That was a vast expanse of Zerg eggs in assorted colors, piled layer upon layer into mountains of eggs.
Some of these eggs were already half-hatched, with Zerg struggling to break free from their shells. Others were freshly laid, still covered in sticky mucus.
Many in the team were shocked by the sight.
But Qin Sang quickly noticed the intricate and ornate magic arrays beneath the egg piles.
At the same time, Grandpa Goose in the Roasted Goose Space let out a series of honks. If it weren’t for the others around, he would have bolted out long ago.
“What is it!” Given the complexity of the situation here, Qin Sang had no idea what Grandpa Goose wanted. But she also knew he wasn’t one to cause trouble without reason. She immediately asked in a low voice.
“There’s something good beneath that array. And these eggs are also good stuff.”
Qin Sang could understand the first sentence, but the second was a bit hard to swallow. The unhatched eggs were acceptable, but the half-hatched ones were like balut—not something just anyone could stomach.
Yes, Grandpa Goose said these eggs could be cooked and eaten by humans, and they would enhance one’s physique. Spirit beasts could also eat them and gain the same effect, though the results wouldn’t be as pronounced as for humans.
With nightfall approaching, Qin Sang thought it over and quietly shared her plan with Xu Lin.
Xu Lin raised an eyebrow after hearing it and whispered back, “I’ll talk to Captain Lin. You go ahead and collect all the eggs first.”
Qin Sang nodded, moved swiftly to the egg mountains, waved her hand, and stashed all the eggs away in one go.
This action left the other team members stunned for a moment. But Xu Lin had already pulled Captain Lin aside and explained Qin Sang’s plan.
It was simple: she had told him to claim there was something abnormal beneath the array. They needed to remove the eggs and destroy the array to find out what lay underneath.
Captain Lin immediately ordered the others to stay on alert.
On Qin Sang’s end, everything went smoothly. The moment she placed all the eggs into Little Gold’s spirit beast space, she heard Little Gold cheering inside. She smiled, pulled out an energy cannon from her spatial storage, and fired two shots at the array.
This type of energy cannon made no sound when fired. However, striking the array created quite a commotion.
Fortunately, the area was already filled with the sounds of Zerg fighting and devouring each other, so the noise didn’t attract too much attention.
Seeing that everything was safe, Qin Sang put the energy cannon back into her spatial storage and looked directly at the large crater she had blasted open.
Then she heard Grandpa Goose honking again: “Quick, quick! Put that green orb into the space!”
Though full of questions, Qin Sang didn’t hesitate. She immediately stashed the orb—which was five or six times larger than a basketball—into her spatial storage. The orb was clearly a mass of energy, and she could sense an indescribable, immense power emanating from within it.
The moment the orb entered the space, the space began to tremble.
At the same time, the folded space they were in also started shaking violently. Countless Zerg began screeching and scrambling toward the entrance.
The entire team was stunned by the spectacle.
Seeing this, Qin Sang cursed Grandpa Goose inwardly but moved without hesitation, sprinting back to the team.
“Quick, we have to go too. This world might collapse.”
As if on cue, cracks began to spread across the sky of this world. In the distance, the ground started to split apart, sending clouds of dust into the air. Accompanied by the frantic flight of interstellar Zerg, it was a full-blown apocalyptic scene.
None of them fully understood what was happening, but they all knew that running was the only sensible option.
Meanwhile, Xu Lin had already transmitted everything that had occurred in the folded space back to headquarters.
Half an hour later, they made it back to the spatial passage just before the space collapsed.
At that point, the spatial passage was swarming with interstellar Zerg that had also fled from their collapsing folded spaces.
The team immediately started fighting. The battle raged on for a full day and night.
Several members of the six-person team were injured, but there were no fatalities. They were all battered and exhausted. Some began gathering spoils, while others replenished their energy.
Captain Lin turned to Qin Sang: “Alright, tell us. What exactly happened back there?”
Qin Sang replied directly: “There was an energy orb buried beneath that array.”
She didn’t hide anything and gave a rough account of the whole process.
“After I put the energy orb into my spatial storage, the folded space started to collapse.”
Upon hearing this, everyone’s faces lit up with joy.
Qin Sang knew exactly why they were happy. Everyone had been racking their brains over how to close these spatial rifts and folded spaces. Now that they had a solution—and with minimal casualties—who wouldn’t be thrilled?
“We need to get back and report everything that happened.”
And so, they returned after just three days in the field.
The method was simple: send a signal to headquarters. Once the hovercraft arrived, they boarded one by one and headed back.
Only after returning to headquarters did Qin Sang learn that they were the only reconnaissance team to have made it back so far.
“How are the others?” Qin Sang quietly asked one of the headquarters staff.
“There have been casualties, but overall it’s manageable. The folded spaces they encountered were more or less the same as yours.”
Qin Sang nodded, asked a few more questions, and then headed to the rest area to get some sleep.
As for Xu Lin, he had already taken all the equipment to the information department. He urgently extracted the key data and filed his report, then went looking for Qin Sang.
“All done!”
Qin Sang had already showered, eaten her fill, and was about to find a place to sleep. Seeing Xu Lin approach, she pulled a thermos from her spatial storage.
“It’s a clear-broth chicken soup with herbal coolings. Have some…”
Xu Lin took it with a smile, opened it, pulled out a clean spoon, and began eating.
Between bites, he asked about the green energy orb.
“The authorities will probably ask you to hand over the energy orb.”
Qin Sang was about to say, “Then I’ll hand it over.” But when she turned her attention to her spatial storage, she froze.
Nothing in the space had changed—except that in the spot where the energy water used to be, a massive golden egg, as tall as a person, had appeared out of thin air.
The gleaming golden egg stood there so conspicuously that you couldn’t miss it even if you tried.
The space had gained a giant golden egg and lost an energy orb. Qin Sang didn’t need to ask to know that the golden egg and the energy orb were definitely connected.
She quickly reached out with her mental energy to communicate with Grandpa Goose: “Grandpa Goose, is this giant golden egg that sago pudding dragon egg?”
Even though it seemed like a stretch, she could tell at a glance what had been added and what had been removed. That sago pudding dragon egg had absorbed quite a few energy cores before, growing to the size of a chicken egg. After that, it hadn’t changed much at all. Now it must have absorbed that green energy orb—how else could it have suddenly grown this huge?
Hearing Qin Sang’s question, Grandpa Goose let out a series of cackling laughs. After calming down, he said, “That’s right, it’s that dragon egg.”
Then his tone turned sycophantic: “Sang Sang, little Sang Sang. Let’s discuss something.”
Seeing him like that, Qin Sang asked with mild exasperation, “What is it?”
Grandpa Goose chuckled nervously: “It’s just… could we get two more orbs like that?”
Qin Sang rolled her eyes. One orb had already vanished entirely. Later, when the authorities asked her to produce it for research, she wouldn’t even know how to explain herself. And now Grandpa Goose wanted two more.
Did he think energy orbs were candy?
“Not a chance!”
Grandpa Goose grew anxious: “Why not? Let me tell you—every folded space has a spatial core. Large folded spaces have large cores, and small ones have small cores. Regardless of size, every spatial core contains massive amounts of energy. Give me two more spatial cores, and this golden egg will hatch!”
No wonder the Zerg eggs had been placed above the spatial core!
The interstellar Zerg were truly bizarre. On one hand, they slaughtered and devoured each other. On the other hand, they set up arrays for their eggs, using spatial core energy to incubate them.
By now, Qin Sang already had a plan in mind. But that didn’t stop her from rejecting Grandpa Goose verbally. This guy had been speaking in riddles ever since the apocalypse—always saying half of what he meant. If she didn’t make him spill some secrets properly, she wasn’t going to hand over any more spatial cores so easily.
Inside the space, Grandpa Goose circled the golden egg a few times. Sensing that Qin Sang was ignoring him, he knew exactly what she was after.
After a moment of thought, he spoke directly: “Give me two more spatial cores the size of today’s, and you’ll learn the truth about this world.”
Qin Sang: The truth about the world?
She had just wanted to know a few things she didn’t already know. She hadn’t expected Grandpa Goose to offer her the truth of the world itself.
Qin Sang had long wanted to understand what exactly was going on with this world.
So she simply said, “Deal,” and withdrew her focus.
—
“That energy orb—I can’t find it anymore.”
And that was that. She couldn’t produce the item, and there was nothing they could do about it. Besides, she had already reported everything about the eggs, the arrays, and the spatial collapse. Although the other reconnaissance teams were still inside their folded spaces, they could still receive updates from headquarters.
Qin Sang was confident that someone would soon be able to retrieve an energy orb.
Sure enough, when she said the orb was missing, someone from the authorities wanted to ask her for details. But just then, another reconnaissance team returned—and they had used the same method as Qin Sang’s team, successfully destroying a folded space.
And they brought back an energy orb.
What happened after that was beyond Qin Sang’s knowledge.
Anyway, she packed up and went back to her quarters to rest. As for hunting down more energy orbs? That would have to wait until the teams were rested and ready to deploy again.
Fortunately, the wait wasn’t long—just one day. She woke up the next morning to a notice that they were heading out again.
With the experience from last time, this operation went very smoothly. There were no fatalities, but there were injuries—just like before. The main danger came when the folded space collapsed, sending countless interstellar Zerg fleeing into the spatial passage. The team had to run alongside them, inevitably clashing with the Zerg.
This time, they encountered even more Zerg than before, so the injuries were more severe.
Even Qin Sang sustained a few minor wounds.
This time, Captain Lin was the one keeping the energy orb. So after they returned, there was nothing for Qin Sang to do. However, she realized that sticking with the team wouldn’t give her many opportunities to snag two more orbs.
After some thought, she took a leave of absence. Then she had Grandpa Goose guide her to a small spatial rift—the kind that hadn’t yet been entered by any official personnel.
Thanks to the spatial properties, they were invisible to anyone outside.
Once inside the rift, Qin Sang and Grandpa Goose got to work. Over the course of half a month, they collected a total of six small energy orbs. The spatial rifts here were small, and the spatial cores inside the folded spaces were correspondingly small. Still, with these six small orbs, it should be enough.
She kept one orb for herself and placed the remaining five beside the golden egg. The rest would be up to the egg itself.
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