"I’m afraid the four gates here lead to different places." Li Xiu told A-Fei to stay inside and guard the winch as he stepped out, looking around and said.
All he could see was desert. Unfortunately, wearing the Dark Mirror made him unable to look too far.
He took off the glasses and looked again; all he saw was yellow sand and nothing else.
"This makes it difficult. It seems there are no demon spirits nearby, and we don’t have any positioning tools. If we just walk out, getting lost in the desert would be disastrous." Chu Jun pondered and said, "Four gates: the seaside is too dangerous, there are no demon spirits visible here, one gate has a female ghost outside, another has thousands of demon spirits outside. They’re not planning to give us a way to survive."
Li Xiu wandered around near the gate, not daring to stray too far and didn’t find any traces of demon spirits.
Chu Jun followed Li Xiu closely, continuously using the Inspiration Skill to sense, similarly finding no sign of demon spirits.
Li Xiu initially wondered if the demon spirits could be hiding under the sand. But it seemed that wasn’t the case; there genuinely were no demon spirits nearby.
"Let’s go to the gate with more demon spirits. You mark out their positions and levels." Li Xiu returned inside, lowered the gate, and said to Chu Jun beside him.
"Okay." Chu Jun knew their best choice now was to go out and hunt the demon spirits, or else they’d have to head back.
By the gate, Chu Jun sensed as he drew on the ground, mapping out the distribution of demon spirits outside, using B, C, D, and E to represent positions.
"It’s roughly ." Chu Jun mapped out the main positions of the demon spirits.
"Not roughly, be precise; mark every demon spirit’s position, even the E-grade ones." Li Xiu said.
"Okay." Chu Jun nodded and continued drawing on the ground.
"City Lord, I’ve thought it through." Ye Yuzhen approached, looking at Li Xiu and slowly said.
"Thought what through?" Li Xiu stood up and asked Ye Yuzhen.
"I will continue on the Trial Taker’s path. My Symbiotic Contract isn’t good enough, without demon spirits, but these are issues I can rectify. If the Symbiotic Contract doesn’t work, I’ll seek out a Parasitic Contract. Though it’s hard to nurture, I will find a suitable Parasitic Contract. No matter how difficult, I will find every way to make it grow." Ye Yuzhen looked at Li Xiu and continued, "Right now I can’t help you much, so I won’t hinder you. If there’s something I can do, feel free to ask."
Then, Ye Yuzhen approached Li Xiu and whispered, "My Symbiotic Contract is called the Ring of Agreement, it’s not a combat-type weapon, it has no attack capability, but it can contract with any demon spirit and let them serve me."
Li Xiu looked at Ye Yuzhen, thinking, "Does he misunderstand the quality of Contracts? If such a contract isn’t considered good, then what contract could be considered good?"
"The Ring of Agreement has a limitation; only contracts personally defeated by me can be made. What kind of demon spirit can I defeat now?" Ye Yuzhen explained, seeing Li Xiu’s thoughts.
"Can you use external items?" Li Xiu asked quietly.
"Contract and demon spirits both must be mine." Ye Yuzhen said.
"What about Demon Armor?" Li Xiu asked again.
"I don’t have the Magic Armor Master talent." Ye Yuzhen said bitterly.
"If the demon spirit you defeat is already half-crippled?" Li Xiu thought and asked again.
"I thought about that too but haven’t had the chance to try it."
"Easy then, you’ll have a chance soon enough." Li Xiu pointed at the diagram Chu Jun drew on the ground and said, "Remember those demon spirit positions clearly; it might come in handy soon."
"Okay." Ye Yuzhen went over and began memorizing the positions marked on the ground.
Chu Jun labeled all the demon spirits’ levels and positions he could sense. After completing, he plopped down onto the ground, "This is more exhausting than fighting a demon spirit."
"Soon, you’ll get to fight a demon spirit." Li Xiu said laughing.
"Really? Do you truly want me to charge out too? Are you sure I won’t die? My combat ability is weak without your protective demon spirits..." Chu Jun widened his eyes at Li Xiu.
"You don’t need to charge out; you need to help guard the gate. With so many demon spirits, I might miss some. If any charge through, you need to help hold the gate and not let them in." Li Xiu said.
"I’ll do my best. We don’t even know what grade the outside demon spirits are; if a Radiant Demon Spirit charges through, I can’t hold it off." Chu Jun said.
Li Xiu smiled; Chu Jun was dependable, not reckless, and did only what he could, never taking on more than he could handle.
"Alright, just do your best." Li Xiu nodded with a smile.
"Guard the gate well, I’m going to take a look. Open the gate now." Li Xiu said.
"You asked me to draw so intricately, and you’re not even going to look closely?" Chu Jun pointed at the map.
"No need." Li Xiu approached the gate, without first summoning demon spirits.