Wen Li had just woken up and still looked a little dazed.
But Fu Qian could clearly feel that the aura she gave off was far stronger than before.
She rubbed her eyes, recognized Fu Qian looking down at her, and jolted awake. Instinctively, she felt around her body.
A piercing scream rang out, loud enough to shatter eardrums.
It couldn't be helped. After taking so many lashes in a row, even high-quality clothes couldn't hold up.
Add the tears caused by her body twisting out of shape, and it was no exaggeration to say Wen Li was covered in holes.
Tch. As if anyone would be interested in looking!
"Congratulations on leveling up."
Fu Qian looked at Wen Li's face and congratulated her with a beaming smile.
He was genuinely happy for her.
Ah!
Wen Li shuddered and stared fixedly at Fu Qian's face. She didn't even realize that she'd lowered the arm covering her chest.
She drew a deep breath and closed her eyes, releasing her perception. She could feel a power she'd never experienced before surging through her body.
She really was at the sixth tier!
She'd really broken through her bottleneck and officially become an Intermediate Tier transcendent!
"But... I really don't remember anything. I don't even know what happened."
Wen Li frowned and murmured to herself without thinking.
"That's fortune for you. The Chosen One—what else could you expect?"
Fu Qian sighed, thinking that she didn't need to be modest. She really had just slept through it, while someone else did all the hard work for her.
Of course, it was true that she'd taken quite a few kicks for it. The title of punching bag belonged to her and her alone.
The noise overhead was drawing closer. Tan Mingxue and the others would probably break through the ventilation shaft soon, so Fu Qian asked Wen Li one last question.
"Is your reluctance to hide in a safe room related to your ability? If there's no one nearby for you to sense emotions from, do your own emotions get reflected and amplified over and over?"
"How did you know...?"
Wen Li jerked her head up, but the person before her had already vanished. The empty safe room was left in shambles.
Obviously. If you didn't have this problem, you could just find somewhere to hide whenever you didn't want to hear other people's emotions. You wouldn't have to endure such unbearable torment.
The only explanation was that being alone made you suffer even more.
Fu Qian thought to himself as he returned to the Warehouse.
The strange phenomenon during Wen Li's upgrade had already made him suspicious. Now, he finally had confirmation.
[Evaluation: Heartless Sacrificial Blade] [Breaking Out of the Cocoon is a painful process, especially when you are the cocoon. You personally eliminated an Immature Form and allowed Supernatural Power to advance in a seemingly normal way. No one will ever know this secret—not even Wen Li, whom you saved. Just as no one knows what happens inside a cocoon while life is taking shape.] [Kill Count: Eve × 1] [Reward: Sanity Value +25; Inspiration +5] [Replay Incident Replay?]
All done!
Fu Qian was very pleased with the results of his final attempt.
The Mist Door and the strange phenomena had vanished from the Warehouse, which was more than enough to show that he could clock out.
Thinking back, the black-and-white cocoon clinging to the Mist Door had, in a sense, foreshadowed the relationship between Wen Li and Eve.
"You personally eliminated an Immature Form and allowed Supernatural Power to evolve in a seemingly normal way."
Judging by those words, Supernatural Power in the world of the Containment Scene was rather strange.
When he'd first entered, he'd naturally assumed that the Immature Form mentioned in the prompt was Wen Li, who needed protection. Now it seemed it had actually referred to Eve.
She'd been growing silently inside Wen Li all along. Under normal circumstances, the moment Wen Li advanced to the sixth tier, her consciousness would be completely replaced by Eve's.
By then, no one would know that the Intermediate Tier transcendent Wen Li was no longer the person she'd been before. Eve, meanwhile, would have officially completed the process of Breaking Out of the Cocoon.
That was why his previous mission had failed.
Alien birth!
For some reason, Fu Qian thought of a line from a movie.
"Allowing Supernatural Power to evolve in a seemingly normal way."
Those words suggested that, in that world, the process went unnoticed.
At least, most people had no idea that Wen Li's advancement to the sixth tier was, in essence, a transformation like this. They would simply consider it a normal upgrade.
The Night Watchers' order to "wait and see" suddenly seemed rather interesting. Did they know something, or had they sensed something was coming?
Of course, none of that mattered. It was time to go home and rest!
He had to admit, today's workload had been heavy. Escort Missions really were the most exhausting.
By comparison, the rewards for completing the Containment Scene seemed rather meager.
Aside from the usual rewards, there was nothing else.
But thinking it over, although the Containment Scene had been full of traps, he hadn't encountered any powerful beings he couldn't handle.
Besides, he'd already gained plenty from his previous attempts.
He wondered whether the rewards would be better if the Night Watchers' big boss in charge had stepped in.
As for the Incident Replay, Fu Qian didn't watch it.
The process had been so brief that he didn't need help remembering it. And there were quite a few shots of Miss Wen exposed in the footage, so he decided to show some respect for the newly promoted sixth-tier transcendent.
When Fu Qian got home, the first thing he did was look up at the clock. It showed exactly the same time as when he'd gone in.
As expected, he didn't use up any time in the real world while working. No matter how long he stayed inside, he came out at the exact moment he'd entered.
Outside, the sun was still just rising. It seemed as if nothing had changed.
Fu Qian waved his right hand. A dark red ring was clearly visible on his middle finger.
In the sunlight, what looked like blood seemed to surge inside it.
Still, plenty of things had changed.
Remembering how he'd swallowed the Dark Blood Clot in one gulp, Fu Qian couldn't help touching his chest again.
It was a little gross to think about, but the shape had been pretty striking. The more he thought about it, the more he found it had a peculiar beauty.
Since all the rewards he'd obtained could be brought back to reality, did that mean he could theoretically transform into that form in the real world too?
Stop!
Fu Qian rubbed his face, cutting off his daring train of thought.
Had the terrible working conditions really caused him to suffer Mental Pollution?
At this point, he felt he'd more than earned that ten-million-a-year salary.
Come to think of it, he'd rushed off to work as soon as he got up and still hadn't eaten breakfast.
Fu Qian went into the kitchen and whipped up a bowl of noodles in a few minutes.
Everyone knew that noodles were an essential survival tool for people living alone.
This simple food required nothing more than a pot of boiling water and a couple of leaves of greens, yet it was enough to comfort a famished stomach.
As someone with no family or close friends, Fu Qian had plenty of experience living alone and had long since mastered the art.
Most importantly, this was one of the cheapest foods around, perfectly suited to his near-bankrupt budget from before. So he had quite a bit stocked at home.
Looking at the steaming noodles on the table, Fu Qian was just about to pick up his chopsticks when a knock sounded at the door.
Before you continue