Egg-cellent Nesting

Chapter 29

Egg-cellent Nesting

Yue barely managed to retreat to 'her' hut without screaming out further.

She held the feather within her hands as though it was her newborn child, fragile and a fall away from breaking. She had to use Qi to steady her hands and prevent them from shaking, lest she dropped it. Though she knew that it was foolish--the feather would be just fine whether she dropped it or threw it into an active volcano, she couldn't help it.

Did she doubt her Master's words? No. 

Even if they were insane and something that would invoke mockery in the outside world, she knew that her Master wasn't simply 'bragging'. If he claimed that the feather had the ability to procure an attack at the level of an Earthly Immortal... she believed it. But just because she believed didn't mean she believed. 

Earthly Immortals, after all, were the figures of mythology. One of the first pieces of knowledge that every child learned in the schools was that the Ashlands, at the moment, only had one Earthly Immortal--the Venerable Sword God, Sect Master of the only Tier X Sect on the continent, Immortal Sword Sect. 

And yet, supposedly, the quaint, faintly-glowing feather lying calmly on her palm had the ability to produce an attack at the level of the strongest known figure on the continent. How could she not shake with terror and trepidation? 

Deep down, she felt like she should swear to the heavens to never use the feather--should an attack of that magnitude truly appear within the Lower Ashlands, she was far from clever enough to contemplate the consequences. 

But... if he handed them out as though he was handing out candy, perhaps, in her Master's eyes, something at this level was... partly worthless? Had she been his Disciple all her life, perhaps she could rationalize it as him wanting her to be safe, but that wasn't the case. Even if he was nice towards her, they'd only just begun their journey as a Master-Disciple pair. There was no reason for him to hand her what was effectively a weapon that could bring about the end of the entire Sect.

Was it a test? Yes, perhaps. Maybe this was his way of testing her honesty and her heart. If she were corrupted, she would go and immediately use the feather to exact vengeance. 

She was pulled from the thoughts by a gentle touch of a paw--glancing down, she saw Blackie climb on top of her lap and look up at her. It seemed to 'grin', almost, as she looked at the feather. Extending her paws, Blackie began to gesture--almost like a person would. Whether she wanted to believe it or not, it seemed to Yue that Blackie was telling her that it was 'fine'. That she could do with the feather whatever she wanted.

That was even heavier of a burden, however.

Thus, just before falling into deep meditation, she swore that she wouldn't use feather unless she was about to die. It would truly become the last resort, and she would sooner lose a limb or two rather than unveil to the world the existence of her Master. 

**

By the time Leo woke up, Yue was gone.

Once again, he mulled over his choice the last night--if the feather, perhaps, truly was something remarkable... was it right for him to hand it over? What if she sold it and never returned? Or, worse yet, what if she gathered a bunch of cultivators and used the feather to kill them all? Wouldn't that weigh terribly on his conscience? 

Even if he knew her and liked her well enough, they'd barely just met, after all. For all he knew, the anger she felt toward her family wasn't as simple as he believed--perhaps it ran much deeper, with hatred coursing through her veins, igniting her heart into one of vengeance. 

Alas, he was not afforded the luxury of mulling over his choices this morning--for a new quest appeared. 

This time around, it came from the friend who liked to curl up within his robes and around his arm. Well, it turned out that 'she' liked to curl up around his arm--Long Johnson turned out to be Long Jane-son, which just didn't roll off the tongue quite as naturally. 

['???????' beseeches you to help her]

[After grueling, 800 years long pregnancy, she is ready to lay an egg]

['???????' asks you to build her a warm and secure nearby]

[Time Limit: 2 days]

[Reward: <Plain Poison Immunity Physique>]

Looking at the (admittedly cute) face of the snake, Leo was a bit flummoxed. There was the whole pregnancy thing, sure, but he was fairly certain that the system mentioned something akin to '800 years long pregnancy', which he did not compute. As the window was no longer there, he convinced himself that he'd simply added a zero or two to that number, settling his mind. 

Unlike with previous 'nests', there was no new building with all the ingredients gifted to him. It seemed, for the first time, the system 'wanted' to see whether he was capable of solving anything on his own. 

Since he had about as much knowledge of snakes as a toddler did, he had no clue what kind of a nest snakes sought during pregnancy, labor, and before the egg cracked and whatnot. But, nonetheless, he swore to build one to the best of his abilities. 

Before starting, he prepared meals for everyone, and while they finished off the food, he looked around the nearby trees--there was a roughly sixty feet wide clearing that was slowly expanding, but there were still a few untouched trees there (such as the one housing the owl's nest). 

"No, wait, does it have to be near a tree...?" ultimately, he didn't know.

Sighing, he crouched, picked up a twig, and started drawing on the dirt. Long Jane-son (it truly lost the charm) was quite large, and seemed capable of illusions of sort. After all, whenever she wrapped around his arm, she was quite tiny and light, but on the outside and while eating, she seemed well over twenty feet long at least. 

As such, he had to scale the nest to not only accommodate her vastness, but also the egg. Who knew how big an egg that was gestating for 800 years would become.

"No, no, it must have meant something like 800 hours. Yeah."

Eventually, he went out and gathered materials for the mud hut, constructing the seventh one. Once it was up, he went inside and started digging into the ground--luckily, being a cultivator meant that he was able to dig out dirt with his bare hands rather easily. He went deep and wide, and even began decorating the hole a bit as the dirt was rather sturdy when not touched by Qi. 

After the hole was dug, he mulled for a moment before deciding to craft a single torch and light it up within the hole. However, after a few minutes, he began to choke on the smoke and decided against it. 

Leaving the hut, he was still uncertain. 

Ultimately, he didn't know how to make it perfectly comfortable, so he decided to simply decorate it. He brought a bucket of water from the pond and settled it in the corner; the corner opposite of it was a home to several jugs of the fruit juice, while the other two corners had plenty of his famous vegetable stew. He also lined the bottom of the hole with straw, and even took the pillow he was using and put it at the bottom.

Feeling at least somewhat satisfied, he wiped his forehead (of the non-existent sweat) and went for a quick bath. By the time he'd returned, the snake had occupied the mud hut and, eerily, there was a door-like contraption at the entrance that seemed to disallow others, including Leo, entry.

Similarly, unlike with all other mud huts, there was nobody on top of it or even around it. It was as though the forest knew to stay away from the mama snake. 

Just then, he felt something churn within his stomach--a mere second later, he was lying on his side, convulsing, as he felt fire burn through his veins. It was so painful that he cried out 'till his throat burned, but, eerily, no animal came to his aid.

Just as he thought he was finally about to die, it all stopped--the pain ended, and the burning sensation within his veins became a cooling and embracing one. He was still on the floor, covered in sweat and tears, for a moment believing he'd thought up the entire episode in his head. But the window floating in front of his eyes confirmed otherwise.

['???????' was extremely pleased with the nest!]

[Your reward has been upgraded from <Plain Poison Immunity Physique> to <Moderate Poison Immunity Physique>. Additionally, once a month, you can squeeze a single drop of the <Soul-Paralyzing Poison> out of you which can paralyze cultivators up to Nascent Soul Realm]

['???????' has entered a long process of egg-laying and cultivating. It will take anywhere from 3 to 10 years. You will need to replenish the water and food every 30 days; otherwise, there is a high chance that either '???????' or the child might perish]

[<Moderate Poison Immunity Physique> -- in the Ancient Serpent Clan, during the Immortal Age, newborn heirs were bathed in 33 different poisons for 33 days. Those who managed to survive for at least 3 days inherited <Moderate Poison Immunity Physique>, though were considered failures and most often banished from the Clan]

Leo sighed, lamenting that the system was being rather stingy. Then again, the only thing he did was build a rather unremarkable shelter. Thus, perhaps, the reward was appropriate. 

Even if it was just a minor 'physique', any protection against poisons was nice. However, he swore he'd avoid quests granting physiques from now on--the pain he experienced for those few seconds was something that was unbearable. 

Standing by the perishing flames of the campfire, he once again found himself bored--sitting down cross-legged, he began to meditate in accordance with the <Hallowed Paradise>. This time around, he managed to cycle his Qi thrice through the guidelines before he fell flat on his bum and got hungry. Luckily, there was a gourd of juice nearby that he chugged down, quickly recovering. Strangely, he didn't pass out this time around, and after the single gourd of juice, he felt fully refreshed.

Pondering for a moment, and noting the dozen or so still-filled jugs of juice... he decided to go on a bit of a mission.