God Slayer Chronicles 34 The Mysterious Egg

Seeing the sight, he felt a certain joy in his heart, knowing that this would probably be one of the last moments of peace and quiet he'd have for quite some time.

He strolled past the abandoned market stalls, where all the products had vanished, cowering from the night along with their sellers. While walking Sha Ku could hear several gentle trudges in the snow.

He knew exactly who they belonged too, they were the cultivators that had arrived with An Mo. They'd been following ever since he entered this two-bit town.

He couldn't help but chuckle, there were currently three following him to his count. One down an alleyway, while the other two were on the rooftops.

Sha Ku casually ignored them, pretending like he never detected him in the first place.

Continuing his journey to the middle of the town, he saw the old man An Tang, huddled tight next to the egg, with heavy fur blankets covering him.

Even with the extra warmth, he looked like a man who would catch his death. Sha Ku couldn't help but shake his head. He was a mortal man, being in such temperatures isn't good for him.

As Sha Ku stepped into the carriage, he immediately looked at the long string of spit that was hanging out of An Tang's mouth. It had frozen!

He looked like a walrus with only a single tusk!

Sha Ku couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

He quickly changed his gaze though, it landed on the mysterious egg that the old man had managed to acquire.

Picking it up in both hands he felt its scaly surface, it was jagged and hard, with a grey-red spiralling pattern.

Sha Ku couldn't help but stroke his chin, he'd never seen such a thing.

His first thought that the creature inside must be reptilian in nature, dragons were famous for giving birth to scaly eggs with intricate patterns.

He shook his head though; a dragon egg would radiate energy and would be extremely apparent to someone like Sha Ku.

What other lizards provided such patterns though? Sometimes large snakes… No. It wouldn't be a snake's egg, otherwise, the shell wouldn't be as hard.

Sha Ku was puzzled. It was obviously extremely old, as the outside of the shell had worn, interrupting some of the patterns.

"Perhaps… It couldn't be?" Sha Ku whispered to himself, as he looked at the patterns.

He quickly stood up, hopping outside the carriage, raising the egg high up into the air.

Suddenly the egg started to hum a little, it was a high-pitched tune that sounded like a fair maiden's singing.

Sha Ku focused carefully, listening, eventually hearing words.

"Upon the moon's grace and the stars decent. When the bodies rise, all shall fall and weep. None shall escape, from the mother's shriek."

"The skies shall call to bring our kind to new halls, where we shall reside."

Sha Ku suddenly shook, he knew this tune all too well. It was the cry of an Astral Beast!

Astral Beasts were beasts that live in wilds of space, then descend to a lunar body to hatch their young.

From birth, Astral Beasts were incredibly talented and would often create havoc wherever they laid their trail.

Unlike demonic beasts, or holy beasts they'd wouldn't have only incredibly powerful bodies, but souls as well!

Sha Ku's face lit up when he realised what it was. If he managed to obtain an Astral Beast, he could bind it to his will, allowing him to have another incredibly reliable servant!

The only question is what kind of Astral Beast it was?!

There were so many, not all of them could compare to even demonic beasts. But nonetheless, they would be incredibly valuable.

The only problem was that Astral Beasts were incredibly hard to hatch, requiring a specific amount of energy absorbed from both the starts and moon.

Sha Ku gently stroked his chin, "Hmm, I could lay down a formation. Allowing it to naturally gather energy. Even then it could take up to twenty years to come close to hatching."

He sat down in disappointment.

"Oh well, I can only try. I'll put you in here for now. I'll be able to draw up some formations at Initiate Soul realm, then you can absorb all you want!"

He placed the egg into the spatial pouch that hung on his hip.

Leaning back, with his hands behind his head he looked up to the sky, taking a deep breath and humming the Astral Beasts tune back, "Upon the moon's grace and the stars decent. When the bodies rise, all shall fall and weep. None shall escape, from the mother's shriek. The skies shall call, bring our kind to new halls, where we shall reside."

As he continued to hum, he fell into the wonderland of dreams where everything and anything was possible, he smiled, seeing old faces that had long passed.

He kept on dreaming until the morning's sun fell upon his face, gifting him sunrise's warmth. Opening his eyes and taking long yawn, he sighed, "Ahh, how I wish the dreams were true."

In a dark hollowed out room, sat An Mo, in a circle full of candles. He was cross-legged, with a smile on his face, a servant knocked on the door, "Enter." An Mo said, as he expected some feedback.

"What has the boy been up to number one?" An Mo asked, in his rumbling voice.

"The boy seems to have met a Lin Clan girl, you know from the contingent that was sent out. He also had an overwhelming emotional reaction which caused him to beat his hands bloody on an alley wall sir."

An Mo raised his sharp left eyebrow, "Not to worry Hall Master, there wasn't any permanent damage. The majority of it has seemed to already heal."

"Good. I don't want a cripple, the fact that he's already healed is a testament to his Yin-Yang blood-line. I feel the boy will perhaps become the next head of our Demonic Sword Hall." An Mo said with some confidence.

"Sir?!" Number One looked at his master with astonished eyes.

"Do you think I'd come to this place for less than magnificence? Ba! I stopped my breakthrough so that I could inspect the boy. He managed to pick up the Nine Imperium Swords with ease. That is beyond natural talent. With him at my side I may even stand a chance of becoming master of the sect." A devious smile crowned An Mo's face, as he looked at the candles on the side.

"As you know, after our recent and foolish conflict with the Hell Song Sect, our Sect Master was heavily injured and isn't longed for this world. The other hall masters are preparing for this battle, Righteous Hall, Vanquishing Hall and the bloody behemoth Element Hall. They have legions of talented disciples that could storm my Demonic Sword Hall in a night, I need this boy and I need him now." An Mo slammed the ground in fury, causing the candles to extinguish.

***

Authors thoughts:

I'm back, better than Bache... wow that's pretentious as F***. Anyway, I know I've been away for a long time. No excuses on my part, I like to run away from responsibility. I'm 'real like' Yang Fu in that way, always missing the epic battle scenes. I'm aiming to come back slowly. Three chapters a week for the first week, then back to 6+ per week (I don't think I'll produce quality pieces of work if its more than that, or do you want them like the first few chapters of GSC? HA!), so come along for the ride.

Chapter end