The Imperial Hatchery was a sensory overload of chaotic Qi. As Squad 7 stepped past the heavy steel blast doors, they were hit by a wave of humid, nutrient-rich air. The cavern was massive, illuminated by rows of glowing ultraviolet incubators and terrariums. The sounds of hundreds of newborn Tier-9 and Tier-8 beasts—chirps, low growls, and the scratching of tiny claws against spirit-glass—filled the echoing space.
Initiates were practically climbing over each other. Noble boys were shoving commoners aside, drawn immediately to the flashiest enclosures: incubators holding winged serpent hatchlings, or terrariums housing twin-tailed fire-leopards. They wanted beasts that looked like status symbols.
Kai stood perfectly still at the entrance. He didn't rush. He had something the Imperial Arcanists and the noble heirs didn't.
He had the software.
"System," Kai murmured, his molten-gold eyes scanning the massive room. "Activate [Appraisal]. Filter by hidden bloodline resonance. Ignore surface-level Tier data."
[Appraisal Active]
[Scanning Bio-Signatures... 412 targets identified.]
[Applying 'Hidden Bloodline' filter. Highlighting anomalies.]
Instantly, the chaotic blur of the Hatchery shifted. The majestic, roaring beasts the nobles were fighting over suddenly looked dull to Kai's transmigrator vision. Instead, four distinct, faint beacons of golden light illuminated in the darker, neglected corners of the cavern.
The Academy had graded these beasts based on their immediate physical traits. But Kai's Level 9 System could read their genetic code.
"Stay close," Kai ordered, tapping the Sovereign's Edge at his hip. "The Academy sorted these beasts by what they are right now. We are going to pick them based on what they will become."
Kai led Robert away from the central aisles, walking toward a damp, shadowy section of the cavern where the temperature dropped noticeably. In a small, unadorned glass box rested a tiny, lethargic black snake. It was barely the thickness of a thumb, its scales matte and unremarkable.
"A garden snake?" Robert asked, his voice dripping with skepticism. "Kai, if I link with that thing, my fifty percent stat boost is going to be... what? The ability to slither?"
Kai stepped closer, ignoring the snake's unremarkable appearance. His eyes locked onto the faint, dark aura warping the space just millimeters above the creature's scales.
[Target Identified: Shadow-Viper Hatchling]
[Surface Grade: Tier 9 (Low)]
[Hidden Mutation: Trace 'Void Dragon' Bloodline.]
[Potential: Extreme. Capable of consuming spatial magic.]
"It's not a garden snake," Kai said, a fierce grin spreading across his face. "Its core is so dense with Void Qi that it's passively absorbing the light and heat around it. That's why it looks weak. It's starving for a proper energy source."
Kai looked at Robert. "Your Siphon-Staff creates localized vacuums. This snake has a trace of a Void Dragon in its ancestry. If you feed it your Cultivation, it won't just boost your stats; it will turn your arrays into actual black holes."
Robert swallowed hard. He placed his hand against the glass. The tiny black snake instantly lifted its head, its pitch-black eyes locking onto Robert. It flicked its tongue, tasting the lingering Void Qi on the boy.
"Okay," Robert whispered, popping the latch and carefully scooping the freezing serpent into his palms. "Let's go eat some magic, little guy."
With Robert secured, Kai pivoted toward the high-pressure, arid section of the Hatchery. He walked past several impressive, spiky stone-bears until he reached a reinforced terrarium filled with heavy gravel.
Sitting in the center, stubbornly gnawing on a chunk of raw iron ore, was a stout, thick-legged reptile. It looked like a cross between a monitor lizard and a snapping turtle, covered in overlapping, dull-brown plates.
"That thing is ugly as sin," Maya noted, crossing her arms, though her eyes lingered on the thickness of its scales.
[Target Identified: Iron-Plate Basilisk (Infant)]
[Surface Grade: Tier 8 (Low)]
[Hidden Mutation: Trace 'Earth Dragon' Bloodline.]
[Potential: Extreme. Unyielding kinetic defense.]
"It's not here to win a beauty contest, Maya," Kai said, gesturing to the creature. "Look at the jaw pressure. It's eating raw iron. It has an ancient trace of an Earth Dragon in its marrow. If you link with that reptile, the fifty percent physical transfer is going to turn your bones into literal bedrock. It's the perfect anchor for a Shield-bearer."
Maya didn't need any more convincing. She loved things that were dense and unbreakable. She reached into the terrarium. The reptile snapped its jaws at her thick, calloused fingers, but Maya didn't flinch. She grabbed it firmly behind the neck, pulling it out. The heavy lizard grunted, recognizing the immovable Earth Qi in her grip, and immediately settled down, wrapping its thick tail around her forearm.
"Good boy," Maya grunted, patting its heavily armored head.
Finding a beast for Princess Yan was trickier. Alchemists needed precise, refined Qi, not just brute force. Kai led them toward the high-energy elemental wing.
Sitting alone in a pristine, gilded cage—largely ignored by the commoners who feared its aggressive aura—was a golden-furred lion cub. It was pacing restlessly, letting out tiny, surprisingly deep roars. But what caught Kai's attention wasn't the fur; it was the cub's eyes. They weren't a normal color. They swirled with a chaotic, mesmerizing blend of violet, gold, and crimson.
[Target Identified: Sun-Mane Lion (Cub)]
[Surface Grade: Tier 8 (Mid)]
[Hidden Mutation: Trace 'Chaos Sphinx' Bloodline.]
[Potential: Extreme. Absolute elemental manipulation.]
"A lion?" Yan asked, raising an elegant eyebrow. "It is a noble beast, certainly. But it is a pure physical striker. How does that help my Alchemy?"
"Look at its eyes, Princess," Kai instructed quietly. "It's not a normal Sun-Mane. It has a dormant Chaos Sphinx bloodline. It doesn't just produce fire or wind; it manipulates the chaotic state of all elements around it. When you are refining highly volatile herbs like the Blood-Lotus, this cub's linked aura will force the chaotic energies in your cauldron to stabilize."
Yan's breath hitched. A beast that passively stabilized alchemical reactions was a priceless treasure that the Imperial Court would kill for. The Academy had completely overlooked it, assuming the swirling eyes were just a generic birth defect.
She gracefully opened the cage. The lion cub bounded forward, sniffing her scorched vanguard uniform. It immediately sensed the refined, perfectly controlled Qi of a master Alchemist and rubbed its head against her hand, purring loudly.
"You have a terrifying eye for value, Hart," Yan murmured, lifting the heavy golden cub into her arms.
"Three down," Robert said, the Void serpent happily coiled around his neck like a freezing scarf. "Now you. Go find your dragon or whatever."
Kai didn't look at the dragons. He didn't look at the massive, elemental tigers. He followed the final, glowing golden beacon of his [Appraisal] skill to the very back of the cavern, near the exhaust vents of the Hatchery's heating units.
Sitting in a standard, unheated metal crate was a puppy.
It looked entirely unremarkable. It had coarse, stone-colored fur, oversized paws, and droopy ears. It looked exactly like the stray mongrel dogs that used to steal scraps back in Kai's farming village. Several noble initiates had already walked past it, laughing at the Academy for including a "stray mutt" in the Menagerie.
But Kai's transmigrator System was practically screaming at him.
[Target Identified: Earth-Dog (Infant)]
[Surface Grade: Tier 9 (Bottom)]
[Hidden Mutation: Trace 'Qilin' Bloodline.]
[Resonance: 100% Match with Host's Five-Element Core.]
[Potential: Mythic. The Auspicious Beast of the Forge.]
Kai knelt in front of the metal crate.
In ancient myths, the Qilin was a legendary, chimera-like beast associated with earth, metal, fire, and absolute auspicious power. Over thousands of years, the bloodline had diluted down into this seemingly ordinary, incredibly dense Earth Dog. But Kai's Titan-Sovereign Form and his Five-Element Cultivation were exactly the keys needed to reawaken that dormant, mythic DNA.
Kai reached out his blistered, calloused hand.
The pup opened its eyes. They weren't brown. They were a brilliant, piercing, molten gold—the exact same color as Kai's.
The puppy didn't bark. It stood up on its oversized paws, walked to the edge of the crate, and pressed its snout firmly against Kai's palm. The instant their skin touched, Kai felt a heavy, resonant thrum echo perfectly through his newly cleansed marrow. The pup's internal core was a perfect, miniature mirror of his own heavy, metallic Qi.
It wasn't just a dog. It was a Forge Hound.
"Found you," Kai whispered, scooping the heavy pup into his arms. The dog immediately curled up against his chest, completely unbothered by the harsh heat radiating from Kai's core.
Squad 7 walked back out into the main amphitheater, drawing immediately confused and mocking stares from the other initiates.
Zhao Feng, Princess Yan's arrogant cousin, was struggling to hold a violently thrashing, heavily scaled Tier-8 Flame-Hawk. He looked at Kai's sleeping puppy and Robert's tiny snake and burst into laughter.
"A garden snake and a mutt?" Feng sneered, ignoring the burns forming on his own arms. "I see the commoners are sticking to their true stations in life! You'll be crippled the second those weaklings die in the field!"
Kai didn't even blink. He looked at Feng, then at the wildly unstable Flame-Hawk. "You're holding a beast with a pure Fire core, Feng. Your affinity is Wind. The second that contract seals, it's going to use your meridians as a blast furnace. Enjoy the combustion."
Feng's face went pale, but before he could argue, Master Elara slammed her staff against the stone floor.
"Time is up!" Elara barked. "Take your beasts to the Inscription Altars! Bare your chests. The Arcanists will carve the Soul-Link arrays into your flesh. If you scream, you fail. If you bleed out, you fail. Bind your engines!"
Kai stepped up to the nearest cold stone altar. He placed the Earth Dog down, unbuttoned his uniform tunic, and bared his deeply bronzed, scarred chest. The Arcanist approaching him raised a needle dripping with glowing, liquid gold.
Kai met the Qilin-blooded pup's golden eyes.
Let's see what a fifty percent boost really feels like, Kai thought, bracing himself as the needle descended.