Chapter 90 – Unexpected Joy

The moment Luo Han breathed his last.

The Spirit of the Earth had also finished its battle.

The two dying Stone-Condensing Magic Dragons soon met their end, their necks casually snapped by the Spirit of the Earth.

Only then did Liu Man, Guo Xinyi, and the others finally let out sighs of relief.

They had only come to Grey-Blood Valley to collect grey-blood stones—who could have imagined they would encounter terrifying monsters like Stone-Condensing Magic Dragons?

And two of them, at that.

If not for Lin Ze turning the tide, their group would definitely have met their end here.

Thinking of this, Liu Man couldn’t help but feel immensely grateful for her decision to invite Lin Ze to join the exploration team.

“This junior is truly unfathomable!”

Liu Man stared at Lin Ze’s back, unable to suppress a silent gasp of amazement.

Although she had previously admired Lin Ze’s talent, she had always harbored a certain pride within herself.

She had believed that with her own strength, she could still keep Lin Ze firmly beneath her.

It wasn’t until entering the Secret Realm and witnessing Lin Ze’s endless array of powerful methods that this notion vanished without a trace.

Looking at the corpses of the two Stone-Condensing Magic Dragons, Liu Man knew that no matter how proud she was, she could not consider herself stronger than Lin Ze.

Song Ting and Gu Lengyan beside her shared the same thought.

The two exchanged glances, each seeing the shock and awe in the other’s eyes.

Even setting aside that formidable and precious Wonder Item.

With just his Tier 6 Pet Beast alone, no one in the entire Second Year could match Lin Ze.

Even among Third Year students, those who could defeat Lin Ze could likely be counted on one hand.

A First Year student who had only just enrolled not long ago, capable of reaching such heights—this was truly unheard of.

If word of this spread, who knew how many jaws would drop to the floor.

It was quite a while before the girls snapped back to their senses at Lin Ze’s call, helping to harvest materials from the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragons’ bodies.

As Dragon Type Ferocious Beasts, and rare Pure-blood Dragon Clan members at that, the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragons yielded an abundance of quality materials.

Dragon blood, dragon horns, dragon scales, dragon hide… even dragon meat could serve as daily feed for Dragon Type Ferocious Beasts, with long-term consumption greatly benefiting their growth in strength.

The only pity was that they couldn’t take all the materials with them.

Even Guo Xinyi’s Spatial Bracelet only had a capacity of 1 cubic meter.

After removing the items already stored inside, there wasn’t much space left.

Helplessly, they had to carefully select the higher-value materials to take away.

While the girls were collecting materials, Lin Ze brought the Spirit of the Earth along the route Luo Han and the others had fled, searching as he went.

Before long.

He arrived at the entrance of a cave.

The cave entrance was spacious, and the interior space was even more vast.

It had nearly hollowed out half a small mountain.

The surrounding light was dim, and looking up, one saw a deep darkness with no visible top.

The Dragon Type Ferocious Beasts of this world did not share the legendary dragon race’s habit of hoarding treasures.

Thus, Lin Ze found no treasure hoards.

Instead, he spotted quite a few ghastly white skeletons.

Some belonged to Ferocious Beasts, others to humans.

After searching around, Lin Ze discovered seven or eight lifelike stone sculptures near the entrance.

They were unmistakably the members of the Gaoshan Club he had encountered earlier.

Among them was Xu Bing.

“If only you’d known this would happen, you shouldn’t have done it in the first place.”

Lin Ze sighed with regret.

The Gaoshan Club members had gone through tremendous hardship trying to steal dragon eggs, even going so far as to use him, Liu Man, and the others as bait.

In the end, not only did they fail to get what they wanted, but they also lost their lives.

Those who harm others only end up harming themselves!

Shaking his head, Lin Ze pulled his thoughts back and continued searching the surroundings.

His goal was, naturally, the egg of the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon.

Strangely enough, he searched the entire cave without finding a single dragon egg.

“Where could it have gone?”

Lin Ze frowned in thought.

Suddenly, as if a thought struck him, he slapped his forehead hard.

If the dragon egg were still inside the cave, how could the mother dragon have left this place? Most likely, Luo Han and his group had gotten their hands on it, which was why she had relentlessly pursued them all the way to Grey-Blood Valley.

With that thought, Lin Ze immediately turned around and headed back to the valley.

Seeing Lin Ze return empty-handed, Liu Man and the other women couldn’t help but look puzzled.

Lin Ze didn’t bother to explain much. He walked straight over to Luo Han’s corpse, crouched down, and examined it carefully.

Soon.

His gaze landed on the ring on Luo Han’s right index finger.

“This is… a Spatial Wonder!”

Guo Xinyi had somehow appeared behind Lin Ze without him noticing. As she watched him remove the ring from Luo Han’s hand, her eyes widened in surprise.

The intricate patterns carved on the ring’s surface bore many similarities to her Spatial Bracelet. Clearly, this too was a Spatial Wonder.

Wonder Items had no restrictions like blood-bonding; they could be used by anyone who got their hands on them.

With Guo Xinyi’s explanation, Lin Ze quickly figured out how to use the ring.

His vision blurred.

In an instant, he found himself in a space filled with stacked items.

“It’s pretty big.”

Lin Ze looked around and was pleasantly surprised to find that the ring’s internal space was almost the size of a small room—roughly three to four cubic meters in volume. Much larger than Guo Xinyi’s.

This was truly an unexpected windfall!

Aside from that.

Lin Ze indeed found the dragon egg inside.

The Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon’s egg was about the size of a face, entirely crimson, yet carrying a heavy, earthy texture like stone.

“A pet beast egg that can evolve to King Rank.”

Lin Ze felt a surge of joy in his heart.

Without a doubt, this dragon egg was the greatest gain of this trip.

After examining it for a moment, Lin Ze withdrew from the ring’s interior and told Liu Man and the others. They were equally thrilled upon hearing the news.

With such a large-capacity Spatial Wonder at their disposal, they could take away far more precious materials.

Buoyed by their excitement, the group was instantly filled with motivation and got to work right away.

It took them nearly two hours.

Finally, they managed to stuff the Spatial Ring and Guo Xinyi’s Spatial Bracelet to the brim. In the process, they discarded quite a bit of miscellaneous items.

With the dragon egg and all the materials from the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon, the Grey-Blood Stones no longer caught their interest. Besides, there was no extra space to store other materials anyway.

So the group unanimously decided to end their exploration and head back.

After the fierce battle with the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon, the team’s pet beasts had suffered heavy casualties.

Aside from the Spirit of the Earth and Xiao Xue, among the Tier 5 pet beasts that participated in the fight, only the Fire Elemental Giant and the Dragon Lion survived. However, they were also badly injured and were withdrawn into Liu Man’s summoning space to recuperate.

Fortunately, with the Tier 6 Spirit of the Earth around, the group didn’t worry about encountering danger on the road.

The journey was peaceful and uneventful.

In the early hours of the morning.

The steel gate deep underground rumbled open, and Lin Ze and his group walked out.

“We’re finally back!”

Liu Man let out a long sigh of relief.

The others also wore expressions of having narrowly escaped disaster.

Although it had only been a single day, this Secret Realm expedition had been far more perilous than any before it. Fortunately, they had made it back safely in the end.

And the gains were exceptionally bountiful.

“Let’s head to the logistics office first.”

Song Ting suggested.

Everyone had no objections.

With the exploration concluded, it was time to distribute the spoils.

However, before that, all the materials had to be exchanged for Resource Points at the logistics department.