Chapter 112 - 79: Who is the Yellow Sparrow?

Chapter 112: Chapter 79: Who is the Yellow Sparrow?The Stone Lizard People’s cave city differed from that of humans in that their layout was three-dimensional, resembling a series of interconnected rolling hills. The team, invisible, climbed over a hill and vanished from sight. The Stone Lizard People passing by did not notice any intruders as most were slumbering in their nests. Ji Xinghuo did not follow the same route as them, but instead, through magnetic field sensing, chose a route where the likelihood of being detected by the Stone Lizard People was even lower. He continuously locked onto the other group, maintaining them within his own perception distance. He could see them every now and then. During this process, Ji Xinghuo realized that Ren Mian could also see the team ahead, unlike Chi Zhonglin and Jiangnan Caiyi, who completely relied on his guidance. "It must be some kind of visual ability." Ji Xinghuo quickly guessed. Because Ren Mian could only see the team ahead when they appeared in her line of sight; when they were obstructed, she had to rely on her own guidance. The two teams, one after the other, soon passed through the first cave. The second cave was slightly smaller in size but still housed tens of thousands of Stone Lizard People and was located deeper underground. Ji Xinghuo’s magnetic field sensing conveniently covered this cave, and the large and small lifeform magnetic fields mapped in his mind immediately revealed several extremely bright ones. These remarkably intense fields belonged to Fourth Rank Stone Lizard People, equivalent to Super Mutants. The average strength of Stone Lizard People was not high; the vast majority were First Rank. Second Rank made up less than 5%, Third Rank was even less, not even reaching 1%, and there were only two or three Fourth Rank experts. These were the Stone Lizard People who had entered the Star Realm. Just like humans, not all members of the Beiluo Shimen Clan were qualified to enter the Star Realm; most of their population remained on their Mother Star, and those in the Star Realm were the race’s Evolvers. From this, Ji Xinghuo inferred that the natural talent of the Stone Lizard People was far inferior to that of humans. This was consistent with the data he had seen before. In fact, among the Beiluo Shimen Clan, only the Dagon people had slightly better talent than humans, but it was very niche and not as well-rounded as that of humans. They moved through the second, the third, and then the fourth and fifth caves. The speed of both teams was slow; it took nearly two hours to stealthily traverse seven caves, each varying in size and complex, deep topography, resembling large-scale mazes filled with tens of thousands of Stone Lizard People. By the time Ji Xinghuo and the others entered the eighth cave, they had delved more than two thousand meters underground. This cave was bigger than all the others! Visually, the diameter was close to five kilometers, and the height was also over three hundred meters. Ji Xinghuo’s magnetic field sensing showed dense populations of Stone Lizard People everywhere; he roughly estimated there were seventy to eighty thousand individuals. "This must be the core cave of the Stone Lizard People’s city," Ren Mian’s voice resounded in his mind. "Yes," Ji Xinghuo nodded slightly. This underground city’s total population of Stone Lizard People was close to two hundred thousand, which was not very large, but considering that all these Stone Lizard People were Evolvers, it was quite astounding. Most of the Stone Lizard People were in a deep sleep to minimize energy consumption. This was a biological habit shaped by their Mother Star’s environment; on Night Star, resources were scarce and most of the time there was a lack of light. To prolong the survival of their race, most Stone Lizard People would enter a hibernation-like deep sleep when not needed. Typically, only a few of the race’s members patrolled for guard duty. Should there be a need for work or an enemy invasion, the Stone Lizard People would quickly wake up and immediately join the battle. The deep sleep required a dim environment. However, on one side of this huge cave, there was an area planted with many luminescent plants emitting a faint glow, which was particularly conspicuous in the dim cave. Ji Xinghuo looked into the distance and saw awake Stone Lizard People in that area, as well as figures of Dagon people and Gorak. In the middle of the bright area was a rock structure resembling a palace, tightly adjacent to the cave wall. Teams of Stone Lizard People guarded outside, patrolling densely. There were hundreds of steps built in front of the palace, with the entrance raised about a hundred meters above the ground; the entire doorway appeared embedded in the rock wall, with Stone Lizard Guards standing from the ground up to the entrance, all of whom were more robust than regular Stone Lizard People, at least Second Rank warriors. In the patrolling Stone Lizard team, there was at least one Dagon person and two Gorak, clearly the guard captains. One didn’t need to think hard to know that this was surely the most important place in the city. "Is Toad Spirit inside?" Chi Zhonglin looked towards the rock palace with eager eyes. "It should be," Ren Mian nodded. She saw that the team was stealthily approaching the rock palace, slowly shortening the distance. "Let’s go over too." The four of them quietly followed. They hadn’t reached there yet when Ji Xinghuo noticed that the team had stopped moving, hiding in the shadows outside the rock palace, about three hundred meters away, cautiously observing the palace situation. Ji Xinghuo didn’t want to be too close to them but also couldn’t afford to be too far, lest he miss the best opportunity. He carefully selected a position on the other side of the palace entrance, approximately four hundred meters from both the entrance and the team, situated in an empty alley. From here, Ji Xinghuo’s magnetic field sensing could already probe into the palace interior. He slightly closed his eyes, observing carefully. Behind the grand palace doors was a wide passageway, entirely carved out of the rock, spanning a hundred meters, leading straight to a cave deep within the rock walls. The cave was spacious, about three hundred meters in diameter, its interior humid, resembling a large pool with only half a meter deep water, containing soil and a large amount of plants growing; its rock walls were covered and there were several small groves, home to various insects and animals, making the entire cave resemble a small-scale ecosystem. This was clearly an environment intentionally cultivated by Dagon people to provide a comfortable living environment for Toad Spirit. Toad Spirit! Ji Xinghuo sensed the Toad Spirit, its biological magnetic field was very prominent. It lay in a tall clump of grass in the pond, just lying there it was over a meter tall, and more than three meters long; its size was not particularly huge among the many monsters. Ji Xinghuo sensed an enormous danger from it, its magnetic field intensity was too high. At least Superior Level! However, Ji Xinghuo did not focus too much on the Toad Spirit, he barely lingered for less than a second before another magnetic field drew his attention away. His eyes involuntarily widened, his pupils constricted. This was a humanoid magnetic field, its shape resembled that of the Dagon people, however, its magnetic field intensity was ten times stronger than that of the Toad Spirit; it was as conspicuous as a lighthouse in the night, overpowering all other magnetic fields, making it difficult for Ji Xinghuo not to notice him. Although a high magnetic field intensity does not necessarily mean great strength, most of the time, this rule holds true. "Fifth Rank Dagon!" "Legendary!" Ji Xinghuo felt a chill in his heart. Ren Mian had mentioned before that there were Dagon people specifically assigned to guard the Toad Spirit in the Deep Rock Rift Valley, but she didn’t say it was a Legendary. The information given by the Wanglong Platform was that there were three Fourth Rank Dagon people guarding the Toad Spirit, with them leading, there were also about ten Fourth Rank Stone Lizard Warriors in the city. "Is the information wrong?" Ji Xinghuo’s thoughts whirled rapidly, "or has something else happened recently?" The Legendary Dagon was not in the cave, he sat at the entrance of the palace pathway, flanked by two Fourth Rank Dagon people and dozens of guards. "Ren Mian." Ji Xinghuo signaled Ren Mian to activate the thought chain, ignoring the fact that his own sensing range was actually farther, and thought to himself, "There’s a Legendary Dagon inside." All three of them changed their expressions upon hearing this. Ren Mian did not panic, and after thinking for several seconds, she said, "It seems like it wasn’t only us and that team that sneaked in. There must have been others before who stirred up the Beiluo Shimen Clan, so they specifically sent a Legendary to strengthen the guard over the Toad Spirit." She then asked, "Is the Toad Spirit still there?" Searᴄh the nôᴠel Fire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Yes," Ji Xinghuo nodded. "It’s good they didn’t move the Toad Spirit away," Ren Mian seemed somewhat relieved, apparently not too fearful of the Legendary. The Toad Spirit had high requirements for its living environment and could not be moved randomly. If it got upset, it might attack its keepers, making it very difficult to pacify again. Chi Zhonglin asked, "Are we still continuing?" "Of course," Ren Mian did not hesitate: "We’ve come all this way, there’s no reason to give up, we must give it a try." She looked towards the location where the team was hiding, "We don’t have to confront the Legendary Dagon head-on." Ji Xinghuo understood her meaning. They needed to be patient, just wait for those five people to make a move first. And so, they waited for four hours, that team lurking in the shadows did not move, continuously observing the patrol guards at the entrance of the palace, seemingly waiting for the best moment to act. Ji Xinghuo and his companions, however, changed their position. Without an Illusion Sound Master, they relied only on Jiangnan Caiyi using the Phantom Pearl to cover their tracks. After a long time, the Star Power was hard to sustain, so Ji Xinghuo found a Stone Lizard nest without any lizards, hid inside it, and through a narrow crevice, he could see the situation at the entrance of the palace. He had thought they might have to endure a day or two like this, but an unexpected situation arose. The Legendary Dagon moved. There were a few rooms next to the palace’s pathway entrance where the Dagon people ate and lived, but now he suddenly came out, the reason being a group of Stone Lizard guards rushed over to report to him. "It must be that the bodies of the Stone Lizard guards at the cave entrance have been discovered." Ji Xinghuo said to his teammates. Most Stone Lizard People were in deep slumber, the cave entrance had many paths and it was uncommon for Stone Lizard People to come and go. It had taken several hours to be discovered, which was quite slow. The crafty genius who killed people did so out of desperation. The cave entrance was too narrow, the five of them walking together, even with an Illusion Sound Master hiding them, couldn’t deceive the Stone Lizard People who were close at hand; they had no choice but to kill to break in. At that moment, the Dagon stepped out of the palace and stood at the door, his gaze sweeping around as if searching for the intruding enemy. "Be careful." Ji Xinghuo, originally observing from behind the crevice, promptly avoided his line of sight. Ji Xinghuo also did not forget the team not far away. Suddenly, he sensed an anomaly in the magnetic field, a dim magnetic field separated from the body of the Illusion Sound Master; also humanoid, it sped out from their hiding shadow extremly fast, silent and stealthy as it flew through successive rocky nests toward his own location. "Illusion!" Ji Xinghuo immediately realized, this was an illusion created by the Illusion Sound Master. It turned out they had known they were being tracked, and now this illusion came to divert attention eastward. Once their position was exposed and attracted the Legendary Dagon’s attack, they could take the opportunity to storm the palace. Both sides wanted to be the opportunist hunter! The illusion could pass through walls, and was very fast, taking less than ten seconds to reach here, not giving Ji Xinghuo much time to think. "Don’t move!" He didn’t have time to explain, he immediately entered a Stealth State and ran out of the Stone Lizard nest he was hiding in, flipping over to hide behind a nearby rock, using the rock to shield his own figure, the Dragon Falcon Eagle Bow already notched with an explosive flame arrow, his right eye’s light ring flashing, he lofted it into the air. A dazzling streak of fire crossed the sky, precisely landing in the shadow where those five people were hidden, then exploded. Boom! The flames exposed the five figures and their astonished expressions.