Chapter 717: Identifying the Giant Egg

Sending one’s soul slaves to the Panorama Forging Gate had two advantages. Through the soul connection, one could gain a relatively intuitive understanding of the gate, and at the same time, send soul commands to the slaves at any time. In other words, Yan Qiu, as Su Che’s full representative, had 100% authority to make decisions on the spot, able to sign any agreements with the Panorama Forging Gate without having to return for approval.

An annual order of 10,000 immortal artifacts and magical treasures was a huge deal for any sect, and no hasty decision could be made. It would likely take at least a month for Yan Qiu to reach an agreement with the Panorama Forging Gate.

During this time, Su Che didn’t hide in his shop like a coward. Besides practicing cultivation, he would visit each of the 3,000 shops in the Heavenly Market accompanied by Zhuo Feng.

With experts like Old Monkey secretly protecting them, the Heavenly Market was actually safer than his own shop, so there was no need to worry about anything.

Su Che didn’t visit these shops to satisfy his desire to shop; instead, he hoped to strike lucky and find some useful treasures.

At present, his ability to withstand stress a hundredfold could be enhanced through the Seven-Colored Spirit Fruits for both his flesh and internal organs. Although it was a long process, a feasible method had already been found. The only remaining issue was the Immortal Infant, for which he still had no clue.

The capacity of an Immortal Infant was completely inflexible. One’s cultivation level determined their capacity—so how could one achieve a hundredfold expansion in potential?

Additionally, he needed a natural treasure capable of containing all forces in the world, which was the first condition for unlocking the seventh layer of the Immortal Prison—the Immortal Infant. Only when all three conditions—celestial treasures, divine artifacts, and living beings—were met could the seventh layer be unlocked…

Su Che was well aware that in a trading market like the Haoyuan Heavenly Market, it was impossible to find such an extraordinary treasure. Such items could only be seen at high-level gatherings in the Cloud Immortal Realm. But those were gatherings where Immortal Emperors exchanged resources, and even ordinary Great Luo Golden Immortals didn’t qualify to attend. A lowly human immortal like Su Che couldn’t even dream of it.

After ten days with no results, Su Che wasn’t disappointed—it was exactly as expected.

One day, as he continued to browse shop after shop, Old Black suddenly reminded him, “Master, it seems you’ve forgotten something.”

“What is it?” Su Che asked casually, assuming Old Black was about to spout nonsense again.

To his surprise, what he said was, “That little world of creatures belonging to Guangqi has never been merged, precisely because there’s a strange giant egg in his world that can devour life force… It seems you’ve forgotten about this.”
“Oh, right!”
Su Che slapped his forehead.
While on the battlefield between immortals and demons, Su Che had always felt that mysterious giant egg to be dangerous, so he planned to ascend to the immortal realm, become an immortal properly, and then study it further.
After arriving in the immortal realm, he had been too busy opening a shop and completely forgot about this matter.
So, Su Che returned to his shop and residence, calmed down, and said to Lao He, “Let’s merge Guangqi’s little world of creatures now.”
Guangqi’s little world contained just over a hundred billion creatures, which could be merged with the two planets of the Immortal Prison Mini-Universes.
This so-called little world of creatures was actually a mid-tier immortal artifact-level spatial magic weapon, with an internal space of three million square li.
As long as this magic weapon was placed on an uninhabited planet, the power of the Heavenly Dao in the Immortal Prison could slowly expand its internal space, as if laying an ecological carpet over the originally barren planet’s surface. This carpet was nothing but the “Guangqi Continent” within the magic weapon’s space.
This process was quite slow, solely to avoid disrupting the normal lives of the over a hundred billion creatures on Guangqi Continent. To them, it would only seem like the weather had become slightly abnormal over the past few months; they would never realize that the very nature of their world was undergoing a tremendous transformation.
On Guangqi Continent, there were also cultivators at the Refining Void stage, the Tribulation Crossing stage, and even a few at the Great Vehicle stage. They had the ability to leave the planet and explore the universe at speeds far exceeding light. However, since they were captive creatures accustomed to a completely enclosed living space, they lacked the desire to explore the outside world.
The world as they understood it was just this big. If they wanted to see a broader space, there was only one way: to shatter the void, break through the spatial restrictions, and head to the legendary immortal realm.
The desire was beautiful, but it depended on whether the true immortals who kept them captive had the compassion to give them a chance to truly become immortals. If fate was against them, then shattering the void would mean the end of their lives, as they would be mercilessly killed by the immortals in control of this little world.
As the ruler of the Immortal Prison Mini-Universes, Su Che now faced three different choices: compassion? selfishness? or utter ruthlessness?

At present, more than a dozen small worlds of living beings have been integrated into it, and there are nearly a hundred beings at the Mahayana stage ready to ascend within the Immortal Prison universe. Undoubtedly, more will join in the future.
The compassionate approach is to grant them the power to ascend; those who meet the conditions for ascension will be released from the Immortal Prison and cast somewhere in the mortal universe, where the force of ascension will naturally send them to the protected area for immortals in the celestial realm.
The selfish approach is to enslave their souls and turn them into temporary servants, also releasing them from the Immortal Prison, but using the method of attaining immortality in the celestial realm to bypass the ascension process.
The utterly ruthless approach can be summed up in two words: exterminate!
Obviously, Su Che is not a heartless person and would never choose the third method, leaving only the first two.
For now, Su Che is somewhat conflicted. If he acts compassionately, he worries about the secrets of the Immortal Prison being exposed; if he acts selfishly, they haven’t offended him or done anything wrong—what reason is there to enslave such innocent people?
Slaving the souls of innocent people is clearly unfair and goes against the morality he pursues…
Therefore, this matter can only be postponed for now, using the power of the Immortal Prison’s celestial laws to temporarily seal off their progress in cultivation, preventing them from meeting the requirements for ascension.
Su Che thinks that perhaps in a few hundred years, a solution that satisfies all parties might emerge. After all, his strength and mindset are constantly changing—what he will be like in a few hundred years is uncertain…
Back to the main topic, the Guangqi Continent began to merge with a desolate planet within the Immortal Prison, exposing that strange giant egg to the control and monitoring of the Immortal Prison’s celestial laws.
Su Che thought to himself, “Guangqi once consulted several Great Luo Golden Immortals, but none could figure out the origin of this egg. I wonder if the power of the Immortal Prison’s celestial laws can reveal its properties or functions.”
Even if its exact origin is unknown, it would still be useful to understand what benefits it could bring.
An oval giant egg, ten zhang tall, was taken out from the interior space of the Guangqi Continent and floated quietly in the starry universe of the Immortal Prison.
Knowing full well that it had the ability to devour life force, Su Che and Lao He certainly wouldn’t place it on any planet—the vast starry sky was relatively safer.

This giant egg resembled an ancient fossil, its surface full of pits and unevenities. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a large stone roughly polished. It was overall bluish-gray, with nothing particularly unusual about its surface.

Lao He observed it silently for a while before saying to Su Che, “This thing has an extremely thick outer layer, possessing an extremely strong isolating effect. Even my detection abilities can’t penetrate it.”

“Is that so?”

Su Che was also secretly amazed. After all, Lao He’s detection abilities were even more powerful than his own Immortal Divine Consciousness in terms of penetration. Moreover, inside the Immortal Prison space, his abilities could be amplified by tens of thousands of times. Just in terms of penetration power, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say he surpassed even the Great Luo Golden Immortals outside—yet they still couldn’t see through the egg’s shell.

“It seems we really have to go all out if we want to succeed!”

Lao He was also floating in the starry sky, about several hundred zhang away from the giant egg.

The egg could devour the life force of living beings in the world, including mystic immortals like Guang Qi. Its devouring effect covered a radius of over two thousand li, with the effect becoming stronger the closer one got to it.

As the ruler of the first layer of the Immortal Prison, Lao He could block this devouring force and remain unaffected. At this moment, he borrowed the power of the Heavenly Dao from his own Immortal Prison universe and carefully covered the egg.

The reason for such caution wasn’t that Lao He was afraid it would harm him; on the contrary, he was worried that the power of the Heavenly Dao might damage something inside the egg. The stronger the protective effect of the shell, the more fragile the contents usually were.

The power of the Heavenly Dao was supreme, and it indeed penetrated that thick shell. As a result, not only Lao He but also Su Che could clearly see inside—the egg contained a strange creature that resembled both a bird and a fish.

“Having both fish and bird characteristics, and yet it’s such a large egg…”

After some thought, Su Che and Lao He both unconsciously thought of an ancient deity from legends.

The Kunpeng!

“In the northern seas, there is a fish called Kun. Its size is unknown—thousands of li long. When it transforms into a bird, it’s called Peng. The length of its back is also unknown—thousands of li…”

The Kunpeng described in ancient legends was an ancient demon god that existed since the creation of the world. It was among the top-ranked demon gods, unmatched in the universe.

It was estimated that the strength of the Kunpeng was roughly on par with the Twelve Ancestral Witches, slightly superior even to the Sky-Devouring Rat.

Of course, this is just what Su Che inferred from the legends he had read. As for the truth, it is impossible to verify. Only the immortals in the immortal realm and those lucky survivors like the Sky-Devouring Rats would know. In any case, there is surely no space left in the current immortal realm for the great deity Kunpeng; he must have long been dealt with by the laws of heaven. “A being of such superhuman stature is absolutely unique in the universe. If one exists, no second one can arise.” Su Che pondered, “Could it be that after the great deity Kunpeng, who defied the laws of heaven, perished, another little Kunpeng was born in this vast universe?”