[Lu Family Courtyard] Chaye

"Huh?" Lu Zihan and Ren Yi both stared with their mouths open.

"What's with the 'huh'?" Lu Qing laughed at the two youths, who looked as though they'd never seen the world.

"Why would we weird beings need to go about things as troublesome as humans do?"

"Weird beings that feed on knowledge or memories have always existed in this world. Since all sorts of rules and abilities can be condensed into crystals, why not knowledge and memories?"

She went on to explain, "This crystal won't increase your advancement progress, but it can pour the knowledge it contains straight into your minds."

"Afterward, though, you'll still need to review and organize it yourselves before you can truly master it."

"This... must be expensive, right?" Ren Yi couldn't help asking again.

It didn't take a genius to know that weird beings that fed on knowledge and memories had to be exceedingly rare.

And an existence capable of condensing knowledge into crystals would be the most sought-after of them all.

"Zihan's dad made it. It didn't cost a thing." A proud smile appeared on Lu Qing's face. "Why else did you think our family was so wealthy?"

"Uncle Zhou... is amazing," Ren Yi said sincerely.

He had met Lu Zihan's dad before he awakened.

As he remembered it, the man was a refined, middle-aged gentleman with a straight mustache. He'd never imagined he was such a big shot.

There was a big shot right beside me all along!

Ren Yi immediately turned to Lu Zihan and patted him on the shoulder. "Young master, I'm sticking with you from now on!"

With that, he tossed the Energy Crystal into his mouth without hesitation.

The crystal looked hard, but it melted in his mouth like ice cream.

The next second, Ren Yi felt as though a heavy "bundle" had appeared in his mind.

When he concentrated on sensing it, the "bundle" instantly came apart, and a vast amount of knowledge flowed into his mind like a trickling stream, perfectly clear.

"All right, you can review it when you have time to rest." Lu Qing clapped her hands.

"Let's go downstairs first. Everyone's ready for the meal."

Ren Yi quickly drew his attention back, stopped organizing the knowledge in his mind, and followed Lu Qing and Lu Zihan back to the first floor of the wooden building.

The moment Ren Yi entered the first-floor hall, he was stunned by the sight before him.

The hall could only be described as "a wild dance of demons."

It seemed all the weird beings in the Lu Family Courtyard had gathered there.

Master Fu was the most neatly dressed of the lot. His dark long robe was pressed smooth, and he stood with his hands at his sides by the foot of the stairs.

When he saw Lu Qing bringing the two down, he immediately bowed. "Madam, young master," he said in a steady voice.

A-Mu had arranged the dining table into a "spectacle like never before."

By "spectacle," that meant the cups and plates on the table were stacked as high as little mountains, rising from the tabletop into the air. Anything that wouldn't fit had been piled directly on the floor.

The food on the plates came in all sorts of bizarre shapes, none of which Ren Yi had ever seen.

A-Mu had also revealed some of her weird form. Her normally good-natured smile had stretched into an exaggerated grin, pulling almost from the corners of her mouth to the back of her head. Her eyes, however, were full of warmth and mirth as she busied herself putting the finishing touches on the last few dishes.

The floor was even livelier. Five or six round watermelons were piled together, bouncing into one another like lively rubber balls.

Each rind bore a cheeky-looking human face, and their "hee-hee-hee" laughter rose and fell.

Only now, their laughter lacked the penetrating quality that had reached straight into the soul before, making them look rather comical.

A huge parasol tree completely blocked the front door.

It looked as though it had just been uprooted from the soil, its tangled roots exposed and propping it up like an octopus's tentacles.

It was simply too big. The top of the doorway came just up to its crown, wedging it firmly outside. It could only extend a dozen or so green vines into the hall in a forlorn manner, waving them lazily as though joining in the fun.

Perhaps because of his first impression, Ren Yi looked at the parasol tree, stuck so firmly it couldn't move, and somehow felt it had a bit of a... hard life.

Wait, was someone missing?

Ren Yi scanned the whole room and finally spotted the black-and-white-striped, foxlike creature in the shadows beneath a pile of plates.

It was the Shadow Ghost that had been curled up in Lu Qing's arms earlier. It was huddled in the shadows, its ruby-like eyes fixed on the food on the plates, looking ready to pounce.

"Thank you all for your hard work." Lu Qing clapped her hands. Her voice was gentle but carried clearly, instantly quieting the noise in the hall. "Thank you all for looking after Zihan and Xiao Yi during this time. I won't waste words on formalities. Let's eat!"

The room fell briefly silent before erupting into a frenzy the next second.

Ren Yi watched as the weird beings pounced on the food, each "showing off their own abilities."

A-Mu's mouth, stretched all the way to the back of her head, opened wide and sucked down the dishes on the table like a bottomless pit. The watermelons rolled up to the plates and crunched away at the food with the mouths on their rinds. The parasol tree's vines deftly wrapped around plates and fed the food into its trunk...

He finally understood why A-Mu had revealed her weird form. No other reason—her mouth was big.

At Lu Qing's prompting, Ren Yi and Lu Zihan immediately joined in.

He picked up something that looked like a green chicken drumstick and took a bite. His eyes lit up.

Mm, it tasted very good, a little like bullfrog with perilla. After he swallowed, a warm current flowed down his throat into his stomach, warming him all over. It even gave him a faint sense of relaxation that made him want to reveal his true form.

The ingredients probably weren't cheap either.

Ren Yi quickly ate a few bites to settle his stomach, picked up a bottle of faintly glowing drink, and found the black-and-white fox with its head buried in its food amid the piles of dishes—the Shadow Ghost.

Sensing someone approach, the Shadow Ghost immediately rose warily onto his hind legs, his front paws guarding the food beneath him as his ruby-like eyes watched Ren Yi.

Ren Yi hurriedly explained, "Ahem, um, senior... I came to apologize for what I did earlier. I got a little too into my role at the time, and I accidentally failed to hold back."

"Oh, you came to apologize."

Seeing that Ren Yi wasn't there to steal his food, the Shadow Ghost immediately relaxed and spoke in a human voice.

What came out from beneath that furry fox face was a deep, gravelly smoker's voice, like a grown man's.

"What're you apologizing for? It wasn't your fault," he said indistinctly, his mouth still full of food.

"I'm the one who didn't do the job right. I'm the one who should be reflecting. Don't call me senior, that's too formal. Just call me Chaye!"

Ren Yi was so startled by the gravelly voice and accent that he froze for a moment.

Chaye? He really was a zha?

In a distant memory, there did seem to be some indescribable connection between melon fields and zha.

Before he could think further, Chaye casually plopped down on the pile of food behind him, shoveling food into his mouth with his front paws as though they were moving at double speed. "Seriously, kid, you've got brains," he said indistinctly.

"But don't get cocky. Madam deliberately lowered the Instance's difficulty for you two this time, and the rules had us all tied hand and foot. Next time, I'll make sure you see what Chaye can really do!"

Following his lead, Ren Yi sat down on the pile of food beside him and took the opportunity to flatter him.

"That's right, Chaye, your ability is incredible. You pulled the one who could fly right down in an instant. Could you tell me what your ability is, Chaye? Is it related to shadows?"