Chapter 4 - A child born out of an egg
Extreme North, Douluo.
Part of the accumulated snow in the valley had been cleared. After a full 24-hour investigation, Lan Xiao and his small research team could confirm that the location where the gold and silver flickering light was giving off intense life energy was safe.
Lan Xiao determined precisely that this should be a piece of a relic, and under normal circumstances, a relic that gave off a million-year-old spirit beast life energy was already considered a great discovery to them.
The next step was to dig the relic out.
The two machines had been working for half a day and finally cleared out the snow on the surface. But under the accumulated snow, there was still ice and who knew how long these ice had been frozen for; they might even be harder than steel. And in order to prevent destroying what was inside, they had to be extra careful.
The layer of ice was very thick, but after clearing the snow on the surface, they could see that gold and silver glowing through the clear, thick ice.
The glow was subtle; it wasn’t strong but extremely clear.
The life detector had been observing the situation inside— the living energy still remained the same, and it wasn’t affected by whatever they were doing outside.
This was a good sign and proved that the possibility of danger was low.
The Soul Guidance energy slowly cut the life energy and continued monitoring the position of this object.
After two whole hours and about four meters of thick ice was sliced off, they could finally roughly judge the size of this object.
“It has a diameter of about half a meter, its width is about 30 centimeters. It has an oval body and is definitely not a spirit beast. It seems like an egg,” Nan Cheng reported to Lan Xiao.
Lan Xiao’s eyes lit up. “If it is really an egg, then we might have made a great achievement. Even though I still cannot tell what type of spirit beast egg this is right now, but if the egg itself could emit million-year-old life energy, it goes without thinking that this should be the egg left behind by a spirit beast at the level of a Beast King. It’s rare that it could still be flourishing with life energy after being sealed in ice, but incubation is highly possible. We found a treasure!”
A million-year-old spirit beast existed in those two spirit beast planets, but they were extinct in Soul Land a long time ago. Also, the federation had an agreement with the two spirit beast planets that if they ever find a spirit beast of that level, the federation had to send it back to the spirit beast planet. In return, the spirit beast planet would pay taxes and provide them with whatever resources they needed in order to benefit both parties.
As the ones who made the discovery, their research team would not only receive a promotion, they would also be rewarded handsomely.
“Seems like this is a wedding gift from heaven!” Lan Xiao took the chance to hug Nan Cheng’s shoulder and laughed.
“Don’t be careless, let’s just take it back first,” Nan Cheng said softly.
Lan Xiao laughed. “I love it when you’re like that…”
“If you call me dumb again, I will get mad at you,” Nan Cheng interrupted him and gave him a threatening gesture.
“Boss, we retrieved it.”
Lan Xiao hurriedly turned to the screen, and on the screen, a machine was clasping onto a block of ice and facing the camera.
Indeed, there was an egg in that transparent ice. The oval-shaped egg had a finely weaved pattern of gold and silver decorative design on its surface.
The two decorative designs were both twinkling in luster; they were utterly bizarre.
“Quick, bring it back,” Lan Xiao ordered immediately.
Very soon, this egg sealed in ice appeared before them.
There were a few pieces of equipment for inspection on the aircraft, and after examining closely, the only thing that they could prove was that there was thick life energy contained inside this bizarre egg.
And compared against the archive of spirit beasts graphics from the Federation Research Institute, there wasn’t a similar type of spirit beast egg.
“Should we keep it in a cold environment?” Nan Cheng and Lan Xiao stood before this bizarre spirit beast egg. She asked this question because the layer of ice on the surface of the egg was about to completely melt while they were busy performing tests previously. This had also allowed them to have a clearer look at this egg.
First of all, there was its glossiness— the gold and silver pattern on the egg was extremely glossy but the pattern on the surface were all very long; whether it was the gold or the silver patterns, they seemed to be twisting and turning around one another.
Lan Xiao frowned and said, “Logically speaking, the environment shouldn’t affect it so much since it contains such strong life energy. But just to be safe, to prevent it from being affected by the temperature in case it happens to be a snow-type spirit beast, we will store in low temperature. We’ll discuss again when we return to the research institute. Before we hand it over, we still have to conduct a series of detailed inspection and tests. A chance like this is hard to come by, and I’m afraid it would be hard to replicate an experiment like this in the future.” His eyes lit up at the mention of experiments. He was very interested in ancient spirit beasts and very knowledgeable in that aspect. When he was still in school, he was known as the living ancient spirit beasts encyclopedia.
Cha cha.
A slight sound startled all of them.
“Is it coming from the egg?” Nan Cheng asked.
“Quick, everyone, gather. Raise the spirit beast protective cover,” Lan Xiao hurriedly ordered. The life energy this thing contained was very strong, and if any life form were to come out of it, who knew how powerful it would be. Although the possibility of it happening was very slim, it didn’t mean that it had never happened before.
On the surface of the experiment table, the white protective cover was raised but the “cha cha” sound inside could be heard again.
Cha cha, cha cha, cha cha…
The sound started to intensify, and the small research team and other staff members crowded around curiously.
Other than Lan Xiao and Nan Cheng, there was a total of eight people in this scientific. There were also two team members in charge of collecting samples outside, two pilots, and two researchers. This was the standard allocation for a scientific exploration team.
At this moment, other than the pilot flying the aircraft, others gathered around to look at the egg before them curiously.
Cha cha, cha cha, ka cha!
Suddenly, a thin crack appeared on the surface of the egg.
“Is it coming out?” Nan Cheng instinctively hid behind Lan Xiao. The others took a step back too.
“Don’t be afraid. Even if it’s a naturally offensive and formidable living creature, it wouldn’t have a strong fighting strength when it has just been born.” Lan Xiao took a few steps forward and circles of spirit rings appeared from beneath his feet— two yellow, two purple, and a black one. There was a total of five spirit rings, and they represented the level of Spirit King cultivation. At his age, this was already very outstanding, and it was the main reason why he could get promoted so quickly.
Ka cha, ka cha…
The crisp sound resounded, and it started to become more intense.
Pop——
Finally, a part of the eggshell cracked and a white creature made its way out.
Everyone stared nervously, and their gaze was all focused on that white object.
That is…
In the next moment, everyone was stunned.
Nan Cheng peeped from behind Lan Xiao and stared at that white object in a daze as she mumbled, “That, that… Why does it look like a hand?”
Yes, it was fair, puffy, and small. Although it was clenched into a fist, it really looked like a hand—the little hand of a human baby.
But in the next moment, that tiny hand moved downward slightly, grabbed the eggshell and broke it off easily. “Ka cha” and a piece of eggshell was broken off, then it went back into the eggshell.
Cha cha, cha cha, cha cha.
Ka cha, ka cha, ka cha!
The sound went on but in just a moment, that tiny hand stretched out again and tore a piece of eggshell, then another piece.
“Could it be that he is…” Lan Xiao stepped forward quickly and looked into the protective cover.
At this moment, the eggshell was still covering most of the interior, and he could only roughly see that there was a white creature inside. The “ka cha, ka cha” sound continued.
“The life energy is decreasing substantially—it only has the level of a 10,000-year-old spirit beast now,” Nan Cheng said all of a sudden.
“Eh?” Lan Xiao looked at her in surprise. Nan Cheng’s eyes were still on the screen as she said, “It’s still going down and at a faster speed now.”
Ka cha!
The little hand reached out and tore off another piece.
Ka cha, ka cha, ka cha!
“There’s only a 1000-year-old spirit beast life energy now.” Nan Cheng’s tone was urgent.
Lan Xiao took a deep breath and said firmly, “Open the protective cover.”
He could only take a closer look with the protective cover opened.
The protective cover was opened, revealing the egg inside. There wasn’t any energy that arose. Along with that little hand breaking off the eggshell, its true form was finally revealed.
How should I describe it?
Lan Xiao was instantly attracted to his appearance at first glance. He was very sure that he had never seen such a good-looking baby ever, and yes, it was a human baby—a human baby that was born out of an egg.