doitstory Chapter 532 Hatching
Chapter 532 Hatching
Chapter 532 Hatching
The temperature in the surrounding environment was getting higher and higher, and Wei Xi, trapped inside, felt like she was going crazy.
But there was still no sound. Wei Xi felt as if he had returned to the abyss, his senses once again being deprived by incoherent words.
Tens of thousands of vengeful birds flapped their wings in unison, along with runes, to eliminate all sounds, smells, and spiritual energy in the surrounding area, all in order to speed up the hatching of the chosen egg in the center.
Wei Xi tried to break through several more times, but without exception, his spiritual power was extinguished each time.
But Wei Xi quickly changed her mind and focused on cooling down to save her life—she knew that such a large-scale operation couldn't possibly have no impact on the spiritual energy fluctuations in the vicinity, and the nearby cultivators would eventually notice something was wrong.
There's nothing a Core Formation cultivator can do, nothing a Daoist cultivator can do, and there's that senior who could make Granny Yinchuan submit—there's always a cultivator who can rescue me.
Even if things don't go well, the fellow cultivators on patrol will report her missing later, which will attract the attention of the cultivators to investigate.
Wei Xi's current priority is to stay alive and await reinforcements.
Initially, Wei Xi attempted to induce localized snowfall, but the snowflakes were completely obliterated by the runes surrounding the Wraith Bird.
Then, the indomitable Wei Xi kept casting water spells on herself. About 30% of the cold water that came out was able to be poured on her body, but because the temperature was too high, the cold water quickly turned into hot water, making her situation even more difficult.
If it weren't for the rune of the Wraith Bird, Wei Xi would have burned himself sooner or later.
At the critical moment, Wei Xi finally remembered that he was still wearing the [Enemy Wind] armor. After weighing the pros and cons, he finally made up his mind to tear open the Taoist robe and carve a large number of sixteen lake and sea patterns on the blank space of the soft armor, hoping that this set of water attribute runes could save his life.
Wei Xi's usual practice paid off. In the critical moment, he didn't make a single mistake and drew a complete set of runes smoothly, without being affected by the size of the drawing space.
【Enemy Wind】is truly a top-tier protective artifact. Even when facing the quirky female bird, it still performs reliably: once Wei Xi finishes drawing a picture, it can be activated. Combined with the retrospective mechanism brought by the Phoenix Jade Silkworm, it actually managed to suppress the temperature around Wei Xi's body.
Wei Xi breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't held back at all just now; the runes drawn by a Core Formation cultivator should be able to withstand such a powerful attack for the time it takes to brew a cup of tea.
That's enough; Wei Xi is only worried about his soft armor now.
Although the soft armor is not afraid of random runes, Wei Xi knows that this ability to rewind comes at a price.
The reason is simple: the Jade Silkworm of the Phoenix can repair jade because it eats well! This insect lives near the spiritual vein and feeds on spiritual liquid! Otherwise, Elder Xianhua would have caught a pair and raised them long ago, even if no one else mentioned it.
Wei Xi was 80% confident that, with each rewind, the soft armor would need to be soaked in spiritual liquid for maintenance.
In other words, every time Wei Xi scribbles on the soft armor, he has to pay a lot of spirit stones later.
This was not a case of Xian Hua being careless; on the contrary, it was a combination he had carefully chosen for his beloved student.
First, it's very cost-effective to use spirit stones to restore armor to its peak condition; second, training a weapon refiner is essentially burning through spirit stones; and third... the renowned Elder Flower is certainly not short of spirit stones now.
Of course, Wei Xi, the poor girl, was only secretly heartbroken. If she had a different set of protective gear, she would have just fainted.
"It looks like this egg is about to hatch..." Wei Xi clenched his fist, secretly calculating in his heart: "If it hatches into a bird, then I'll have no choice but to fight them!"
"Legend has it that the Wraith Bird originated from a human. Who knows if these birds, which have multiplied to this day, aren't forcibly fused together with living people?"
Having been unlucky for a long time, Wei Xi was prepared to fight to the death and did not consider the possibility that these resentful female birds were there to find her.
Fortunately, before the fish and nets in Weixi were destroyed, the flock of female birds increased the frequency of their wingbeats and moved closer to each other, trying to use more heat to incubate their eggs.
Now free from the heat, Wei Xi was finally able to observe this behavior up close.
Wei Xi discovered that each Wraith Bird had several long feathers on its wings, and these feathers almost instinctively maintained the same mode of movement, with tiny bursts of spiritual energy emanating from them. In other words, these special feathers did not participate in the incubation of the eggs, but rather maintained a huge network of runes, constantly reversing and erasing any trace of the flock.
Considering the origin of the Wraith Bird, this kind of monster that retains some human bloodline may also be able to use spiritual power?
Or is it that their population still retains some vital energy and physical structure?
Wei Xi had no reference in this regard and had no idea what a person would retain after turning into a monster.
However, the fact that the first generation fisherwoman and the neighbor's child could withstand the power of the Lone Spring Bird suggests that these two might be cultivators, and thus their Qi Palace and physical constitution were passed down to their descendants through bloodline?
"Every single one of the Wraith Birds in sight has these long feathers. How is the bloodline of cultivators so widespread? Even immortal cultivation families can't do it, so how did these reclusive birds manage to do it?"
"And...why are these birds risking their lives to expose themselves before my eyes?"
Wei Xi didn't think she had the discerning eye to spot the strongest egg at a glance. Moreover, it seemed the flock of Wraith Birds had come prepared; the tens of thousands of birds coordinated perfectly, preventing her from finding a weak point to launch a surprise attack.
Let alone tens of thousands of birds, even with just Lingyin, Wei Xi sometimes couldn't control it.
Now that things have come to this, Wei Xi has no choice but to consider the possibility that the whole thing was aimed at her.
The good news is that he is indeed out of immediate danger; the bad news is that Wei Xi has no way to escape immediately and can only be at the mercy of the birds.
As he pondered, cracks appeared on the surface of the bird's egg. The number of cracks gradually increased and widened, and a pale yellow beak emerged as Wei Xi gazed at it.
Compared to the adult bird, this beak is as tender as a delicate flower on a spring branch, showing no sign of its future ferocity.
The fledgling bird struggled to peck open the eggshell, and the runes surrounding it gradually became the same as those of the adult bird. However, the effectiveness of the runes was still unstable, and the surrounding space was sometimes wrinkled and sometimes flat.
Faced with this scene, Wei Xi frowned slightly—she felt that this scene was somewhat familiar, but she knew without calling up [Annual Rings] that she had never experienced anything similar.
The chick's determination far exceeded Wei Xi's expectations; it hatched after only a few pecks.
The flock of vengeful birds simultaneously stopped flapping their wings, with only their long feathers still drawing runes.
The newly hatched chicks had weak wings and could not fly without the support of the wind, so they fell straight down.
While still pondering, Wei Xi immediately reached out to catch the young, resentful female bird.
The warm, damp baby bird landed in Wei Xi's palm, and she finally felt relieved.
The innocent fledglings stretched out their heads like a celestial bird, affectionately rubbing against Wei Xi's fingertips.
"You idiot, you almost fell to your death..."
A shadow briefly fell over Wei Xi's eyes. She looked up and saw that it was the leader bird.
The man and the beast gazed at each other, seemingly across endless time and space, yet also as if it were their first meeting.
After an unknown amount of time, the leader bird once again stretched out its beak and plucked a hair from Wei Xi's head to feed to the hungry chicks.
Then the leader bird picked up the chick, nodded slightly to Wei Xi, and then flapped its wings and flew away.
Just as they appeared, the once dense flock of Wraith Birds vanished from Wei Xi's sight in the blink of an eye, disappearing into the clear night sky.
Under the bright moonlight, Wei Xi knelt on the ground, as if he were having a long dream.
But the lingering warmth in her palm told Wei Xi that none of this was an illusion.
"Quickly report to Elder Xianhua that the unidentified object that rammed the cloud boat has disappeared!"