After leaving the school, Chen Shouyi took the opportunity to suggest getting ice cream once Sun Xin had left.
Zhang Xiaoyue looked shy, but she did not refuse.
She was beautiful. If women were compared to water, some looked like muddy soup, while others looked like a clear spring.
Without a doubt, Zhang Xiaoyue was the latter.
Yet Chen Shouyi found that although he felt a flutter of joy, he was not as excited and stirred as he had imagined. This month's bizarre experiences had already carried him swiftly from a green youth toward maturity.
Because the ice cream shop was on another street and wasn't on the way,
On the way home, Chen Shouyi chose another route. When he passed an Unfinished Building by the roadside, the Book of Knowledge in his mind suddenly flickered.
At first, Chen Shouyi paid it no attention. But after finishing that day's cultivation, when he went to sleep that night, he found himself thinking about the phenomenon again for some reason.
Ever since the Book of Knowledge had fused into his body, it had remained quiet, seemingly a dead object. Unless summoned, it never responded on its own.
But today, something unexpected had happened.
Because he kept thinking about the strange occurrence, he tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Finally, he could not stand it anymore. He put on his clothes, got up, opened the door, and quietly slipped out of the house without disturbing anyone.
He checked the time. It was already half past twelve.
As a small city, Dongning City had little nightlife.
At this hour, hardly anyone could be seen. The streets were empty, with only the occasional car speeding past.
The Unfinished Building was not far from here. After crossing several streets, Chen Shouyi soon arrived.
Even he did not know why he had come here. It was as if some unseen force were driving him forward.
Looking at the building ahead, he gritted his teeth and walked over.
In the past, he would never have gone to a dark corner like this.
But his strength gave him confidence. As long as he did not encounter some powerful person like a Martial Apprentice, even a group of ordinary people would be no match for him. If he went all out to kill, most would die in a single strike.
There were no streetlights here, leaving everything pitch-black.
He picked up an abandoned wooden stick from the ground, which bolstered his courage considerably.
The Unfinished Building was huge, originally intended to become a commercial plaza.
Back then—only three years ago—its construction had caused quite a stir in the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, in the end, it had been left a complete mess, and the owner had fled.
Chen Shouyi walked slowly, stumbling over the uneven ground. The Book of Knowledge reacted even more violently, flickering repeatedly as if infected by a virus. Moreover, perhaps it was only his imagination, but he felt his body growing hotter and hotter.
It was as if a hot spring were bubbling up, sending warm water flowing throughout his body.
The fatigue left over from his evening cultivation seemed to have eased considerably, and his steps grew lighter.
Following the unseen guidance, he headed straight for the Underground Parking Lot.
It was utterly dark, so dark he could not see his hand before his face. He took out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and carefully felt his way forward.
After only a dozen seconds, the phone suddenly flickered several times before the light went out.
Chen Shouyi hurriedly pressed the buttons a few times, but there was no response at all.
At that moment, the corner of his eye caught what seemed to be a faint glow ahead.
"What is this?"
He jumped in fright, his heart pounding. He tried desperately to see clearly, but the light was extremely faint and hazy. He could not make out what it was at all.
He tightened his grip on the wooden stick and continued forward.
After walking another twenty or thirty meters, his body suddenly stiffened and his footsteps stopped. The wooden stick slipped from his hand with a clatter that echoed for a long time through the silent midnight parking lot.
Yet Chen Shouyi remained utterly motionless, as if he had not noticed.
He widened his eyes and looked dozens of meters ahead.
A small patch of green grass had appeared on the ground like a mirage, radiating a faint glow.
It was only about one square meter in size and stood more than two meters tall. Its bottom joined seamlessly with the ground, looking as though a patch of grass had grown out of the concrete floor.
An undiscovered Space Channel! he thought, stunned.
He had seen Space Channels on television and online. There were large ones and small ones, but none could compare to seeing one with his own eyes.
"But how did a Space Channel appear here?" He soon calmed down.
If he remembered correctly, the Unfinished Building had been constructed three years ago. In other words, the Space Channel had not formed three years ago. That meant this channel had appeared only recently.
This meant that, after the spatial fusion twenty years ago had stagnated for two decades, spatial fusion seemed to have begun again.
He suddenly recalled the recent news, as well as the disguised barbarian in Dongning City. "No wonder attacks by otherworldly creatures have become more frequent lately."
But at that moment, he had no time to think about it.
He picked up the wooden stick and walked toward the channel step by step.
As he drew closer, his body grew hotter and hotter, as if flames were roasting him from within. Under this strange condition, his state seemed to improve further. A force seemed to be sprouting inside him, reshaping his body.
He soon reached the Space Channel.
Looking at the patch of grass so close at hand, he felt that he could enter the Otherworld with a single step.
Should I take a look? If it's dangerous, I'll come right back. Feeling the intense changes in his body, Chen Shouyi could not suppress the thought.
He cautiously extended the wooden stick into the Space Channel. The stick immediately sank, as if something had seized it and was dragging it down. He was not surprised, because the Otherworld's gravity was three times that of Earth.
Soon, the stick touched the grass. He discovered that there was no height difference caused by light refraction; everything perfectly matched what his eyes saw. The Otherworld truly seemed to have joined seamlessly with the parking lot.
He pulled the stick back out and examined it carefully by the faint light for a while. It was completely undamaged.
"Looks like I can go in."
He took several deep breaths, then tentatively stepped inside with one foot.
The next moment, space twisted, and his body suddenly sank.
Although Chen Shouyi had been mentally prepared, he almost fell flat on his backside.
Under this gravity, if he sat down like that, his tailbone would probably snap.
Three times Earth's gravity made every part of his body feel as though it were being weighed down by heavy objects. Breathing became difficult, and even his heart felt faintly uncomfortable. Before he could marvel at the terrifying gravity, he had barely steadied himself when he immediately began scanning the surroundings warily.
Back on Earth, it had been dark there, but here it was daytime. He found himself standing halfway up a mountain, from where he could see the distant Great Sea. As far as his eyes could reach, there were no large creatures, only several indistinct black specks soaring high overhead.
He then carefully inspected the surrounding grass again, but did not find any otherworldly insects.
At last, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Following the conspicuous patch of concrete in the grass, he slowly sat down, gripping the wooden stick tightly.
Only then did he have time to pay attention to the changes in his body. He was growing hotter and hotter, almost to the point of spontaneous combustion. His skin was bright red, and steam billowed from his entire body.
Strangely, despite the burning sensation, his body felt increasingly relaxed.
When he had first entered, he had felt somewhat short of breath. But as time passed, the gravity here seemed to be growing weaker. His breathing gradually became smoother, and the tightness in his chest slowly faded.
There was no doubt that this was clearly related to the Book of Knowledge.
He immediately summoned the Book of Knowledge.
In this Otherworld, the Book of Knowledge seemed even more active. At the mere movement of his thoughts, the Status Panel instantly appeared in his mind.
Name: Chen Shouyi Strength: 11.6 (10) Agility: 11.7 (10) Constitution: 12.1 (10) Intelligence: 10.8 (10) Perception: 10.8 (10) Will: 11.4 (10) Knowledge: Chinese Language (Mastery 6); Physics (Proficient 12); Chemistry (Proficient 11); Mathematics (Proficient 9); English (Proficient 6); Computer Science (Introductory 6); Culinary Arts (Introductory 5); Thirty-Six Body Tempering Forms (Proficient 8); Entering Tranquility to Refine the Self (Proficient 2); Swordsmanship (Proficient 4); Archery (Uninitiated) Talent Ability: Natural Healing Energy Accumulation: 2.35
Chen Shouyi only glanced at it before his face filled with astonishment.
He could not help looking several more times, nearly thinking that his eyes had deceived him.
In such a short time, his attributes had undergone an astonishing change.
"No wonder I feel more and more relaxed."
That was not all. The Status Panel had also gained a talent ability: "Natural Healing."
He suddenly remembered that the material of the Book of Knowledge seemed to have come from the heartwood of the World Tree in the Otherworld. In the legends of the Otherworld's barbarians, the World Tree had been born at the beginning of the world and possessed the power to support space and balance nature.
Of course, in Chen Shouyi's view, legends were only legends. They certainly contained elements of deification and exaggeration, and the truth must have been far less impressive.
Even the Deities of the Otherworld—even within that world, their power had not reached the realm of the unimaginable. Most of the Otherworld's civilization was still in a primitive stage. Society was still dominated by tribes, and nations had yet to take shape.
Many of their gods were worshiped as totem gods, or were beasts imbued with divinity, powerful giants, or some Nature Spirits. They might possess abilities incomprehensible to humans, but they were far from omnipotent.
Even if the legends had been greatly exaggerated, and the Book of Knowledge had become battered and weakened after arriving on Earth, it still seemed to retain a trace of its abilities and had transformed his body.
Moreover, the transformation had not stopped. It seemed to have only just begun. In the brief span of a dozen seconds, he discovered that his strength had increased by another 0.1.
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