Chapter 18
As evening deepened, dark clouds veiled the new moon. The darkness grew thick, and the jagged rocks began to look like all manner of terrifying monsters. At the center of the area lay a pool, the source of the creek downstream.
“We’ve searched every inch of this area... How can it not be here?”
As the sky grew darker, Su Jiu’s expression turned increasingly grave. She repeatedly compared the scene with the description in the novel she remembered.
There’s no mistake. This is the place...
That bastard Bai Ming found it here. What could she have overlooked?
“Sis Jiu, it’s getting late. Why don’t we come back tomorrow?” Bai Qianyu leaned against a boulder, catching her breath. Today’s battles had been a bit much for someone still in high school.
After glancing at her, Su Jiu suddenly thought of something and murmured to herself:
“Wait, nighttime... The novel described it this way: ‘As night drew near, the moonlight poured down. Covered in demon beast blood, Bai Ming finally reached the part of the mountain strewn with rocks. Following the stench, he easily found a huge egg...’ Does that mean we have to wait until night?”
“If we wait another half hour or so, it should be about time.”
She took out her phone and checked the time—“17:56.” Then Su Jiu went over to Bai Qianyu and sat on a smooth rock beside her. She took a piece of Dragon Whisker Ginseng from her pocket and began chewing it.
“Wait a little longer. You cultivate here; I’ll keep watch.”
It wasn’t as difficult as the first time she’d taken it. Her lower abdomen grew only slightly warm as the energy continually nourished her muscles, and her meridians felt warm, as if they were being nourished.
When it came to physical strength, more was always better. She estimated that she could reach 3,000 catties in her ordinary form, almost the limit for an Intermediate Warrior.
With her Ice Chi Transformation, she could reach 4,000 catties, meeting the minimum standard for an Advanced Warrior. As for her Ghost Chariot Transformation... she’d only tried it in her space, but estimated she could reach around 8,000 catties, or about four tons. That was already beyond the three-ton limit for an Advanced Warrior, but still short of the five-ton minimum for a Battle General.
Her goal was simple: reach the Battle General standard and learn Battle General-level martial techniques. In this world, strength reigned supreme.
While Su Jiu cultivated, night gradually deepened, and several furtive shadows appeared among the rocks.
She didn’t know what had given them the courage, but they actually formed a ring and began closing in. A pungent stench rose from the drool on the ground.
“Whoosh!”
Su Jiu’s eyes snapped open. With a fluid motion, she drew the dagger from her thigh and scanned her surroundings, a mocking smile on her face. “Well, look who’s here. Old friends?”
A chill surged from her, startling Bai Qianyu awake. She looked around, then froze in shock. “How can there be so many Blazing Wolves?”
Even if Sis Jiu could take on two, she could barely handle one herself... She’d already given the emergency flare to Su Xiaoyu. Were they really doomed this time...?
The pack didn’t charge as Bai Qianyu feared. The five or six Blazing Wolves around them took a few steps back. Their survival instincts, honed by life in the wild, warned them that the person before them was dangerous.
This time, Su Jiu didn’t charge in to hunt them. There were simply too many, and it wouldn’t do to end up covered in blood.
“Xiao Bai, close your eyes.”
“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!...”
She gently stroked the dagger and slowly closed her eyes. A surge of icy energy erupted around her, and in the next instant, several blue sword-light streaks lit up the surroundings.
The area became blindingly bright, like it had been hit by a flashbang.
A few seconds later, Bai Qianyu opened her eyes without thinking. When she saw what lay before her, she mechanically turned toward Su Jiu, who had already sheathed her dagger.
All six Blazing Wolves had been sliced in half. They hadn’t even let out a whimper before dying?! What had Sis Jiu done?
Everything happening now was beyond Bai Qianyu’s imagination. Su Jiu was even more of a monster than her own brother—she’d instantly killed six Blazing Wolves!
These were Blazing Wolves! Not some unruly monkey or other unranked demon beast. They were vicious beasts capable of magic attacks!
Just as Bai Qianyu began doubting everything she knew, Su Jiu looked at the wolf corpses and spoke, her eyes full of caution. “We need to find that egg quickly. The Blazing Wolves are starting to move in packs. There might be a Wolf King in this area...”
“A Wolf King? But don’t the Dragon Hunters clear them out regularly? There shouldn’t be any Lord-level creatures here, should there?” Bai Qianyu replied instinctively.
“It might not be a Lord, but there must be an alpha among them. Otherwise, the Blazing Wolves wouldn’t have surrounded us so methodically.” Su Jiu had already activated her transformation, her entire bearing turning cold. “Let’s search for another half hour. If we don’t find it, we need to head down the mountain at once. We can’t let the pack surround us.”
Su Jiu propelled herself up to the highest of the strange rocks and looked out over the area, but once again, she found nothing.
She’d searched everywhere she could think of, from the rocks to the bottom of the pool.
The water in the pool was indeed crystal-clear, which proved the egg had to be here. But why couldn’t she find it?
“Sis Jiu, there’s a strange brick here. It looks like a group of people kneeling and praying to a round object.” Bai Qianyu stood atop a pile of rubble across from the pool, holding up an ocher-colored brick.
“It must be some kind of ritual.”
Su Jiu leaped down. In the light of the tiny flame burning in Bai Qianyu’s palm, she could clearly see the strange pattern.
To test it, Su Jiu did something ridiculous: she faced the pool and imitated the figures in the image, bowing again and again. Nothing happened.
Under Bai Qianyu’s bemused gaze, she brushed the dust from her skirt and fell into thought once more.
Was something missing—the huge round object?
But Bai Ming had never come across anything like that.
She searched for the passage from the novel on her phone again, brows furrowed, then looked up at the night sky...
Was there some connection between the two?
‘As night drew near, the moonlight poured down...’ Wait!
Su Jiu’s pupils suddenly contracted as inspiration struck. The key wasn’t the part about night drawing near. It was what came after: the moonlight pouring down...
“Draw-Sword Slash!”
As if she’d thought of something, Su Jiu drew her dagger again, shut her eyes, gathered her strength, and struck hard at the sky. The layer of vapor high above, which had looked like dark clouds, seemed to have its flower stamens churned by a giant stick. It quivered a few times, then dispersed.
Cool moonlight spilled down like a veil. As it bathed the area, a huge, pearly-white egg appeared three meters above the pool. A drop of liquid slowly gathered beneath it, seeming ready to fall into the water.
With her keen Jiao eyes, Su Jiu quickly spotted a small hole on the egg’s lower left, as if pecked by a bird. With a slight push, she easily caught the floating dragon egg in her arms.
The egg was sticky from the liquid coating it. Su Jiu had Bai Qianyu find a few bottles. She planned to drain all the liquid from the egg—after all, she couldn’t let anyone else find out about this.
“It really is an egg.”
Bai Qianyu looked astonished as she held the bottle with the widest opening beneath the egg, ready in case it suddenly burst.
Once Bai Qianyu was ready, Su Jiu took out her dagger and forcefully made a small hole at the top. Then, seeing that about half of the crystalline egg liquid remained inside, she began breaking away the shell by hand.
But when she’d almost reached the center, Su Jiu noticed that the previously calm surface of the egg liquid had begun to ripple. She hesitated, then said:
“It seems like there’s something inside.”
At that, Bai Qianyu stood up and peered into the egg liquid. After about thirty seconds with no movement at all, she said to Su Jiu in confusion, “Maybe you’re just exhausted from the fighting?”
“Maybe.”
Su Jiu’s brows relaxed. She picked up a mineral water bottle and scooped up the egg liquid. “Glug, glug...” It was soon full.
Looking at the bottle filled to the brim with egg liquid, her spirits soared, and her grin stretched from ear to ear.
“Shit! What is that?!”
After doing that once or twice more, Su Jiu suddenly felt a pain in the back of her hand. The bottle slipped from her hand and fell into the egg liquid.
When she pulled her hand out, she found a little silver snake, about as long as her index finger, clamped tightly onto it.
Just as she was wondering what the thing was, a white magic circle suddenly appeared between her and the little snake. Before she could react, the voice of a young girl rang out in her mind.
“Ma... Mommy?”