The Pseudo-Terror Fiend Seed

It was hard to say exactly what triggered it, but shortly after drawing near the city hall building, the little Loach Pendant had begun to stir with unmistakable excitement — as though it had sensed something worth finding.

Mo Fan hadn't entered the city hall before for precisely this reason: he wanted to track down whatever was making the pendant so agitated. Unfortunately, before he could investigate, that nightmare of an incident had unfolded.

And there was the other matter — a team of Hunter-mages had been wiped out at city hall not long ago. His own group had stumbled in purely by chance, so why had that previous team come here in the first place?

Had they also discovered something of value?

Driven off by a few cutting remarks? Not a chance.

Mo Fan's real reason for leaving the team was simple: he wanted to find out exactly what this place was hiding.

Ruins everywhere, tangled vines in every direction — whatever those Hunter-mages had been searching for left no obvious trace.

That was when the remarkable little Loach Pendant came to the rescue once again. As it trembled, it shed a peculiar radiance. The dimmer the glow, the farther he was from the target; the brighter it shone, the closer he was getting.

In the gloomy, dust-choked ruin of the main hall, Mo Fan moved alone through the wreckage. With his Shadow Element abilities, he had no need to worry about the ceiling caving in above him.

He pressed deeper until he reached the left hall, where a long corridor lay nearly choked with rubble and crisscrossed with dead vines. Without Shadow Fade, pushing through it would have been impossible.

**CRASH!**

Without warning, a column — already crumbled beyond all recognition — toppled and fell directly toward him.

Mo Fan swore and tucked into a nimble forward roll, dodging the disaster just in time.

He'd escaped the pillar, but a choking cloud of dust billowed into his face, and he spent a long, uncomfortable moment coughing through it.

The Loach Pendant's radiance was growing brighter with every step. The treasure was close.

Mo Fan walked a few paces forward — the glow dimmed slightly. He backed up — it brightened, then faded again.

*Right here, then. But above?* He bowed his head. No — whatever it was, it was buried beneath him.

"Swift Star Wolf!"

He traced a moonlit Star Trail and summoned his Summoned Beast to his side.

The Swift Star Wolf stepped through from another plane with its head held high, let out a long, piercing howl, and swept its Battle-General-class aura outward in all directions — every bit the wild wolf king.

Yet just as this magnificent beast struck its most imposing pose, fully prepared to dominate this plane, its utterly shameless master gave it its orders: *start digging*.

The Swift Star Wolf was mortified. A proud combat wolf of its caliber, reduced to scrabbling in the dirt — how was this any different from some dim-witted dog burying its bones? The indignity was staggering.

Its claws were razor-sharp, though, and it made mercilessly short work of the task. Granite flooring crumbled in just a few swipes. Within minutes, a wide pit had opened at Mo Fan's feet.

"Keep going!"

Mo Fan dropped into the pit and found the Loach Pendant glowing even brighter as he descended.

Before long, the Pseudo-Terror Fiend's roots appeared beneath the soil — a dense, tangled mat buried in the earth, their full extent impossible to judge.

Fortunately they were dead roots, no match for the Swift Star Wolf's claws, and they were torn away in short order.

"Strange — these roots look like they're wrapped around something." Mo Fan spotted the anomaly quickly.

The Swift Star Wolf seemed to catch it too. Its digging quickened, dirt spraying up in steady bursts.

At last, every root was ripped away. Beneath them lay a hollow cavity, and within that hollow something floated in perfect stillness, glowing with a pale green light — its nature entirely unknown.

The Swift Star Wolf, never one for patience, swiped a claw and scooped the small pale-green particle right up, then deposited it before Mo Fan with an expression that practically demanded praise.

Mo Fan took it and turned it over, baffled, staring at the pea-sized object and its quiet, steady glow.

"What in the world — a glowing pale-green pea? No, no, that can't be right. What kind of pea hides inside a nest of roots..."

He muttered to himself as he turned it over in his fingers — and then it hit him. His expression shifted from puzzlement to a spreading grin. "A seed!"

"It has to be a seed!"

"Now, what sort of seed — pfft, forget that — this is a Pseudo-Terror Fiend seed!"

"Good grief — a fully grown Pseudo-Terror Fiend is terrifyingly powerful. This seed should be equivalent to a juvenile Demon-Beast, something a Summoning Element Mage can raise directly!"

Mo Fan's excitement surged.

He had witnessed firsthand what a Pseudo-Terror Fiend could do — within the Battle Commander tier, few enemies could match it. A seed capable of growing into one had to be worth a staggering sum.

"Take this back and I'll get a fantastic price for it." Mo Fan carefully tucked the Pseudo-Terror Fiend Seed away.

He was a Summoning Element Mage himself, after all, and his Intermediate-tier Contract Summoning had yet to find a suitable Demon-Beast to bond with. Once the Pseudo-Terror Fiend Seed sprouted and developed enough Demon-Beast consciousness, it should be contractable — in theory, it could become his own Contract Beast.

The trouble was, the Pseudo-Terror Fiend's nature was too peculiar. Mo Fan had no real interest in a creature that anchored itself to the ground.

Selling it was the clean choice. Whatever the auction houses had in the way of quality juvenile Demon-Beasts, he'd simply buy one outright — far more practical.

With a prize in hand, Mo Fan's mood lifted considerably.

After pouring money into advancement materials for the Swift Star Wolf, he was completely broke. The Shadow Element Spirit Seed still eluded him — it cost even more than the Lightning Element one, and the funds simply hadn't materialized. Now, though, he had a seed...

Beyond the Spirit Seed, Contract Beasts were another expense that could drain fortunes whole.

Juvenile Demon-Beasts were plentiful on the market. Servant-class ones ran between one and two million, while Battle-General-class juveniles were staggeringly priced — starting at twenty million regardless of bloodline quality — and they vanished practically the moment they went on sale.

The Pseudo-Terror Fiend likely ranked among the stronger bloodlines within the Battle Commander tier, though being a plant-type Demon-Beast, Mo Fan had no idea how appealing it would be to other summoners. He himself wasn't drawn to it.

"Time to head to the next survey point. Better keep up appearances — can't have the others getting suspicious."

Satisfied, Mo Fan stowed the item — worth tens of millions at a conservative estimate — and leaped onto the Swift Star Wolf's back, heading straight for the next survey point.

The Swift Star Wolf ran at a fearsome pace. The overgrown streets were littered with long-abandoned vehicles, their bodies green with oxidation, and it bounded across their rusted rooftops at full sprint. Crumbling buildings blurred past on both sides, the howling wind sharp enough to sting Mo Fan's ears.

At this speed, the survey point was only minutes away.

Conducting a survey, of course, didn't mean crouching in place and counting Demon-Beasts one by one. All it required was planting a device that emitted a specific acoustic frequency at the designated location, standing guard for roughly three hours, and letting the return signals automatically map the distribution of nearby Demon-Beasts.

Worth noting: the acoustic frequency the device emitted was not perfectly stable. Certain breeds of Demon-Beast could detect it — which meant there was no guarantee the device would still be standing undisturbed when the three hours were up.