Chapter 80: Who is the Sparrow

The Stone Lizard people’s cave city is different from human cities because it’s laid out in three dimensions like a series of rolling hills connected together.

That team disappeared over a hill while remaining invisible.

A Stone Lizard person passing by didn’t notice any outsiders, most of them asleep in their nests.

Ji Xinghuo didn’t follow the same path as them, choosing a more optimized route with lower detection risk using magnetic field sensing.

He kept them within his sensory range the whole time.

He could see them occasionally.

During this, Ji Xinghuo realized that Ren Mian could also see the team up front, unlike Chi Zhonglin and Jiangnan Caiyi who depended solely on his guidance.

“It must be some kind of visual ability.”

Ji Xinghuo quickly guessed.

Ren Mian could only see the team when they were in view, relying on her own guidance when they were out of sight.

The two teams, one after the other, soon passed through the first cave.

The second cave was slightly smaller but still housed tens of thousands of Stone Lizards, deeper underground.

Ji Xinghuo’s magnetic field sensing covered the area, mapping out various life-forms in his mind, quickly spotting several highly bright magnetic fields, way stronger than other Stone Lizards, likely fourth-tier powerhouses, equivalent to super mutants.

The average strength of the Stone Lizards isn’t high; most are first-tier.

Second-tier ones are less than 5%, third-tier even less, barely 1%, with only a few fourth-tier powerhouses.

These were the Stone Lizards who had entered the Star Realm.

Just like humans, not all members of the North Luo Master Clan qualify to enter the Star Realm; most stay on their home planet, only evolutionaries come to the Star Realm.

From this, Ji Xinghuo inferred that the Stone Lizards’ talents were far inferior to humans.

This aligns with the data he saw before.

Indeed, among the North Luo Master Clan, only the Danù have slightly better talents than humans, but it’s very niche, not as versatile as humans.

After passing through the second cave, they reached the third.

Then the fourth, the fifth.

The two teams moved slowly, taking nearly two hours to stealthily pass through seven caves, each varying in size and complexity, like large mazes, all densely populated by tens of thousands of Stone Lizards.

By the time Ji Xinghuo and his group entered the eighth cave, they were more than two thousand meters underground.

This cave was even larger than the others!

By estimation, it was nearly five kilometers in diameter and over three hundred meters high, Ji Xinghuo’s magnetic field sensing revealed densely packed Stone Lizards, roughly estimating seventy to eighty thousand.

“This must be the core cave of the Stone Lizard city,” Ren Mian’s voice rang in his mind.

“Yes.”

Ji Xinghuo nodded slightly.

The total count of Stone Lizards in this underground city neared two hundred thousand, not very large, but considering all were evolutions, it was staggering.

Most Stone Lizards were asleep, reducing energy consumption.

This biological habit was shaped by their home planet’s environment—scarce resources and lack of light most of the time, helping prolong their species’ survival, most Stone Lizards hibernate when idle.

Only a few patrol and guard the territory.

Should there be work or an invasion, Stone Lizards quickly awaken and engage in battle.

Hibernation needs a dim setting.

However, one side of this massive cave had an area with many fluorescence plants emitting faint light, conspicuous in the dim cave.

Ji Xinghuo saw Stone Lizards, Danù, and Gorlauck figures in that area alert and awake.

In the middle of the bright area was a palace-like stone building pressing against the cave’s wall, patrolled by squads of Stone Lizards.

Built with several hundred steps in front of it, the entrance stood a hundred meters above the ground, the entire gate embedded in the rock, guarded by Stone Lizards who were bigger and stronger than typical ones, all at least second-tier warriors.

In the patrolling squads of Stone Lizards, there was always at least one Danù and two Gorlaucks, clearly guard captains.

No need to guess, this was definitely the most crucial location in the.city.

“Is Chanling inside?”

Chi Zhonglin looked at the stone palace eagerly.

“Should be,” Ren Mian nodded. She saw that team slowly approaching the stone palace, the distance gradually closing.

“Let’s go too.” The four of them quietly followed.

They hadn’t reached when Ji Xinghuo noticed the team had stopped, hiding in a shadow outside the stone palace at about three hundred meters, carefully watching the palace.

Ji Xinghuo didn’t want to get too close, but also not too far, to not miss the best opportunity.

He carefully picked a spot on the opposite side of the palace entrance, about four hundred meters from both the entrance and the team, in a deserted alley.

Here, Ji Xinghuo’s magnetic field sensing could probe inside the palace.

He closed his eyes slightly, observing carefully.

Behind the palace doors was a wide corridor carved entirely out of rock, a hundred meters long, leading straight to a cave deep in the rock wall.

The cave was large, about three hundred meters in diameter, humid inside, resembling a shallow large pool about half a meter deep with soil and numerous plants, covering the cave’s walls along with small groves, inhabited by various insects and animals, making the entire cave akin to a mini-ecosystem.

Clearly, the Danù intentionally created this environment to provide a comfortable habitat for Chanling.

Chanling!

Ji Xinghuo sensed Chanling; its biological magnetic field was very distinct.

It lay in a large patch of grass in the pool, just lying there over a meter tall and over three meters long, not particularly huge among monsters.

Ji Xinghuo sensed great danger from it, its magnetic field was too intense.

At least a superior level!

However, Ji Xinghuo didn’t focus much on Chanling, even sparing it less than a second before being drawn to another magnetic field.

His eyes widened a bit, pupils contracted.

It was a humanoid magnetic field, in the shape of a Danù, but its magnetic field intensity was ten times stronger than Chanling’s, as conspicuous as a lighthouse in the dark, overshadowing all other fields, making it hard for Ji Xinghuo to ignore.

Though a strong magnetic field doesn’t always mean great power, it usually does.

“A fifth-tier Danù!”

“Legendary!”

Ji Xinghuo drew a sharp breath. Sister Ren had mentioned before that there were Danùs specially tasked with guarding Chanling in the Deep Rock Rift, but she never said they were legendary.

Information from Dragon Lookout Pavilion stated the guardians of Chanling were three fourth-tier Danùs, they leading about ten fourth-tier Stone Lizard warriors from the city.

“Misinformation?”

Ji Xinghuo’s thoughts raced. “Or recent developments?”

The legendary Danù wasn’t in the cave; he sat by the entrance of the corridor in the palace, flanked by two fourth-tier Danù and several guards.

“Sister Ren.”

Ji Xinghuo gestured to Ren Mian to activate the thought necklace, not minding revealing that his sensory range was actually broader, saying in his mind, “There’s a legendary Danù inside.”

The three’s expressions changed upon hearing this.

Ren Mian, however, didn’t panic. After a few seconds of thought, she said, “It seems it’s not just us and that team; someone else must have sneaked in earlier and alarmed the North Luo Master Clan, so they specifically sent a legendary here to strengthen Chanling’s protection.”

She asked again, “Is Chanling still there?”

“It is,” Ji Xinghuo nodded.

“Good that they haven’t moved Chanling.” Ren Mian’s expression relaxed a bit, seemingly unafraid of the legendary.

Chanling has high requirements for its living environment and can’t be moved casually. If irritated, it might attack its keepers, making it very difficult to calm again.

Chi Zhonglin asked, “Do we continue?”

“Of course,” Ren Mian didn’t hesitate. “We came all this way; there’s no reason to give up now. We have to try.”

She looked towards the team’s hiding spot. “We don’t need to confront the legendary Danù directly.”

Ji Xinghuo understood her point.

They needed patience, waiting for those five to make a move.

They waited four hours, the team hiding in the shadows not moving at all, continuously watching the palace entrance’s patrolling guards, apparently waiting for the best moment to act.

But Ji Xinghuo and his group shifted their position.

Without an illusionist, they relied on Jiangnan Caiyi using an illusion pearl to cover their tracks, but sustaining it long drained her star power, Ji Xinghuo found a Stone Lizard nest without any lizards, hiding inside, through a narrow crevice in the rocks, they could see the palace entrance.

He initially thought they’d have to wait a day or two but then something unexpected happened.

The legendary Danù moved.

Several rooms by the corridor entrance in the palace, where the Danù slept and ate, and he suddenly came out because a squad of Stone Lizard guards rushed to report to him.

“The corpses of the guards at the cave entrance must have been discovered.”

Ji Xinghuo told his teammates.

Most Stone Lizards were asleep, there are many entrances to the cave, not often do Stone Lizards come and go, it took hours to discover them, which was quite slow.

That genius of deception had no choice but to kill; even with an illusionist, they couldn’t fool the Stone Lizards close by, they had to kill to get in.

Then, the Danù stepped out of the palace, stood at the entrance, scanning around, seemingly looking for the sneaking enemies.

“Be careful.”

Ji Xinghuo, originally observing from behind a crevice, quickly avoided being seen.

Ji Xinghuo didn’t forget about the team nearby.

Suddenly, his magnetic field sensing detected something odd; a dim magnetic field separated from the illusionist, humanoid, speeding silently from their hiding shadow towards his location at a very fast pace.

“Illusion!”

Ji Xinghuo immediately realized it was an illusion created by the illusionist.

They had known they were being tracked; now, this illusion was a diversion. Once their position was revealed, drawing the legendary Danù’s attack, they could use the opportunity to breach the palace.

Both sides wanted to be the sparrow!

The illusion could pass through walls and was very fast, barely taking ten seconds to reach here, leaving Ji Xinghuo no time to think further.

“Don’t move!”

Without time to explain, he immediately entered stealth mode, dashed out of the Stone Lizard nest, and scrambled up behind a nearby rock, using it to block his figure, his Long Falcon Bow already strung with an Explosive Flame Arrow, the light circle in his right eye flickering, he angled and shot it upward.

A glaring streak of fire crossed the sky, accurately landing on the shadow where the five were hidden, then exploded.

Boom!

The flames illuminated five figures and their astonished faces.