Last Words

Yu Xuan's empty cosmetic bottles lay quietly in the drawer.

But inside, they were completely empty!

Jiang Qian's pupils constricted... the Peacock Spider, it was gone?!

That little thing was a highly venomous creature.

He reached back to close the bedroom door and activated Spirit Vision for the first time, scanning the room for life forms...

It was like an instinct written into his genes; the moment his vision expanded, the entire room seemed to turn into a black-and-white world, with both the void and the solid laid bare before his eyes.

The living beings within appeared in fluorescent red tones; the higher the temperature, the deeper the hue.

During this process, Jiang Qian tried to expand his range, letting his "sight" cover the entire house, not even sparing the outer walls!

About five minutes later, Jiang Qian retracted his vision.

Leaning against the door, he panted slightly: "Thank goodness..."

Aside from some common small creatures, he hadn't scanned any dangerous species in the room.

At the same time, he understood the limits of Spirit Vision: scanning his own 10-square-meter bedroom wasn't very taxing for the first two minutes. But when the range expanded to the entire 100-square-meter house—a tenfold increase in area—a clear sense of fatigue set in after three minutes.

It seemed this was a skill that couldn't be sustained for long.

That made sense.

An ability like this, akin to opening a third eye, was already powerful enough. If it could be used infinitely, wouldn't that be too eerie and terrifying? In any case, Jiang Qian wouldn't want a neighbor with such an ability living nearby.

Of course, perhaps as I evolve and level up, my abilities will expand further... Jiang Qian assessed himself as he walked to the window.

The window was half-open, just as it had been when he first woke up.

"If an external force replaced me to see the guest out, then the 'me' at that time must have also needed to return to the room to create the illusion that I was alone in my bedroom. So, where did the double leave from?"

Jiang Qian muttered to himself, subconsciously crouching down to bring his line of sight level with the windowsill, using the enhanced visual effects of Spirit Vision to examine the changes in the dust.

Half a faint footprint came into view.

Sure enough, someone had left from here...

This size definitely didn't belong to that girl.

Jiang Qian took the slipper off his own foot and tried to compare it, chuckling softly before his expression turned cold.

"A-Qian... A-Qian? Are you okay? Don't push yourself if you're not feeling well..." His aunt's guilty-sounding inquiry came from outside the door.

"It's nothing! The little bit of food you made isn't even enough to fill the gaps in my teeth; it's an insult to your reputation as the queen of dark cuisine!" Jiang Qian replied loudly.

"Auntie was wrong~~"

His aunt's soft, pleading voice came from outside, followed by the old lady's stern reprimand...

That was the only downside to living with women; one's focus was easily interrupted by trivialities.

But the benefits were also obvious: the precious, warm atmosphere of a lived-in home.

Once the area around his ears returned to silence, Jiang Qian finally let out a sigh of relief, sat on the edge of his bed, and silently reviewed his plan.

First, he would go find the girl tomorrow and figure out her purpose for pulling him into the Super-Species World; this might concern his future survival strategy.

Regarding this, the girl had once tried to explain: if she didn't do it... what would happen?

Was it just an act, or did she really have some unspeakable secret?

If something was threatening her, had he already been dragged into it?

Fortunately, this girl hadn't harmed his family. From his return until now, he hadn't discovered any obvious hidden dangers or constraints, which meant the other party wasn't in a hurry to burn bridges with him.

"Then, what does she want from me?"

All these questions drove Jiang Qian to have contact with the girl as soon as possible.

"But for now, I don't know her abilities or her rank. To make contact, I must have a backup plan."

Jiang Qian stood up, drew the curtains, and sat down at his desk.

He closed his eyes, focused on recalling the storage compartment with its inventory function, and summoned it with his intent.

Sure enough, the interface he remembered appeared before him.

A virtual locker unfolded before his eyes. In four of the slots, all the belongings he had brought back from the Super-Species World were kept: the Secret-Seeking Notebook, the Little Devil Set, one "Whispers of the Inner Demon" rollback ticket, and 10 Super-Species Crystals.

He ignored the rollback ticket for now; Jiang Qian had just come out and wasn't planning on going back to seek thrills yet.

He reached for the Secret-Seeking Notebook first.

This was the first time he had taken this item out in a real-world environment since obtaining it.

"Not sure if I'll be able to use it this time, but I'm mostly worried about it being stolen. This thing will definitely be of great use later."

As he spoke, a notification popped up:

[First-time use, please set a 4-digit password]

"A password?"

Jiang Qian was stunned for a moment.

He thought this item was quite self-aware; knowing he was worried about his treasures being snatched, it immediately offered a modern management method—encryption!

Good idea!

Jiang Qian pondered for a moment, took four digits from his commonly used 6-digit password, and entered them into the item with his mind.

[Password set successfully]

[Item activated!]

The next second, a flash of light swept across the textured brown notebook, and then it returned to normal.

There were no "password lock" peripherals on the exterior to give it away.

[Please write the password on any page of the Secret-Seeking Notebook to activate its functions]

[Note: This prompt only appears during password setup and will not appear again. Please be sure to remember the rules!]

"Rigorous. This way, others won't be able to discover the secrets hidden inside the notebook."

Jiang Qian opened the notebook and wrote the password on a random page; the ink of the four digits immediately merged into the notebook and vanished.

[Prompt: Secret-Seeking Notebook unlocked! Closing the notebook will automatically lock its functions; after changing hands, the password must be re-entered to enable use.]

Jiang Qian was increasingly satisfied.

He started the first round of testing: he looked into the mirror and wrote down his ID—Hidden Dragon.

The notebook remained silent for a moment.

A line of description slowly appeared on it:

"Hidden Dragon, a? incomplete and extremely dangerous Teng Snake?"

It seemed that self-peering was also feasible, and the mirrored appearance didn't affect the effect of the peering.

It was just that, what was with the two question marks in the middle of the perfectly fine text?

How could this notebook look down on people?

Was "a" appropriate?

Did you eat that majestic, imposing Ice Dragon brand of mine? At least two.

...The above was merely Jiang Qian's irresponsible grumbling.

In reality, he was quite satisfied with the notebook's functions.

At this moment, another line of text appeared below the description:

"Please pay a secret that only you know. Any sentence structure is fine."

Jiang Qian tried writing: Stole sister's cosmetic bottle and put a spider inside.

Before long, subtitles appeared on the paper:

"Verification failed! 2 verification attempts remaining."

Jiang Qian scrutinized the notebook in confusion and continued writing: Stole sister's cosmetic bottle.

"Verification successful! You are so boring, only stealing useless things~"

Jiang Qian raised an eyebrow.

So the spider counted as a party in the know, too...

He continued his test: he tore a page from the notebook, wrote the password on it, and then wrote his ID.

The answer appeared on the paper as usual. But it didn't ask for another secret to be paid.

It seemed that as long as it was paper torn from the notebook, it possessed the notebook's peering function; and data that had already been traded would not be "charged" again.

On this basis, Jiang Qian verified the functions of sending messages and burning after reading; this function did not require paying a secret.

He closed the notebook and returned it to the storage compartment.

Jiang Qian then took out the Little Devil Set.

The box, imprinted with strange runes, exuded an evil, terrifying aura.

At the same time, option prompts appeared before Jiang Qian: [Open Box], [Summon Individually], and [House-Guarding Function].

Thinking of the many experiences in the dungeon just now, especially the bizarre situation of a group of black porcelain dolls running all over the floor, Jiang Qian decisively gave up on [Open Box].

What if the Old Buddha or his aunt ran into it? Wouldn't they mistake him for a heretic of some evil cult?

He chose [Summon Individually].

And from [Joy], [Anger], [Sorrow], [Fear], [Love], [Evil], and [Desire], he chose to summon the "Sorrow Demon"—the guy he had encountered in the second level of "Whispers of the Inner Demon" who had created a mental anchor for him.

A cloud of mist rose from the rune-covered box!

The mist expanded and thickened, and countless tentacles with nowhere to go poked out from the dense fog... This forced Jiang Qian to stand up and step back to make more room for the mist.

It wasn't until the mist filled half the room that he finally saw the "true face" of the Sorrow Demon: a dejected-looking outline manifested in the center of the dense fog...

Then, Jiang Qian heard that familiar, mournful voice: "Ah, this is..."

Seeing Jiang Qian to the side, the dejected face immediately revealed confusion and shock!

"You brat, you're actually alive?!"

"Thanks to you, we meet again. This is where I live." Jiang Qian leaned against the wall and greeted it calmly.

"Incredible..."

"Just lucky."

"No, this absolutely cannot be luck! Do you really understand what kind of existence we represent, brat?"

The dejected face suddenly turned ferocious, and then it asked Jiang Qian impatiently: "How did you deal with those last three guys? And that door... how could you possibly have come out alive?!"

Actually, I just made a feint and didn't go in at all... Jiang Qian mused.

Seeing the other party's such wonderful expression, he couldn't bear to keep bluffing.

"We'll talk about that later. Right now, I'm going to deal with a tricky matter and need your cooperation." Jiang Qian said, his face turning serious.

"Ah... I understand," the mournful voice sounded again, and the tone actually revealed a sense of relief, "We are already your servants... this is fine!"

It solemnly faced Jiang Qian, its dejected face slightly lowered, and it said humbly: "My master, what do you need me to do?"

The other party being so obedient suddenly caught Jiang Qian off guard.

But it made sense.

After all, they were just item-based life forms that he owned.

Jiang Qian logically stated his requirement: "How do I use a double?"

"That's simple."

As it transformed, the dense fog filling the room began to condense, and countless tentacles retracted inward, gradually manifesting a humanoid puppet with the same height and build as Jiang Qian.

The residual mist swirled around the puppet, gradually refining the facial contours—it looked exactly like a melancholic version of Jiang Qian.

The puppet suddenly opened its eyes and said in Jiang Qian's voice, but with an extremely melancholic tone: "This is the double I have condensed for you... there are two options: you can try to control it yourself, or you can entrust it to me; you only need to issue the commands."

Jiang Qian curiously examined the "other self," closed his eyes, and tried to establish a connection with it.

And so, he woke up inside the puppet and saw himself closing his eyes to rest.

"Limbs, joints functioning well... just like my own body!" Jiang Qian was pleasantly surprised.

At the same time, he tried to control both his original body and the puppet simultaneously, interacting and coordinating.

Greeting, shaking hands, hugging...

Not bad!

Let's try attacking and defending...

"Ugh!"

Sure enough, such dangerous operations still needed practice. In the short term, he couldn't consider using eight-person coordination to push back an enemy army; it could only serve as a bottom-line life-saving charm for now.

Jiang Qian rubbed his shoulder, handed control of the puppet back to the Sorrow Demon, and took a stance: "Come on, try to take me down."

The puppet Jiang Qian narrowed its eyes, its temperament melancholic: "Are you serious?"

"Uh, not that serious. I mean... just go through the motions!"

A figure flashed before his eyes—Snake Shadow Stealth!

"Ugh~ damn it!"

The Old Buddha's reprimand immediately came from the living room: "Jiang Qian, what are you doing? Can you keep it down?"

"I can, I can! This crappy movie has terrible, noisy action scenes; I'll change it!" Jiang Qian shouted, grabbed his phone, opened the music player, and turned on some background noise.

Then he turned back to the puppet: "Continue!"

Ten minutes later, Jiang Qian sat slumped in the corner, bruised and panting heavily.

The demon clone, which had returned to its mist form, looked at him sympathetically and comforted him: "Your operation is not as good as mine; that's normal. After all, I've killed more people than you've eaten salt... don't be so impatient."

"I just wanted to get familiar with my abilities. Thanks for being my sparring partner; let's stop here for today."

Jiang Qian smiled weakly, moved his mind, and retracted the demon clone back into the box.

Then he looked around at the messy bedroom and sighed deeply!

A miscalculation; he should have let it finish cleaning before withdrawing...

He pulled himself up by the wall, and while tidying the room and changing clothes, Jiang Qian reviewed the many techniques from the brawl just now.

Finally, wrapped in a bathrobe, he slipped into the bathroom to wash his body.

During this time, he didn't attract any more attention from the Old Buddha or his aunt.

When he returned to the bedroom, Jiang Qian felt much more refreshed. As a Super-Species, his genes had long since changed, and his body's recovery ability far exceeded that of an ordinary person.

Many of the small wounds caused during the fight had already healed automatically, and several areas of subcutaneous bruising had also subsided.

But a sense of fatigue also washed over him heavily.

Jiang Qian, now in his pajamas, sat at the desk in silence for a moment, his gaze falling on that old family photo.

In the photo, his father had his hands on the shoulders of his two sons, Jiang Yang and himself, his smile generous and warm.

Mother leaned quietly against Father, her other arm wrapped around Grandmother, who sat in a chair.

That was the family of five back then.

Less than half a year later, Father met with an accident.

Gazing at this photograph, Jiang Qian could not help but revisit the memories reactivated from the instance: the floodwaters suddenly surging from the mountains, the terrified Mother and Jiang Yang, and Father's unhesitating choice.

"Qian, don't look back!"

"Hold on tight! Stay there and don't move! Listen to me..."

"Protect Mom..."

The rushing floodwaters tore at his limbs and bones, constantly draining his body heat.

Yet, he was the only one saved in the end—Father, trapped in the torrent, used his final strength to throw his son onto a shallow bank before his strength failed and he vanished into the vast expanse of water under the impact of the rapids.

Jiang Qian looked at the photograph.

His gaze was hollow and his expression indifferent, showing not a shred of sorrow or pain.

To him, the process of recalling was merely retracing the facts themselves, shielding out any superfluous emotions.

Unlike those psychiatric patients who lived in false fantasies because they could not accept the passing of their loved ones, Jiang Qian was well aware that his father would never return.

He had lost his father.

Now, his older brother's fate was unknown and his mother continued to distance herself, yet he was even deprived of the right to feel sorrow or pain.

"Your wife avoids me like I'm the plague, how am I supposed to protect her..."