Chapter 457: Incubation (2/2)

“Be serious!” Qianye was completely puzzled.

Song Zining wore a serious expression and spoke with an aged tone, “Fine, let this young master display his talents and broaden your barbarian horizons! Perhaps this will save you from acting like that Wei family boar and thinking about solving everything with a slap.”

The evil Qianye flicked at a fallen leaf and said, “Anything that can be solved with a single slap can't be important. Why the trouble? Why don’t I try slapping your domain?”

Song Zining was momentarily petrified. The Three Thousand Flying Leaves Art was a marriage of three thousand great daos and was unrestricted by any attribute. Merely from how he had repelled a special domain like the Nangong family's Origin’s End, one could see what “good skill can overcome a thousand-kilogram force” meant.

However, there was also another saying that went “tricks are useless in the face of absolute power”. The great sea vortex of Qianye’s Profound Combatant Formula had the power to crush the world and shatter the void. Under its suppression, it was likely that Qianye would be able to disperse the Three Thousand Flying Leaves Art’s domain with a single slap.

Song Zining would be restrained in every aspect if his strength was lacking even a little bit.

With a sigh, Song Zining no longer paid Qianye any attention and proceeded to fish out a palm-sized square box from his robe. As his hand brushed over the cover, a hazy green light flickered over the previously empty surface to form the words: “Three Thousand Great Daos.”

The square box floated exactly one inch above Song Zining’s palm. The lid flew open with a click to reveal the countless gears and machinery within. The pinions began to turn under the activation of Song Zining’s origin power, raising the octagonal array plate hidden within the box.

Song Zining respired deeply. As he opened his mouth, a single floating leaf shot toward the array plate and landed at its center. There were tens of thousands of meticulously carved runes on the array plate and countless thread-like grooves connecting them all together.

The hundreds of runes—each only as big as a brush tip—lit up on the plate just as the leaf landed and formed a miniature array. Qianye activated the Eye of Truth and saw that countless strands of origin power were about to bind Song Zining, himself, and the arachne egg together, while the remaining strands stretched into the void.

But the dozen-odd strands of origin power had just touched Qianye’s body when they trembled violently, and the great half of them immediately shattered. Following which, the Book of Darkness appeared in the depths of Qianye’s consciousness and completely wiped out the remainder. He hadn’t made any effort at all to circulate his origin power, but his body had sensed the danger out of instinct and moved on its own to eliminate it.

Meanwhile, the leaf on the array plate suddenly fluctuated between light and shadow to reveal the shape of an arachne egg, followed by the appearance of a boundless deep ocean with a giant maelstrom at its center. Soon afterward, a shadow emerged from the ocean to devour the entire imagery before vanishing just like that.

Song Zining’s face turned pale as he turned toward Qianye and said, “I knew it! This young master always fails when the divination is related to you!”

Qianye felt that his charge was baffling to say the least. He couldn’t help but ask, “Does that mean you can correctly divine things that aren’t related to me?”

“At least three out of ten!” Song Zining spoke with great confidence.

Qianye gave it some thought before coming to a realization. “From what you said, wouldn’t it be better for us to toss a coin instead? At least we’ll get half of it right.”

“How can my divination art of the three thousand daos be compared to tossing gold coins?!” Song Zining retorted while putting away the square box.

Qianye dismissed the words with a laugh since he was merely joking before. In truth, after seeing the strands of origin power with his Eye of Truth, Qianye knew that Song Zining’s secret art was full of profound secrets—it was indeed extraordinary. The divination’s failure was perhaps due to a lack of power. It might also be due to the connection of Qianye’s Profound Combatant Formula and Book of Darkness to the great powers of the world and the secrets of Evernight—how could it be so easily fathomed?

After putting away the square box, Song Zining—half-curious and half-helpless—proceeded to gaze at the arachne egg with his hand on his forehead. He tapped the egg with his fan and said, “What do you say we do with this little thing? Don’t tell me we really should fry it?”

At this point, there was no telling what kind of transformation this arachne egg would undergo. There was a possibility that Qianye’s secret would be revealed if they brought it into public eyes just like that. However, a live count-grade egg was a rare commodity—even if they didn’t hand it over to the imperial military for resources, they could still sell it at the auction house for an exorbitant price. It would be such a pity to destroy it just like that.

“Pop, pop, pop!” Song Zining knocked thrice on the egg with his fan. It was just a subconscious action he performed in his mental distress.

Qianye suddenly shouted, “Stop! You’ve broken it!”

“How can it be?” Song Zining was stunned. The light tapping just now likely wouldn’t even break a chicken egg. It would be a joke to try and shatter the steely count-grade egg with that force.

But beneath Song Zining’s fan, a small crack had appeared on the smooth, black-ceramic-like eggshell!

Song Zining was startled and, without much thought, reached out to lift the egg up for a detailed examination. A sudden crisp sound was heard as the shallow crack lines grew deeper and longer, quickly extending across the greater half of the shell’s surface.

Following which, a series of popping sounds emerged as the arachne egg cracked open. A tiny hand reached out and groped about in the air before grabbing the border of the eggshell with great force. A fair little face stretched out from the egg with its damp golden locks hanging down from the forehead.

It was actually a little girl!

She batted her long lashes a couple of times, Song Zining’s face clearly reflected on her ash-green feline eyes. She tilted her head with a naive and confused expression before opening her little mouth and crying out with a childish voice, “Mama!”

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