CHAPTER 1294: BIRTHED CHANGES (2)

But alas, there were three of them, which created an imbalance in the cycle—and the mossback crayfish noticed something was off.

A few times, judging by its soul fluctuations, the shadow lotus shrimp mother seemed to be right on the edge of charging over and attacking the mossback crayfish. Yet such a move would have been reckless, for she was only at the fourth stage of the qi refinement realm while the crayfish was at the seventh. A direct confrontation would not favor her in the slightest.

Luckily for her, the mossback crayfish’s investigation was not thorough. Her eggs remained undiscovered as the crayfish finally walked away, disgruntled, its black beady eyes still glinting with fierce suspicion.

As for the azure spirit grass—the third participant in this quiet standoff—though oversaturated, Yang Qing could sense that it was excited. The cavern well yin qi from the shadow lotus shrimp eggs was not only abundant but also of remarkable quality. Once it finished digesting the cavern’s well-yin qi, the next pods it produced would likely be of a higher grade, possibly even reaching earth level.

At that stage, the mossback crayfish would have little to complain about, for ownership of the grass would almost certainly pass to the local foundation-level spirit beasts, whether it ceded ownership willingly or not.

As for the mother shrimp, she showed no intention of removing the eggs despite their close brush with exposure a moment ago. Seeing the fluctuation of her vitality, Yang Qing could understand why. That shadow lotus shrimp mother had no more than four years to live, and part of her shortened vitality came from the fact that she had likely sacrificed both her potential and part of her lifespan to improve the potential of those three eggs.

Thanks to the heightened strength of his spiritual sense, Yang Qing could see the traces of what she had done—the lingering evidence in her blood, the injuries left on her body, and even the subtle effects it had on the eggs themselves. She might only be at the fourth stage now, but from the remnants imprinted in her body, he could tell she had once been at the ninth stage of the qi refinement realm—much stronger than that mossback crayfish.

"Looks like she hopes at least one of her children can be born with the potential to reach the foundation realm," whispered Yang Qing.

"So tenacious," he added, a note of admiration in his voice for the shrimp’s resolve and dedication.

"Think of this as an acknowledgment of your efforts as a sacrificing mother," Yang Qing muttered as a steady stream of qi flowed down his fingers, burrowing into the ground until it pierced the river below and reached the shadow lotus shrimp mother and her three eggs.

The shrimp mother felt a sudden warm current surge through her body, and before she could even register what had happened, the waning vigor and vitality in her blood, body, and essence were instantly refreshed. All the internal damage she had suffered, including the injuries to her soul, was completely restored.

Her greying, weathered, and cracked exoskeleton, which had been a perfect reflection of her decline, molted away in fragments. In its place emerged a flawless new shell, smooth and lustrous as though cast from polished jade. A faint silvery sheen rippled across its surface, and on the carapace appeared the faint outline of a grey lotus engraving. Her shell no longer looked brittle or worn; instead, it radiated a hard, resilient strength, brimming with newfound life force.

As for her life expectancy, with all damage repaired, the meager four years she had left expanded to the full span she would have originally enjoyed before her sacrifices—it was close to three hundred years, by Yang Qing’s estimation.

As miraculous as his restorative powers were, he could not grant additional years. All he could do was restore the body and soul, allowing them to reclaim what was already theirs.

It didn’t take much effort to heal the shrimp mother, and there was even enough of his qi left within her body to do more than restore. In addition to healing her, it was raising her potential and providing the energy needed to continue her cultivation. Even though it was only a thin thread’s worth of qi, if she made the best use of it, it was more than enough to grant the shadow lotus shrimp a thorough transformation and a chance at a major leap. If she remained determined, put in the effort, and had some luck as well, reaching the core formation realm would not be an impossibility—thanks to the remnant of Yang Qing’s qi residing within her.

As for the eggs, while the azure spirit grass produced nourishing qi of great quality, even monarch-grade spirit grass could not match the potency and life-nurturing properties of his qi. Yang Qing split his qi three ways, channeling it into the eggs to be gradually absorbed.

With the fine control he possessed and the vast abilities now at his disposal thanks to his breakthrough, he imbued his qi with intent, leaving behind a ’control’ mechanism to govern how the energy would be absorbed. While he could not say what their full potential would be once they hatched, he was certain of one thing: at the very least, it would be no less than if they had been nurtured with a treasured monarch-grade panacea from birth.

Everything those shrimps needed to grow and develop was packed within his universal qi. And who knew—if luck favored them, the transformation brought about by it might even turn them into variants, or awaken some hidden bloodline slumbering in their ancestry. After all, while the shadow lotus shrimp had low potential, tracing their lineage back revealed that they were descended from the Starlight Jade Shrimp. Yang Qing knew for a fact that the Starlight Jade Shrimp possessed the potential to reach the soul formation realm—after all, one of the rank one sects on the continent, the Starlight Jade Sect, had been founded by a Starlight Jade Shrimp.

Now, as rich and potent as his universal qi was—imbued as it was with the supreme Dao of Life—Yang Qing wasn’t so arrogant as to believe it could transform the three shrimps into Starlight Jade Shrimp right from the onset. But he did feel there were good odds his qi could awaken offshoot bloodlines descended from the Starlight Jade Shrimp, ones with far greater potential than the shadow lotus shrimp.

Whether they would live long enough to realize that potential, however, was another matter entirely. He could only hope that the same luck that had guided their paths to cross today would continue to carry them forward.