Su Yan approached the egg and saw four stars on its shell, just like the ones on his own. The only difference was that all four of these stars were black.
"What are you, anyway?" Su Yan crouched down and cautiously touched the egg.
The egg shuddered all over.
Su Yan touched it again.
The egg shuddered once more.
Hey, this was kind of fun.
But when Su Yan reached out again, the egg suddenly toppled into his arms, rubbing against his chest like a little dog begging to be cuddled.
"Hey, you little thing. You're quite unusual."
Whatever was inside the egg, whether it was human or something else, Su Yan held the shell and stroked its smooth, cool surface. It felt pretty nice.
"Stop messing around, stop messing around," Su Yan said. The egg obediently hopped out of his arms.
"You can understand me?" Su Yan asked in surprise.
The egg bounced happily on the ground.
"Then I'll ask you a few questions. If the answer is yes, move once. If it's no, move twice. If you don't know, move three times."
The egg shuddered once.
"Is this the Inner World of Martial Souls?"
The egg shuddered once, paused, then immediately moved twice.
"Yes, but not entirely?" Su Yan frowned.
The egg shuddered once.
"Are you human?"
The egg shuddered twice. It wasn't human.
Thank goodness. Su Yan breathed a sigh of relief.
If another person had popped out of an egg, he'd have been ready to become sworn brothers right then and there.
"Then can you hatch?"
The egg shuddered once, rolled onto its bed, then bounced once.
Su Yan went over and discovered that beneath the egg's bed, five passages extended to the five corners of the pentagram. More precisely, they led to five wooden stands.
The passage connected to the little flame was already filled with fire. The other four passages were empty.
"Once they're all filled, you'll be able to hatch?"
The egg shuddered once.
Su Yan followed one of the passages to its end. Only when he leaned in close did he notice a character written on the side of the Glazed Lamp.
Thunder.
Below the character was a notch shaped like a gem.
Su Yan made a round of the room.
The five corners of the pentagram were labeled wind, water, Thunder, earth, and fire.
Only the Glazed Lamp marked with fire held a little flickering flame.
These five characters must represent the elements. That meant he had to gather all five before the egg could hatch.
But there was an obvious problem.
Where was he supposed to find the other four elements?
He'd obtained the fire element through Martial Soul Awakening, but awakening again didn't seem possible.
"Do you know where the other things are?" Su Yan asked.
The egg shuddered three times.
It didn't know either.
"Can I bring things from outside in?"
The egg shuddered once. He could.
Su Yan shifted his thoughts and returned to the training ground.
When he opened his eyes and saw spiderwebs covering the place, he jumped, thinking an absurdly long time had passed.
His master's overflowing concern—Su Yan accepted it.
He struggled for ages before finally tearing an opening and crawling out. He found a wooden bucket, filled it with water, then crawled back into the Pansi Cave his master had painstakingly set up. He sat cross-legged, gathered his thoughts, and entered the Inner World.
"Natural well water. Let's try it."
Su Yan poured the entire bucket into the Glazed Lamp marked "water." Nothing happened.
One minute, two minutes...
Still nothing.
No good. Natural elements wouldn't work.
He'd have to use elements imbued with Soul Power.
Su Yan could only scoop the water out of the Glazed Lamp by hand, bit by bit.
"Little thing, hatching you is really a lot of trouble."
At his words, the egg bounced over to Su Yan's feet and rubbed against his trouser leg, as if it were begging for attention.
Su Yan had never imagined that, in all his life across two lifetimes, the first one to act coy with him would be an egg—not even a person.
He stroked the shell. "All right, all right. I'll figure out how to hatch you."
The egg rubbed against him even more excitedly.
After finally emptying the Glazed Lamp marked "water," Su Yan went over to the Fire Glazed Lamp, hoping it might offer some clues.
He cautiously reached into the lamp. The moment he touched the little flame, it gave a sudden flicker.
A smile spread across Su Yan's face, too.
Four golden characters appeared in his mind.
Blazing Fire Academy.
A high-level Soul Master Academy on the Douluo Continent and one of the Four Element Academies. It only admitted students with fire-type Martial Souls.
That was certainly unusual.
Su Yan rubbed the egg's smooth shell and said, "Egglet, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first? Move once for good, twice for bad."
The egg hesitated for a moment, then shuddered twice.
"You want the bad news second. All right." Su Yan's lips curled into a sly smile. "The good news is, I've found a clue to hatching you!"
At that, the egg leaped excitedly into the air.
"But the bad news is, I can't go to Blazing Fire Academy anytime soon."
The egg stopped moving and silently returned to its bed to lie down.
"All right, Egglet, I promise I'll get you out as soon as I can." Su Yan shamelessly rubbed the shell, thoroughly enjoying himself.
After cats and dogs, came the third thing to pet.
An egg!
"Egglet, can you go outside?" Su Yan asked.
The egg shuddered twice. It couldn't go out.
"Then once you hatch, will you be able to go out?"
The egg shuddered once.
Su Yan smiled to himself, his hand never stopping.
The egg seemed to enjoy it, too. At first, it shuddered back twice, but eventually it settled down.
It had fallen asleep.
Su Yan smiled, stretched, and yawned.
"What's this?"
He saw three gray orbs of light floating directly above Egglet's bed. He stood up and reached for them; they were at just the right height. He took one of the gray orbs in his hand.
Su Yan peered inside and was so startled that he flung the gray orb aside. It floated back into the air on its own.
Inside was a pitch-black spider!
Su Yan took a deep breath and grabbed the second gray orb. This time he was prepared, but his heart still tightened.
It was a spider with blood-red markings.
Why were they all spiders?
Su Yan tossed that one aside and grabbed the third gray orb.
Finally, it wasn't a spider.
It was an ordinary patch of Blue Silver Grass.
Relaxing, Su Yan examined the gray orb from every angle, but couldn't tell what it was for.
The one person who might have known, Egglet, still couldn't talk.
What a headache.
With all the books he'd read, he figured this was the moment to put his Soul Power to use.
Su Yan closed his eyes and focused, guiding his Soul Power toward the gray orb. It slowly began to glow white.
It worked!
Su Yan added a little more Soul Power. The white light abruptly stopped, and the gray orb vanished, leaving a White Gem in his hand.
The Blue Silver Grass was still inside the gem.
Su Yan studied the gem. Its shape seemed familiar. He looked up and saw the special notch at the bottom of the Glazed Lamp.
He walked over and pressed the gem into the notch.
It fit perfectly!
But nothing happened.
Maybe it was because the Glazed Lamp was empty.
Su Yan removed the gem and went over to the Fire Glazed Lamp. A Blue Gem was set into its side.
He bent down and looked inside. There was a Gray Wolf in the gem.
Fire and a Gray Wolf.
His Martial Soul was a Fire Wolf.
An odd suspicion stirred in Su Yan's mind.
He removed the Blue Gem, inserted the White Gem, and shifted his thoughts to return to the training ground.
Su Yan took a deep breath and held out his right hand.
"Come forth, my Martial Soul."
A flame-wreathed stalk of Blue Silver Grass appeared in the palm of his hand.
Before you continue