Chapter 498: Half Spirit Race

"Is there perhaps anything we can help with? I'm more than willing to answer any question you have..."

Hearing the grand elder's question along with feeling his grip on the hidden runic talisman loosen, Xuan Hao breathed out a sigh of relief. For now, it looked like he had avoided fighting with this not so tall unknown race.

"Actually, I was quite curious about what race you are from..." Not planning to hold back his questions, Xuan Hao decided to ask the question that he had been most curious about since discovering the small town and the unknown race of people inside of it.

"Our race...? To be honest, we don't really know much about it ourselves... All we know is that we are the descendants from a nature spirit and a human, we don't know much else. From most of our ancient records, it seems that most of them refer to our race as the half spirit race."

"Half spirit?"

"Yes... As you can see, we are of a quite short stature compared to you humans. The reason for this is due to our connection with the nature spirits of old!"

"Were the nature spirits perhaps really short...?"

"No, they were actually quite tall. Even their human forms often reached two meters of height, some even standing over three meters tall!"

Then how on earth are they related to the fact that you have such a short stature!?

Not saying out loud what he was thinking after listening to the grand elder's explanation of their ancestors, Xuan Hao decided to leave the question of why the half spirit race was so short for another time and instead focus on some more important questions for now.

"Actually, some among our people are doubting that we are even related to the nature spirits of the world. After all, nature spirits are quite well known for their ability to control the elements of nature, yet we have no one who ca-"

"Don't worry too much about it, I think the reason why no one has awakened their abilities yet is just because their cultivation realm is too low. Don't forget how strong nature spirit are! Not something anyone at the Nascent Soul Realm could ever compare with!"

Not knowing anything about nature spirit as he said this, Xuan Hao had hoped to end the conversation and get on to the next question, but-

"That... That is indeed true! Everyone in the town always remained stuck at the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm without being able to take the next step forward... perhaps this is related to us needing to awaken our nature spirit bloodline and-"

Listening to the old grand elder continue on talking with an excited expression on his face like they were old friends, Xuan Hao could not help frowning. The grand elder had really gotten comfortable with him quickly...

Even worse, the other elders had also overcome their earlier fear of him, as they joined in on the conversation.

All of a sudden, the entire thing had developed into a conversation about how they should go about awakening the nature spirit part of their bloodline... While interesting to a certain extent, Xuan Hao honestly didn't really care about it that much. Finding out about the temple and the giant phoenix mural located above him was far more important!

However, looking at the faces of the group of elders from the half spirit race, Xuan Hao could not bring himself to interrupt them.

Ah... Who cares! At most I will have to wait for a few minutes until they calm down again, there is also their grand ceremony that is supposed to take place soon!

With this in mind, Xuan Hao decided to wait. Believing that there was no way they would just ignore him and continue their conversation for too long...

Something that he soon came to regret, as they didn't plan to stop any time soon. Even worse, they were more than happy to include him in their conversation. Asking if he had any idea on how to awaken their bloodline.

...

In the end, they had talked for over an hour before this had happened... Something Xuan Hao had thought impossible given the fact that they had pretty much repeated the same things over and over again. Making no progress towards finding an answer to how they could awaken their nature spirit bloodline, yet remaining as excited about it as they had been when they started...

Having finally had enough listening to them talking about their "awakening", Xuan Hao had forcibly interrupted the group of half spirit elders filled with way too much energy.

"Now that you are done talking about your ideas on how to awaken your nature spirit bloodline, we can continue our earlier conversation. Right?"

"Yes!"

"Great! Now, the next question I wanted to ask was related to the temple we are inside of. Do you perhaps have any idea about its origin?"

Releasing the pressure of his domain that he had used to interrupt these half spirit elders conversation after hearing the grand elder's quick response, Xuan Hao let out a sigh of relief before asking the second and last question he had for the grand elder.

Outside of their race and the temple, Xuan Hao wasn't really too interested in anything else.

The story of how the half spirit race ended up inside the valley and why they hadn't left yet, was not really that interesting to him after remembering what had happened just seconds ago when he had just asked about their race...

"The origin of the temple?!"

"Yes, I was wondering if you had any clue about it. After all, it seems like your race have been in control of this temple for quite some time."

Seeing the shocked expression that appeared on the grand elder's face after hearing his question, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit excited thinking that he would finally find out just who the temple belonged to in the past.

Maybe even getting a chance to find out something related to the phoenix and the epic battles taking place on the murals covering the walls of the temple hall that he was currently inside of.

"Hm... The temple has always been here, so I can't say anything for sure, but..."

"But?"

"But we do have quite a few intact records from before we took control of the temple, you are more than welcome to check them out if you are interested in finding out more about the temple. For us, we just use the temple as a gathering place most of the time. Using it for things such as the-

Ah! We completely forgot about the grand ceremony that was going to take place today!"

Ignoring the panicking voice from the grand elder after he remembered the fact that a grand ceremony was going to take place today, Xuan Hao instead focused on the first part of what he said.

They still had some surviving records from the time before they took control over the temple!

From what he had come to understand, the town had been around for at least a few thousand years, so the time from before they took control over the temple was likely going to be when the original owners had still been in control!

"Where can I find these ancient records?"

"Ah? Just follow the hallway over there until you reach a spiral staircase leading down. Go down and you will find the record hall! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to prepare for the grand ceremony!"

Pointing him towards a nearby hallway, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit bewildered at this grand elder's behaviour. At first, he had been cautious and careful with him, yet now, he was treating him like an old friend. Not worrying about him doing anything bad...

The entire thing was quite an interesting experience. Especially given the fact that the rest of the elders standing around still glanced over towards him cautiously from time to time, as they made sure to keep their distance.

Hah... There is no use thinking about that now. The most important thing should be to check out the ancient records stored here!

Shaking his head as he threw his thoughts about the grand elder's weird behaviour to the side for later when he had finished going through the ancient records of the temple, Xuan Hao made his way down the hallway that the grand elder had pointed him towards.

Not forgetting to use both his domains to protect himself, just in case the grand elder of the half spirit race decided to send him into some sort of trap. After all, no matter how well he treated him, Xuan Hao would never believe a hundred percent of what a stranger he had gotten to know for only a little over an hour...

Even less so when the other party belonged to a race that had decided to remain hidden inside a small valley for what had essentially been thousands of years!