Hunting Flying Fish

Huang Xiaotian could wait. Huo Hai had no time to go looking for trouble with him now. What mattered most was finding a High-Level Spirit Art suitable for a Spell Spirit Master as soon as possible.

After he dealt with those men, no one followed him again. Even when people spotted him from afar, they took one look and lost interest. He wore a Hermit's Robe and carried a large backpack with little inside it.

He looked every inch a mercenary adventurer, and a lone one at that. Even someone from the Imperial City Academy dressed like this and traveling alone would be assumed to have fallen on hard times. Huo Hai's backpack was visibly empty. Anyone could see he probably had nothing to show for his journey.

No one wanted to pick a fight with a man who had nothing worth taking but might be a student of the Imperial City Academy. The Academy was still close, after all, and many of its students passed through this area.

That was exactly what Huo Hai wanted. The less attention he drew, the better. With no one following him, he traveled in peace and picked up speed again. In half a day, he covered more ground than he had in the previous two.

Ten days later, Huo Hai gazed at the trees on the horizon and slowly breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally." The trees marked the edge of Leaping Fish Marsh. He quickened his pace and reached them before sunset. Up close, the forest looked much like a mangrove swamp.

Many of the trees grew in water. It was remarkably clear, with plenty of fish visible beneath the surface. But anyone who entered it would discover that what lay below was far from ordinary.

This was a swamp. Beneath the