Qiao Zhiya was lying straight on the bed and his eyes were wide open. His hands groped under the quilt and touched the place where he used to wear his storage ring. It was empty. He felt the condition of his magic pool again and breathed slightly. He finally took out his hand from under a quilt and found a completely cracked gray stone ornament in his hands. He looked at it for a few seconds, suddenly raised his hand and lifted the quilt to cover his head, and rolled hard on the bed a few times.
Really! It’s not a dream! It’s intermediate level! His magic training aptitude has actually risen to the intermediate level! The initial small pond had become the current small lake! It’s full of pure magic inside! He was one step closer to going home! The most important thing was that the simple storage ring that his parents gave him was directly connected to his magic power after his aptitude was upgraded to the intermediate level, and it entered and its contents went into his magic pool!
Holy things! That was actually awesome that it could be bound to the magic pool! His parents left him such a big surprise! In other words, he no longer had to worry about the storage ring being discovered by others! He also could never lose it again! The storage ring would be his deepest secret! The dark space in his dream was not a black hole at all, but a storage ring with its capacity expanded countless times!
After a moment of silent excitement, he suddenly thought of the cracked ornament, quickly lifted the quilt, sat up, frowned, and tried to recall yesterday’s events. He then froze, looked around the strange spacious room, got out of bed, and ran out of the room.
In the conference room, Chu Rong nodded his head and said, “The mining team will stay here and should strive to dig out all the variant red tin ores in the ground within a month. By the way, conceal the traces left by the imperial warships after they were dug away. Half of the investigation team will come with us and the remaining half will cooperate with the mining team to check the surroundings to see if there were any traces of human activities left by the Empire, so as to protect the safety of the mining team. “
The two people in charge wrote down his orders.
After confirming that there was nothing left to settle, Chu Rong waved his hand to announce the end of the meeting, leaving only Zhuang Yu and Fan Xiangnan to stay.
When the door of the conference room opened and closed, Zhuang Yu retracted her sight, took out a small pocket and a small gray stone from a small pouch, and pushed it in front of Chu Rong, saying, “I found this on the bed where QiaoQiao was lying.”
Chu Rong glanced over these two things, reached out to pick up the small pouch, motioned for the gray stone, and asked, “What is this?”
“It’s just an ordinary stone.” Zhuang Yu said, feeling a little funny. She stretched out her finger and touched the small stone, “This stone still has patterns. It should be a gadget QiaoQiao made when he was bored. He seems to like stones very much.”
Chu Rong remembered that Qiao Zhiya was obviously uncomfortable but he was still struggling to look around for stones. He narrowed his eyes, put away his small pouch, changed the topic, and asked, “Did you figure out when he entered the medical room?”
Hearing this question, Zhuang Yu turned serious, clicked on a video on the electronic file, and replied, “The surveillance showed that he came in shortly after you entered the medical room and he was already seen holding the small pouch. Afterwards, the monitoring was rendered ineffective under the influence of your mental power and nothing was captured.”
In other words, Qiao Zhiya probably discovered that Chu Rong had lost his pouch after the duel exercise and came with him in order to give back his pouch. In order to return Chu Rong’s pouch, he came to the medical room and then suffered the disaster.
Everyone was silent for a few seconds. Fan Xiangnan at Chu Rong, who was sitting at the head seat and whose thoughts couldn’t be read, and asked Zhuang Yu, “Have you found out the reason why Chief’s spiritual strength has improved?”
Zhuang Yu returned to her senses and shook her head. She slightly frowned and replied, “No, the instrument detected nothing. The officer’s improvement this time is the same as last time, without any reason why. I can only make sure that the healing cabin and the healing fluid are not the reasons for Chie’s improvement.”
“Could it be the effects of the special magnetic field of this planet?” Fan Xiangnan guessed.
Mineral stars had more or less some magnetic field problems which caused various negative effects on the human body and were not suitable for long-term residence. After the Chief came here, his spiritual strength had been frequently improving, combined with the planet’s strange energy storm response, he couldn’t help but think about it.
“No, aside from energy storms, the planet’s usual magnetic field is within the safe range.” Compared to their careful and solemnity, Chu Rong, the subject of the concern, was much calmer. After denying this conjecture, he glanced at his two subordinates and said, “Let’s forget that assumption. What I want to say is about my spiritual strength. I suspect that my recovery has something to do with Qiao Zhiya.”
“It has something to do with QiaoQiao?!”
Zhuang Yu unconsciously raised her voice, almost astonished. She stood up from her chair and stammered, “Sir, Chief, what do you mean? QiaoQiao has been miserable enough, you, don’t…”
Chu Rong was an important member of the Chu Family and the Federation. Everyone knew what would happen if QiaoQiao became his “healer.” QiaoQiao’s future would be…
“When I lost control of my spiritual power, I vaguely sensed the fluctuation of his spiritual power.” Chu Rong glanced at her coldly, suppressed her agitation, and continued, “At that time, I recovered a little bit of consciousness and noticed that there was a weak healing power in the corner of the medical room trying to soothe my mind. It had a good effect but the power was too weak. When I wanted to protect it, the power had disappeared.”
When Fan Xiangnan heard this, his thoughts cleared and connected some events, and said, “Last time, when your spiritual strength first improved, Qiao was also lying on the bed in the medical room and soon after you woke up, he also woke up. As far as I know, there are mental powers with special effects. During the Federal War, there were many large families secretly capturing people with special mental powers for research. Maybe Qiao’s ancestors were one of them and they lived in seclusion to avoid persecution.”
“Zergs1 also prefer strong and special mental powers…” Zhuang Yu added, stunned and feeling cold all over. She slumped back to her chair and muttered to herself, “How could this happen? Qiao is only seventeen years old. Why should he experience it? If people know that his spiritual power is useful to you…”
“Therefore, his loss of spiritual power is not necessarily a bad thing. The current Federation is not much better than that chaotic period in history. There are also many small moves on the side of the Empire. In addition, the insects are ready to attack again. Now, he is the safest without spiritual power.” Chu Rong’s words were cold and rational, but his face was darkened similar to the bottom of the pot, and his tone was murderous, “Conceal the matter about Qiao Zhiya having special spiritual strength. Send him all the purification fluids sent to me every month and find a way to restore his spiritual power. I will be responsible for the consequences I caused.”
Zhuang Yu’s heart was full of sympathy and love for Qiao Zhiya. She hesitated and said, “In case he recovers, will you…”
“What do you think of my Chu family?” Chu Rong frowned and interrupted her. His eyes were clear and honest, “I’m Chu Rong, I’m not so despicable as to take advantage of a child.”
She thought that he was a small-minded person but it turned out that he was a gentleman. Zhuang Yu rubbed her face as she tried to regain her focus. She didn’t even have any energy left to continue internally ragging about how the weird way her own Chief reprimanded them. She only nodded and replied, “I will try to find a way to help QiaoQiao restore his spiritual power.” If she couldn’t do it, there’s still Shifu 2 they could consult. They would always find a way. Since it was a special spiritual power, maybe a miracle would even occur.
Fan Xiangnan understood his other meaning and asked, “Sir, where are you going to settle Qiao after returning to Capital Star?”
He didn’t ask the Chief whether he wanted to adopt Qiao. Instead, he asked where he was going to put Qiao because he knew that from the moment Qiao Zhiya was destroyed due to the Chief’s spiritual power, it’s a foregone conclusion that Qiao would be taken in.
Zhuang Yu was also invigorated when she heard him. She looked at Chu Rong expectantly and suggested, “Why don’t you bring Qiao to my shifu? He’s so smart and it’s good to be a pharmacist in the future. A junior pharmacist can take the test without spiritual strength. With his talent and love for plants, he may concentrate on researching primary medicines in the future and he may not fail to achieve some achievements.”
“No, his S-level physique shouldn’t be wasted in the laboratory.” Chu Rong dismissed her proposal without mercy, got up, and said, “Make good preparations and set off tomorrow afternoon. The meeting is over!” He then strode away, as if afraid that they would come up with some unreliable suggestions.
Zhuang Yu stared at his back, slapped the table angrily, and retorted in a low voice, “What’s wrong with the laboratory? Qiao is so cute. Does that mean that he’s more suitable mixing with your group of stinky men? What a waste!”
One of the “stinky men” Fan Xiangnan looked at her and decided to be impolite even just once. He got up and left without saying goodbye to her.
Zhuang Yu became angrier upon witnessing this and almost couldn’t hold back roaring out. She sulked as she stared at his retreating back. Suddenly, she thought of something and her eyes lit up. She picked up the electronic file and left the conference room.
Qiao Zhiya wore a black pajama that was obviously too big for him and went to the medical room, but it turned out to be regrettably empty. The White-Haired Monster was not here, Zhuang Yu was not here, and there was no one he knew here. Looking for someone to no avail, he searched the hospital bed again and looked around, looking up and down. However, he still couldn’t find the small pouch. His ears shook in puzzlement.
Strange. At that time, in order to avoid mistakenly sucking out the power of the magic stone in the small pouch, he especially put the small pouch under the pillow. But now, it seemed that someone had picked it up?
He looked for it again but still couldn’t find it, so he had to embarrassedly call the medical assistant, who was obviously busy, and asked in a soft voice.
“Small pouch? Ah, I remember. Zhuang-jie cleaned up the bed after you were taken away by the Chief. If you left something here, she should have put it away.” The assistant replied, seeing his face ruddy and breathing stable. With a smile on his face, he asked in concern, “Do you feel better? Is there anything uncomfortable? Do you need gege 3 to check you up again?”
Qiao Zhiya was frightened that his ears turned tense. He hurriedly shook his head and said that he didn’t have to. After thanking him again, he turned and left the medical room, panicking — why did the people around Zhuang Yu-jie like to check him up?4 It was too terrible.
Qiao Zhiya was lying straight on the bed and his eyes were wide open. His hands groped under the quilt and touched the place where he used to wear his storage ring. It was empty. He felt the condition of his magic pool again and breathed slightly. He finally took out his hand from under a quilt and found a completely cracked gray stone ornament in his hands. He looked at it for a few seconds, suddenly raised his hand and lifted the quilt to cover his head, and rolled hard on the bed a few times.
Really! It’s not a dream! It’s intermediate level! His magic training aptitude has actually risen to the intermediate level! The initial small pond had become the current small lake! It’s full of pure magic inside! He was one step closer to going home! The most important thing was that the simple storage ring that his parents gave him was directly connected to his magic power after his aptitude was upgraded to the intermediate level, and it entered and its contents went into his magic pool!
Holy things! That was actually awesome that it could be bound to the magic pool! His parents left him such a big surprise! In other words, he no longer had to worry about the storage ring being discovered by others! He also could never lose it again! The storage ring would be his deepest secret! The dark space in his dream was not a black hole at all, but a storage ring with its capacity expanded countless times!
After a moment of silent excitement, he suddenly thought of the cracked ornament, quickly lifted the quilt, sat up, frowned, and tried to recall yesterday’s events. He then froze, looked around the strange spacious room, got out of bed, and ran out of the room.
In the conference room, Chu Rong nodded his head and said, “The mining team will stay here and should strive to dig out all the variant red tin ores in the ground within a month. By the way, conceal the traces left by the imperial warships after they were dug away. Half of the investigation team will come with us and the remaining half will cooperate with the mining team to check the surroundings to see if there were any traces of human activities left by the Empire, so as to protect the safety of the mining team. “
The two people in charge wrote down his orders.
After confirming that there was nothing left to settle, Chu Rong waved his hand to announce the end of the meeting, leaving only Zhuang Yu and Fan Xiangnan to stay.
When the door of the conference room opened and closed, Zhuang Yu retracted her sight, took out a small pocket and a small gray stone from a small pouch, and pushed it in front of Chu Rong, saying, “I found this on the bed where QiaoQiao was lying.”
Chu Rong glanced over these two things, reached out to pick up the small pouch, motioned for the gray stone, and asked, “What is this?”
“It’s just an ordinary stone.” Zhuang Yu said, feeling a little funny. She stretched out her finger and touched the small stone, “This stone still has patterns. It should be a gadget QiaoQiao made when he was bored. He seems to like stones very much.”
Chu Rong remembered that Qiao Zhiya was obviously uncomfortable but he was still struggling to look around for stones. He narrowed his eyes, put away his small pouch, changed the topic, and asked, “Did you figure out when he entered the medical room?”
Hearing this question, Zhuang Yu turned serious, clicked on a video on the electronic file, and replied, “The surveillance showed that he came in shortly after you entered the medical room and he was already seen holding the small pouch. Afterwards, the monitoring was rendered ineffective under the influence of your mental power and nothing was captured.”
In other words, Qiao Zhiya probably discovered that Chu Rong had lost his pouch after the duel exercise and came with him in order to give back his pouch. In order to return Chu Rong’s pouch, he came to the medical room and then suffered the disaster.
Everyone was silent for a few seconds. Fan Xiangnan at Chu Rong, who was sitting at the head seat and whose thoughts couldn’t be read, and asked Zhuang Yu, “Have you found out the reason why Chief’s spiritual strength has improved?”
Zhuang Yu returned to her senses and shook her head. She slightly frowned and replied, “No, the instrument detected nothing. The officer’s improvement this time is the same as last time, without any reason why. I can only make sure that the healing cabin and the healing fluid are not the reasons for Chie’s improvement.”
“Could it be the effects of the special magnetic field of this planet?” Fan Xiangnan guessed.
Mineral stars had more or less some magnetic field problems which caused various negative effects on the human body and were not suitable for long-term residence. After the Chief came here, his spiritual strength had been frequently improving, combined with the planet’s strange energy storm response, he couldn’t help but think about it.
“No, aside from energy storms, the planet’s usual magnetic field is within the safe range.” Compared to their careful and solemnity, Chu Rong, the subject of the concern, was much calmer. After denying this conjecture, he glanced at his two subordinates and said, “Let’s forget that assumption. What I want to say is about my spiritual strength. I suspect that my recovery has something to do with Qiao Zhiya.”
“It has something to do with QiaoQiao?!”
Zhuang Yu unconsciously raised her voice, almost astonished. She stood up from her chair and stammered, “Sir, Chief, what do you mean? QiaoQiao has been miserable enough, you, don’t…”
Chu Rong was an important member of the Chu Family and the Federation. Everyone knew what would happen if QiaoQiao became his “healer.” QiaoQiao’s future would be…
“When I lost control of my spiritual power, I vaguely sensed the fluctuation of his spiritual power.” Chu Rong glanced at her coldly, suppressed her agitation, and continued, “At that time, I recovered a little bit of consciousness and noticed that there was a weak healing power in the corner of the medical room trying to soothe my mind. It had a good effect but the power was too weak. When I wanted to protect it, the power had disappeared.”
When Fan Xiangnan heard this, his thoughts cleared and connected some events, and said, “Last time, when your spiritual strength first improved, Qiao was also lying on the bed in the medical room and soon after you woke up, he also woke up. As far as I know, there are mental powers with special effects. During the Federal War, there were many large families secretly capturing people with special mental powers for research. Maybe Qiao’s ancestors were one of them and they lived in seclusion to avoid persecution.”
“Zergs1 also prefer strong and special mental powers…” Zhuang Yu added, stunned and feeling cold all over. She slumped back to her chair and muttered to herself, “How could this happen? Qiao is only seventeen years old. Why should he experience it? If people know that his spiritual power is useful to you…”
“Therefore, his loss of spiritual power is not necessarily a bad thing. The current Federation is not much better than that chaotic period in history. There are also many small moves on the side of the Empire. In addition, the insects are ready to attack again. Now, he is the safest without spiritual power.” Chu Rong’s words were cold and rational, but his face was darkened similar to the bottom of the pot, and his tone was murderous, “Conceal the matter about Qiao Zhiya having special spiritual strength. Send him all the purification fluids sent to me every month and find a way to restore his spiritual power. I will be responsible for the consequences I caused.”
Zhuang Yu’s heart was full of sympathy and love for Qiao Zhiya. She hesitated and said, “In case he recovers, will you…”
“What do you think of my Chu family?” Chu Rong frowned and interrupted her. His eyes were clear and honest, “I’m Chu Rong, I’m not so despicable as to take advantage of a child.”
She thought that he was a small-minded person but it turned out that he was a gentleman. Zhuang Yu rubbed her face as she tried to regain her focus. She didn’t even have any energy left to continue internally ragging about how the weird way her own Chief reprimanded them. She only nodded and replied, “I will try to find a way to help QiaoQiao restore his spiritual power.” If she couldn’t do it, there’s still Shifu 2 they could consult. They would always find a way. Since it was a special spiritual power, maybe a miracle would even occur.
Fan Xiangnan understood his other meaning and asked, “Sir, where are you going to settle Qiao after returning to Capital Star?”
He didn’t ask the Chief whether he wanted to adopt Qiao. Instead, he asked where he was going to put Qiao because he knew that from the moment Qiao Zhiya was destroyed due to the Chief’s spiritual power, it’s a foregone conclusion that Qiao would be taken in.
Zhuang Yu was also invigorated when she heard him. She looked at Chu Rong expectantly and suggested, “Why don’t you bring Qiao to my shifu? He’s so smart and it’s good to be a pharmacist in the future. A junior pharmacist can take the test without spiritual strength. With his talent and love for plants, he may concentrate on researching primary medicines in the future and he may not fail to achieve some achievements.”
“No, his S-level physique shouldn’t be wasted in the laboratory.” Chu Rong dismissed her proposal without mercy, got up, and said, “Make good preparations and set off tomorrow afternoon. The meeting is over!” He then strode away, as if afraid that they would come up with some unreliable suggestions.
Zhuang Yu stared at his back, slapped the table angrily, and retorted in a low voice, “What’s wrong with the laboratory? Qiao is so cute. Does that mean that he’s more suitable mixing with your group of stinky men? What a waste!”
One of the “stinky men” Fan Xiangnan looked at her and decided to be impolite even just once. He got up and left without saying goodbye to her.
Zhuang Yu became angrier upon witnessing this and almost couldn’t hold back roaring out. She sulked as she stared at his retreating back. Suddenly, she thought of something and her eyes lit up. She picked up the electronic file and left the conference room.
Qiao Zhiya wore a black pajama that was obviously too big for him and went to the medical room, but it turned out to be regrettably empty. The White-Haired Monster was not here, Zhuang Yu was not here, and there was no one he knew here. Looking for someone to no avail, he searched the hospital bed again and looked around, looking up and down. However, he still couldn’t find the small pouch. His ears shook in puzzlement.
Strange. At that time, in order to avoid mistakenly sucking out the power of the magic stone in the small pouch, he especially put the small pouch under the pillow. But now, it seemed that someone had picked it up?
He looked for it again but still couldn’t find it, so he had to embarrassedly call the medical assistant, who was obviously busy, and asked in a soft voice.
“Small pouch? Ah, I remember. Zhuang-jie cleaned up the bed after you were taken away by the Chief. If you left something here, she should have put it away.” The assistant replied, seeing his face ruddy and breathing stable. With a smile on his face, he asked in concern, “Do you feel better? Is there anything uncomfortable? Do you need gege 3 to check you up again?”
Qiao Zhiya was frightened that his ears turned tense. He hurriedly shook his head and said that he didn’t have to. After thanking him again, he turned and left the medical room, panicking — why did the people around Zhuang Yu-jie like to check him up?4 It was too terrible.
