Lu Jun's arrival, along with the appearance of the mermaid Holy Spirit contract beast, astonished the other members of the national team as well.
That was a commander-level creature! Although all present had experienced trials across multiple countries and had reached the advanced tier—some even wielding dual-element high-level spells—they still found it hard to take on a commander-level demon alone.
Unless someone possessed a Domain or had refined a Soul Seed or similar high-level methods.
Guan Yu sighed, "I feel like our captain alone as a summoner could take on our entire team."
Everyone gathered at a small tavern in Hami City.
Before Lu Jun even sat down, the mermaid proactively pulled out a chair for him and stood behind him, gently massaging his shoulders.
Hiss hiss—Mo Fan witnessed this top-tier service, then glanced at his own shoulder where the drowsy Flame Fairy baby was nodding off, and suddenly didn't feel so thrilled anymore.
"Look at you, now look at her. Daddy raised you with poop and pee since you were a baby. Shouldn't you, my dear daughter, show some filial piety?"
So Mo Fan thought long and hard and decisively began PUA-ing his Flame Fairy.
The Flame Fairy baby yawned, her tiny feet stepping on Daddy's face, waking up with a dazed look.
She then rolled over, changed positions, and went back to sleep. Before dozing off, she even scratched her little butt.
Mo Fan was speechless and gave up, saying, "Forget it, forget it. Daughters are meant to be spoiled."
Beside him, Jiang Shaoxu and a few other girls were watching Flame Fairy's antics with stars in their eyes. "So cute, I'm dying."
Then their eyes drifted over to the aloof mermaid lady, visibly tempted to rush over and cuddle her. "She's so beautiful, I wanna stick close to her."
Especially since their team had another summoner—Jiang Yu—with his adorable black cat. Simply invincible.
Jiang Shaoxu sighed, "Ah, I regret not awakening the summoning element at the advanced tier."
The other girls all nodded in agreement.
After some small talk, they finally got to the main topic.
Lu Jun asked, "What are your plans next? Heading straight to the Peruvian National Pavilion—Royal Felipe Castle or somewhere else?"
At his words, everyone exchanged glances. Ai Jiangtu spoke solemnly, "We're thinking of first heading to the Great Gobi Valley not far from Hami City. There's an ancient ruin there, and the natural storms inside might contain many high-level resources."
"Yes," Nan Jue followed up. "The national pavilion alone won't provide enough for our improvement. We have to go adventuring ourselves. Would you be willing to join us? It would greatly increase our survival odds."
The national team was eager to obtain Soul Seed-level enhancement resources to help bridge the gap between regular advanced-tier and commander-tier combat power.
"Training, huh?"
Lu Jun understood and feigned a moment of consideration before agreeing.
In fact, he had his sights set on the Great Gobi of Peru—there were great opportunities there. In the original story, Mo Fan obtained things like the Time Liquid and Earth Elemental Crystal, and that was just part of it.
Every national team member made major gains, and Lu Jun wanted to try his luck too, see what he could find in the ruins.
Of course, the trip to the ruins was fairly smooth—what followed was the real trouble.
Before entering the Great Gobi Canyon, the national team had rashly stepped into Peru's famous ancient ruin—Nazca Geoglyphs.
This incredible wonder was well-known in the scientific world of the previous life. Anyone who had watched Into Science or 100,000 Unsolved Mysteries as a kid would get the gist.
But in the magic world, these mysteries became real—they possessed supernatural power!
The national team had triggered a taboo of the geoglyphs. After exiting the Gobi Valley, they were attacked by mysterious monstrous birds. It started with one, then ten, then rapidly multiplied—eventually reaching 100,000—throwing them into a life-or-death crisis.
Only a Monarch could wipe out most of them in one go.
But the national team was full of young advanced-tier mages. To make matters worse, when they fled into a Peruvian city seeking shelter, they were turned away and left to fend for themselves.
This showed that foreign mages completely disregarded their duty to protect humanity, unlike those in the Nine Provinces who still had some sense of bottom line.
Naturally, this enraged many, leading them to unleash their backing forces to exact brutal revenge on Peru.
Because in the magic world, failure to unite your race and instead grovel before demons was a fundamental error in principle.
So when Lu Jun hid in Sydney, he had already anticipated it. If the Sea Monster Empire had dared to act under pressure from the Magic Association, he would've had to don the ancient royal armor.
"What a damn shame. Even when facing survival pressure, we still can't unite."
Lu Jun shook his head, never putting any faith in the Magic Association. It was nice if he could use their power, but he never counted on it.
However, he also knew the national team was wrongly blamed—the real one who angered the Nazca Geoglyphs was a local.
A descendant of the ancient Incan Empire, bearing the Li Fan mark.
That man had rashly taken a gemstone from the eye position of one of the monstrous bird geoglyphs inside the Nazca Geoglyphs.
Unfortunately, the national team had entered at that exact moment and were wrongly implicated as scapegoats.
Now, Lu Jun deliberately asked, "By the way, have any of you visited the Nazca geoglyphs?"
Guan Yu replied regretfully, "We toured them a few days ago. Nothing special—just a lot of hype."
"I see. Hold on a moment. I have something to take care of," Lu Jun said casually, his mind made up—to capture that Incan heir and retrieve the monstrous bird gemstone, then bring both into the Gobi Valley ruins.
If the two were brought together, might something happen between them? Even if nothing extraordinary occurred, he could return to the Nazca site afterward and return the gemstone—silently resolving the bird-glyph chaos.
After all, this disturbance was a complete disaster for a small country like Peru.
"No problem—we'll wait for you,"
Nan Jue said without prying into Lu Jun's plan, nodding decisively. "We still need to prepare some magical equipment before entering the ruins to help us get in more easily."
So the group split up to carry out their tasks.
Lu Jun didn't hesitate and set off. He remembered the heir's name: Shelton, a miner working at the Ariely Mine.
Coincidentally, the Ariely Mine was not far from Hami City. Of course, in a small country, it being like a province in Nine Provinces, distances weren't significant.
Before leaving, he specifically asked Ai Jiangtu for a pass. Conveniently, this Ariely Mine was jointly funded by the Nine Provinces—providing technology, staff, and even military mage protection.
When Lu Jun arrived at a range of mountains filled with caves and pitted ground, smoky and warlike, the security checkpoint was staffed by familiar Chinese faces, who greeted him warmly. Upon seeing Ai Jiangtu's pass, they allowed him through immediately.
The commanding military officer even came over in person promptly.
The middle-aged officer spoke seriously: "You have a letter from the young master. You are his friend, and a national team member. Tell me what you need."
Lu Jun announced the Shelton's name and said, "We must find this man. He's a miner based here."
The mages moved efficiently. Among the thousands of miners, they located him and the military had him brought in.
He was a middle-aged man, filthy and disoriented, with a gray face and dirt-streaked skin—completely bewildered by what was happening.
For additional chapters
Versatile mage {40 chapters}
Douluo Dalu:This Soul Master is to Weird {30 Chapters}
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