Free Web NovelChapter 230: Chapter 188: Peculiar Creature (Part 2)
"Has it really been almost ten hours...?"
Even now, Han Ning still couldn’t figure out what that strange mass of fog in his mind was.
’Hom’s Spiritual Power?’ He tried to communicate with it, but received no fluctuations in return.
It was as if this was just a pure mass of Spiritual Energy, devoid of consciousness, yet it couldn’t be assimilated by his own Spiritual Power—like a piece of foreign flesh embedded in his body that didn’t trigger a rejection response.
He then turned his gaze to the Winged Demon Egg before him, still wrapped in layer after layer by the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm.
The purple egg, originally over 2 meters tall, had now shrunk to about 1.5 meters. A faint purple light enveloped it, pulsing in and out as if it were breathing. It seemed as if the life inside could break out of the shell at any moment.
"Kyuu~" At his side, the small Egg Pancake formed by the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm gently poked Han Ning’s arm, sending a simple mental message.
"You still want to eat?" He wasn’t talking about the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm, but about the Winged Demon Egg in front of them.
After what had just happened, Han Ning was worried that the so-called curse would suddenly resurface. There was no way he was going to send any more Blood Qi or Energy to the egg.
So he just watched quietly.
THUMP THUMP THUMP!
The Winged Demon Egg’s pulsing grew faster and faster.
About ten or so minutes later, the surface of the purple-patterned eggshell began to form a web of fine cracks.
Han Ning had the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm slightly loosen its grip.
’According to what that mysterious Hom said, the so-called Curse of the Calamitous Demon Eye had been dispelled. The creature in this egg was very likely Hom’s child.’
Considering Hom had been a comrade-in-arms, however briefly, Han Ning didn’t stop the creature inside the egg from hatching, even though he wasn’t supplying it with Energy.
WHOOSH~
Inside the room with its doors and windows shut tight, a breeze stirred, generated purely by surging Spiritual Energy.
Affected by some unknown power, the Winged Demon Egg levitated into the air above the bed.
Yin Yi, an avatar of the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm, also floated up, hovering in front of the egg. Below, the Egg Pancake watched warily, on guard against any potential mishaps.
The eggshell, shimmering with a faint halo, began to emit four colors of light—white, gray, purple, and black—that intertwined with one another.
Like X-rays, they shot into the egg’s interior.
Illuminated by these hazy, shifting rays, the inside of the egg became visible, like a shadow puppet show behind a white paper screen, revealing a writhing mass of black matter.
The irregular black mass twisted and deformed. It built itself up from the inside out, top to bottom, like a 3D model being constructed, quickly sketching out a small human body.
Chest, limbs, neck, brain, strands of hair...
’A human? Or a Winged Demon?’
The humanoid creature inside the shell seemed just like a fetus in a mother’s womb; there was even an umbilical cord connecting its abdomen to the inner wall of the shell.
The small figure inside the egg looked around in confusion, wobbled its head, then tilted its head back as if looking at the inner wall of the shell. It then raised its hands and pushed off with its lower body.
With a THUD, its whole body stuck to the top of the eggshell. Then, it began to repeatedly tap on the shell wall with its tiny hands.
Once, twice, three times...
The cracks on the outer shell grew denser and denser, until—a faint "CRACK" was heard.
A small, tender hand suddenly poked out from the top of the shell.
The small hand, feeling the drastically different temperature outside the egg, couldn’t help but clench into a fist.
With the top breached, cracks spiderwebbed across the rest of the egg, which finally shattered into fragments of all sizes that rained down.
A tiny figure fell out from amidst the fragments.
"Kyuu~"
The All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm flashed forward, its tentacles gently wrapping around the small figure and quickly flying it over to Han Ning.
A head of fine black hair that gave off a faint halo, slightly curled, cascaded smoothly over her shoulders like a waterfall.
Large purple eyes sparkled with a lively light.
A small, high-bridged nose and thin, slightly upturned lips.
Her limbs were slender, and her feet were bare.
It wasn’t just her feet; her whole body was bare, though some crucial parts were conveniently covered by the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm’s tentacles.
An adorable little girl, her entire body shimmering with a faint halo, appeared before Han Ning.
The reason he knew she was a little girl was that he had "accidentally" noticed her lack of male parts as she was falling.
’Of course, you can’t just apply human gender distinctions to the creatures of this world. Perhaps this strange creature doesn’t even have a gender.’
Besides, the little girl’s physical form wasn’t that of a newborn infant, but rather a child of a few years old.
"Eeeh?"
The little girl chewed on her pale finger, blinking her large, bright eyes as she stared curiously at Han Ning.
’What on earth is this creature...’
’If this is a Winged Demon... the Winged Demons he imagined were all burly, ferocious-looking brutes. This little thing before him looked like a completely different species.’
’There’s only one possibility. It’s an intelligent species, similar to the Insect-men.’
He also noticed that the ends of the little girl’s limbs had a Ghost-like form, similar to something you would see in an anime.
The tips of her fingers and toes were slightly ethereal; the nearby light could pass right through them to the other side.
It was hard to notice if you weren’t looking closely.
As she was falling, he had also spotted a pair of small, raised bumps on her back. They looked like a deformity, but also as if something had yet to sprout. It was very strange.
Han Ning’s eye twitched. He didn’t let her cute appearance lower his guard. Forcing a gentle smile, he kept his distance and tried to greet the little girl.
"Hello?"
"Eee~"
In response to Han Ning’s greeting, the little one just sucked on her finger and gave a soft reply, making no other particular movements. She continued to size him up with curiosity.
"Ling~"
Yin Yi, also curious, sized up the little one who was glowing with a soft luster. It suddenly moved in front of her, extended a small, vine-like hand, and gently poked her thigh.
"Eyah~"
The little girl, tickled by Yin Yi’s vine, changed her position. She lay on her side in the "big bed" woven from the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm’s tentacles and giggled.
"Ling?"
Yin Yi found it amusing and tickled her a few more times.
"Eeee, eeee~"
The little girl seemed to sense that Yin Yi was playing with her. Touched by the gentle vine, she happily rolled back and forth on the bed of tentacles.
Watching the little one happily playing with Yin Yi, Han Ning recalled what Hom had said.
’The creature from the egg... it must be her child.’ freewёbnoνel.com
’Her child’s name is... Fei Lin.’
Han Ning opened his mouth slightly and called out,
"Fei Lin?"
"Eee?"
Hearing Han Ning’s call, the little girl immediately stopped playing and instinctively looked over at him.
Her big, bright eyes shimmered with confusion, as if asking, ’You called me?’
"I’ll call you Fei Lin, then. Want something to eat?"
Han Ning turned and rummaged through his nightstand, pulling out a carton of some brand of fresh milk. He poked a hole in it and offered it to Fei Lin.
’This little girl isn’t a newborn, so drinking some milk should be fine, right?’ he thought.
"Eeee..."
Fei Lin sniffed at the milk offered to her, then turned her head away, completely ignoring it.
"So she doesn’t drink milk? Definitely not a human child."
Han Ning muttered to himself, handed the milk to the drooling Egg Pancake at his side, then rummaged in his waist pouch. He pulled out an Entry Level Dark Attribute Soul Beast Crystal Stone and offered it to Fei Lin.
"What about this? Want a bite?"
"Eee!"
Upon seeing the small Crystal Stone giving off a faint aura of Darkness, Fei Lin’s eyes lit up. With a happy little yelp, she opened her mouth, revealing small baby teeth, and swallowed the Crystal Stone from Han Ning’s palm.
CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH~
The rock-hard Crystal Stone became just like a jellybean under the pressure of her seemingly fragile baby teeth. With a couple of crunches, Fei Lin broke it apart and swallowed it.
’It eats Soul Crystals... what about flesh and blood?’
Han Ning fiddled around for a moment and pulled out a piece of the lowest grade, Entry Level insect meat, offering it to her.
Fei Lin glanced at the chunk of meat, which was twice the size of her mouth. Without any hesitation, she let out a little "ompf!" and chomped down, tearing off small bites like a chick pecking at grain.
Although she didn’t eat much in each bite, she ate at an extremely fast pace.
Han Ning blinked. The little girl before him had already devoured the entire chunk of flesh, which weighed over ten pounds. Now, she was staring up at him, her big, innocent purple eyes full of expectation.
