Chapter 79

Chapter 79: Finding a Clue

Wei Yun Xi’s words drew everyone’s attention. They all looked at Yun Xi, waiting for what came next.

Mu Ning Zhu’s eyes lit up. She asked directly, “Yun Xi, do you know why the eggs won’t hatch?”

“I have some guesses,” Yun Xi said, rubbing her temple.

“Can you say it?”

Yun Xi organized her thoughts before speaking. “These eggs weren’t fertilized.”

Everyone looked confused, and some people immediately asked, “Fertilized?”

“What does that mean?”

Wei Yun Xi felt it was a bit too advanced for her current age to explain it directly, so she put it another way. “Before I entered the sect, I was a young lady of the Wei Family. I had maids serving me. They were mortals, and they once told me that the chicken eggs we ate every day were laid by hens. And hens would kick eggs that couldn’t hatch out of the nest, leaving only the ones that could hatch.

“And those eggs were laid only after the hen and the rooster were together. Only that kind of egg can hatch.”

Yun Xi didn’t know if she had explained it clearly, but that was the idea.

Mu Ning Zhu reacted quickly. She said thoughtfully, “Yun Xi, you mean this three-headed snake laid these eggs on its own, not after mating with a male snake, so they can’t hatch!”

“Yes, that’s it. Unless this peak second-rank three-headed snake is a hermaphrodite, its eggs might have demon power fluctuations, but they can’t hatch. Mortals also only conceive offspring after yin and yang join.”

With the back-and-forth between them, everyone finally understood why the snake eggs wouldn’t hatch. But after understanding, they felt even more helpless. How were they supposed to tell that peak second-rank three-headed snake?

Qin Tong Shuang said with a bitter face, “Then what do we do now? Do we need to explain the reason to that three-headed snake?”

“No.”

“Of course not.”

“Absolutely not.”

Mu Ning Zhu, Yun Xi, and Zhang Yan spoke at the same time, all rejecting Qin Tong Shuang’s suggestion.

The others also shook their heads. Mu Ning Zhu explained, “If we don’t say it, we can still pretend to hatch the eggs and buy time while we wait for Senior Brother Sheng and the others to rescue us. If we say it, we’ll probably become its food in the next moment.”

Qin Tong Shuang pressed her lips together. She felt she had lost her usual calm, so she simply shut her mouth and said nothing.

Yun Xi understood how Qin Tong Shuang felt. After all, they had been locked in this lightless place for nearly a month, trembling in fear every day. Anyone’s state of mind would collapse.

Yun Xi turned to Mu Ning Zhu. “Martial Aunt Mu, let’s hold on a little longer. Long Dao Yu wasn’t captured. He definitely already notified Martial Uncle Sheng. All we can do now is wait.”

Mu Ning Zhu nodded and signaled the others. The cave fell silent again. Everyone hugged the snake eggs in their arms and closed their eyes to meditate. This time, though, they no longer sent spiritual energy into the eggs. They only slowly replenished their own depleted spiritual energy.

Because the three-headed snake wanted them to hatch eggs, it hadn’t taken their storage bags. After all, a cultivator’s spiritual energy couldn’t be output endlessly. When it ran dry, they naturally needed to replenish it, and the pills and spirit stones in their storage bags served exactly that purpose.

In nearly a month of captivity, the people who had been taken had already used up some pills and spirit stones. But Yun Xi believed they all kept something in reserve. No one would spend every last life-saving resource.

Yun Xi also closed her eyes and began meditating. She circulated the Thousand Shadow Wind-Supporting Technique, a Foundation Establishment stage method. After the time it took a stick of incense to burn, she opened her eyes. She discovered that as her technique circulated, pure spiritual energy slowly entered her meridians from underground.

Then she carefully released her spiritual sense and began exploring the entire underground cave little by little. Even if she was waiting for rescue, she couldn’t be too passive.

Because Yun Xi had a wind spiritual root, her spiritual sense spread along the wind, disturbing her fellow disciples and the three-headed snake as little as possible.

On the other side, after sending out the distress talisman, Long Dao Yu turned and ran, afraid he would be taken too.

When Sheng Yu Hong’s group saw the distress talisman explode not far away, they flashed forward and rushed to the scene.

Sheng Yu Hong arrived beside the fleeing Long Dao Yu first. “You were the one who sent the distress talisman.”

When Long Dao Yu saw it was Sheng Yu Hong appearing at his side, he stopped at once and bowed respectfully. “Martial Uncle Sheng, I sent the distress talisman. Junior Sister Wei was just dragged underground.”

Sheng Yu Hong frowned. “No need for formalities. Tell me what happened.”

“Yes!”

Facing the Martial Uncle he admired, Long Dao Yu was a little excited, but he also knew time was tight. In a few quick sentences, he explained everything clearly.

“You’re saying she was taken at the fire dragon grass patch?” Sheng Yu Hong asked.

“Yes, absolutely. I saw her get wrapped up by a snake tail and pulled into the ground with my own eyes,” Long Dao Yu swore.

A female cultivator at early Foundation Establishment beside Sheng Yu Hong, Du Yu Ling, guessed, “Senior Brother Sheng, could it be the same snake we saw in the Reversal Mirror?”

Sheng Yu Hong rubbed his fingers. “Most likely. This demon beast is clever. When we investigated the site earlier, it never showed itself.”

“With Senior Brother Sheng here, that three-headed snake wouldn’t dare act up,” Long Dao Yu immediately added.

No one refuted him.

Sheng Yu Hong narrowed his eyes and said coldly, “We go back now. Even if we have to dig three feet into the ground, we’ll drag that three-headed snake out.”

“Yes!” Long Dao Yu answered the loudest. The group turned back to the fire dragon grass patch.

This time, Sheng Yu Hong didn’t need to give orders. The Foundation Establishment disciples all released their spiritual sense and searched the shattered ground inch by inch.

Because of the earlier commotion, cultivators and demon beasts had gathered nearby, but because Sheng Yu Hong was at late Foundation Establishment, none of them dared to close in.

“Senior Brother Sheng, I found something,” Du Yu Ling called out first.

Sheng Yu Hong flashed to her side. “Junior Sister Du, what did you find?”

Du Yu Ling pointed at the ground. “The soil here is clearly looser than the surrounding area, and I can smell the unique stench of a snake-type demon beast.”

Sheng Yu Hong lifted his hand, and a spirit sword appeared. With a turn of his wrist, he stabbed it into the ground. After sensing for a moment, he ordered, “Burrow. There should be a passage down here leading to the three-headed snake’s lair.”

“Yes, Senior Brother!”

After answering, everyone flashed and burrowed underground.

Long Dao Yu also refused to fall behind. He slapped an earth-burrowing talisman on himself and followed closely behind the others into the ground.

Sheng Yu Hong really did have skill. Using his spreading spiritual sense, he found the underground passage the three-headed snake used.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the six of them, plus Long Dao Yu, all appeared inside the passage, and their arrival also alarmed the second-rank three-headed snake.

All three heads opened their snake eyes at once. It flicked its tongue and left its nest.

“Senior Brother Sheng, which way do we go?” Du Yu Ling asked.

“Junior Sister Du, we split into two groups. Whoever finds something sends a message to the other. After we regroup, we’ll decide what to do,” Sheng Yu Hong said.

“Alright.”

Du Yu Ling chose two junior sisters she was close with and took one direction. Long Dao Yu followed behind Sheng Yu Hong without hesitation and went the other way.

A quarter of an hour later, Sheng Yu Hong’s group ran into the three-headed snake as it prowled through the underground cave.