The mining planet was uninhabited. Aside from a few main roads built during the original excavation period, most places were impossible to traverse with a wheelchair. By the time they reached the mining area, even the road had come to an end.
“You wait here?” Ever since learning what Yuan Mu felt for her, Cheng Li could no longer toss him onto her back and carry him around as recklessly as before.
Yuan Mu pressed his lips together. “You’re going down into the mine?”
Cheng Li nodded but did not explain what she planned to do below.
“Be careful. If anything happens, contact me through your smart terminal,” Yuan Mu said.
Cheng Li gave a quiet hum and eagerly headed toward the mine tunnel. After taking a few steps, she suddenly seemed to think of something and turned back. “How about you come too?”
In the next second, Yuan Mu’s entire expression shifted vividly from disappointment to blooming delight. His eyes sparkled brightly. “Is that convenient?”
What Cheng Li was thinking was this: even if she said nothing about abilities, Yuan Mu would eventually discover them himself sooner or later. Since that was the case, she might as well tell him earlier and let him start cultivating as soon as possible.
The insectoid race could infiltrate anywhere. Interstellar society was not much safer than the apocalypse.
Cheng Li once again carried Yuan Mu on her back as she walked and said, “The day your mental sea went berserk, I put something inside it.”
At the time, perhaps she had been affected by pheromones, causing her emotions to intensify. But looking back now, she did not regret it.
Perhaps she had simply grown too used to the coldness and deceit of the apocalypse. Faced with Yuan Mu, who had risked his life to save her, she could not do nothing and watch him die.
Yuan Mu froze for a moment, his body suddenly going rigid. “You could enter my mental sea?”
“I did. Twice.” Cheng Li answered calmly, confessing as though resigned to fate. “Not only did I enter your mental sea, I also smelled your pheromones. I might be differentiating into a guide.”
Yuan Mu was dumbfounded. He immediately recalled the two inexplicable times his mental sea had calmed down, especially the second one, when he had even suspected that some S-rank guide had secretly helped him. So it had actually been her?
“Should I prepare suppressants and gland patches?” Cheng Li asked. The reason she had told Yuan Mu was because she knew she could not hide it. Setting aside the differentiation process itself, which could take as little as two or three days or as long as five or six, and was best handled with a doctor nearby, there was also the issue of purchasing guide-related supplies. The moment star coins were spent, Yuan Mu would know.
From the moment they registered their marriage, their accounts had been linked together.
Yuan Mu was still reeling from the shock when Cheng Li continued, “I don’t want the Alliance to know I’m a guide.”
Once someone became a guide, they received a monthly allowance, but what came with it was a lifetime of surveillance. The higher a guide’s rank, the less freedom they had.
“Suppressants, guide spray, and gland patches all require real-name registration to purchase,” Yuan Mu said.
“There’s no other way?” Cheng Li refused to give up.
“The black market.” Yuan Mu frowned. Black market goods were expensive. His savings looked substantial, but if he used them to buy black market suppressants, he probably could only afford a few years’ worth for her.
Yuan Mu’s attention had already leapt from Cheng Li differentiating into a guide to figuring out how to earn enough money to buy her suppressants. He completely forgot to ask what exactly she had placed inside his mental sea.
The valuable metals on the mining planet had long since been excavated, and half the machinery had been dismantled. Fortunately, the lighting systems and elevators were still operational.
Carrying Yuan Mu on her back, Cheng Li stepped into the mine tunnel, and every pore in her body instantly opened with exhilaration.
Such dense metal energy!
The thread-thin strands of Cheng Li’s ability immediately rushed toward those metal sources.
Hm?
Yuan Mu looked around cautiously. He felt as though he had sensed something.
But after examining the surroundings carefully, everything appeared normal. Other than the two of them, there was no living creature nearby.
As Cheng Li carried Yuan Mu deeper into the mine, she continuously absorbed the metal energy around her. The metal energy within these ores was nowhere near as concentrated as Blue Key Stone, but they made up for it with sheer quantity.
On Cheng Li’s back, the confusion on Yuan Mu’s face deepened further. It was not his imagination. Something really was darting around inside the mine tunnel.
But what exactly was it?
Since he sensed no danger, he did not mention it to Cheng Li. He simply kept glancing around, trying to locate whatever it was.
As expected of a mining planet, the tunnels were unbelievably vast. Cheng Li carried Yuan Mu around for two hours, yet they had only explored a tiny section, while her ability had already advanced to Level One.
If she explored the entire mining planet, wouldn’t her ability rise to Level Three or even Four?
What a massive profit!
Cheng Li became so delighted that she laughed out loud.
Yuan Mu blinked in surprise at her laughter and asked curiously, “What are you laughing about?”
“I came across something good. I’m happy.” Cheng Li found a rock and set Yuan Mu down, then began rummaging through the pile of ores before picking out the one with the densest metal energy.
Yuan Mu watched her actions in complete confusion. When she placed the stone in front of him, he became even more bewildered. “What are you taking this for?”
Could it be that after mining for more than a month, she had actually developed a fondness for ores?
“Hold this first,” Cheng Li said.
Yuan Mu obediently took it. Cheng Li grabbed his hand. “Calm yourself and try to feel it.”
Cheng Li’s mental threads slipped into Yuan Mu’s mental sea, locating the half crystal core within. The metal energy then flowed along her mental threads into his mental sea and into that crystal core.
Yuan Mu’s mental sea had not disappeared. It had closed itself off because a crystal core now existed inside it.
As for why Cheng Li could enter it, even she did not know.
The metal energy was absorbed away, and Yuan Mu sat there blankly. Cheng Li assumed he had failed to sense anything, so she picked out several more ores. “Feel it a few more times. No rush, we can take it slowly.”
Back when she had first awakened her ability, she had spent a long time fumbling through it on her own.
Cheng Li figured that with her help, Yuan Mu should be able to grasp it within two or three days.
Yet when she reached for the fifth ore, he suddenly pressed down on her hand. “Let me try on my own.”
Cheng Li looked at him in surprise. “You felt it?”
Yuan Mu nodded. “I did. Was that place my mental sea?”
Sentinels could not enter their own mental seas. They could not even locate them. Only guides knew where they were, and only guides could enter them.
“It used to be a mental sea. Now I’m not sure whether it should be called a mental sea or a consciousness sea.” Not every ability user’s crystal core resided within a consciousness sea. Only ability users who cultivated spiritual power could open one. The larger the consciousness sea, the stronger the spiritual power and the greater the person’s strength.
If someone had not cultivated spiritual power, their crystal core was generally located between the brows at the center of the forehead.
At the time, Yuan Mu had already stopped breathing and could no longer swallow. She also lacked the strength to break open the space between his brows, so in her panic, she had sent the crystal core directly into his mental sea.
“I can only sense where it is, but I can’t enter it,” Yuan Mu said.
“Why not? You’re not a sentinel anymore,” Cheng Li blurted out.
The corner of Yuan Mu’s mouth twitched. Probably only she regarded sentinels and guides as something to avoid at all costs.
“Then try seeing if you can absorb metal energy,” Cheng Li said.
Yuan Mu had no idea what this so-called metal energy was. The instant he gripped the ore, he felt a stream of energy flow into his mental sea. The sensation was so intensely pleasurable it almost felt like taking drugs. His entire body relaxed in bliss, leaving him desperately craving more.