After sending off Linno and Zhang Yin, the Main Peak Mountain Gate closed almost permanently.
“So, what have you two been up to these past two months?” Zhu Yeqing asked curiously.
“Playing games, eating, sleeping.”
Shrugs.
“As long as you’re back,” Zhu Yeqing said happily, helping us tidy up our beds. Sister Xinyue was here too, helping lay out the quilts.
“There’s an event coming up,” the Vermilion Bird Mentor paused at the doorway, adjusted his glasses, and said,
“You two need to catch up on your lessons, especially Yun Luo Xian. If you don’t put more effort into studying Fairy Spirit Power, you’ll never grow a tail in this lifetime.”
How cruel, bringing up something so heartbreaking just as I got back.
Wuwu.
The Vermilion Bird Mentor is too ruthless!
“I missed you two so much!” Sister Xinyue hooked her arms around Cluru and me, one on each side, her emotions barely contained.
“I thought you’d really dropped out and weren’t coming back!”
“There, there, we’re back now… How have things been lately? Any danger?”
“Mm… you could say so.” Xinyue shrugged. “There have been more and more incidents related to Kun lately. We often have to rush out on emergency missions in the middle of class.”
“Why are there more incidents?” I was puzzled. “Wasn’t Qiongqi already caught?”
“Qiongqi was caught, yes, but this time it’s not the work of some hidden mastermind. It’s simply a matter of species clashing…”
Oh.
Like Wuzhiqi, for example—though it means no harm, it’s naturally combative and has a short temper.
So when these monkeys show up in the city, they’re bound to cause trouble.
Just like those spoiled delinquent monkeys on Emei Mountain.
Then there are the mysterious ancient barnacles brought in with the tides.
Their reproductive abilities are so strong, you can’t even eat them fast enough.
They cover the beaches and the undersides of boats.
They float back upstream, clinging to bridge piers, blocking up the river.
That’s caused the river level to rise, flooding riverside homes.
“There are all sorts of troublesome things like that. All because the Kun has gotten too close to land,” Xinyue sighed.
“If this keeps up, coastal cities will be eaten away bit by bit, submerged in the water, until they’re nothing but legends like Atlantis—a sunken myth.”
Such a colossal creature, even its breathing can stir up hurricanes.
Just as ants are invisible beneath a human’s walking feet.
“We need to find a way to get Senior Kun back into the sea, or sooner or later, the entire coastline will be eroded.”
Hmm…
I suddenly remembered, back when the Kun’s landfall issue was brought up, the Vermilion Bird Mentor said—the Kun had come to observe a Ceremony.
So what Ceremony was so captivating for the Kun?
Once it’s seen it, will it leave?
“Master!” Cluru suddenly called out to me in a soft voice.
Her cheeks were tinged with a faint blush.
I leaned my ear closer.
Cluru whispered, “My stomach feels swollen…”
A chill ran down my spine instantly.
Could it be that… she’s going to…
“It feels like my Golden Core is about to burst.”
Huh?!
Not Fairy Spirit Power?
“Your Golden Core’s about to burst… no way, so soon! Forming a Nascent Soul?!”
Cluru is about to reach the Nascent Soul Stage!
Forming a Nascent Soul isn’t about giving birth—it’s the manifestation of a cultivator’s own power, a symbol of profound attainment.
When the Golden Core shatters and gives birth to the Nascent Soul embryo, not only does strength improve, but it also marks a fundamental transformation to a new level of being.
Because the Nascent Soul is a pure, innate fetus—it’s a cultivator’s future body.
The stage after Nascent Soul is to shed the mortal body, transforming the Nascent Soul into a new self—Divine Transformation.
And the new Nascent Soul body has infinite potential and limitless possibilities.
I could even shape nine tails for myself!
“Looks like your talent is better than mine,” I said with a hint of envy.
But it’s normal, really—everyone I’ve met since I started cultivating seems to have more talent than me.
But it’s fine.
Cluru would never harm me.
“How do you form a Nascent Soul?”
“No rush, I haven’t even got my pills ready yet. You go first,” I said.
“Also, watch more videos about childbirth and egg incubation—those will help with forming a Nascent Soul.”
Childbirth? Egg incubation?
Talking about that, we couldn’t help but think of that fridge full of crystal eggs.
“Alright, I’ll go watch them with you.” It was time to do something productive.
“Mm…” Cluru nodded shyly, her cheeks turning slightly red.
What are you blushing for, you teapot-bubble!
.
After returning to school, there weren’t any assignments for us right away.
So Cluru and I headed to the Egg University Immortal Spirit Research and Incubation Center.
The Eight-Trap Professor was there, and looked pleasantly surprised to see us:
“You’re back?!”
“Mm… Professor, could you take us to observe the Spirit Egg Incubation Base? We’re really curious about the process.”
“I didn’t know there was anything left in the world that could make little Luo Xian curious!” the Eight-Trap Professor joked. “Come, let me show you around.”
The Eight-Trap Professor led the way.
“You’ve probably seen the whole building from outside—a giant egg-shaped structure.”
We nodded our little heads in unison.
“Legend says this place is actually the egg of a mysterious immortal spirit. I can assure you, that’s true.”
The Eight-Trap Professor said this with great pride.
I wholeheartedly agreed, because just walking into the Incubation Building, I could feel a gentle, soothing, magical energy.
Maybe that’s the secret to Egg University’s incubation success.
“The process of incubating spirit eggs is the same as for ordinary beast eggs: maintaining a constant temperature and humidity.”
The Eight-Trap Professor lifted the lid of a Constant Temperature Box just a little, slid a sprayer through the gap, and misted some water inside.
The box’s humidity reading immediately ticked up.
“Humidity keeps the egg membrane from hardening due to dryness, and that membrane is the culprit behind most young spirit eggs dying prematurely.”
Oh—! Humidity is important!
I made a mental note.
“Depending on the species, humidity is best kept between 70% and 80%, and temperature should be constant, between 37 and 39 degrees.”
I see.
I raised my hand to ask a question.
“So, what are the ideal temperature and humidity for octopus eggs and fox eggs? Or rather, if an octopus and a fox had a baby together, a fox-octopus egg?”
“…What kind of nonsense is that,” the Eight-Trap Professor was stunned.
“Octopuses are oviparous and foxes are viviparous! Even if spiritification gave them both egg-laying habits, they can’t cross reproductive isolation… not to mention species—they’re not even from the same biological class!”
“If it were possible?” I pressed earnestly.
“I can’t even imagine,” the Eight-Trap Professor facepalmed.
“That kind of cross-species leap is too wild—if it happened, it’d overturn the whole history of genetics!”
So puzzling.
What’s the deal with those eggs in the fridge, anyway?
“Mm—”
As we were listening to the Eight-Trap Professor’s detailed explanation, Cluru suddenly bent over in pain.
“What’s wrong?!”
I quickly supported Cluru, placing my hand over her dantian, infusing spirit power to probe inside.
“I don’t know, it feels so strange…”
Cluru clenched her teeth, sweat beading on her forehead.
She looked up at the massive eggshell ceiling.
“It’s like… this egg… this eggshell…”
“It’s…”
“Calling to me!”