Chapter 2201: Chapter 2202: Ancient Palace

As soon as the desert halfling Fuyi appeared, it fixed its wary and unfriendly gaze on them.

Although it didn’t immediately shout and threaten to fight, its eyes clearly showed hostility. Moreover, beneath the halfling’s feet, the region of flowing sand was expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye, and it wouldn’t be long before it engulfed the entire area they were standing on.

At this moment, Loga spoke up and revealed its name.

The desert halfling clearly hadn’t heard of Loga, but since Loga shared the same earth element nature and had a stone-like appearance, the desert halfling immediately understood that Loga came from their kin-like ally—the Wild Rock Wasteland.

Thus, the desert halfling didn’t rush to threaten them but hesitated for a moment and said to Loga, "Wait a moment, I will go verify with The Patroller."

After speaking, the desert halfling sank into the flowing sand and disappeared.

About three minutes later, the halfling’s figure resurfaced, swirling within a thin breeze, finally reappearing before them.

Compared to before, its expression had shifted from guarded to somewhat more amiable: "So it’s Junior Brother Loga."

Junior Brother? Loga’s eyes lit up as he looked at the halfling opposite: "Are you also a student of the teacher?"

The halfling opened its wide mouth, smiling and nodding: "Yes, but that was over three hundred years ago, so Junior Brother Loga probably hasn’t heard of me."

"By the way, once The Patroller knew of Junior Brother Loga’s return, it notified the teacher. I’m sure the teacher will be very happy to see you." With that, the halfling moved aside, pointing Loga to the direction forward.

Loga cast a glance at Angel beside him, hesitated for a moment, and said to the halfling floating mid-air, "I have a request..."

"Fly over to the teacher’s location?" The halfling looked at Loga in surprise, thinking, this guy doesn’t seem like he can fly.

Loga briefly explained, clarifying that it wasn’t him who could fly but rather using Angel’s tool to do so.

"I see." The halfling feigned understanding, though it didn’t really grasp the concept; it just didn’t want to appear ignorant.

"Junior Brother Loga surely knows about the flight prohibition, and I can’t make that decision. How about this—I’ll have The Patroller inform The Sage and see what the teacher says."

With these words, the halfling sank into the flowing sand once more.

A few minutes later, the halfling emerged again: "The Sage has agreed. However, according to the rules, you need to find a native flying creature of the Baya Desert."

At this, the halfling showed a hint of sympathy: "I can tell you that within a hundred miles, there are no flying earth element creatures."

Which means if Loga couldn’t find a flying companion, it would still have to walk slowly to the core area.

Loga’s eyes showed frustration, as his gaze involuntarily shifted to the halfling... This halfling not only looked like the genie from a fairy tale but also had the characteristic of hovering mid-air, so it should be able to fly, right?

The halfling seemed to read Loga’s mind and quickly waved its hands, "I can’t help you; I am what you’d call... The Keeper. I can only move around here—I can’t leave too far."

The halfling’s refusal left Loga sighing helplessly.

Seeing the small flowers on Loga droop, the halfling couldn’t help but suggest, "Why don’t you search as you walk? Once you find one, then you can fly over."

Loga turned his head, handing the decision back to Angel.

Angel pondered for a moment and asked the halfling, "Does the flying companion absolutely need to be able to fly? What if it can’t fly?"

"The rules don’t specify that the companion must be able to fly..." the halfling muttered.

Angel gently waved his hand, releasing the gondola, which floated in the air: "My flying boat can carry one earth element creature. If I find one that can’t fly and just keep it on the boat, would that count as a flying companion?"

The halfling hesitated for a moment, feeling its brain spinning, but eventually nodded: "It should be possible."

After getting confirmation from the halfling, Angel quickly turned around and, a few hundred meters away, gently picked up a small sand rat that had just been born a week ago.

"This little one must have been born during the World’s Harmony, right? Is it okay if I take it along?"

The halfling remained silent for a moment before finally nodding: "The rules don’t prohibit creatures in the sprite phase from being flying companions."

Angel smiled slightly and placed the struggling little sand rat into Loga’s hand: "Then we will take our leave now."

With these words, Angel took Loga and Dangross back to the gondola, and under the halfling’s complex gaze, they navigated the flying boat off into the distance.

On the gondola, Loga, who was comforting the frightened little sand rat, had a thoughtful expression: "I never expected it could be done this way. Ah, I always restrict my thinking. After all, it stands to reason that I should have thought of such a simple method earlier."

"Indeed, as Teacher Platinum said, I need to study more, otherwise my perspective will always be limited to the established framework."

As Loga mentioned studying, a bright light shone in his eyes.

Since Angel arrived at the Tidal World, it was the first time he witnessed such a knowledge-hungry elemental creature.

The more he understood elemental creatures, the more he found they were no different from any intelligent beings—each with their own personalities. There was Dangross, who lived by idolizing characters; the Wind Sand Brigade, with their free-wheeling nature; and Loga, who pursued learning.

Previously, whenever Angel heard of elemental creatures, even when wizards deemed them as "partners," he inevitably thought of them as emotionless tools.

Having now witnessed these vibrant elemental lives, he was beginning to let go of his past prejudices.

...

"Stop for a moment." Emerging from the rolling dunes, a desert giant waved its hand to halt the gondola in the sky.

Angel and Loga exchanged a glance, sighed helplessly, and slowly brought the gondola down.

On the journey to the Baya Desert core zone, in just an hour, this was the tenth time they were stopped.

As before, this seemingly mighty desert giant carefully, with gentle movements that didn’t match its size, handed over a tiny, palm-sized kitten to Loga.

"Thank you." The desert giant breathed a sigh of relief seeing the little kitten embraced by Loga and then extended its gratitude to them.

Angel replied in a deep voice, "It’s nothing... it’s along the way."

After bidding farewell to the desert giant, the gondola continued its flight. The route remained the same as before, but now it had many new passengers.

There was not only the little sand rat and this little sand-element kitten but also small creatures like snails, foxes, mushrooms, worms, lizards, and other desert gremlins, who chattered and played on the gondola, with sand getting tossed around occasionally.

These are all the Elemental Sprites that were stopped by the sand-based creatures along the way and then asked to be sent onto the Gondola by them.

According to an embarrassed Patroller, these are all newly born Elemental Sprites. Their best destination is to be taken to the core area where The Sage can teach them uniformly. However, unless there’s an emergency, the Keepers and Patrollers of the desert periphery cannot leave their posts, so they can’t send these Elemental Sprites away. When they heard from the halflings that Angel was carrying a little sand mouse as a "companion in flight," their eyes lit up, and they waved to the sky when they saw the Flying Boat, hoping that these little sprites could hitch a ride.

After all, these are minor matters, and it might even help to foster some relationships, so Angel couldn’t refuse, and thus this scene came to be.

The not-so-large Gondola was already crowded with the little sprites.

If he were an Earth Wizard of the elemental side, and a little more fortunate, a desert warlock specializing in sand-based spell technique, he would probably be very happy, surrounded by various desert little sprites, and might even find a suitable partner.

However, Angel is not a desert warlock, and his research on earth-based spell technique is almost nonexistent, not to mention the relatively niche sand-based branch within it.

So seeing these little sprites spitting sand everywhere, he felt no joy at all, and even his hands were itching a bit.

But after all, they are like mischievous children, and furthermore, children without intelligence; Angel could only take a deep breath and endure.

Fortunately, as night fell, these newborn little sprites began to feel tired. Including Dangross, a bunch of little sprites slowly fell into slumber, allowing Angel to breathe a sigh of relief.

However, even though the little sprites were already asleep, the matured Elemental Creatures remained active, so Angel still encountered many Elemental Creatures attempting to intercept him as his Flying Boat moved forward.

More little sprites were crammed onto the boat.

It could be said that this journey from the frontier to the core area was the longest Angel had ever experienced.

Even with the extraordinary speed of the Gondola, it still took a full eight hours to reach the core area of the Baya Desert, with almost half of that time being interference from intercepting creatures.

By this time, the number of little sprites on the boat had exceeded forty.

Angel was already having some regrets. He shouldn’t have brought the little sand mouse on board; bringing along any matured Elemental Creature would have sufficed.

But regretting was futile, the situation had already happened, so he could only accept it.

Fortunately, they had finally reached the core area and relief was close at hand.

Relief came sooner than expected. Guided by Loga, they found The Sage at the Baya Palace in the core area within just half an hour.

This was the first building with an obviously mature style that Angel had seen in the Tidal World.

It resembled a temple, with no walls, composed entirely of massive pillars.

As the sun rose higher, sunlight streamed into the Baya Palace, passing through pillar after pillar, casting numerous orderly and dense shadows, giving a ceremonial feeling between sunrise and sunset.

"Was this palace built by earth-based creatures?" Angel asked as he piloted the Gondola down towards the palace, addressing Loga on the other side.

Though Loga had been "studying abroad" here for years, it didn’t know who built the palace, stammering without a word.

Just then, a rather strong voice rang in Angel’s ears: "The original Baya Palace is a historical relic, said to have existed before the world cataclysm. However, the Baya Palace later succumbed to the erosion of time and was destroyed in the river of history. The current Baya Palace was rebuilt and restored on the original site by us latecomers."

Angel looked towards the source of the voice and saw at the palace’s gates, a humanoid creature made entirely of metallic sand particles slowly closing its mouth.

Evidently, it was the one who answered Angel earlier.

"Teacher!" Loga called out respectfully beside him.

Angel’s expression revealed a moment of realization; it seemed this was The Sage of the Baya Desert, the renowned Platinum Bitter.

Angel had heard before that Platinum Bitter, true to its name, was an Elemental Creature made of metal, enormous in size, lurking beneath the desert sand. The humanoid form present outside the palace was just like Magu, a deliberately shown facade.

Angel piloted the Gondola directly in front of the palace gates.

Platinum Bitter came forward with a smile, but it was not welcoming Angel, nor Loga, who was gazing at it with admiration, but the boatload of half-awake Elemental Sprites.

Platinum Bitter carefully awakened each little sprite, then carried them off the boat, soothing them gently like a mother.

The previously uncontrollable little sprites became quiet under Platinum Bitter’s comforting, infusing the scene with a touch of warmth in the glow of the rising sun.

Platinum Bitter clearly had genuine affection for the little sprites, spending a considerable amount of time calming each one, without time to pay mind to Angel and Loga, these two "bystanders."

Angel took this time to examine the peculiarly styled palace behind him.

He had seen the "city" within Magu’s body and the intricate networks inside the Ruby Caves; these gathering grounds seemed to imitate human civilization somewhat. However, they lacked specific reference objects and could only be built in an arbitrary fashion, resulting in structures that merely brushed against human civilization, leaning more toward the style of early human gathering places.

But this palace, judging from the neatly arranged stone pillars, the engraved patterns at the front, and the overall design, doesn’t appear to be an imitation, but rather a genuine human construction.

Angel also heard what Platinum Bitter said earlier.

Platinum Bitter didn’t need to deceive, so it stated that these palaces existed before the catastrophic events. If the palaces were indeed built by humans, it implies that Feng might not have been the first to discover the Tidal World. Before Feng, when the Tidal World had not yet merged with the Wizards’ Realm, someone had already found this place and constructed this palace.

This is understandable, as Wizards’ footsteps are widespread across the Pan-Dimensional Plane.

If a human wizard did indeed build the Baya Palace, they must have been very powerful and likely a lone wanderer. Because without considering the Elemental Creatures or intending to use the coordinates of the Tidal World as a profit breakthrough, it indicates multiple factors.

Of course, it’s also possible that they accidentally ended up here and died before they could send out any information. However, this possibility is relatively small; if someone had the leisure to build a palace, they should have had time to transmit information.

No matter which scenario, whether the palace was built by humans or by a more ancient intelligent civilization of the Tidal World, Angel found this palace compelling.

Perhaps, within it, he could discover some remnants predating Feng’s arrival.

After more than ten minutes, Platinum Bitter finally placated all the Elemental Sprites, sowing seeds of wisdom within them, and sent them off into the vastness, allowing them to thrive in the core area.

Watching numerous Elemental Sprites vanish from sight, Platinum Bitter withdrew the benevolent smile from its face and turned its attention to Angel and Loga.

Platinum Bitter understood the student Loga very well, so it put it aside for the time being.

Platinum Bitter was more intrigued by this life form seemingly so different from the Elemental Creatures.

"Are you... human?"

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