Chapter 16: The Unknown Egg

Looking at the space ring in Cano's hand, King Mercedes VII couldn't help but chuckle.

"Our Viscount Xie doesn't seem as uncouth as he appears!" King Mercedes VII clapped his hands, and the officials standing beside him immediately bowed in anticipation.

"Take Viscount Aston downstairs and fetch another one hundred thousand gold coins as a reward for Viscount Xie. Hmm, and also bestow upon him the newly acquired 'unknown egg.'"

Cano, dazed, was led away by the internal affairs official to retrieve the reward. As he walked, he muttered to himself, "The king really granted it! Viscount Xie is truly extraordinary!"

Returning to Viscount Xie's mansion with the reward, Cano was still in a daze.

In just a few short hours, Viscount Xie had earned two hundred thousand gold coins!

Such speed! Who could compare? And with the space ring and this "unknown egg" on top of it!

"What's an unknown egg?"

While Viscount Xie had anticipated the king's reward and wasn't particularly surprised, the basketball-sized, sky-blue egg in front of him piqued his curiosity.

Cano, with envy in his eyes, explained the concept of the unknown egg to Viscount Xie.

Summoners on the continent of the gods typically formed contracts with magical creatures that lived on the continent, forming alliances or master-slave agreements, and adhering to the terms of the agreement. It was the mainstream way for summoners to obtain magical pets. However, powerful magical creatures were difficult to tame and would, at most, form alliance contracts. Breaking these contracts was possible, though not easy. Despite this, contract relationships were still the most common way for summoners to acquire magical pets.

The third method, and one desired by truly powerful summoners, was having a "soul beast." Obtaining a soul beast meant sharing life with it. Soul beasts often had lifespans of five hundred to a thousand years, or even longer. This alone made them highly sought after by summoners. Additionally, summoners could directly share skills with their soul beasts. Once they entered battle, controlling a soul beast was much easier compared to contract creatures. Many skills and techniques that required learning and honing between summoners and contract creatures were readily available with soul beasts as soon as they reached a certain level of growth.

In short, a soul beast was a summoner's most powerful weapon!

But how did one obtain a soul beast?

This required a magical creature egg!

By possessing a magical creature egg and incubating it with blood every day for forty-nine days, once the egg hatched, a soul contract could be formed with the creature that emerged, making it the summoner's soul beast!

In summary, the first step was to obtain a magical creature egg!

However, magical creatures were difficult to capture, and magical creature eggs were even rarer!

After a magical creature lays an egg, it will always have another magical creature guarding it. During this period, the guarding magical creature's strength will increase by one tier! For example, if a magical creature is of the third tier, its strength will advance to the fourth tier while guarding the egg!

Therefore, obtaining a magical creature egg is as difficult as reaching the sky!

Most importantly, summoners can have multiple magical pets based on their own strength, but they can only have one soul beast! Additionally, a magical creature's advancement is not unlimited; it can only advance up to the fifth tier!

As a result, magical creature eggs suitable for soul beasts are extremely valuable! The value of a fifth-tier magical creature egg is at least five hundred thousand gold coins or more! Even fifth-tier or lower magical creature eggs, which are not in high demand, can fetch around one hundred thousand gold coins each! As for magical creature eggs of the fifth tier and above, each one is worth a fortune! However, there are very few available for sale, almost none!

Among magical creature eggs, the most elusive are the "unknown eggs"!

Summoners, the most powerful profession on the continent of the gods, have conducted extensive research on magical creatures. However, due to the vast variety of magical creatures, some remain unknown to people. Eggs with soul fluctuations above the fifth tier that cannot be identified are called unknown eggs!

In simple terms, an unknown egg is one where the type of magical creature inside cannot be determined, and the hatched magical creature must be above the fifth tier!

Just being above the fifth tier implies that the value of the unknown egg in front of Xie lies above five hundred thousand gold coins! Additionally, being above the fifth tier is only a vague concept. Magicians who identify the tier of magical creature eggs can only determine that the egg is above the fifth tier; they cannot accurately determine whether it is fifth tier, sixth tier, seventh tier, or even eighth tier!

Therefore, the true value of an unknown egg is actually above fifty million gold coins! Almost no one can afford to buy it! Of course, almost no one would even consider selling it!

"Praise be to King Mercedes VII!"

Xie finally stopped cursing King Mercedes VII for being stingy. Obviously, the emperor's generosity was far greater than that of the Prime Minister!

"My lord, the fact that His Majesty has given you this item shows how much he values you! Will you use it as your soul beast?" In fact, Cano had been unable to understand why King Mercedes VII would give Xie such a valuable gift! Even though Xie was a viscount and the heir of the Lamborghini family, it was impossible for King Mercedes VII to casually gift something worth fifty million gold coins! Such a gift was something even Duke Reinhardt might not be fortunate enough to receive!

Xie understood Mercedes VII's actions perfectly well. This gesture was simply a move to buy Xie's loyalty and stability. In Mercedes VII's eyes, as long as Xie served the country, what did an unknown egg matter? The benefits brought by a divine summoner were far beyond what a mere egg could compare to! Moreover, if Xie sincerely served the Tudor Dynasty, then this unknown egg would become Xie's soul beast. In the future, wouldn't it be the Tudor Dynasty's soul beast as well? Furthermore, being the soul beast of a divine summoner would make it easier to level up!

It was labeled as a reward, but in reality, Mercedes VII's investment had an astonishingly high return rate!

Unfortunately, Mercedes VII overlooked one thing!

"Hehe, let's put it aside for now!" After learning about the value of the unknown egg, Xie's first thought was to sell it! What he needed was to find a buyer who could afford it!

This was the point that Mercedes VII didn't consider — Xie was a vampire!

For Xie, life had no natural end! And Xie believed that once his vampire level advanced to a higher tier, he would definitely not be inferior to these summoners! He didn't need a soul beast to increase his lifespan or enhance his strength! Therefore, the unknown egg was actually unnecessary for Xie himself!

So, Mercedes VII would never have thought that Xie's plan was to sell the unknown egg! If he knew, he would probably cough up a liter of blood!

"Oh, by the way, I haven't thanked my brother, Duke Reinhardt, yet! Everyone go to sleep first, and we'll go see Duke Reinhardt tomorrow!"

In the suburbs north of the imperial capital.

Upon hearing from Cano that Duke Reinhardt was already preparing to move to Rose City, Xie hurriedly got up early in the morning and called Cano to visit Duke Reinhardt together.

Duke Reinhardt was still the same, with his towering height of two and a half meters, giving off an undeniable sense of pressure. When they met, Duke Reinhardt gave Xie and Cano a warm hug, completely disregarding their status. This action indicated that Duke Reinhardt was not only in a good mood but also extremely proud of himself!

Of course, being a duke of the kingdom, lord of three cities, and possessing a ninth-tier magical pet, all of this meant that Duke Reinhardt would play a significant role in the Tudor Dynasty. How could he not be proud?

As for his magical pet, Landorf, Duke Reinhardt had always kept it hidden in his magical pet space, seemingly intentionally concealing news of Landorf's advancement.

In fact, magical pets are generally not kept in the magical pet space because doing so would essentially put the magical pet into a dormant state. Regular contract magical pets, apart from servant contracts, are generally reluctant to enter the magical pet space. As for soul beasts, they share a bond with their masters akin to brothers and would also not be kept in the magical pet space.

For example, the three thousand soldiers before them each had a magical pet by their side!

This area north of the imperial capital was originally where Duke Reinhardt's three thousand retinue troops were stationed. Now, these three thousand troops were lined up in formation. They were already prepared to move, and if Xie had arrived just one hour later, he probably wouldn't have seen Duke Reinhardt.

Looking at these three thousand neatly lined-up troops, Xie's eyes constantly shifted between affection and hunger!

Xie's affection stemmed from the fact that each of the three thousand soldiers had a little lion squatting beside them. These lions varied in size, with some as tall as half a meter, while others were as small as twenty centimeters, resembling little cats. The smaller the lion, the cuter it appeared, mainly due to its eyes, which seemed bigger the smaller the lion was, making them appear even more watery and adorable!

Xie, who couldn't resist cute little animals, couldn't help but want to go over and hug one. Fortunately, he had been bitten by Landorf before, which restrained Xie's impulse.

As for the hunger, these three thousand people in Xie's eyes were undoubtedly energy-filled blood banks! As a low-level vampire, Xie had only tasted blood and hadn't directly sucked blood yet. Otherwise, he feared he would have pounced on them directly.

"Hehe, my brother, have you heard of an effective treatment method?" Xie began his blood-gathering plan.

Duke Reinhardt smiled. He was aware of Xie's future position in the Tudor Dynasty and therefore regarded Xie as a brother. "My brother, what treatment method? Who needs treatment? If it's you, brother, you must be especially careful. It's safer to report this directly to His Majesty."

Xie nodded and said, "There's no need to report to His Majesty. I just got hold of a treatment method that can use blood to treat people's weakness and replenish their vitality."

"Darker Summoner!" Duke Reinhardt's expression turned serious. "My brother, where did you get this method? Darker Summoners are not to be trifled with. Once involved, there is a high chance of mortal danger! No, I'll send someone to report to His Majesty immediately!"

"No, no, no, it's not a Darker Summoner." Xie had heard Cano briefly mention Darker Summoners, describing them as powerful summoners who had gone astray and practiced cruel and murderous spells. The specifics were unclear to Xie because Darker Summoners had all but disappeared, but each appearance of a Darker Summoner could lead to bloodshed and chaos, which was why Duke Reinhardt was so concerned.

And it was precisely because he was afraid of being misunderstood that Xie didn't speak directly.

"This method is a folk remedy from my hometown. I was weak and sickly since I was young, and all kinds of methods couldn't cure me. I was almost dying of illness. Later, my parents prayed for divine blessings, and in a dream, they got this method, which gradually improved my health. You see, I still don't have any magic or aura until now because my body is too weak. And if I don't treat it regularly, I'm afraid the old illness will relapse!" Xie looked at Duke Reinhardt with a helpless and desolate expression, as if he had been tormented by illness for a long time.

As for bringing up "parents" and adding "divine blessings," it was just to make Duke Reinhardt believe. It was a lie, but in the future, Xie wouldn't need to worry too much about drinking blood.

Duke Reinhardt nodded. He was indeed puzzled why Xie didn't have any magical or aura fluctuations. It turned out to be due to illness. "Since it's a divine miracle, it has nothing to do with Darker Summoners. My brother, how can I help you?"