Chapter 542: Bringing Little Dog Through the Back Door!

"A special egg?"

Wearing his Daoist Robe, Ning Fei walked down the corridor of the research lab. Many of the researchers around recognized him and cast curious glances his way.

Right then, the System's prompt rang out in his mind.

"Ding! Detected a super rare species (divine beast) in the vicinity: Qiongqi egg."

Ning Fei's expression didn't change at the chime, but he thought to himself, 'It's actually a Qiongqi egg!'

'According to the descriptions in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the Qiongqi is a tiger with wings, and it is classified as a fierce beast.'

'Looks like a mutated tiger.'

Ning Fei currently possessed Zheng's Divine Beast Egg, which was effectively a mutated leopard.

Now, a mutated tiger had appeared.

This was quite interesting.

However, the Qiongqi egg was in the hands of the Special Department. Although Ning Fei wanted to claim it for himself, there wasn't much he could do.

"Captain Lin, what is this special egg you mentioned? There are only so many oviparous animals. Could it be a dinosaur?"

Ning Fei asked with a smile.

Lin Tao shot him a glance and replied, "Do you remember the Tengshe we found at the Peach Blossom Spring Ruins?"

Ning Fei thought, 'Of course I know. I'm raising it in my back mountain.'

Aloud, he answered, "I remember. It gave me a fright at the time. I had never seen a snake with wings before."

"That Tengshe most likely hatched from this kind of egg. Isn't that incredible?"

"Snakes are egg-laying creatures anyway, so there's nothing particularly strange about that."

As they chatted, the two men stopped in front of a transparent box.

Inside the box sat a white egg.

It was adorned with black stripes, much like the pattern on a tiger.

"A snake's egg wouldn't be this large. Furthermore, we tried piercing it with a needle, but we couldn't even scratch the shell."

"The structural integrity of this egg has completely exceeded our expectations,"

Lin Tao said softly.

Hearing Lin Tao's words, Ning Fei felt a pang of distress.

Biological research was inherently cruel. Experiments on white mice or dissecting frogs were often gruesome sights.

Ning Fei didn't really care to intervene with those, but he was determined to take this egg away.

"This situation caught us off guard. It's as if the egg possesses an incredibly tough defense that simply cannot be breached from the outside,"

Lin Tao added.

"Professor Lin, why did you call me here? It can't be just for a simple tour."

Ning Fei asked, keeping his eyes on the Divine Beast Egg.

"You and Bai Yuanche are both formidable figures. It is undeniable that many sects in Huaxia harbor profound masters."

"Therefore, I need your help. I wanted to ask if you have a way to break this egg open, or perhaps hatch it,"

Lin Tao explained.

"Have you detected any signs of life inside this egg?"

"We couldn't detect any."

"Alright then, let me take a look."

Ning Fei hadn't expected Lin Tao to seek him out for this. It was indeed a surprise.

But this worked out perfectly, giving him an opportunity to take the Qiongqi.

Ning Fei retrieved the Divine Beast Egg from the glass incubator, examined it carefully, and said, "Opening this egg requires some specific materials. They need to be brewed into a soup, and once poured over it, the shell will open."

"The required materials are quite expensive."

"I don't know if you can get your hands on them."

Afterward, Ning Fei gave Lin Tao a list of natural treasures, mostly items like top-grade Ginseng, Lingzhi, and sea cucumbers.

Lin Tao was quite generous with his funds. After all, he held a high position; his background was not as simple as just an archaeologist, and he wielded real authority.

In this day and age, people with immense power were masters at hiding one's capabilities, yet the wealth backing them was far more terrifying than that of ordinary businessmen.

So, it didn't take long before Lin Tao managed to acquire quite a lot of the items for Ning Fei.

Ning Fei had asked for extra, because he needed to hatch not only the Qiongqi but also the Zheng.

When hatching the Qiongqi, the moment the eggshell broke, Ning Fei instantly stored the baby Qiongqi into the Divine Beast Space.

All that remained was the shattered eggshell scattered across the floor.

"There was nothing inside," Ning Fei said, looking at the broken shell on the ground with a hint of feigned regret.

Lin Tao carefully picked up the shell fragments, actually looking quite pleased.

"As long as it opens, it's fine. I believe the secrets hidden within this eggshell are no small matter,"

Lin Tao said with a smile.

Seeing Lin Tao's reaction, Ning Fei couldn't bear to tell him the truth.

He simply thought to himself, 'As long as you're happy.'

Later, Ning Fei bid farewell to Lin Tao and headed back to Qingfeng Temple.

Both the Qiongqi and the Zheng were successfully hatched by Ning Fei.

The Qiongqi was a white tiger with a pair of wings on its back. No matter how you looked at it, it was incredibly adorable.

The Zheng was a leopard with slightly reddish fur, sporting two small upward-curving fangs on its mouth and three tails on its rump.

Although these two were supposedly fierce beasts, they were each cuter than the last, which made Ning Fei quite delighted.

After all, any feline was immensely cute when they were young.

The two little guys ended up playing very happily with the three Xiao Heijiu.

Ning Fei also used his god-tier draws and obtained two skills:

Divine Beast Protection: In the eyes of the public, the forms of the divine beasts would automatically transform into the forms of their corresponding ordinary counterparts. The Qiongqi corresponded to a white tiger, the Zheng to a leopard, the Fuzhu to a sika deer, and the Tengshe to an ordinary snake.

Divine Beast Perception: Using one's intent to pinpoint the exact location of a divine beast.

These were methods of protection.

Following this, Ning Fei gradually came to understand the secrets of ancient times.

He possessed certain memories. In that ancient era, there was a Divine Official who governed beast taming and was in charge of all the divine beasts in the world.

Later, when the apocalyptic cataclysm arrived and everything was pushed to the brink of extinction, that Divine Official exhausted his life's power to condense numerous divine beast eggshells, protecting many newborn divine beasts.

These eggshells were scattered all across the Earth. Over the many years that passed, some hatched, while others did not.

This legacy continued all the way to the present day.

The System also appeared to have some connection to that era.

Now, he had taken on the responsibility of caring for these divine beasts.

And Ning Fei was more than happy to do so.

Huaxia, Pudong.

The finals of the first Huaxia Agility Dog Championship were taking place here.

This new canine sport had been widely welcomed by the public.

The competition required the dogs to quickly navigate through a series of obstacles set along a route without the use of collars or leashes.

This type of event was exceptionally popular in Europe.

"I heard one dog got in through the back door and will be competing in a bit."

"On what grounds? All the other dogs had to compete to reach the finals. Why is this one so special!"

"They obviously have connections backing them!"

"This is way too unfair!"

Many people in the audience were murmuring and complaining among themselves.

An exceptionally large number of people had come to watch the competition. The venue was packed, forming a dense sea of spectators.

A total of twelve dogs had made it to the finals. They were all selected from regional competitions across the country, and every single one was extremely impressive.

Among them, the sheepdogs had the best performances.

The information and photos of the twelve dogs had been published online, and netizens were crazily cheering and campaigning for them.

A canine competition had surprisingly drawn even more attention than the talent shows of the past.

But right at this moment, the Production Crew announced that another dog had been made an exception and entered into the finals.

This news triggered a wave of curses across the entire internet.

What era was it? To think that even a dog training competition required back-door connections!

Inside the training room, Ning Fei also felt momentarily speechless.

A few days ago, Jiang Xue had been watching television and happened to catch a broadcast of the agility dog competition.

Little Dog just so happened to be beside her.

When Little Dog saw the program, it immediately ran to find Ning Fei, barking up a storm.

Ning Fei could naturally understand Little Dog's intent: it wanted to compete.

This left him thoroughly speechless.

Thus, he had no choice but to pull some strings and use the back door to get Little Dog on the final roster.

"You better perform well, otherwise I'm going to get chewed out!"

Ning Fei looked at Little Dog, rubbed its head, and said with a smile.