Chapter 72 - Spiritual Strength
“What have you become, dating a man?!” General Sun soon continued, and his gaze towards Qi Jingchen was filled with disgust.
He wasn’t paying much attention previously, but now that he took a proper look… To be able to dress up like this during the apocalypse, surely this wasn’t a good creature!
Everyone sitting at the table could see General Sun’s expression. The smile Nie Yi previously maintained had already faded and Sun Chengzhi felt a little awkward, quietly saying, “Dad-”
“Shut up!” General Sun glared at Sun Chengzhi, then looked back at Nie Yi. “No wonder your father didn’t want you as a son. If it was a son like you, I would rather not have one; too humiliating!”
Nie Yi had always known that two men being together would be opposed by many people, but even so, he did not plan to hide or surrender. “Since it’s like this, General Sun, I’ll take my leave!”
Nie Yi stood up and walked out without the slightest hesitation, and Ping Shengchao and Zhang Zihai promptly followed after him. Seeing this, Sun Chengzhi stood up and wanted to apologise, but was stopped by her own father.
“Stop there; why are you following after them? Let them go if they want to, do you think our J City secure base has to rely on them to live?” General Sun said angrily, then began to berate Sun Chengzhi. “And you, how old are you by now? Why haven’t you found a boyfriend? I’m telling you, if you dare do such a disgraceful matter, I’ll break your legs!”
Sun Chengzhi, who had always been a little afraid of her father, lowered her head and was afraid to speak.
“Dad, don’t get angry.” Sun Huan, who had never said a word, spoke up and began to pant while clutching his chest.
When General Sun saw his son’s behaviour, his face revealed some anxiety and he no longer scolded Sun Chengzhi.
Sun Chengzhi finally sighed in relief at this situation and gave her brother a grateful smile.
On the other end, Nie Yi brought Qi Jingchen out of the house and said to him, “Sorry, you’ve been wronged.”
“I wasn’t,” Qi Jingchen said. Why did he have to care about the opinions of those irrelevant people? “Do you think this matter of researching ability nucleuses has something to do with General Sun?”
“I don’t know,” Nie Yi replied. This sort of research was impossible if only a few people were conducting it privately. There must be someone supporting them, but he didn’t know if General Sun was the supporter… Judging from his past behaviour, it probably wasn’t him.
Qi Jingchen blinked. “Let’s return first and visit Mu Yi tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Nie Yi nodded. Honestly, he was disinclined to care about something like this, but now it had involved Mu Yi— It wouldn’t have mattered if they hadn’t encountered this matter, but since they had, they had to take care of it a little.
Moreover, perhaps Mu Yi might be reborn as well.
General Sun’s villa was extremely gorgeous, but a golden or silver nest still couldn’t compare to their own grass nest. This saying also made some sense. Eating at General Sun’s place definitely wouldn’t have been more comfortable than eating at their home.
Qi Jingchen ate the nutritional meal Nie Yi had prepared for him then leaned against the sofa at the side to read his book and have a foot bath at the same time.
When Nie Yi saw that pair of fair feet, he swallowed his saliva and took off his own shoes and socks, placing his feet in the basin for a soak together.
Qi Jingchen looked at Nie Yi, then returned to his reading.
“What are you reading?” Nie Yi asked.
“Novel,” Qi Jingchen said. That certain book with colourful descriptions couldn’t be read in front of Nie Yi. After all, reading it may unintentionally reveal a ‘problem’ to Nie Yi if he took a couple of glances. Later, he simply asked Qi An to find two books that, regardless of the writing or title, had very censored content for him to slowly read.
Him reading so calmly and openly would definitely make Nie Yi not closely examine the content of his book; this, Qi Jingchen was very sure of.
Nie Yi truly wasn’t interested in what book Qi Jingchen had in his hands. After casually asking a sentence, he began to cultivate his ability.
The two droplets in his mind had grown larger. If there weren’t any mishaps, it wouldn’t be long before he reached level three.
In his last life, he did not cultivate at all and had automatically ascended to level three. This time, he could properly experience it.
Nie Yi closed his eyes and the two droplets in his mind, one red and one blue, revolved nonstop. At the start, he still had been paying attention to the situation outside, but slowly his entire spiritual strength was immersed.
Qi Jingchen’s gaze shifted away from his book and after staring at Nie Yi for a while, closed his eyes and diverged his spiritual strength. The entire world emerged before him bit by bit, but it was completely different from how he viewed it through his eyes.
If he completely used his current spiritual strength, he could cover a diameter of approximately ten meters around him. However, if he checked a particular direction, he could ‘see’ even further.
After looking around in a circle and not discovering any peculiarities, Qi Jingchen retrieved all his spiritual strength. Right at this time, he suddenly sensed a minute energy fluctuation emerging from the lettuce beside him.
Qi Jingchen used his spiritual strength to wrap around the lettuce but could no longer feel that energy fluctuation. Instead, he sensed something else.
The entirety of the lettuce was revealed before him. First was the vein lines of the leaves, then each cell in it…
Qi Jingchen suddenly woke up, discovering that his spiritual strength had increased by a bit.
Roughly covering all four directions with his spiritual strength didn’t require any technical skills, and no matter how he used it, he could only see further distances when more spiritual strength was used. It was only when he concentrated on smaller details that the value of spiritual strength was revealed…
Qi Jingchen promptly trod on Nie Yi’s foot and the warm soaking water Nie Yi had subconsciously maintained splattered everywhere.
“What?” Nie Yi immediately discontinued his cultivation.
“I seem to have discovered a method to cultivate spiritual strength, you try it out,” Qi Jingchen said.
That night, the two of them did not sleep for the entire night and continuously cultivated their spiritual strength.
Actually, this method could increase spiritual strength greatly the first time it was utilised, but it would no longer be as effective after that. However, Qi Jingchen also discovered that after condensing spiritual strength to a fine thread, it could be used for even more things.
He had once controlled a large amount of energy after all. In the past, he had wholeheartedly wanted to die and didn’t think much of his weak health, but now that he promised Nie Yi he wouldn’t actively seek death, he began to reminisce about his strength.
He slept a little late that day and had almost completely expended his spiritual strength, so Qi Jingchen wasn’t able to get up in the morning and simply chose not to, up until he heard Sun Chengzhi’s voice coming from outside in his half-asleep state.
After putting on his clothes, Qi Jingchen walked out of the truck that he and Nie Yi had regarded as their bedroom.
Probably because his sleeping posture wasn’t so great, the youth had a bit of bedhead and his eyes were still a little sleepy. However, there still were no traces of blemishes on his skin and he was still an outstanding beauty even without makeup. Sun Chengzhi couldn’t keep her heart from itching, but she very soon exhaled.
Why do all beauties have owners? Nie Yi that fellow… really did have genuine skill.
Sun Chengzhi had come over early in the morning to apologise for her dad’s behaviour and to inquire if Nie Yi had anything he needed help with— Their J City secure base really did not need to rely on Nie Yi, but there was no benefit in offending him either.
Who knew what would happen in the future? Creating a good relationship with B City secure base was always a good thing.
As a result, after apologising, she asked a couple questions about Qi Jingchen and was unexpectedly beaten up by Nie Yi on the pretext of ‘swapping pointers’.
She wasn’t on par with his ability and her fighting skills without ability weren’t comparable either. Nowadays, Sun Chengzhi, who found it hard to meet a worthy opponent could only be defeated when facing Nie Yi. After Nie Yi implying said “Jingchen was with me last night, and was tired to death so he didn’t get up”, she was even more convinced to give up.
She had been cultivated as the heir by her father. Even though Qi Jingchen suited her taste very, very much, since Nie Yi and him were husband and wife, she wouldn’t try to get between them.
Of course, it was human nature for her to take a couple more looks. Sun Chengzhi stared at Qi Jingchen nonstop, then smiled as she greeted, “Jingchen, morning ah!”
“Morning,” Qi Jingchen said and slowly began to eat the food Nie Yi prepared, then asked, “How is Mu Yi?”
“Cried for the entire night,” Sun Chengzhi said, “I scolded her and she seemed to have pulled herself together.”
“I want to visit her. We might have seen her husband outside the city previously,” Qi Jingchen suddenly said.
Sun Chengzhi was very busy and honestly couldn’t always be concerned about Mu Yi’s matters. At the same time, Mu Yi’s case of her husband disappearing and her parents being killed made her inclined to seek revenge— Now in the secure base, there were even incidents where people were killed over a piece of bread.
Though their secure base temporarily wasn’t lacking in food and regular people would be able to get food by as long as they were willing to work, there were always those people who liked to reap without sowing.
However, while Sun Chengzhi didn’t have time to pay attention to Mu Yi, upon knowing that Qi Jingchen had news of Mu Yi’s husband, she sent Mu Yi over as soon as possible.
After not meeting for a night, Mu Yi looked even more haggard. Qi Jingchen looked at her and called Qi An over. “Qi An, give it to her.”
When Qi An heard Qi Jingchen, he immediately took out the necklace key.
“This is my husband’s! How is it with you guys?” Mu Yi looked at Qi Jingchen with eyes filled with excitement, but also suspicion.
But Qi Jingchen unhurriedly explained what he had seen. “Judging from your husband’s corpse, he was likely killed because someone wanted his ability nucleus.”
“Is what you’re saying true?” Mu Yi said through gritted teeth.
“I have no reason to lie to you,” Qi Jingchen said.
Mu Yi’s heart was a mess. She sank into her train of thought and realised that Qi Jingchen truly had no reason to lie to her.
If her husband was killed by these people, they basically had no need to tell her about this, and also… When her parents and parents-in-law died, these people had not even reached this base!
Recalling how her husband had just registered himself as a level two ability user not long ago and many people had known about this matter, and that level two ability users truly had an ability nucleus… Mu Yi could only believe Qi Jingchen’s words.
Yesterday she had begged Sun Chengzhi but Sun Chengzhi kept asking what enemies her husband had and seemed to firmly believe that this was a vengeance killing. However, her husband had always been kind to others.
“What do you want me to do?” Mu Yi asked.
“You’re just a pregnant woman, what can you do? Just rest properly inside; don’t go back to J City secure base, I fear that you’ll have an accident,” Qi Jingchen said.
Whether Mu Yi would be reborn would be apparent after a week. If she was reborn, she could leave with them; if not, they would still protect her well.
Mu Yi’s face was filled with astonishment. “I don’t need to do anything at all?” She had assumed… they would at least ask her to teach other people how to produce the wind blade even if she herself wasn’t quite clear about it…
“Take a look outside,” Qi Jingchen smiled.
Mu Yi looked outside the truck and just happened to see the ability users of Chenguang Team cultivating their abilities.
These people’s abilities were much stronger than the ones she had seen in J City secure base. She even saw someone use a wind blade among them.
With such strong subordinates, she truly was insignificant to them, so… these people were genuinely kindhearted? Recalling how they had saved her yesterday for no reason either, Mu Yi felt incredibly moved for a moment.
Qi An carried Xiaomao and stood at the side. He previously had a good relationship with Mu Yi and was slightly tempted to go over, but immediately remembered that Mu Yi currently did not remember him and could only resentfully twitch his lips.
Mu Yi just happened to see this, and smiled at the little baby who had given her her husband’s remnants.
Nie Yi had Mother Ping, who was knowledgeable in gynaecology, bring Mu Yi away to care for, then discussed the following situation with Qi Jingchen and Qi An.
“I’ll go check out the situation at the base?” Qi An promptly suggested.
“No, it’s best not to end up unable to find anything and slip yourself into the hands of other people,” Qi Jingchen said. If Qi An teleported and just happened to land on the other’s operating table…
“Then what do we do?” Qi An looked at Qi Jingchen impatiently, waiting for him to come up with a plan.
In the past, in their secure base, Nie Yi was the number one thug and this sort of matter like making a decision had always been Qi Jingchen’s job.
“Have Chenguang Team look for supplies with the people of J City secure base and have them witness Chenguang Team’s strength. After that, spread the matter about Ping Shengchao originally having no ability and suddenly awakening to the water ability,” Qi Jingchen said, then looked at Nie Yi. “Also, the external people should find out that you’re about to reach level three… Perhaps you could find an expert from J City secure base and swap pointers.”
“No problem. Anything else?” Nie Yi asked.
“Find a few well-informed people from J City secure base and have them look for the family members of our team members, then ask around about who the level two ability users in J City Secure Base are,” Qi Jingchen added.
Those people definitely would not give up just after obtaining Mu Yi’s husband’s ability nucleus and would want other people’s nucleus as well. Perhaps they would turn their attention to them. Even if they dare not lay their hands on the Chenguang Team, after learning about Chenguang Team’s situation, they would definitely ask about their circumstances openly— Those people researching on ability users could be said to want regular people to obtain abilities as well.
Nie Yi relayed Qi Jingchen’s words to Ping Shengchao and after allowing Ping Shengchao to handle it, returned to Qi Jingchen’s side.
“You’re not going to challenge a strong ability user in J City secure base?” Qi Jingchen asked.
“I’ve already defeated the reportedly strongest in J City secure base this morning, Sun Chengzhi.” Nie Yi was fairly proud of himself.
…
Chenguang Team were extremely high-profile when they appeared and had attracted the eyes of many people. After someone revealed that the Chenguang Team had a method for regular people to become ability users and to upgrade abilities, the entire secure base became even more frenzied. For a time, regardless of whether they were ability users or regular people, all eyes were on the Chenguang Team.
However, what made Qi Jingchen and Nie Yi somewhat astonished was that the first person to come to them was unexpectedly Sun Chengzhi. “I heard you have a way to turn regular people into ability users? Could you tell me? I’m willing to exchange supplies for it.”
“What do you want it for?” Nie Yi asked.
“It’s like this: my ge’s health has never been good. If he could awaken into an ability user, perhaps he could become healthier,” Sun Chengzhi said. The inherent physical quality of ability users was generally much better than regular people. In the past, there was a sickly person who awakened to an ability and their body became much sturdier.