Chapter 18: The Spirit Valley

Zhi Yan wanted to clear off the misunderstanding but the old man didn’t listen to her afterward. He simply turned around and began shuffling toward the far end of the tavern-like hall, navigating through bottle-strewn furniture and dusty walls.

Zhi Yan and Lin Fang exchanged a brief glance. Then they followed him.

They reached a shadowy corner of the floor, where an old staircase descended downward. It creaked under their weight as they stepped cautiously down, spiraling lower and lower, past the first floor, down to the basement.

Cobwebs blanketed the corners, and the walls were lined with pipes that looked like they hadn’t been used in decades. At the center stood a large metallic door, half-covered in dust and spider silk.

He reached out and pulled the old metallic handle with a grunt. The door groaned as it swung open, releasing a faint rush of musty air.

Inside… was pitch darkness.

Nothing could be seen from the outside.

“Come inside.” Li Chengfeng stepped in and disappeared from their sight.

Lin Fang hesitated, although just for a breath. Exchanging a glance with Zhi Yan, both nodded and stepped in together.

And all of a sudden, everything changed.

— Fwoosh!

A sudden rush of wind blew past him, warm and grassy.

“What… the… hell…”

A wide grassland stretched under his feet, with tall golden grass brushing against his knees. The air smelled of dew and distant flowers. A gentle breeze stirred the leaves of the sparse trees dotting the land. The sky was clear and bright, but there was no sun.

Behind him, nestled against a rocky outcrop, stood a narrow cave entrance.

As he was digesting the surprise, a faint laugh echoed beside both of them.

As they turned, Li Changfeng was there, now looking far more sober, his drunken slouch gone. His stance was upright, and his voice steady.

“Welcome,” he said, gesturing with open arms, “to Spirit Valley.”

Lin Fang glanced around. “Spirit valley?”

In its place stretched a boundless landscape, Lin Fang and Zhi Yan spotted monsters shimmering like fog, translucent and flickering, some with the vague form of wolves, others like birds, cats, serpents.

Zhi Yan inhaled sharply. “These… Are these… spirit monsters?”

Li Changfeng appeared beside her, arms lazily folded as a grin crawled up his scruffy face. “You know your stuff, beauty.”

She didn’t respond to the compliment. Her eyes remained fixed on the creatures.

Li Changfeng nodded toward the field, his voice low now as he explained. “Yes. These are spirit monsters. Creatures who once had masters but died protecting them. Normally, when a monster dies, its spirit will dissipate and transform into spiritual energy, empowering nature, but these special souls have their wills so strong that they resist their extinction and try to wander as lost souls. And those wandering spirits, over time, will become rageful and possess humans and cause chaos in society. We are one of the guilds that was tasked with capturing such lost spirits and sealing them up in the spirit valley.”

The old man’s expression darkened for a brief moment. “They wander this plane, desperate to escape. Still hungry for a second chance.”

Lin Fang’s brows furrowed slightly as he observed a ghostly fox circling in the mist, its translucent fur rippling like smoke.

Then Li Changfeng looked at him. “Listen carefully, boy.”

The man’s tone shifted, no longer half-drunk or playful, but clear and serious.

“You want to become a monster tamer. But you have no mana. You’re a plainfolk. And that is a fact. In such a scenario, unless you are an innate soul, there is no future for you in this path you wanted to walk on.”

Zhi Yan turned, looking between them.

Li Changfeng gestured at the field of drifting spirits. “If you truly have an innate soul, one of them, one of those monsters with compatibility, will come to you on its own. If a spirit monster willingly approaches and accepts you, we can extract its essence and resurrect it inside an unfertilized egg using an ancient technique. It’ll be reborn… tied to your soul.”

Zhi Yan’s eyes widened. “That’s possible?”

“It’s rare. Costly. And… irreversible.” Li Changfeng exhaled, tapping the side of his temple. “Your soul and the beast’s will be bound. Regardless of your bond, you cannot sever the connection once formed and change your beast companion like other tamers.”

He stepped closer to Lin Fang, his voice a little lower. “It won’t give you all the perks of a true monster tamer; you won’t share damage, can’t borrow its vision, or cast spells through it. But it’ll be loyal to you, giving you an opportunity to be a monster tamer.”

Lin Fang’s gaze drifted back to the hazy silhouettes wandering through the field. Their eyes, hollow or glowing faintly, never seemed to meet his.

“How long do I have?”

“One hour,” Li Changfeng replied. “If no monster comes to you by then… You walk automatically teleported here. That also means you’re not cut out for it.”

Right as soon as he uttered those words, the system’s chime struck Lin Fang’s consciousness like a bolt of lightning.

Ding!

[Emergency Quest Triggered – Fortuitous Encounter Detected]

Objective: Choose a spirit monster that resonates with you.

Timelimit: 60 minutes

Reward: The chosen spirit monster will be added to the Summoner’s Shop permanently.

Lin Fang froze in his spot. “An Emergency Quest?”

A fortuitous encounter where he only has to pick a monster? This is just like walking into a smartphone store and the manager tells him to pick anything he likes and he can get it for free.

“Alright,” he whispered under his breath, and took his first step forward, his heart rate going up and up.

Zhi Yan instinctively followed, but a firm hand caught her shoulder.

“You can’t follow him,” said Li Changfeng, voice stripped of its usual laziness. “No one else is allowed inside the spirit selection boundary.”

Zhi Yan looked up at him, her lips parting as if to argue. But in the end, she said nothing. Her gaze returned to Lin Fang’s retreating figure.

Out in the spectral field, the winds had quieted. The fog of ghostly beasts shifted around Lin Fang like reluctant dancers.

As he was inspecting every spirit, he spotted a horse. Its body shimmered a silvery-white. Lin Fang’s eyes lit up as the system scanned it.

Grade: Epic

Potential: level-50

State: Spirit Remnant

“Oh, an Epic Grade and still had a level-50 potential? Alright, this is by far the best one I’ve seen.”

With a steady breath, he stepped toward it, but just as he reached the spot within its four-foot range, the horse reared its head, let out a lonely, soul-piercing neigh, and fled at a blurring speed.

Lin Fang: “…”

He stood there, arm halfway raised, stunned.

Back at the cave entrance, Zhi Yan watched, her worry only deepening. “What are the chances he’ll succeed?”

Li Changfeng crossed his arms and let out a slow breath. “Either one hundred percent… or zero. There’s no middle ground.”

She turned to him.

The old man met her gaze. “Only one in a hundred thousand plainfolk has what we call an innate soul.”

Zhi Yan’s eyes darkened slightly.

The tension clenched her chest like a fist.

Just like that, forty minutes passed.

And Lin Fang only walked and walked, nonstop.

He approached every monster he could see. No longer cared what grade it was. However, every spirit monster he approached avoided him, running away as if they either feared him or couldn’t bear his presence.

And as time passed, Lin Fang’s confidence only got lower and lower.

Every step forward left heavier prints in the grass. His breathing deepened, and his shoulders slouched. He almost seemed like he had given up the quest and roamed around casually.

He murmured. “Forget it. I have two legendary grade monsters. I don’t need these anyway.”

And then a few minutes later, he noticed something like a cave-burrow, almost buried in tall grass.

“Hmm? There seems to be an entrance. I thought spirit monsters only roam around.” His curiosity piqued for a bit, and his feet moved

Far away, from the mouth of the Spirit Valley, Li Changfeng’s voice suddenly dropped in warning. “Sh*t.”

Zhi Yan snapped to attention. “What?”

Li Changfeng’s eyes narrowed, his face turning grim. “Your friend… he’s entering that cave. It’s bad.”

“What cave?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep