Stop it, Taoist, Your Fight almost Ruins the DAO!

Outside Hidden Dragon Temple, Yi Chenli bid farewell to Lin Zhenbei and his son as they stepped out.

At that moment, Lin Zhenbei seemed to remember something and couldn't help but inquire,

"Master Taoist, I have a good friend in the county city who cannot return home due to official business."

"His grandmother is not doing well, and he asked me to find an expert to manage the funeral. Do you have the time, Master Taoist?"

"Ah?" Yi Chen was startled for a moment before blurting out, "How much silver is the family offering? It's not like before, you know. My charges are quite expensive now."

Lin Zhenbei held up a finger.

Yi Chen pursed his lips and said, "Merely one hundred taels? With that amount, at most, I could chant for one night."

"No, it's one thousand taels. My friend comes from a wealthy household, with vast lands and numerous shops."

"Good heavens, what are you saying, Lin Baihu? Your affairs are my affairs, your friend is my friend, and your friend's grandmother is my grandmother."

"We are all friends."

"Whenever the old lady passes on, just have someone send me a message."

"I will do my utmost to ensure that she departs with dignity and grace."

Yi Chen immediately beamed with joy.

He had saved up some silver, but when was there ever too much money?

He remembered his master's dying wish very well—to make Hidden Dragon Temple flourish.

But with only himself and his little junior brother as well as a couple of cats around, how could they possibly fulfill such a wish?

Thus, they needed to open the mountain gate wide and acquire land for expansion.

He wanted to establish a foundation and have his junior brother start the expansion before returning the jade token to the old Heavenly Master at Dragon Tiger Mountain.

Afterward, he planned to find a group of orphaned children from good families, take them under his wing, and meticulously train them in hopes of cultivating several promising disciples.

The grand development of Hidden Dragon Temple could not proceed without people.

All these matters, one by one, were akin to devouring gold, and the money he had saved before was simply not enough.

One thousand taels, for a job that was well-paid, simple, and close to home, and it was Lin Baihu who had personally requested it—he was prepared to accept the task.

"Uncle Lin, here are some chestnuts for you."

"They're really plump, you know. I picked out only the big ones for you."

During this exchange, Qing Feng and Ming Yue came bouncing over.

Human children are always particularly endearing, especially when the two little ones were rosy-cheeked and bright-eyed, looking very cute.

Basking in the warm rays of the rising sun, Lin Zhenbei and his son walked away with the chestnuts and a wooden box holding a jade canister, heading into the distance.

The sunlight cast upon them, leaving long, narrow shadows behind them while adorning their figures with a golden glow, painting a heartwarming scene.

After watching the two leave, Yi Chen let out a soft sigh and then returned to the temple.

For some reason, as he watched their departing backs, he suddenly missed his deceased master.

A sense of indescribable sorrow welled up within him.

Unconsciously, it had been over two months since his master had passed away.

Fighting back the emotions welling up inside, he turned and went back to the main hall. He solemnly offered three sticks of incense to his master and the ancestral masters before returning to his room.

A large azure-colored egg, about twenty centimeters long, lay quietly on his bed. The purple and red patterns on the egg flickered like a breathing light, alternating between bright and dim in a steady rhythm.

After closing the door, the change became even more noticeable.

Lin Baihu had said that he obtained the Spirit Beast Egg after a life-threatening ordeal in a relic site years ago, and it had a taste for Pure Yang Qi.

Normally, he would nurture it with sun-attribute spirit stones through a formation. Now, after ten years, sensing the life fluctuations inside the egg, the hatching could happen within days, or it might even hatch today.

"I hope you can become the Azure Fierce Beast of my Hidden Dragon Temple; even if I unfortunately pass away one day, you can still protect the Hidden Dragon Temple for me."

Yi Chen sighed softly in his heart, then touched his fingers to the eggshell.

As the deep purple Pure Yang Inner Qi from within him flowed into the egg, the life inside emitted an intense sensation of joy and throbbing.

It was as if everything it had eaten before was fast food, whereas the Pure Yang Qi that Yi Chen was infusing now was like a delicately prepared gourmet meal.

After all, Lin Zhenbei was not a cultivator of the Pure Yang path; the Pure Yang Qi generated by the Formation through Yang attribute spirit stones was far inferior to Yi Chen's Inner Qi in both richness and quality.

As the deep purple Inner Qi flowed into the egg like a trickling stream, the red-purple patterns on the eggshell shone increasingly bright.

"Heh, you like absorbing so much, huh? I'll make you full to bursting," Yi Chen said, brimming with confidence.

Half an hour passed.

One hour passed.

Two hours passed.

At this point, the Taoist's mentality underwent a subtle change.

He opened the door of the room, allowing the sunlight to stream in.

The light outside seemed drawn like a magnet, pouring into Yi Chen's body in large quantities. The light in the backyard dimmed somewhat due to this change, endlessly replenishing Yi Chen's consumption of Inner Qi.

"You're quite the absorber, kid~"

Four hours passed, and now as the sun set in the west, Yi Chen felt numb all over. Even with the light's restorative replenishment, he began to feel a wave of fatigue.

At the same time, his heart was extremely exhilarated.

Worthy of being my Hidden Dragon Temple's future Azure Fierce Beast, look at this shell's color scheme, look at this appetite, I wonder what kind of Spirit Beast it is.

Is it a Dragon Hawk? Or some kind of spiritual bird?

Or perhaps one of the celestial spirit species? If so, I would have made a killing, not wasting all the effort I had put into planning this.

It's not without precedent in the texts; some cultivators with astonishing fortune have brought back eggs of celestial spirit species from ancient ruins, and later on relied on their Spirit Beasts to dominate all quarters.

Looking at the anomaly of this Spirit Beast Egg, the creature inside must be extraordinary.

Finally, as the sun set, the egg—which seemed like a bottomless pit in terms of appetite—slowly became satiated. At last, it absorbed Yi Chen's Pure Yang Inner Qi at a gradually slower rate, less and less, until it stopped absorbing completely.

By then, the brightness of the red-purple patterns on the eggshell had reached its peak, the patterns shimmering with light, very mystical.

Within the flowing light, a mysterious aura seeped out.

Crack.

A tiny fissure appeared in the eggshell.

"Is it coming out? Haha."

"Being early isn't as good as being timely; I didn't expect this Spirit Beast Egg to hatch today. This truly shows it's fated with my Hidden Dragon Temple."

Crack crack, more and more fissures appeared, and the eggshell started to break apart.

"My Hidden Dragon Temple's Azure Fierce Beast, guardian Spirit Beast, come forth!" Yi Chen roared.

"Meow!"

Inside the Spirit Beast Egg, a small black cat broke through the shell, letting out a cat's cry, its fur glossy and black, with a pair of small wing-like flaps on its ribs.

Yi Chen's voice stopped abruptly, as if someone had grabbed his throat.

"Damn, this can't be real."

"This is my Hidden Dragon Temple's Azure Fierce Beast?"

"How come a cat hatched from your egg? Even if it has a pair of small wings, if the Tathagata himself came today, it would still be a black cat."

"Meow meow meow," the black cat cried out again. With a light leap, it jumped onto Yi Chen's shoulder, affectionately licking his cheek with its little tongue, adorably cute.

Yi Chen's face turned black as coal.