Chapter 1078: The Third Ancient God Egg (Fourth Update!)
Long Qilin revealed a slight smile, thinking leisurely to himself: "Playing hard to get—that is the art of taming. Crown Prince Youming has already become a turtle in my jar."
Yan'er felt somewhat uneasy and whispered, "This Brother Youming is so simple and honest, and so generous. Are we going too far by stealing his Colored Glaze Azure Sky Canopy, causing him to be suppressed by the Northern Emperor for six hundred thousand years?"
Long Qilin hesitated for a moment, then said, "If we hadn't stolen the Colored Glaze Azure Sky Canopy, Youming would likely have died long ago and never made it to the Yankang Era. Stealing this treasure is also saving his life."
Yan'er still felt a pang of conscience about deceiving Crown Prince Youming. After thinking it over, she said, "Even if we don't steal the Colored Glaze Azure Sky Canopy, Northern Emperor Xuanwu would find some reason to suppress him anyway, to keep him from being killed by people like the Netherworld Son of Heaven. Long Pang, if we can avoid stealing from him, then let's not."
Long Qilin hesitated, then nodded. "Alright. Let's stay here, relying on the protection of the Colored Glaze Azure Sky Canopy. We can hold out until the Cult Master recovers."
The two had settled their plan and followed Crown Prince Youming to the Lingxiao Hall of the Xuanwu Heavenly Palace. Before they even entered the hall, they were startled by the dazzling display of treasures.
When they entered the hall, they were startled again. A towering jade-glazed pillar stood tall, with layers of azure canopies decorating the jade pillar until it looked like a sugarcane stalk.
As they drew closer, they saw the canopies slowly unfolding outward layer by layer, resembling countless "towel" characters stacked on top of one another.
And within the canopies, all sorts of treasure light shone through, as if tiny suns were hidden inside.
Long Qilin stood beneath and looked up, feeling dizzy. Every canopy had tassels and hanging pearls, and within the canopies were all kinds of treasures—bells, cauldrons, towers, pavilions, trees, flowers, clouds, and rivers.
Inside the canopies, stars were also moving, sometimes near and sometimes far. The nearby ones were extremely bright and dazzling, while the distant ones looked like stars in the night sky.
"What a treasure!"
Long Qilin probed, "Brother, how is the Colored Glaze Azure Sky Canopy used?"
Crown Prince Youming stepped forward, hoisted the Colored Glaze Azure Sky Canopy onto his shoulder, carried it outside the Lingxiao Hall, and stood it upright in front of the hall. He said, "This treasure grants whatever is asked of it—it is quite miraculous. It was forged by my father and mother gods with the savings of their entire lives. Using it is very simple."
He bowed to the Colored Glaze Azure Sky Canopy and said, "My precious, give me some food."
The canopy of the Colored Glaze Azure Sky Canopy rotated gently, and all sorts of delicacies tumbled down from within.
Long Qilin and Yan'er were astonished.
Crown Prince Youming caught the food falling from the air, distributed it to everyone, and then said, "My precious, make it rain."
The moment he finished speaking, clouds gathered, and soon rain began to fall in a drizzle over the Xuanwu Heavenly Palace.
Crown Prince Youming laughed heartily, bowed, and said, "My precious, please guard the Xuanwu Heavenly Palace!"
Whoosh—
The Colored Glaze Azure Sky Canopy suddenly expanded countless times. Layer after layer of canopies transformed into layer after layer of heavens, twenty-eight heavens in total, surrounding the Xuanwu Heavenly Palace on all sides—three layers inside, three layers outside. Within each layer of heavens hung all manner of treasures, with sun and moon moving, stars shifting, brilliantly resplendent!
And within those heavenly spaces, tassels and hanging pearls had also become enormously huge, like giant planets in outer space.
In the sky floated enormous bells, cauldrons, towers, and pavilions, along with flower trees, clouds, and rivers, slowly drifting across the heavens, radiating divine light of every color!
Long Qilin looked up into the sky and saw that at the very top of the twenty-eight heavens hung a celestial sphere. On its surface, various great Dao runes flickered in and out of existence—this should be the core treasure of the Colored Glaze Azure Sky Canopy.
"That celestial sphere!"
The palace maid whose body Gong Jun had borrowed suddenly felt a great shock in her heart and urgently transmitted her divine consciousness to Qin Mu's, which was behind Yan'er's head halo. She said, "Northern Emperor Xuanwu brought a terrifying thing out of the Ancestral Court! This couple truly has audacity—they actually refined this egg into a treasure!"
Qin Mu sat beneath the Dragon Blood Treasure Tree, quietly focusing his mind, using the Overlord Three Elixirs Technique to refine the Primordial Chaos Yuan Liquid that Wei Suifeng had poured into his stomach. He felt his physical body and primordial energy growing stronger and stronger, yet the Primordial Chaos Yuan Liquid within him still hadn't been fully consumed.
"An egg?"
Qin Mu's heart stirred slightly. The body beneath the tree looked up toward the zenith of the twenty-eight heavens, and sure enough, he saw a massive celestial sphere floating there, shining in mutual radiance with all the other strange treasures.
"That is... an egg?"
The divine consciousness Qin Mu had lodged in the Dragon Blood Treasure Tree nearly went haywire. That celestial sphere really was an egg—similar to the Primordial Beginning Egg and the Grand Beginning Egg!
However, unlike the Primordial Beginning Egg and the Grand Beginning Egg, the Grand Beginning Egg's Dao runes were imprinted on the inner wall of the shell. Qin Mu had obtained half of the Heavenly Emperor's eggshell and fused it with his vertical eye, so he knew this very well.
As for the Primordial Beginning Egg, its Dao sounds came from within. He hadn't yet figured out the mysteries of the Primordial Beginning Dao.
And the core treasure of the Colored Glaze Azure Sky Canopy was also an egg from the Ancestral Court. The strange thing was that its Dao runes were imprinted on the outside of the shell!
"Could it be that besides Heavenly Emperor Grand Beginning and Primordial Beginning, there are other ancient god eggs in existence?" He steadied his disordered divine consciousness and thought to himself.
"Xuanwu brought this egg out of the Ancestral Court—aren't they afraid of inviting a great disaster?" Gong Jun Divine King said with great displeasure.
Qin Mu's heart stirred. Gong Jun Divine King seemed to know a great deal about this strange kind of ancient god egg, so he probed, "Divine King, what is the origin of this kind of egg?"
Without waiting for Gong Jun to answer, he continued, "I know that the Heavenly Emperor was born from an ancient god egg that the Juyu clan dug out of the mine, which is why he is so powerful and boundless. But I didn't know that this kind of ancient god egg was not unique."
The palace maid hesitated for a moment, then her divine consciousness rippled as she said, "Since you already know the Heavenly Emperor's origin, there's no need to hide it from you. Back then, after the Juyu clan discovered the most ancient Primordial Beginning Divine Stone mine in the Great Void, they excavated the Grand Beginning Egg. The Grand Beginning Egg was born alongside the Primordial Beginning Primeval Stone. Later, the ancient god born from that egg became the current Ancient God Heavenly Emperor. However, other Creator races also discovered other extremely ancient mines. The divine stones produced from these mines were not Primordial Beginning Divine Stones."
Qin Mu's heart skipped a beat.
Gong Jun continued, "These ancient mines, together with the Primordial Beginning mine, total five in number. After the Grand Beginning Egg was excavated from the Primordial Beginning mine, the other mines also yielded discoveries one after another. Two more mines had yet to yield anything. When the Grand Emperor conquered all races and slaughtered the Creators, during the great wars, the other two ancient god eggs vanished without a trace."
Qin Mu blinked. One of those ancient god eggs had fallen into the Heavenly Emperor's hands and was hidden by him in the Zhaoyang Hall.
The other ancient god egg had been secretly kept by Northern Emperor Xuanwu, refined into a treasure, and turned into the core of the Colored Glaze Azure Sky Canopy.
"Hmph! Xuanwu truly doesn't recognize a treasure. He treated an ancient god egg as a giant gemstone and made it the core of the Colored Glaze Azure Sky Canopy."
Gong Jun sneered, "Idiot! This treasure's so-called 'granting whatever is asked' is actually the ancient god inside the egg controlling it. The 'granting' is the ancient god in the egg doing the granting! Northern Emperor Xuanwu will suffer disaster from this sooner or later!"
Qin Mu pondered. The ancient god egg Xuanwu had obtained had its Dao runes imprinted on the outside of the shell, making it look somewhat similar to a natural treasure born of heaven and earth. But the Northern Emperor might not have failed to recognize it as an ancient god egg.
It was also possible that they recognized it but lacked the ability to hatch it.
So what abilities did the ancient god inside this egg possess?
Suddenly, a calling voice came from afar, shouting, "Brother Youming! Brother Youming! It's me, Yin Chaojin!"
Crown Prince Youming's heart filled with joy. He said to Long Qilin and Yan'er, "The one coming is my friend! With his help, going back will be much easier. I'll let him in!"