103. Suspected Dinosaur

To be absolutely certain, Chen Windcloud spent three attribute points to raise his array skill to the tenth level of the mortal rank. Instantly, a vast body of array knowledge flooded his mind. He stood quietly for more than ten minutes, absorbing and integrating it all until it became his own mastery.

“This is a Great Five-Element Sealing Array, a formation ancient cultivators used specifically to seal powerful evil beings or demonic beasts.”

With his array mastery improved, Chen Windcloud immediately recognized the restriction before him, and his caution deepened at once. If something sealed inside it was truly a formidable evil entity or a fierce beast, then with his present strength he would have to deal with it very carefully.

Still, he did not retreat.

Cultivation was, after all, a path of defying heaven and seizing fortune from the world. If one shrank back at the first sign of danger, then opportunity would never come.

The same was true of everything else. Difficulties and troubles only needed to be faced bravely. There was always a way, and if one feared every obstacle and refused to move forward, then nothing could ever be accomplished.

A muffled boom echoed.

The flying sword appeared at the bottom of the river, radiating a golden glow as it slammed into a point on the riverbed. The water above churned violently, though no one saw it.

Deep below, filthy mud and water roiled upward. Great masses of silt were blasted aside by the flying sword, revealing the golden restriction beneath. It had already sunk three meters into the earth.

“What an enormous undertaking. Whoever set up this restriction was definitely no ordinary cultivator. At the very least, they were above the Core Formation realm. But what was the purpose of arranging it this way?”

Outside the restriction was the Great Five-Element Sealing Array, yet inside, earth-vein energy had been used as well, locked in place and gathered toward the center. Hmm. There seems to be something at the heart of the formation.

Chen Windcloud quickly noticed the anomaly within the restriction. At present, the seal was still quite strong. If he went all out, he could break it, but once it scattered, the surrounding area would certainly react abnormally, and it might even trigger an earthquake.

“The seal absolutely cannot be destroyed. I only need to weaken it a little, and then I can enter, break the earth-vein locking formation inside, and find the thing at the center of the great array.”

He made his decision swiftly. Pressing his hand against the restriction, he used the cultivation system to absorb the energy within it. Only when the seal had weakened to the point of barely holding together did he withdraw.

“What a pity. This restriction has been here for who knows how long, and it contains too little energy. It only gave me five attribute points. Still, I hope whatever has been nurtured at the center of the array can give me a pleasant surprise.”

Chen Windcloud shook his head at the thought.

Then his body flickered like a phantom, vanishing from the riverbed. In the blink of an eye, he entered another world: a not-so-large cave with a pool of water inside, and above the pool floated a huge cyan egg, about the size of two or three basketballs.

At the same time, he discovered that all the surrounding earth-vein energy was being drawn in by another formation and gathered into the egg at the center, as though supplying it to hatch.

When Chen Windcloud entered the cave, he found that the giant egg was emitting a rich aura of life, and its shell was covered in cracks, as if it might burst open at any moment.

“What kind of beast lays an egg like this? And who placed it here? By the looks of it, the egg is about to hatch. If some giant beast emerges, wouldn’t that bring a catastrophic disaster to Ember City?”

At that thought, a sudden idea flashed through Chen Windcloud’s mind.

If the creature inside had not yet hatched, then if he used a blood-binding technique now, could he subdue whatever was inside and make it his pet?

Thinking of this, Chen Windcloud slit his fingertip with the flying sword, forcing out several drops of essence blood. Then, guided by his divine sense, he drew a contract talisman in the air outside the egg. The blood-soaked symbol quietly sank into the giant egg, and Chen Windcloud immediately felt a connection form between himself and a small life.

“It wants to come out, but its energy is still insufficient.”

He instantly sensed the intent of the tiny life within the egg.

“This earth-vein guiding formation has already been damaged in many places. No wonder the little fellow inside has been unable to hatch. I’ll have to lend it a hand.”

Chen Windcloud’s art of observing qi and tracing veins had already reached the tenth level of the mortal rank, and one step further would be comparable to the means of an immortal. Simply guiding earth-vein energy was hardly any trouble at all.

Thus, he followed the flow of the surrounding veins, located the broken and damaged points of the formation, repaired them one by one, and then a vast surge of earth-vein energy rushed toward the giant egg.

Chen Windcloud sighed inwardly. He had already tried before, and the cultivation system had no reaction at all to earth-vein energy. It could not absorb or transform it into attribute points.

Otherwise, with such boundless earth-vein energy, he could probably obtain a huge number of attribute points at any time and would never need to go through all the trouble of searching everywhere for different kinds of energy.

A soft hum sounded.

As the immense earth-vein energy poured into the giant egg, the small life within it released a surge of delight. The egg began to tremble with a low vibration, and streaks of cyan light flashed through it.

“Good, the little fellow is almost out. Let’s see what kind of beast it is.”

About half an hour later, Chen Windcloud felt the egg trembling more and more violently, and knew the creature inside was nearly ready to emerge.

Crack.

Sure enough, about five minutes later, a crisp sound rang out from the egg’s shell. A fissure appeared, and a hard fragment about the size of a palm fell away, floating on the water’s surface.

Crack.

Crack.

After that, the creature inside struggled harder and harder, smashing through piece after piece of shell. A hole the size of a lead ball opened at the top of the giant egg, and then a small green triangular head poked out.

Chirp, chirp, chirp...

The tiny head looked around in all directions, then its gaze settled on Chen Windcloud. Joy lit its eyes, and it let out a series of chirping cries before forcing its way through the surrounding shell, revealing a pair of short foreclaws.

“What kind of beast is this? Why does it look a little like a dinosaur?”

Chen Windcloud was somewhat dazed. He had been hoping for a spiritual beast or immortal beast such as an Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Black Tortoise, or Vermilion Bird.

Crack.

Once its head had emerged, the little fellow unexpectedly opened its mouth, revealing two rows of sharp teeth, and bit down on the hard shell around it. A crisp snapping sound rang out as it chewed through it.

Before long, it had devoured the entire ring of shell around it. Its whole body was exposed. It stood about one meter tall and two meters long, with a tail nearly one meter in length. It looked exactly like a dinosaur.

Then the little dinosaur finished eating the rest of the giant egg’s shell, and joyfully swam about in the pool below, splashing water as it chirped happily at Chen Windcloud.