Chapter 944: The Dark Egg

Chapter 944: Hei Bu Liu Qiu De Dan

For the entire next day, Ye Chen stayed at the mountain peak, using his bloodline power to help the Hun Dun Shen Ding recover.

As night fell, he descended from the peak and joined Chu Ling and Chu Xuan in entering the teleportation array leading to the Tian Ting headquarters. Since this was the Tian Ting selection for the nine true disciples, as the Sheng Zhu, he had to be present.

However, the atmosphere in the teleportation channel was a bit awkward.

Ye Chen looked around, even shaking his head absentmindedly, while Chu Xuan occasionally turned her head to glare at him fiercely. Chu Ling, stuck in the middle, glanced at them from time to time and couldn't help but steal a few smiles.

"Sister, is your foot still hurting?"

"Ling Er."

"About that promise, you can't back out of it."

"Are you helping me or helping him?"

"This is helping reason, not relatives. Hmm, I guess I'll still help my husband!" Chu Ling Er said, then naturally shifted a step toward Ye Chen and linked her arm with his.

"Ling Er, you're getting more and more sensible."

"Don't praise me like that; it'll make me shy!"

"I just love how you look when you're shy." Ye Chen played along, reaching out to lift her chin, admiring her stunning face without a care in the world.

Hee hee hee!

Watching them, Chu Xuan burst out laughing, holding her stomach.

Seeing this, Ye Chen, who was about to continue the act, was stunned and looked Chu Xuan up and down, completely baffled as to why she was laughing—and laughing so strangely.

"Sister, I told you, he didn't recognize you." Chu Xuan spoke up, addressing Chu Ling Er as sister, especially enjoying the dumbfounded look on Ye Chen's face, which made her laugh until tears formed at the corners of her eyes.

Ye Chen was indeed dumbfounded.

Exactly, he was dumbfounded, staring in utter confusion at Chu Ling Er—or more accurately, Chu Xuan Er—who was holding his arm.

"Surprised?"

"It's really f*cking surprising." Ye Chen's mouth twitched. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed his Shifu could act so charmingly, fooling even him, the Tian Ting Sheng Zhu.

"Then you can keep being surprised. Let's go, sister." Chu Ling Er had already stepped forward, pulling Chu Xuan Er away in an instant, leaving Ye Chen standing there in a daze, still stunned.

"My reputation is ruined!" It wasn't until Chu Ling and Chu Xuan had disappeared that Ye Chen covered his face. As clever as he was, he had still been outsmarted by these two sisters—quite the feat.

He didn't know how much time passed before he followed them. Even after exiting the teleportation array, he was still lost in thought.

"We greet the Sheng Zhu!"

The elders guarding the teleportation array bowed respectfully, snapping him back to reality.

"You all carry on!"

He replied casually and stepped out of the underground palace.

He reappeared in the grand hall of the Tian Ting.

What met his eyes was a vast expanse of stars, infinitely vast, just like a real starry sky, inspiring awe.

"This Taigu Star Sky is truly domineering!" Gu Santong stood beneath it, like a country bumpkin gazing up at the stars, an expert in formations and barriers. Only upon seeing this Taigu Star Sky did he realize how narrow his own knowledge was.

"Haven't you seen it in Heng Yue?"

"Seen my ass!" Gu Santong snorted. "Ever since that cheap dragon entered the Heng Yue hall, it's been occupied. Who the hell could get in? This is my first time seeing it."

"Looks like you're really hit hard." Ye Chen smiled.

"How could I not be? I've been standing here all night without even blinking." Wuya Daoist sighed.

"That takes some real determination."

"Sheng Zhu, has Yu Er caused any trouble in Heng Yue?" Tian Zong Laozu stepped forward, looking at Ye Chen a bit awkwardly.

"Don't worry, senior; I've already talked her down." Ye Chen smiled.

"That's good, that's good." Tian Zong Laozu let out a long breath. In truth, his daughter could only be managed by the young man before him.

"There are quite a few people here to watch the event!" As Tian Zong Laozu sighed in relief, Ye Chen kept scanning the Taigu Star Sky, clearly seeing many tiny stars moving from all directions, and in considerable numbers.

"While you were traveling, we old folks discussed it again." Zhong Jiang chuckled. "Since this is the Tian Ting selection for the nine true disciples, disciples of the Xuan generation from the three sects, nine halls, and eighty-one gates are all eligible to participate."

"I overlooked that." Ye Chen stroked his chin. "With so many people, will the competition venue hold them?"

"We've opened up a spatial world." Gu Santong, who had been staring at the Taigu Star Sky, chimed in. "Accommodating thirty or fifty thousand people won't be a problem. Plus, we've set up Huan Tian water screens on all sides, so even those not coming to Tian Ting can still see the competition. That's my handiwork—don't forget to credit me."

"I won't forget." Ye Chen gave him a sideways glance.

"Oh, everyone's here?" A voice laughed from outside the hall, growing closer, as Tai Xu Gu Long swaggered in.

"How about it? Isn't this Taigu Star Sky of mine something else?" As soon as he entered, he looked around smugly.

"It's f*cking amazing. Come on, tell me about the wonders of this Star Sky diagram."

"To talk about the wonders, that would take a while. It was on a dark and windy night when I..."

"Senior, I found the Feng Huang Sui." Meanwhile, Ye Chen completely ignored Tai Xu Gu Long's boasting and went straight to Dan Chen's side, handing him the jade bottle containing the Qing Luan essence.

"This is Qing Luan essence, right?" Dan Chen took it and examined it carefully before looking at Ye Chen.

"It's indeed Qing Luan essence." Ye Chen smiled. "But Qing Luan carries the Feng Huang bloodline, so its essence might substitute for Feng Huang Sui. It's worth a try."

"Did you get this from that little girl Lin Shi Hua?"

"Who else but Lin Shi Mei?"

"I've asked for it before, but that Qing Luan has a terrible temper." Dan Chen laughed awkwardly. "Turns out, my face as the Dan Cheng city lord doesn't compare to yours as the Tian Ting Sheng Zhu!"

"Don't tease me, senior."

"So, we're just missing the Qi Lin Jiao now." Dan Chen took a deep breath, holding the jade bottle, feeling as if he had grown younger. "If I can refine the Tian Ji Dan in my lifetime, I'll die without regrets."

"What's with all this fuss?" While they were talking, Zhuge Laotou's surprised voice rang out from nearby.

Hearing this, everyone in conversation looked up toward where Zhuge Laotou was staring.

In that section of the starry sky, large swaths of stars were moving, in various colors, and at least numbering over a hundred thousand—which meant over a hundred thousand cultivators were on the move in that direction.

"Which hall's territory is in the northeast direction?" Ye Chen furrowed his brow slightly.

"The Tian Ting First Branch Hall."

"Send a message to Xiao Feng, the hall master, and ask what incident has occurred there."

"Just now, we received news of a strange object descending in Nan Chu." No sooner had Ye Chen spoken than Hong Chen Xue flew in from outside the hall.

"A strange object?"

"This is the footage we just received." Hong Chen Xue gently waved her hand, summoning a Huan Tian water screen.

As the water screen appeared, everyone narrowed their eyes slightly, for what they saw was a vast expanse of black scorched earth, barren of any vegetation.

"What's this?" Ye Chen asked, looking at Hong Chen Xue.

"As you see, it's scorched earth." Hong Chen Xue took a deep breath. "But half an hour ago, this wasn't scorched earth—it was a massive ancient city. The strange object suddenly descended, turning the city and the surrounding area for over ten li into scorched earth, with no survivors."

"No survivors?" Ye Chen's brow furrowed deeply. "Do we know what it is?"

"We're still investigating."

"Could it be a sneak attack from Bei Chu?" Su Family Laozu pondered.

"Impossible." Gu Santong immediately dismissed it. "There are barriers everywhere; hardly anyone from Bei Chu could break through. They'd have to be out of their minds to send one or two people—that's suicide."

"There's something else." While they discussed, Zhuge Laotou spoke up, his expression strange as he looked at the Huan Tian water screen.

At his words, everyone's gaze converged on it.

On the black scorched earth, a egg appeared—or more precisely, an extremely black egg, etched with strange runes that glowed eerily, surrounded by black lightning.

Crack!

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the black egg trembled and cracked open a seam, from which dark black light shot out. Then, a black halo spread outward from the egg as its center.

"What's that?" Watching the black egg continue to crack, Wuya Daoist exclaimed in shock.

It wasn't just him; everyone's expressions were oddly strange, for from that black egg, a person hatched—a figure shrouded in a black robe, their face unseen.

The black-robed figure was incredibly eerie, with black thunder coiling around their body, flickering between reality and illusion, like a ghost.

Everyone frowned, staring intently at the black-robed figure.

As they watched, the figure casually twisted their neck and greedily absorbed the spiritual energy from the surroundings.

In the next moment, they slowly opened their eyes.

Oh heavens! What kind of eyes were those? There were no eyeballs at all—just a chaotic void, as if from the dawn of creation. Even through the Huan Tian water screen and across millions of li, those eyes were like an abyss, making everyone's minds blur for a moment.

"Hun Dun Eyes." Tai Xu Gu Long froze, his expression filled with disbelief.

"How is this possible? Such eyes actually exist." Tai Xu Gu Long's body trembled.