Chapter 117: The Dragon Egg

“Buying insurance…”

Several werewolf underlings looked somewhat stunned upon hearing this, and one of them couldn’t help but speak up.

“Boss, insurance is such a complicated business; it’s not something we can just figure out easily.”

“Exactly, who in their right mind actually buys insurance?”

The others chimed in in agreement.

“Hey… you don’t know enough about it,” Antu said earnestly. “Insurance might have a bad reputation, but it actually serves a big purpose. No matter how much the people of Xia Nation curse it, we still have to buy it. Every month, it only costs a little bit, but it provides quality protection for our later years…”

“Oh, sorry, I rushed and missed a word — it provides quality protection for the latter half of our lives!”

Antu spoke seriously, “Recently, I studied the social insurance that the Xia people prepared for us, and I found a major mistake!”

“They actually calculated the average lifespan of us werewolves to be less than seventy years. They plan to retire us at fifty-eight and start paying us a pension.”

“Brothers… isn’t that obviously a benefit for us?”

Antu said excitedly, “We know our own situation. Just take our White Wolf clan alone — the theoretical average lifespan is definitely over seventy, probably even double that!”

“The reason it’s so low now is because our living conditions were awful before. We couldn’t even solve basic food and warmth problems, had no medical care, and were constantly fighting!”

“In such conditions, if even one out of a hundred clan members could die of old age, we’d be thankful. How could the average lifespan be high?”

“But now it’s different. We’ve got the support of the Xia Nation. We’re well-fed, warm, and no longer need to fight often. Our average lifespan will easily surpass a hundred!”

At this point, Antu raised his voice, saying loudly, “Brothers, do you know what this means? It means if we buy pension insurance now, we can milk the Xia people dry for decades!”

“…With such a good deal, what are you hesitating for? Saying it’s a goldmine might be exaggerated, but earning tenfold or even a hundredfold is definitely possible, and best of all, it’s stable!”

“…Really?”

Several werewolf underlings were tempted and couldn’t help but ask Antu for more details. After his professional explanation, each one began to plan on buying insurance.

“Boss… maybe we should really change careers?”

Suddenly, one werewolf underling said, “I feel like insurance might have a promising future. How about we stop being security guards and switch to selling insurance?”

“…Selling insurance?”

Antu and the others were momentarily stunned, then their eyes lit up in unison.

…

Huang Ze sat silently in his room all night; nothing happened.

He wasn’t sure whether his soul’s firewall was too strong to receive the woman’s signal, or if his mother’s dream was just her imagination.

Huang Ze was busy with official duties and had no time to dwell on it. Once Academician Ding’s team relocated and arrived, he focused his attention back on the base.

“What?! The barrier will disappear in 988 days?”

Academician Ding was shocked to learn this from the Black Dragon.

“The Night Goddess told me,” Huang Ze nodded. “And from my intuition, it seems reliable.”

“988 days… less than three years. That’s too fast!” Ding’s face was bitter. “There’s still so much we don’t understand, too much work to prepare… I’m afraid we can’t withstand such a huge impact.”

“Academician Ding, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. At least now we know the exact timeframe. That’s better than being caught completely off guard,” Huang Ze comforted him.

…

“That’s right!” Ding suddenly woke up, took a deep breath, and rallied. “We still have time, and you, Mr. Huang. Now is clearly not the time for despair!”

“The Night Goddess presides over secrets, and in many ways, she seems to have some tacit understanding with our Xia Nation. What she says is quite credible.”

“We should be grateful for this information. Otherwise, we’d be in the dark and suffer heavy losses when the time comes…”

Tacit understanding?

Lilith had actually already made some kind of tacit agreement with our Xia Nation?

Huang Ze was momentarily stunned, then realized Ding was probably referring to the Life Springs. Without Lilith’s permission or even her active request, the Night Elves would never have sold it to the Xia Academy.

…

Huang Ze fully recounted his celestial experiences to Academician Ding and his team. Soon, the highest authorities were alarmed, and many experts and scholars joined the research and discussions, trying to find ways to resolve this crisis.

Huang Ze attended meetings for several days in his avatar form but eventually couldn’t endure it and switched back to his true form to focus on other work.

Such as incubating dragon eggs.

The four red dragon eggs promised as a referral fee by the Red Lady had arrived. Academician Ding’s team kept two in the lab for study, and the other two were handed to the Black Dragon, who took them abroad to build a nest, hoping to help hatch the dragon babies.

At first, the Black Dragon outright refused. After all, as a majestic male dragon, how could it become a ‘mother’ and do such a thing as incubating eggs?

But after repeated persuasion by the Xia Academy, the Black Dragon reluctantly agreed.

There was no other choice. As a transcendent being, the natural incubation time for dragon eggs was incredibly long — without external help, it could take years or even over a decade to hatch!

Now, with less than three years before the barrier vanished, and the situation in Xia Nation deteriorating rapidly without protection, there was no time for slow research or nurturing.

They had to rely on the Black Dragon to see if it could hatch the babies faster and thus form some combat strength to help defend the homeland.

The Black Dragon was reasonable and somewhat selfless. For such a just and earnest request, it was hard to refuse.

Moreover, it was not strongly bound by traditional ‘great dragon pride’ and even thought:

If it could truly accelerate incubation, it should find more dragon eggs and hatch a dragon legion itself — that would be the greatest help to the country.

Compared to that, bearing the stigma of a ‘mother dragon’ was trivial.

Unfortunately, the Black Dragon’s incubation skills were poor — or rather, it had none at all. It simply imitated a hen by placing the two eggs under its belly and occasionally zapped them with electricity.

Other than that, it knew nothing.

After two days and nights of incubation, the two red dragon eggs showed no sign of change.

“…Could they be dead eggs?”

The Black Dragon wondered, then used its True Sight to detect. It found no fetal movement but sensed faint vitality. With luck, hatching might still be possible.

“Looks like… the Red Lady was honest at least. She didn’t trick us with dead eggs.”

The Black Dragon placed the eggs back under its belly, its impression of the Red Lady somewhat improved — though it still wasn’t sure if she’d accept outsourced incubation.

The Xia Academy had indeed discussed this with the Red Lady but was rejected.

The Academy was also wary of outsourcing because the incubation process involved the continuation of bloodline and will, making it highly vulnerable to environmental influences.

In other words, dragon hatchlings incubated by outsiders would be quite different from those hatched by their own kind.

“Luckily, the Red Lady provided fertilized eggs directly. Otherwise, Academician Ding’s team would probably make me donate sperm to try artificial insemination…”

The Black Dragon thought thankfully. Incubating someone else’s eggs was fundamentally different from its own, and psychologically, it was not prepared to be a parent.

“I didn’t expect the usually effective electric shock therapy to have little effect here.”

The Black Dragon was surprised. It had assumed lightning would aid life development but the two eggs remained unresponsive, showing no signs of hunger or eagerness.

…

“Another two days of incubation… If there’s still no change, I’ll have to meet that Red Lady as promised, see if I can get some tips, or just bring her back for a demonstration on the correct incubation methods…”

The Black Dragon thought secretly, somewhat looking forward to meeting the Red Lady. It wasn’t clear whether this anticipation was physical or psychological.

While the Black Dragon was intermittently focused on incubation and daydreaming, the Red Lady was already on her way to find it.

Born 980 years ago, this godmother-level red dragon was shrewd. She had rigged the four dragon eggs with some tricks for tracking and sensing, to see how Xia Nation intended to handle them.

She discovered two eggs had been taken abroad and stayed there for two days, with faint changes in vital signs.

Her curiosity was piqued. Although these eggs were not truly dead, their chance of successful hatching was under one percent.

Yet, in just two days, that chance had risen to 1.5%!

Though this increase was slight enough to go unnoticed by the Black Dragon, as a dragon who had studied eggs for centuries and earned her title as godmother, the Red Lady’s judgment was infallible.

“Is Xia Nation’s infertility treatment really that powerful? They can even solve problems with dragons?”

She murmured, touching her rigid belly. If that were true, it would mean…

…

The Red Lady preferred to move about in human form, a habit that became stronger after her Xia cultural transformation. She hadn’t used her dragon form for over half a month.

This was also because her dragon form was too large and easy to be detected and tracked by Xia people.

Her relationship with Xia Nation was now at a critical stage; one misstep could lead to complete defeat.

So for covert intelligence gathering, it was better not to use the dragon form. She chose human form and hurried under the cover of night to the Black Dragon’s incubation site.

Though the Black Dragon sometimes lost focus and wasn’t familiar with the surroundings, it quickly noticed the sneaking Red Lady and immediately realized she was not human.

The Red Lady was clearly startled by the Black Dragon, who was busy incubating eggs. For a moment, the dragon and the woman stared at each other from a distance.

“Could this guy be… that Black Dragon named Dios?”

The Red Lady felt her dragon worldview was shattered. A mighty Black Dragon secretly hiding here incubating eggs — if word got out, how many young female dragons would come clamoring to bear his offspring!

After all, in dragon society, a ‘benevolent father and filial son’ race, strong male dragons like him were extremely rare.

“This woman… could she be that Red Lady?”

The Black Dragon had seen photos of her and was impressed by her ample chest muscles, so it quickly identified her as the Red Lady.

“This is awkward… why did she suddenly come here without warning? I’m not even mentally prepared…”

The Black Dragon’s mood was complicated, like being caught wiping one’s rear while the girl you secretly like stares awkwardly.

It was a complete social death.

“No, no, why did I compare this Red Dragon to my crush? That’s absurd. When did I become such a fool?”

The Black Dragon immediately realized it was its rebellious organs running wild again, overproducing hormones. It forced itself to calm down and suppressed the bad feelings, then stared coldly at the annoying Red Lady.

“Ha… busy right now…”

The Red Lady awkwardly approached and greeted him. Under the Black Dragon’s intense gaze, she visibly grew nervous — whether from fear or excitement, no one could tell.