The little rascal's illusion experiment was successful, but it also failed.

It took a total of two to three minutes to continuously sprinkle hypnotic spiritual force on the Armored Crab before casting Dream Building on it in exchange for more than ten seconds of unstable illusionary spells.

The little rascal said that it had used a few tricks from the Illusion Stone to continuously deepen its hints. However, in the end, the Armored Crab still broke free from the illusion.

It was just that despite Armored Crab's big and fierce exterior, its mind was actually very weak and timid. Even after breaking free from the illusion, it was still stuck in fear.

The Armored Crab wasn't injured much. Instead, it fainted from fear.

The lack of destructive power was one of the reasons for failure.

The other reason was the time needed for the construction of the illusion.

If it was a Killer Mantis or other sprites, the Reverie Butterfly would need to spend most of its energy on dodging, and it wouldn't be able to divert its attention to construct an illusion.

"Real combat indeed exposed many problems."

Su Hao also thought of some simple countermeasures.

For example…

Reducing the complexity of the illusion could only be used as the simplest visual interference.

"You can try an extremely bright or dark environment… suddenly falling into such an environment can make a sprite lose its mind for a short period of time… However, strong sprites have sharp senses, they don't just rely on their eyes to fight."

"The enhanced version can develop illusions that can disrupt the opponent's five senses, such as sudden cessation, reversal of gravity, direction confusion, and so on."

"When the illusion is complete, I'll try the hundred-percent real illusion. I'll take it one step at a time."

The little rascal seemed to be lost in thought.

Su Hao told it to specialize in one or two illusion templates first.

For example, during the development process of a game, the modeling of an important scene should be done first. It could then be used repeatedly. A slight modification would result in several different scenes.

There was no way it could reserve the unique skill Dream Building first.

However, after it had familiarized itself with a certain illusion, it wouldn't need to spend too much effort constructing the illusion in the future. It just needed to make adjustments according to the target.

That way, while maintaining the illusion, it could multitask and use other unique skills.

"Gurgle, gurgle ~" The little rascal nodded after understanding the situation.

As expected of Su Hao, he had his own… 30%, no, 20% intelligence now.

"Speaking of which…"

Su Hao was still a little curious. "What illusion did you cast on the Armored Crab just now?"

"Gurgle, gurgle~"

As Reverie Butterfly recalled, its expression resembled a gourmet commenting on a feast.

Little Fire Crow, which was listening by the side, was already hungry.

Su Hao fell silent.

So…

It was steamed king crabs, stir-fried shuttle crabs, spicy little crabs, steamed crabs with sea pepper, crab hotpot, steamed crabs in iron pot, stir-fried crabs with onions and ginger…

And an enormous Armored Crab!

He was indeed hungry.

"I'll bring you guys for a crab feast tonight."

"Gurgle ~! (my plan worked!)"

...

One month later…

It was still the official battle area in Magic City's White Elephant Battle Club.

"Gurgle!"

Reverie Butterfly's eyes widened.

On the opposite side, the evolved form of a Golden-Armored Sprite, Golden-Armored Strongman, made eye contact with Reverie Butterfly. It merely felt a wave of black mist envelop it, before it instantly felt sleepy as its vision fell into complete darkness.

The soles of its feet became an abyss, and it fell continuously.

It panicked and struggled in the illusion.

But the next moment…

In reality, a constantly accumulating ball of energy was smacked right on its face. The Golden-Armored Strongman which barely managed to break free from the illusion was dizzy from the impact. Before it could react, it was drowned in the continuously enlarging ball of energy.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

"Golden-Armored Strongman lost its battle ability, Reverie Butterfly won."

Little Fire Crow, which was a lot bigger, was about to offer a cup of milk tea to Big Sister.

Taking advantage of the fact that the little rascal couldn't leave the stage, Su Hao took the milk tea and slurped it. Then, he indicated for the dazed Little Fire Crow to fetch another cup.

"Now that Reverie Butterfly has learned the Eye of Nightmare, its battle ability has improved greatly as well."

"Little Fire Crow has also broken through to entry level, and most of its holiday training has been completed. There's only one last thing left — arrange an evolution for Little Fire Crow, before we return to school."

He didn't stay in Magic City all the time for the past month. Instead, he traveled to several cities.

For example, there was an experienced master-level trainer in White Cloud City who owned two illusion-type sprites. That master opened a training class to the public for mental strength training. Su Hao brought Reverie Butterfly for the class, but unfortunately, the one teaching the class was a student under the master-level trainer.

Su Hao even participated in a competition that wasn't that big of a scale, and won first place with Little Fire Crow, which had just entered entry-level.

Now, he had returned to Magic City again.

This was because they could find the most suitable venue for Little Fire Crow's evolution near Magic City.

An active volcano… located in the New World had just erupted recently.

It was not located at the entrance to Storm City, but the entrance of another place called Red Rock Town.

The entrance was located in the mountains, dozens of kilometers away.

Based on Earth's measurements, the distance between the two entrances wasn't far apart.

But in the New World…

One was a cold storm environment while the other was a scorching hot volcanic environment, both separated by thousands of miles…

"If it weren't for the few connecting strongholds in the New World, I'm afraid it would be hard to believe that they belong in the same world… and not in countless worlds."

Su Hao bought a ticket, submitted an application, and stepped into New World for the third time.

The sun was high up in the sky here, and heat waves rolled about. He hurriedly took off his jacket.

"Are you sure you want to head to the volcanic area? In view that you aren't an elite-level Sprite Trainer yet, you need an elite-level accompaniment when you leave the city. You can also hire Sprite Trainers guaranteed by the Union of Sprite Trainers and our Magic City Association…"

A staff member who was just an ordinary person explained.

They had all undergone special training. Similar non-academic Sprite Trainers were also common in New World towns.

Real Sprite Trainers were all assigned to highly-needed positions.

Su Hao looked over.

There weren't many elites whom he could hire, only a dozen or so.

He still remembered how he was targeted by Sprite Hunters, so he hired a relatively stronger Sprite Trainer.

— Huang Tianhu had two elite-level sprites. His trump card was a Wind-Element Winged Tiger.

The Winged Tiger was not the final evolved form, but its body was already no weaker than the second evolution of many pathways. Its final form, Red Flame Qiong Qi, possessed both wind and fire attributes. It was a sprite with an extremely high evolution threshold and was also very strong.

Su Hao remembered that a Heavenly King had a Red Flame Qiongqi trump card too.

"It's him."

Huang Tianhu's hiring price was on par with his ability.

However, Little Fire Crow's evolution would only last a maximum of half a day so he hired him for just a day, which also was the lowest requirement. His hiring price wasn't much higher than Zhu Mingda's. Of course, the expenses he had spent in the Valley of Sighs a month ago were all waived.

After waiting for about half an hour, Huang Tianhu, the Sprite Trainer, came.

Behind him was an awe-inspiring Winged Tiger—the White-striped Tiger King with wings on its back.

Along with another elite-level sprite, a Gargoyle.

They were all sprites that could fly.

Su Hao chose him for this another reason too.

When Huang Tianhu saw his client, he said, "The Volcanic Belt is quite a distance away. If there are no problems, let's set off now."