Devouring The Heavens

“The longer it takes for the eggs to gestate, the more powerful the beasts would be, so you must be careful when choosing your egg. Some of the eggs will take a long time to hatch and you will be dead long before it hatches, unless you can provide the egg with enough essence and qi to shorten their gestation.” Wanchou explained while leading the way.

The mountains were rich with qi. With the pearl given by Yin Zhenluo, Xuanyuan could feel an abundance of qi surrounding him. It was a pure stream of Qi that slowly purified every corner of his body. His pores were opened and absorbing the qi into his body, through his veins and into his bone marrows.

Since he stepped into the wild realm, Greed gave him “The Way of Refining Marrows”. His bone marrows seem to have a life of their own and immediately started to refine the qi, but it was a slow process. According to Greed, Xuanyuan would need to work a hundred times harder than normal people. The Body of All Creation was powerful, but it was also more difficult to refine than ordinary bodies. For example, he wasn’t able to enter the realm of the wild fighters just by taking a wild elixir, unlike other practitioners at the same level.

Inside his mind, “The Heavenly Dragon Refining Marrows” had also appeared. Xuanyuan felt a warmth rise in his heart, knowing that this was Yin Zhenluo’s gift to him. However, he was unhappy with the devouring technique that hadn’t transformed at all.

“Greedy old bugger, didn’t you say when I entered the wild realm, the devouring technique would transform? Did you lie to me? My fighting Qi gets used very quickly during battle, if it doesn’t transform…”

“What a bunch of crap! Why would I lie to you? The amount of Qi you have now is ten times that of a normal wild fighter. Why are you still complaining? Have you ever seen a wild fighter that can activate three pieces of upper rank earth instruments simultaneously? You’re out of line, boy. I said, when you reach the peak of the wild realm and refine all your marrows, there will be a great transformation.” Greed was furious at Xuanyuan’s accusation. “When you reach that point, you’ll see what I mean. A kid like you would never understand.”

Xuanyuan couldn’t help but laugh in his mind when he sensed Greed’s anger.

“Stop laughing! Go take those five million king coins you’ve got there and use them to buy me some fighting stones, crystals and jades…”

Xuanyuan immediately stopped laughing and grew serious.

“What the… You greedy old bugger. That’s all the money I possess. How can you commit such daylight robbery?”

Now it was Greed’s turn to laugh, “Well, if you anger any grandmaster fighters in the future, I won’t have the power to intervene even if you’re dying. It clearly doesn’t matter if you die, right? Your beautiful master will just continue with her arranged marriage and forget about you.”

“Damn it…”

While they were bantering, Xuanyuan, Wanchou and Fung Lie had arrived in a place called the Gestation Room. Inside were many pure fighting crystals spread out in an orderly fashion. On top of each crystal were eggs of all different sizes and colours.

“Younger brother Xuanyuan, choose the one that you would like to have.” Wan Chou knew that Xuanyuan was about to become an inner disciple of the Sect, so he was already calling him brother. However, he was the only inner disciple that was ever allowed to pick his own egg. All the beasts inside the room, could not be bought with money alone. But Xuanyuan was recommended by Fung Lie, so it was a completely different story.

Xuanyuan walked up to an egg the size of a human head. He could feel the intense fiery life essence which pulsated inside the egg.

Wan Chou brightened up and smiled, “This is the egg of a fire crane. It contains the bloodlines of a Phoenix and a Spiritual Crane. It will be a very powerful beast when it hatches.”

Xuanyuan shook his head slightly. He then approached a very colourful, large egg.

“This is the Seven-coloured Python’s egg. It contained the bloodline of a Heavenly Python and a Seven-sky Dragon. It’ll take a lot of pure fighting jades and crystals in order to hatch it, but it would be almost as strong as Fung Lie’s Dragon Scale Horse.”

Xuanyuan was moved, but he decided to take a look at other eggs before making his decision.

There were at least eight hundred eggs inside the room. Every single one of them contained an extraordinary beast.

He moved closer to a black egg that was the size of a bucket. The crystal underneath was visibly losing its brightness over time. The egg had almost absorbed all of the power inside the crystal.

Wanchou got a bit nervous when he saw Xuanyuan approach the egg, “This kid has a set of good eyes, just like Fung Lie.”

Xuanyuan looked at Wan Chou innocently and asked, “Brother Wan, what’s in this one?”

“Ah, this. It’s a beast descended from a Basaltic Turtle and a Heavenly Dragon. It will be extremely powerful. However, it might even take another thousand years to hatch this egg. You might not even be able to hatch it, even if you spent every coin that you earn in this lifetime.”

Xuanyuan felt like he was even more drawn to this egg. He touched it lightly and thought that it would be great if he could have a beast as powerful as the Dragon Scale Horse.

“Brother Xuanyuan, don’t worry about the jades and crystals you need. I can give you everything you need…” Fung Lie said, teasing Wan Chou. He knew that Wan Chou wouldn’t want Xuanyuan to take away this egg.

“Then I’ll pick…” Xuanyuan suddenly felt a force pulling the Qi from inside his body. The force was echoing with the origin of memories. Greed howled from inside Xuanyuan’s mind, “Don’t pick that one! Follow that feeling! Quick! Listen to me!”

Greed sounded anxious. He could also feel the strange sensation, so Xuanyuan pulled his hand back and walked away from the egg.

“I’ll take a look around.”

Fung Lie frowned at this decision, but he respected that this was Xuanyuan’s choice. Wan Chou, on the other hand, was very relieved.

Xuanyuan followed the force that was absorbing the Qi. Since he practiced the devouring technique, he could sense and absorb the Qi from the air with each breathe, but other people could only feel the presence of Qi when in an environment rich with Qi. However, the force seemed to sense Xuanyuan’s presence, it seemed like it was calling out from the darkness. It was strangely intriguing.

Finally, Xuanyuan moved closer to an egg the same size as a grown man curled into a ball. The entire shell was ink black and covered in what looked like rust, it looked like rusty black iron – just like his dagger. There was a giant crystal positioned beneath the egg which was filled with a dense energy.

Wan Chou smiled brightly when Xuanyuan walked closer to the egg. “Brother Xuanyuan, what good eyes you have. This egg has been here for over a thousand years, so even I don’t know what it is. It must be something extremely powerful once it hatches!”

Fung Lie rolled his eyes. He wanted to say something, but he didn’t want to interfere Xuanyuan’s choice. The egg was well-known, it had been here for over a thousand years and it always absorbed the power from the crystals much slower than other eggs. No one in the Sect had any idea what beast was inside.

Xuanyuan found it odd that an egg had stayed here for over a thousand years. Greed screamed frantically, “Boy, this is it! This is it!”

“Can you quiet down? What’s with all the fuss. What is it?” Xuanyuan said with a calm demeanour, but in fact, he was also very excited.

“This is the one to choose. Cut the crap.” Greed cried.

There was no other choice, so Xuanyuan nodded at Wanchou, “Brother Wan, this is the egg that I will choose.”

Wan Chou laughed, “Great! It’s a great choice!”

Fung Lie opened his mouth to give his opinion, but when Xuanyuan touched the black egg, the egg started violently shaking. An enormous force echoed with the power of Xuanyuan’s devouring technique. In an instant, the giant crystal grew dim as the power was absorbed by the egg to the last drop. The next moment, the crystal shattered into a fine powder.

Wan Chou and Fung Lie were both left speechless. They couldn’t figure out what just happened.