A Mysterious Memory

Li Zhu stared at the blue egg, lying motionless on the bed. He was determined to discover more about this strange artifact, which had resonated so strongly with him at the auction house.

'Should I inject heavenly energy into it?' Li Zhu asked himself, wondering if he might somehow cause damage to the egg.

Following up on his idea, he placed his hand on the egg, before circulating his energy through his meridians, into the artifact.

At first, he felt nothing, as the energy simply exited his hand, not going anywhere.

'I guess I was too naive... this egg has been long dead!' thought Li Zhu, slightly discouraged.

As he was about to try other experiments with the egg, though, he felt something tugging the energy out of his hand.

Li Zhu was pleasantly surprised, as he circulated his energy once more, sending it into the egg, which was readily absorbing it.

His smile quickly turned into a frown, though, as Li Zhu began losing control of his energy, which suddenly began flowing without end into the blue egg.

'This is bad, it's going to drain me completely!' was Li Zhu's first thought, as he began to panic.

He now had no control over his energy, as his hands were flooded with pain, the meridians in his arms too small to contain the amount of energy which was being dragged out of him.

When a person cultivated, they were increasing the capacity of their body, the amount of energy that they could contain at one single time. If that energy was drained, their cultivation would not lower, since their capacity was still the same, and they would be able to recover their strength, much quicker than when they had cultivated to that level.

That said, if one was completely drained of heavenly energy, with none left, their cultivation could actually decrease, as the "container" that was their body would begin shrinking. If energy was not absorbed in time, their cultivation could potentially disappear, and all of the hard work cultivating would be for naught.

This was what Li Zhu feared the most, as the egg pulled the heavenly energy out of him, and he had no way to stop it.

Buddy, sensing Li Zhu's panic, immediately came rushing to his side, as they tried to transform, to escape using shadow lurk.

This did not work, though, as Li Zhu had no way of fusing with Buddy, his energy not going where he willed it to.

'What should I do?!'

As his panic grew, Li Zhu's vision began turning blurry and grey, his body wobbling back and forth. Before he knew what was even happening, all he could see was blackness, and he finally fell onto the hard floor, unconscious.

______

"Look, honey, our baby is so close to hatching!"

As Li Zhu woke up, his vision slowly getting clearer, the silhouette of a large spirit beast came into view.

The blurriness in his eyes disappearing, Li Zhu jumped in fright, as he saw the beast in front of him.

A massive crimson dragon was staring at him, with loving eyes, while a blue dragon stayed behind it, staring at Li Zhu with happiness.

His first reaction was to run away, but the moment he tried to move his legs, Li Zhu realized he could not budge.

Looking down at himself, shock overcome LI Zhu, as he noticed that he was not in his human form... he was an egg!

'Wait a second, isn't this the egg that I have in my room?' although panicked, Li Zhu did not fail to recognize the egg which he apparently was a part of, as the same artifact which had been draining his energy.

"Honey, I bet our baby will become the Dragon emperor one day!" the red massive dragon spoke up, while looking at the blue dragon.

"Of course, since it is my descendant!" was the blue dragon's only reply, as though what the red dragon had said was obvious.

'What!? I can hear what they are saying?' Li Zhu was getting more confused by the second, as he now realized he could understand the speech of the dragons.

He had identified them as dragons instantly, having seen many paintings of such creatures when he was a kid, reading legends of divine creatures and knights. In the stories, dragons lived in other worlds, which only a few great cultivators had ever visited, bringing back the knowledge of these majestic creatures, born with the power of a golden core realm expert.

'Am I reliving the memory of this egg?' Li Zhu began to suspect, as he noticed that the egg itself seemed much younger, and brimming with life energy.

This meant that what he was currently going through was the past life of the egg, before it somehow appeared at the Flaming Saber sect auction.

Realizing he was not in any immediate danger, Li Zhu settled down, simply spectating the heartwarming scene of the two dragon parents, talking about their baby's promising future.

Although he did not know how he had been brought into this memory, Li Zhu realized that there was nothing he could currently do, but wait for this to end.

Furthermore, Li Zhu was beginning to feel a connection between him and the two dragons, probably experiencing the feelings of the unborn baby dragon, in the egg.

As he lay there, Li Zhu was extremely peaceful, with no worries in his heart. Getting his revenge... becoming the heir of the empire... winning the inner sect tournament, he suddenly forgot about all those issues, as he simply enjoyed the moment.

All of his life, Li Zhu had always been dragged down by worries, which had in a way helped him become the man he now was. He had always been so intent on fulfilling his dreams, that he had forgotten to live in the moment, everything he did had to help him for the future. Although this gave him the determination that he needed to become a skilled cultivator, he was left seeking more, as each time he got closer to his dream, he grew more distant from what he actually needed.

Now, instead, Li Zhu knew there was nothing he could do, since he was an egg. He could not cultivate, and he could not train... he could simply relax.

As he experienced this moment of peace, which most people had every day, Li Zhu began to understand more about the path of cultivation.

'If It takes me one hundred years to become the strongest man to have ever lived, and I am on top of the continent... what then? I will have wasted one hundred years, for what? I will grow strong, but I will also live my life on my path of cultivation, otherwise I am only getting farther from my needs, trading happiness for strength.' Li Zhu realized, in a fleeting moment of enlightenment.

He had always been determined to grow strong, but he now realized that he needed to also live a good life on that path, because if he eventually reached the peak of the world, he would want to look back on happy memories, and not regret his life choices.

His peaceful moment was unfortunately interrupted, though, as the ground began to violently shake, followed by the cave above the dragon's heads beginning to fall apart.

'Honey, we should bring the baby out of here, there is probably an earthquake." said the red dragon, extremely calm.

Even if the entire mountain fell onto the dragon's heads, no harm would be done, since they were extremely tough creatures. That said, the egg was more vulnerable, and it could potentially be destroyed.

Li Zhu felt himself being picked up, as the red dragon grabbed him, flying out of the cave with the blue dragon close behind.

As they got out of the cave, Li Zhu was left in awe, as he stared at the sky, where dozens of dragons flew about, coming out of their caves.

The dragons were of all colors and sizes, as they flew around the mountain range, with vibrant green grass growing everywhere, and trees sprawling in every direction.

It was a magnificent sight to behold, but before he could look at it any longer, a terrifying energy suddenly engulfed Li Zhu, causing him to turn around.

In the sky, cracks were forming, releasing a purple fog, which gave off frightening amount of energy.

"Honey, let's get away from here! Now!" the red dragon yelled, now extremely panicked, as it tried to fly away from the weird phenomenon at full speed.

All dragons were escaping the scene, the energy shocking them to their cores.

Just as Li Zhu thought he was safe, though, he felt a force tugging him, before he slipped out of the grip of the red dragon, falling into the air.

He did not fall to the ground though, as he was pulled towards the cracks in the sky, at an increasing speed.

"Noooo!" he tried to yell, before he finally reached the phenomenon, where he was surrounded by the purple fog, before being pulled into a crack.

Meanwhile, the red dragon was flying at it fastest speed to reach the terrifying cracks, risking its life to save the egg.

Unfortunately for the dragon, though, the phenomenon suddenly disappeared, as the sky turned clear again. The only thing missing... the egg.