A Family of Sprites

A few seconds later, Wang Wu's eyes lit up, as if he had tasted some peerless delicacy. Sure enough, the stronger the Sprite, the tastier its meat.

He did not even have time to reclaim the remaining Ice Spirit Energy. Using the icy stream water, he immediately began a ravenous feast.

He still needed the lingering Ice Spirit Energy to help conceal and seal away the scent of blood.

About a minute later, Wang Wu burped and could not eat another bite. He really could not eat anymore, yet he still wanted to.

This rabbit really was fat, especially its meat—springy and firm, without the slightest gaminess. Instead, it carried a rare, delicate fragrance that lingered long after the taste.

In truth, he had eaten less than a third of it.

With his Level 6 Self-Healing operating at a mad, breakneck pace, his Satiety had broken through 800 points for the first time ever.

Because it was simply too delicious.

"You consumed a rare, high-quality essence food. You gained 100 Spirit Energy. You gained 500 Satiety. You gained 2% Growth Rate!"

A notification arrived late, burping as it did.

Without a second thought, Wang Wu spent the 100 Spirit Energy to raise his Danger Sense Talent from Level 5 to Level 6.

Then he spent another bit of Ice Spirit Energy, using the stream water to freeze the remaining rabbit carcass into a huge block of ice before dragging it back.

At this point, he could no longer enter Stealth, and the fight had caused quite a commotion. There was no hiding it. Yet no Sprite appeared nearby to take advantage of the chaos, which proved two things.

First, there were no powerful Sprites nearby. Second, the Rabbit Bandit was infamous and had become a tyrant in its own right. No Sprite dared to stubbornly charge forward and provoke it.

So it was better to seize the chance to return to the rock crevice. Guarding his food was more important than anything.

Sure enough, things unfolded just as Wang Wu expected. Although dozens of probing gazes fell upon him, not a single Sprite leaped out to block his path and rob him.

In the end, he returned smoothly to the rock crevice.

But he could only stuff the frozen rabbit meat inside. He himself had to stay outside; he truly could not squeeze in anymore.

Fortunately, as his Health Points recovered, he soon entered Passive Concealment and began reviewing the battle.

Although he had lost 6 points of Ice Spirit Energy in this battle, his gains were still enormous. The Rabbit Bandit's remains alone could provide him with at least 200 more points of Spirit Energy.

This also made Wang Wu realize that dealing with higher-level Sprites was certainly dangerous, but the rewards were truly irresistible.

The night soon passed, and the morning sun spilled its radiance across the heavens. It was another new day.

Only, there were now thin clouds in the morning sky, spread motionlessly across it. They looked light and airy, yet for some reason carried a stifling, heavy feeling.

Even the golden sunlight seemed somewhat dimmer because of them.

It looked as though it might rain.

Fortunately, it did not affect the descent of the Golden Particles for the moment.

As Violet Gold Three Minutes began, the formerly silent valley immediately became lively.

That was right. In just one night, a considerable number of Sprites had poured into the area.

Who knew where they had come from?

However, Wang Wu sharply noticed that this wave of incoming Sprites was somewhat strong.

They had the air of dragons crossing a river. That Rascally Rabbit Bandit from last night, for instance, had left an especially deep impression on him.

Moreover, with his Level 6 Danger Sense, he vaguely sensed that there were no fewer than three powerful Sprites in the valley now. Yet none of them appeared arrogantly. Their auras flashed and vanished without a trace. Clearly, they too possessed impressive methods of concealment.

"This is a little strange!"

Wang Wu was quite puzzled. He always felt that these powerful Sprites had appeared far too coincidentally.

He needed to be more careful.

At that moment, he squatted motionlessly outside the rock crevice, maintaining Level 7 Passive Concealment while waiting for Silver Three Minutes to arrive.

He still did not intend to compete for Violet Gold Three Minutes or Golden Three Minutes.

Meanwhile, above the cliff and along the chain of low hills on the valley side, hostile killing intent occasionally flashed. The newly arrived Sprites were fighting over territory.

Yet strangely, very few actually came to blows. There was basically none of the Mantis Swordsman sort of behavior, where one word of disagreement meant drawing blades and fighting.

Clearly, as the Sprites' strength increased, their intelligence had also risen dramatically. They knew how to avoid the most low-level kind of pointless infighting.

As Wang Wu pondered this, he tried to memorize the characteristics of those killing intents as precisely as possible. His Level 6 Danger Sense was truly rather powerful. Not only could it easily catch every rustle of wind and movement within a hundred meters, it could also sense and mark certain highly dangerous targets in advance.

The next time he encountered them, he would be able to identify them quickly.

Soon, the various Sprites seemed to have finally finished confirming and claiming their respective territories. Their killing intent no longer leaked out, while the absorption of Golden Particles became astonishing.

Wang Wu looked up for a few seconds, then suddenly sensed something wrong. Forgetting his Level 7 Concealment, he sprang up and ran some distance away. When he turned back for a look, he cursed in shock. He had miscalculated!

Yes, he had never imagined things would turn out this way.

When the total number of powerful Sprites increased, there simply were not enough Golden Particles to go around.

In the past, even though Sprites from all kinds of groups competed to absorb Golden Particles in this valley, only a handful could absorb them as effectively as Wang Wu's Level 1 Spiritual Essence.

For example, last year's five White-Haired Rats, the Flame Scorpion King, the Black-Faced Centipede King, the Black Snake Leader, the Little Red Bird leader, and that Great Mountain Cat. That was all.

That was why he could divide the time into Violet Gold Three Minutes, Golden Three Minutes, and Silver Three Minutes.

But now, forget about it.

Starting from this cliff and stretching across the chain of low hills, there were nearly fifteen powerful Sprites whose overall strength did not lose to the Flame Scorpion King.

And that was not even counting their companions and kin.

The most outrageous one stood on the low hill north of the cliff, the hill that had once belonged to the Black-Faced Centipede King. It was a solitary sika deer. It did not look particularly strong or large, no different from an ordinary sika deer, yet at this moment, it seemed to be draped in a dazzlingly beautiful golden sunset-cloud cloak.

So dense!

By itself, it had plundered every Golden Particle within fifty meters.

Judging by its absorption speed, it could probably gain around 50 points of Spirit Energy per minute.

Even Wang Wu's Level 1 Spiritual Essence could not compare. It was like trying to catch up on horseback.

So the Spiritual Resonance Talent was not unique to him!

Where had this overpowered cheat come from?

With that Plum Blossom Fawn around, no other Sprite had any chance at all. Golden Three Minutes? Silver Three Minutes? There would not even be a fart of either.

It had been monopolized outright.

And besides that Plum Blossom Fawn, there was another equally conspicuous figure on a low hill farther north, about three hundred meters away. The golden glow it gathered seemed even brighter.

It was actually—damn, he was not seeing things—it was a Little Mountain Pig.

Wang Wu suddenly felt like a small-town exam crammer who had barged into the circle of second-generation heirs from monster aristocratic families.

Though the Iron-Toothed Locust Legion was indeed the main reason.

Still, so many powerful little monsters appearing all at once forced Wang Wu to keep an extra eye open.

So without hesitation, he swiftly entered Level 7 Passive Concealment again and continued being his lowborn bear, refusing to compete.

Sure enough, just as he had expected, there was no Silver Three Minutes.

The final wave of Golden Particles descending from the heavens was directly carved up and monopolized.

Then the valley returned to peace. No Sprite came out to stir up trouble.

Each one looked low-key and refined.

Wang Wu did not care about any of that. Other than staying alert, he ate and slept, then slept and ate.

He slept from day to night, then from night to day. Apart from unfailingly visiting the stream every night to deliver a little warmth, he did absolutely nothing else.

What surprised him was that the Sprites in the valley also remained at peace with one another.

Most of them rested by day and moved by night. Even if they encountered one another from afar at night, they would not approach. Peace and friendliness were their whole approach.

For a time, Wang Wu truly thought a peaceful, harmonious Sprite society was about to be built here.

"But this really isn't right! What are these guys after?"

"Could they all be Sprite scholars heading to the capital for the imperial examinations? Here to take the spring examinations?"

Wang Wu suddenly seemed to understand what was going on.

It was spring now. Could it be that the two Great Demons of North Mountain and South Mountain were recruiting troops?