Chapter 255: Quenching

"You call this thing a conditioned reflex?" Luo Qi said, crouching by the fire. The Alien in the fire pit was motionless, thoroughly dead. "If those things just now were really a conditioned reflex, I have to give this pile of Karma Fire a catchy name—Hell Furnace!"

"Catchy?" Du Zhengyi used a rising tone, then firmly used a falling tone, "Chuunibyou."

"Do you know about ants and bees? Their collective coordination ability is extraordinary," Luo Qi said. "I keep feeling that the situation just now might have been their puppet game."

The ground had been burned into a pit, and the remains of the incinerated Alien fell into it. Luo Qi used the long blade Du Zhengyi had condensed to poke around in the fire, feeling that there was still something in the fire pit.

"How strange, to have something left over in a fire with such high temperature? Could it be that a sarira was refined?"

Du Zhengyi was drawn in by his actions and also followed along to look into the fire pit. "Now you should rename this the Hell Fire Pit."

The flames gradually lowered in temperature, and Luo Qi felt Du Zhengyi's stable Magic control; he could certainly become a qualified steelworker. Now the temperature of the flames had stabilized from a height capable of melting metal to the level of burning paper; one Du Zhengyi was worth a CNC stove.

Luo Qi continued to stir the fire pit with his brother's long blade; the temperature of the fire pit was no longer as eyebrow-singeing hot as before. "Brother, I have an ominous thing to say, I don't know if I should say it or not."

Du Zhengyi bit his lower lip in silence, looking worriedly at what Luo Qi was raking out of the pit, having an urge to go up and cover Luo Qi's crow's mouth.

"Brother," Luo Qi furrowed his brows, "don't you think... this... damn, it looks a bit like an egg... a spawn?"

The flames lowered to become gentle Light Magic torches, scattered around the edge of the pit, illuminating the six stones in the center. A pool of clear water appeared out of thin air, and under Du Zhengyi's manipulation, it poured onto the stones at the bottom of the pit. The high-heat stones met the low-temperature water, emitting a "hiss" of cooling, and the water turned into wisps of steam upon contact with the heat, drifting up into the night sky above.

"Interesting, truly clever," Luo Qi said. "It's been quenched. You could have at least forged an ancient divine weapon, but instead, you quenched a few Diamond Eggs for me. Wait, that's not right!"

"What is it?" Du Zhengyi asked hurriedly; Luo Qi was crouching there watching, so he could see more clearly than him.

"Brother, your technique is no good. The water quenching caused too much stress, my Diamond Eggs have cracks, you have to compensate me!" Luo Qi said half-jokingly, though his emotions were actually abnormally tense.

Just then, the cat inside Luo Qi's clothes suddenly darted out, jumped onto Luo Qi's shoulder, and let out a sharp cry, making Luo Qi shiver. Du Zhengyi simultaneously reached out and pulled Luo Qi up; Luo Qi's cat arched its back anxiously from his shoulder, clearly about to vomit.

Du Zhengyi snatched his blade back from Luo Qi's hand. In the quiet night, both of them went still, and the surroundings became completely silent; every tiny sound was amplified. At this moment, the sound of cracking was like a string snapping under tension.

Luo Qi stepped back, and Du Zhengyi slammed the blade down on the little thing that had suddenly darted out from the cracked eggshell. The thing fell back to the ground, and before Luo Qi could see it clearly, Du Zhengyi stepped on it and crushed it fiercely into the ground. The newborn Alien Seal Beast's shell was not yet hard enough.

"Good thing you crushed it," Luo Qi said seriously. "Do you know about imprinting? The things that come out of the shells might think you are their father and imitate you in everything."

"Thanks," Du Zhengyi said calmly, "I already have enough trouble with one imprinting-effect child like you."

"Brother," Luo Qi said again.

"Shut your crow's mouth," Du Zhengyi said.

"Will it be fine if I don't say anything?" Luo Qi looked around at the dark night. "Don't you think they are very strange? Do you think the Mages really have them under control? If they were really under control, why would they come with surprise eggs? Where did they go now? Why haven't they come yet? Could they have escaped? Could they have secretly buried the eggs somewhere? You know how bugs are..."

"If that were really the case, and there are human communities all around here, then humanity really needs to pray for its own luck," Du Zhengyi said worriedly.

"Brother," Luo Qi said.

"What is it now?"

Luo Qi did not speak; he saw a human figure, right under the crabapple tree.