Chapter 19

After returning to his body, Cheng Hui felt that powerless sensation again. His body was out of control, and when he tried to speak, his tongue got tied up. It was incredibly frustrating. Fortunately, now that he had the space, it gave him a chance to catch his breath. At least at night, after Lin Qingyang went to rest, he could take a break and relax in the space.

“What’s wrong? Still not activated?” Lin Qingyang asked tentatively. He thought it shouldn’t be like this; Lin Qingyang’s talent was so good, there was no reason he couldn’t activate it.

“Don’t worry, even if it doesn’t activate, it’s no big deal. I’ll go catch more magic fish gold for you.”

Cheng Hui quickly stopped him, “Wait…”

“You mean I should wait?”

Cheng Hui nodded, signaling Lin Qingyang to be patient with his eyes. He hurriedly used his divine sense to continue catching magic fish gold. The magic fish gold in this area had already been caught, so he wobbled along the riverbank, heading further away.

Lin Qingyang followed behind him. They walked quite a distance until Ouyang Zheng’s figure completely disappeared before they stopped. Lin Qingyang glanced at Cheng Hui thoughtfully, feeling that his fiancé seemed to be hiding many secrets.

Actually, Cheng Hui didn’t have to walk so far. Ever since he discovered his space, he was always worried about accidentally exposing something. He didn’t know Ouyang Zheng well and didn’t plan to test human nature, so he simply stayed far away to avoid the risk of accidental exposure.

Cheng Hui really had no choice. Their current strength was too weak. It’s better not to do things like a child carrying a gold brick through a busy market.

“Is this far enough?” Lin Qingyang asked him.

Cheng Hui indicated it was okay, then used his divine sense to search for magic fish gold in the river. Whenever he found any, he grabbed it and concentrated it in the area where Lin Qingyang had jumped into the water.

Five minutes later, Lin Qingyang swam up from the water, looking at the magic fish gold in his arms with a slightly cracked expression. This wasn’t just a matter of luck; these magic fish gold seemed to be rushing into his arms, as if afraid he would run away.

Lin Qingyang was quite puzzled. Were magic fish gold so self-sacrificing these days? Or… was someone secretly helping him?

He suspiciously looked at Cheng Hui. Cheng Hui silently averted his gaze, refusing to meet his eyes. Lin Qingyang fell silent. He felt that his fiancé was indeed not simple, and he himself had many secrets. So… was this his fiancé’s way of opening up to him?

Lin Qingyang couldn’t help but give Cheng Hui a deep look, raising his hand to touch his chest. His heart was beating intensely, and he was acutely aware that he really liked this person. He liked him so much that even a simple gesture of goodwill from the other made him overflow with joy.

The two exchanged a glance and simultaneously withdrew their gazes. Great, you have secrets, I have secrets, everyone has secrets, so let’s not dig too deep.

Cheng Hui felt he had reached an understanding with Lin Qingyang. From then on, he didn’t even bother to cover it up, directly throwing the magic fish gold onto the shore one by one. Lin Qingyang didn’t even need to go underwater; he could get the magic fish gold directly on the shore.

He watched for a while, then stepped forward to hold Cheng Hui’s hand. Cheng Hui looked at him in confusion, and Lin Qingyang softly said, “This won’t do; it’s easy for others to notice.”

Cheng Hui was startled. He had been careless, focusing on not letting Lin Qingyang catch a cold in the water, but forgetting that they might not be the only ones in this yin energy cave. The passages here were interconnected, and who knew if someone might suddenly pop out from a corner.

He couldn’t take the risk. So, he restrained himself a bit, catching the magic fish gold himself while Lin Qingyang went underwater to retrieve them. This way, even if someone saw, they would at most think Lin Qingyang was particularly lucky or had some special method, without suspecting Cheng Hui.

No matter how strange it seemed for an eight-year-old to have so many tricks, at least it gave them some room to maneuver. With Cheng Hui’s divine sense helping, Lin Qingyang moved quickly, almost always able to retrieve all the magic fish gold shortly after going underwater.

Unfortunately, the number of magic fish gold wasn’t large. Cheng Hui caught them quickly but couldn’t increase their quantity. So, when Lin Qingyang once again pulled two pieces of magic fish gold from the river, they found there was no path ahead.

Cheng Hui looked back and realized that, unknowingly, they had walked quite far along the underground river. The path ahead was blocked by a massive mountain wall. There might still be an underground river flowing beneath the mountain wall, but the two of them couldn’t go any further.

As they walked along, Cheng Hui calculated that they had caught nearly twenty pieces of magic fish gold in total. However, none of these twenty pieces had activated his talent. He had a vague feeling that the magic fish gold, which could activate the talent of ordinary refined corpses, seemed to have a different effect on him. The spirituality within the magic fish gold hadn’t disappeared but was absorbed by his strange space, as if accumulating something that would only manifest its true effect once the quantity was sufficient.

Until then, all the magic fish gold could only serve as nourishment for the space. Cheng Hui was also at a loss. This strange space didn’t come with a user manual, and he knew less about it than he did about Lin Qingyang.

Thinking of this, he suddenly remembered the chibi boy on the coffee table in his villa. If anyone could understand the space, it should be him.

“Rest…” Cheng Hui stammered out a “rest” and lay down on the ground. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to sit; his body was out of control. Last time he tried to sit, he ended up face down in the dirt, eating a mouthful of soil.

“Want to rest for a bit? Okay.” Lin Qingyang, who had been busy with him for so long, was also tired. He had been holding on, feeling he couldn’t perform too poorly in front of his fiancé.

Lin Qingyang began to meditate, restoring the spiritual power within his body, while Cheng Hui seized the opportunity to return to that magical space.

“Yiya!”

As soon as Cheng Hui entered, he saw a little figure in a fire dragon suit angrily waving its fists at him. The chubby little face was hidden in the dragon’s mouth, making “yiya yiya” sounds.

This little guy couldn’t speak?

Cheng Hui looked at the noticeably chubbier face and was a bit dumbfounded. It hadn’t been that long since they last met. Had he gotten bloated from soaking in water?

“Ya!” The little figure in the dragon suit seemed even angrier, lowering its head and fiddling with something inside the suit. Suddenly, the little fire dragon actually breathed out a jet of flame.

“Whoa…” Cheng Hui was startled, realizing he had spoken his thoughts out loud. No wonder the little guy was so angry. He had gotten a bit too close to see better, and the fire almost singed his hair.

“Hey, you’re small, but your temper isn’t.” Cheng Hui wasn’t angry with him. He couldn’t get mad at such a little thing. He flicked the little guy’s head lightly with his finger.

The little guy, who had just been smugly giving a warning, was flicked onto his butt, holding his head and looking at him in confusion.

Cheng Hui suppressed his laughter, curious about what the little guy would do next. The little guy widened his eyes, seemingly unable to believe that this guy had flicked his forehead, his face turning redder and redder, and then he burst into tears.

Cheng Hui: …

The little guy cried pitifully, with tears flowing like a fountain. It was unclear what the principle was, but the fountain-like tears disappeared into the air once they flowed out.

Cheng Hui: … Well, that was sudden.

To be honest, seeing the little guy cry so miserably, Cheng Hui didn’t feel sympathy; he felt like laughing. Honestly, having this two-dimensional style little guy suddenly appear in the cultivation world seemed so out of place. It made the serious cultivation world seem not so serious anymore.

Seeing the little guy unable to stop crying, Cheng Hui finally felt a tiny bit guilty deep inside.

“Ahem… hey, don’t cry.”

The little guy ignored him, continuing to cry and spray fountains.

Cheng Hui was a bit troubled. He rubbed the little guy’s head with his finger, using the gentlest tone, “Come on, don’t cry. Boys who cry too much aren’t handsome.”

He had only tried saying this, but unexpectedly, the little guy immediately stopped crying, though big tears still hung at the corners of his eyes, looking at Cheng Hui expectantly.

Cheng Hui: … I have to admit, it’s kind of cute.

He restrained the inexplicable fatherly feeling that emerged, gently wiping away the little guy’s tears. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it. I just thought you were really chubby… no, no, don’t cry… not chubby, just that you got rounder really fast.”

The little guy looked at him with a face full of grievance, clearly not speaking, but his face seemed to say, “Whose fault is that?”

Cheng Hui: … Wait, is this my fault? He hadn’t done anything to the little guy!

He looked at the little guy for help. The little guy snorted, huffing and puffing as he crawled out of the fire dragon suit, still wearing the little shirt, shorts, and bow tie. Then he drew a black stone out of thin air, which he stuffed into his mouth.

He continued to change, continued to stuff, and his body inflated like a balloon.

Cheng Hui: … Got it!

He didn’t want to understand, but the black stone looked just like the magic fish gold. Clearly, the missing spirituality had been devoured by this little guy.

No… based on his performance, it seemed more like… he was force-fed?

Cheng Hui felt a bit guilty.

The little guy sniffled, pointing at Cheng Hui and making a series of “yiya” sounds.

Cheng Hui didn’t know what he was saying, so he could only communicate with the little guy using nods and shakes of the head.

The little guy puffed his cheeks, reluctantly pulling out a writing board and a marker pen from behind him, even though his body was only palm-sized.

Cheng Hui: … Well, that’s very scientific.