73: Chapter 73 Phoenix Egg

Looking at the giant oval egg floating in the golden flames before them, radiating astonishing heat, Lin Muyang and the four young ladies all fell into a brief silence.

The expected fifth companion had not appeared; in its place was a mysterious egg?

Lin Muyang was the first to react. He steadied himself and, braving the scorching heat waves rushing toward him, cautiously approached.

However, even from a distance, the high temperature already made his skin sting, and his breath became scalding.

"The temperature is too high," he whispered. With a flick of his mind, an invisible barrier expanded from him as the center. The uncomfortable scorching sensation vanished instantly, and the surroundings returned to normal temperature, with only the distortion of the air around the egg visible to the eye.

He was able to approach smoothly and carefully examined the giant gold-red egg. The patterns on the eggshell were naturally formed into mysterious designs, with faint streams of light rotating within them. When he focused his mind to perceive it, a stream of relevant information flooded his consciousness:

【Phoenix Heavenly Maiden: Unhatched state】

【Hatching condition: Continuously kept in a high-temperature environment of no less than 1200 degrees Celsius.】

【Estimated hatching time: 7 days.】

"Phoenix... Heavenly Maiden?" A trace of surprise flashed in Lin Muyang's eyes. "So it's a phoenix egg! It needs a week of continuous extreme high temperature to hatch?"

This condition was indeed harsh. 1200 degrees Celsius was enough to melt most metals; such a continuously stable natural high-temperature environment simply couldn't be found in ordinary places, and it was very difficult for artificial equipment to maintain that for so long in the wild.

However, this was not unsolvable for Lin Muyang. He happened to possess a God-Tier Aura named 【Blazing Domain】. Once activated, it could freely regulate and maintain the temperature within a vast range, with an extremely high upper limit. Moreover, as the Aura controller, he himself was completely immune to high temperatures and conventional fire damage, effectively possessing top-tier fire resistance, or even fire element immunity.

The temperature issue was solved, but the location had become a new problem.

"I can't hatch it at home..." Lin Muyang looked around the exquisitely decorated villa living room. Let alone 1200 degrees, even a few hundred degrees for a week would be enough to start a fire, reducing the entire house and even the residential area to ashes. He had to find a location that was sufficiently open, safe, and hidden.

The wild seemed like an option, but nowadays, although the population density on Blue Star's land had decreased due to the threat of monsters, it was not an uninhabited area. The patrols of the Xia Kingdom, other Class Transferees, and even the detection methods of certain factions could all potentially discover an abnormally high-temperature area.

Once this unprecedented phoenix egg was exposed, heaven knows how much attention and trouble it would attract. What Lin Muyang least wanted was to be disturbed during the hatching period or to expose this trump card too early.

What he needed was an environment that was absolutely quiet, isolated from the world, and capable of withstanding high temperatures.

His thoughts turned rapidly, and one location leapt into his mind—the depths of the ocean, especially near submarine volcanoes.

The current Blue Star oceans covered an area far exceeding the land, and due to the extremely complex environment and rampant monsters, they had long since become a forbidden zone for humans. Only top-tier powerhouses above level 100, relying on superior attributes and special means, dared to occasionally venture into deep-sea areas to search for rare resources or challenge special Dungeons, but even then, the risks were extremely high, and they would not stay long easily.

In the depths of the ocean, especially active submarine volcanic belts, there were already natural high-temperature areas. Activating 【Blazing Domain】 to increase the temperature there would make the resulting temperature changes relatively harder for the outside world to detect.

More importantly, the deep-sea pressure was immense, and it was dark and lightless. While powerful ocean monsters were indeed terrifying, they followed the most primitive law of the jungle, unlike human society which was full of schemes and entanglements. For Lin Muyang, who could turn invisible and possessed various adaptation Auras, the deep-sea environment might actually be safer than some corners of the land.

"Near a submarine volcano... the high temperature has an excuse, and the numerous monsters can just be used to level up Lilia and Elabess's new skills, while also continuously gaining source experience. As long as I carefully avoid those overly terrifying deep-sea overlords, staying for seven days shouldn't be a problem." The more Lin Muyang thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. He possessed practical Auras like 【Underwater Breathing】 and 【Pressure Adaptation】, which were enough to solve the basic problems of deep-sea survival.

"That's settled. First, clear the epic Dungeon, then take the egg to the seabed."

He briefly informed the young ladies of the plan. Lilia was full of curiosity about the "phoenix," Elabess thought a deep-sea adventure sounded interesting, Ao Qingyue was as calm as ever, and Elena had already started thinking about how to prepare food for everyone on the seabed—the new skill she had just unlocked would come in handy.

The summoning ritual ended, and Lin Muyang carefully transferred the phoenix egg, which was still radiating residual heat, to the specially reinforced underground storage room of the villa for temporary storage. This egg seemed capable of restraining most of its heat on its own; unless actively triggered, it would only maintain a gentle warmth and would not cause any damage.

For the following time, Lin Muyang took the young ladies to find some low-difficulty four-person Dungeons around Zhongnan City. The goal was not experience or equipment, but to let Lilia's newly learned 【Impenetrable Fortress】 (Source) and Elabess's newly mastered 【Shadow Erosion】 (Source) gain experience quickly and level up.

The process of clearing mobs was relaxed and enjoyable. Lilia continuously released a pale golden protective halo. Under the shroud of the halo, the team members' defense was significantly increased, and with the killing of monsters, the skill experience grew steadily. Elabess's 【Shadow Erosion】 was like gangrene attached to the bone; black energy entangled the target, continuously dealing considerable shadow damage, and its proficiency was also rapidly increasing.

Meanwhile, Elabess's 【Black Hole Vortex】 and Ao Qingyue's 【Peerless Sword Formation】, after days of high-frequency use, finally broke through the Lv20 threshold and successfully activated their special effects!

【Black Hole Vortex Lv20】: Additionally gains the "Ignore Magic Immunity" trait; any magic immunity effect will be rendered ineffective in the face of this vortex's devouring power.

【Peerless Sword Formation Lv20】: Additionally gains the "High Armor Penetration" trait, capable of significantly reducing the target's physical defense.

These two special effects were undoubtedly a huge boost for dealing with high-level monsters, especially epic-grade monsters that might possess special resistances.

When the day's "skill training" ended, Lin Muyang's level, under the 20x experience bonus, naturally rose to level 43. Elena's level caught up synchronously, also reaching level 43. And she had once again unlocked two brand-new class skills:

【Skill 6: Angelic Delicacies】. Condensing pure holy light energy and combining it with one's intent, it creates various gourmet dishes that are excellent in color, aroma, and taste out of thin air. After consumption, it can quickly restore satiety and energy, and has a high probability of randomly granting a buff status (such as Attack Up, Defense Up, Speed Up, Health Recovery, etc.).

【Skill 7: Maid's Protection】. Passive skill. When Elena is in a party state, her angelic power forms an invisible protective barrier, making all teammates immune to all types of mental negative statuses such as mental control, hallucinations, charm, and fear.

"This is so timely!" Lin Muyang couldn't help but exclaim. 【Angelic Delicacies】 perfectly solved the food problem for long-term deep-sea lurking, and the additional random buffs were like icing on the cake. Dinner just now was Elena's handiwork; it tasted excellent and gave everyone several buffs.

【Maid's Protection】 was even more of a strategic-level skill. Although Lin Muyang had an Aura with similar functions, this passive skill allowed him to save a precious Aura slot to activate other more needed effects, and it provided a double insurance, eliminating the possibility of being ambushed and controlled by mental-type abilities.

Everything was ready.

"Let's go. Destination: the epic Dungeon outside Huangque City." Lin Muyang gave the order.

The four young ladies followed closely behind. Lin Muyang activated 【Supersonic Flight】 and various other boosting Auras. Their figures turned into a stream of light difficult for the naked eye to capture, piercing through the clouds and speeding toward the south at a terrifying speed several times the speed of sound. A distance of over two thousand kilometers was, before him now, but a short twenty-minute journey.

... At the same time, over a hundred kilometers outside Huangque City.

The sky was turning towards evening, and the afterglow of the setting sun plated the desolate Dungeon area with a layer of blood color. In the center of an area sealed off by a powerful magic barrier, a vortex, larger than other Dungeon entrances and ominous blood-red throughout, was slowly rotating, emitting a heart-palpitating epic-grade energy fluctuation.

This was the entrance to that 45-level, 13-person scale epic-grade team Dungeon—the "Scarlet Altar."

Outside the barrier, there were still many Class Transferees watching and discussing from a distance, guessing when that legendary solo clearing genius would arrive.

However, what they didn't know was that inside the barrier, five people holding special temporary passes had already trespassed into that blood-red vortex.

It was that genius squad led by the SS-rank Sharpshooter Wang Jie.

Their idea was not to clear it—that was tantamount to a fantasy for them. They were holding onto a fluke mentality, wanting to see if they could join forces to deal with one or two straggling epic-grade mobs in the fringe areas of the Dungeon. epic-grade monsters, even mobs, had a very low probability of dropping rare items that surpassed the King-grade. Even if it was just one piece, it would be enough to make this adventure of theirs a huge profit.

But they had severely underestimated the difficulty of the epic-grade team Dungeon.

Just in the first open area after entering the Dungeon, two wandering "Bone Giant Axemen," clad in heavy bone armor with scarlet soul fire leaping in their eyes, plunged them into a bitter battle.

Wang Jie's bullets sparked when they hit the bone armor, but it was difficult to cause fatal damage; the Magic Shield Warrior's shield trembled violently under the hacking of the giant axes, and their health line was unstable; the Light Priest was under immense healing pressure; the other two damage dealers felt as if they were just scratching the surface.

"Damn it! This defense and HP... it's completely immovable!" Wang Jie's face turned pale. His proud critical damage seemed so powerless here.

"Retreat! Retreat quickly! We can't fight this!" The Magic Shield Warrior roared; cracks had already appeared on their shield.

The five-person squad retreated toward the entrance in a sorry state, their hearts filled with frustration and lingering fear. They couldn't even quickly deal with the two mobs on the outermost periphery, let alone the more terrifying existences deep inside. Only now did they truly realize why this Dungeon was evaluated as requiring at least ten geniuses of the same level to challenge.

And what they didn't know was that shortly after they hurriedly exited the Dungeon, an invisible figure had already crossed the vast distance and quietly descended outside this area covered by the barrier.

Lin Muyang had arrived.