Chapter 448: Master, Your Egg Moved

Dawn Hall.

Sunlight poured through the tall windows, tinting the floating dust motes in the hall a soft gold.

On the windowsill sat a few gray-feathered birds that had flown in from who-knew-where, pecking at the crumbs accumulated in the stone crevices. Then, startled by the suddenly escalating argument inside, they fluttered up with a rustle of wings and vanished among the tree shadows outside the window.

Inside the hall, a long, dark brown table carved from a single block of fossilized wood sat in the center. Scattered across its surface were unrolled scrolls and several sheets of parchment covered in annotations.

Thirteen Legendary mages sat around the long table in various poses, their expressions serious and the atmosphere tense.

"I've said it before—the exploration budget must be cut!"

"The magical creature crisis is getting worse by the day. Personnel allocation needs to be completed as soon as possible."

"The Coral City-States have been unstable lately..."

Another round of endless arguments.

From replenishing personnel on the front lines of the magical creature crisis to debating budget allocation for Astral exploration—any topic could be dragged in, brought up repeatedly, only for nothing to ever be decided.

Beorne took off his glasses and wiped the lint clinging to the lenses with the corner of his robe.

Ever since that failed experiment had fused his body with a beast's, though he'd gained the blessing of almost inexhaustible energy and a lifespan far longer than an ordinary human's, it had also brought him a fair share of minor annoyances.

For instance, he shed fur all year round now.

Especially since his lenses were always prone to collecting the fine hairs shed from his face, forcing him to wipe his glasses every few minutes or risk his vision being blocked.

He held the lenses up to the light, examined them closely, and only put them back on once he was sure they were clean.

He glanced around at the faces still locked in heated debate and suddenly felt a sense of daze.

How long had this argument been going on?

Three days? Five days? He could barely remember.

He suddenly felt that Agrel's decision to find an excuse to leave a few days ago, avoiding this endless debate, was a wise choice.

Growing bored, he lowered his head, rubbed his fingertip lightly across the tabletop, and began considering whether to come up with his own excuse to leave and return to the peace and quiet of the Central Library.

Just as he was about to speak, a ripple of spatial distortion appeared at the entrance of the hall.

The Fissure opened silently, and Agrel's figure stepped out, appearing before everyone.

He held a stack of floating books in his hands, clearly just having come from the library.

Standing at the entrance, he swept his gaze over the thirteen faces around the table, each wearing a different expression. With a smile, he greeted them: "Good morning, everyone. I hope your argument has reached a conclusion."

The hall fell silent for a moment.

Sabrina set down the quill she had been tapping lightly on the table, lifted her head, and fixed her sharp eyes unapologetically on Agrel: "Agrel, have you been hiding like a coward?"

"What about cutting the exploration budget? He hasn't given a straight answer yet. Did he really think he could dodge the debt by hiding for a few days?"

Agrel didn't strike back immediately.

Sabrina. The core representative of the Evocation school, the archenemy of the Exploration Assembly.

Because compared to exploration, Sabrina advocated for prioritizing the concentration of forces to resolve the magical creature crisis, believing that exploring the Astral Realm was a meaningless waste of budget at this stage.

Even though Agrel himself had only recently joined the Exploration Assembly, he still couldn't stand this woman—always going on about budgets and costs.

From the very beginning, she had deemed the exploration of the Astral Realm a venture that would never recoup its investment, voting against any proposal that even touched on "exploration," and finding new angles at every meeting to argue just how poor the cost-effectiveness of Astral exploration was.

Alright. Now that he'd just returned, this woman couldn't help but start needling him.

But he wasn't about to argue with her right now.

He simply walked unhurriedly to the front of the long table and tapped his Staff lightly on the ground.

A dozen books and journals landed in front of each mage in turn.

"Let's end the argument here. Everyone, why not take a look at what I've brought first?"

Sabrina glanced down. She keenly caught his subtext.

Agrel was essentially saying that the argument they were having was meaningless. Stop it.

"Agrel, I hope what you've brought isn't some cliché knight novel. Don't waste my patience."

She didn't lash out immediately, simply shifting her gaze back to the book.

The mages cast a glance at the books in front of them. The pages flipped open silently. A few seconds later, Beorne, the beast mage, was the first to lift his head.

"The Slime United Empire?"

"Now that you mention it, I do recall."

Yes. He remembered now.

The original purpose of him and Agrel attending this meeting was to get the Council to come up with a plan to deal with the emerging Slime Empire in the north.

But later, the topic, who-knew-how-many tangents deep, had veered back to the magical creature crisis, back to budget allocation, back to those same old grudges that had been rehashed for centuries.

And then they had forgotten about the swamp empire in the north. Even he himself had almost forgotten.

Sabrina flipped through a few pages quickly, her expression shifting from initial dismissiveness to gradually becoming serious.

"Grand Scholar Oros personally interviewed that Slime Emperor?" She put down the book, lifted her head, and fixed her gaze on Agrel's face.

Others might not know Oros's identity, but they certainly did.

An old silver dragon from the Astral Realm suddenly took the initiative to visit the Slime Empire in the north, and even personally penned a biography for them...

No matter how you looked at it, his intentions couldn't be simple.

"I admit, the narrative perspective of this biography is quite novel, and the writing shows considerable skill."

"But what is Oros's purpose in doing this? No silver dragon who has lived over a thousand years would build up a monument for a rising kingdom for no reason."

Agrel spoke unhurriedly: "I've told you, the Slime Empire in the north is rising at a speed you can't even imagine, and you're still squabbling over the exploration budget."

His gaze grew meaningful. "If you don't come up with a clear plan soon, one day the Council might have to deal with more than just the magical creature crisis."

Beorne put down the book. "Perhaps the situation isn't that severe. After all, silver dragons don't have a bad relationship with them—they're both of the Lawful Good alignment. They might not necessarily pose a threat to the Council."

Sabrina turned to him and said without mincing words, "Mr. Beorne, the silver dragons have already relocated their lairs deep into the Astral Realm. Do you think they still care about what happens on the Material Plane?"

"Have you not read the history of how our ancestors drove them out of this land? Now that the plane is in turmoil, it's already polite of the Giant Dragons not to take advantage of the situation."

The white-haired and bearded old Abjuration mage spoke slowly: "I've met Mr. Oros a few times. Although he's a silver dragon, his attitude is quite kind. It doesn't seem like he's approaching the Slime Empire with malicious intent."

Before he could finish, Sabrina cut him off, saying unceremoniously, "Goodwill can be faked, Mr. Gareth. People our age shouldn't need others to remind us of such a simple truth."

The hall fell quiet for a moment.

Agrel coughed at the right moment, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "I've met that Slime Emperor. He was fairly friendly toward me and showed no hostility or wariness."

"Perhaps we could form a northern expedition team to test the Empire's attitude on the ground, and see what kind of environment the creatures there actually live in."

Murmurs of discussion buzzed around the long table. Sabrina was silent for a moment before nodding first. "Fine. I agree to the expedition."

The other mages exchanged glances, then gradually nodded in agreement as well.

However, most of them still needed to focus their energy on the front lines of the magical creature crisis, so not everyone could go on this expedition.

It was ultimately decided that Agrel would lead the team, with Sabrina accompanying him as an auxiliary observer.

Agrel shook his head. He knew it would come to this.

If there were ever any easy, comfortable assignments, they would never land on his plate.

Let alone having to bring along an old woman who couldn't stand him at every turn for the entire journey.

He had no plans for a twilight romance, and heaven knew what strange spells this woman had studied in her pursuit of arcane mysteries. He didn't want to wake up one day and find himself turned into a frog.

Still, progress had been made, after all.

By the standards of the Dawn Council's efficiency, this was already considered fast.

He recalled an old proposal from a long time ago about visiting a certain northern kingdom—it had been shelved for decades without a conclusion, and by the time they finally got around to it, the kingdom had been worn down and conquered by its enemy.

The Dawn Council's tradition of free expression among all factions was certainly worthy of respect, but this was also its flaw.

Every faction was pursuing something almost entirely different from the others, and without reaching a consensus, nothing could move forward.

Not that no mage had ever proposed reforming this meeting system, but that proposal itself had been lying on the shelf of shelved agenda items for over a hundred years—long enough to warrant its own commemorative holiday.

He had lost count of how many agenda items had been indefinitely shelved like that.

Beorne stood up, tucking the book under his arm. "Agrel, I'll go with you."

Agrel was about to say something when the Fissure behind him opened silently again, and an old man stepped out from within.

He wore a simple white robe, looking like an ordinary old scholar, but every mage in the hall fell silent the instant they recognized his face.

The old man nodded slightly to the mages in greeting, his voice warm: "Oh, if it isn't Mr. Agrel. I happen to be returning to the Slime Empire as well. If you all are interested in going, why not travel with me?"

The group remained silent, unsure what to say.

"Mr. Oros, what brings you here?" Beorne was the first to break the silence.

...

Slime City Palace.

Chen Yu was standing by the window, watching the lively scene in the square.

Sunlight bathed the streets where the snow had just begun to melt, and the streets were packed with people.

Humans, Dwarves, Lizardfolk, Elves—and of course, mostly slimes.

Those round, colorful figures bounced through the crowd, some crowding around stalls waiting to buy freshly brewed maple syrup, others gathered in the center of the square around a group of street performers, letting out bursts of exclamations.

The entire Slime City was like a giant wasp nest heated by the sun, buzzing with the kind of noise that only came with festivals.

He was looking out the window when he suddenly felt something.

[Golden Core Lv.14]

[Primordial Origin Sword Dao Lv.2]

[Primordial Yellow Kun Earth Dao Lv.2]

[Primordial Unity True Technique Lv.2]

[Embryonic Yuan Slime Dao Lv.2]

It was the body in Xu Xuan Heaven that had broken through to the mid Golden Core stage.

The level of the Embryonic Yuan Slime Dao had even caught up with the other three Daos.

He felt a bit of emotion. New Daos were indeed easier to comprehend than old ones. Even for him, the old Daos were still quite difficult to grasp, let alone how much effort other Golden Core cultivators would have to expend to comprehend them.

He was just thinking about what to eat when he returned to the Tree House today when Silver Sparrow's voice suddenly rang in his ear.

"Master, your egg moved."

Chen Yu froze. "What do you mean... my egg moved?"

Then he remembered. He did indeed have an egg.

After Olivia's dragon soul merged into the Dragon Pearl, it had indeed transformed into a stone egg.

Could it be... that Olivia was about to wake up?

He immediately looked inward into his sea of consciousness and directed his awareness toward the flower pavilion of the levitating castle.

On the cushion in the flower pavilion, the gray, stone-like dragon egg was gently shaking.

The movement wasn't large, but it was continuous, as if something inside the shell was shifting its body, trying to break through the darkness that had enveloped it for who knew how long.

It really was the egg moving.

He suddenly remembered Oros's words: if a second Legendary appeared within the Empire, it might very well attract the attention of the gods.

So Olivia's hatching naturally couldn't take place within the Empire's borders.

But he had thought of a good place.

Chen Yu's Gel Body lunged forward, tore open a Fissure, and hopped through it.

He landed on a patch of soft grass.

This was the Tree King's dreamscape.

Above his head was a void shimmering with a faint silver light. In the distance, the enormous remains of the Tree King, which blotted out the entire sky, still stood silently.

And at the foot of those remains, the World Tree sapling he had planted with his own hands had grown considerably taller since his last visit. Its tender branches had nearly reached the height of his head.

He studied it for a moment, making an estimate.

At this rate of growth, the World Tree might take a few hundred years to reach the same scale as the Tree King in its prime.

Still too slow.

For the creatures of Zeyarila, this growth rate might already be considered fast. A few hundred years to give birth to a demigod—any faction would be secretly celebrating. But he couldn't afford to wait that long.

For now, though, he didn't have time to think carefully about accelerating the World Tree's growth. His attention quickly returned to the dragon egg in front of him.

The egg had been taken out from his sea of consciousness and placed on the soft grass.

The shaking of the eggshell was becoming more and more pronounced. Golden cracks appeared on its surface, as if something was about to break out from within.

While waiting for Olivia to hatch, he asked Silver Sparrow about the latest situation at Farvoyage Port.

The information Silver Sparrow reported back surprised him a little. Those Adventurers were exploring much faster than he had imagined. The Magical Creature Legion sent by the Empire, following them under the Tree King's canopy, had already built over a dozen outposts and had almost finished exploring the entire area within the canopy's range.

Some of the bolder Adventurers had even started planning expeditions to the nearest black dragon's lair.

He was just thinking about whether he should warn them not to be in such a hurry to provoke the Giant Dragons when the egg in front of him suddenly jolted violently.

"Help..."

Was it his imagination? He felt like the egg was speaking.

He pulled his thoughts back and refocused on the egg.

"Help..."

That faint voice came from inside the eggshell again.

He could be certain it wasn't Olivia's voice. It sounded like some long-dormant existence was awakening from within the egg.

But the problem was, Olivia was still inside.

Chen Yu thought for a moment, then tentatively used his Divine Sense to gently touch the surface of the eggshell.

The next thing he knew, everything went black, and his consciousness was sucked in instantly.

When he came to, he found himself standing in front of an undersea Dragon Palace.

Corals served as pillars, mother-of-pearl as tiles, and countless pearls were embedded in the gaps of the giant stones, emitting a soft halo that bathed the entire Dragon Palace in a dreamlike sea of light.

But the entire Dragon Palace was trembling at that moment, and the deep sea was roaring.

He looked up and saw, on the distant seabed, a True Dragon locked in an intense magical battle with an egg suspended in midair.

The True Dragon's body was massive and majestic, its scales shimmering with a cyan-gold light in the dim seawater. Its draconic pupils blazed with fighting spirit. It opened its mouth and spat out a concentrated beam of Dao light, which crashed toward the egg with a roar.

The egg showed no sign of weakness. Using itself as a weapon, it slammed violently into the True Dragon's Dao light like a meteor, each impact sending out a shockwave that kicked up seabed sediment dozens of feet high.

"Help her. Defeat me."

The same voice that had drawn him in earlier spoke again.

Chen Yu turned his head to look around but saw no sign of the speaker.

But he soon realized that this voice and the True Dragon fighting fiercely with the egg were one and the same source.

This Illusion was not under its own will's control. It was merely mechanically replaying a battle scene etched into the depths of the eggshell's memory.

And Olivia, still in her egg form, was immersed in this Illusion, instinctively fighting over and over again against this True Dragon opponent from an unknown era, completely unaware of his arrival.