The forest behind Gufeng Mountain had been growing increasingly dense lately.
After Duzhou’s spiritual energy recovered, spiritual herbs and plants grew much better than before. Some fierce beasts that had been hiding in deep caves and pond bottoms also emerged from their lairs to roam around the mountains. New disciples entering the mountain to pick medicinal herbs were frequently chased by fierce beasts.
Zanxing used her azure staff to push aside a cluster of trees in front of her and said to Gu Baiying beside her, “There’s no path ahead. Should we rest here for a while?”
Gu Baiying glanced at the waterfall ahead and nodded.
Bujiang’s birthday was next month, and Zanxing had thought for a long time without figuring out what birthday gift to give the Demon Empress. Heishi City didn’t lack gold, silver, or precious stones, and Bujiang wouldn’t think much of ordinary spirit artifacts. As for clothing and jewelry… different clans had different aesthetics, so Zanxing didn’t dare give randomly. Speaking of it, her taste in clothing wasn’t even as good as Bujiang’s. If she gave something that didn’t suit Bujiang’s taste, Bujiang would still have to consider her feelings and force herself to wear it, which wouldn’t be good.
After thinking it over repeatedly, Zanxing still had no good ideas. It was Gu Baiying who, seeing her frowning all day, suggested she come to Gufeng Mountain to gather Purple Jade Heavenly Sunflower.
Purple Jade Heavenly Sunflower was a spiritual herb. It couldn’t improve one’s cultivation, but it was the best beauty elixir. If you crushed the leaves of Purple Jade Heavenly Sunflower into a paste with a bit of processing and applied it to the face, it could make women’s faces radiant with spring beauty and their skin delicate and even. This spiritual herb was rather useless in the cultivation world and was particularly troublesome to cultivate, so few people in the cultivation world deliberately grew it. It was said to be nearly extinct, but unexpectedly, Gufeng Mountain had planted a large patch—this was also planted by Yushan Shengren when he was alive.
At first, Zanxing felt somewhat embarrassed. After all, Purple Jade Heavenly Sunflower was quite rare, and even if sold at Huajin Tower, it would fetch quite a few spirit stones. She wasn’t really a proper disciple of the Taiyan Sect now, so running to Gufeng Mountain to pick flowers was taking advantage of them. Who knew that Gu Baiying didn’t mind at all? When he mentioned this to Meng Ying, she let Zanxing pick as much as she wanted, only instructing them that fierce beasts had been appearing in the back mountain recently, so they needed to be careful when entering the mountain.
Zanxing sat down by the water pool and looked around: “I see it’s quite quiet around here. I haven’t seen any traces of fierce beasts.”
Last month, new disciples of the Taiyan Sect entered the mountain to pick medicinal herbs and disturbed the Crimson Fire Jiao on the mountain. It was said that the group was chased and burned by the Crimson Fire Jiao until their hair was singed bald. Meng Ying ordered the back mountain gates to be temporarily sealed, to be reopened after she finished her retreat and dealt with the situation.
However, today Zanxing and Gu Baiying had been in the mountain for most of the day without seeing a single trace of a fierce beast.
Gu Baiying casually said: “Don’t be careless. Fierce beasts are always cunning.”
Zanxing thought for a moment and took out a golden egg from her Qiankun Bag.
This golden egg had grown quite large now. Originally no bigger than a bead, it was now about the size of an ostrich egg. Placed on the ground, it gleamed with golden light.
No one knew when the Yinlang Shi would hatch. To see Mimi as soon as possible, Zanxing was always very attentive to this egg. Wherever spiritual energy was abundant, she would often bring the golden egg there for quiet cultivation. Every day she would water the golden egg with spiritual spring water for nourishment and bathing, sometimes also trying to add some spiritual liquid. When the weather was good in Heishi City, Zanxing would take the golden egg out to bask in the sun, often having heart-to-heart talks with this egg.
As for Hong Su, she spoiled this golden egg even more. After all, the golden egg was just an egg with no mouth and couldn’t eat. Hong Su would often cook meals and place them in front of the golden egg. Once, when Baiguwu saw this, she curiously asked Hong Su: “Miss Hong Su, this egg can’t eat, so why do you cook for it?”
Hong Su replied with conviction: “Mimi can’t eat, but it can smell! Being able to smell the aroma means the fragrance isn’t wasted.” Her cooking skills were superb. After the aroma dispersed, she would give the remaining dishes to the mountain spiders and others, who didn’t mind.
The young new Demon Lord carrying an egg around all day and being particularly devoted to this egg naturally attracted attention. Plus, Zanxing’s Dao companion was the young martial uncle of the Taiyan Sect, so rumors spread outside saying that Zanxing and Gu Baiying had laid an egg! This egg was their offspring!
After all, it was very difficult for the human and demon races to have children together. In all these years, only Gui Yansheng had been born. What if the new Demon Lord’s offspring with the human race was unusual and happened to be an egg? That would be quite normal!
When Zanxing first heard this rumor, she was extremely speechless, but later she became resigned to it. For her, raising a cat and raising a child made no difference. Besides, what if the two of them really had reproductive isolation? Then Mimi could just be raised as their child.
Gu Baiying explained several times, but the more he explained, the more others thought he was covering up. Later he simply stopped explaining. As a result, throughout all of Duzhou, whether human or demon race, everyone was quite anticipating what kind of creature would eventually hatch from this egg. People throughout the world were waiting for the day it would hatch.
Zanxing was also anxiously waiting. The golden egg was visibly growing larger day by day. When she placed her palm on it, she could even feel warm, rhythmic breathing coming from inside the shell. But it just wouldn’t hatch, as if deliberately dragging out the time.
She touched the eggshell and sighed: “I wonder when it will hatch.”
Just as she was thinking this, Gu Baiying got up to wash his hands at the nearby water pool. The path through the dense forest had been muddy and dusty. He was always fastidious and wanted to clean off the dirt he’d gotten on his hands from pushing aside branches. Just as he reached the water pool, his steps suddenly stopped.
Zanxing was looking at his back, and seeing him suddenly motionless, she asked somewhat strangely: “What’s wrong?”
As soon as her words fell, huge waves suddenly rose from the water pool. Accompanied by an overwhelming curtain of water, a fire-colored long jiao burst out from within.
Crimson Fire Jiao?
This long jiao looked like a giant python, covered in bright red scales from head to tail. Scorching heat emanated from the long jiao’s body, and one could feel a burning sensation even before getting close.
This was the Crimson Fire Jiao that had previously burned the new disciples’ hair bald? It looked too big! It was almost no different from a dragon. Perhaps if this Crimson Fire Jiao grew a bit more, it really could develop some dragon-like majesty.
Gu Baiying raised his spear to meet it, and Zanxing also drew the long staff from her waist. Although this Crimson Fire Jiao was quite troublesome, with her and Gu Baiying’s current cultivation levels, they wouldn’t be chased around in panic by a single fierce beast.
The Crimson Fire Jiao had a fiery temperament and didn’t recognize Zanxing or Gu Baiying. Even though Zanxing had Demon Lord bloodline, the Crimson Fire Jiao wasn’t from the demon realm. It opened its large mouth toward the two people in front of it, and a fire dragon suddenly burst out. Gu Baiying swept his silver spear across, countless snowflakes covered the fire dragon, instantly extinguishing it.
The Crimson Fire Jiao narrowed its eyes, seeming extremely angry about this. This time, it opened its mouth even wider than before, brewing a large mouthful of blazing flames, looking like it was about to explode.
Just then, a sudden gust of wind arose from the ground.
This gust came inexplicably, and even more inexplicably, the Crimson Fire Jiao never spewed out the fire from its mouth in this wind. Instead, it stayed frozen in place, its gaze falling on the golden egg behind Zanxing in the dense forest.
The golden egg?
Zanxing turned around, and when she clearly saw the golden egg lying in the weeds, her heart suddenly filled with joy.
At some point, a thin crack had appeared on top of the golden egg. This crack was very shallow, and the movement was very gentle. Yet it made the Crimson Fire Jiao, which had been so formidable just moments before, freeze in place and even secretly retreat a bit.
“Mimi—” Zanxing was about to go over.
As if hearing her call, the crack on the eggshell suddenly widened, and the golden egg’s movement became increasingly violent, until with a “crack”—
A fuzzy paw emerged from within.
Gu Baiying was stunned: “This cat…”
A silver kitten ran out from inside.
It looked exactly the same as Nai Mao from years ago, except its fur had turned into beautiful, shimmering silver. Having just hatched, Mimi was still a bit unsteady. Upon seeing the Crimson Fire Jiao, it tumbled and ran over, slapped with its paw, and bared its teeth at the enormous creature with a roar.
“Meow—”
Zanxing: “……”
The sound was soft and fluffy, with no intimidating power whatsoever. However, the huge Crimson Fire Jiao looked at the kitten at its feet that wasn’t even enough to fill the gaps between its teeth as if seeing the most terrifying thing in the world. It suddenly let out a mournful cry, and in the next moment, its body flashed and it dove into the water pool with a “splash.” After a while, two bubbles emerged, then it disappeared without a trace.
Zanxing was dumbfounded.
Gu Baiying put away his silver spear, walked over, and stared at the Yinlang Shi that was frantically frolicking in Zanxing’s arms, pondering: “It seems this time after hatching, the divine beast bloodline is much more obvious than before… Is it because of the continuous spiritual energy nourishment all this time?”
Who could know? After all, these past few years Zanxing had raised Mimi more carefully than raising her own child. Even if it were a block of wood, being constantly soaked in spiritual liquid and spiritual springs, it could be soaked into divine wood.
She rubbed Mimi’s head in her arms and pressed her face against it: “It’s good that you’re back.”
Gu Baiying raised an eyebrow: “No matter what, with it here, finding Purple Jade Heavenly Sunflower today should be much easier.”
Even the Crimson Fire Jiao was scared to such a state—Mimi’s residual majesty as king of all beasts was still there. When they entered the mountain earlier to look for Purple Jade Heavenly Sunflower, they had to search for the spiritual herb while also guarding against fierce beasts that might jump out. Now it was different. With Mimi there, fierce beasts wouldn’t dare approach, so they just needed to focus on finding the spiritual herb.
Zanxing stood up holding Mimi, also beaming with smiles: “That’s right. After finding the Purple Jade Heavenly Sunflower, I’ll take Mimi back to the demon clan, just in time to explain to them.” The demon clan knew about Mimi but never believed Mimi hatched from an egg. They really thought this egg was her and Gu Baiying’s offspring.
“We should hold a hatching celebration for it later,” Zanxing said. “That’ll stop those people from talking nonsense.”
Gu Baiying snorted and reminded her: “Wouldn’t that be even more like a hundred-day celebration?”
Both fell silent for a moment.
Gu Baiying seemed to remember something and stared at her with sharp eyes: “You said before that once Mimi hatched, we would discuss our marriage…”
Zanxing’s eyelid twitched. This was just something she had said casually to brush off Gu Baiying. This person seemed not to care about anything, but actually had an extraordinarily good memory. He could even remember such old, trivial matters clearly.
She coughed lightly: “Mimi hasn’t broken through yet… I think we should wait until it awakens before talking about it.”
“Yang Zanxing—”