After the base and its arrays established, Sage set about the true purpose for him assaulting the Breach Hawk and taking over this canyon. A few more arrays were set up, this time to modify the environment and create a barriers. Each of these zones were set up for different conditions. Small ecosystems that would be the perfect breeding grounds for different types of creatures. Most of them were actually set up merely to raise food for the other pens. It was very similar to what he’d already set up within the Universe Ring, but with more focus. Inside the Universe Ring he wanted to ensure a steady access to energy for his own purposes so the breeding grounds were far less intensive. On the contrary, besides some energy set aside to funnel into a few training rooms the rest that the huge array gathered was sent directly into the feeder pens.

Demonic and Spirit Beasts and Insects were parts of an ecosystem after all. Spirit Plants absorbed the energy of the heavens and earth, spirit insects and small animals ate the plants to get their energy and the predatory spirit animals ate the insects and small animals to take the energy for themselves. With the energy supplied, Sage transplanted lower level spirit plants into the breeding pens. Since he first received the Universe Ring he’d been collecting them in the wilderness. He’d also grown quite a few of them from seeds when he returned to the Holy Flame Sect. Wood attributed energy was very useful for growing plants, and was the reason that Alchemical Material grading was so complicated.

Over the next few months he focused his breeding plan in one specific area. Intelligence. Capturing the Breach Hawk had given him an idea and he planned to put it into motion. In order for it to succeed he’d first need to increase the intelligence of an insect. Given how weak their souls were, they couldn’t support a more powerful mind. Ants and bees had a counter for this problem: dense ancestral memories. They essentially programmed behavior for their later generations. Sage was going to take advantage of this ability and increase it to the limits. If they could teach their descendants how to act in certain situations, couldn’t he extend the number of situations and responses to create more advanced intelligence for them?

The other avenue of research required the assistance of others. Sage went into the Universe Ring and met with one of them. King had already been given free reign to the area within the ring, which included all the knowledge that Sage had collected so far. Memory Spheres sat out on shelves for the Hawk to read, helping him to search through the information and to teach the Hawk more about human culture.

“How is it going? Have your studies been enjoyable?”

“While you humans may be contemptible, at least these techniques of yours are interesting. It’s too bad most of them are incompatible with my body.”

“Indeed, quite a shame. Could I interest you in another deal? I need your assistance with something, but it’s not going to be easy for you. I promise you’ll be well compensated.”

The birdman shook his head and then let out a sigh, “You can’t. I’m not interested at all, but if you put it that way, how can I refuse? It sounds like you won’t be giving this one up, so I might as well get it over with.”

Sage smiled. They’d spent a few months together already, and King’s soul had recovered enough for this plan to proceed. It was a shame he had to damage it so greatly in order to take the Hawk captive, but he needed the extra leverage to force it into an agreement. Sage picked up a ring from a shelf and brought King to a specially prepared room.

“Tao Ba. Great one, I need your assistance.”

Sage learned long ago that he was mentally connected to the Universe Ring. It was how he could control what areas to put into stasis and it also allowed him to instantly contact Tao Ba. On the other hand, he found that Tao Ba was far more magnanimous if he called outloud and praised the boy at the same time. If he just used the mental call then Tao Ba would usually show up like a disgruntled employee and was very likely to ignore his requests for help. The boy had made sure to make it very apparent that Sage was only allowed access to this space and that Tao Ba was not obligated to provide any assistance. He was only in charge of maintaining the area and nothing else.

A minute after Sage spoke, there was an ominous cloud of smoke and a crack of thunder. Then Tao Ba appeared out of thin air, walking out of an invisible doorway through a puff of thick white smoke. He walked forward a dozen steps before striking a pose. The boy put his fists on his waist and stuck out his chest heroically. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite so impressive because of his large pot belly. Sage bowed down low and started laying on the compliments, talking about how great Tao Ba was. How impressed he was to see him again. How unworthy he was to spend so much time around the great Tao Ba, and so on.

King was about to ask what the big deal was, but then Tao Ba stared at him and let out a pulse of energy that caused the bird to shiver. King knelt down and just let Sage keep on talking. After a few minutes, Sage finally got to the matter at hand. Tao Ba was already sitting and drinking tea which Sage was pouring for him.

“So, you see. I needed your help with this.”

Then he set down the kettle and walked to the center of the prepared room and pulled out a large golden object. He placed it into the middle of a large array and let the other two get a good look at it. An oblong spheroid covered in scales. A huge golden egg. It was a bit larger than a basketball, such a thing was unlike any of the creatures back on Earth, though the size wasn’t really a rarity in this world. Instead it was the legend surrounding this piece and the inability of anything to crack the shell that made it unique. Sage purchased it more than a decade ago and had only now got something that might help him with it.

“I was told this was thought to be a Dragon’s egg. It seems to have no lifeforce, but no one could break it open to even use it as a material. I figured that the great Tao Ba could tell me more.”

The boy got up and walked over towards the egg. He glanced at the object before when Sage first entered the Universe Ring and all of his possessions were transferred over from the ring’s sliver. At the time he’d thought nothing of it, but now that he looked closer it did seem unusual…

After a few minutes of staring, Sage got a bit impatient, “What do you think, great one?”

“Hmm… interesting. It seems to have no lifeforce, but it’s extremely tough. Those two facts are contradictory. Being this tough only happens when the lifeform inside instinctively protects itself. If the creature passes away, the protective force will disappear and then the egg can be used for other purposes. There’s only two reasons this sort of thing will happen.”

Tao Ba made sure to add tension by pausing here. He even pushed out his stomach and slowly rubbed it, “First. This isn’t an egg. It just looks like one. It could be some unusual artifact that is so far beyond us we can’t sense its energies.”

“Or. The creature inside can hide its lifeforce before its even been born. It can hide from us and so we’ll never know how strong the lifeforce inside still is. Since its survived this long, it must certainly be quite powerful.”

“So, how do we know which one it is?”

“The only way would be to treat it as one or the other and do something extreme. Someone has probably already tried to bind it simply with blood, so you could try forcefully binding it with a bonding array.”

Then Tao Ba looked over at King, “Or you could use this guy for that technique of yours.”

Sage grinned, his guess had been pretty good.

“The downside is if you choose wrong, then the egg might consume you, or the artifact might consume the bird.”

King felt a coldness spread over his back and looked over towards Sage. Sage nodded to Tao Ba and then closed his eyes. When he opened them he looked over at King, the pupil of his right eye replaced once again by a field of stars.

“Can you please show me the array, Tao Ba?”

Tao Ba casually waved his hand and a glowing dot flew out from his palm. It drifted over to the other side of the room and landed on the ground. There was a bright flash and a huge array had appeared on the stone floor. Instantly carved to perfect with a single flash of energy. Sage brought the egg over and started to activate the bonding array. After a few minutes the array began to glow. The energy was building and swirling around the golden egg, more and more power gathered around the array. Sage bit down on his finger and drew blood. He held his hand over the egg. Then Sage suddenly lifted his arms over his head and clapped. The energy dispersed. The array went dark and the whole process came to an abrupt stop. He swallowed a blood clotting pill and picked up the egg, bringing it back over to King and Tao Ba. Placing it in the original array he gave them a smile.

“It’s an egg. King, I’ll need your help.”