Elf

"What's going on?"

Lan Mu examined himself and was instantly shocked.

He had transformed again, and this time he was not a White-haired Lion.

His body had become light and agile. This swallow-like lightness felt somewhat like the White-haired Lion's, yet not entirely the same. At the very least, his strength was far inferior.

There was also a special energy within him, but it seemed to be suppressed by the surrounding environment.

He rushed into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. His face was still his own, but his skin was delicate and soft enough to break with a puff, his eyes were pale green, and his pointed ears stood upright, covered in translucent fuzz.

His figure had become slender as well, especially his legs, which were long and thin.

His appearance leaned toward the feminine, exquisitely refined to the point of seeming fake, as though someone had Photoshopped his face.

But overall, he was still recognizably Lan Mu. This time, he had transformed into a humanoid alien race, so his appearance had retained his original features.

The biggest change was his flowing long black hair. It was glossy, straight, and silky as it fell down his back.

Lan Mu touched his chest and body, then breathed a sigh of relief. He was still a man.

He couldn't be blamed for being startled. He looked far too much like Lan Mu after a sex change.

"Oh my god..." Lan Mu sat on the bed. He needed to calm down.

There was no doubt that his transformation ability was far more complicated than he had imagined. The White-haired Lion had merely been the first form; now he had turned into something like an elf from a novel.

"Turn back into a human! Turn back!"

Lan Mu thought it, but his appearance did not change in the slightest. He nodded. Sure enough, it was just as he had guessed.

"Every forced transformation lasts at least seven days, just like the White-haired Lion. If I'm right, after seven days, I'll be able to freely switch between elf and human forms again."

"As for whether my ability to transform into the White-haired Lion will still exist after seven days, or whether it will have been overwritten, I can only wait and see."

Based on the information he had so far, Lan Mu summarized his abilities.

Essentially, he could transform into supernatural creatures and inherit their instinctive talents after transforming. However, he did not gain the corresponding knowledge.

The first transformation would forcibly last seven days. After seven days, he could switch freely to human form at any time. During the transformation process, perhaps because the White Orb's energy had washed through his body, illnesses and injuries in his human form would be healed and repaired.

About seven days had passed between the end of his White-haired Lion transformation and this elf transformation. Could it be that he underwent a forced transformation every seven days?

"No, the White-haired Lion's forced transformation ended around five or six in the afternoon, but this elf transformation happened at three in the morning. No matter how I calculate it, it hasn't been exactly seven days. I can only judge the interval once the next new transformation target appears."

Lan Mu looked at his long-haired reflection in the mirror. He had the potential to become an absolute top-tier trap, and he practically wanted to cry.

"Why did it have to happen now of all times? Fine, at least nobody saw me. But am I supposed to stay indoors for seven days? What if Cheng Ming and the others come looking for me?"

Looking at himself, Lan Mu felt troubled. This was the one awful part of the ability. Transforming was one thing, but why did it have to be forced for seven whole days? What a pain in the ass.

After thinking it over, he found a pair of scissors and prepared to chop off his flowing long black hair first.

But the moment his hand stroked the long hair and felt its softness, his heart trembled. He suddenly threw the scissors aside. He couldn't bring himself to do it!

"Damn, damn, damn! Seriously? It's just a haircut! This body isn't that ridiculous, is it?"

"I refuse to believe it! I held out through six days of hunger last time. Why should I care about this?"

Lan Mu hardened his heart. With a snip, he cut off his long black hair.

The instant the scissors closed, he felt tears streaming down his face as though he had lost something extremely important.

"Wuwuwu... Damn it, I cried over cutting my hair. I'm seriously done with myself."

After slowly calming down, he continued cutting his hair in front of the mirror. Though it was a messy job, he had at least managed to turn it into short hair. Even so, it was still twenty centimeters long. He truly couldn't bring himself to cut any more.

If he really cut it into a manly buzz cut, he would probably cry himself unconscious in the bathroom.

Still, he sighed in relief. Though his body's instincts resisted having its hair cut, instincts were only instincts. Once his conscious mind made up its mind, they could still be suppressed.

One of the greatest differences between intelligent life and ordinary animals was the ability to suppress one's nature. That was why humans had imposed all kinds of rules and restrictions upon themselves throughout history.

Rites and music, benevolence and righteousness, morality and law—all of them had been created by humans to restrain themselves.

He could not say whether suppressing instinct was better or worse than releasing one's nature, but if he still wanted to walk out that door, he had to thoroughly suppress this elf body's instincts!

But then reality promptly slapped him in the face.

Because he simply could not stand how filthy his home was!

"God, how did I ever sleep in an environment like this?"

First, he gathered up the hair he had cut off, neatly organized it, and placed it in a box.

Then he put on rubber gloves and began a late-night deep clean...

Not long after the cleaning began, the noise clearly disturbed Su Yue. Her hearing was incredibly sharp, and she woke even in the middle of her sleep.

But Lan Mu's five senses were now absurdly sharp as well. Hearing Su Yue getting dressed and out of bed in her bedroom, he immediately said,

"Su Yue, I'm tidying things up. Sorry for disturbing you. I'll keep it down, so go back to sleep. You don't need to come out." Lan Mu's voice was still his own, though it had become slightly softer and somewhat androgynous. It was not a serious issue; he only needed to lower his voice slightly when speaking.

Su Yue had originally intended to come out. She could tell that Lan Mu was cleaning, and although she had no idea why he was doing it in the middle of the night, she immediately wanted to help.

But she was obedient. Since Lan Mu had told her not to come out, she did not want to disobey him.

"Okay, Brother Mu. But you should rest early too! I can do these things."

What she was thinking was that Brother Mu was doing a deep clean while she slept, in the middle of the night. Was he deliberately avoiding her because he wanted to make the house cleaner, so there would be even less work for her to do?

How could Lan Mu know what Su Yue was thinking? He was cleaning in the middle of the night purely because of his cleanliness obsession and compulsive tendencies.

He already felt guilty for disturbing Su Yue's sleep over something so ridiculous, so he absolutely could not let her come out and help.

"It has nothing to do with you, Su Yue. Go rest! I have my own reasons..."

Su Yue spoke to Lan Mu through the door. "Brother Mu, thank you for helping me so much. But this is my responsibility. Taking me in has already helped me immensely. If Brother Mu does my work too while I'm sleeping, then I won't be able to respect myself either."

Lan Mu froze and stopped what he was doing. After thinking about it, he realized he had hurt Su Yue's pride.

This little girl might be frail, but she was stubborn. He had agreed to hire her to clean and cook; that was her job. If he, as her employer, did everything in her place, then while he was helping her in one sense, helping her too much was also a form of looking down on her.

These were all small tasks, things she had done for years at her aunt's home. Su Yue was already skilled at them, and being unable to see did not make them particularly inconvenient for her.

If he would not even let her do these small things, she would feel that others looked down on her and that she was useless.

Thinking this, Lan Mu smiled, took off his gloves, and said, "Sorry, I didn't think it through."

"I'm going to sleep. You should rest early too. I'm going out tomorrow, so clean the house properly."

Su Yue laughed happily from the bedroom. "Thank you, Brother Mu."

"Don't thank me for everything. It makes us sound like strangers. Get some rest!" Lan Mu said, almost in a commanding tone.

Su Yue bowed to him through the door, then got back into bed to rest.

Lan Mu listened for a while. Once he was sure she had fallen asleep, he looked at the half-cleaned living room and found that he simply could not sleep.

He quietly picked up some household trash, tied the black plastic bag in a tight knot, and fixed his gaze on a trash can across the street outside the window.

The trash can was about sixty meters away. The garbage bag was packed full, weighing around forty jin.

On a whim, he casually tossed it. The garbage bag immediately flew out, tracing a beautiful arc through the air.

Yet the instant he threw it, he knew he lacked the strength.

At around fifty meters, the garbage bag was nearly out of momentum and was about to fall into the street.

Lan Mu's mind stirred, and a breeze-like energy connected to the garbage bag, forcibly carrying it another dozen meters before it landed precisely in the trash can.

"This energy is a little like wind, but also a little different."

Lan Mu was itching to experiment. Since he could not sleep in this house anyway, he simply leaped up and landed lightly on the windowsill.

He lived on the third floor. A height of over ten meters meant nothing to him.

Then he jumped straight out the window! His body floated gently down to the ground. The special energy casually circulated through his body once, without any expenditure at all, allowing him to land safely from that height.

A roadside tree beside him moved without wind, as though waving to greet him.

Though there were no words, Lan Mu could still sense the tree's respect for him.

When he reached out and touched the tree, he immediately sensed its age, health, and other details. At the same time, a natural force was drawn out.

After absorbing that natural energy, he felt wonderful, but the tree became listless, its branches drooping. Yet it showed no resentment whatsoever.

"Don't panic! I'll give it back!"

With a thought from Lan Mu, he returned that Natural Power to it. The energy flowed through the tree, and when he looked again, it had been completely renewed. Many branches had even grown out, while its somewhat crooked trunk miraculously adjusted itself.

The tree looked more vibrant than before, even though Lan Mu had merely returned the energy he had absorbed.

"Could it be that during that exchange, the energy underwent some kind of conversion? Did it become easier to absorb? Or did it undergo some qualitative change?"

Lan Mu could only control this instinctively and lacked the corresponding knowledge, so he had no way to confirm such questions.

"I remember there's a park nearby with a patch of woods."

"The air quality by the road is still terrible. If the energy weren't purifying the air around my body, I'd be afraid of choking to death."

It was past three in the morning. There were no pedestrians by the roadside, and aside from the streetlights, darkness filled every corner.

Lan Mu's pale green eyes shimmered brilliantly. His gaze pierced the darkness as his light, agile body moved through the city.

He was extremely fast. He covered a distance of one kilometer in just over a minute. By that calculation, his speed had already surpassed the limits of humanity.

Lan Mu gave a light leap, lifted his body, and landed elegantly on a branch in the park.

An invisible energy clung to his body, allowing him to stand on the branch like a bird.

The thin branch bore his weight, and he could easily leap between the trees. This ability was even more impressive than the White-haired Lion's.

Because the White-haired Lion could not stand on a tree trunk in defiance of gravity like he could now!

That was right—stand on the trunk! His body was parallel to the ground, yet with only the contact of his feet, it was as though he had been glued to the tree.

And the wondrous uses of the energy in his body went far beyond that.