Chapter 423: Chapter 334: Mythical Creature 2

"Yeah, you know how it is," Mountain Xi’ao said, landing on Shire’s shoulder with a helpless shrug. "Ever since you rescued my sister, the clan’s been handed over to her to manage. Of course, my sister is very capable, and everyone listens to her. After that, Father didn’t have much to do. Besides occasionally using Wind of Nature on the Red Bull Mushrooms, he spends all his time ’fishing’ with his old buddies."

"I know. I’ve seen them by the underground river before," Shire chuckled. ’The little goblins are so tiny, yet they’re trying to fish in the underground river.’ He had seen it many times—several little goblins shouting and yelling as they pulled on a rope together, locked in a "tug-of-war" with a fish.

"At first, my mother didn’t want him to go. After all, the fish in the underground river are pretty big. But Father would just leave without looking back." Mountain Xi’ao cleared his throat and started mimicking his mother’s voice. "If you go fishing today, you’re not coming home tonight! Are you listening, River Xi’ao? If I let you back in this house, I’ll give up my own name and take yours! Now get back here, River Xi’ao!"

"As you know, among us little goblins, males are named after earthly things with the suffix Xi’ao, while females are named after celestial things with the suffix Xia." Mountain Xi’ao shrugged and spread his hands. "Unfortunately, my father flies right out of the cabin every time without a second glance. And even after he comes back, he has to kneel..."

"Ahem," Shire coughed, cutting the little goblin off. Hearing him gossip about his own father like this made Shire feel a little embarrassed. "Get to the point. The point."

"Oh," Mountain Xi’ao immediately snapped back to the topic. "My father and his old buddies have gotten really good at coordinating to pull fish from the underground river. As long as the fish isn’t too big, they’ll weave a few ropes into a net and try to scoop up the one they’ve hooked. Several little goblins work together to haul the fish directly onto the bank."

"You mean, have your father and the other little goblins fly over the Phoenix Egg and use some ropes to lift it?" Shire understood the little goblin’s idea. He raised his hands and interlaced his fingers in a gesture. "This egg is huge, a meter tall. It probably won’t be that easy."

"My father can call for more people. Besides, I think as long as we get the ropes around the egg, you guys can be the ones to pull it up," Mountain Xi’ao said with a nod.

"That’s one way to do it," Shire mused, stroking his chin. ’The little goblins could lower the ropes from the air, avoiding the pool of poison. We just need to make sure the loops are secured under the oval Phoenix Egg. Then we can set up wooden frames on either side of the pool, pull the ropes, and lift the egg into the air, moving it out of the pool’s range.’

"Then I’ll go back right now and find my father," Mountain Xi’ao said with a smile, then flew directly out of the burrow.

"Take Buck Teeth with you! Have him bring some men as an escort!" Shire called out as a precaution. Mountain Xi’ao’s hasty manner made him a little uneasy. But now another question confronted him. ’How did the Feathered Serpent God squeeze into this narrow burrow?’

’A serpent several meters thick couldn’t have just brute-forced its way into a burrow that’s only 1.5 meters high,’ Shire thought, staring at the poison pool. ’It seems the Feathered Serpent God is also after this Phoenix Egg, wanting to eat the unborn chick inside. But it probably couldn’t break the Secret Silver Eggshell, so it came up with the idea of using poison to corrode it?’

Mythical Creatures are born with immense power. If one were to eat such a creature, it might gain that power. This was Shire’s deduction of the Feathered Serpent God’s motive.

But how that long beast got into this burrow was something he couldn’t immediately figure out. ’Unless the Feathered Serpent God knows a Shrinking Technique and can reduce its body size to get in... or maybe it has an item that lets it shrink?’

This was the only explanation Shire could think of. ’But if the Feathered Serpent God knew a Shrinking Technique, it wouldn’t need to be holed up in this burrow. It could just hide outside in any random tree or cave. There aren’t many creatures in the forest that can match its strength, and hiding safely is the nature of the Serpent Race. So why is it crammed inside the Goblin Kingdom? Don’t tell me the Feathered Serpent God has a thing for goblins?’

Shire surveyed the cavern, feeling he must have missed something. "Let’s go. Back to the large cavern outside. There must be something there."

He led his subordinates back into the huge cavern where the Feathered Serpent God had been coiled. His underlings were still rummaging through the shattered bones on the ground, searching with a CLATTER, CLATTER.

’What could it be?’ Shire scanned his surroundings, but he was clueless.

After the goblins had turned over the entire area of shattered bones, they hadn’t found any special items. The ground was covered only in bone dust and fragments. This left Shire undecided. ’Should we have them search a few more times, or should we spend the time to clean this place out piece by piece?’

’If we clean it piece by piece, I can inspect everything myself and find any hidden Treasure. But that would take a huge amount of time. On the other hand, if we just search it a few more times, with the goblins’ limited Ability, they probably can’t distinguish different items anyway. After all, they just went through everything and found nothing.’

’What should I do?’ Shire frowned, looking at his dazed underlings standing in the pile of bones.

Then, he unexpectedly saw Fulu cowering near the cave entrance. The creature had been hiding in the back ever since it arrived; Shire had to call it over, and even then it had floated over slowly. Now it was cowering there again. ’Could it be that he isn’t scared because of the bone pile?’

Shire beckoned to Fulu, having someone bring it over again. "Is there something here?"

"Yes... very evil... very evil," Fulu said haltingly. Its eyestalk unconsciously drifted towards the left corner of the cavern, as if something particularly terrifying was there.

"Over there?" Shire followed the direction of Fulu’s eyestalk, then grabbed one of its tentacles and pulled it along as he walked over.

He could clearly feel Fulu’s resistance; the force coming from the tentacle was growing stronger and stronger.

"What exactly is here?" Shire scanned the shattered bones on the ground, then looked at Fulu beside him.

"Hero... er... Bandit... don’t go any closer." Fulu’s eyestalk was nearly misting over. Its entire tentacle was pulled taut. It looked as if Shire wasn’t gripping the base of the tentacle so tightly, it would have already jetted away.

Shire reassured Fulu that there was nothing there and it didn’t need to be afraid. At the same time, he promised it an extra "appearance fee," enough for it and its companions to play several more games of Forest Poker. Then he let Fulu go, crouched down, and began to examine the shattered bones on the ground.

After inspecting many bone fragments, Shire finally picked up a strange bone. It was long, about the length of a human femur, with several protruding joints. Its color was a stark white, not the grayish-white of a goblin’s broken bones. It felt somewhat smooth in his hand, not dry and coarse like a goblin bone.

’What is this? It doesn’t seem like a goblin’s bone.’ Shire frowned and pulled up the bone’s panel.

[Item: Little Finger Bone of the Demon Lord Laziness]

[Quality: Epic]

[Use: Equip]

[Own State: Change Size (Positive)]

[Note: Laziness seems too lazy to go look for this finger bone. It figures it doesn’t matter if it’s missing a pinky. It can always look for it later when it’s needed.]

"This..." Shire was stunned. He had considered that there might be a Magical Beast’s bone here, or maybe the bone of some evil creature. He never would have imagined he’d encounter another "part" of a Demon Lord.

"Laziness’s Finger Bone?" He looked at the long bone in his hand. Upon closer inspection, it really did look like a phalanx.

’This must be how the Feathered Serpent God was able to shrink,’ he realized. He tucked the bone into the back of his waistband. After a dizzying spell, he was surprised to find that everything in front of him had gotten bigger. The surrounding goblins were several times taller than before, and the piles of bone fragments nearly reached the top of his head.

"Have I... shrunk?"

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