This Young Master is not Cannon Fodder

Chapter 350: Divine Beast

It took San Jiuling a full ten minutes before he awoke from the shock of what happened. In hindsight, it had been incredibly stupid of him to do nothing but stare slack-jawed. Luckily for him, whatever squished his comrades and the Ba Serpent to death like bugs hadn't attacked again.

San Jiuling gathered the corpses of his companions. Whoever or whatever killed them had spared him for some reason, something he couldn't understand. 'Was it the defensive formation activating? No, if it did, why would it attack the guardian and us?'

He stored his companions' corpses so that they could be buried once he brought them back to the Leakless Sect. As for the Ba Serpent corpse, San Jiuling stored that. No point in wasting a monarch-level demon's corpse.

Drip

Drip

Drip

San Jiuling looked up at the ceiling, where water had started leaking in. This only reaffirmed his conjecture that the palace's formation did not unleash that attack. Although it was not impossible for an immortal monarch to kill a demon sage, especially one as mindless as the Ba Serpent, the chances were incredibly small if it was a formation that decayed for an unknown amount of years.

Knowing that he didn't have much time, San Jiuling rushed forth. He stepped past the blood from the deceased Ba Serpent and into the circular room at the center. It didn't have any barrier preventing access, but he did notice the density of qi spiking. Within the circular room, the spiritual qi transformed into a mix of immortal and true qi.Findd new stories at novelhall.com

In the center of the room and formation lay a single black egg. It reached San Jiuling's chest and had patterned hexagons and snake scales all over it.

San Jiuling's eyes lit up. Even though the beast had yet to hatch, he felt a sense of oppression. He couldn't think of any other reason why he would feel this way as a true immortal unless the egg hatched a beast at the True Demon Realm. Whatever species the egg belonged to, it would make a top-tier spiritual beast.

Walking closer, he felt the qi disappear. The egg sucked in everything within a few meters, but even so, San Jiuling could still feel the egg's weakening and flickering life aura.

San Jiuling speculated that the creator of the immortal grotto, Monarch Stillsea, created it in order to nourish the egg. However, something happened to Monarch Stillsea, leaving his plans unfinished. If he had come any later, whatever life gestating within would have starved to death.

After entering a few meters of the egg, San Jiuling felt the suction force increase, as if it found a target, him.

He didn't resist and allowed the immortal qi to flow out of his body. The verdant green energy flowed out of his pores and traveled to the egg. Like a man dying of thirst that found an oasis, the suction force dramatically increased.

San Jiuling continued to supply his immortal qi, his whole body glowed green from the amount of qi pouring out. He always had confidence in the size of his qi reservoir. Even the short interlude with the Ba Serpent did not diminish it much, but it seemed that he finally met his match.

When his qi reservoir dropped to fifty percent, San Jiuling began to worry. The last time his qi dropped this low was when he was still a mortal cultivator. Just in case, he prepared the Qi Restoration Pills he stockpiled beforehand.

As it dropped to thirty percent, he swallowed a Qi Restoration Pill. San Jiuling's body began to generate immortal qi at an increased rate. Still, the generation rate was barely higher than the amount the egg drained.

After ingesting four, San Jiuling only had two pills left. Only then did he begin to worry. His qi reserves had only returned to about forty percent, and it did not seem like the egg would stop anytime soon. Furthermore...

However, there were still the two monarch-level sea monsters rushing toward him. San Jiuling roared and charged upward with his spear upright. A vortex formed at the tip, shrouding his gigantic body in a massive reversed whirlpool.

The two monarch-level sea monsters and numerous others crashed into him but were repelled off. Still, San Jiuling felt his body shake from the force and suffered internal trauma, but he held strong. He didn't need to defeat them, only to make it out of the crack before they did.

San Jiuling roared as he poured more energy into his charge, creating a whirlpool of the same verdant glow and transforming it into a drill that pierced the water.

Finally, he made it through the crack and entered the depths. Unlike before, the immortal grotto no longer eliminated the pressure. So, the water pressure came crashing onto him, destroying the whirlpool cloaking him. He could bear the immense pressure for a period of time, but not for long. And certainly not fighting the sea monsters who were born to live in the depths.

San Jiuling could already see them swimming toward him from inside the Stillsea Immortal Grotto. Not wasting any time, he summoned the Nautilus and entered after reverting to his normal size. Immediately after, the Nautilus blended in with the environment and swam away.

He didn't know if the egg would attract other sea monsters or even demons lurking in the depths, but San Jiuling had no intent on testing it, so he activated the cloaking feature of the Nautilus to the maximum.

With safety assured, at least for a time, San Jiuling began to heal himself. When he reverted to his true size, the pressure still damaged his internal organs. He popped in the last Qi Restoration Pill since his last charge had drained him of nearly all his immortal qi.

Next, he began to circulate his qi throughout his body and heal his internal organs. For other immortals, it might have taken them some time, but for San Jiuling, it only took a fraction of the time. After all, he was comprehending the Law of Life.

Seven days later, San Jiuling opened his eyes, all healed. His immortal qi had returned to seventy percent of their maximum capacity too. 'I didn't expect this one trip to deprive me of all my Qi Restoration Pills. Although ingesting too much in a short time would cause sequelae, that's not as big a problem for me as others. Still, it's going to be troublesome to concoct more. I need to return to the sect as soon as possible to gather materials and deliver my companion's corpses.'

San Jiuling sighed. The loss of four true immortals could not be said to be a big loss to the overall situation, but each one had a ten percent chance to become an immortal monarch if given enough time. Still, that was precious time they couldn't afford in the war. Hopefully, the materials they looted would be able to make up for the loss of four true immortals.

"Hmm?" San Jiuling glanced toward the egg next to him. During his week-long recovery, he allowed the egg to siphon some immortal qi of life from him. The amount he released would not impair his recovery.

The black egg started to vibrate at an intense rate, causing the small snake-like scales to fall off, revealing the hexagonal, tortoise-like patterns even more.

"Is it about to hatch?" San Jiuling muttered. He immediately started to inscribe a Spiritual Beast Contract Formation around it. Monarch Stillsea must have had the same idea since San Jiuling easily found the materials from among the looted treasures.

He acted fast and quickly constructed the formation, pouring liters upon liters of his blood into the formation, turning it blood-red. Time passed as the space between the hexagons widened, allowing egg fluid to slosh out. Then, the egg suddenly exploded, launching the hexagon egg pieces like projectiles.

While this happened, a black blur shot out, intent on leaving the formation. "Oh no, you don't!"

Chains of qi erupted from the Spiritual Beast Contract Formation and shackled the newly born beast. San Jiuling didn't consider himself a beast expert, but even he could recognize its species. Excitement flooded his veins.

Trapped and struggling was a meter-long tortoise with what appeared to be a bonsai tree growing atop its shell. It had two heads, one was that of a turtle, but the other came from its back end, a snake's body with a head attached where its tail should have been.

The beast that just hatched was the Black Tortoise Divine Beast!