Chapter 20: “The Great Black Egg”

It turned out to be a spirit beast egg!

Most commonly seen in the beast clan are demonic beasts, but apart from those, there are also some unique categories, such as magical beasts and spirit beasts.

Demon beasts are divided into two types: some naturally form from the demonic energy within the demonic realm, while the majority are ordinary demonic beasts that have undergone demonic transformation.

Regardless of their origin, both types are fiercely aggressive and violent by nature, making them unsuitable for human cultivators to form contracts with or to raise. Some demonic beasts even prey on human cultivators, requiring periodic extermination campaigns.

On the other hand, spirit beasts are born from the essence of heaven and earth, making them more valuable and rarer than ordinary demonic beasts. They are gentle, intelligent, and naturally inclined towards closeness with cultivators. Most spirit beasts possess unique innate abilities, and the likelihood of awakening new skills through training is higher compared to ordinary demonic beasts.

In the cultivation world, many cultivators form contracts with demonic beasts, but those who can contract spirit beasts are few and far between.

Spirit beasts are priceless, even the lowest-grade spirit beast egg would cause a frenzy among people, making it impossible to buy even with a fortune.

When Wenren Yue took out these five spirit beast eggs, one could see the surrounding spiritual energy subtly fluctuate, indicating that their quality was at least of the middle to upper tier.

Among these five beast eggs, three were ones she had personally bred. Of those, two came from the same species of beast parents, so the type of beast was clear. The third was a result of crossbreeding between two different species of beasts, so its type was not yet defined, but it would likely inherit traits from one of its parents.

The last two eggs were ones she had acquired by chance from a secret realm, with their types currently unknown—like opening a mystery box.

Wenren Yue introduced the species and attributes of the five spirit beast eggs to Chu Sang. After looking them over, Chu Sang pointed to the single large black egg that seemed out of place. “I want that one.”

She had instantly taken a liking to this “Great Black Egg.”

This egg was something Wenren Yue had picked up by accident during a trip to a secret realm where she had gotten lost. It contained abundant spiritual energy, but she couldn’t determine its species or quality, making it highly probable that it might hatch into a “bad egg.”

“Are you sure you want this egg, Junior Sister?”

Chu Sang displayed a very confident smile. “I always trust my own luck.”

Wenren Yue handed over the spirit beast egg to Chu Sang, along with a spirit beast bag that contained several bags of high-grade feed for beastlings. Most importantly, she taught Chu Sang the method of using spiritual energy to incubate the egg.

The potential of spirit beasts is quite high. Although the species of the spirit beast is determined while it’s still in the egg, the quality of the beast that hatches depends largely on the care and attention provided during incubation.

Simply put, this most crucial step also heavily depends on luck—what eventually hatches is up to fate.

Chu Sang also gave her seniors a small gift in return.

She had allocated the five skill points she previously gained to her comprehension, which now allowed her to draw some mid-tier talismans, the Spirit Gathering Talisman being one of them. After all, Lingqing Sect currently lacked spiritual energy the most, so she had been working hard to produce them, having drawn no less than a hundred Spirit Gathering Talismans recently.

Wenren Yue accepted the talismans into her storage bag, casting a glance at the lush mountain in the distance. “That explains it! No wonder the spiritual energy in the back mountain has become so abundant—it’s even fit for planting spiritual fields now. I clearly remember it wasn’t like this before I left!”

Tantai Ming added, “Junior Sister set up a Spirit Gathering Array in our back mountain. While it’s not as effective as a guardian sect’s spirit vein, it’s on par with the spiritual qi of some other nearby sects.”

“A Spirit Gathering Array? Did Junior Sister set it up all by herself?” Ling Yu’s face showed a hint of surprise.

Although talisman-making and array formation share a common heritage—arrays originally evolved from talismans—one of the eight great sects, the Eight Symbols Sect, practices both paths.

However, array formation is more demanding than talisman-making, both in terms of engraving difficulty and the materials required.

Ling Yu thought that Little Sister being a talisman cultivator was already surprising enough, but she had also mastered array techniques at a young age. She had even created a difficult Spirit Gathering Array on her own, which was shocking.

But considering Junior Sister’s background in talisman-making, she must have studied runes from a young age. Being able to single-handedly create a small Spirit Gathering Array was certainly astonishing, though not completely outrageous.

To celebrate the return of her Senior brother and sister, Chu Sang picked a basket of spirit vegetables from her little garden, planning to cook a welcoming feast herself.

Second Senior Brother eagerly offered to help.

“Oh, Second Senior Brother, there’s no need to be so polite. Today’s meal is to welcome you and Third Senior Sister back, how could I let you do the work?” Chu Sang said as she handed him a kitchen knife.

Ling Yu’s lips curled into a gentle smile, his expression still soft. “It’s no trouble at all. With my help, we can finish faster.”

Chu Sang was quite touched. As expected, every sect has that gentle, considerate Second Senior Brother. Her last lingering doubts faded away.

Half an hour later.

Chu Sang stared in silence at the charred lump in the pot.

A beat too late, she recalled Tantai Ming’s earlier complaints… turns out they weren’t exaggerated, but true.

The gentle Second Senior Brother was a fake—he was a clumsy, beautiful fool who got lost easily and had no cooking skills.

“Um, Second Senior Brother, why don’t you go take a rest? I can handle this on my own.”

Ling Yu tried to insist, “Are you sure you don’t need my help? I think I can give it another try.”

“No need!”

She pushed him out of the kitchen and brought in Tantai Ming, who had rushed in thinking there was a fire, saying, “Let’s leave this tiring work to me and Seventh Senior Brother!”

…

To ensure the spirit beast hatched successfully, Chu Sang prepared the brightest room and set up a small gathering spirit formation.

However, as the days passed, there was no sign of movement from the spirit beast egg.

It showed no signs of hatching.

“Could it be a dud?” She knocked lightly on the eggshell.

“Come on, baby, my dear little one, come out and let mommy see you.”

Egg, “…”^[1]The egg remained silent

She let out a sigh and stored the beast egg in her dantian, then stepped out and bumped into Tantai Ming.

The two had agreed to go down the mountain and pay a visit to the Treasure Pavilion.

Today happened to be the day of the Treasure Pavilion’s semi-annual auction. Tantai Ming had gotten word that a few spirit veins would be up for auction. However, when they arrived, even the cheapest guardian spirit vein was priced at five million spirit stones.

And that one was of the poorest quality. Buying it would be practically useless. She might as well set up a few more Spirit Gathering Arrays instead.

The spirit veins of slightly better quality were priced in the millions of top-grade spirit stones.

“What the—this is robbery!”

Tantai Ming let out a cry of dismay, drawing the attention of nearby customers. The looks they gave, as if he were some country bumpkin, made Chu Sang cover her face. She grabbed him and made a quick exit.

“There have been frequent reports of magical beasts causing disturbances in the cultivation world lately,” Ling Yu said, taking out his communication jade slip. “I heard that many major sects have issued commissions with generous, reliable rewards.”

The jade slip was only the size of an adult’s palm, making it very convenient to carry around. Its functions were similar to a modern smartphone: adding friends, chatting, voice and video calls… In addition, the homepage had a large section similar to a chat in a game world, where various commissions would be posted, allowing cultivators to take on tasks and earn spirit stones.

“Look here,” Ling Yu said, opening the topmost, most-discussed pinned commission. “This is a grade-A commission jointly issued by the Eight Great Sects.”

“A few towns in the central region have seen gatherings of demonic beasts. In just a few days, hundreds of villagers have lost their lives. At first, the nearby sects didn’t take it seriously, sending only some inner and outer disciples to handle the beasts. But those disciples never returned, and many of their soul tablets shattered.”

“It wasn’t until the sect leaders and elders realized the severity of the situation that the matter was reported to the Eight Great Sects.”

“The Eight Great Sects immediately issued a commission, recruiting cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage and above to exterminate the demonic beasts. Completing the commission earns a reward of a million spirit stones. Moreover, each demonic beast head can be exchanged for an additional hundred thousand spirit stones, with no upper limit.”

A million spirit stones!

Chu Sang’s eyes practically sparkled with gold. She’d never seen so much money in her life.

“But this matter does carry certain risks. I’ll go with you,” Ling Yu offered. He was already at the mid-stage of the Golden Core level. With the senior brother absent, the responsibility of protecting his junior brothers and sisters naturally fell on his shoulders.

“I have a Fire Serpent that’s about to give birth. I need to take care of it for the time being, so I won’t be able to join you,” Wenren Yue said. She sat cross-legged on the ground, tending to a small, fiery red serpent. The communication jade slip by her leg buzzed, and she picked it up in irritation, glancing at it. “It’s that guy again?”

“Someone bothering you, Senior Sister?” Chu Sang asked.

Wenren Yue waved a dismissive hand. “Nothing major. Starting about a year ago, some shady man has been trying to ask me out. Ugh, it’s so obvious he’s one of those creepy old men from the cultivation world who like to follow female cultivators around. I’ve seen plenty of men like him. A firm rejection usually does the trick!”

“Poor Senior Sister.”

Chu Sang hadn’t expected that even in the cultivation world, beautiful women would still be bothered by creeps.

“Truly, the world’s going downhill,” Chu Sang said with a sigh. “Just rejecting him isn’t enough. You need to thoroughly humiliate him,” she advised with a hint of kindness. She then quickly typed out a response on Wenren Yue’s communication jade slip.

The other side immediately fell silent.

When Wenren Yue saw the string of words Chu Sang had sent, her hand shook slightly. This junior sister… she’s a little bit wild.