Several days had passed when Lin Feng, riding the White Moonlight and followed by the White Emerald, appeared outside the familiar walls of the shelter.
This time, his return was not as grand as before.
But when the woman on the watchtower recognized him, she also let out a deafening scream.
"Mr. Lin! Mr. Lin is back!"
The women rushed out of the shed again and gathered in front of the gate.
Their faces showed joy, excitement, and curiosity and awe towards the unknown world.
Lin Feng looked at them, his face expressionless.
He knew that these women must have grown a lot after experiencing so much.
"Open the door," Lin Feng said in a deep voice.
Qin Lan immediately led the other women forward and together they pulled open the heavy wooden door.
Lin Feng rode the White Moonlight and slowly walked into the shelter.
"Mr. Lin, I'm so glad you're alright! We were so worried!" Qin Lan rushed forward, her eyes filled with worry and joy.
Lin Feng nodded to her, then pointed to the pouch on his chest.
"I brought back something good," he said calmly, but a hint of excitement and anticipation flickered in his deep eyes.
The women looked at the two pouches with curiosity, their minds filled with questions.
Qin Lan was the first to lose her composure. She cautiously stepped forward and asked curiously, "Mr. Lin, what's inside? Is it... a new mythical beast?"
Lin Feng did not answer directly. He took off the pouch and carefully placed it on the fur carpet in the center of the main room.
Under the watchful eyes of the women, he slowly unsealed the pouch.
When the scene inside the pouch was revealed to them, everyone gasped in astonishment!
"Oh my god!" Tang Bao covered her mouth, her eyes filled with disbelief.
"Is...is it an egg?" Su Wanqing's tone was full of surprise. She couldn't imagine that Lin Feng would bring back such a huge "egg".
Two giant eggs, radiating a faint, moonlit glow, lay quietly on the ground.
They are milky white all over, with pale gold patterns on the surface that resemble ice cracks, exuding a mysterious and noble aura.
Each one is almost half a person tall, and just by looking at them, you can feel the surging vitality they contain.
"This is the egg of the Shining Falcon." Lin Feng's voice was calm, yet carried a hint of undisguised pride.
The women were utterly shocked by these words.
They had heard Lin Feng mention the Radiant Falcon.
It was an aerial overlord so powerful it inspired despair.
Every time they flap their wings, they cause a blizzard; their cries can tear the sky apart! And Lin Feng actually brought back their eggs?!
"Mr. Lin... how... how did you do that?" Qin Lan's tone was full of awe. She knew the power of the Radiant Falcon and understood the dangers of Lin Feng's journey.
Lin Feng didn't explain much, but simply recounted his encounter with the Shining Wing Ice Falcon and his thrilling escape.
The women were terrified and broke out in a cold sweat.
"If these two eggs can hatch successfully, they will be the shelter's greatest asset in the future." Lin Feng's gaze swept over everyone as he said in a deep voice, "They will provide me with unprecedented air superiority capabilities and greatly enhance the shelter's defensive strength."
However, after the initial excitement, new problems arose.
"Mr. Lin, how do you hatch...?" Ruan Mengtian asked timidly. They had never seen such a large egg before, let alone knew how to hatch it.
Tangbao also came over and whispered, "Do we have to sit on it like a hen incubating eggs?"
Upon hearing this, Lin Feng's lips twitched slightly.
“That’s not it.” Lin Feng shook his head: “They need specific temperature and humidity conditions. And the place where they are incubated cannot be here.”
He looked out the window; the wind and snow were still raging. Although the main house was warm, it was ultimately not a suitable place to incubate the giant egg.
He needed a more secluded location where the environment was easier to control.
The image of that warm basin with "sunwheel wood" immediately came to mind.
The naturally warm environment there is undoubtedly the best choice for incubating the eggs of the Glowing Falcon.
In the days that followed, Lin Feng once again threw himself into intense preparations.
He considered the hatching of the Shining Falcon's egg to be a more important task than anything else.
He did not involve the women in building the incubator, but instead personally led White Moonlight and White Jade back to that familiar, warm basin.
He knew that hatching the giant egg required not only technology, but also absolute secrecy and security.
Deep in the warm basin, Lin Feng chose a relatively flat, sheltered spot beneath a rock wall.
He first brought over several pieces of wood cut from the trunk of the sun-ring tree. These pieces of wood themselves emitted a steady amount of heat, serving as a natural heat source.
Beneath the wood, he used relatively flat stones to build a simple, semi-enclosed incubator.
At the bottom of the incubator, he laid a thick layer of special moss collected from near the fluorescent river to help retain moisture, as well as some soft animal hides.
Then, he carefully placed the two Radiant Falcon eggs on the moss and animal hide.
To increase humidity, he also found some absorbent volcanic rocks nearby, soaked them in water, and then placed them around the hatchery. The evaporation of the water effectively increased the air humidity near the hatchery.
After doing all this, Lin Feng's most important task every day was to observe the changes in the two giant eggs and turn them over regularly.
He gently touched the eggshells with his hands to feel their temperature, ensuring they remained in a relatively constant, warm state.
Wangcai was called over from the sanctuary to keep watch around the warm basin and prevent other predators from getting close.
White Moonlight and White Jade move freely within the basin, recovering their strength.
Days passed by.
For the first few days, the two giant eggs did not show any obvious changes, remaining as smooth and lustrous as jade, radiating a faint halo.
Lin Feng's heart was constantly in his throat, fearing that he might make a mistake in any aspect, causing these two hard-won hopes to be shattered.
On the seventh day of incubation, Lin Feng was surprised to find, during a routine check of the eggs, that the pale golden cracks on the shell of one of the eggs had become clearer and brighter than before!
Moreover, when he put his ear close to the eggshell, he faintly heard a very faint sound, like a small drumbeat!
"There's movement!" Lin Feng's heart skipped a beat, and he was so excited that he almost shouted out loud!
This discovery filled him with joy, but also made him even more cautious.
He knew that this meant the little life inside the egg was developing healthily and that the day it would hatch was not far off!
Another ten days or so have passed.
The first bird egg to show unusual activity had its pale gold patterns on its surface become as clear as if they were carved in gold, and it was emitting an increasingly bright light.
The sounds emanating from inside the eggshell gradually became clearer and more rhythmic, starting from being barely audible.
The other bird egg, although not as obviously changed, also began to show similar signs, just a little later.
Lin Feng knew that the most crucial moment was about to arrive.
On a snowy night, the sun-wheel trees in the warm basin emitted a soft and warm orange-yellow glow.
Lin Feng stayed up all night, guarding the incubation platform, his eyes fixed on the most reactive Radiant Falcon egg.
"Crack..."
A very faint, yet heavenly sound of shattering reached Lin Feng's ears clearly!
He rushed forward and saw a tiny crack on the top of the giant egg, which was half the height of a person!
"It's coming out!" Lin Feng's breathing became rapid, and his palms were sweating with tension.
"Crack... Crack..."
The cracks multiplied and grew larger, spreading rapidly outwards from the eggshell like a spider web.
Inside the eggshell, came a series of rapid, forceful pecking sounds, along with some indistinct, weak yet powerful chirping of fledglings.
Lin Feng watched all of this nervously, suppressing the urge to step forward and help.
He knew that hatching was the first major test in the lives of chicks, and they had to rely on their own strength to complete it.
Finally, after a relatively loud "click," a palm-sized piece of eggshell was broken from the inside and fell out!
A small, wet head, about the size of an adult hound's head, covered with a sparse layer of silvery-gray down, struggled and tentatively poked out from the wound!
Next came a small, but already exceptionally sharp, obsidian-like beak!
The chick had exhausted its strength. It stopped at the wound, panting heavily, and made a few weak "chirp" sounds, which were tinged with confusion and curiosity.
Its eyes, not yet fully open, shimmered with a hazy luster under the light of the sunwood, like two black gems.
Lin Feng's heart almost melted at that moment.
He reached out, wanting to touch the little life that had just arrived in the world, but he was afraid of disturbing it, so he had to restrain himself.
The fledgling bird rested for a while and then gathered some more strength.
It began to use its sharp little beak and its still-developing but strong and powerful claws to continue to peck and pry open the surrounding eggshell.
This process lasted for several hours.
It wasn't until the first rays of sunlight struggled through the wind and snow and shone into the warm basin the next morning that the first chick of the Glorious Falcon finally managed to successfully and completely break free from its huge eggshell!
It lay damp on the soft moss and animal hide, its body trembling slightly from exhaustion.
It was much larger than Lin Feng had imagined, resembling a half-grown snow wolf right after hatching. Its entire body was covered with a thick, soft, silvery-gray fur, which already showed a faint, translucent luster like ice crystals.
Only at the tips of the wings and tail can one see some small, ice-crystal-like feathers that are not yet fully unfolded.
Its beak and claws, though still immature, already showed promise, displaying a deep black color.
What's most striking is its pair of eyes, which have finally opened completely.
Those were pure, pale blue eyes, like the clearest ice crystals, sparkling with an innate pride and liveliness, as well as curiosity about this unfamiliar world.
In the depths of its pupils, one can vaguely see its future, dominating the sky and commanding the wind and snow.
"I did it... I did it!" Lin Feng looked at the little life that he had spent countless efforts and risks to bring into this world, his voice trembling slightly with excitement.
He carefully reached out and gently touched the little ice falcon's downy feathers with his fingertips.
The little ice falcon sensed his kindness. Instead of dodging, it gently rubbed its wet, huge little head against his fingers, making a few dependent "cheep" sounds. Although the sound was childish, it also carried a remarkable penetrating power.
Just as Lin Feng was immersed in joy, another Brightwing Ice Falcon egg next to him also began to shake violently, and cracks quickly spread all over its shell!
Clearly, the second little one is also eager to come into this world!
Ten hours later, the second chick of the Glowing Falcon hatched successfully.
Its size and fur color are almost identical to the first one, except that it is slightly more lively than the first one.
Two newly hatched ice falcons nestled together, curiously observing this brand-new world and the strange-smelling "two-legged creature" standing before them—Lin Feng.
Looking at the two little guys, who were covered in fur, had clear eyes, and were already quite large, Lin Feng felt an unprecedented sense of accomplishment and a peculiar kind of "fatherly love".
He named the two little ice falcons.
The first one to hatch was relatively calm, so Lin Feng named it "Chasing the Wind," hoping that it would be like the wind in the future, soaring above the nine heavens, with wings that could cover the sky and a cry that could shatter the air.
The second chick that hatched was more lively and active, so Lin Feng named it "Chasing the Moon," meaning that it could chase the moon's shadow, soar through the sky, and be as fast as lightning and as bright as the stars.
The successful hatching of the two Radiant Winged Falcon chicks, Chasing the Wind and Chasing the Moon, which carry Lin Feng's boundless hopes, signifies that Lin Feng and his sanctuary are about to usher in a new era of air supremacy with rideable creatures.
Of course, how to feed and train these two little guys, so that they can grow up healthily and eventually become his reliable partners, is a brand new and huge challenge facing Lin Feng.
But at this moment, Lin Feng's heart was filled with confidence and strength.
He gazed tenderly at the Wind Chaser and Moon Chaser, nestled together in the warm light of the sun-wheel tree, emitting soft chirps.
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