Heaps of excrement were piled around the cave entrance, giving off a foul stench.

And this excrement had become the nest for a colony of ants.

Now that they had dragged back a large body, the ant colony couldn’t fit him into the nest and could only toss him into the excrement for now.

SPLAT—

An incomparably handsome face was shoved right into the dung.

Song Wanning almost laughed out loud. ’So, even an ordeal like this was part of Bai Yang’s legendary good fortune.’

She pinched her nose in disgust. ’If he didn’t have his Cultivation, Bai Yang would probably be the first person in history to drown in feces, wouldn’t he?’

Her gaze went past the excrement, landing on the cave behind it.

For some unknown reason, though a cave was clearly available, the ants had made their home at the entrance, building their nest from excrement...

This was neither common nor logical.

A glint appeared in Song Wanning’s eyes as she grew suspicious of the cave.

’If something was forcing the ant colony to nest here to conceal what lay within, then everything would make sense.’

’Could the divine beast be in the cave?’

Her mind made up, she decided to go inside and investigate.

Masking her aura, Song Wanning flashed into the cave.

The ant colony suddenly grew agitated, as if it had sensed something.

Forgetting all about their new food, they swarmed toward the cave, one wave after another.

But once they reached the mouth of the cave, they dared not crawl any further, and could only mill about anxiously at the entrance.

The dense swarms of ants scurried back and forth in formation. A single glance would be enough to kill anyone with trypophobia on the spot.

Song Wanning gave them an indifferent glance, becoming even more certain that something was wrong with this place.

She was inside the cave now.

The cave was incredibly damp and overgrown with dense weeds.

But in stark contrast to the outside, there was no excrement at all; even the stench couldn’t seem to penetrate this far.

Skirting a stone pillar up ahead, Song Wanning saw a narrow passage and continued along it...

After walking for about ten minutes, she stopped at a bend upon seeing a familiar symbol.

’This is a restraining ward from the Heavenly God Tomb...’

In her past life, while she was constantly on the run, she would always run into Ye Chuxue and her group.

Whether in a Secret Realm, a place of inheritance, or even where a brand-new treasure had just been unearthed, she would bump into them.

By then, the power of the hero and heroine had already skyrocketed. In just thirty short years, their Cultivation had surpassed what she had achieved in a century of painstaking effort.

She was like a joke, constantly trying to claim treasures, only for them to end up in someone else’s hands every single time!

Back then, Song Wanning hadn’t understood why. Only after her death did she realize she was just Ye Chuxue’s control group.

No matter how hard she tried, she was just a tool used to make Ye Chuxue look better.

The Heavenly God Tomb was a land of inheritance that had manifested later on, containing the graves of the Heavenly Gods from the primordial era.

The records stated that during the primordial era, a Great Demon had sought to destroy the world.

The Great Demon’s Mana was immense, and to save the world, the Heavenly Gods battled it for three hundred rounds...

In the end, the Heavenly Gods fell one by one and were buried in the Heavenly God Tomb.

In her past life, it was in the Heavenly God Tomb that Ye Chuxue earned the recognition of a Heavenly God and obtained an inheritance.

And she had seen this very symbol in the Heavenly God Tomb before.

Song Wanning’s expression turned grim. ’Is this place connected to the Heavenly God Tomb?’

She silently drew her Longsword, her steps growing even more cautious.

Just as she was about to investigate, a patch of grass not far away suddenly twitched.

She immediately went on alert. A sweep of her Divine Sense revealed, to her surprise, an egg in the grass.

It was a perfectly ordinary, unremarkable-looking egg.

Ordinarily, if such an egg appeared before her, Song Wanning would have ignored it after a single glance.

But at this moment, for this egg to be here... it was incredibly suspicious.

Even though it exuded the aura of an ordinary demon beast, she remained deeply suspicious.

Song Wanning retrieved the object from afar, pulling the egg directly into her hand.

The egg was only about the size of a fist. The little thing inside was still alive; its heartbeat was clearly audible.

Her eyes shifted. She tried to probe the eggshell with her Divine Sense, only to find a barrier blocking her inspection.

’Interesting.’ Song Wanning lifted the egg and began to examine it closely.

"Sister, Divine Beast Eggs often disguise themselves as ordinary eggs in their youth to avoid danger, so they won’t be targeted by others before they hatch."

The Golden Small Sword bobbed up and down excitedly. This was definitely the divine beast she was looking for.

"This egg is indeed very suspicious."

Song Wanning raised an eyebrow. The entrance was covered in foul-smelling droppings, and the cave’s interior looked utterly unremarkable. Few demon beasts or humans would ever notice this place.

In these vast mountains, had she not been following Bai Yang, Song Wanning would never have discovered such an unnoticeable spot.

Much less would she have noticed such an ordinary egg.

’This egg certainly chose its location with care.’

Adhering to the principle of "better to be wrong a thousand times than let one slip by," Song Wanning decided to study this egg carefully.

Just in case, she first returned to the cave entrance, sealed all five of Bai Yang’s senses, then placed down an Array Plate to protect the cave.

Now, Song Wanning would be able to detect any disturbance immediately.

With everything prepared, she sat down in the cave.

The matter of the divine beast had to be settled within two days; the Song Family was still waiting for her...

Placing the egg on the ground, Song Wanning wore a solemn expression, though she was not very optimistic.

’Would a divine beast be willing to acknowledge her as its master?’

The answer was no.

She had already anticipated the outcome, but she was too unwilling to give up not to try.

She closed her eyes. When she opened them again, her gaze was incomparably resolute.

She forced out a drop of her Heart Blood, her face instantly turning pale.

Heart Blood is a Cultivator’s very essence, far more precious than ordinary blood. Even a single drop requires time to recover from.

Controlling the Heart Blood, she carefully dripped it onto the egg.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

The blood flowed down the eggshell, unable to seep in.

Song Wanning’s brow furrowed. She was now ninety percent sure.

She began trying to use her Spiritual Power to force the shell to absorb the blood, but no matter how she tried, the blood could not penetrate the shell.

If the blood couldn’t be absorbed, it meant she couldn’t form a contract with this egg.

With a grim face, Song Wanning tried one method after another until she was deathly pale, but the egg remained completely unresponsive.

Her heart sank. She wasn’t surprised by this.

But she was still extremely irritated.

She stared at the egg with a dark glint in her eyes.

"Let me be your master."

She knew that divine beasts gained sentience early on. For this egg to reject her so forcefully, it must have already developed a consciousness.

"Hmph, you?"

Suddenly, a childish voice full of disdain echoed through the cave.

"Don’t you even take a look at yourself? What are you, trying to contract this young lord? Believe it or not, I could swallow you in one gulp!"

"What kind of lowly trash dares to covet this young lord? You’re really looking to die!"

"I, this young lord, am a divine beast! Do you even know what a divine beast is? You little bumpkin!!"