Chapter 12: Divine Beast’s Egg
Li Hao, Fang Mu, and Xiao Fan went to the place where the dragon should have fallen, but they didn’t find the dragon.
“There’s no mistaking it—this is where it fell…” Fang Mu noticed the traces of a lightning strike that burned the ground in front of them. In addition, there is a large crack on the ground, which they believed to be the result of the fall of the dragon or the golden lightning.
Xiao Fan looked around but found no sign of the dragon’s presence.
“How strange. If this dragon left, then there should be a trace to be seen…” Xiao Fan couldn’t find any trace of the dragon, as if it had suddenly disappeared like smoke.
“Perhaps the chicken—uh, the dragon—went home, huh?” Li Hao commented, squatting while watching Fang Mu and Xiao Fan.
“Its house? Hao’er, you know the home of this dragon?” Fang Mu raised his eyebrows.
Li Hao then told them that he once, out of curiosity, asked Uncle Liu who used to live with him to see the chicken that woke them up every morning.
Uncle Liu then took Li Hao to a large cave, but before seeing the contents of the cave, Li Hao was frightened because a loud roar suddenly sounded. Since that day, Li Hao had never approached that place.
Fang Mu asked Li Hao to take them to the cave in question, and it turned out that the cave was not too far from where they were.
The size of the cave was indeed very large; Fang Mu and Xiao Fan were stunned to see it. Neither of them would be surprised if the dragon indeed lived in it.
“Fang Mu, we will wait here. You try to check if the dragon is inside.” Xiao Fan pulled Li Hao to his side.
“Hmm? Why should I check it out?” Fang Mu protested.
“Don’t you righteous cultivators always say life must be lived with courage? Now is the time to prove it.”
“Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden? Since when did you believe in that?”
Fang Mu and Xiao Fan started arguing again, causing Li Hao to scratch his head awkwardly. After five minutes of staring at the two, Li Hao stepped towards the mouth of the cave alone.
“There are no dragons here…”
Li Hao’s words awakened Fang Mu and Xiao Fan. The two looked at each other for a moment before both looked down in shame. The two then followed Li Hao and inspected the completely uninhabited cave.
“Do you feel what I feel?” Fang Mu glanced at Xiao Fan.
“Yes, this place has been inhabited for quite some time by extremely powerful beings…”
Fang Mu and Xiao Fan could sense the remnants of the qi waves within the cave. These waves indicated that the creatures that lived within had at least the strength of the peak of Nascent Soul.
“Teacher Fang, Teacher Xiao, I found something!”
Li Hao, who entered the cave deeper, shouted loudly, causing Fang Mu and Xiao Fan to rush after him.
“This…” Fang Mu and Xiao Fan froze when they saw what Li Hao had found: an egg that was half the size of Li Hao’s body.
“Teacher, is this egg edible? I’ve never seen an egg this big…” Li Hao touched the egg with his finger.
“No, it’s too precious to be eaten. It’s probably a Divine Beast egg.”
“Divine Beasts?”
“We’ll explain later. Let’s get this egg out of here.” Xiao Fan grabbed the egg carefully after confirming it was still alive.
***
Li Hao and his two teachers left the cave with the egg they found, an egg that had a black shell and dragon-like scales on them. When the three were quite far from the cave, Li Hao again asked about the Divine Beasts.
“In the world of cultivators, there are beasts that can absorb qi in the body. They are divided into three main types, namely Spirit Beasts, Demonic Beasts, and Dao Beasts…” Xiao Fan began to explain.
Demonic Beasts were creatures that gathered qi from nature or prey on creatures that have qi. In a Demonic Beast’s body, there was a crystal known as the Demonic Core.
Demonic Beasts had abilities equivalent to Forging Qi cultivators. Stronger Demonic Beasts were called Demonic Lord Beasts that had abilities ranging from Foundation Realm to Core Formation, while Demonic Beasts capable of reaching the equivalent of Nascent Soul were called Demonic King Beasts.
In the last few hundred years, beast cultivators managed to tame and train demonic beasts, but instinctively, they still hated and wanted to kill humans.
“The creatures that we eat every day are Demonic Beasts, but not all Demonic Beasts can reach the level of a Demonic Lord Beast or a Demonic King Beast. Depending on the type, their potential is also limited. The bears or wild boars you hunt, for example, won’t have more power than level 9 Forging Qi…”
Unlike Demonic Beasts, Spirit Beasts were creatures born with Spirit Roots, living in groups with their own kind. Because they had a Spirit Root, they were more skilled at absorbing qi and could use Daoist Magic, which is generally used by human cultivators.
“Depending on the breed, when it reaches a certain level of practice, Spirit Beasts can form Spirit Cores. Spirit Beasts possessing Spirit Cores can transform into humans…”
If Spirit Beasts turned into humans, then they didn’t look any different from normal humans. Demonic Beasts could actually transform into humans as well when their practice reaches the peak of Nascent Soul, but Demonic Beasts that took on the human form would still have a small part that was their true form.
Spirit Beasts were more commonly kept as pets by Beast Cultivators, but the number of Spirit Beasts continued to decline, which forced Beast Cultivators to start taming Demonic Beasts.
“Dao Beasts are Spirit Beasts that live in the Pocket Realm. Their existence is more complicated to explain, so I will tell you about it another time. Now is the time to answer your question about Divine Beasts…”
Between Spirit Beasts and Demonic Beasts, there were some rare types of creatures that were believed to be able to evolve to a power that surpassed Nascent Souls. Spirit Beasts or Demonic Beasts that possessed this kind of potential were known as Divine Beasts.
“Divine Beasts are Spirit Beasts or Demonic Beasts that have surpassed Nascent Soul. Currently in the Eastern Star Continent, there are around a hundred Spirit Beasts and Demonic Beasts that have the potential to become Divine Beasts…” Fang Mu then pointed at the egg in Xiao Fan’s hand.“If this egg is a dragon egg, then it will be one of the future Divine Beast candidates.”
