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The iron ship, under the joint control of Ying He and Li Yingfu, quickly gained altitude, and after a bout of severe turbulence, finally entered the vortex passage smoothly.
Immediately afterward, the iron ship transformed into a streak of flowing light and disappeared into the constantly rotating vortex.
...
"How did it get bigger again!"
The black Spirit Chicken stood on one leg atop a branch of the Fire Paulownia Tree.
Yet, its lower abdomen was bulging to an exaggerated extent.
It was akin to a small hill.
From time to time, it looked down at its abdomen, a hint of impatience flashing in its eyes.
Since landing here, it had planted the Fir Paulownia Tree in a depression not far from Northern Heavenly Pillar.
This Fire Paulownia Tree was truly magical; once it touched the soil, it would rapidly connect with the land and draw the necessary sustenance for growth.
Beneath the warmth provided by the Fire Paulownia Tree, it was incubating the first chicken egg while striving to lay the second egg within its belly.
To its surprise, the second egg, which had a faint vital essence, miraculously returned to normal after absorbing the great fish’s Yuanyang from outside the egg.
But what confused it was that the supposedly fixed-sized egg was growing again inside its belly!
And it was growing at a rapid pace. Although it didn’t know how much time had passed, it could distinctly feel that it wouldn’t be long before the egg could burst its abdominal cavity.
"This... this shouldn’t be happening."
The black Spirit Chicken was both confused and restless, filled with worry.
It had never laid an egg before.
However, as a divine beast among chickens, it was well aware that the size of an egg is roughly determined when the yolk forms.
It was impossible for a fully formed egg to get bigger after the shell was formed.
Yet, this scene has happened.
This left the black Spirit Chicken at a loss what to do.
The size of the egg wasn’t the issue, the real trouble was that if the egg kept growing and it couldn’t be laid, the egg would become trapped and die inside its belly.
With its robust body, it didn’t need to worry about that.
The key issue was that it feared only one of the two painstakingly produced eggs could be saved.
These two eggs were crucial for its escape from this physical body; having an extra one meant an additional chance to attempt escape.
After hesitating, it finally made a decision.
It slightly raised its buttocks, condensed a sharp force with its Spiritual Power, and slowly cut an opening at its own cloacal vent.
"Ga!"
The black Spirit Chicken suddenly let out a painful, distorted crowing sound.
And inside the cloacal chamber, a piece of shiny white eggshell became visible.
Surrounded by blood vessels, the opening of the chamber ground and carefully compressed, trying to squeeze the egg out without breaking the now increasingly hard shell.
It squeezed while emitting painful cries.
This pain went straight to the Primordial Spirit and could not be blocked.
As a result, the consciousness of the black Spirit Chicken once again began to blur.
This time, it was even more severe than before.
Accompanied by the incessant vigorous twisting of its buttocks,
The egg within the cloacal chamber gradually revealed a significant part of its true form.
The size of this egg was indeed astonishing, just the part that peeked out was already two to three times larger than the first egg, which was in the midst of hatching.
Feeling hazy, it didn’t even have the spare energy to use its Spiritual Mind to inspect.
It vaguely sensed that this egg had reached a critical moment.
A hint of joy swept across its eyes.
However, just at that moment,
A sudden surge of shock and fear rose in the heart of the black Spirit Chicken!
Its previously blurry consciousness and intense pain cleared in an instant.
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It couldn’t believe what was happening and suddenly stopped the wriggling of its buttocks, then felt carefully once more.
Soon, a sense of utter rage tinged with desperation burst from the eyes of the black Spirit Chicken:
"Damn it!"
"Why!"
"Why has he caught up again!?"
The flesh of the Blood Fang Cavity rapidly contracted, trying to retract the egg. 𝑛𝘰𝑣𝘱𝑢𝑏.𝘤𝑜𝘮
But it felt even more despair upon discovering that the egg was completely stuck at the mouth of the cavity.
Retracting it back into its abdomen was now impossible, it could either give birth to it, or it would have to forcefully destroy the egg.
"I cannot give up this opportunity... perhaps wait a bit longer, with the cold current in place, he shouldn’t be able to... "
A flicker of indecision passed through the eyes of the black Spirit Chicken.
"He shouldn’t be able to catch up so quickly, he should..."
Very soon, as the egg continued to press outward from the Blood Fang Cavity, its consciousness began to blur once again.
...
Whoosh—
A streak of light shot out from the mid-air vortex.
Above, the sky curtain formed by the cold wind and snow hung low.
The severe cold wind, carrying snowflakes, blew over the streak of light.
The light immediately came to a halt, revealing its true form: an exquisite iron boat.
Around the iron boat, the light protecting against the cold faded under the assault of the cold current.
Three figures stood on the iron boat, their eyebrows slightly furrowed.
It was Wang Ba and his company.
Ying He said with gravity:
"I didn’t expect the cold current here to be so astonishing... Chief Division Master, given this situation, it might take us at least half a month to reach the Northern Heavenly Pillar."
Wang Ba responded with a slight smile:
"Enforcer Ying, worry not, before coming here, I specifically requested a treasure from our sect, precisely to deal with such situations."
While he was speaking, he suddenly sneezed.
"Huh? Strange..."
The other two quickly showed concern:
"Chief Division Master, are you alright?"
Cultivators are usually impervious to the heat and cold, and seldom sneeze because of their special constitution.
Wang Ba nonchalantly waved his hand:
"It’s nothing, perhaps just because it’s too cold here... Now, look at this treasure."
As he spoke, he produced a hexagonal palace lantern.
"Could it be the Hexagram Fire Lamp?"
Upon seeing the palace lantern, Ying He was immediately overjoyed.
After briefly estimating the distance, he hurriedly said:
"With this artifact, we will arrive in no more than half a Shichen!"
Wang Ba instantly nodded with a smile, "That’s good, then let’s set out now!"
With those words, he handed over the hexagonal palace lantern to the other.
Ying He took it and immediately set it up on the iron boat.
Before long, the iron boat was enveloped by a warm light.
The cold current that blew directly against the boat dissolved silently upon contact with the light.
Witnessing this scene, Wang Ba’s brow furrowed slightly:
"Strange... why has the God-Sealing Bell issued a warning again?"
