The business at Flood Dragon Ridge did not take long.
By the time Fang Mo arrived, the town's inhabitants had already been locked in a cellar by disciples of the Mysterious Flood Dragon Sect for three days, their blood used to feed a malformed insect egg that had crawled out from underground.
The egg was as large as a millstone, its surface covered in grayish-white scales engraved with crooked Old Gods' Characters.
Fang Mo did not use his blade.
He crouched before the egg and studied it for five breaths. The Record of Punishing Crimes opened, and the Dark-Gold Chains of containment shot from his palm, dragging the egg, shell and flesh alike, into the Prison Suppressor.
The egg struggled inside the Prison Suppressor for less than three breaths before shattering.
Fang Mo gained little from it: a few wisps of inferior Sha Qi and a blurry fragment of a law.
"Some piece of trash that crawled out of a rift."
Standing at the cellar entrance, Nian Nu'er wrinkled her nose at the bloody smell within.
"Too low-grade. It hadn't even reached the threshold of the Old Gods."
Fang Mo stood and wiped the grayish-white scale dust from his hands against his hem twice.
"There will be more and more of them."
"I know."
Nian Nu'er turned to look at him, the light in her deep-blue pupils dimming.
"Seven seals in the Western Desert have cracked. There should be Sealing Points here in the Eastern Wasteland too. If the chain reaction from the Great Thunderclap Temple spreads here, the seals in the Eastern Wasteland will loosen sooner or later."
Fang Mo did not pursue the subject.
He dusted off his hands and walked out of town.
"How much farther to Taishang Palace?"
"At this pace, we'll reach the Mountain Gate