The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　The one rambling on was Tom, a blue cat hybrid. His cat eyes, hidden behind his helmet visor, often emitted a ghostly light. He possessed an innate keen sense of perception, allowing him to detect danger in advance and making him an expert at breaking traps.

　The other short guard is Jerry, who is said to be a ratman hybrid with a superb ability to dig holes and is also skilled in stealth and lockpicking.

　These two guards were clearly not chosen randomly.

　After spending a few minutes with them, Dak had gotten to know them a little.

　Tom was very talkative, to the point of being a chatterbox.

　Jerry is rather quiet, but occasionally he will say something insightful, exuding a strong sense of yin and yang.

　With these two clowns around, the team atmosphere became even more lively, and they didn't seem like a professional expedition team at all!

　Of course, nobody cares about these things.

　Dak walked side by side with Aurora, occasionally chiming in with his own words.

　Lily has abandoned her "toy bird" and now darts around the ground and walls, occasionally peeking out from behind a corner to startle people, and she seems to enjoy it immensely.

　Meanwhile, the little Guhuoniao and the "Toy Bird" sat on the huge backpack on the back of the "Armored Rhinoceros".

　Magnemite and Devimon flew on either side.

　All the way down.

　……

　After about fifteen minutes of leisurely walking, Dak finally arrived at the temple.

　Unsurprisingly, there were still people stationed at the temple entrance.

　Moreover, it is fully equipped with pots, pans, sleeping bags, and tents.

　Tom went up to inquire and then returned, saying, "Squads three, seven, and nine are all inside. The temple exploration was suspended for a while because of what happened up there a few days ago, but it resumed yesterday. If we go in now, we might still run into them."

　Dak nodded and looked up at the temple.

　From this angle, the entire temple appears to be completely embedded underground. Only about half of the so-called entrance is visible above the rock strata, suggesting it was excavated later.

　Meanwhile, stonemasons were carefully digging at the edges, but there were not many of them.

　To prevent damage to the temple walls, the excavation process was extremely slow.

　However, from the exposed part, some mysterious pictures and runes can already be seen.

　As objects associated with the gods, those pictures and symbols might be unimaginable treasures.

　However, standing outside this temple, one cannot sense any divine aura.

　Dak thought for a moment and did not linger outside—according to his usual practice, he should have left nothing behind and copied all the pictures and runes on the door and wall.

　And now, he merely summoned the "Magical Secretary" and had it quickly scan a letter—

　What, you're saying there's a difference?

　That's definitely a difference in efficiency!

　Dark closed the scanned "Magic Book" and led the way toward the temple entrance.

　The guards already knew his identity from Tom, so they did not stop him.

　He stepped over the threshold and entered the temple.

　In that instant, an extremely rich divine aura immediately rushed towards us!

　The scent carried a familiar aroma, yet it also felt somewhat unfamiliar.

　"Wave--"

　At the same time, a tuft of hair on his head suddenly moved, and a tiny, sun-like sprite, after a long slumber, finally awoke.

　Dark's heart stirred, and he raised his hand. The Fiery Sun Elf slowly flew into his palm, radiating a warm aura.

　The Sun Elf, awakened once more from its slumber, now possessed a touch of gold within its original fiery red hue.

　It seems to have awakened temporarily and has not fully transformed into the "Arrogant Elf" or "Sun Elf" that Dark had envisioned.

　It's also possible that it didn't absorb enough "arrogance," preventing it from completing its transformation.

　Dark pondered for a moment, then raised his hand and tossed it lightly. The Fiery Sun Elf slowly flew up from his palm, first rubbing against his face, and then clearly "happily" flew towards the temple.

　Professor Lily's eyes lit up, and she immediately flew into the temple, following closely behind the sun elf.

　Aurora then stepped over the threshold and looked at the Sun Elf, saying, "It is an elf egg born in the temple, and it has finally returned home. Now it should be attracted by the statue of the Sun God and flying towards that temple."

　Dark asked with some curiosity, "Isn't the temple where the idols are enshrined located deeper inside?"

　Aurora shook her head and said, "Perhaps there are even larger statues deeper inside, but so far we have only found the statues in the front hall of the temple. The entire temple is very large, roughly equivalent to half of the inner city based on the parts we have explored so far."

　Dark recalled the size of the inner city of the Free City and nodded in deep agreement.

　That's really big!

　However, from this perspective, although Aurora and the others call it a "temple," it is actually not just a simple temple.

　Upon closer examination, it's clear that Lord Montilfali's decision to present the Sun Elf egg unearthed from the temple as a birthday gift also concealed an ulterior motive beyond the surface.

　"She knew she definitely couldn't swallow such a large treasure, so she deliberately leaked the information to the Duke's mansion."

　Dak had a slight understanding and continued on his way.

　Unfortunately, after the "Demon King's Execution Ritual," the Duke's mansion was so busy planning for the "Fire of the Underworld" that they neglected this temple.

　Perhaps he should offer a reminder after this exploration concludes.

　Otherwise, given the cautious mining pace of the Free City, it's likely that they won't be able to extract anything even after ten years.

　Thinking this, Dark opened the "Magic Book" again and scanned it randomly.

　The temple's architectural layout is not complicated. Whether it is the decoration on the walls or the furnishings placed in the corners, they are basically divided according to the format of the sun god on the left and the moon god on the right.

　After walking for a while, you will soon see the temple that Aurora mentioned.

　Two stone pillars stood at the entrance of the temple, and two divine beasts squatted on top of the pillars.

　It's still the same old pattern.

　The mythical beast on the left is a lion with a mane as red as fire.

　The mythical beast on the right is a mother wolf with horns of ice...

　Of course, the "mother" wolf is just Dak's own guess.

　Although lions and wolves are not a good match, Dak just had that feeling.

　He paused briefly at the entrance, carefully sensing the divine aura emanating from within the hall.

　It was daytime, and the aura of the sun god was noticeably stronger. But upon arriving here, one could also sense a chilling aura belonging to the moon god.

　The temple doors were tightly shut, and the Sun Elf clung to the cracks, clearly trying to squeeze inside.

　After realizing it couldn't squeeze in no matter what, it turned around and made a pitiful sound towards Dak.

　Dark couldn't help but chuckle and asked, "There must be a special way to open the door, right?"

　Aurora nodded and said, "During the day, we need to infuse the fire elemental spirit's power into the fire lion statue. At night, we need to infuse the ice elemental spirit's power into the ice wolf statue."

　As she spoke, she summoned her Sun Spirit and sent it flying to the Fire Lion Statue.

　The Sun Elf is, in essence, a type of fire elemental spirit.

　The reason they were able to find a way to open the temple gate was because Lord Montilfali was a fire spirit.

　Aurora's Sun Elf quickly flew to the Fire Lion statue and then expertly darted inside.

　The fire lion statue's skin gradually turned red, and its fluffy mane became as real as flames. Its eyes then slowly opened.

　At the same time, the left door of the temple also began to move laterally to the left and inward.

　"grumble--"

　Dark's Sun Elf hurriedly slipped through the crack in the door as soon as it appeared.

　Lily floated in the air and glanced around, but did not enter easily.

　Once the door on the left was fully open, she cautiously flew inside, her eyes darting around.

　Dak paused for a moment, then quickly followed and entered the temple.

　The divine aura within the temple was even more intense.

　However, the entire hall is only of average size, and you can see right to the bottom.

　There are only two stone pillars inside the hall. The one on the left is carved with various fire-attribute beasts, and the one on the right is carved with various ice-attribute beasts.

　Above their heads, one can see a blazing sun and an icy moon painted on the zenith.

　At the very end of the road directly in front, there is a stone platform that is four meters long and two meters wide.

　On the stone platform, the sun god and the moon god of this temple sat respectively.

　Naturally, they are all in animal form.

　The shapes of the sun god and moon god are similar to the stone statues at the entrance. One is based on a lion, and the other on a wolf.

　But in addition to its lion-like appearance, the sun god also has dragon claws, dragon scales, and dragon wings, and its tail behind its rump is like a snake's tail.

　The moon goddess, on the other hand, was based on the appearance of a wolf, but with one long and two short horns. However, she lacked wings and scales on her back, and her tail was that of a regular wolf. But her neck was exceptionally long, giving her a very graceful appearance.

　Both statues are identical, carved from jade.

　However, one is red jade and the other is white jade.

　Scattered around the feet of the two statues were red and white specks of light, which were glowing fairy eggs.

　On the statue, there were fire elves and ice moon elves clinging to it, but they were mostly asleep.

　Dark's sun sprites were mixed in among them.

　If it weren't for the inseparable and close connection between the two, it would be really hard to tell the difference.

　"The divine aura has become even stronger."

　Dark released the "Magic Book" to let it scan on its own, and then walked towards the statue.

　The divine aura emanating from the statue of the sun god was comparable to that of the statue of the moon god he had found in the secret passage.

　He had almost no doubt that he could extract a large amount of "Sun God version of Pride" from this statue!

　Unfortunately, the temple has an owner, and he cannot take it without cause.

　Moreover, once he drains all the divine power from the statue of the sun god, this underground temple will probably collapse like the temple of the moon god.

　He certainly wouldn't engage in such a short-sighted, exploitative practice.

　"Some of the spirit eggs on the statue were always there, while others were added by us later."

　Aurora said.

　"Ordinary ice and fire spirits or ice and fire spirit eggs, after absorbing the power emitted by these two statues, may transform into sun spirits or ice moon spirits. Among them, spirit eggs have a higher probability."

　In other words, these two statues continuously create Sun Elves and Ice Moon Elves.

　With this opportunity for transformation as leverage, they can also attract more ice and fire spirits, providing others with the chance to become spirit users.

　This opportunity, which is almost like a "hidden career change," will surely bring unimaginable wealth to the Free City.

　This alone is enough to demonstrate the immense value of this temple.

　……

　"Hey!"

　While Aurora was carefully explaining, Professor Lily suddenly reached out her sinful hand towards the statue of the Moon Goddess... or more precisely, towards the Ice Moon Elf egg beneath the statue of the Moon Goddess!

　Her eyes lit up as she looked at the elf egg surrounding the wolf's paw, eager to choose one and sign a "contract".

　Making a "contract" with an elemental spirit is not easy. But if it's a spirit egg, it's actually possible to "trick" it into giving away a treasure it desperately wants.

　While she herself did not possess treasures of that caliber, she knew that Dark had an abundance of them.

　Therefore, as long as she obtains a spirit egg, she can easily become a spirit user, and then squeeze some money out of Dark to raise the Ice Moon Spirit into a Moon Spirit.

　At that time, she will be a moon spirit wielder who only exists in legends!

　Even Sarah Sylph would probably be incredibly envious.

　"puff!"