Chapter 489: Asmir Lake Serpent Monster

“Master Gao De, here is the detailed introduction to the Yili—take a look.” The duty mage, Freddy, searched the second-floor library, then pulled out a small, slightly yellowed scroll of parchment and handed it to Gao De.

“Thank you.” Gao De accepted the parchment, bowed his head slightly, and began to read.

“The Yili is a terrestrial creature with no fixed element or fixed rank. Its innate ability is transformation, capable of assuming multiple forms, each granting distinct supernatural abilities—its transformations are limitless.”

“So far, eight forms of Yili have been documented: Thunder Yili, Fire Yili, Wind Yili, Poison Yili, Wood Yili, Water Yili, Ice Yili, and Moonlight Yili.”

“The highest rank ever observed in a Yili is a fifth-rank Poison Yili.”

“Regardless of form or rank, any Yili that gives birth will lay an ‘initial’ egg—elementless and rankless.”

“Its specific form and future rank are determined by the environment during the egg stage.”

“During the egg stage, the Yili egg continuously absorbs elemental forces from its surroundings; the most dominant element determines its final form. The purer and more concentrated the elemental forces absorbed, the stronger its final form will be.”

“Thunder Yili can draw in and store lightning from the air, releasing it when needed.”

“Fire Yili carries an internal fire sac; after a deep breath, it exhales extremely high-temperature flames. While storing fire internally, its body temperature rises sharply—highly dangerous.”

“Water Yili can merge with water, rendering itself invisible. Within water, it slowly regenerates its condition.”

“Wood Yili can absorb sunlight to produce fresh air, pure magic, and wood elemental energy. With sunlight, it requires no food and emits a unique fragrance.”

“Ice Yili possesses the ability to rapidly lower its body temperature and generate ice crystals, capable of freezing the atmosphere and creating icy, snowy landscapes.”

Seeing Gao De finally lift his gaze from the parchment, Mage Freddy knew he had absorbed the basic details of the Yili. Out of goodwill, he added two points not mentioned in the text:

“Some high-rank mages are quite interested in Yili. To them, its potential to transform into multiple forms holds great secrets—they wish to uncover them.”

“If you’re short on funds, you could sell this Yili egg to them—it should fetch a good price.”

“Too bad this egg is already shifting toward a Water Yili form. An egg with no visible form tendency is truly valuable.”

“Once a form tendency emerges, its value drops by half.” Freddy’s face showed regret.

“Never mind. After all, I fished it out of the water myself. It lay there for over a decade, unseen by anyone—yet I found it. That’s fate. I’m not short on coin—I plan to keep it and raise it myself.” Gao De shook his head.

“I see.” Freddy glanced at Gao De thoughtfully, then added, “You’d best visit Bibo Court and learn the methods of terrestrial creature taming.”

“Even if you raise a terrestrial creature from an egg, if you don’t use the correct taming method, its wild nature may cause it to reject you once it matures.”

“Then all your effort will be wasted.”

“Bibo Court is highly specialized in raising terrestrial creatures.”

“Understood. I’ll definitely go. Thank you for the advice,” Gao De replied.

Leaving the second floor of Haiyuan Bai Ta, Gao De did not depart the mage tower immediately. Instead, he headed to the “Mission Hall.”

The 【Crab Infestation Risk】 mission was not yet complete, but that didn’t stop him from taking on new tasks.

He needed to accumulate enough military merit to exchange for spell formulas. The reward from 【Crab Infestation Risk】 alone was far from sufficient.

He still had to keep working.

Upon entering the “Mission Hall,” it was as quiet as ever—no other Hai Shao soldiers were present.

Gao De swiftly scanned the crystal board, searching for suitable missions.

This time, he arrived just right—the number of available missions had increased significantly compared to the previous two visits.

His preferred missions were aquatic creature extermination tasks.

These missions were simple and direct, with no complicated twists—the core task was to kill aquatic creatures found in water, then return to claim credit.

Of course, while the process was straightforward, completing them was far from easy.

Aquatic creatures were cunning and highly mobile, with vast ranges of activity.

The typical mission process: civilians spot an aquatic creature, report it to the Hai Shao soldiers, who verify and confirm the sighting before publishing the mission.

By the time a mage sees the mission, accepts it, and arrives at the scene, at least a full day has passed.

By then, the originally spotted creature has long since left the area, vanished without a trace.

This means Hai Shao mages must rely on their water-porpoise companions to patiently scour vast stretches of water for even the faintest traces of the creature.

Though not quite like searching for a needle in the ocean, it remains a massive and arduous undertaking.

Lucky mages might find the creature within half a day;

but unlucky ones might search the endless waters for one or two weeks—or even most of a month—without success.

And even if they finally locate the creature, successfully killing it remains a major challenge.

Aquatic creatures possess astonishing speed and agility in water.

Even with water-porpoise companions aiding pursuit, no Hai Shao mage dares guarantee success on the first attempt.

After all, in complex and ever-changing aquatic environments, any unexpected situation may arise.

Yet despite the difficulties, aquatic creature extermination missions remain the most fundamental, stable, and enduring source of military merit for Hai Shao mages.

In fact, the bulk of every Hai Shao mage’s military merit comes from such missions.

The Hai Shao’s published missions are overwhelmingly of this type.

And the missions Gao De selected this time were all aquatic creature extermination tasks from various regions.

Though he wished to claim them all, he could not—he had to choose just one.

“I’ll pick the one with the highest military merit reward. I have Shenmei Technique to lure them—I find aquatic creatures far easier than other mages. I’m not afraid of hard missions, only of insufficient rewards.”

“And I’ll choose a town I’ve never been to—preferably as far from Duoen as possible—to collect more new tree species.”

After establishing his criteria, Gao De quickly selected a suitable mission.

"【Asmir Lake Serpent Monster】 mission. Sorry for the trouble." He handed his identification badge to the staff member.

The staff member glanced at the mission requirements and said, “Master Gao De, we must warn you: the eyewitnesses provided extremely limited information. We cannot yet determine whether this serpent monster is a first-rank Thin-Winged Water Snake or a second-rank Black-Winged Scale Snake.”

“After all, externally, these two aquatic creatures are nearly identical.”

“Since the serpent monster’s exact identity is uncertain, this mission is open to both first- and second-rank mages.”

“If a first-rank mage accepts the mission, arrives on-site, and discovers the serpent monster is a second-rank Black-Winged Scale Snake, they may return and surrender the mission—it will not count as a failure.”

“But you will have wasted your trip with no reward. For safety, we strongly recommend second-rank mages take this mission.”

“Are you certain you still wish to accept it?”

These critical details were all stated in the mission description—but precisely these uncertainties made Gao De even more eager: if the serpent monster was merely a first-rank Thin-Winged Water Snake, the reward would be two third-class merits.

But if it was a second-rank Black-Winged Scale Snake, and he, as a first-rank mage, succeeded in killing it, he would earn a second-class merit.

Missions rewarding second-class merits were rare—especially for a first-rank mage like him.

To encounter such a mission was a rare opportunity—he could not afford to pass it up.

Gao De had already decided. He nodded firmly. “I’m certain.”

“Very well.” Seeing Gao De’s resolve, the staff member quickly registered the mission and returned his badge. “Master Gao De, may your mission go smoothly.”

Bibo Court.

Gao De was always open to others’ advice.

Before setting out for the 【Asmir Lake Serpent Monster】 mission, he came here to seek guidance.

After hearing Gao De’s purpose, Bibo Court—dedicated to training beast companions for Hai Shao soldiers—showed him great enthusiasm and goodwill, revealing all their taming methods without reservation.

They immediately assigned a caretaker to give Gao De a detailed explanation of general terrestrial creature taming techniques.

“If it’s still an egg, taming is much simpler.”

“Bibo Court possesses a specialized magic imprint technique that allows a mage to infuse their own magic into the egg in an extremely subtle and stable manner before hatching.”

“This is not a control method—it allows the terrestrial creature to become familiar with and attached to this magic while still inside the shell.”

“After hatching, it will recognize and follow you because your magic shares the same signature.”

“Once this step is complete, the rest becomes much easier.”

“After hatching, with this groundwork, you simply need to wipe its body with soft cloth carrying your scent, helping it grow accustomed to you.”

“At the same time, mix a small amount of your blood into its food—your blood’s magic and aura will further strengthen its bond with you.”

“Continue this for one to two months, and it will develop dependence on you. Afterward, treat it as a normal beast companion—it will rarely rebel once mature.” The caretaker explained each step in meticulous detail.

“But all this assumes the creature is tameable. Some terrestrial creatures are inherently vicious—no method can tame them.”

With that, the caretaker warmly led Gao De to Bibo Court’s administrative building and gave him a copy of the magic imprint technique.

Back in his dormitory, Gao De immediately sat at his desk and unfolded the magic imprint technique, studying it.

It was not complex.

As instructed, Gao De entered deep meditation, calming and purifying his magic, then concentrated his magic into his fingertip.

At that moment, his fingertip glowed faintly, becoming a focal point of magic.

Next, Gao De used his fingertip as a pen and gently touched the eggshell.

The eggshell trembled slightly, as if responding to him.

Following the magic imprint technique, he moved his fingertip along an unusual path, slowly channeling minute amounts of magic into the egg.

With each thread of magic sent, Gao De sensed a subtle reaction within the egg—as if hearing its faint heartbeat.

This process lasted about half an hour before ending.

Having completed this, Gao De tidied his belongings, slung his water-porpoise bag over his shoulder, and carried the Yili egg toward the airship base outside Duoen City.

He was off to fulfill his mission.

He brought the Yili egg because, according to Bibo Court’s caretaker, magic infusion must be performed daily for at least a month to produce noticeable effects.

In the Jin Quehua Dynasty, Gao De could find no suitable place to raise the Yili egg.

For him, the most practical solution was to take the egg back to the Northern Frontier.

In the Northern Frontier, the environment was naturally suited to the Yili egg.

And since Gao De would spend most of his time in the Jin Quehua Dynasty, he rarely stayed in the Northern Frontier for more than a month.

Thus, before leaving, he needed to complete the magic imprint step to safely entrust the Yili egg to the Northern Frontier.

Of course, Gao De was still unsure whether the Yili egg could pass through the Star Realm portal.

According to scientific definition, it should be considered a living thing.

But it hasn’t hatched yet—it’s still just an egg, so calling it an object isn’t wrong either.

How the Star Gate will classify it, Gao De cannot be certain; he’ll only know after trying.

Still, he was easygoing and didn’t dwell on it—if it truly didn’t work, he’d find another way.

Splash~

Night was ink-black, the water murmured softly.

Gao De stood at the bow, rowing the oar.

It was deep night; the water surface was utterly dark, like a vast black silk spread flat, broken only by occasional faint splashes that sent shivers through the soul.

Gao De stood at the bow, yet not a single lantern was lit.

His left eye glowed faintly.

The Mandora Eye had activated, and combined with his adaptive enhanced night vision, his actual range of sight was far wider than if he’d lit a lamp.

Of course, lighting a lamp would be better—but both the Thin-Winged Water Serpent and the Black-Winged Scale Serpent were extremely sensitive to light, easily startled.

As for why he searched for water beasts at night, it wasn’t because Gao De was overworked into “all-night overtime”—it was because both these water beasts were nocturnal geopulse creatures.

Even with Gem Sweet Berries as bait during daylight, they might not lure out the serpent heads from their hibernation.

—Just like humans, even with delicious food nearby, they might not wake up to eat while asleep.

Asmir Lake, one of the three largest freshwater lakes in Bairo County, belonged to Broster City.

The entire lake’s water surface was extraordinarily vast, stretching beyond sight.

Under the moonlight, occasional glimmers on the lake’s surface shimmered with a mysterious aura in the darkness.

Gao De’s search radiated outward in circles from the point where witnesses had first spotted the water beast.

Fortunately, there wasn’t just one witness, nor just one sighting of the serpent beast.

But unfortunately, all sightings occurred at night, with poor visibility.

Moreover, ordinary people encountering the water beast found the icy lake water suddenly scalding, desperate to sprout wings and flee—no one had time to examine the beast closely.

Thus, the witnesses’ descriptions of the serpent’s appearance were vague, and the panicked memories were further distorted—this combination of factors left the Sea Sentinels unable to determine the beast’s true identity.

There was even one unfortunate victim who likely died from the serpent’s attack.

By connecting the sighting points with the attack sites, he could deduce a rough range and direction of the beast’s movement.

Beneath the boat, Tuanzi had entered serious work mode, deploying patrol mode, alertly swimming and observing the surroundings.

Gao De rowed the oar, and every so often, he dropped several Gem Sweet Berries, then waited half an hour beside them.

If nothing happened after half an hour, he retrieved the berries and moved to the next point, repeating the process.

(End of Chapter)