---o---
"This…"
Black Swan found herself in a difficult position. The tens of thousands of True Stingbugs surrounding them were already a massive headache, not to mention Dahlia was still nearby. Who knew if she would make a move while they were trying to retrieve the 'Ender Dragon's' corpse.
But just then, Fu Zhu's figure suddenly appeared before the three of them.
"Hm? What are you two doing here?"
Having found his backpack and returned, Fu Zhu was a bit surprised to see Ruan Mei and Black Swan.
The moment Black Swan saw Fu Zhu, she immediately let out a sigh of relief. She pointed towards the 'Ender Dragon' corpse in the distance and said, "Mr. Fu Zhu, Madam Ruan Mei wishes to collect that corpse. Could you please help me keep an eye on Dahlia while I retrieve it?"
"Keep an eye on her? It seems you two know each other."
Fu Zhu nodded in agreement. Only then did Black Swan feel at ease enough to leave Ruan Mei's side, dodging the swarm of True Stingbugs as she flew towards the corpse.
Fu Zhu then sidled up to Ruan Mei and asked, "What do you want that corpse for?"
"Research. This is the first time I've seen a creature react to the End Poem, and more importantly, their queen was evolving into an Ender Dragon. It's quite miraculous," Ruan Mei explained.
"In that case, could you help me research a dragon egg while you're at it?"
Hearing that Ruan Mei was planning to conduct research, Fu Zhu immediately pulled the Dragon Egg from his backpack. Although he had received the Dragon Egg Hatching Mod when he first obtained the egg, he still hadn't figured out how to hatch it, and the mod hadn't provided any new recipes.
However, the moment Fu Zhu took out the Dragon Egg, the situation on the field suddenly changed.
The True Stingbugs, which had been frantically trying to stop Black Swan from approaching their queen's corpse, all turned their heads in unison to look this way. Without a shred of hesitation, they flew straight over.
The nearby Robin couldn't help but exclaim. She quickly tugged on Fu Zhu's sleeve and shouted a warning, "Mr. Fu Zhu, the True Stingbugs are charging!"
"Annoying bugs." Fu Zhu noticed this and frowned, raising his hand towards the incoming swarm.
"/kill True Stingbug."
The moment the command left his lips, the swarming True Stingbugs instantly turned to ash. The sky, which had been blotted out by a dense swarm, was now completely clear, revealing its original appearance.
Fu Zhu let out a long breath. Wiping out over a hundred thousand True Stingbugs with a single command was, admittedly, quite stress-relieving.
However, a new question arose. Why did the Dragon Egg attract the True Stingbugs?
"Fu Zhu, can I take a look at the Dragon Egg?"
Ruan Mei, standing beside him, was equally curious about this. At her request, Fu Zhu handed the Dragon Egg directly to her.
"Here. Be careful not to drop it on the ground. It'll be a pain to get it back later."
"Mhm."
Ruan Mei carefully took the Dragon Egg and began to study it intently.
Meanwhile, without the harassment from the True Stingbugs, Black Swan quickly and successfully retrieved the corpse of the True Stingbug Queen. On her way back, she glanced at Dahlia, who was standing乖巧 (guāiqiǎo - obediently) in her original spot.
Her well-behaved demeanor made Black Swan a little uneasy, but she didn't dwell on it and returned directly to Fu Zhu's group.
"Madam Ruan Mei, I've brought back the queen's remains as you asked."
"Thank you. Just put it to the side for now."
Black Swan nodded and casually placed the corpse nearby, her gaze then shifting to the Dragon Egg.
Having personally experienced the battle on Amphoreus, Black Swan naturally knew that this ordinary-looking egg was the one left behind by the Ender Dragon.
"Have you discovered anything?"
Ruan Mei frowned and shook her head. "I've only just taken it, but I'm not without any findings. It seems this egg requires a vast amount of energy."
"Energy?" Fu Zhu, Robin, and Black Swan exchanged glances. The former immediately pulled out Redstone and a Lava Bucket from his backpack. In the world of MC, these two items were considered a type of infinite energy source.
"Can the energy from these two things work?"
Ruan Mei freed a hand to test the energy provided by the Redstone and the Lava Bucket, then shook her head.
"The energy signature of the Redstone partially corresponds to what the egg needs, but the amount of energy provided by a single block is far too weak. The lava is even less suitable. It seems the Dragon Egg doesn't require a heat source."
This put Fu Zhu in a difficult position. The only energy supply methods he could think of were the ones from MC.
"I'll try something else."
An idea seemed to occur to Ruan Mei. She immediately placed her hand on top of the Dragon Egg. A verdant green light flickered in her palm before rapidly flowing into the egg.
"It worked!" Ruan Mei's eyes lit up when she saw the Dragon Egg suddenly react. She had just been thinking, since the Ender Dragon had seized the power of the Path of Finality, could it mean that the energy needed to hatch this egg was also the power of a Path?
So, she tried to directly supply the egg with the power of her own Path, and it actually worked!
However, after a moment, Ruan Mei sensed something was wrong!
She couldn't move her hand! The egg was drawing power from her body without any limit!
If this continued, she was afraid she would be sucked dry!
"Fu Zhu, help me!"
In her moment of panic, Ruan Mei cried out to Fu Zhu for help. Fu Zhu also reacted in an instant, reaching out to forcibly wrench the Dragon Egg from Ruan Mei's grasp. The moment the egg left her hand, Ruan Mei collapsed weakly. Fortunately, Robin and Black Swan were quick to support her, preventing her from falling to the ground.
As for Fu Zhu, the moment the Dragon Egg was in his hand, his experience points began to plummet at an astonishing rate, and it was only getting faster.
Now Fu Zhu understood. The Dragon Egg required the power of a Path to hatch. And as it happened, the experience points in MC could simulate the power of any Path, which was why the egg was absorbing the XP from his body.
Ruan Mei, looking weak, glanced at the Dragon Egg in Fu Zhu's hand. She now completely understood what had just transpired.
"Fu Zhu, I get it now. Those True Stingbugs weren't trying to attack us earlier. They were trying to offer themselves as a sacrifice!"
"A sacrifice?" x3
Fu Zhu, Robin, and Black Swan all turned to look at her in unison, but the three of them quickly understood.
Ruan Mei nodded and continued to explain for the three of them.
"They wanted to sacrifice themselves to provide energy for the Dragon Egg, so that it could hatch a brand-new queen. Only then can their colony continue to survive."
Hearing this, Fu Zhu's eyes lit up.
"In that case, I might have an idea…"
From the very beginning, he had been keeping an eye on the minimap just in case. And at the edge of the map, True Stingbugs were still constantly spawning, which meant the Stellaron was still active.
That gave him something to work with.