Chapter 129 “Replacement Incubator”
After the collapse of the Mountain Sea Gang, a time of peace and tranquility was ushered in for Ling Yue and her family. And since there were no other news regarding the ghost emperor, calm returns to Glass City as time continues to move forward.
From the day Ling Yue advanced into the lower celestial realm, she’s been severely lacking in opportunities to flesh out her abilities. Since nothing occurred in the following six months, this gave her the perfect chance to do just that and more. Healing the phoenix egg, planting more herbs in the dimensional space, and mastering the other needle techniques from the poison manual.
Ghost Tongue, the second attack in which she mastered using this time period. Different from the first technique “Seven Step Fall”, this move forces the victim into a state of confusion where they would spout whatever was on their mind without the intent to do so. A deadly ability if one wanted the foe to act out of character and make them confess.
In coherent with her knowledge, the Dragon Saliva Needle itself also went through some major changes. From the original three, a total of six needle clones were now at Ling Yue’s disposal following her advancement. Every one capable of penetrating a Yellow class armor.
As usual, after finishing with her needle practice for the day, Ling Yue would use the remainder of the time to heal the phoenix egg. After nearly half a year of continuous treatment, the poison linings on the surface of the shell had completely disappeared, making it look no different from a regular phoenix egg, but smaller.
“Squeak!” Ever since Little Squeak became engaged to the phoenix egg by Ling Yue’s arrangement, the little fella have been taking extra care of the thing without slack. To find the ugly poison lines gone from the shell after such a long wait, Little Squeak would naturally perform a celebratory dance.
“The poison lines are cured, but who knows how long it would take to hatch the egg.” Stumped over this thorny question, Ling Yue realizes the crucial fact that she doesn’t have a clue either over the solution.
It’s not like she’s a mother hen, right?
Unable to come up with an idea, she eventually figured there be better chance at the local pet store specializing in selling spirit beasts than thinking by herself. Maybe she can even find a mother bird to help incubate the egg.
“Little Squeak, since we temporarily have no means to hatch little phoenix, let’s go find a big bird to help us instead.” Despite her efforts to explain the conditions required to help the egg, Little Squeak remains to be his good old self – clueless when it got technical.
In Da Xia, the act of keeping a spirit beast as a pet remains to be a popular hobby among the wealthy. One was the prestige that came with such an act, the second being a good guard animal against common thieves.
However there are rules that one must heed when purchasing a spirit beast. The most expensive usually being the eggs while the adult ones are frowned upon due to their wild temperaments built up from the wild. And of course, there are some exceptions to this. Mainly being the cute ones. Most ladies of a wealthy house would prefer a petite and cute pet over a powerful and fierce looking one.
Therefore, when Little Squeak made his grand entrance into the pet shop, the super cute him immediately gathered the garnering eyes of the many young ladies already inside.
Through much effort and much squeezing, Ling Yue did eventually rid herself of those twittering women. With no other obstruction, she asked the boss of the place for any mid or higher grade spirit birds.
“Lady, your luck is not bad, we just caught a fourth rank female albatross. However, its price isn’t cheap and its quite fierce,” the boss led the way into the back stable room after his sales pitch.
The albatross bird species of this world was a type of spirit beast that made their home among the high cliffs of the mountains. Due to its ability to maneuver quickly in high altitude, its often used by the military as scouts in their operations.
White all around, the creature displayed before Ling Yue had brown eyes and a set of black feathers on the forehead. As they walked into its presence, the albatross vigilantly glossed over the three and its surrounding environment. Alarmed, it raises its head and makes a constant cawing sound as a form of warning.
It’s been over ten days since the bird arrived at the shop, but the wild character of the creature remains to be burning. Not only will attack anyone who draws near, its highly likely the bird will have to be put down if it continues to resist domestication.
“Guest, you mustn’t get any closer. This one will attack anyone that do,” the owner warns, afraid to move closer.
“Little Squeak, it’s your turn to show off,” Ling Yue turns to the little fella under her feet.
After taking Little Squeak in, Ling Yue had found that other than being a naughty glutton, the little guy also had another special talent: he’s very good at taming other animals.
This was clearly proven with Big Yellow as the main case.
Towards Little Squeak’s command, Big Yellow would always obediently carry them out without mistake. This also applied to the other common spirit beasts they met thus far. The only question now was the albatross. Will it also listen to Little Squeak despite being a bird?
Finding the opportunity to show off, how can Little Squeak resist this chance.
Getting up on his hindlegs with his front paws behind his back, Little Squeak puts on a gentlemen’s image and swaggered towards the albatross.
Watching this suicidal act, the owner wanted to give another warning out of kindness when Ling Yue stopped him with a quieting gesture.
Initially the wary albatross wanted to blow the fluff ball away by flexing its wings, but then it instantly halted the notion upon hearing Little Squeak’s call. Lowering its head, the bird stooped its body down to the ground into a passive pose and stopped the hostile cries it made earlier.
Smooth and easy, the owner looked at Little Squeak with a sense of envy and worship. What skill!
“Success!” Ling Yue became stoked.
Taking out the phoenix egg, she walks up to the female albatross hoping the creature will take an interest in helping her.
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But who would’ve guessed. The moment she drew close enough for the bird to get a clear look of the egg, it promptly yelped out in panic. Forget about helping out with the hatching, the bird literally dodged to a corner and started to shiver like it just saw something horrifying.
“Squeak?” Making a helpless gesture with his paws out, Little Squeak returns to Ling Yue’s side.
She can’t help us?
It’s not like Ling Yue didn’t understand why. The phoenix race was the king of birds. Not only will a common variant be inherently afraid to draw close due to the suppression of the race’s lineage, even a powerful spirit beast will submit under the pressure.
It seems it’s impossible to ask this albatross to help then.
No other choice, she can only regretfully store the egg away.
“I am sorry guest. I’ve long said it already. This useless thing should’ve been killed a long time ago.” Seeing the silver coins flying away before him, the boss can feel his heart aching heavily inside.
Suddenly, the boss noticed an angry glare shooting his way. It was Little Squeak who was grinding his mullers together.
“Boss, I’ll take this albatross.” Although the plan to use the albatross to hatch the egg turned out to be a bust, but they did learn something new. According to Little Squeak’s explanation just now, this albatross had recently become a mother, meaning she has a brood of starving fledglings waiting for her back at the nest.
In the end, Ling Yue used around seventy silver coins to buy the albatross.
After receiving the coins, the boss became overjoyed and couldn’t stop flattering the customer.
“Miss, your egg should be from a high level bird right? If you can’t find a bird capable of helping you hatch it then you can use the alternative and artificially incubate it. The only requirement is a warm environment over a thirty-day span period. Using this method comes with its own risk, but the odds of success remains high enough to give it a try.” The whole reason the boss would suggest this idea was because he didn’t know it was in fact a phoenix egg. If only he had known, then he would never dare say something so outlandish.
Then again, this logic didn’t apply to everyone. When Little Squeak inadvertently heard this method, a flash of excitement rocketed his big blue eyes.
After leaving the pet store, Ling Yue went out to the suburbs and released the albatross.
“Next time be smarter. Hurry and go back now, your children are waiting for you.” Giving the mother bird a lift, the albatross spread its wings and soared into the sky. Circling around Ling Yue’s head several times as a form of thanks, she then zoomed through the air like an arrow.