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

　But just as she finished speaking, she suddenly noticed someone flying towards the other side—it was the little fairy she had noticed from the beginning!

　"As expected, the goblin race is a scourge!" Katarina gritted her teeth, as if she had been poisoned by the goblins long ago.

　But the little vixen was, after all, a guest of the young city lord, and she couldn't ignore it: "Prepare to rescue them!"

　The more than 30 members of Squad Nine immediately focused their attention.

　But in just a short while, the little fairy had already hummed a tune and flown to the top of the valley.

　"La la la, jingle bells, little imp!"

　……

　Maintaining a daily update of over 10,000 words for an extended period is incredibly difficult. This chapter took a very, very long time to write, and I'm unsure when I'll be able to finish it tomorrow. I'm letting you know in advance.

Chapter 779 Seeking Monthly Tickets: Darkdemon's Exploration of Secrets

　The fairy's song was still ringing in my ears when the temperature in the valley dropped to freezing without warning.

　Before the people standing on this side of the valley could react, the little fairy flying in the air had already turned into a block of ice.

　Catherine's expression changed drastically, and she quickly called out a name.

　The person she called clasped his hands together and glared at the sky. An invisible force swept over, trying to retrieve the little fairy frozen in mid-air.

　However, the ice blocks in the air showed no signs of falling.

　Dark and the others behind Katrin showed no signs of tension.

　The ice block exploded instantly the next second.

　The little fairy broke through the ice!

　……

　Amidst the astonished gazes of the crowd, Professor Lily shook her head, and a shower of ice crystals fell down.

　Then she bent down slightly and flew downwards.

　When she was instantly frozen, she keenly sensed the source of that power.

　But after flying down, she stared wide-eyed at the dirty mud pit, looking very unhappy.

　How did it end up down here?

　Professor Lily frowned and raised a finger.

　As magic gathered, the fingertips gradually glowed.

　"go with!"

　She pointed at the mud below, and a halo of light immediately appeared above it, driving away the surrounding mud.

　Then she took a Magical Spirit card from her card pack and summoned it: "In the name of Lily Laplace, Magical Summon—'Illusion Butterfly'!"

　As the summoning light gradually brightened, a palm-sized pink butterfly emerged from the card face of the magic card, then circled around Lily once before suddenly exploding into smoke, transforming into a tiny fairy that looked exactly like Professor Lily, but with butterfly wings and only half a meter tall.

　The "illusion butterfly" chuckled twice, then flew downwards and burrowed into the ground.

　Clearly, it also has the ability to "penetrate" objects.

　……

　On the edge of the valley.

　Dak took two steps forward and saw the butterfly that had burrowed into the ground.

　He wondered to himself, "Could this butterfly-like magical sprite also transform?"

　A short while later, the "Illusion Butterfly" emerged from the ground again, holding a bead the size of its head in its hand.

　The bead was smooth and round, radiating a cold aura, yet no ice crystals formed on its surface.

　Lily took the "ice bead" and pointed to a spot. The "illusion butterfly" then burrowed into the ground and brought out another ice bead.

　She repeated this process until she retrieved the "Illusion Butterfly," by which time she had taken out a total of twelve "Ice Beads."

　These twelve "ice beads" were originally evenly distributed underground in this valley. If you think about it carefully, you will find that they are located at the twelve intersections of a six-pointed star magic circle.

　After Professor Lily took them all out, she casually waved her hand, causing them to form a circle and rotate clockwise. Then, she flicked her finger to activate the energy within them with magic.

　The twelve "ice beads" glowed simultaneously and converged towards the center.

　"call out--"

　A beam of light suddenly shot out from the center and hit the mud pit.

　The mudflats struck by the beam of light froze almost instantly.

　……

　"It seems we've found the reason why the salon was frozen."

　Dark smiled slightly, activated the "Flight Spell," and flew downwards.

　As Lily saw him approaching, she immediately turned around to greet him and presented the twelve "ice beads" to him as if they were treasures.

　"There must be a magic array set up underground," Dark asked curiously.

　Lily said, "That magic circle is only used to detect external enemies and activate these gems. With these twelve gems, we can set up new magic circles at any time."

　Dak nodded slightly, then took off his right glove and reached out to touch one of the "ice beads".

　After a moment, he realized: "So that's how it is. These beads not only contain ice elemental energy, but also a life energy. When those sand dragons were frozen, it was this life energy that preserved their vitality."

　Lily said happily, "These beads are simply made for creating live specimens. I'll take them back and study them, then have Kazel make a batch."

　The two then flew back to the valley and explained the situation to the others.

　After hearing this, Aurora said that she still had room in her backpack to store the items.

　But Lily resolutely refused, continuing to manipulate the magic to make the beads float in the air, sometimes arranging them into an "S" shape, sometimes into a "B" shape, having a great time.

　Afterwards, Katrin sent people down into the valley to search it carefully again.

　Only after confirming that there was no further danger in the valley did they continue forward with some regret.

　Once everyone had gathered on the other side of the valley, Katrin said solemnly, "From here on, this is all unexplored territory. Everyone must be extra careful and not act recklessly as before!"

　But before she could finish speaking, she saw Professor Lily happily flying off towards the unknown future.

　The twelve "ice beads" surrounding it were like twelve blue lamps, illuminating the somewhat dark road.

　"Hurry! Keep up!" Katrin gritted her teeth and was forced to speed up.

　Dak and the others covered their mouths and laughed.

　……

　Two hours later, the group stopped inside a temple-like building to clean the ground and take a temporary rest.

　In those two short hours, Expedition Team Nine experienced the most thrilling period since entering the temple.

　They never imagined that underground exploration could be like this.

　Professor Lily deliberately triggered almost all of the traps.

　Most of them are fire and ice type traps, but there are also quite a few that are more dark type traps.

　The first two seem to be normal mechanisms of this temple, but the latter is clearly out of place with the style of this temple and is filled with a sense of strangeness.

　The members of Expedition Team Nine were terrified by the constantly triggered traps. Even when they stopped to rest, they remained vigilant and would jump up at the slightest disturbance.

　They clearly couldn't adapt well to Professor Lily's style.

　……

　Underground, there is no distinction between day and night; you can't see the sun high in the sky or the moon setting behind the willows, but their biological clock will tell them—it's mealtime!

　Temple exploration cannot be limited to just one day. Team Nine brought their own rations, enough to sustain the thirty people for a week.

　However, when they saw the young city lord take out various ingredients from that huge backpack, the dry rations suddenly lost their appeal.

　With limited ingredients, Aurora couldn't prepare thirty more dinners, so she had to invite Katrin to eat with her alone.

　Unexpectedly, Katrin picked up a bowl full of delicious food and ran over to show it off, causing chaos in the entire group.

　But after the meal, Aurora solemnly called Catherine to her side and spoke to her about some principles.

　When Dark's group set off again, they were back to a group of only five people; the Ninth Expedition Team, Tom, and Jerry were no longer with them.

Chapter 780 Darkdemon and the Mystery of the Temple 6k

　"It seems like this is it."

　Just as Dak was about to take a closer look, he noticed that Lily waved her hand, and twelve "ice beads" flew in a row towards the palace gate.

　The blue light emitted by the "ice bead" made the dim and dilapidated temple gate appear even more eerie.

　Completely different from the temple in the front hall, this temple has half of its left side embedded in the stone wall, and the exposed fire lion statue even has half of its head corroded, showing no signs of divinity.

　The ice wolf statue on the right only has its feet remaining.

　The main gate, guarded by two stone statues, stood there loosely, as if it would collapse with the slightest push.

　A tiny "ice bead" cautiously probed inside, dispelling the gloom that had long been devoid of light in the hall. But the pale, withered bones that were illuminated only brought in more chilling coldness.

　“Heart.”

　Dark stared intently at the enormous skeleton standing inside the hall, and asked the "Goddess of the Mind" in a questioning tone.

　The Goddess of the Mind whispered, "There is no divinity flowing within these withered bones."

　Dark breathed a slight sigh of relief and quickly tried to pull Lily back. But Lily only observed for two seconds before following the "ice bead" through the door.

　The pale, withered skeleton... came to life the instant she entered it!

　"Not good!" Dark immediately pressed down on the hilt of his sword.

　As a mage, he should have reached for the card pack immediately. But the "Soul of the Moon Goddess" floated behind him, allowing him to instantly evolve into the "Moon Goddess."

　Therefore, he only needs to swing his sword to block the attack within three seconds before his weapon evolves to participate in the battle as "Lunar God".

　But in reality, he didn't even need to lift a finger; Angry and Aurora had already positioned themselves in front of and behind him, protecting him and Aurora.

　The little guhuo bird sitting on the giant backpack was startled. But it was protected by "toy chicks" and was not in much danger.

　At this moment, Professor Lily rushed into the hall. Even though the pale skeleton suddenly moved, she did not flinch and swung her palm. The twelve "ice beads" instantly transformed into weapons, shattering the bone claws that were grabbing her!

　Dak felt a pang of heartache.

　The enormous skeleton standing inside the temple was arguably the first skeleton they had encountered since entering the temple. It was unclear whether it was left by the temple's guards or by an enemy.

　If it can be disassembled and retrieved, it will definitely be of great research value.

　Before he could even take a closer look, one of the bone claws was smashed to pieces!

　The scattered bone fragments, seemingly without any special power to support them, were eventually swallowed up by the passage of time, turning to ash before falling to the ground.

　Dark wanted to shout "Spare the bone!" But considering the danger of holding back, he held back.

　As expected, that skeleton was not so simple.

　After its bone claws were smashed, it became even more ferocious. A dark green light suddenly shone from its previously empty left eye socket, like a snake's eye.

　A thick spine stood upright, its tail lashing forcefully towards the ground, causing the earth to tremble.

　Black lines crawled out from the dark green snake's eyes, following the white bones to every corner, and in the blink of an eye, they covered the bones with strange black patterns, making the skeleton even more eerie and terrifying.

　And its body was no longer fragile; when it collided with the "ice bead," it produced a metallic clang.

　Upon closer inspection, Dak discovered that the skeleton was roughly human-shaped. However, it had a tailbone at the back and six claws at the front, arranged from top to bottom on both sides of the body.

　Now that one of the left claws has been broken, there are still five claws left.

　The five claws swung like the wind, the withered bones roared like thunder, and ashes rained down from above.

　Professor Lily grew increasingly excited, and she magically strung the twelve "ice beads" together, using them as a whip to lash the withered bones.

　Every piece of land that was drawn was instantly frozen in frost, and the chill intensified.

　The roar of the withered bones grew increasingly ferocious, and black energy gradually emerged from its body, rolling like a tide and eroding everything in its path.

　But Professor Lily simply stuck a magic card on herself and summoned a pink shield to block out the black energy.