Chapter 639 – The Egg Baby

From that day on, the lively “egg” became Sylph’s inseparable little companion.

When Sylph and the Sorceresses sat together in the garden enjoying afternoon tea, the “egg” would wriggle around on its cushion, bouncing up and down every so often, absolutely determined to capture its mother’s attention.

When Sylph and the Sorceresses were deep in discussion about magical knowledge, it would hop about cheerfully beside them, as if applauding the fruits of their discussion.

The most amusing part was when Sylph went to tend the plantation — the “egg” would bounce urgently, urging Dunmu to pick up the pace, terrified of losing sight of its mother.

The sight made the Sorceresses green with envy, each wishing they could immediately have a clingy little egg baby of their own.

Unfortunately, Sylph’s research on the mutated Tree of Life wasn’t finished yet, so they would have to wait a bit longer.

And so Sylph’s “egg baby” became the Sorceresses’ beloved group pet in every sense of the word.

Although the egg baby couldn’t speak yet, Mo Lan and the others never tired of using mind-reading magic on it, wanting to hear what the little one was thinking about each day.

Mo Lan in particular, who had been bored out of her mind lately, had practically become the egg baby’s dedicated mind reader, probing the little one’s inner thoughts at every opportunity.

“You’re exactly like my mother was back then,” Vasida couldn’t help laughing one time, watching Mo Lan chase the egg baby around to read its mind. “When I was little, my mother was just like this — following me around all day wanting to know what I was thinking.”

“My mother was the same way,” Sylph said, suppressing a laugh.

“Mine too,” Lilith added.

Only then did Mo Lan realize that having her thoughts read by Mama Shanna the moment she was born hadn’t been unfair at all.

When all young witches were first born and their vocal organs hadn’t fully developed yet, witch mothers would use mind-reading magic to understand their babies’ needs.

It was just that Mama Shanna, being a Mind Witch with exceptional Psychic Magic talent, could pick up on thoughts even without actively using mind-reading magic, which was why Mo Lan had been exposed so much faster.

With this lively egg baby around, Sylph’s plantation became even more vibrant and full of life.

Less than three months later, several tender green saplings suddenly sprouted from the grass around the mutated Tree of Life, growing larger by the day.

“These are maple-copper tree seedlings,” Sylph said, crouching down to examine them closely, her brow furrowing slightly. “Strange — how could saplings sprout from this patch of grass?”

By all logic, the mutated Tree of Life’s root system should have long claimed this soil, leaving no room for other plants to grow.

“Let’s go down and take a look!”

Mo Lan spoke up, then cast the otherworldly magic “Earth Tunneling Technique” she had learned from a Knowledge Card, and dove Underground first.

This magic, brought back from another world by a Beyond Peak Witch years ago, had long since been uploaded to the Book of Cards, made into a Knowledge Card, and listed in the witch version of the Card Shop. Mo Lan had recommended it to her companions the moment she discovered it.

Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph followed close behind, burrowing into the earth after her.

The egg baby, left behind in Dunmu’s cradle, immediately panicked.

“Mama! Mama!”

“Purple auntie!”

“Red auntie!”

“Black auntie!”

“Waah…”

Dunmu, who couldn’t tunnel through earth either, spun around in a frenzy, and simply started digging furiously with the egg baby in tow.

The egg baby was delighted again: “Ooh ooh! Dig dig!”

Meanwhile, the witches deep Underground were staring in shock at the rotting tree roots before them.

“How did they die?” Vasida gave one a gentle poke, and the root broke open. “They’ve already decayed badly. It seems like they’ve been dead for quite some time.”

“But the tree above looked perfectly fine,” Lilith recalled. “It’s just that after the egg baby was picked, the power of life around it vanished, leaving only wood elemental force.”

“I infused it with Hybrid Magic energy just today, and nothing seemed abnormal at the time,” Sylph said, equally puzzled.

“Let’s go check the main root,” Mo Lan suggested, leading everyone toward the mutated Tree of Life.

“Huh? It’s grown new roots,” Vasida discovered with surprise.

“But these new roots are far thinner and weaker than the rotted old ones,” Lilith observed, comparing them.

“A root system like this is actually proportional to the size of its trunk and canopy,” Sylph said thoughtfully. “Perhaps it has already transformed into an ordinary tree. These past few months, no matter how much energy I infused, there’s been no sign of it bearing fruit again.”

“Don’t the Elves’ Trees of Life bear fruit continuously?” Mo Lan asked.

“Yes,” Sylph nodded. “All Elves come from the fruit of a single Tree of Life.”

“Maybe after mutating, it became a special existence that can only bear a single fruit,” Lilith speculated. “Just like how we witches can only bear one child in our lifetime. The question is whether only one of these mutated Trees of Life can be grown.”

Curiosity sparkled in Sylph’s eyes. “Since the old roots have already rotted, I’ll try planting another one.”

She summoned the Box of Ten Thousand Seeds, preparing to condense a new mutated Tree of Life seed.

When they returned to the surface and Sylph was about to germinate the new seed, Vasida suddenly exclaimed: “Where’s the egg baby?”

The Sorceresses searched the entire meadow before finally finding the mud-covered egg baby in a large pit next to one of the maple-copper tree saplings, along with Dunmu, who was still digging away with all its might.

“What are you two doing?” Sylph said with a headache.

“Mama! Mama!” The egg baby was completely oblivious to the state it was in, filled with nothing but joy at seeing its mother again.

Dunmu, however, seemed to sense something subtle in its master’s mood and tried its best to curl up a root to brush the dirt off the top of the egg baby’s shell.

Unfortunately, its roots weren’t exactly long, and it couldn’t reach at all.

The egg baby, for its part, just kept bouncing up and down.

“Dirt dirt! Dig! Find mama!”

Only then did Sylph realize what had happened — when they had tunneled underground, the egg baby had gotten anxious, and Dunmu had started digging to follow them.

She cast a Cleaning spell to clean both the egg baby and Dunmu, then had Dunmu carry the egg baby out of the pit.

“Well, this works out perfectly — no need to dig a hole. We can just plant it right here,” Mo Lan said, pointing at the pit Dunmu had dug.

Sylph nodded, backfilled some soil to make the large pit smaller, then germinated the mutated Tree of Life seed she held and planted it.

She then transplanted the nearby maple-copper tree sapling to the distant grove.

This time, Mo Lan and the others witnessed the growth process of the mutated Tree of Life with their own eyes.

After planting, it truly grew a little more with each infusion of Hybrid Magic energy.

Day by day, bit by bit, it quickly took on the appearance of a small sapling.

Once it reached roughly the same height as the Tree of Life that had borne the egg baby, it began branching out and thickening, developing horizontally.

After expanding horizontally to a certain scale and growing a dense canopy of leaves, it began developing its root system at a furious pace.