thinking something rude right now?" asked the red spirit with a sharp tone.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Anyways, do you remember there being a different route to reach the elemental crystal deposit."

"Be glad I even remembered this one. It was... a long time ago."

Since he detected a hint of nostalgia in her tone, Shui held back his questions and kept going forward while fending off the spirits' antics. For some time he was doing fine, but once the spirits noticed that he wasn't affected by their interference, they chose more violent methods.

Suddenly, the ground below them became hollow and tried to swallow them, but Shui had already walked past it. However, the spirits were just getting started.

Next was a classic ceiling drop followed by a pool of magma blocking the path. There were several other traps along the way, but once he got the hang of finding them in advance, his stroll became many times easier. Unfortunately, when he was only a few rooms away from the elemental crystal deposit, a more solid opposition blocked his path. The spirits that had been looking on from the shadows, appeared before him.

The spirits that blocked their path were certainly strong and not to be underestimated, but none of them were of a high enough level to threaten them. Shui could literally walk past them and they wouldn't be able to stop him. And so, he did exactly that.

If these spirits were under the command of a spiritualist, then they might be able to threaten a Sky Realm expert, but since none of them were smart enough to come up with tactics, beating someone in the Earth Realm was the most they could do.

As the spirits fired at him with attacks of fire, earth and wind attributes, Shui took out a sword from his storage ring and hit every one of them. His body wouldn't be hurt by their attacks, but there was a chance that his barrier could be broken so he had to do this in order to protect his clothes.

Since they burst on impact with his sword, Shui wished that he could deflect them instead, but unlike with humans, the energy in their attacks was too pure to mimic. Even so, he was able to escape their barrage virtually unscathed. The spirits panicked when they saw how at ease he was, but they quickly prepared themselves for a second barrage as he approached. But this time, the red spirit glared at them.

Shui didn't see any other communication between them, but the spirits quickly backed down and opened up a path.

Since he was sure that Miss Spirit was the cause of this phenomenon, Shui asked, "If you could command them, why didn't you do it from the start?"

"These low-level spirits aren't smart enough to recognise me, and I don't have much power so I can only coerce them at this distance. Anyways keep going, we're almost there."

Shui nodded and went through the path the spirits opened for them. Less than a minute later, Shui sensed a thin barrier in front of him but at the red spirit's urging he passed through it.

"Woah..."

On the other side of the barrier Shui still found himself in a cave, but it was hard to believe it was the same place. In front of his eyes were countless red, yellow and light green crystals that were wrapped in elemental energy. Furthermore, he could feel natural and elemental energy being pulled further into the cave. As he thought of how dense the energy was at the end of this cave, Shui gulped.

'No wonder so many creatures came out. So this is the effect of a heaven and earth array.'

The moment Shui and the red spirit received word that mutated flora and evolved beasts had suddenly gathered in Black Rocky Plains, they were sure of the cause. Elemental crystals held concentrated elemental energy, but that energy normally didn't leak so the cave itself wouldn't feel extraordinary. However, if a deposit of elemental crystals was untouched for several centuries, a heaven and earth array could be formed.

Heaven and earth arrays were arrays formed by the world itself and it was by looking at these arrays that early array masters were able to deduce the world's laws and create their own arrays. Nevertheless, heaven and earth arrays were still a step above arrays crafted by mortals as no matter the purpose of the array, its formation would always absorb the energy from the environment and so it could continue running without the need for supplementary materials like spirit gems and could double as a cultivation space. Because mutated flora and evolved beasts could detect the change in the flow of energy much better than humans, they rushed to find this location.

Shui couldn't blame them as he wanted to sit down and try to decipher this array, but their time was limited.

"It's already heading to the final stage."

As the red spirit pointed out, the array was close to accomplishing its first objective. When a heaven and earth array was formed from the natural formation of elemental crystals, two things would happen. One, the array would cut off the deposit from normal space and contain it within a small world, and two, a spirit representing the elemental crystals would be born. As other creatures would be immediately ejected upon the forming of the small world, they needed to hurry and stop the array.