My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Rexor was also at a loss. He knew a lot about Otherworldly beings, but insects... were not his area of ​​expertise.

“I’ll go get Hillenburg. You wait here for a bit,” Rexol told Shazo before slipping out of the makeshift laboratory.

Xia Zuo understood and immediately dismissed his blood-element servants.

After Hillenburg entered, he first glanced at the three drug identification reports on the table, and then he was immediately drawn to the images on the observation chair.

"This...this is a deep-sea turtle?" Hillenburg exclaimed in shock. "This is the first time I've ever seen such a small deep-sea turtle."

He leaned closer to the lens and examined the insect carefully. "This is a newly hatched deep-sea softshell turtle larva. Normally it should be about the size of a human fist... Why is this one so small?"

“Strange, strange…interesting…” Hillenburg sat down in the observation seat and adjusted the angle little by little, barely managing to see the belly of the deep-sea turtle.

Xia Zuo and Rexor then realized that the so-called little insect was actually a sea turtle, and the round, bulging body they had seen earlier was actually its back.

“We have to get this deep-sea turtle out of the strange egg,” Hillenburg said.

"I'm afraid that's difficult to do." Xia Zuo and the bald man exchanged a glance and said:

"Master Rexor and I conducted an experiment, using the Time-Space Imaging spell to record the explosion process of the monster egg."

"We discovered that these deep-sea turtles turn into black smoke and disappear the moment they come into contact with air."

"Therefore, we must first find a way to prevent these deep-sea turtles from disappearing."

“Contact with air…disappear…” Hillenburg adjusted his glasses, frowned, and thought for a minute before speaking in a serious tone:

“I think I know the purpose of the strange egg now… This deep-sea turtle is likely not a product of nature, but a flesh and blood prop created using flesh and blood alchemy.”

"Why do you say that?" Rexor's expression was equally solemn. Anything related to the Church of the Otherworldly Demons was bound to be distorted and blasphemous.

Hillenburg rummaged through his alchemy pouch and found a locked diary.

“This contains my most treasured exploration experience, and you two must keep it a secret for me,” Hillenburg said.

“Okay, team leader, I definitely won’t tell anyone.” Xia Zuo nodded solemnly.

Rexor silently brought his index and middle fingers together, raised them upwards, and made a swearing gesture.

Hillenburg unlocked the seal on the diary, turned to one of the pages, and saw an anatomical diagram of a deep-sea turtle.

The anatomical diagram is incomplete; the text next to the image reads "sample incomplete, unable to be identified."

It seems that the creator of the anatomical diagram was not deliberately concealing anything, but rather encountered uncontrollable objective factors that led to the incompleteness of the anatomical diagram.

"The deep-sea turtle is a long-lived but very timid monster."

“I’ve worked near the sea castle for over ten years and only ever saw one nest of deep-sea turtles, which was a year ago. There were seven deep-sea turtles in that nest, and it took me a lot of effort to catch them.”

"Unfortunately, we did not capture any live deep-sea turtles, only a few somewhat damaged turtle carcasses."

“My oldest colleagues and I completed this study together, and they can testify to what I say.”

Hillenburg pointed his finger to the abdomen of the deep-sea turtle on the anatomical diagram and said:

"According to our research, these marine monsters that live in the dark zone have a unique characteristic: they have a high reproductive capacity and can produce 7 to 10 offspring in one litter, but the survival rate of the offspring is extremely low."

"Because deep-sea turtles give birth to young not for reproduction, but to send out alarms."

"Warning..." Rexor's pupils twitched.

If Rek'Sorrow had hair, Shaza could imagine what it would look like with his hair standing on end...

Hillenburg stated affirmatively:

"Yes, the role of the cubs is to sound the alarm."

"I speculate that there is a telepathic connection between the mother and offspring of the deep-sea turtle."

“The young of deep-sea softshell turtles are both fragile and sensitive, and can be startled by even the slightest changes in their environment.”

"They will be placed at the entrance of the nest. Once the water flow or light at the entrance changes, the young will be immediately disturbed, and the mother, who has a telepathic connection with them, will sense the panic of the young immediately."

“The mother turtle will immediately hide deep in the nest or move to a different nest, completely ignoring her young. This has led to many young turtles becoming food for other sea monsters.”

Xia Zuo sighed, "How cruel! The deep-sea turtle would treat its own offspring like this."

Rexor, standing nearby, was no stranger to this practice of using offspring as tools. He glanced at the naive Shazo and said:

"Most low-intelligence monsters lack moral concepts, and their groups do not have the parent-child relationships we commonly understand. I have seen quite a few monsters similar to the Deep Sea Turtle."

Hillenburg agreed, saying, "Yes, in fact, according to my research, every deep-sea monster that can survive for a long time in complex environments will more or less use its offspring as tools."

Hillenburg clapped his hands. "Let's get back to the main topic."

He pointed to the image on the observation seat and said:

"If I'm not mistaken, the Church of the Otherworldly Demons must have captured a pair of vigorous, robust deep-sea turtles. The Church of the Otherworldly Demons modified them and mass-produced these tiny turtle hatchlings with alarm functions."

Hillenburg then pointed to the strange egg on the enclosed control panel.

"Based on the survival conditions of deep-sea turtle larvae, the Otherworldly Demon Church has created an egg-shaped object with a stable internal structure that is highly sensitive to environmental changes to preserve the turtle larvae."

"There are many benefits to doing this."

"First of all, the young turtles originally only reacted to changes in light and water flow."

"But once inside the strange egg, the baby turtle will be kept in an environment where the light and water flow are stable."

"At this point, the death of the baby turtle will only occur when the strange egg breaks."

"The prerequisites for the rupture of the monster egg can be set by the flesh alchemists of the Church of the Otherworld, such as changes in pressure, vibrations in the surrounding area, or the sensing of magical energy, etc."

"So, the first benefit is that it expands the types of alarms that young soft-shelled turtles can emit."

Hillenburg picked up Shazor's drug test report, carefully read through the underlined text, then gave Shazor an approving look and said:

"The second advantage is its excellent secrecy. This master-level toxin called Zero Toxin ensures that the operating principle of the monster egg will not be known to our Mage Temple, greatly increasing the difficulty of cracking it."

"I think Master Rexor should have thought of the last benefit long ago."

Rexol rubbed his throbbing brow, his voice low and deep:

"If the connection between the mother and the offspring is telepathic, then it is very difficult to detect telepathy by detecting energy fluctuations."

"We need to use a high-powered detection array to detect traces of energy fluctuations."

"But it is obvious that patrol teams and outpost guards cannot carry the detection array around all the time."

"Therefore, this method of issuing an alarm by using juvenile turtles is extremely covert."

After a brief pause, Rexol asked:

"So, Hillenburg, do you have any good ideas? We want to know how the strange eggs appeared and to whom their alarms were sent?"

As Hillenburg pondered, he took off his glasses, wiped them, and said:

"Guys, I have a few ideas."

"It is assumed that the mother and offspring of the deep-sea turtle do indeed communicate through telepathy."

"Theoretically speaking, as long as we can find an expert in telepathic magic, we can track down where the telepathic alarm sent by the baby turtle went when the monster egg exploded."

Rexor took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "Those guys might not be willing to help... They're cowards—excuse me for calling them allies of the Temple, but that's the truth. Instead of relying on them, we'd rather leave it to the Tower Mages to break the Deep Sea Turtle's telepathic connection."

Xia Zuo paused for a moment, then asked, "Master, are you referring to the Shamanic Society when you say 'coward'?"

Rexor nodded. "They're a bunch of guys who joined the Temple but want to remain neutral. They've contributed almost nothing except a few tomes and psychic texts."

"Ahem..." Hillenburg changed the subject, saying:

"Seeking help from the shamanic society is not the only way out. Even if they are unwilling to help, we can still find ways to resolve the problem."

“Now, we have two complete monster eggs. These should be the only two monster eggs the Temple possesses, right, Rexor?”

The bald man nodded grimly. "Yes, the other monster eggs exploded less than half a minute after they were discovered."

Hillenburg clapped his hands and said:

"We need to be careful with our spending."

"I suggest that we first have a poison alchemist research the formula for the toxin, concoct an antidote, and eliminate the Zero Toxin and the other 21 expert-level toxins."

"Then, give one of the non-poisonous monster eggs to the tower mages, and let them use magic to fix the soon-to-dissipate turtle hatchling at the moment the monster egg explodes."

"As long as the spiritual connection between the baby turtles and their mothers can be maintained, we can eventually track down the mothers in time."

Helenburg paused, then continued:

"The other non-toxic strange egg will be given to the bio-alchemist. As long as we can reverse the process of making the strange egg and understand its operating principle, we can create a data card for the strange egg, replicate it, or track down its arranger and creator."

Rexor looked at Shazo and asked, "How long will it take you to decipher the formulas for 22 toxins? Do you need to find someone else to help?"

Xia Zuo rubbed his chin and calculated for a few seconds, "If I were to crack it by myself, it would take about 30 hours to deduce the formula for all the toxins."

“30 hours… we may not have enough time. The temple guards stationed at the Crystal Remnant have calculated that the stronghold will be attacked by the Church of the Otherworld within 48 hours after the monster egg explodes.”

Rexol tapped the table. "Well then, since this is of great importance, I'll request permission from the outer court to use some unconventional methods."

Rexor pulled a metal box from his alchemy pouch, carefully placed the monster egg inside, and said:

“Hilenburg, you are a master of bioalchemy and have reviewed the information on Zero Toxin, so you and Xia Zuo will have to come with me to the outer hall.”

“No problem.” Hillenburg said excitedly, a smile playing on his lips.

"I've long wanted to figure out how the deep-sea turtle's telepathy works. Is this amazing ability to transcend spatial limitations a special function of mutated organs, or a kind of innate magic of the deep-sea turtle?"

Xia Zuo was considering something else... his experience bar was about to burst...

A few days ago, he completed the trial of hunting poisonous water spiders, which gave him a boost of experience.

The toxin identification process just now provided another valuable lesson.

Later we'll need to decipher the recipe and create the antidote, which will definitely bring in a lot of experience...

So, the question he's facing now is whether or not to upgrade?

As Shazo followed Rexor and Hillenberg back to the Ocean Observatory, he kept thinking about this issue while flying from the sea castle to the teleportation room.

Once the adaptation potions for the formal mage stage are used up, there are limited ways to quickly increase strength, agility, and stamina. The recently discovered underwater operation bonus also requires a long period of accumulation to be effective.

All indications suggest that suppressing levels at this point will not yield the same benefits as before.

Moreover, the number of available free attribute points is too small, making Xia Zuo feel somewhat constrained and less at ease than before.

All things considered, letting the experience bar fill up and leveling up naturally might be a good option.

Hmm~ It's settled then... Having made up his mind, Xia Zuo looked at Rexor beside him, who was fiddling with the secret communication ring. After boarding Hellenberger's flying carpet, Rexor had been busy communicating with various parties.