Eric was delving deeper and deeper into the exploration of mysterious ruins.
Each adventure was like uncovering a corner of the mysterious veil of the Mystical Spirit Continent.
The flame spirit crystal in his hand emitted a scorching heat, as if narrating the powerful force it contained and the thrilling battle in the ruin.
On this day, following the clues provided by Aiden, Eric arrived at an ancient forest shrouded in mist.
An ancient and mysterious aura permeated the forest.
The trees were tall and twisted, with branches and leaves intertwined.
The sunlight could only struggle to penetrate the layers of leaves, casting a few weak rays and forming blurry patches of light on the ground.
A strange silence filled the forest.
Only the sound of Eric's footsteps rustling on the fallen leaves could be heard, making him seem like the sole intruder in this silence.
Deep in the forest, Eric discovered an ancient ruin.
The entrance to the ruin was blocked by a huge stone tablet engraved with various mysterious runes and patterns.
Eric carefully studied these runes, attempting to find a way to enter the ruin. After much effort, he found that these runes required specific spiritual power fluctuations to activate.
So, he mobilized the spiritual power within his body and slowly injected it into the runes according to their patterns.
As the spiritual power was injected, the runes on the stone tablet began to flash with light and emitted a low humming sound. Suddenly, the stone tablet slowly moved aside, revealing a dark entrance.
Eric took a deep breath and cautiously walked into the ruin.
The inside of the ruin was gloomy and damp.
Water droplets hung on the walls, dripping down with a clear sound that echoed in the silent space.
The passage was filled with a stale smell, mixed with weak spiritual power fluctuations, giving Eric a sense of both familiarity and strangeness.
He walked slowly along the passage when suddenly he heard a faint sound of footsteps.
Eric stopped warily, clenched the weapon in his hand, and prepared to face the possible danger.
A spiritual fox emitting a faint glow slowly emerged from the corner.
The eyes of this spiritual fox were like two bright stars, staring at Eric vigilantly.
Eric tried to communicate with it, but the spiritual fox seemed full of hostility towards him and suddenly pounced on him.
Eric quickly dodged sideways and simultaneously cast a defensive spiritual skill.
A spiritual power shield instantly formed in front of him.
The spiritual fox's claws scratched on the shield, sparking with spiritual power.
Eric seized the opportunity to counterattack. He cast a simplified version of the "Spirit Piercing the Heavens" spiritual skill, and a beam of spiritual power shot towards the spiritual fox.
The spiritual fox nimbly jumped and dodged, then launched another attack.
After several rounds, Eric found that the spiritual fox was extremely fast, and ordinary attacks could hardly hit it.
So, he calmed down and activated the Spiritual Source Insight ability of the Spiritual Source Awakening System.
In the vision of Spiritual Source Insight, he clearly saw the flow path of the spiritual fox's spiritual power.
It turned out that the spiritual power of the spiritual fox was mainly concentrated in its tail, and the tail was the key part for its attack and defense.
Eric had an idea in mind.
He deliberately showed a flaw to lure the spiritual fox to attack.
When the spiritual fox pounced, he seized the opportunity and cast a freezing spiritual skill, hitting the spiritual fox's tail directly.
The spiritual fox's tail was frozen, and its movement became sluggish.
Eric seized the opportunity and exerted his full strength to cast "Spirit Piercing the Heavens".
A powerful beam of spiritual power hit the body of the spiritual fox.
The spiritual fox let out a whine and fell to the ground, transforming into a spiritual fox crystal core.
Eric picked up the crystal core and continued to explore deeper into the ruin.
In the center of the ruin, he found a huge spiritual power array.
This array emitted intense spiritual power fluctuations, seemingly guarding something important.
Eric carefully observed around the array and found several key nodes on it.
The spiritual power fluctuations at these nodes were the strongest.
He guessed that if these nodes could be destroyed, perhaps the array could be broken.
However, just as he was about to take action, an alarm suddenly sounded in the ruin.
Eric was startled.
He realized that he might have triggered the defense mechanism of the ruin.
Immediately afterwards, a group of guardian puppets emerged from all directions.
These puppets were tall, made entirely of metal, and emitted a cold metallic luster. Their eyes glowed red, and they held various weapons in their hands as they charged towards Eric.
Eric knew that he was in danger, but he didn't panic. He cast a group defensive spiritual skill, enveloping himself in a spiritual power shield.
Then, he began to think about countermeasures.
He found that the movements of these puppets seemed to be controlled by the array, and their attacks had a certain pattern. So, he activated the Spiritual Source Insight ability again and carefully observed the movement patterns of the puppets and the spiritual power fluctuations of the array.
During the observation, he found a flaw. Whenever the puppets attacked to a certain extent, the spiritual power of the array would experience a brief fluctuation.
That was the best time to counterattack.
Eric waited for this moment to come.
When the array fluctuated, he quickly cast a powerful attack spiritual skill.
A spiritual power shock wave swept towards the group of puppets.
The spiritual power shock wave hit the puppets, knocking some of them back, but some puppets continued to charge towards him.
Eric kept looking for opportunities and launched attacks time and time again.
In the fierce battle, he gradually mastered the skills of fighting with the puppets.
He took advantage of his speed and flexible spiritual skills to defeat the puppets one by one.
After a hard battle, he finally succeeded in destroying all the puppets.
Eric walked wearily to the array and, according to his previous observations, destroyed the key nodes of the array.
As the nodes were destroyed, the light of the array gradually dissipated, revealing a treasure chest.
Eric opened the treasure chest and found an ancient spiritual skill manual inside - "The Phantom Steps of Spiritual Shadow".
This manual recorded an extremely exquisite spiritual skill that could enable a person to teleport instantly in battle and increase their speed and flexibility.
Eric was overjoyed. He knew that this manual would be of great help in improving his strength.
He put away the manual and prepared to leave the ruin.
However, just as he turned around, he felt a powerful dark aura coming from the depths of the ruin.
This dark aura made him feel an unprecedented fear.
He realized that this ruin might hide secrets related to the dark forces.
Eric hesitated for a moment, but his curiosity finally overcame his fear.
He walked towards the direction where the dark aura came from, wanting to find out what was going on.
In the deepest part of the ruin, he saw a huge dark vortex.
From within the dark vortex, there were faint, low roars, as if something terrifying was struggling inside.
Eric cautiously approached the dark vortex, wanting to see clearly what was inside.
Just as he was approaching the dark vortex, a huge dark hand suddenly stretched out from the vortex and reached towards him. Eric retreated in horror, but his speed was a bit slow.
The dark hand grabbed his shoulder, and a powerful dark force instantly rushed into his body, causing him intense pain.
Eric struggled to break free, but the power of the dark hand was too great, and he couldn't move at all.
Just when he was in despair, he suddenly remembered the "The Phantom Steps of Spiritual Shadow" manual he had just obtained.
He concentrated his mind and, according to the records in the manual, cast the Phantom Steps of Spiritual Shadow.
Instantly, his body turned into a phantom and successfully broke free from the grip of the dark hand.
Eric didn't dare to stay and quickly fled from the ruin.
After returning to the academy, Eric told Aiden about his experiences in the ruin. After hearing this, Aiden's face became very solemn. He told Eric that the dark vortex might be a key node for the dark forces to open a passage to the Mystical Spirit Continent.
If the dark forces succeeded in opening the passage, the entire Mystical Spirit Continent would be in a huge crisis.
Eric realized the seriousness of the matter.
He decided to accelerate the improvement of his own strength and look for more allies to jointly fight against the dark forces. However, his actions did not escape the notice of the dark forces.
During an outing mission of the academy, Eric was attacked by the dark forces.
A group of dark spiritual practitioners suddenly appeared and surrounded him in a dark forest.
The dark spiritual practitioners cast various dark spiritual skills and launched a fierce attack on Eric.
Eric fought back with all his might, but he found that these dark spiritual practitioners were very powerful, and it was difficult for him to resist alone.
Just when he was in trouble, his friends learned that he was in danger and rushed to his support one after another.
Lillian cast her most powerful spiritual skill, and a gorgeous beam of spiritual power shot towards the dark spiritual practitioners.
Tom set up a powerful defensive spiritual array around them, protecting Eric and the others inside.
With the help of his friends, Eric successfully repelled the dark spiritual practitioners.