Fifty-three inert Six-Horned Dragon eggs — a discovery that managed to be both a windfall and a disappointment simultaneously.

The shells were extraordinarily dense. Shen Cong loaded one into a Jiao-hide carry pack, grabbed the cable, and climbed back up.

Below him, the underground river continued its quiet flow through the dark — arriving from somewhere unknown, heading somewhere equally unknown, carrying whatever secrets it had accumulated over however long it had run beneath the hills. None of that was his concern. He wanted to get back up, load the eggs, and move.

The eggs were enormous. One per adult human in height, and correspondingly heavy.

He stood beside the crevice and did the math with some frustration. He wasn't willing to leave them — the Activity content alone made them extraordinary — but Great Vajra had hard limits. Twenty eggs was already pushing it; beyond that they'd block the corridor and cover firing positions, degrading the overall defensive configuration.

Stack them on the roof. The shells are dense enough to survive the trip — from Guiwu Town to the Xuyi County camp is six or seven kilometers. As long as that eagle doesn't appear, it should be manageable.

The relationship with the Eastern Theater Command remained delicate, but the camp's outer environs were probably safe.

And once I bring the Six-Horned Dragon's carcass in, the Command will have to reconsider what category I belong in. Reel me in or keep me at arm's length. Conciliate or attempt control. This changes the calculation.

Solo killing a Beyond-Three-Star jin beast — one with half a foot already in the Super-Heavyweight tier by any reasonable assessment, certainly at the apex of the Heavyweight category — had done something to Shen Cong's sense of his own position that he was still processing.

The fishing rig had been a tool. It pulled the Six-Horned Dragon out of the crevice and held its head in place for one minute. That was everything it contributed.

What actually killed the Six-Horned Dragon was the attack he'd delivered in those seconds — the accumulated force, the timing, the…