Crisis on the Day of Hatching

Early summer had begun to grow hot. In a pitch-black room, an old air conditioner hummed.

Miserable howls drifted in from outside the window. The stray cats downstairs were probably fighting over territory, and judging by the sounds of it, the battle was fierce.

Other than that, it was an utterly peaceful summer night.

Wang Rui lay on his bed with the lights off, holding up his phone as he watched this season's new anime.

It was called "Miss Jin's Life as a Loser Dog"... What a weird title.

The anime's protagonist was Miss Jin, a fifteen-thousand-year-old lion demon living in a forest. By chance, she formed a bond with a human boy.

In order to get close to him, the innocent shut-in demon transformed herself into the girl of his dreams and entered the human world, embarking on a series of adventures... In the end, the lion demon girl lost to the male lead's childhood friend, a goddess who descended from heaven. She lost her love, her life, and her property.

No youth, no girls, and no pure love.

Wang Rui's liver hurt just watching it. He wanted nothing more than to climb into the screen and shake the water out of the lion demon girl's head.

You're a little mermaid princess, so why are you following the prince ashore? To turn into sea foam?

It's not like Disney is going to adapt your story.

Read more original fairy tales, Miss Demon—

His scorching phone screen went dark. Wang Rui flopped to the side like a salted fish and buried his face in his pillow. For a moment, he could not figure out what had sustained him through this melodramatic, feudalistic anime. All in all, his stomach hurt, and he did not want to watch anymore.

Just then, his phone began to vibrate. Stiff as a thousand-year-old rice dumpling, Wang Rui reached out and fumbled for it.

"Little Wang! Where are you? Didn't I notify you an hour ago that you had to come back for overtime?" The department head's booming voice came through the phone.

Wang Rui jolted awake and snapped his eyes open.

So everything just now was a dream... I knew it. I've already died once, so how could I still have to work?

Before Wang Rui could finish letting out his breath, he immediately noticed the blinding white light before him. Squinting for a closer look, he discovered that it was a surgical shadowless lamp.

A head wearing a surgical cap leaned over him.

This person was fully armed, with a surgical mask over her face and scrubs over her body, but Wang Rui recognized at a glance that those mischievously smiling eyes belonged to Wang Xiaohua.

His not-yet-awake brain could not make sense of it, but his heart reflexively began to tremble—whenever Wang Xiaohua smiled like that, she was definitely up to no good.

Sure enough, Wang Xiaohua said with a grin, "Yo, you're awake? Congratulations, congratulations. The surgery was a success—you're an adorable girl now, sis! Remember to go make your brothers feel good~"

"Fuck! Get the hell out of here!" Wang Rui abruptly woke up.

This time, he was certain that he had truly awakened. It was just that everything before him was pitch-black, while his limbs felt intensely constrained, as if someone had rolled him up and stuffed him into a tiny, stuffy sealed container.

As sensation gradually returned, Wang Rui tried to stretch his tightly wedged arm, only for something to bump against his forehead.

Then he kicked his legs and struck his own chin.

Wang Rui wriggled around like a maggot for a while and confirmed that he seemed to be curled up inside some very round container.

...Uh, I should be inside an egg.

It was as though his scattered brain had only now returned to his skull. Still groggy from sleep, Wang Rui regained his wits and immediately realized that it was time for him to hatch.

But climbing out of an egg seemed a little too difficult for a hatchling that had spent more than twenty years of his previous life as a mammal.

How did chicks break out of their shells again...? They seemed to peck through them with their beaks? But the Three-Eyed Golden Lion did not have a sharp bird's beak.

It should have claws, though. Wang Rui moved his arm... Uh, forepaw, intending to use his claws to poke through the eggshell. But there was simply no room inside the egg for him to move the paw curled against his chest outward.

Forget it. Brute force could work miracles.

He braced the side of his forelimb against the rounded shell and pushed outward with all his strength—

With a crisp crack, a long fissure appeared across the magnificent golden egg wreathed in a colorful glow.

This faint sound of breaking should have been drowned out by even the slightest breeze, yet within the Star Dou Great Forest, it was as though an ancient bell that had existed since time immemorial had been struck. Its solemn, majestic chime pierced the entire forest.

A mysterious, invisible force surged outward from the golden egg, spreading like ripples. The power gradually intensified, then finally rushed back like towering waves into the golden egg, where it was completely absorbed.

"Bzzzz—"

Dazzling golden light abruptly spread outward, dyeing everything around it a brilliant gold as the plants grew wildly at an astonishing speed.

Every Soul Beast in the Star Dou Great Forest, from Fierce Beasts to insects and ants, fell silent at that moment.

No matter how much intelligence they possessed, a realization arose in their hearts: the Imperial Auspicious Beast that protected the Soul Beast clan had been born.

In the unseen realm, the fortune belonging solely to the Imperial Auspicious Beast united the fortune of Star Dou with that of every living being, forming a stronger, more steadfast whole.

For every bit stronger the living beings of Star Dou became, the forest's overall fortune would grow stronger. That more abundant fortune would then nourish every life linked to it. In the end, it formed a perfect virtuous cycle, making Star Dou ever more powerful.

That was the meaning behind the Imperial Auspicious Beast's existence.

The entire Star Dou Great Forest had been rendered into a golden sea, yet the culprit behind this spectacle was completely unaware of it.

Wang Rui was struggling to pry open the eggshell and crawl outside.

...Ah, he had never realized that fresh air could smell so wonderful.

The pure-golden, long-muzzled kitten trembled as it stood up. Before it could take two steps, it plopped back down on its butt.

Four legs aren't that easy to use either... Wang Rui mewled and muttered as he raised a paw to wipe the fluid from his eyes.

He cautiously opened his nearly cleaned eyes, ready to behold the beautiful scenery of the Star Dou Great Forest—

But all he saw was a hazy blur. He could not see anything at all.

A confused, shrill cry squeezed from the little golden cat's throat. Wang Rui stared with his clear golden button eyes, turning his head around in utter bewilderment.

Ah... Right. Baby animals seemed unable to see when they were born.

So what should he do now? Was he supposed to eat the eggshell?

Just as Wang Rui turned back to look for the shell, an intense sense of danger suddenly filled his mind.

His back tingled. If he had not still been covered in fluid, all the fur on his back would have been standing on end.

Unknown danger was the most terrifying.

The powerful unease made the golden kitten instinctively let out an immature roar. But he still could not see. Even if danger came right up to him, he would not be able to escape...

Damn it. Wang Rui dug his little claws into the ground. The guide Miss Jin Ni had given him must have been outdated; it had not mentioned this at all!

Right, his eyes!

If his two eyes could not see due to his young age, what about the third eye he possessed as a Three-Eyed Golden Lion?

Wang Rui raised his head and carefully sensed the organ at the center of his brow, which felt utterly unfamiliar to him, but he could not find the trick to using it.

Some superstitious theories claimed that, in ancient times, humans had also possessed a third eye in the center of their foreheads. It had merely degenerated into the pineal gland hidden behind the frontal bone.

That claim was not very scientific, though it did have a tiny bit of basis: if you pointed something sharp at the center of your forehead, you really would feel a slight tension, as though a sharp object were aimed at your eye.

Out of curiosity, Wang Rui had performed this little experiment before, so he began trying hard to recall that feeling of tension in the center of his forehead.

Then, a thin slit appeared on the golden kitten's forehead and slowly opened.

He could see!

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