Chapter 97: Geng Metal Essence Obtained, the Sword Butterfly's Eggs!

As soon as He Guangda finished speaking, golden light spots condensed from mid-air, gradually forming the outline of a sword butterfly.

"After my sword butterfly self-destructs, it can condense again."

"Don't you just want me to fight the Burrowing Rat Emperor, so you can play the fisherman profiting from the snipe and clam's struggle?"

"When you gaze into the Abyss, the Abyss also gazes into you."

"The same logic applies; when you are plotting against me, I am also plotting against you."

He Guangda sneered, but he did not notice that Dahui had appeared behind him at some unknown moment.

A sharp claw pierced through He Guangda's back, blood spilled from the corners of his mouth, his eyes gradually dimmed, and his body twitched.

He reached out a hand, looked blankly in the direction where the sword butterfly had condensed, and used his last bit of strength to shout: "Sword, sword butterfly, hurry and escape!"

More blood spilled from the corners of He Guangda's mouth, and finally, his hand dropped.

At this moment, the sword butterfly condensed once more, looking at Dahui with eyes like blades.

The sword butterfly had already sensed that its Pet Beast Master was dead, and it wished it could tear Dahui to pieces at this very moment.

It charged over like a madman, and just as a crescent-shaped sword Qi was condensing and about to be fired—

Dahui slapped it away with another heavy smack.

Only a crisp "slap" sound was heard, and the sword butterfly was sent flying, crashing heavily into the rock wall; its wings were twisted to varying degrees, and it looked like it had more air going out than coming in.

"Dahui, catch it."

Dahui pressed the sword butterfly down with both claws.

This was also Ye Bai's cautious approach; he was terrified that the sword butterfly would silently unleash a powerful ultimate move, forcing him to be buried with its Pet Beast Master.

Ye Bai took out a Beast Card and placed it not far from the sword butterfly.

Countless chains rushed out from the Beast Card, bit by bit dragging the sword butterfly into the card.

Only then did Ye Bai pick up the Beast Card, on which appeared the broken-winged butterfly sealed by chains.

The Fire-Poison Giant Scorpion's body was also blown into countless fragments following the self-destruction of the sword butterfly's clone.

A Tier 4 crystal core fell to the ground, stained with a large amount of dust.

However, Ye Bai, possessing the Insight Eye, picked it up from the ground.

Its crystal core was purplish-red, containing both poison-type and fire-type energy.

A dual-attribute crystal core is far more precious than a single-attribute one.

Just at this moment, Ye Bai discovered that many items had appeared beside He Guangda's body, including various household utensils and several large metal statues.

It was like dropping loot; there were even unwashed boxer shorts and smelly socks inside.

With the Insight Eye activated, he discovered that only from the bellies of the metal statues did gray mist emanate.

"Could it be?"

Ye Bai remembered the metal statues he was about to go to the He Family courtyard to find; could it be that one?

Could He Guangda be so poor that he even stole the metal statues?

No wonder the intelligence report said that He Guangda discovered the Geng Metal Essence in the belly of a statue; this must have been discovered by his sword butterfly.

Ye Bai pointed at one of the statues for the Sunflower King.

The Sunflower King nodded; it used its steel-like roots to pierce through the statue, forcibly splitting it in two.

From the statue, it found a palm-sized golden metal and an ancient sheepskin scroll.

The sheepskin scroll seemed to have been cut by someone, with only one-third remaining.

The golden metal was the Geng Metal Essence, a Tier 5 treasure, which had a huge attraction to metal-type Pet Beasts.

The flesh and blood of the Burrowing Rat Emperor and the Fire-Poison Giant Scorpion were both wrapped by the Sunflower King's roots; currently, only this level of Pet Beast was worth the Sunflower King taking action, as their flesh and blood contained extremely vast energy.

After absorbing everything, the Sunflower King's body became incomparably bloated, like a giant muscular Barbie.

The Burrowing Rat Emperor's crystal core was the size of a pigeon egg, emitting an earthy-yellow luster.

"Thanks to the acting head of the He Family for coming all this way to deliver the treasure."

"And for helping me deliver the Geng Metal Essence."

"Now all that's missing is the Destiny Turtle's shell."

That sword butterfly was also nearly dead; after it died, Ye Bai would have one more Tier 4 metal-type crystal core in his hands.

"Let's go, Sunflower King."

Looking at the remaining timid Burrowing Rat Kings and Tier 3 burrowing rats, Ye Bai had no interest in taking action.

He left these burrowing rats behind, not out of kindness, but by treating them as leeks.

Ye Bai would patrol regularly; once a Tier 4 Burrowing Rat Emperor appeared, Dahui would use its strong and powerful arms to directly wipe it out.

A Tier 4 crystal core is equivalent to one hundred Tier 3 crystal cores, and they are often priceless and hard to find.

After the burrowing rats saw Ye Bai disappear, their gazes fell upon He Guangda's corpse and the items he had dropped.

They swarmed over, and soon the sound of crunching bones was heard.

After Ye Bai came out of the Burrowing Rat Secret Realm, he used hacker methods to erase He Guangda's clumsy concealment measures.

Fortunately, the time He Guangda chose to act was at night, and almost no one passed by during this time.

In this way, others would think that He Guangda had left Jiaying City to avoid debts, and his death would have nothing to do with Ye Bai.

When Ye Bai arrived at the Research Institute, Zhang Lingxue replied lazily: "You're back, did you catch the burrowing rat?"

She crushed the roots of the Thunder Clover; the purple Thunder Clover flowed with cyan juice, and Zhang Lingxue extracted the juice for testing.

Zhang Lingxue frowned and explained to Ye Bai: "The Thunder Clover does have a problem; there is a special component that makes the Negative-Electric Rabbit increasingly irritable."

"However, this component is very difficult to separate, and I still haven't fully extracted it yet."

Zhang Lingxue felt a sharp pain in her brain; she had a splitting headache right now.

"Teacher, have you ever thought about..."

"Since there is a Negative Electric Rabbit, could there be a Positive Electric Rabbit?"

"Could there be some connection between them?"

Ye Bai asked tentatively.

Zhang Lingxue put down the test tube in her hand.

"We have certainly considered this point; the Western Research Institute once conducted a massive search for it."

"This incident caused quite a stir, and almost all the researchers knew about it."

"In the end, after a bitter search, they reached a conclusion: the Positive Electric Rabbit no longer exists in the world."

"Actually, I can understand the people at the Western Research Institute; they really invested a massive amount of manpower and resources into this project."

"They must have exhausted every possible avenue, struggling for five years before finally deciding to give up."

"If the two of us, teacher and student, manage to research it, we might go down in history."

"But if we fail to research it, we will only reap a pile of infamy."

Zhang Lingxue said with some helplessness; the Negative Electric Rabbit research project was a bottomless pit.

"By the way, handle that person He Guangda cleanly; dispose of his personal belongings and such directly."

"You don't need to explain; it must have been He Guangda who came to cause you trouble."

"My spiritual power is attached to the Space Key, so I can sense who you brought inside."

"That Chinchilla of yours is very strong, so a weakling like He Guangda naturally wouldn't be your match."

Zhang Lingxue added at the end.

Ye Bai shrugged his shoulders and took out a Beast Card.

"This is that Sword Butterfly of He Guangda's."

"Teacher, see if it's of any use; if not, I'll finish it off and dig out the Tier 4 crystal core."

Zhang Lingxue raised her eyebrows: "A Sword Butterfly, such a rare Exotic Beast; He Guangda hid it deep."

"Hurry and check the Sword Butterfly's belly to see if there are any insect eggs."

"If there are insect eggs, then we've hit the jackpot."

A flash of sharp light crossed Zhang Lingxue's eyes.

"A Sword Butterfly only mates once in its life, and it only lays one insect egg at a time."

"The value of its insect egg is even higher than the Sword Butterfly itself."

"It can be used to cultivate a Sword Butterfly loyal to oneself, or it can be used for Awakening Spirit."

Zhang Lingxue casually opened the Beast Card, and the dying Sword Butterfly emerged from it.

Its wings were already broken, and it no longer had the strength to repair them.

The Sword Butterfly felt all its vitality rapidly fading away, and just as it wanted to struggle, its head was pierced through by Zhang Lingxue with a Surgical Knife.

Zhang Lingxue dug out a thumb-sized crystal core from the Sword Butterfly's head; she looked at it for a few moments on her jade-white hand before tossing it to Ye Bai.

"Take this crystal core to cultivate your Metal-type Pet Beast."

"Of course, the Sword Butterfly's body cannot be wasted either."

"It has swallowed a lot of metal; as long as you refine it slightly with fire, it will be metal of extremely high purity."

Zhang Lingxue used the Surgical Knife to cut open the Sword Butterfly's abdomen, and sure enough, there was a silver-white insect egg the size of a chicken egg inside.

She carefully cut the blood vessels connected to the insect egg and held it in her palm.

"Not bad, the state of this insect egg is very good."

"It is just right for Awakening Spirit."

"Ye Bai, it's normal that you don't know about Awakening Spirit; this kind of knowledge is impossible to find in books."

"Awakening Spirit can summon the sleeping Soul of ancient objects; the more ancient the Soul, the easier it is to succeed in Awakening Spirit."

Zhang Lingxue handed the insect egg to Ye Bai, while simultaneously pulling a yellowed ancient book from her Pet Beast Space.

"It might be a bit strenuous for me to explain it to you, so you'd better read it yourself."

Zhang Lingxue stretched her limbs.

"I am currently leading the Negative Electric Rabbit experiment, but I have no clue at all; how about we switch, Ye Bai?"

"I'll do the Burrowing Mouse research, and you research the Negative Electric Rabbit."

"If you don't understand something, just come and ask me."

"This is an opportunity for you to grow rapidly."

Zhang Lingxue looked at Ye Bai with an incredibly sincere gaze: "You wouldn't refuse your teacher, would you? This is the first request your teacher has made of you."

"Anyway, if we don't research it, it's on me; if we do research it, it's on both of us."

Ye Bai blinked his eyes and finally nodded in agreement.

He had already seen the evolution route of the Negative Electric Rabbit through his Insight Eye.

As for the Burrowing Mouse, he was indeed not very interested.

Begging for votes. I reflected on yesterday's chapter; I really shouldn't have given too much screen time to irrelevant characters. It was me padding the word count. I express my deep guilt to everyone. I reflected for a day, but even if I wanted to change it, I didn't know what to change.

(End of this chapter)