Chapter 137

He had lived for decades and had never entered an immortal's cave dwelling, feeling both curious and yearning. He Lingchuan spread his hands: "Immortal or not, I'm not clear; there was a small mountain mound inside and a skeleton that had sat until it turned to bone."

He asked the crocodile demon: "Did you get any treasure earlier?"

"A pile of junk." The crocodile demon said, "There wasn't a trace of spiritual energy inside; it was worse than the outside world, and any treasure would have been worn down into waste."

At this time, Wu Shaoyi's heartbeat also stabilized slightly, so he requested to go ashore again.

He Lingchuan also knew it was time to leave, but looking back at the remains of the old turtle demon, he felt a bit regretful. You said you were dead, so what were you afraid of leaking heavenly secrets for? Why not just write the answer on the fortune stick? What's more, He Chunhua was right; the old turtle demon had even entrusted dreams to the shrine keeper to create fortune sticks; if it didn't have a request for He Lingchuan, why go through all this trouble? He had originally thought he could find the answer on the turtle demon's remains, but he hadn't.

In his disappointment, He Lingchuan took out the two "lowest-of-the-low" fortune sticks and placed them on the old turtle's carapace: "Here, I'm returning this to you."

He placed them quite straight, but somehow, one of the sticks slid along the edge of the turtle shell, and then—

Then it disappeared.

"Eh?" He Lingchuan caught this scene as he turned around and was slightly stunned.

Where was the stick? It seemed to have slid under the turtle's belly and then disappeared.

He Lingchuan lay down to look for it, but couldn't find it.

It was just a broken stick, what was the big deal? He turned to leave, but saw the second stick also slide down leisurely, falling to the ground right before his eyes and sinking in.

As if afraid he hadn't seen it clearly, it did it in slow motion.

Never mind that the ground was stone, even if it were soft sand, how did the stick go down? He Lingchuan finally had some interest and reached under the turtle's belly to feel. Honestly, it wasn't easy to squeeze his hand in, but then one of his fingers suddenly probed into empty air.

It was empty under the turtle's belly! There was a hole in the middle of such hard reef rock? A quite deep hole.

He Lingchuan subconsciously pushed the turtle corpse; it, of course, didn't budge, instead splashing his hands with blood.

"Crocodile God, can you help me out?"

The Crocodile God's reaction was to flick its tail, too lazy to even open its mouth.

It absolutely wouldn't do work that wasn't its responsibility.

He Lingchuan had no choice but to take out the broken blade and cut the ground. "Old Wu, wait a moment."

Sparks flew, and he was afraid the blade would snap again.

Fortunately, this weapon was as reliable as ever; after working for a quarter of an hour, he finally widened the stone hole under the turtle's belly so he could reach his hand in.

Then, he dug out something larger than a rugby ball, oval and almost rectangular.

This thing was pale white and covered in spots.

An egg.

An intact... turtle egg? So this turtle demon was female? He Lingchuan carefully held the egg and washed the sticky mucus off its surface by the pool.

After washing it, he remembered that chicken eggs couldn't be washed like this, so what about turtle eggs?

Forget it, this turtle egg was laid by the Water Spirit, so it should be a bit different, right?

Wu Shaoyi watched, feeling very amazed: "That's a turtle egg?"

"Asking the obvious." The Water Spirit left the sticks for him; was it entrusting its orphan? That meant when it entrusted the dream to the shrine keeper, it knew it was about to die. Looking at it this way, the Water Spirit's divination was quite accurate.

Hmm... this really wasn't good news for him.

The crocodile demon raised its eyelids and also stared at this egg: "Let me eat it, and I'll give you a great-grandchild as a spirit pet!"

The few large and small crocodile demons outside were all its bloodline.

As everyone knows, crocodiles and snakes are almost the hardest to tame as spirit pets.

He Lingchuan could only refuse: "Sorry, no trade." Although a crocodile demon spirit pet was good, this turtle egg was related to the mystery of the "lowest-of-the-low" fortune sticks and also related to his own life, so he absolutely couldn't give it away.

The crocodile demon wasn't angry either: "Forget it, I've already killed it once, so I'll spare it a path to life." Demons also cultivate the Dao and understand the principle of not doing things to the extreme.

"It?"

The crocodile demon tilted its head: "Only this one egg?"

"Yes." At least he didn't find a second one in the cave.

"This isn't reproduction, but corpse-shedding." The crocodile demon said flatly, "What you're holding isn't the turtle demon's descendant, but itself!"

He Lingchuan was greatly amazed.

The crocodile demon explained a little, and he finally understood that such heaven-and-earth spirit objects would choose the method of corpse-shedding when their time was up or their cultivation could no longer advance, in order to seek a chance for a second start.

This turtle demon probably concentrated its entire essence and transferred it out in the form of an egg, then poured its divine soul into it.

As long as it could break out of the shell, it could start a second turtle life, equivalent to deleting its account and starting over.

Although the process of transferring the divine soul might lead to damage to the divine soul or loss of memory, going against heaven required taking risks, right?

But here, even if the egg could hatch, the cave entrance was blocked solid by the heavy turtle corpse, and the newly hatched little turtle wouldn't be able to get out, eventually being trapped to death.

But if the cave wasn't blocked, the water rats all over the ground would have eaten the turtle egg long ago, so where would there be a chance to hatch? At this time, it needed external help.

He Lingchuan, feeling like he had been used as a tool, took a copper coin from his bosom and said to the air: "Turtle Immortal, do you want me to take the egg away? If so, let all three tosses be heads."

He had just cut off the turtle demon's XX, and now he had to talk to it, feeling a bit guilty, so he quickly used an honorific.

The three coins tossed on the ground were all heads up.

The Turtle Spirit's divine soul was indeed still wandering in the cave! He Lingchuan felt a chill down the back of his neck.

"You gave me two 'lowest-of-the-low' fortune sticks; is my tribulation supposed to happen tonight?"

The three coins were all tails up.

Clearly, the old turtle said, no.

He Lingchuan let out a long sigh of relief: "Thank you."

Thinking on the bright side, did this mean he could successfully survive the bandit tribulation? His mood suddenly brightened.

"Then, by your meaning, is my great disaster ahead, and I'm doomed to die?"

The copper coin he tossed stood upright in a stone crack.

What did that mean? The answer was neither affirmative nor negative? These old charlatans never spoke in absolutes.

"Is there still a glimmer of hope?"

The coin with the characters was heads up again.

Good, good, finally an affirmative answer. He Lingchuan rubbed his hands: "Then, how can I seek life in death?"

This time, the coin fell directly into the crack, and it clattered a few times; clearly, there was another crack inside, and getting it out wouldn't be easy.

He didn't know if the Turtle Spirit had no answer or couldn't say.

The crocodile demon on the side couldn't help but say: "Are you done yet?"

Wu Shaoyi also coughed twice, becoming increasingly weak.

He couldn't delay here any longer; He Lingchuan was also anxious to go out and find his family, so he put away the turtle egg and asked the crocodile demon to fulfill its promise and send the two of them out.

The crocodile demon had long been impatient: "Get on my back."

(End of chapter)