After liquidating Li Yuanshan’s assets, Li Qing was surprised to discover that the villa where Lu Xihe and the others were currently staying was also Li Yuanshan’s private property.
Li Yuanshan was the youngest son of Old Master Li, the most dissolute and useless yet also the most favored. The first clause of Old Master Li’s will stated that whoever inherited the company had to support Li Yuanshan until he grew old and died.
After Li Qing’s father took over the company, the main residence went to him. That very month, the second and third uncles were ordered by the old master to move out of the main residence, but Li Yuanshan alone was specially permitted to keep living there.
There were three small villas behind the main residence. When Li Qing was a child, he thought they were equally divided between his father and his three uncles. But later, the second and third uncles each only received shares and a sum of money before splitting off from the family, while Li Yuanshan stayed in the main residence, so Li Qing assumed those houses belonged to others.
Later, when housing became tight during the apocalypse, there were monthly inspections of living arrangements, and any unoccupied properties would be confiscated and assigned to other survivors.
Those three small villas had always remained unoccupied, yet every inspection, the owner was able to report them. Li Qing had never understood the situation, now he knew that all three villas belonged to Li Yuanshan.
Now that Li Yuanshan had been expelled from City A, his assets naturally all went to confiscation. Li Qing had been worrying about where to arrange housing for them, but now the problem was solved, they could just stay right there, consider it Li Yuanshan’s compensation for their mental anguish.
The small villa had four floors including the basement level. The third floor had a swimming pool and terrace, with no bedrooms, only a storage room. The second floor had two master bedrooms and four side rooms. The first floor mainly consisted of a reception hall, piano room, study, and so on.
On the second floor, the bedrooms were arranged with one master and two side rooms on each side. Cheng Yuchuan and Lu Xihe stayed in the master bedroom on the left, with one side room occupied by Yu Yicheng and the other left empty. On the right side, Qi Jin and Xiang Shenwan each slept in a side room, leaving the master bedroom vacant.
That evening, Li Qing brought the two kids, Zhong Yue and Zhong Hao, back, and they were overjoyed to see Lu Xihe.
Especially Zhong Yue, who had awakened a mental manipulation ability and was eager to share her joy with Lu Xihe and Ning Wanli. Now that they finally met, the two kids chattered on until 11:30 at night and still didn’t want to go to sleep.
Staying up late was bad for their health, and they were at an age where they were still growing. In the end, Xiang Shenwan couldn’t bear to watch anymore and urged them to wash up and get to bed, telling them anything they wanted to say could wait until they woke up in the morning.
In the following days, Lu Xihe lived a very leisurely life, snacking and watching shows at home every day, sleeping in during the day, and going up to the terrace at night to absorb the essence of moonlight. Life couldn’t be more comfortable and carefree.
The only annoyance was that after absorbing a bunch of high-tier crystal cores, he only awakened four sub-abilities per element. It really was just as he himself had predicted, he was the unlucky one who couldn’t merge elements.
Xiang Shenwan completed her ability merging yesterday and joined Cheng Yuchuan and Qi Jin this morning in the hard work of building the new safe zone.
Cheng Yuchuan was busy every day, both preparing the new safe zone construction and serving as the main person in charge of spirit stone transport. If it weren’t for the fact that Lu Xihe slept a lot during the day and was especially energetic at night, given how Cheng Yuchuan came back after midnight and left again at six in the morning, the two of them really could share a bed and go days without seeing each other.
The 115 high-tier crystal cores picked up at the spirit stone mountain earlier were divided equally among the seven of them, about 16 per person, with the extra three given to Li Qing.
Cheng Yuchuan didn’t need to level up, so his high-tier crystal cores all went to Lu Xihe. Yu Yicheng was also maxed out and had no use for them, so he gave his share to Lu Xihe as well. Combined with what was left over from before, Lu Xihe ended up with a full 52 cores.
By all rights, since he had already awakened 11 sub-abilities, excluding the rule and healing elements, even if he awakened four abilities in each of the remaining seven elements, 17 more high-tier crystal cores should have been more than enough.
But fate didn’t cooperate. The result was that after awakening 28 different sub-abilities, no matter how many more he absorbed, he couldn’t awaken a fifth sub-ability in any element. Instead, he just maxed out all his existing abilities to full level, which nearly drove Lu Xihe crazy with frustration.
Seeing that even Zhong Yue had started learning ability merging from Ning Wanli, while he had awakened a whole pile of scattered abilities without a single one that could merge, Lu Xihe was so angry that he ran out to the outer city in the middle of the night to fight aberrants.
Today, Sheng Shuyue also successfully merged her elements. The entire team now had everyone merged except him. Lu Xihe was restless with irritation. Once Cheng Yuchuan fell asleep, he planned to pull the same trick again, sneak out of the city to vent on some aberrants. But before he could even get out of bed, Cheng Yuchuan reached out with his long arm and pulled him into his embrace.
“You’re not sneaking out tonight.” Cheng Yuchuan didn’t even open his eyes, his tone calm but brooking no argument.
“I’m getting up to look at the moon.” Lu Xihe lied.
“Looking at the moon, and then wandering out to the outer city? That’s the fifth time this week.” Cheng Yuchuan called him out flatly.
Lu Xihe felt a pang of guilt but still argued with unearned confidence: “You said it yourself, it’s only the fifth time this week. It’s not like I go every day.”
“It’s only Friday.” Cheng Yuchuan was helpless, but he still comfortingly rubbed Lu Xihe’s head and said gently, “This can’t be rushed. When the time comes, you’ll naturally awaken the fifth type. Your constitution is special, since you’ve enjoyed the pleasure of multi-system abilities, you have to accept the corresponding price, like not being able to synthesize systems for now.”
“Hmph!” He understood the logic, but what could he do about the fact that he was still annoyed?
Cheng Yuchuan patiently soothed him, half-coaxing and half-explaining, “There are three waves of aberrant tides hovering near City A tonight, with over twenty high-level aberrants expected. It’s too dangerous for you to go alone. Wait until the day after tomorrow, or tomorrow, once they’re gone, I definitely won’t stop you. For tonight, will you just obediently sleep with me?”
“…” Lu Xihe said nothing. Just from the way he turned around in a huff, leaving his back to him, Cheng Yuchuan could guess his expression at this moment.
His lips were definitely pouted to the sky.
After a long while, Lu Xihe finally said gloomily, “I’m a Level 5 ability user now, not that little rookie I used to be. What do I have to fear from high-level aberrants? I can take them one in each hand.”
“I know my baby is formidable, but if you go up against that many aberrants alone, I’d worry.” Cheng Yuchuan lowered his head and nuzzled into Lu Xihe’s neck, the faint, unique fragrance of Lu Xihe drifting into his nose, refreshing and soothing.
Seeing that reasoning didn’t work, Cheng Yuchuan switched tactics, playing pitiful and selling his misery: “You know I can’t lose you. Even the slightest possibility of you leaving me terrifies me.”
“…” That retort left Lu Xihe speechless.
After all, from Cheng Yuchuan’s perspective, he had really died once before.
Damn it, he had softened and compromised in just half a second.
“Then I’ll just lie there wide awake at night?” Lu Xihe muttered quietly.
He shouldn’t have brought it up, speaking of which, Cheng Yuchuan had a complaint: “Don’t even get me started. Sleeping during the day and staying up at night, completely flipping your schedule, that’s bad for your health. Starting tomorrow, no sleeping during the day. If you’re tired, wait until I come back at night and we’ll sleep together.”
“That’s abuse! I’m done talking to you!”
The moment the words left his mouth, a heavy smack landed on his butt.
Cheng Yuchuan’s tone carried displeasure: “Say that again, and it won’t stop at just one.”
Lu Xihe quickly covered his mouth, flipped over, and scrambled inward until his whole body pressed against the wall, staring at Cheng Yuchuan warily like he was guarding against a thief.
The warmth in his arms suddenly vanished, and Cheng Yuchuan shivered involuntarily. Looking at the big dark lump huddled and trembling against the wall, he shook his head helplessly.
He lifted the blanket toward Lu Xihe and said sternly, “Come here.”
Lu Xihe ignored him, only trembling harder.
Realizing his tone was too harsh, Cheng Yuchuan softened his voice again and continued coaxing, “Aren’t you cold? I won’t hit you. Come over quickly.”
Only then did Lu Xihe roll back into the blanket, a whole ice-pop diving into his arms, those feet nearly frozen solid pressing against his calves, so cold that Cheng Yuchuan couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath.
“Hiss~”
“Hehehehe…” Lu Xihe giggled foolishly, his hands also slipping under Cheng Yuchuan’s clothes to warm up, wandering around restlessly.
“Little brat.” Cheng Yuchuan scolded.
“I love you, bro.” Lu Xihe grinned ingratiatingly, but his hands still moved around recklessly.
The cold face instantly softened, the corners of his mouth unable to suppress a rise. Cheng Yuchuan truly had no way to deal with him, who could resist their little one’s sudden confession?
The faint flicker of anger that had barely surfaced vanished in an instant. He lowered his head and placed a reverent kiss on Lu Xihe’s forehead: “I love you too, baby.”
They messed around for another half hour before Cheng Yuchuan finally fell back into a deep sleep. Looking at the bright moon outside the window, then at the tired face before him, Lu Xihe didn’t disturb him again despite the boredom of lying there, simply waiting quietly for dawn.
Just as he was lost in thought, Cheng Yuchuan suddenly woke with a start, tightening his arm around Lu Xihe’s waist as realization dawned: “How could I have forgotten about it?”
“Who?”
“S101. It’s been so long since it appeared that I forgot about it. Maybe we can ask the system about how to solve your situation.” With that, Cheng Yuchuan summoned S101.
S101 said that the reason he couldn’t differentiate new abilities after awakening 29 types was that he had reached the limit of aberrant energy his body could carry. As for why each system only awakened 4 sub-abilities, S101 wasn’t sure, but it offered a relatively feasible solution.
Cheng Yuchuan had an ability called Devour, whose function was to devour others’ abilities, preventing them from ever possessing that ability again.
If Lu Xihe wanted to differentiate a fifth sub-ability in a certain system, he would need to make room for the new ability, have Cheng Yuchuan use Devour to consume an ability he didn’t need, and perhaps then he could awaken a different new one.
However, there was a downside: the aberrant energy devoured by the Devour ability could never be regained by Lu Xihe afterward, and the newly awakened ability had a high chance of still being a sub-ability of the original system. At best, it would just be swapping one ability for another, not the fifth sub-ability of a different system as he had hoped.
Hearing this, Lu Xihe couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed, but at least there was a chance, so he decided to give it a try first.
He picked a Microscopic Eye ability that he didn’t usually use much and devoured it. Then, taking a high-level crystal core from his space, he began to absorb it, and sure enough, a new ability emerged.
It seemed that S101 was right, the reason no new abilities were differentiating was that his body had reached its limit.
Feeling the new energy flowing through him, it was so unfamiliar, novel, and wondrous… and also weak.
Compared to the other twenty-eight level-five abilities, this energy was almost imperceptible.
Lu Xihe tried to activate this new ability, and a faint trace of ability energy slowly gathered in his eyes. When he opened them again, the inner workings of every person and object before him were laid completely bare.
It was X-ray Vision.
“Cough, cough…” Lu Xihe awkwardly averted his gaze, not daring to look in Cheng Yuchuan’s direction again.
Noticing that Lu Xihe’s expression seemed a bit off, Cheng Yuchuan quickly asked with concern, “What’s wrong? Did it not work?”
“No, it worked.” Lu Xihe closed his eyes guiltily.
However…
His eyelids were transparent too.
“…” Lu Xihe stiffened his neck, not daring to move, until the ability energy completely subsided. Only after opening his eyes and confirming that he was no longer using the ability did he slowly say, “I did awaken a new ability, but it’s still an eye-type one.”
“Try it two more times, can you devour this new ability instead?” Cheng Yuchuan asked.
“No!” Lu Xihe refused outright. Afraid that Cheng Yuchuan might act quickly and get rid of it, he instinctively took a big step back.
For a moment, the air froze. Realizing that his reaction had been too extreme, Lu Xihe’s face suddenly burned as if scorched by fire, a vivid blush spreading from his cheeks down to his neck.
He looked around in a panic, and only after a long while did he stammer, “This one… it’s useful. I need to keep it.”