Chapter 0001: Breaking Out of the Shell

Bewilderment, darkness, oppression, confinement, narrowness—these were the first sensations Ye Tianrui experienced upon regaining consciousness. He felt like he was squeezed into a can filled with liquid.

 

Indeed, Ye Tianrui couldn't breathe any air right now; he was enveloped in a viscous liquid. Initially, he felt a sense of panic upon realizing this, but then he discovered that the lack of air seemed to have no effect on him.

 

The slightly viscous liquid didn't make Ye Tianrui feel uncomfortable at all; on the contrary, being immersed in it felt as comfortable as soaking in a hot spring.

 

What made Ye Tianrui uncomfortable was the darkness and the narrow, cramped space in front of him. His body couldn't stretch out; he could only curl up like an unborn baby.

 

An unborn baby!

 

Ye Tianrui froze for a moment, and in an instant, he remembered what had happened before regaining consciousness, coupled with his current situation of being immersed in some unknown liquid and not needing to breathe.

 

"I'm probably... dead! Died trying to be a hero," Ye Tianrui thought somewhat sadly, but he wasn't particularly upset about his death.

 

Because "I'm reborn!" Ye Tianrui thought gleefully. He had been given another chance at life, starting a new journey with memories from his past life.

 

"I can still be a child prodigy, a top student, and then, with excellent grades, I can flirt with the pretty girls at school..." Ye Tianrui fantasized happily about his life after birth.

 

"Wait, to flirt with girls, I need to have the right body." Ye Tianrui thought sleazily, then struggled to move his tiny hands to confirm his gender between his legs.

 

"Good, I'm equipped," he felt around and felt more joyful. After all, with this reincarnation, there was a fifty-fifty chance he could become a girl. He couldn't accept turning from a straight guy in his past life to a girl.

 

As Ye Tianrui confirmed his male characteristics, his little hand accidentally touched a long whip-like object.

 

"What is this?" Ye Tianrui started to panic. The feeling in his hand and the sensation in his body all indicated that it was part of him.

 

"Why the hell are there scales?" Ye Tianrui panicked even more as his short little hand repeatedly touched the long, slender object growing behind his buttocks.

 

Then, with great reluctance and helplessness, Ye Tianrui admitted, "This is my tail."

 

"I'm reborn, but I've turned into a freak with a tail. I'm no longer human," Ye Tianrui began to feel despondent, and the scales on his tail shattered his last bit of hope.

 

If there were no scales, he could delude himself into thinking his body was experiencing atavism. But no matter how humans atavize, scales wouldn't grow on their bodies, at least not in normal circumstances.

 

"What have I become?" This was Ye Tianrui's current confusion. He struggled to control his body in the cramped space to see if there were any other extra parts, trying to confirm his identity.

 

Then, his small hand touched his back, just below his shoulder blades. "I also have a pair of wings," this time, Ye Tianrui accepted the fact of having wings on his back without any emotional fluctuation.

 

Since he was no longer human, he could accept whatever his body presented. Moreover, even if he didn't accept it, what could he do? Commit suicide to see if he could be reborn again?

 

Ye Tianrui wasn't that foolish. Only those who had died once knew the value of life. It's better to be alive than to die; he always found that statement reasonable.

 

"I have hands and feet, definitely a humanoid creature. So, what have I become?" Ye Tianrui was very puzzled; he couldn't recall any creature that matched his current form.

 

"The only thing I can be sure of is that I'm definitely not on Earth anymore. A humanoid creature with wings and a tail can only be a mythical creature," Ye Tianrui pondered to himself.

 

His mood turned sour again. He had just fantasized about the next twenty years of his life after birth, being a child prodigy, a top student, and winning over beautiful women to reach the pinnacle of life.

 

Now, everything he had imagined had turned into a dream. There was no longer any possibility of realization because he was no longer human, and he wasn't even in the world he was familiar with.

 

Ye Tianrui's fleshy palm touched the shell that restrained his body's movement. There was no soft sensation he expected; instead, it felt hard like metal, slightly arched.

 

"Not the uterine wall," Ye Tianrui sighed disappointedly, blowing out a few bubbles.

 

"This is an eggshell. I'm not a viviparous creature but an oviparous one," Ye Tianrui was confused. What had he become after reincarnation? Humanoid creatures should be viviparous, right? Why was he not in a humanoid creature's womb but in a hard eggshell instead?

 

"Hey!" When Ye Tianrui realized he was inside an egg, the desire to break out surged in his brain. His hands, feet, wings, and tail all exerted force, wanting to break through the shell that restrained him.

 

"Not enough power! It's not time for birth yet." When Ye Tianrui couldn't even shake the hard shell that bound his body with all his strength, he realized his body's development was not enough.

 

"Tired, sleepy, let's take a nap first and try again later!" Ye Tianrui yawned and began to feel drowsy. The intense mental activity and the effort to break the shell drained his energy, so he fell into a deep sleep.

 

Ye Tianrui's attempt to break the shell failed; it didn't even leave a crack. However, his actions had stirred his long-dormant egg, attracting the attention of the golden beast guarding beside it.

 

The beast raised its slender neck, and on the head covered with golden scales, its dark golden vertical pupils opened, staring at the motionless egg.

 

"My child, are you finally going to be born? I've been waiting for a long time," the enormous yet majestic beast spoke in a gentle and warm female voice.

 

If one only listened to the voice, they would think of a noble and gentle aristocratic lady, completely unable to associate it with the terrifying golden beast emitting an aura of terror.

 

Of course, Ye Tianrui, who had fallen asleep, had no idea that his "mother" had been guarding beside his egg, waiting for him to break out of it.

 

... In a daze, Ye Tianrui woke up again. Before him was the same darkness as before. During this sleep, his body had grown a circle, and the space inside the eggshell became narrower, tightly binding his body.

 

He could barely move now; his body had grown to the extent that it was time for him to break out of the shell.

 

"I have to do it in one go. Although the shell is unusually tough, it should be within the range I can break through." Ye Tianrui habitually took a deep breath but instead filled his lungs with egg fluid, blocking his nasal passages. He tugged at the corners of his mouth, no longer hesitating. He used his familiar limbs to exert force, along with his wings and tail.

 

It was better to concentrate his strength using the limbs he had used for fifteen years than using unfamiliar ones.

 

"Ugh!!!" Ye Tianrui's limbs pressed against the eggshell, and as he exerted force, his fleshy body, with muscles slightly bulging, showed a beautiful sense of power.

 

With neatly arranged white teeth clenched, Ye Tianrui felt as if he had used all the strength he had gained in his past life. However, the eggshell remained as intact as ever, showing no signs of breaking.

 

As Ye Tianrui continued to exert force, he gradually felt a sense of powerlessness. He was getting tired, but he kept pushing, unwilling to give up.

 

He didn't know what consequences failing to break the shell this time would bring, but he knew his body had grown to the limit the egg could contain. And he remembered the documentaries he had watched; no matter which kind of egg-laying creature hatched, there was never a hundred percent hatching rate. There were always some dead eggs, and some of them were the failed ones that couldn't break out of the shell. If they couldn't break the shell, they could only die.

 

"Life or death, two choices," Ye Tianrui growled in frustration. "I'm reborn; it's not to experience life inside an egg."

 

Perhaps it was because of Ye Tianrui's anger, or perhaps because of his persistence. "Crack!" A crisp sound, like heavenly music, echoed in Ye Tianrui's ears, and the eggshell broke.

 

Under the gaze of four dark golden and two dazzling golden eyes, the pale golden egg began to shake. Soon, a fine crack appeared on the eggshell. Then, the crack began to spread and split, quickly covering the entire golden egg.

 

A "small" figure emerged from the broken eggshell, covered in transparent egg fluid. If you ignored the slightly fleshy, chubby body of the "small" baby, the drooping pale golden scales on its body, the golden tail on its buttocks, and the small horns stretching backward between the wet black hair on its head, then this baby who had just arrived in the world was no different from an ordinary human baby.

 

"Not bad," looking at this unusual baby standing beside the golden beast, the black-haired "man" with golden eyes smiled brilliantly.

 

"Well, it's quite good. This appearance should perfectly combine your and my bloodlines," the golden beast showed its snow-white teeth and spoke in a gentle, melodious voice, creating a striking contrast with its terrifying aura.

 

Ye Tianrui lay on a blue-purple crystal with a sunken middle. Broken golden eggshells surrounded him, and the sticky egg fluid kept dripping from his body.

 

He raised his head blankly and met the gaze of the golden beast that looked at him tenderly. Then, his gaze moved vacantly to the "man" with black hair and golden eyes standing beside the beast. The man's height and size were no less than the massive beast beside him.