66: underground space

Su Ze ultimately decided to head home first.

Because the clothes on his body were now practically non-existent; if he went to school looking like this, he'd be arrested as a pervert in minutes and would probably make the headlines of the school newspaper.

Su Ze had even thought of a headline for them: "Shocking! The School's Man of the Hour is Actually This Huge!"

So, Su Ze went home first, changed his clothes, and took a shower before heading to school again.

While showering, Su Ze repeatedly washed the fist-sized, fiery-red egg in his hands, but he couldn't see any useful information.

Su Ze hadn't lied to Jiang Chen; Feng Qingyi had indeed taken a fatal blow to save him, but at the last moment, she activated her innate skill "Nirvana," which was limited to three uses.

After leaving behind a single gold-and-red tail feather, she had turned into this fist-sized egg.

Whether in appearance or size, this egg was far different from the demon beast eggs Su Ze obtained from the system.

The most critical point was that because it wasn't a system-produced demon beast egg, no information regarding hatching conditions appeared in Su Ze's eyes.

Su Ze had reason to believe that as long as he could hatch this egg, Feng Qingyi would successfully undergo Nirvana and be resurrected.

But the problem was, how was he supposed to hatch it?

"It seems I still have to go to school to find him!"

After changing his clothes, Su Ze hurried toward Beast Taming University.

Watching him, Sun Hao, who was standing outside the door, shook his head. "Truly strange. He just fought for so long, got injured, and even lost his strongest beast, yet instead of going home to recover properly, the first thing he does is head to school?"

"Are there really people in this world who love studying that much? Could this be the difference between a top student and a slacker like me?"

Sun Hao lamented, "It seems the old saying is true: top students are all forced out!"

Just then, Chen Xin, the Beast Breeding teacher who had missed her class time due to the commotion in the city and was rushing along with a majestic stride, happened to pass by.

She had also been a genuine top student during her school days, so she immediately spoke up to refute him: "You're wrong. Not all top students are forced out; I was a C-section!"

Sun Hao: "???"

“!!!”

...The school was extremely noisy. The previous Monster Calamity had already made the students uneasy, and many ordinary people from outside the school had run in to seek refuge.

The two massive explosions that followed threw them into even more of a panic, sending them scurrying in all directions.

Entering the school gate, Su Ze struggled to dodge person after person fleeing in chaos as he walked toward the breeding sheds where Lin Xi was located.

When Jiang Tianlong self-detonated, even though Feng Qingyi had taken the vast majority of the damage, the remaining force was not something a Void Spirit Turtle under level thirty could block.

At that critical moment, Su Ze's shadow had undergone another transformation.

But this time, it didn't turn into tentacles; instead, a thin, black humanoid figure floated out directly.

It looked like a black paper cutout, yet it was far tougher than paper.

That black humanoid blocked all the aftershocks of Jiang Tianlong's self-detonation. Although its body stretched continuously like an inflating balloon under the shockwave, it never tore.

Only after seeing that Su Ze was safe did the heavily injured Feng Qingyi activate her skill. A cluster of golden flames ignited from her body.

In an instant, she was burned clean, leaving nothing behind but that egg.

The black humanoid then spat out a sentence: "If you want to hatch her again, come find me."

Then it vanished completely, not returning to Su Ze's shadow.

Su Ze recognized the voice it had made at the end—it was the voice of his teacher, the old drunkard Lin Xi.

That was why Su Ze wanted to rush to the school as soon as possible.

When he walked into the breeding shed, Lin Xi was lying on his rocking chair drinking wine as usual, as if whatever happened in the outside world had nothing to do with him.

"Teacher, you..."

Before Su Ze could finish his sentence, Lin Xi interrupted him: "You brat, you're finally back. Did you forget what you promised me?"

"Get to work. Because you didn't show up, these guys have been starving for three days."

"Oh, and by the way, see if any of them are starving to the point they can't hold on. If there are, drag them out. We'll have an extra meal today."

Seeing this, Su Ze didn't rush to ask questions and patiently completed the feeding work.

Afterward, whether it was good luck or bad, Su Ze actually found a Three-Horned Goat that was starving to death.

Although it was still alive, it no longer had the strength to eat.

Lin Xi was overjoyed, shouting, "We're having roasted lamb legs today!"

He then finished off the Three-Horned Goat that Su Ze thought could still be saved.

After finishing the three days of backlogged work, Su Ze finally had a moment to breathe and asked, "Teacher, you were the one who planted those measures in my shadow, right? I hope you can tell me how to help Feng Qingyi undergo Nirvana!"

This time, Lin Xi didn't continue to deflect, but said with a smile: "Feng Qingyi... so that's the little bird's name?"

"You're in such a hurry, could it be you have some ideas? That's a bird, and... she's far from being an adult."

Su Ze decisively shook his head in denial.

Feng Qingyi's human form was indeed stunningly beautiful, but as her master, Su Ze understood the bird-like traits she displayed in her daily life very well.

So, in comparison, he was still more inclined toward the human Xu Yao, whose beauty was not inferior to Feng Qingyi's.

Most importantly, Xu Yao had a teenage physique, while Feng Qingyi had a loli physique, so in some aspects, she didn't meet Su Ze's standards.

Su Ze noticed the topic had been derailed by Lin Xi and hurriedly followed up: "Teacher, you still haven't answered my question?"

Lin Xi sighed, stood up from his rocking chair, and said, "Fine, fine. It's a blessing, not a curse; if it's fate, it can't be avoided. Come with me."

Su Ze followed behind Lin Xi into the breeding shed, where Lin Xi kicked aside a few Black-scaled Pigs that had been starving for days and were now burying their heads in the troughs, licking the feed residue clean.

"Shoo, shoo! Every one of you is getting so fat. After we finish the lamb legs, it'll be time for pig trotters next."

Su Ze watched from the side, feeling confused and unsure why Lin Xi had brought him here.

Then, he saw Lin Xi bend down, grope around for a moment, and press a button.

The feeding trough actually slid away slowly, revealing a black passage underneath.

Lin Xi said proudly, "How about it? Unexpected, right? It wasn't like this before. After people stopped going down there, I modified it a bit."

"Although it looks a bit dirty, it makes it very hard for people to suspect this place, allowing me to live peacefully for a few years."

"It was only recently that a little mouse stumbled in by mistake, but it's no matter. Come on, go down with me."

Su Ze's heart was shaken, and he had a premonition.

This time, he wouldn't just be able to solve the problem of Feng Qingyi's Nirvana; he might also learn about the research his parents were doing when they disappeared.

Down here was definitely the research site where the incident happened back then!

Su Ze followed behind Lin Xi and walked down.

There were no hidden mechanisms or secret traps like Su Ze had imagined; it looked like a perfectly ordinary underground passage.

Thinking about it, this was once a passage for researchers to go in and out of. If there were so many traps, what would happen if there was an accident?

Moreover, Lin Xi guarding the outside was the best security.

Soon, Su Ze reached the end of the passage.

His vision suddenly opened up, revealing a massive underground space!

Underground, a space the size of two or three football fields had been completely hollowed out.

After leaving the underground passage, on the other side of that underground space was a massive, pitch-black earthen wall.

On the wall, the skeleton of a golden dragon stretched across it!