Chapter 59: Second Hatching
"Something happened. It wasn’t registered, and then... the egg disappeared."
Jian Yu pursed her lips. Her brain, which had been in power-saving mode, suddenly kicked into high gear.
She wasn’t one for expressing herself, preferring to quietly observe her surroundings, gather information, analyze the situation, and weigh the pros and cons.
’Suppressing an Awakener’s Threshold Devouring Period isn’t my golden ticket.’ She was very clear on this point.
The moment Ling Yanzhi and his group stopped caring about her, she would be reduced to a shared plaything for other powerful figures.
Just like when Xi Yu showed up—Ling Yanzhi couldn’t win against him, so he simply agreed to share her.
The plot had deviated too much. Xu Jianjuan’s mental state was poor, teetering on the edge of madness.
Jian Yu didn’t dare to imagine what had happened to the female lead in her past life, but it was certain that F7 had given up on her and no longer offered her their protection.
She could live without dignity, but she couldn’t accept having it trampled into the ground and ground underfoot right in front of her, driven to madness like the female lead.
Pei Yin had said that the higher an Awakener’s Level, the more pronounced the effect of her scent, especially for Level 2S and Level 3S individuals.
For someone like Lin Yu, it might just be a stinging pain that could be endured.
For Level 2S and above, the pain was equivalent to being sliced by a small knife.
The Imperial Capital Star had produced seven Level 3S Awakeners, but other planets had plenty of 2S Awakened, all of whom were potential threats to her.
The upcoming Beast Taming Elite Challenge was a joint event for a hundred schools. It would be a motley crowd. The interests tied up with those people and F7 were ten, even a hundred times deeper than those with the Xu Family.
If something happened then, would Ling Yanzhi and the others still stand by her side?
Jian Yu wasn’t sure if they would push her out, just as they had so easily pushed her onto Xi Yu.
She didn’t dare to overestimate her own importance.
Indulging in the affection of the powerful would make one lose themselves, and the end result was usually tragic.
Therefore, before that happened, she needed a trump card beyond just their physical obsession with her.
The seven of them in F7 were currently researching Awakener evolution and how to trigger a second awakening in ordinary people.
Besides that, the fields they had been exploring with the most interest were incubation and Beast Taming.
She remembered the plot mentioning that F1 and F3 had high affinity, excelled at incubation, and placed the most importance on that field.
Although those two hadn’t appeared yet, she could start thinking of ways to leverage their status and power in advance.
Her mind raced for seven or eight seconds, and just before it felt like it would overheat and go on strike, she finally reached a conclusion.
She quickly, ruthlessly, and precisely made a choice that would benefit her.
She deliberately emphasized the timing, "Teacher, number 733 was the assignment given to me, and it disappeared that same day. As for the cracks classmate Gao Yu mentioned, I don’t know anything about that either."
Jian Yu was a new student; she wouldn’t have had access to Cloned Eggs for very long.
Her real intention was to get the teacher to assign her another egg so she could try again on the spot and build up some hype for herself.
If she failed, so what? She would just go back to slacking off.
If she succeeded, she would struggle a little longer, convincing everyone around her that she had a bit of a talent for incubation, a high affinity for it, and was a talent worth F1 and F3 investing their time to cultivate.
The plan didn’t go as Jian Yu had expected.
Gao Yu suddenly produced the Incubation Chamber, holding it high. "Teacher, this is number 733!"
He thrust it forward, looking like he was about to return it.
In fact, that’s exactly what he said.
"I knew I wasn’t that good! I incubated other Cloned Eggs at home before school started. If I could really incubate them this fast, my other egg wouldn’t still be sitting there motionless."
Gao Yu was excited. The egg he had was the one Jian Yu had touched!
He had seen it clearly that day; she had touched it for a long time.
If Jian Yu hadn’t been called away to get the Incubation Chamber, he might have developed a problem from staring for so long and holding his pee.
FLUTTER—
The hatched Star Ridge Beast was palm-sized and looked like a black rat with wings.
Shen Gu, who was standing beside them, took it and gently brought it over.
The infant Star Ridge Beast, still inside the Incubation Chamber, was held in front of Jian Yu. Its eyes were round and bead-like, and the starlight along its spine flickered on and off.
Its black wings fluttered clumsily and eagerly as it tried to nudge its small head in her direction, pressing its face against the chamber’s transparent panel.
A whimper escaped its throat, carrying a subtle sense of dependence.
Incubation was a key specialization precisely because a newly hatched beastling feels a natural affinity for the person who incubated it.
This affinity, however, wasn’t permanent, lasting only as long as three months.
But within those three months, an Incubation Master was capable of helping a Half-awakened successfully form a Contract with it.
Unfortunately, this was a Cloned Egg. It lacked the Spirit Chain needed for a Contract.
Gao Yu slapped his thigh. "I knew it! It was baring its teeth at me. So it really doesn’t recognize me as its parent."
Shen Gu placed it in front of Jian Yu, signaling her with his eyes.
Jian Yu pushed it away slightly.
"Xuzhou brought it. Since he gave it to classmate Gao Yu, it belongs to classmate Gao Yu."
She didn’t articulate her thoughts very clearly. "It’s not necessarily mine."
’Jian Yu remembered my name!’ That was Gao Yu’s first thought.
"It’s yours, it’s yours! You’re the one who hatched it!" Gao Yu snapped back to his senses, finally understanding.
"No, no," he said, rushing to explain.
"I didn’t know it was yours before. My own egg just wouldn’t hatch. When I saw that yours had hatched so quickly, I just wanted to submit it right away to get those two hundred EV values."
Teacher Hu brought down the gavel, bowing to power. "Then we’ll count it as classmate Jian Yu’s. I’ll change your grades later."
Jian Yu wasn’t good at communicating, and she hated this kind of back-and-forth.
The egg had hatched in Gao Yu’s Incubation Chamber, the incubation log was written by Gao Yu himself, and she hadn’t participated at all, other than touching the egg once.
Besides, the hatched Star Ridge Beast belonged to the academy. Only by accumulating enough successful incubations could one earn enough EV to exchange for one.
Today was the second incubation specialization class, and Gao Yu had clearly brought it to submit his results.
The teacher was being unfair, but she also understood why he made such a judgment.
’A subtle hint isn’t working.’ Jian Yu had no choice but to make a direct request. "Teacher, may I apply for a new Cloned Egg?"
Her voice was a little timid, as if she had mustered all her courage and thought for a long time before finally asking.
Teacher Hu looked troubled. There was a limited quota for Cloned Eggs, and their class had already used up this month’s supply.
Seeing his chance, Gao Yu acted decisively. "Teacher, I’ll forfeit my practical grade for this time. My Cloned Egg hasn’t hatched yet; you can give it to classmate Jian Yu."
Teacher Hu didn’t hesitate at all.
He nodded, pointing at the Star Ridge Beast in Shen Gu’s hands. "This will count as your assignment. Your grade remains unchanged."
Gao Yu asked, "Won’t that be a problem?"
Teacher Hu considered it. "I’ll give you a passing grade, but the bonus EV value will go to her."
"Okay," Gao Yu agreed.
Shen Gu and Gao Yu sat in front of and behind each other. The two exchanged items—one handed over an egg, the other a beast.
The perfectly smooth egg was taken out of the Incubation Chamber. A few seconds after it was placed in Jian Yu’s hands, cracks began to appear all over it.
Everyone was stunned. "!!!"
Gao Yu shut down.
’Do Cloned Eggs also judge by looks?’
He had tended to it for two weeks, and the shell hadn’t shown the slightest change.
Jian Yu’s eyes were clear and filled with confusion.
Touching the eggshell for the second time felt different from the first. This time, she seemed to feel a force pulling at her.
A wisp of green smoke appeared before her eyes.
Jian Yu blinked, thinking it was a trick of the eye.
The green smoke coiled around the Cloned Egg, gradually covering the surface of its shell.
Her listless spirit was instantly energized. Jian Yu tried to command the wisp of smoke.
CRACK!
The eggshell broke open, but before Jian Yu had a chance to be happy, a tinkling sound came from her hand.
The bracelet Sheng Yue had given her had shattered.