No one was left on the ice-sealed rock wall after the Ice Queen broke the sculptures.

Ling Yi turned around and looked at his surroundings. He realized that the monsters had not re-spawned yet.

“…”

As if he had sensed something, he slowly walked towards the big rock he had sat on and carefully analyzed it. ‘I’m so much stronger than the newcomers in my batch.‘

While the others were still proud of themselves for reaching level 5 or 6, Ling Yi was almost at level 20.

The combination of [Starfall] and his [Probability Reversal] talent, with the addition of [Ice Emperor Summoned], were the main reasons why he could level up so quickly.

If anyone else had the same abilities that he has, they would be the same.

So, Ling Yi didn’t feel proud of his fast leveling speed. Instead, he kept a trace of modesty in his heart.

He sat cross-legged on the two to three-meter-tall rock, thinking about how to expand his advantage further.

His goal was to defeat the Beast King of District 87.

But before that, he still needed to test his strength on the Beast King in his region.

This is why he had to first clear the monsters and bosses in the fourth and fifth stages before coming to this region’s Beast King.

Whether it was the beginners map or any other map, there were only five stages on each map’s main road.

After killing the five bosses, the Beast King would appear.

So, the next step of his plan was to defeat the Bosses of the two remaining stages.

And what other way would he do other than to fight his way?

Who knows how long it would take if he waited to join the rest of the players in his district to fight?

He still had to level up as soon as possible before the God’s Path Tablet updated itself in six months!

After planning his “short-term goal”, Ling Yi tried to think of a plan on how he would be able to take advantage of his skills.

“Hmmm…”

‘I don’t seem to need to do anything.‘

He crossed his arms and lowered his head, staring at his own shadow, ‘I just need to keep my feet on the ground and level up step by step. Nobody would be able to catch up to me any time soon.‘

Even if the other newbies obtained high-grade treasures from their families or the forces behind them after level 10, with the high-star skills they gave, it still wouldn’t be enough to catch up to him—

Suddenly, a loud and high-pitched bird chirping came from the distant sky, breaking his train of thoughts.

Flap flap flap

The sound seemed to come from the heavens, resonating deeply in his soul.

Ling Yi’s body trembled, and he quickly looked up, only to see…

Under the blue sky, among the white clouds, there was a massive bird with bright red feathers.

The giant bird had a long, colorful tail that looked like a ribbon. The long tail swayed in the wind, giving off a bright jade light and turning the clouds around it red.

It was too far away for him to see the details, but he still saw how majestic it looked.

“What’s that!?”

Ling Yi frowned as he saw the bright red bird coming from the north. It passed through the layers of clouds and flew towards the southern sky.

“Is it a monster!?”

The huge bird flew at an unbelievable speed and disappeared into the southern sky in the blink of an eye.

From the moment it appeared to the moment it disappeared, the entire process only took a few seconds.

When Ling Yi returned to his senses, he immediately logged onto God’s Path forum and typed in “beginners map”, “red flying birds”, and other related keywords in the search bar.

It only took a few seconds before a dense collection of related posts appeared before him.

[Auspicious blessing. I have obtained a skill from the four-eyed bird!]

[One of the sprites in the beginner map, the Halcyon Bird!]

[It has been 7 years since I entered God’s Path, and this is the first time I have seen a sprite with my own eyes!]

[…]

Through these posts, Ling Yi finally understood the true identity of the red bird.

It was one of the sprites on the beginners map, the four-eyed bird!

It turned out that in addition to monsters, there were also extremely mysterious sprites on God’s Path.

They didn’t participate in the battle between players and monsters and wouldn’t take the initiative to attack them either. These sprites were just beings that lived detached from the world.

And their sightings were extremely rare.

It was so rare that many people who had entered God’s Path for five or six years might not even have seen it once.

For Ling Yi to be able to see it after just a few days of entering, it could be said that the heavens blessed him.

In the post, he also saw that someone was lucky enough to receive the Halcyon Bird’s blessing and was rewarded with a powerful 7 Star skill.

The article went like this:

[What happened that day was like this: I was killing Fire Elementals in the corner of the Burning Scorched Earth. At that time, everyone else had gone back because their time had run out. Since I didn’t enter God’s Path for a few days, I saved up a lot of time and continued to stay there. I want to play for a while longer.]

[As I was fighting, I suddenly heard a loud bird cry. I looked up and saw an extremely huge bird. Wow! I remembered thinking to myself. It was about 50 to 60 meters tall, and its tail was more than 200 meters long. A brightly colored bird of that size landed not far away (And initially, at first glance, I thought it was a super huge rooster!)]

[I’m not afraid to be laughed at (I’m anonymous anyway). I admit I was so scared that I almost peed my pants! I looked up at it, and it looked down at me, just like a rooster staring at a small bug. I was terrified that it would open its mouth and eat me alive.]

[We looked at each other for about ten seconds, and then I suddenly remembered that sprites wouldn’t hurt people. Connecting the dots, I instantly knew that it was a sprite. So I ran up to hug its leg, the real kind of hug. I still remember that I opened my arms as big as I could, but I couldn’t even hug half of it. I also remember that its legs were warm and smooth to the touch.]

[I didn’t dare to say anything. I just wanted to feel the touch of a sprite up close. But perhaps the four-eyed bird seemed to be a little disgusted with my actions. It shook its legs and threw me down. Then, it flapped its enormous wings and flew very high in an instant. In just a few seconds, it vanished.]

[In the end, I found this skill crystal on the ground. I don’t know when it appeared, but I picked it up.]

Ling Yi re-read the article back and forth.

It was hard to judge whether the four-eyed bird had given him the skill on a whim or if there was some invisible basis for judgment.

To summarize, this mystery remained unsolved for everybody around the world.

Although some people met other sprites up close, some received skills, while others didn’t.

Nobody knew the commonalities between each event or the requirements to receive such blessings.

And since their appearances were rare, nobody didn’t put too much hope in them.

It would be lucky if you managed to receive a skill, but if you don’t, then it wouldn’t be a loss either.

And with other goals and targets, each player wanted to reach, meeting a sprite wasn’t something people would like to prioritize or even talk about.

“Haaa…” after closing the forum, Ling Yi let out a sigh of relief.

‘Sprites… Mysterious creatures that only a few could see or encounter. It might take a few years until someone can see it next.‘

He shook his head and retracted his thoughts.

Ling Yi’s attention shifted to the new monsters that were gradually spawning in the Rocky Highlands. Then he called out to the Ice Queen, “Let’s finish this.”

“I’ll definitely reach level 20 by the end of today’s session!”

…