Chapter 221: Brief Earthquake, The King’s Egg

Qi Suian settled down in this forbidden zone, immersing himself in his research on the Level 1 Fire Seed: King of Hundred Beasts.

He paid no mind to the situation in the outside world. Having progressed sequentially through level two, three, four, and five fire seeds, his work on the level one seed showed no signs of bottlenecking.

Although this might have cost him extra time in the early stages, the rewards had been more than sufficient.

It wasn’t until the ground began to shake slightly that Qi Suian stopped his work.

"An earthquake?" Qi Suian asked after steadying the experimental equipment.

"Epicenter detected in the direction of the forbidden zone. High probability that your protagonist’s halo is assisting you."

"Magnitude climbing rapidly. Preliminary estimate: 9.9."

"No way, that strong???"

Qi Suian’s expression shifted. "Then why didn’t you react at... oh, right. You don’t have the corresponding module. Detection is difficult for you."

The number might seem small—a single digit—but a quake of this magnitude was no laughing matter.

Neither Qi Suian nor the Tai Sui God possessed the ability to single-handedly defy a force of nature.

Therefore, upon learning the magnitude, the Tai Sui God immediately stored all the equipment in its Subspace Pocket.

It then activated the Wind Master aviation system at maximum power and shot straight into the sky.

Not long after Qi Suian had departed, a violent tremor erupted.

The immense energy released by the earthquake could tear the earth’s crust apart, forming visible fault lines.

These faults spanned for kilometers, even further, permanently altering the geological structure. Qi Suian could see it all clearly from the sky.

But right now, he had no time to worry about the aftermath of the terrifying natural disaster; the Tai Sui God was heading toward the forbidden zone.

Even from outside the forbidden zone, he could viscerally feel the terror of the earthquake. The zone itself, being the epicenter, must have suffered even more severe damage.

As a Wasteland King rooted deep underground, it had to be heavily injured.

This was his opportunity. If he could seize it, he could capture the creature and turn it into raw material for his work.

Just as the AI had said, this was an opportunity granted by his protagonist’s halo; it couldn’t possibly be such a coincidence otherwise.

As for the principle behind it, Qi Suian had no idea. He wasn’t a geology researcher, after all.

Besides, his understanding of luck was practically zero. His own power was too low to have any means of observing it, let alone studying it.

He sped all the way there, but the earthquake had already stopped before his arrival. It was as if it had simply rolled over to continue sleeping; even the aftershocks had quieted down.

Upon arrival, he was met with a scene of utter devastation inside the forbidden zone.

A vast number of cyan crystals had churned up from underground to the surface, most of them shattered.

Yet, they remained active, a testament to the seemingly tenacious life force of the Wasteland King.

Qi Suian didn’t land; he was still searching. This wasn’t what he was looking for.

He had no intention of collecting everything, as it would be unrealistic.

There was too much, and the pieces were too large. More importantly, the creature was dying.

This Wasteland King had taken the full brunt of a brief, 9.9 magnitude earthquake. It was certain there was no possibility of its survival.

What remained alive were merely parts of its body. Having been completely shattered, it had no chance of recovering.

The power level of the Wasteland World was not yet high enough for an individual Extraordinary being to survive a direct confrontation with such a terrifying natural disaster.

Therefore, Qi Suian was certain that what his protagonist’s halo had given him was likely not this Wasteland King, but some other substitute.

For example, the offspring of this Wasteland King.

"Anomaly detected to the southwest. Proceed to investigate...?"

The thought had barely crossed his mind when the AI gave its timely alert.

"Let’s go take a look!" Qi Suian figured this had to be the opportunity; otherwise, an anomaly wouldn’t have appeared the very moment he thought about it.

The Tai Sui God immediately drew closer, and soon, he spotted a cyan, crystalline organ resembling some kind of bizarre mouth, twitching nonstop.

It seemed to be trying to transport something from beneath the ground to the surface.

Just as Qi Suian arrived, a cyan jade egg, roughly the size of a person, was spat out.

When it landed, the impact made a sound of something extremely hard.

After spitting out the jade egg, the bizarre crystalline organ withered. All its activity faded rapidly, and its life force gradually dissipated along with it.

This phenomenon spread like a plague through all the severed tissues of the Wasteland King’s body. In about three minutes, the Wasteland King was completely dead.

Seeing this, Qi Suian finally approached the jade egg.

Its surface appeared perfectly smooth, but a closer look revealed tightly packed, minuscule tendrils that occasionally gave a slight squirm.

Furthermore, they began to extend at an extremely slow speed, as if the egg were a seed taking root where it had landed.

Without external interference, it would have returned to the earth, developed once more, and eventually grown into the same Wasteland King that had just died.

’I can’t tell if this is an offspring or a reincarnation for now.’ Qi Suian couldn’t make a definitive judgment, but he was certain of one thing: he had gotten his hands on the Wasteland King.

’Sure enough, when in doubt, just rely on the protagonist’s halo.’

As he thought this, Qi Suian forcefully pulled the jade egg from the ground.

In just that short amount of time, its tendrils had already burrowed about two centimeters into the soil—an incredible speed.

After being pulled from the earth, the tendrils at the base of the jade egg began to squirm frantically, as if trying to take root again.

’Just like a sprouting potato.’ Qi Suian thought it bore a striking resemblance.

And by "sprouting," he didn’t mean one that had just started. He meant a potato that had been left to sprout in a room for a month, unable to find a suitable place to take root.

It might not have covered the entire room, but the sight was still visually shocking.

After struggling for nearly a minute, the tendrils gradually retracted, and the egg returned to its smooth, jade-like appearance.

’Another problem. I’ll have to erase its consciousness.’

At this point, Qi Suian was leaning more toward the theory that the jade egg was the reincarnation of the Wasteland King.

Otherwise, a complete newbie wouldn’t have retracted its tendrils so quickly. It was precisely because it was experienced that it could assess the external situation.

It had acted to preserve itself, waiting for an opportunity to develop and grow.

Of course, it was also possible it was a genuine newbie. But regardless of which it was, its consciousness had to be erased.

Leaving it would undoubtedly cause problems down the line.

Qi Suian could have actually tried to use his protagonist’s halo to tame this Wasteland King and keep it as a pet.

For example, if he offered it some roasted meat, it might have just pledged its allegiance on the spot.

Unfortunately, Qi Suian didn’t have the time to build a good relationship with it.

Therefore, turning it directly into a Fire Seed was the most convenient and quickest path to enhancement.

Besides, the Wasteland King was currently in a Schrödinger’s state of being either a reset main account or a brand-new alt.

Either state meant that if Qi Suian wanted it to reach its full potential, he would have to invest in training it.

It would require an investment of resources and time before he could see any returns, and Qi Suian simply didn’t have the capacity to support that.

Raising the Tai Sui God, a massive Gold-devouring Beast, was already enough of a headache. Raising another Wasteland King on top of that would probably be the death of him.

How was he supposed to get any stronger then?

After temporarily sealing the jade egg, Qi Suian moved on to his next plan: scavenging.

Although most of the Wasteland King’s shattered body was buried underground, a considerable amount remained on the surface.

Even though its activity and life force had vanished upon death, the body itself was still an extremely high-energy fuel.

Even if it wasn’t enough to help the Tai Sui God evolve, it could still significantly boost its evolutionary progress.

This wasn’t just a pittance; it was a sizable haul. It might be less than a whole beast, but it was a welcome bounty.

The main advantage was convenience. The stuff was just scattered on the ground, not running or jumping, just waiting to be collected.

It wasn’t like other living fuel sources, which would struggle and resist when caught.

The Tai Sui God set to work, while Qi Suian observed the sealed jade egg.

It wasn’t Qi Suian’s job to gather the fuel; the AI could control the Tai Sui God to do it.

With the aid of its reconnaissance network, there was no fear of missing any pieces.

As for the parts of the body that were underground, he could only wait until he finished his research to see if there was an opportunity to retrieve them.

After all, excavation was a massive undertaking, and the returns might not justify the cost.

Once he was stronger, he could just hunt other Wasteland Kings or even wipe out a Level 1 Sanctuary. Both the efficiency and the rewards would be far greater than digging up pieces of a corpse.

’It seems to have sensed that the environment is unsuitable for its development, so it’s entered a deep hibernation.’

’In terms of intelligence, it’s far superior to the consciousness within the King of Hundred Beasts Fire Seed, which means erasing it will be much trickier.’

Qi Suian, however, didn’t try to rely on his protagonist’s halo again.

Even without knowing the principles behind how his protagonist’s halo worked, he understood that for him to obtain the jade egg, the halo must have expended something.

Especially to trigger such a massive earthquake, it would likely need some time to recover.

He didn’t believe his protagonist’s halo could ignore the law of conservation of energy; at most, it used the principle of leverage to achieve a great outcome from a small input.

If he were to keep using it and overdraw his luck, he might just suffer a stretch of bad luck in the near future.

It would be manageable in combat, since the AI could now make predictions, but it would be a huge problem for his research. He might face constant failures.

While research was certainly founded on one’s own knowledge and abilities, it couldn’t escape the influence of luck.

’I’ll have to get the Tai Sui God to empower me with ’feast energy’ to crush its consciousness with my Martial Dao Will’s Evil Dragon.’

’Thankfully, it’s just a jade egg right now. If it were a complete Wasteland King, even my protagonist’s halo would have its work cut out for it.’

Because it had essentially restarted, its consciousness wasn’t overwhelmingly strong. If it were the original Wasteland King, Qi Suian wouldn’t have been able to crush its consciousness.

That’s why he had to rely on his protagonist’s halo for help.

And what if his actions were overly reliant on his protagonist’s halo?

When you were barely strong enough to stand on your own, you had no business dreaming about fighting against heaven and earth.

Being independent didn’t mean refusing all help. Besides, it was his own innate talent.

It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.

Qi Suian was a pragmatist. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone through the three phases of the Oblique Wind and Drizzle Skill, the Dragon and Tiger Primordial Force, and the Seven Elements Refining Technique.

If something better came along in the future, even the Seven Elements Refining Technique would be consumed and integrated as fodder for his progress.

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