66? Screw your damn sixes!

"My baby! How could you just up and die?!"

Lin Yun cradled Shi Hou, whose face was deathly pale and who could barely breathe out, and sobbed as though her heart were being torn apart. Tears pattered onto his face, scaldingly hot.

Shi Shoushan stood beside her, his eyes red, helplessly rubbing his large bone saber. "He was fine just a moment ago. Before we even entered the village, he went limp as a noodle. I didn't dare shake him hard, either."

Around them, Shi Hao, Ermeng, and the other children paced in frantic circles.

"Did Skinny Monkey pass out from hunger?"

Shi Hao scratched his head, his face full of worry. "Was running away just now too tiring?"

Just then, the enormous, charred-black lightning-struck wood at the village entrance trembled gently.

A tender green willow branch extended like Order Divine Chains, tracing a soft arc through the air before lightly touching Shi Hou between the brows.

Hum.

A ring of pale green light rippled outward.

Shi Hou, who had felt as if his body had been hollowed out and even his soul were drifting away, suddenly shuddered. Like a dried-out fish tossed back into water, a cool surge of vitality instantly flooded through the crown of his head.

"Hah-!"

Shi Hou abruptly sat up, gasping for breath, cold sweat dripping from the tip of his chin.

"He's alive! He's alive!" Ermeng slapped his thigh excitedly.

Lin Yun hugged her son tight, terrified he would pass out again. "Child, you scared your mother half to death!"

Shi Hou waved to show that he was all right. His head was still buzzing. Although the Willow Deity had suppressed his physical exhaustion, that hollow feeling remained seared into his bones.

"First, get the eggs... out."

Gritting his teeth, Shi Hou forced himself to stand.

He reached up and brushed a hand beside his ear.

Black light flashed, and the Stone Pot grew in the wind, crashing to the ground with a clang.

Then, with a thought, he tilted the pot's opening.

Rumble, rumble.

Three enormous bird eggs rolled out.

"Hiss-"

Ermeng sucked in a sharp breath and pointed at the eggs on the ground, stammering, "S-Skinny Monkey, are these really the three we just stole? Why do they look different?"

Originally, the three eggs had been bluish-green, with a few scattered cloud patterns on them.

Now, however, all three were translucent and lustrous, as though carved from the finest jadeite. The cloud patterns on their shells had actually turned gold and were slowly moving, like tiny living golden birds.

Life essence so rich it seemed impossible to dilute was surging out of the eggs.

Even a single whiff of their aura made every pore on one's body relax.

"This is..."

The clan chief, Shi Yunfeng, approached with his walking stick. His cloudy old eyes instantly went wide, and his body began trembling violently.

"Atavistic! These are signs of their bloodlines becoming Atavistic!"

The old chief was so excited that his voice cracked again. "They were originally just the offspring of a Green-Scaled Eagle, carrying the bloodline of a Primordial Demonic Bird. But these patterns now... they're going to hatch into fledgling primordial remnants! Their value has increased more than a hundredfold!"

An uproar swept through the crowd.

Dazhuang scratched his scalp, looking utterly baffled. "All we did was put them in the pot and carry them back. How did carrying them make them Atavistic?"

Leaning against his mother, Shi Hou heard those words, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

Mystery solved.

No wonder I nearly dropped dead.

That damned "Stew Anything" system—does it start "processing" automatically as soon as something enters the pot? Had it been draining my Blood Qi Value like mad to purify these three eggs' bloodlines?!

Just as everyone gathered around the divine eggs, marveling at them.

Whoosh-!

A fierce wind bore down from overhead, and the entire village darkened.

"That's... the Green-Scaled Eagle!"

Shi Feijiao roared, snatching up his broadsword and shielding the children.

High above, the enormous Green-Scaled Eagle spiraled downward. The huge lump on its neck had yet to subside and looked rather comical, but its savage aura had not diminished in the slightest.

It did not attack. Instead, it folded its wings and landed with a crash on a boulder at the village entrance.

Its scarlet, vicious eyes were fixed on the three transformed giant eggs on the ground, revealing an almost human shock and... longing.

"Stay on guard!"

Shi Linhu drew his great bow to its full stretch.

"Wait!"

Shi Yunfeng raised a hand to stop everyone, stepped forward, and called out, "These eggs were indeed stolen by the mischievous children of our village. But a divine bird like this possesses intelligence. If we insist on keeping them, I fear our village will never know another peaceful day."

"Return the eggs... to it."

Though surrendering these divine eggs with their awakened Atavistic bloodlines pained him, they could only give them up for the village's safety, to avoid retaliation from a Primordial Demonic Bird watching them at every moment.

Suppressing his anguish, Shi Feijiao stepped forward and gently nudged the three Gold-Patterned Jade Eggs toward the Green-Scaled Eagle with his foot.

"Take them. Don't hurt anyone again."

The Green-Scaled Eagle lowered its head to look at the eggs by its feet, then looked up at Shi Hou, who stood protected behind the crowd, and at the Stone Pot hanging beside his ear.

The next moment, a sight unfolded that left everyone's jaws on the ground.

The savage bird actually extended a wing and, as though sweeping away rubbish, pushed all three eggs back!

More precisely, it pushed them to Shi Hou's feet.

"Chirp-"

The Green-Scaled Eagle gave a low cry and cast a complicated glance at the Stone Pot. Then it beat its wings fiercely, stirring up clouds of dust, and soared into the sky without looking back. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared into the depths of the vast Great Wilderness.

"This..."

Everyone was dumbstruck.

"It doesn't want them anymore?"

Ermeng's eyes nearly popped out. "Or does it dislike the eggs because we touched them?"

"It isn't rejecting them."

Shi Yunfeng murmured to himself as he watched the distant black speck. "It sensed that these eggs had gained an unimaginable blessing in Skinny Monkey's hands. It's entrusting its young to him... it wants its children to follow Skinny Monkey and his pot, and transform completely into primordial remnants!"

Understanding dawned on everyone, followed by earth-shaking cheers.

"Incredible! Skinny Monkey really is incredible!"

"Even a demonic bird willingly handed over its children! Our Stone Village is going to flourish!"

At the center of all that celebration and those adoring gazes.

Shi Hou could not smile.

Ever since the eggs had left his body, the draining sensation had not disappeared. Instead, now that his mind had relaxed, he felt even more strongly as though an entire mountain had been hollowed out inside him.

His hands trembling, Shi Hou silently called, System, panel.

Swish.

A line of translucent data appeared on his retinas, visible only to him.

[Host: Shi Hou]

[Blood Qi Value: 66]

Pfft-!

Shi Hou felt a coppery sweetness rise in his throat, and a mouthful of blood sprayed straight out, staining the beast-hide clothing over his chest red.

"66? Screw your damn sixes!"

Then he pointed at the Stone Pot and cursed furiously. "You've nearly drained me dry, and you leave me with 66? Are you wishing me a smooth journey to the grave?!"

I had 5,000 vitality before!

The strength to tear rocks apart with my bare hands, earned from that bowl of divine soup, was just gone? All fed to these three eggs?!

"Skinny Monkey!"

"Why is he coughing up blood again?!"

The hearts that had only just settled leaped back into everyone's throats. Lin Yun was so frightened that her face drained of color.

Shi Hou wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes gleaming green with ferocity.

What a loss!

A colossal loss!

The law of conservation of vitality-since I've paid it out, I have to eat it back!

Shi Hou shoved away his father, who was supporting him, and staggered toward the three radiant divine eggs.

He reached out and grabbed, summoning the Stone Pot into position before him.

His right hand closed around empty air, and an enormous stone saber appeared out of nowhere.

"Eat it back... I have to eat it back!"

His eyes bloodshot, Shi Hou raised the stone saber, which was still dripping a rain of light, and prepared to bring it smashing down on the largest egg.

"Oink-"

The pink piglet Kang, who had stayed nestled against Shi Hou's chest all this time, seemed to receive the signal that dinner was ready and shot out in a flash.

Flapping tiny wings, Kang landed on Shi Hao's shoulder.

One big, one small; one boy, one pig.

The two gluttons watched Shi Hou raise his slaughtering blade, their eyes shooting out crafty beams like searchlights.

Drool streamed from the corners of their mouths, forming threads that pattered onto the ground.

Shi Hou gritted his teeth, raised the blade, and brought it down.