"Crack."
Another crisp crack rang out.
A fissure opened in the largest Gold-Patterned Jade Egg in the middle.
There was none of the slime they had expected. A dazzling beam of golden light shot through the crack, so bright they could barely open their eyes.
Then came the second egg, and the third.
The sounds of cracking shells rang out one after another.
"Chirp!"
The fledgling cry was astonishingly piercing, sending a ripple through the air.
Three little creatures broke out of their shells.
Everyone fell utterly silent, their eyes wide.
They were far too... magnificent.
How did these look anything like newborn chicks?
The eldest had purple radiance flowing over its entire body. Every feather looked carved from amethyst, and a Vertical Eye grew in the center of its forehead, faintly flickering with lightning.
The second was jade-green all over, its dense scales like armor. Its spread wings were already as long as an adult's arm, their edges sharp as knives.
The third was the most extraordinary. Golden from head to toe, it resembled a young Golden-Winged Roc, and its two talons crushed rock with ease.
Precious radiance flowed over their bodies.
"Wonderful! Wonderful!"
Chief Shi Yunfeng was so excited that his beard trembled wildly, and he thumped his walking stick against the ground.
"These are the signs of Heaven-Tier Vicious Beasts! They've undergone another mutation after their atavistic transformation!"
"Look at their bones!"
Shi Linhu pointed at the bases of the chicks' wings, where primitive runes flickered as though breathing.
"A naturally formed Treasure Art! Once they grow a little bigger, we'll be able to master the Green-Scaled Eagle clan's Primitive Treasure Art just by observing them!"
The villagers erupted with excitement.
This was the most precious kind of legacy in the Great Wilderness.
Only Shi Hou stood on the outskirts of the crowd, arms folded, feeling rather bored.
He stared at the three spirited chicks, his gaze passing straight through their intricate runes to settle on their meat.
The purple one's lightning-aligned. Its meat should have a bit of a tingle.
The green one's meat looks firm. Perfect for dry-frying.
The golden one... looks the fattiest.
"What a loss."
Shi Hou smacked his lips. No matter how he calculated it, this deal seemed like a losing proposition.
He had spent so much blood qi hatching the eggs, yet everyone else got all the benefits.
He was utterly illiterate when it came to techniques. Those runes looked no different from meaningless scrawls to him, and he couldn't decipher a single mystery.
He nudged Shi Hao, who stood beside him watching in fascination, with his foot.
"Hey, Little One."
Lowering his voice, Shi Hou furtively pointed at the three chicks.
"Look at those little fellows. Their runes are so complicated. They must be hard to learn."
Shi Hao turned toward him, looking puzzled. "Not at all. I learned them with one look."
Shi Hou choked, nearly suffering a heart attack.
"What I mean is..."
Shi Hou coughed dryly and glanced toward the chief. "Three are too many. Feeding them will take a lot of grain. How about we keep one to study and roast the other two... while they're still fresh?"
"R-roast them?"
Shi Hao's eyes flew wide. He instinctively swallowed, then stared behind Shi Hou in horror.
A sudden chill ran down Shi Hou's spine.
A withered yet immensely powerful hand settled on his shoulder.
"Skinny Monkey."
Shi Yunfeng's ominous voice sounded beside his ear.
"Those are our village's future guardian deities, and you dare set your sights on them?"
Shi Hou shrank his neck and turned around. The walking stick raised in the chief's hand gleamed coldly.
"A misunderstanding! A purely academic discussion!"
With a strange yelp, Shi Hou greased his soles and shot more than ten meters away.
"I was just testing whether Little One had a loving heart!"
"You little scoundrel! Get back here!"
Shi Yunfeng bristled with fury and gave chase, walking stick raised.
"Hahahaha..."
The tension vanished in an instant, and the village entrance filled with merriment.
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
Life in Stone Village was positively luxurious that month.
To thank Stone Village, and to feed her three little ones with their astonishing appetites, the mother Green-Scaled Eagle brought back large numbers of high-tier Fierce Beasts from deep in the mountains every day.
On several occasions, she even brought back Dragon-Horned Elephants more than ten meters long.
With meat in plentiful supply, Shi Hou's cooking pot never stopped working.
The three chicks grew wildly, like balloons being inflated.
In just one short month, they had reached nearly two meters tall, standing there like three little towers of colored iron.
Though they still couldn't fly, the wind they stirred up while running could knock a grown adult head over heels.
Apart from their necessary strength training, the children spent most of their days gathered around the three chicks.
They were studying the Bone Text.
Shi Hao was the most monstrous talent of all, grasping the essence of the Green-Scaled Eagle Treasure Technique in just a few days.
With a wave of his little hand, a crescent-shaped blade of green light whistled out and sliced straight through a large tree.
Ermeng and Dazhuang were a little slower, but they had made gains of their own. They could coat their fists in a faint green glow, greatly increasing their power.
Only Shi Hou had become a full-time village homebody.
His daily duties were cooking, eating, and strolling through the village with the increasingly fat Kang.
Kang had completely latched onto Shi Hou.
Whenever Shi Hou went outside, the little pink pig would perch on his shoulder and refuse to leave, no matter who called.
Shi Hou didn't mind. The boy and pig became the village's most distinctive sight.
He seemed to be doing nothing, but only Shi Hou knew the truth.
The [Hundredfold Return] that invariably triggered once each day.
Combined with the supply of high-tier ingredients.
His Blood Qi Value was accumulating madly at a terrifying rate.
Late at night, all was quiet.
Shi Hou sat cross-legged on his roof and brought up the system panel.
[Current Blood Qi Value: 208,000]
Two hundred thousand.
What did that mean?
Shi Hou extended a finger and gently pressed it against the bluestone roof tile beneath him.
He exerted no force.
He simply let that blood qi flow to his fingertip.
"Pfft."
A soft sound rang out.
The iron-hard tile seemed to turn into a puddle of mud, and his finger pierced straight through it.
Even the wooden roof beam below silently gained a hole.
No fragments scattered, because the instant the material made contact, that terrifying, pure force pulverized it into dust.
"Not bad."
Shi Hou blew the stone dust from his finger, a slight smile curling his lips.
He couldn't glow or discharge lightning.
But this feeling... was reassuring.
Yet that peace did not last long.
At dusk.
A burst of hurried, disorderly footsteps shattered the village's tranquility.
The hunting party had returned.
There was none of their usual laughter, nor any bounty of prey.
A faint smell of blood hung in the air.
"What happened?"
Shi Hou, who was feeding Kang dried meat, frowned and abruptly rose.
At the village entrance, dozens of men came in supporting one another.
Every man's beast-hide clothing was stained with blood, and some were still dripping.
Shi Shoushan walked at the front, his face ashen with anger. Thick strips of cloth wrapped his left arm, with blood faintly seeping through.
Shi Feijiao was worse off. He limped as he walked, a conspicuous bloody hole in his thigh, as though something sharp had pierced it.
"Dad!"
"Husband!"
The village's women and children rushed over in panic.
Shi Hao, Dazhuang, and the others also charged over, their eyes reddening.
"I'm fine. I won't die."
Shi Shoushan waved a hand, pushed aside Lin Yun when she tried to support him, and dropped to the ground, panting heavily.
"Those damned bastards from Bei Village were too underhanded!"
Shi Linhu slammed his broadsword onto the ground and ground his teeth. "They crossed the boundary! They set an ambush on our territory. Dozens of them charged out riding Dirt Wolves and went straight for the kill without a word!"
"If it weren't for..."
Shi Linhu paused, then looked toward the approaching Shi Hou with a complicated expression.
"If we hadn't been eating the Spirit Food Skinny Monkey's been making lately, making everyone's bodies tough as iron, we would've lost half our men out there today!"
Everyone nodded at his words.
In the past, a single swipe from a Dirt Wolf would have cut clear to the bone, or even severed a hand or foot.
But today, those Dirt Wolf claws had only slashed their flesh. Once they struck bone, they couldn't cut any deeper.
Though the wounds looked frightening, they were actually superficial and hadn't damaged anything vital.
"Bei Village?"
Standing among the crowd, Shi Hou narrowed his eyes slightly at the name.
He remembered that village.
In the original story, these were the people who had nearly crippled Stone Village's hunting party.
"None of us died, and they didn't get off easy either!"
Shi Shoushan spat out a mouthful of bloody foam and grinned savagely. "I landed several solid cuts. Those bastards have brittle bones. I broke at least a few legs!"
Despite his words, everyone could hear how perilous it had been.
This had been a true battle of life and death.
"Those bullies..."
Shi Hao clenched his little fists. For the first time, a cold gleam far beyond his years appeared in his large eyes. "Why do they want to steal our land?"
"To survive, and out of greed."
Old Chief Shi Yunfeng came over. As he surveyed his injured clansmen, his expression grew so dark it seemed water might drip from it.
Without wasting words, he turned to Shi Hou.
"Skinny Monkey, can you make more of that soup tonight?"
"Everyone needs to replenish the blood they've lost."
Shi Hou said nothing.
He looked at the wound on his father's arm, then at the bloody hole in Shi Feijiao's leg.
An unbidden fury surged from the depths of his heart, impossible to suppress.
Two hundred thousand points of blood qi roared within him, like a dormant volcano on the verge of eruption.
"Yes."
Before you continue