Shen Cong had never seen eggs so large. Each was very nearly the size of a room, the shell rough and mottled with dark brown blotches. Their Talent was not stable yet, but he could feel it — the smallest already stood at about 3.5H, the largest at about 3.8H.

"Three super-grade jin beast eggs, direct offspring of the Cangzhou Divine Eagle, flying jin beasts. What a prize." Shen Cong climbed the great poplar and laid his hand on them, happy with the harvest.

He had wanted the sky for a long time.

When Antgod had carried him up into the air, the joy of it had been beyond anything. Now here was a chance at a flying battle-pet, and a high-Talent one at that. The delight was past putting into words.

"Take the eggs now, and form the Mind-Imprint as they hatch… Three eggs. Handled well, one of them should come out a divine eagle. Grow it on, feed it Firestarter fragments and fire-spirit medium, and an ultimate-grade jin beast is well within reach."

He called the four-legged dragon over to carry them down.

The weasel came running, wanting to eat them, and Shen Cong drove it straight off. It had put no effort into the fight, and now it wanted a share of the best spoils. It could dream on.

For the time being the eggs went into an "incubation room," newly extruded at the back end of the Vajra Fortress's compartment. He scattered some Firestarter fragment powder inside it, and some metal scrap. Corroding metal gives off heat, which was just right for hatching them, and the Firestarter grains escaping into the room would raise the eggs' Talent besides.

The eggs seen to.

Shen Cong then cut off the Cangzhou Divine Eagle's jin-core beak. It was enormous. He cut away the sharpest part and kept it for making a weapon. The rest he threw to the Vajra-Ant larvae in the nest.

Vajra-Ant larvae like eating jin cores. Shen Cong had never known why before.

Thinking about it now, the larvae could draw the Firestarter grains out of…