Chapter 312 - 298: Alien’s Egg
All around, the grotesque corpses of demon beasts and wild animals lay scattered.
Their manner of death was utterly horrifying.
Without exception, each corpse had a terrifying hole blown outward from the chest. It was as if something had violently burst forth from within their bodies, leaving a gruesome mess of mangled flesh and blood.
As he observed his surroundings, he tried to move and sit up, but then his expression changed.
He discovered that he was tightly bound by a layer of sticky, translucent, thread-like mucus. The stuff was incredibly tough; no matter how hard he struggled, he could barely move.
’Tsk, it even has a binding effect?’ Ji clicked his tongue. Unflustered, he opened his item bar, rummaged around for a moment, and pulled out a small vial. It was the "Strong Dissolving Liquid" (High Quality), made specifically for dealing with binding traps.
He painstakingly dripped the liquid onto his body. The tough mucus immediately met its match, letting out a SIZZLE as it dissolved into disgusting pools of pus.
Once free, he habitually looked inward to check himself for any strange debuffs. That’s when he saw something that made his eye twitch uncontrollably.
Near his Dantian, a faintly pulsating egg was curled up, firmly entrenched. He immediately cast an Identification Skill on it.
[Xenomorphic Egg]
[Quality: Common]
However, before he could take a closer look, something bizarre happened.
He could clearly feel the unique aura of death emanating from his body already corroding the egg.
He watched as, in his item bar, the [Xenomorphic Egg]’s originally acceptable "Common" quality slowly began to turn gray at a visible rate...
[Ding! You have caused a quality degradation to the "Xenomorphic Egg"!]
[Xenomorphic Egg]
[Quality: Inferior]
"What the FUCK?!" Ji exploded on the spot, his composure shattering instantly.
’What... What is this?! Who are you looking down on?! Me! Ji! I’m the Guixi Sect’s chief "consumable," a veteran Core Formation Stage suicide-specialist! This precious body of mine... implanting a Common egg was bad enough, but now it’s degrading into an "Inferior" one?! Is this even reasonable?!’
’The parent of this thing has terrible taste! What is this supposed to be? It’s like someone ascending through their tribulation, the Celestial Dao strikes down with a CRACK, but nothing happens. Then you look closer and, oh, turns out the fuse on the heavenly lightning got damp! Isn’t this just a blatant insult?!’
To be honest, if the egg had been "Excellent" or even "Epic" quality, he might have actually made the noble sacrifice and tried to hatch and raise it, just to see what kind of "alien baby" he could get.
But not only was it just Common... it had turned "Inferior"?!
’If I actually hatch this damn thing, won’t my fellow disciples laugh me to death?! They all have divine beasts and immortal pets, and I’m supposed to walk around with an "Inferior" quality, misshapen freak? What a lovely picture that would be!’
But for all his cursing, he didn’t dare act rashly and destroy the thing.
After all, the shadowy figure that had taken him out in one hit was unfathomably powerful. The only reason he was still alive was, most likely, because he was being used as a "mobile incubator" for this egg. He’d just had a lucky break and wasn’t ready to die so soon.
’If I get rid of this "child" now, even if the "parent" doesn’t sense it immediately, it’ll kill me the moment it sees me. After all, by then, this "incubator" will have lost its value.’
"Sigh! What rotten luck!" The more Ji thought about it, the angrier he got. ’How did I end up with an "Inferior" one! No, I have to go see if there’s any better merchandise!’
With this in mind, he opened his mini-map and marked his current location. He found he wasn’t far from where he’d passed out. Even though dying and reviving would mean a long run back, he decided to cherish this opportunity for now.
’Besides, it would be a problem if that thing decided to pack up and leave while I was reviving.’
Not far away, several grayish-white, fleshy egg sacs were scattered about in twos and threes. These sacs had a leathery texture, their surfaces covered in strange, dark-purple veins that seemed to pulse faintly in the dim light.
He cautiously approached the man-high fleshy egg sacs and cast his Identification Skill on them one by one.
[Xenomorphic Egg (Hibernating)]
[Quality: Inferior]
[Xenomorphic Egg (Hibernating)]
[Quality: Commo...
Well then. After a full circle, all he found were "Inferior" and "Common" quality duds. He couldn’t even find a single "Excellent" one.
"Tsk..." Ji lost interest in the pet eggs laid out before him. This trash-quality junk wasn’t nearly enticing enough for him to risk making a move.
’Well, since I’m already here,’ he thought, rubbing his hands together as that eager grin returned to his face. ’As the "incubator," I should at least scout out a future home for my "child"!’
...
「Anhe City. The Su Mansion. Lin Qingfeng’s guest room.」
The atmosphere was oppressive and heavy.
Su Ling’er looked at the devastated man before her, softened her voice, and continued her questioning. "Mr. Mu, please think carefully... before the incident, when was the last time you saw her? Did she seem unusual in any way?"
"Unusual?" Mu Ling, lost in a mire of memories, stared blankly and slowly shook his head. "No... there was nothing unusual at all. Everything... everything was just like always."
His voice grew distant, as if he had returned to that afternoon. "The day before it happened was the Flower Viewing Festival. We were admiring the flowers in the courtyard... She was smiling, saying that after we married, she wanted to replace all the crabapple trees in the courtyard with her favorite peach blossoms..."
"The day before that... we were still preparing for the wedding, discussing all the little details... That day, I also gave her a jade bracelet. It was just ordinary cyan jade, and the style was very common, but... but it was the only one I’d successfully carved for her!
Most of the other bracelets I tried carving were failures. The one I gave her was the only one I managed to carve successfully. It had two swallows on it, linked head to tail..." As he spoke, his voice trailed off again.
Su Ling’er immediately pressed, "Besides the bracelet, were any other valuables missing from her residence?"
"No..." Mu Ling shook his head blankly. "The authorities said nothing was missing. And... and they found fragments of the jade bracelet on the floor..."
No valuables were missing, so it wasn’t a murder for profit. Su Ling’er felt she was lost in a fog.
’If I hadn’t personally examined the body and, with my Eldest Brother’s expertise, discovered that one extremely discordant detail... if I hadn’t heard Mu Ling describe An Qinyao’s beautiful hopes for the future... then this whole affair would seem like a perfectly ordinary... suicide by hanging. The perpetrator’s methods were clean, efficient.’
Su Ling’er couldn’t figure it out, couldn’t make sense of it. She subconsciously turned her head to look at her Eldest Brother. "Rich Bro, what do you make of this?"