Humanity Orchid Heart

Lin Xiaosu sat on the bluestone slab and closed his eyes, his heart surging. In another hour, if nothing unexpected happened, the skylight would open again.

During the last Astrological Shift Day, he had accidentally "snatched" an immortal maiden's opportunity and obtained the Heavenly Dao Insightful Eye, giving his ordinary life a whole new way forward.

Today had not been an accident.

Today, he was doing it on purpose.

He wanted to see whether there were any new opportunities he could "snatch"...

Crossing between two disconnected worlds to seize Heavenly Dao abilities that did not belong to the human realm—what could be more thrilling or worth anticipating?

Midnight arrived.

A long-awaited glimmer rose from the pattern on the stone where Lin Xiaosu had been staring...

Lin Xiaosu's heartbeat suddenly quickened. He sprang up, dropped to the ground, and peered through the pattern at what lay beneath the stone.

The skylight in the stone slowly opened before his eyes.

Once again, he saw that bizarre world.

A month had passed, and this world seemed to have changed somewhat. It was no longer entirely desolate; there was now a trace of movement.

A gigantic monstrous bird rose into the air and swept over the great river below.

Its body covered the earth and blotted out the sky. Its five talons spread apart, resembling both eagle and dragon, while the three scarlet scales atop its head made it all the more extraordinary.

The giant bird folded its wings and descended toward the ancient stone stele.

Judging by where those enormous talons were landing, they were aimed directly at the little tree with only one branch and a dozen or so leaves.

Lin Xiaosu's heart jolted. Was the giant bird trying to seize an opportunity too?

At that rate, one swipe of its claw would crush not only the tiny tree, fragile as a blade of grass before it, but likely the entire stele as well.

Yet as the giant bird drew closer, the entire world seemed to change completely.

The bird's body grew smaller and smaller...

No!

The stele was growing larger and larger.

At first, it had looked like nothing more than a stone tablet, but as the bird approached, the stele became as vast as heaven and earth.

Even a single leaf on that little tree seemed as immense as heaven and earth.

The leaf gave a gentle flick, and the giant bird became a cloud of blood mist.

Lin Xiaosu stood dumbfounded for ten seconds...

Ten seconds later, his gaze shifted beyond the stele. The crystal coffin was still there, but compared to a month ago, it had changed—changed in an indescribable way.

Part of the cloudlike radiance inside the coffin had dispersed, revealing the upper half of the beautiful woman.

The sight was the most breathtakingly beautiful tableau in the world.

Her face was incomparably noble and holy, yet her figure was so stunning that the combination was simply beyond words...

However, Lin Xiaosu's purpose today was definitely not voyeurism.

Just like how Lin Fugui had watched Widow Feng bathe, he had fundamentally been trying to steal something. He had only lifted the curtain on an impulse to see whether anyone was there, and thus earned the label of a peeping tom watching a widow bathe.

Lin Xiaosu was fundamentally stealing something too...

With his Heavenly Dao Insightful Eye, he stared at the leaves above. A dewdrop on one leaf trembled on the verge of falling, while dewdrops were also forming behind that leaf, though they had not yet taken shape.

This was an opportunity!

Last time, he had accidentally caught a dewdrop and gained the Heavenly Dao Insightful Eye.

This time, he had come prepared, and his target was still a dewdrop.

The starry sky seemed to tremble faintly.

The dewdrop fell.

Lin Xiaosu's consciousness glanced at the beauty below, and he silently said, Sorry...

Then he flew toward the dewdrop.

Splash!

It was as if a drop of water had splashed within Lin Xiaosu's sea of consciousness.

Countless fragments like shattered jade burst forth.

An ancient, desolate message entered his sea of consciousness: Humanity Orchid Heart, discern the great currents of the mortal world, comprehend the great Dao of heaven and earth, merge the subtleties of wisdom, and unravel calamities born of delusion.

In that instant, Lin Xiaosu suddenly felt all his memories being awakened. Every fragment of his past memories connected in an instant.

He completely understood every book he had read. Every brain cell in his head seemed activated, and his mind became infinitely clear.

His consciousness had originally been nothing more than an intangible sensation, but at that moment, it seemed to condense into a silver fish with awareness and life, leaving his body and existing independently in that miraculous world.

Boom!

Beneath the stele, the long river roared.

Above the sky, the river of stars flowed backward.

Within the crystal coffin, cloudlike radiance churned, faintly revealing the most mysterious part of the beauty below...

Lin Xiaosu's silver fish sensed extreme danger and abruptly withdrew. He slid through the skylight in a single step, and it closed behind him, sealing away the furious wind and clouds of that world.

Cold sweat broke out across Lin Xiaosu's back.

Could it be that after snatching opportunities twice, he had finally been discovered?

If his consciousness were trapped in that world, would that mean he could never return?

Fortunately, fortune was sought amid danger.

He had successfully gained another unimaginable opportunity: Humanity Orchid Heart.

Ordinarily, it might have taken him a long time to uncover the mysteries of this great divine ability.

But now that he possessed Humanity Orchid Heart, he understood its heaven-defying nature in mere moments.

Humanity Orchid Heart was superhuman comprehension.

Perfect recall was merely the foundation; the true wonder lay in drawing inferences and mastering everything thoroughly.

Recently, he had worn out books and drilled himself numb with practice questions for the civil service exam, yet he still only half understood much of the material.

But now, he could recite every book he had read backward without missing a single word. The question bank appearing in his mind was child's play to him.

My god, six days before the civil service exam, he had been given such an absurdly overpowered cheat. What did that mean?

Did heaven really think a genius like me was suited to become a weather observer?

Last time he had snatched an opportunity, an Earth Mother seven or eight feet long had suddenly appeared. What about today? Would anything appear this time?

Lin Xiaosu's gaze swept over Hu Ya, who was sleeping in front of him. The girl was sleeping soundly, and there was no movement outside either.

From this angle, the girl's chest really was nowhere near as impressive as the female corpse in the coffin.

But this posture was clearly more unrestrained than any other woman's.

She lay flat on her back, her body posed like Chang'e flying to the moon.

Chang'e flying to the moon embodied elegance.

What Hu Ya embodied was a little... less elegant?

He found the reason. The weather had turned hot, she was wearing less, half her chest was exposed, and so was her belly...

Girl, you were testing me again and again and again.

Lin Xiaosu went into the inner room, picked up his second uncle's blanket, and covered her with it.

After covering her, he even carefully tucked in the corners. Hu Ya did not move at all.

Lin Xiaosu's heart gave a slight jolt. This was not normal.

Hu Ya might seem reckless, but her alertness was unbelievable.

Last time, a snake had been burrowing outside the Daoist temple. Lin Xiaosu had not noticed it at all, but she had.

After all this commotion today, she still had not woken up?

Lin Xiaosu panicked. "Hu Ya!"

His voice echoed through the Daoist temple, but Hu Ya still did not wake...

Had she drunk too much?

She had indeed drunk quite a lot earlier. Eight liang of baijiu was enough to leave a girl unconscious, but that did not apply to her.

Lin Xiaosu's gaze shifted, and he used Time Reversal.

He traced events back several minutes. The glimmer had appeared, he had dropped down, and the moment he did, Hu Ya sprang up.

As she sprang up, that glimmer struck her directly.

Then...

Hu Ya fell down.

The problem was not the alcohol!

The problem was the glimmer.

Last time, that glimmer had accidentally swept over a two-foot-long Earth Mother. Right before his eyes, Earth Mother had grown out of thin air into a massive seven- or eight-foot Earth Mother.

And today, that glimmer had shot into Hu Ya's brow.

What... would happen to her?

Lin Xiaosu did not waste time. He immediately dialed 120.

Then he picked up Hu Ya and headed down the mountain.

The mountain path was rugged, the moon hid behind the clouds, and darkness covered everything around him.

With Lin Xiaosu's Heavenly Dao Insightful Eye, none of that was a problem.

The real problem was his physical condition. After only a few miles of mountain road carrying Hu Ya, who weighed barely a hundred jin, he was gasping for breath.

He had to make sure Hu Ya's bodily functions were normal.

That was why he had called for emergency services.

By the time he reached the foot of the mountain, the ambulance had already arrived.

Two doctors stood beside the vehicle. "What are the symptoms?"

"She's unconscious and won't wake up."

"She drank?" The male doctor sniffed. "How much did she drink?"

He had caught the smell of alcohol.

"It has nothing to do with drinking. She's had more than this before and been fine. Just examine her and see whether her bodily functions are normal..."

"Come on, get her into the ambulance!"

The ambulance started moving, and the examination began at the same time.

"Pulse normal... blood pressure normal... ECG normal... Check her blood alcohol level!"

The female nurse in the ambulance jabbed a syringe toward Hu Ya's arm. The needle slid lightly and slipped aside.

The nurse's eyes flew wide open...

She tried again, but still could not pierce her skin...

"Doctor Zhou, the needle won't go in!" The female nurse's voice trembled.

"How is that possible?" Doctor Zhou said. "Try again!"

She tried again!

Before everyone's eyes, the needle bent outright.

Everyone stared in shock. The driver nearly flipped the ambulance.