"This is...."
The noon sun shone down on the earth, casting mottled shadows on the rubble-strewn ground, and also casting light and shadow on the mysterious white egg in the dirt.
If Li Xuan hadn't unintentionally glanced at the rubble he kicked, he might not have discovered the egg, which was hidden in the shadow of a large rock.
"This is an egg?!..." Li Xuan looked in shock at the unknown egg before him, which was about the size of an ostrich egg. This was Nagazora City! For an egg to appear in a place that was practically a forbidden zone for life......
"...An egg found in a Honkai Beast nest..." Li Xuan cupped the egg of indeterminate weight in his hands, squinting at its round shell.
"Other than a Honkai Beast egg... I can't think of any other possibility..." Li Xuan muttered to himself while looking at the egg in his hands. Any normal person would think the same... an egg found in a Honkai Beast nest, what else could it be but a Honkai Beast egg?
'…...Scrambled eggs with tomatoes.' The thought suddenly popped into Li Xuan's mind. It was a common homemade dish he was quite fond of back in his original world...
"..." He quickly shook his head to get rid of the thought... Making 'scrambled eggs with tomatoes' with a Honkai Beast egg—he didn't think he could digest it. Who knew what would happen if he ate it... Gotta cherish his life...
"Whatever... I'll take it back and see." Li Xuan scratched his head. Acting on the principle of taking any advantage he could get... Li Xuan stuffed the Honkai Beast egg into his ring.
'I should get back quickly...' Li Xuan glanced at the surrounding buildings, glad that no Honkai Beasts or Honkai Zombies had appeared. After all, the noise from his fight with the Honkai Beast wasn't quiet. If it attracted some humanoid, high-level Honkai Beast... he would be screwed.
"Let's go..." Li Xuan took a few quick steps, then used the momentum to leap forcefully. The boost from 'Gale Arts (High Tier)' allowed him to jump directly onto a low-rise building and run quickly in the direction of the base.
...............
"So that's what happened...." Li Xuan said, sitting on a chair by the bed with his arms crossed. "This is the egg I found in the Honkai Beast's nest after killing it..."
"Li Xuan-kun, this is the first time I've ever seen a monster's egg..." Yae Sakura rested her delicate face in her hands, her eyes sparkling as she looked at the cleaned white Honkai Beast egg, which was placed on the bed next to the Familiar Egg.
"Why doesn't Higokumaru have a baby?" Yae Sakura asked the black fox beside her with a spring-like smile.
"..." Higokumaru's fox face twitched. "Because I'm a male fox..."
"How strange..." Beside them, Liv raised her right hand to her face, frowning in confusion as she looked at the white Honkai Beast egg on the bed.
"What's wrong, Liv?..." Li Xuan asked, looking quizzically at the frowning Liv.
"Master..." Liv raised a slender, jade-like finger, thought for a moment, then pointed at the Honkai Beast egg on the bed and said, "...Honkai Beasts usually have powerful Honkai energy, but... why is the Honkai energy on this egg so weak?"
"..." Li Xuan was baffled... That was indeed a good question... A Honkai Beast has powerful Honkai energy, so it's impossible for its offspring to have so little. It's a Honkai Beast, after all.
"Speaking of which... I did encounter three small Honkai Beasts at the time..." Li Xuan recalled the scene. Thinking back now, it was highly likely that those three Honkai Beasts were the offspring of that large, flying-type Honkai Beast.
So, the question is... if three Honkai Beasts had already hatched, why hasn't this egg hatched yet?!
"Could it be that the Honkai Beast abandoned it because the egg was born with weak Honkai energy?!" Li Xuan stroked his chin as he voiced his conjecture. Just like how some birds abandon their eggs if they're unfertilized... it would make sense for a Honkai Beast to abandon an egg with weak Honkai energy to avoid hatching a weak offspring.
"Hmm... that's very likely, Master~" Liv said from the side. "The life fluctuation of this egg is already very weak. I wonder if it's because it doesn't have enough Honkai energy?...." Liv said casually.
"What?!" Li Xuan was surprised. He couldn't just let this Honkai Beast egg he'd gone to the trouble of finding just die, could he?!
"So it's just lacking Honkai energy, right?" Li Xuan asked.
"Yes! Master..." Liv said with certainty.
"..." Li Xuan silently picked up the Honkai Beast egg that was lying next to the Familiar Egg on the bed. He gently covered it with his right hand. The Stigmata on the back of his hand grew slightly warm, and a warm current surged from deep within his body, flowing into the Honkai Beast egg in his hands.
Honkai energy was nothing to the energetic Li Xuan. Ever since his Stigmata awakened and formed the Four Symbols, his body had begun to continuously absorb and store pure Honkai energy, which he could convert into the Power of Fire and Power of Metal when necessary.
"Master, the egg's life signature is getting stronger..." Liv said with some surprise, watching Li Xuan quietly touching the Honkai Beast egg.
".Hmm, phew~" Li Xuan exhaled softly, acknowledged, and withdrew his hand. He didn't have a particularly large amount of Honkai energy in his body, and that action had just cost him a third of it, leaving him feeling momentarily tired.
"...This should be enough, right?" Li Xuan turned his head and asked Liv.
"Yes!..." Liv said with certainty. As a Gun-musume, she could clearly feel the increase in active Honkai energy within the egg, as well as... a vibrant life force, like the arrival of early spring after a long winter.
"Alright!~" Li Xuan took out several Honkai Crystals from his pocket and placed them on the bed, using the Honkai energy they constantly emitted to nourish the two eggs. Transferring Honkai energy might be difficult for a Honkai Beast, but for him, with his Honkai Crystals and Stigmata, it was a piece of cake.
"It's time to prepare for the wish....." Li Xuan looked out the window at the darkening sky. Power... he still needed... power.
"Ooh!~" Liv's eyes seemed to sparkle. She grabbed Li Xuan's arm and said, "Master!~ I want to watch too!"
"Okay~" Li Xuan smiled and patted Liv's head. Liv was like family to him... there was nothing to hide.
"Hey~" Li Xuan turned to look at Yae Sakura with a gentle smile.
"Sakura, do you want to come and watch?"
"..." Yae Sakura was slightly taken aback, but she quickly realized that this was a sign of Li Xuan's trust in her...
"Yes!" Yae Sakura nodded emphatically, her pink hair fluttering slightly. Her delicate face was filled with a warm, heartfelt smile.
.............
When no one was paying attention...
A golden glint flashed across the surface of the golden Familiar Egg on the bed. A ray of golden light shone into the Honkai Beast egg, which had been infused with extremely pure Honkai energy by Li Xuan.
The chaotic, murderous will of the 'Honkai' that was originally mixed in with the life brewing inside the Honkai Beast egg dissipated in the golden light.
Under the sun.. a few fine golden lines, invisible to the naked eye, appeared on the surface of the giant white egg. It stood guard beside the golden Familiar Egg, like a sentinel...
(End of Chapter)