Chapter 123 - The Stone’s Strangeness
Unedited
After leaving Chu Zhen, two people immediately fell in place behind Yao Mengzhi.
Yao Mengzhi didn’t even turn her head and asked, “Did anything strange happen outside?”
“There haven’t been anyone suspicious entering or leaving the city gates. Someone reported seeing a few suspicious individuals, but no one knows whether they’re Nie Yi and his men,” one immediately replied. Originally, Yao Mengzhi was developing matters slowly and dependably, but after returning from B City secure base, she suddenly began quickening her pace. Because of this, there were many dissatisfied people in the base.
“Nie Yi does have some skill.” Yao Mengzhi smiled coldly. “They’ll definitely come, but are just hiding like tortoises… Proceed according to plan.”
“Yes,” Yao Mengzhi’s subordinate immediately replied.
Only then did Yao Mengzhi turn her head back and glance at the tightly shut door where Chu Zhen was living. That man… was her weakness.
Yao Mengzhi honestly wanted to be closer to Chu Zhen, to be as closely intimate to Chu Zhen as Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen, but… lifting her hand, Yao Mengzhi saw the bluish-black colour of her palm.
The darkness ability was absolutely the strongest ability. Possessing the dark ability, she could be like a fish in water in this world filled with darkness. But her current appearance made her fear being too intimate with Chu Zhen, afraid that she would harm him.
Frowning, Yao Mengzhi ultimately chose to leave.
Ever since she became a dark ability user, because of the existence of those things, there weren’t many side effects on her and she even was able to maintain being a wind ability user, but the oracles under her… Those people were already no longer like living beings.
Yao Mengzhi didn’t mind turning other people like this, but didn’t want Chu Zhen to become like them… The speed of her research must be quicker!
What a pity that Qi Jingchen unexpectedly awakened to the light ability. If not, he would definitely be the best research material.
When Qi Jingchen just awakened to a light ability, Yao Mengzhi was once doubtful, doubting whether what she did was wrong. However, she soon tossed aside this hesitation.
All of Earth was shrouded by darkness. If they want to continue living, they should comply with this darkness. Going against darkness was unlikely to bring about a good end.
In their last life, the ability users lived so painfully, yet Qi Jingchen was able to live so comfortably. Didn’t that just prove this point.
She now had begun investigating consumable dark plants. In the future, even if everyone in the entire world died out, she believed that she herself wouldn’t die.
Yao Mengzhi walked through an extensive pa.s.sage and finally reached a laboratory. Inside, several people dressed in white research clothes were waiting for her.
Washing her face clean of all makeup products and changing clothes, Yao Mengzhi quickly came to the center of the crowd and informed them of her idea.
In her last life, after Chu Zhen died, due to worry of Qi Jingchen coming to get revenge against her, she always concealed her ident.i.ty and hid within the laboratory. Later, she partic.i.p.ated in almost all of B City secure base’s various experiments and knew of the circ.u.mstances.
Those people were unwilling to use living humans as test subjects. They clearly found a research direction that could turn people into dark ability users, but they were unwilling to continue, acting all pedantic. But at that time, she didn’t dare go against everyone head-on either.
Later all of those people died, and she also had to rely on Yu Xuguang, a water ability user, to survive, yet Yu Xuguang was also someone whose brain wasn’t able to be creative, so she was even less likely to be able to do anything.
But now it was different. This world would definitely become hers.
Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen were unaware of Yao Mengzhi’s matters. The two of them had departed the old lady’s residence at four in the morning.
There were a lot of people on the streets during the early night, but at this time, there was not a single person around besides patrolling people. Nie Yi looked at Qi Jingchen then suddenly said, “I want to go take a look at the secure base gates.”
“Let’s go!” Qi Jingchen nodded. Nie Yi’s two friends were still locked up in cages right now, and they do need to take a lookk2026; But presently, they couldn’t rashly take action, lest they not only be unable to save them but even implicate them.
As long as they’ve travelled somewhere once, Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen wouldn’t forget it, to say nothing of a place like a secure base. As long as they knew the basic direction, they wouldn’t be able to get lost… Not long after, two people arrived at the vicinity of the city gates.
They could sense that several people were filling the nearby houses. The two didn’t dare approach carelessly and merely looked from afar while concealed on the roof of a nearby house.
Nie Yi was lying on his stomach and the little monkey naturally could no longer stay under his shirt, so it was squeezed between the two of them. Its action of looking over was identical to Nie Yi’s.
This monkey used to occasionally chitter, but it became incomparably docile after Nie Yi killed Yu Shuo, and simply became like an intelligent spirit.
Far away, the metal cages were still where they had been. Nie Yi’s two good friends were placed further back and they were sleeping with their eyes closed.
According to the situation they had seen, although S City secure base members would lock them up here, they never once hurt them, probably for fear of them getting injured then dying from illness… But even so, being locked up in such a small cage was uncomfortable enough.
Qi Jingchen wanted to help alleviate their pain with his light ability, but seeing the rather numerous shadow guards nearby, he ultimately gave up on the plan.
The shadow guards he had previously ran into had masters, but the ones here didn’t seem to have any. But even so, they still displayed utter loyalty, able to stand there all day without moving a muscle.
A circle of light appeared on the horizon; the sky was about to brighten, so Nie Yi tangled his spiritual strength around Qi Jingchen for a moment before slowly retreating.
Seeing this, the little monkey copied them and slowly backed up, finally jumping into Nie Yi’s shirt again.
“This is Yao Mengzhi’s territory. Killing her will be extremely difficult… Let’s choose to stay behind when Shi Kun leaves, and think of a way to save them and leave.” When they reached a safe area, Nie Yi spoke.
Among Yu Xuguang’s men, two were earth ability users. With the five of them plus him and Qi Jingchen, wanting to save his two friends shouldn’t be a problem as long as they plan well.
Qi Jingchen nodded, then walked back with Nie Yi. Although Nie Yi’s two friends would feel a little humiliated being locked up here, they would be safe for the time being as long as Nie Yi didn’t reveal himself.
When the sun revealed half its body from the horizon and the sky finally lit up, Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen reached their residence.
Nie Yi wasn’t in the best of mood, and his expression didn’t improve even when Qi Jingchen gave him some light energy. In the end, after thinking about it, he kissed Nie Yi’s jaw.
There was finally a smile on Nie Yi’s face.
On a nearby roof, Shi Kun who had gotten up early saw this scene and became delighted— It turned out that this father and son relationship is that good! No wonder that son didn’t want a stepmother!
Since it was like this, he didn’t have to be too guarded against these two anymore.
However, something didn’t seem quite right. When he was thirteen or fourteen he began feeling that he was the greatest in the world besides G.o.d, and the most annoying thing was someone managing him, so he no longer liked his dad. But he definitely wouldn’t kiss his own dad!
But perhaps some people weren’t like him… Didn’t that cousin sister of his always spend most of her years hugging her parents and acting cute? Shi Kun thought about it for a while, but simply decided to ignore it after being unable to figure it out.
“Nie shao, where did you guys go?” Just as Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen returned to their room, the few B City secure base members asked them in concern.
“We went to take a look at the inner city,” Nie Yi said, then took out a piece of paper and began drawing a map of the inner city.
Honestly, he had only seen half of the inner city, so he just drew this little, especially the two conspicuous forts in the middle. “That should be Yao Mengzhi’s laboratory. She herself might also be living there.”
The B City secure base members nodded. After seeing the map, they burnt it up.
“I won’t be going out today. You guys go walk around,” Nie Yi said.
They were startled, then a little speechless— Was Nie Yi sending them away so they could have a couple’s world?
They were worried about Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen last night and had not slept all night. As a result, Nie Yi immediately wanted to chase them away right after returning?
Fine ba, they honestly planned to continue going out in search of information today anyways…
“You guys should find a place to live; we should split from Shi Kun,” Nie Yi added.
The four of them knew that Nie Yi probably had some sort of plan. After a sound of a.s.sent, they quickly left.
“They’re back?” Yu Xuguang was waiting at the door. Seeing his four comrades emerge, he immediately spoke up. Last night, it was definitely him who was most worried. Qi Jingchen was humanity’s hope; if something were to happen to him, he felt that he didn’t have to do anything but just slam his head against the wall until he died!
In any case, he couldn’t save the world on his own.
“They’re back!” The four of them nodded, then said, “We want to go take a walk, find some lodgings where we can stay later. Do you want to come with?”
“Let’s go,” Yu Xuguang said. Unfortunately, Shi Kun appeared while they were heading out. “Xiao Jiu, are you going out? Shall I accompany you?”
“No need.”
“There is, there is!” Shi Kun said.
Yu Xuguang didn’t like Shi Kun at all. After all, Shi Kun believed in the dark G.o.d and also had quite a lot of flaws, to say nothing the fact that he was also a man, but he also didn’t intend to lead him on. “Shi Kun, I don’t like those shorter than me.”
“Why? Are you worried our children will be shorter? With you being so tall, I believe future children will also be tall. Moreover… who knows whether there’ll be any children? You can’t reject me because of this,” Shi Kun said.
When the apocalypse just began, there were still many women who were pregnant, but there weren’t any more during these months… In the past, he always wanted to find someone tall so he could improve his genes in the future, but now… His genes likely weren’t going to be pa.s.sed down.
This guy actually even considered having children! Yu Xuguang was left speechless and just turned and left.
Shi Kun hurriedly followed after him.
Shi Kun and Yu Xuguang’s height difference was a little more than ten centimeters. For couples, this height difference was honestly quite normal, but if it was the woman who was taller than the man by ten centimeters…
After Shi Kun and Yu Xuguang left together, many people were looking at Shi Kun very enthusiastically—To be able to find a woman this much taller than him, this guy was either very powerful or very influential!
Shi Kun was very pleased with himself, but Yu Xuguang was left speechless. The four comrades behind Yu Xuguang also had heads covered with black lines.
All of these people left the house, while Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen began studying the stone they gained from the old lady.
It was an extremely glossy stone with alternating yellow and white colors. Its shape was like a mooncake, rather oblate. On it were some natural veined patterns, and the faint yellow ridges within the white were extremely beautiful. It was just like an ornament, but honestly, there wasn’t anything extraordinary about it.
Nie Yi looked for a good while but still couldn’t notice anything. In the end, he could only ask Qi Jingchen, “What’s this?”
“I don’t know either. I feel some familiarity.” Qi Jingchen said. “Also, back when my spiritual strength swept past it, I felt like there’s some light energy on it.” The feeling this stone gave him was similar to the lettuce he had.
“Light energy?” Nie Yi was stunned. If it was so, then Qi Jingchen could definitely be called lucky.
“I don’t know what this actually is either.” Qi Jingchen looked at this rock curiously. This rock was truly very smooth, without a single protrusion, and was rather comfortable to hold.
“Try inputting some of your ability,” Nie Yi said. While speaking, he erected an ice wall around them. “Don’t worry, I’ll obstruct the ability’s fluctuation.”
The monkey was just about to climb out of Nie Yi’s shirt when it noticed that all around it was ice, so it silently shrank back in.
Qi Jingchen felt a little amused when seeing this, but didn’t forget his proper business. Very soon, he tossed in some light energy to this rock that was roughly the size of half an egg, then saw the energy sink into the rock and disappear.
Seeing this, Qi Jingchen was all the more certain that this stone was odd. He reached out and took the stone, then began inputting even more light energy.
This was just because he wanted to see how much light energy this stone could absorb. However, just as he started, he unexpectedly felt his ability within his body being absorbed into that mooncake-like stone in a steady flow!
His ability rapidly disappeared, and Qi Jingchen’s complexion unavoidably changed.
Nie Yi was startled upon seeing this and reached over, wanting to check. However, just as he touched Qi Jingchen’s hand, a large force rebounded and finally slammed him into the ice wall.
Nie Yi was very powerful and constantly trained. According to reason, he wouldn’t have been unable to retaliate to this force, yet this happened!
Just as Nie Yi was about to use his ability and persistently separate Qi Jingchen and the stone, Qi Jingchen suddenly opened his mouth. “I’m fine.”
As he spoke, he let go of the stone.
“It’s fine as long as you’re alright… What just happened?” Nie Yi asked.
“My ability was absorbed by this stone.”
“What?” It was like this and he could still say he was fine? Nie Yi was stunned, and his spiritual strength instantly entered Qi Jingchen’s body.
“When my ability was about to be used up, it stopped absorbing. Aside from my ability being used up, I’m completely fine,” Qi Jingchen said, allowing Nie Yi to inspect him.
Qi Jingchen was genuinely fine, and Nie Yi finally relaxed upon seeing this. Then the two’s focus turned back to the stone again.
This rock still looked the same, just an ordinary pebble with yellow and white patterns. There was nothing particularly unique, but the two did not dare underestimate it.
“When my ability recovers later, let’s try giving it my ability again,” Qi Jingchen said.
Hearing this, Nie Yi nodded. This rock really should be carefully investigated!
During the following entire day, Qi Jingchen kept repeating two things, which was to recover his ability, input it into the stone, then recover his ability again, and input it into the stone again…
As a result, after a day and night, where he was sucked dry for almost twenty times, that rock still didn’t have a reaction!
And at this time, the oracle-welcoming ceremony for various small secure bases was about to begin.