Dismay, darkness, oppression, confinement, narrowness—these were the first sensations that Ye Tianrui experienced upon regaining consciousness. He felt as though he were stuffed into a tin can filled with liquid.

Yes, Ye Tianrui couldn't breathe any air now; he was enveloped in a viscous liquid. At first, when he realized this, he felt a great sense of panic, but then he found that the lack of air didn't seem to affect him.

The somewhat viscous liquid didn't make Ye Tianrui feel uncomfortable at all; on the contrary, being immersed in it felt as pleasant as soaking in a hot spring.

What made Ye Tianrui uncomfortable was the darkness before him and the cramped space. His body couldn't stretch out; he could only curl up like an unborn baby.

An unborn baby!

Ye Tianrui froze. In an instant, he recalled what had happened before regaining consciousness and connected it to his current situation of being immersed in some unknown liquid without the need to breathe.

"Perhaps... I might have died! Trying to be a hero," Ye Tianrui thought somewhat sadly, but he wasn't particularly upset about his death.

"Because I've been reborn!" Ye Tianrui thought gleefully. He had another chance at life, carrying memories from his past life.

"I can still be a child prodigy in this life, a top student, and with excellent grades, I can even woo the beautiful girls at school..." Ye Tianrui fantasized happily about his life after birth.

"Wait, wooing girls requires physical conditions," Ye Tianrui thought lewdly, then struggled to move his short arms to confirm his gender between his legs.

"Great, I'm equipped," he exclaimed, feeling even happier. After all, after being reborn, there was a fifty-fifty chance of becoming a girl. Transforming from a straight guy in his past life into a girl was something he couldn't accept.

As Ye Tianrui confirmed his male features, his small hand inadvertently touched a long, whip-like object.

"What is this?" Ye Tianrui began to panic, realizing that the sensation in his hand and the feeling in his body indicated that it was part of him.

"Why the heck are there scales?" Ye Tianrui panicked even more, his short hand repeatedly touching the long, whip-like object growing from his buttocks.

Then Ye Tianrui reluctantly admitted, "This is my tail."

"I've been reborn, but I've turned into some kind of freak with a tail. I'm no longer human," Ye Tianrui lamented, the scales on his tail shattering his last bit of hope.

Without scales, he could still delude himself into thinking that his body was experiencing atavism. But no matter how much humans reverted, they wouldn't grow scales, at least not normal humans.

"What have I become?" This was Ye Tianrui's current confusion, so he struggled to move his body slightly in the narrow space to see if there were any other parts added to him, thereby confirming his identity.

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Then, his small hand reached his back, just below the shoulder blades. "I have a pair of wings," Ye Tianrui said emotionlessly, accepting the fact that there were wings on his back.

Since he was no longer human, he could accept whatever else his body had. Besides, what could he do if he didn't accept it? Try committing suicide and see if he could be reborn again?

Ye Tianrui wasn't that foolish. Only those who had died once knew the value of life. It's better to stay alive than to die. He always thought this made sense.

"I have hands and feet, definitely a humanoid creature. So, what have I become?" Ye Tianrui was very puzzled because he couldn't think of any creature that matched his impression.

"The only thing certain is that I'm definitely not on Earth anymore. A humanoid creature with wings and a tail can only be a mythical creature," Ye Tianrui thought to himself.

His mood soured again. He had just fantasized about the twenty-year life journey after birth—being a child prodigy, a top student, and wooing beautiful women, leading to the pinnacle of life.

Now, all his fantasies had turned into illusions. There was no possibility of realization anymore because he was no longer human, not even in the world he was familiar with.

Ye Tianrui's fleshy palm touched the shell that bound his body, feeling a slightly curved, metallic-like hardness instead of the softness he had expected.

"Not the uterine wall," Ye Tianrui sighed disappointingly, blowing out a few bubbles.

"This is an eggshell. I'm not a viviparous creature but an oviparous one," Ye Tianrui muttered, confused. What had he become after his rebirth? Humanoid creatures should be viviparous, right? Why was he not in the womb of some humanoid creature but in a hard eggshell instead?

"Hey!" When Ye Tianrui realized that he was inside an egg, the desire to break out surged in his mind. His hands, feet, wings, tail—all his limbs exerted force together, trying to break the shell that confined him.

"Not enough strength! I'm not born yet." When Ye Tianrui realized that even with all his efforts, he couldn't even crack the eggshell, he understood that his body's development was not sufficient.

"Tired... sleepy... I'll take a nap first, and then try again when I wake up!" Ye Tianrui yawned and began to feel drowsy. The intense mental activity and efforts to break the shell had exhausted him. He fell into a deep sleep.

Ye Tianrui's attempt to break the shell failed. It didn't even create a crack in his eggshell, but it did cause his long-dormant egg to sway, successfully attracting the golden beast guarding beside his egg.

The beast raised its slender neck, its head covered in golden scales, and its dark gold vertical pupils opened, staring at the motionless egg.

"My child, are you finally going to be born? I've been waiting for so long." The majestic and imposing beast spoke in a gentle and warm female voice.

If one only heard the voice, they would associate it with a dignified and virtuous noblewoman, unable to connect it with the terrifying golden beast emitting an aura of fear.

Of course, Ye Tianrui, who had fallen asleep, had no idea that his "mother" had been guarding beside his egg, eagerly awaiting his emergence.

...In a daze, Ye Tianrui woke up again. Before him was the same darkness as before. During this sleep, his body had grown a bit, making the space inside the egg even narrower, tightly binding his body.

He used to be able to move a little, but now he could hardly move at all. His body had grown to the limit of the egg's capacity, and he couldn't grow anymore.

Moreover, Ye Tianrui remembered that in documentaries he had watched, no matter what kind of oviparous creature laid eggs, there was never a one hundred percent hatching rate. There were always some dead eggs, some of which were failures that couldn't break out of the shell.

"Life or death, only one choice." Ye Tianrui growled indignantly, "I was reborn not to experience life inside an egg."

Perhaps it was because of Ye Tianrui's anger, or perhaps it was because of his persistence, but with a crisp "crack," the eggshell broke.

Under the gaze of four dark golden and four dazzling golden eyes, the pale golden egg began to shake. Soon, a fine crack appeared on the eggshell, which then spread and divided until the entire egg was covered in cracks.

A "tiny" figure emerged from the egg, covered in transparent egg fluid. If one ignored the pair of drooping light golden wings on the fleshy, chubby body, the golden tail on the buttocks, and the small horns extending backward from the wet black hair on top of its head, this baby who had just arrived in the world looked no different from an ordinary human baby.

"This looks good." Looking at this unusually-shaped baby standing beside the golden beast, the black-haired "man" with golden eyes smiled brightly.

"Yes, it's quite nice. This appearance should perfectly blend our bloodlines," the golden beast showed its white teeth, emitting a gentle and warm voice that clashed with its terrifying aura.

Ye Tianrui lay on a blue-purple crystal with a concave center. Around him lay the shattered golden eggshell, and sticky egg fluid continuously dripped from his body.

He blankly raised his head, met the gentle gaze of the golden beast, then moved his head aimlessly and looked at the "man" with black hair and golden eyes beside the beast. His height and physique were no less inferior to the massive beast's body.