Chapter 23 (Part 2)

“In any case, I’ve given it to you. If you don’t want it, then throw it away.” Jiang Lanyi left directly without another word.

Song Yuanxi held the demonic beast egg and looked at her retreating back. In the end, he could only accept it helplessly. “Sending it back is absolutely out of the question. It would make things awkward with Senior Sister Jiang. Sigh, I’ll just give her some other things later to make up for it.”

In the days that followed, Song Yuanxi studied how to hatch an egg.

Logically speaking, since cracks had already appeared on the demonic beast egg’s shell, that meant it was about to hatch. But why couldn’t he hatch it?

It was not good to bother his elders over this matter, so Song Yuanxi simply carried the demonic beast egg to find his little friend Lu Ziqi.

It was not good to ask the top students. That would make him look stupid. But between poor students, there was no such worry.

Lu Ziqi was very happy to see Song Yuanxi come looking for him. “Yuanxi, you finally feel willing to come out and play with me. I thought you’d been assimilated on Qingtian Peak, and had become just like those sword cultivators, only knowing how to cultivate, cultivate, and cultivate.”

Lu Ziqi did not know that Song Yuanxi had already returned to Wanhai Peak. He only thought Song Yuanxi was still on Qingtian Peak. Song Yuanxi did not explain either. He merely shut the door, then took an egg out of his spirit beast bag.

Lu Ziqi laughed. “Yuanxi, are we preparing to roast an egg?”

For an instant, Song Yuanxi felt that perhaps he had been this stupid in front of Jiang Lanyi before.

“Ahem. It’s not a spirit beast egg. It’s a demonic beast egg.”

“A demonic beast egg?”

“Mm. Senior Sister Jiang gave it to me. She sensed an affinity with it, so it should be contractable.”

For a Qi Refining cultivator who wanted to contract a demonic beast, a demonic beast egg was the best choice. And when it relied purely on sensing affinity, this was something one could only encounter by chance, not seek out.

Lu Ziqi became envious in an instant. “Song Yuanxi, you really stepped in dog crap luck. Senior Sister Jiang treats you so well.”

“Mm. Senior Sister Jiang has helped me a lot.” Song Yuanxi sighed inwardly.

Lu Ziqi was directly attracted by the demonic beast egg before him and kept circling it. “What demonic beast’s egg is this? There are more and more cracks on it. It’s about to hatch, right? Yuanxi, have you been hatching it recently?”

Now this was awkward.

Song Yuanxi’s expression grew unnatural. “I’ve, well, hatched it a little.”

“Huh?”

“It’s just…”

“Just what?”

Song Yuanxi fell silent. Only after quite a while did he say, “It’s just that I hatched it for a long time, but it wouldn’t hatch. I was baffled. I clearly hatched it properly according to the method recorded in the jade slips from Scripture Pavilion, but it just won’t crack open.”

Because there had been no change after hatching it for so long, he had even smashed it with an artifact-refining hammer. But while this demonic beast eggshell looked covered in cracks, in reality, it was incomparably hard.

It simply could not be broken!

He only thought these words in his heart. Song Yuanxi did not dare say them out loud and embarrass himself.

Lu Ziqi accompanied Song Yuanxi in trying many methods. The cracks on the demonic beast egg increased by one each day, but it still refused to split open.

“I’m afraid this might be a dead egg.” Song Yuanxi even felt that he had no fate with this demonic beast egg.

Lu Ziqi suddenly said, “How about trying body temperature?”

Song Yuanxi looked blank, but Lu Ziqi’s gaze burned brightly. His tone was even excited. “Just like a hen hatching chicks in the mortal world. You tuck this egg against your chest and hold it day and night, keeping it pressed close to your body. Maybe one day it’ll hatch.”

Song Yuanxi: “…”

The thinking pattern of a poor student really was extraordinary.

After saying goodbye to Lu Ziqi, Song Yuanxi returned to Wanhai Peak. He was absolutely determined not to do something so stupid.

Three days later, Song Yuanxi asked Jiang Lanyi for leave and suspended their lessons. He did not leave his little courtyard either, instead nestling in his room while walking around with an egg in his arms.

Eating, drinking, using the toilet, and sleeping, the demonic beast egg never left his body.

“Lu Ziqi, if I can’t hatch this thing, you’re done for!” Song Yuanxi despised his own idiotic behavior while continuing to act like an idiot.

Staying in the courtyard grew stifling, so Song Yuanxi simply began cultivating. He planned to practice the first half of the first layer of the Yin-Yang Art until it became fully familiar.

Spiritual energy flowed to every limb and bone. His body gradually warmed, and Song Yuanxi soon entered meditative absorption. Focused entirely on cultivation, he did not notice at all that the egg in his arms trembled carefully, then the eggshell began to subtly absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

This time, Song Yuanxi’s cultivation session was the longest he had ever spent in meditative absorption. It took a full three months. When he opened his eyes again, the room was covered in dust, and he was filthy too.

He cast a Dust Removal Art to clean the room, then conveniently cast a Dirt Removal Art to clean himself. But he still felt it was not enough, so he took out a brand-new set of Daoist robes and prepared to change.

He had just undone his belt when something around his chest suddenly moved. Only then did Song Yuanxi remember that he still had an egg tucked against him.

“Could it be about to hatch?” Song Yuanxi grew excited and hurriedly fished the egg out. Almost the instant he took it out, the eggshell gave a crisp cracking sound.

“Crack. Crack, crack.”

After almost an entire year, this demonic beast egg had broken!

“What kind of demonic beast will it be? Senior Sister Jiang said it’s avian. I wonder if it’s some kind of crane. It might also be a roc or a peacock. Senior Sister Jiang has always had good luck. Maybe it’s a blue luan or a fire phoenix?”

Song Yuanxi let his imagination run wild, brimming with anticipation. He stood guard beside the demonic beast egg, watching the eggshell split bit by bit…

Then, from inside, a tender yellow little chick crawled out.

Song Yuanxi went directly stupid. Unwilling to give up, he rubbed his eyes and looked more closely. That was right! It was a little yellow chick.

“No way, right? This is fake, right?”

How could it possibly be a chicken? Were there demonic beast chickens? Could it be a first-rank demonic beast, a Yellow Brocade Chicken? But Yellow Brocade Chickens were silly and vacant. They could at most evolve to first rank. They were existences at the very bottom of the demonic beast world’s food chain!

This was killing him. A contracted beast like this was worse than his Big White.

“Chirp, chirp. Chirp, chirp.”

A demonic beast that hatched would automatically contract its host. The moment the little yellow chick saw Song Yuanxi, it felt especially close to him. Twisting its plump little body, it ran forward crookedly.

Taking advantage of Song Yuanxi being stunned, it jumped straight onto his head and pecked his fine hair with its soft beak.

Feeling his scalp itch a little, Song Yuanxi reached up and grabbed the little yellow chick making trouble. He pinched the chick, his mood extremely complicated.

“Why are you a chicken?” At the very least, it should have been a bird.

“Chirp, chirp. Chirp, chirp.”

The little yellow chick did not understand. It only sensed that its host’s mood seemed not very good. It blankly widened its sesame-sized black eyes and blinked.

“Sigh. So stupid.” Song Yuanxi’s face was full of disdain.

“Chirp, chirp. Hungry. Hungry.”

A childish voice suddenly sounded in his sea of consciousness, like an infant who had only just learned to speak. “Hungry. Mother. Hungry.”

Song Yuanxi’s movements stiffened. His expression was incredulous. He stared at the little yellow chick before him and could not help asking tentatively, “That voice. Did you make it?”

How could a newborn demonic beast possibly communicate through the sea of consciousness? Even contracted beasts could at most manage telepathic sensing and mutual emotional perception.

The little yellow chick ignored all this. From the moment it came out of its shell, it felt as if it was about to die. It wanted to eat. It wanted to eat very, very much.

But its host did not give it food. It was so hungry it could not stand it, and finally struggled over to eat its own eggshell.

Song Yuanxi came back to his senses and took out the food he had prepared long ago from his spirit beast bag. The little yellow chick smelled it, and its eyes instantly lit up. It ran over happily to peck at it.

Song Yuanxi lay on the table, staring hesitantly at the palm-sized little chick. Was this really a Yellow Brocade Chicken?

To avoid mistaking it, he took the newborn little yellow chick to ask his senior brothers and senior sisters. He asked several people in a row, and the answer he received was: this was indeed a genuine Yellow Brocade Chicken.

“Junior Brother Song, are you planning to raise it until it’s grown and then eat it? But demonic beast meat doesn’t taste good. Since they’re both chickens, Spirit-Rhyme Tender Chicken meat is still better.”

“Junior Brother Song’s range of edible foods has already expanded to demonic beasts? How impressive. If Junior Brother ever makes delicious demonic beast meat one day, remember to share the method.”

“Junior Brother, be careful when eating chicken. Demonic beast meat contains demonic power. Even if it’s only a first-rank demonic beast, you have to process it carefully, or it’ll harm your body.”

His senior brothers and senior sisters were all sincerely caring for him, but Song Yuanxi did not know how to answer. He could only work hard to maintain his smile.

As for the fact that the little yellow chick was his contracted beast, and that it could communicate with him in his sea of consciousness, he quietly did not mention it.

Since even a Golden Core elder thought it was a Yellow Brocade Chicken, he all the more could not openly state what was strange about this little fellow.

“Mother isn’t in the sect, Father went to the neighboring sect to debate the Dao, Master and Grandfather are both in closed-door cultivation. I can’t very well take a chicken to find the sect master, can I?”

Just imagining that scene made Song Yuanxi feel it was bizarre.

And deep in his heart, he also had his hesitations. He did not want to expose what was special about the little yellow chick.

“All right then. I’ll just treat you as a Yellow Brocade Chicken. Follow me from now on, and I’ll make sure you eat and drink well, Little Yellow!” Song Yuanxi very naturally named it according to its color. In the past, he had named cats and dogs this way too. There was nothing wrong with it.

The little yellow chick nodded, half-understanding. “Little Yellow. Little Yellow. Mother.”

“I’m your father. Call me Father!” Song Yuanxi corrected it.

The little yellow chick nodded and changed its words. “Father. Little Yellow likes Father.”

In the cultivation world, contracted beasts and demonic beasts uniformly called their hosts Master. This was a natural law binding them after the contract barrier formed.

But Song Yuanxi did not know this. He had no experience in this area. A naturally hatched contract was different from an acquired contract, and Song Yuanxi regarded the little yellow chick according to his impressions of birds. After a chick hatched, the first person it saw was him, so treating him as a parent was perfectly reasonable.

He was male. What was wrong with calling him Father?

“Little Yellow, after you finish eating, go stay in the spirit beast bag. Your father is going to cultivate.” After playing with it for a few days, Song Yuanxi’s enthusiasm toward the little yellow chick declined. He still felt cultivation was more interesting.

However, the little yellow chick refused. It liked the outside world more. As for the so-called spirit beast bag, it disliked it very much.

“Chirp, chirp. No. Father bad.” After saying this, it directly turned its backside toward him.

Seeing the little yellow chick’s firm refusal, Song Yuanxi softened. “Fine. If you don’t like going in, then don’t. But I need to go out for a while. Stay obediently in the courtyard and don’t run around, or someone might catch you and stew you.”

He had to make a trip to a Foundation Establishment martial uncle’s place. Bringing a chicken along would seem a little disrespectful.

The little yellow chick nodded cheerfully, tilting its fluffy head as it watched Song Yuanxi leave. Once he was gone, it turned and twisted its plump body as it ran into the room.

“Tasty. Tasty.”

It had been stifled these past few days. Father had hidden something tasty in the room but actually refused to feed it. He really was too much!

The little yellow chick rummaged all over the room and dug out a wine pot that Song Yuanxi had hidden away at the very bottom of a chest. The mouth of the pot was plugged with ebony and sealed very firmly, but the little yellow chick opened it with one light peck of its beak.

The moment the lid opened, dense spiritual energy instantly spread out. It was the Evergreen Song Yuanxi had shamelessly asked Daoist Master Fanjian for.

“So fragrant.” The little yellow chick was very excited. This was definitely the tastiest food in the world.

Song Yuanxi went out once, and when he came back, his treasured little wine was gone. Truly gone. Not a single drop remained.

Beside the wine pot, a little yellow chick lay crookedly on the ground, currently sleeping soundly.

Even in its dreams, it smacked its beak. “Father. Tasty…”

Song Yuanxi’s heart bled. If he had known it would be drunk by a chicken, he never should have been reluctant to leave half a pot of wine behind.

“What kind of rotten chicken are you, even stealing wine to drink? I’ll stew you sooner or later.”

Song Yuanxi cursed as he put the little yellow chick back into the spirit beast bag, then cleaned up the aftermath. As for the speckled bits of chicken droppings all over the courtyard, they ruined his entire mood even further.

“All you do is eat, sleep, sleep, and poop. You useless little thing.”

The veins on Song Yuanxi’s forehead throbbed. But what could he do? It was the contracted beast he had hatched himself. He could only spoil it.

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