Treasure-Hunting Kid?

The chubby little girl pursed her lips and ran over to Chen Xu, gently tugging at his pant leg.

"You want to eat it?" Chen Xu crouched down, turning the irregular crystal over in his hand.

Despite never having learned anything, the chubby little girl seemed to understand the language of the Great Abyss instinctively and could roughly grasp what Chen Xu meant.

Her gaze kept moving along with the rolling crystal in Chen Xu's palm.

She pointed at the crystal, then at her own mouth, making a biting motion.

"You should be able to understand what I'm saying." Chen Xu pinched the irregular crystal between his fingers. "Since you acknowledge me as your dad, you need to be a good daughter, understand?"

"You must listen only to your dad. Whenever someone conflicts with your dad, you must stand with your dad unconditionally. Other than your dad, everyone else is a bad uncle or bad auntie."

Chen Xu shamelessly instilled warped values into the child, establishing the image that "Dad is always right."

He was certain that the girl who had emerged from the crystal was hiding a deep secret.

She likely had some unclear connection to that demonic path giant. In that case, keeping her by his side was not a bad choice. Once he became strong enough, he could dig into those deeply buried secrets.

"Oh, right. As my daughter, you should have a name. From now on, your surname will be Chen. Since you came out of a crystal, your given name will be Jing. Chen Jing. As for your nickname, Chubby."

Chen Xu nodded in satisfaction. He felt that his talent for naming things was practically flawless.

"Chen... Jing, Chu...bby?" The chubby little girl repeated the names softly several times, an unconscious smile blooming across her face.

Chen Xu had no idea how much she had understood, but judging by her appearance, the effect seemed fairly good.

Seeing the longing in her wide, blinking eyes, he placed the irregular crystal on the ground.

He had already set aside a piece beforehand. He would find an opportunity to test what exactly this crystal was made of.

Crunch, crunch.

Chen Jing's teeth were astonishingly strong. Like she was tearing apart roast chicken, she ripped off fragments of the crystal and shoved them into her mouth.

Whenever she swallowed a fragment, she would blissfully narrow her eyes and sway her little head.

She was tiny, but she ate the crystal at an absurd speed. In less than ten seconds, the crystal that had been bigger than her had shrunk to her height.

When half the crystal remained, Chen Jing rubbed her slightly bloated belly, hugged the crystal with both arms, and sat there blankly, seemingly waiting for room to clear in her stomach before finishing it all in one go.

"It's time to go." Chen Xu stood and spoke to Chen Jing.

This place had already been almost completely wrecked. Nothing left could be converted into spiritual energy, so he had no interest in it.

Since there was nothing else he wanted, there was no need to linger. He could go outside, bluff his way into getting a car as the deputy pavilion master, and head to Peace Prefecture City.

Seeing that Chen Xu intended to leave, Chen Jing picked up the remaining crystal, tossed it into his pocket with practiced ease, and started climbing upward.

When she tried to climb all over him, Chen Xu grabbed her and held her in his hand.

Just as he was about to put her back into his pocket, Chen Jing pointed somewhere, her childish voice sounding out. "There... there..."

"What about there?" Chen Xu carefully examined the place she was pointing at.

It was a stone about a meter tall, lying sideways on the ground.

The people from the Martial Alliance had clearly had no interest in taking away this unremarkable-looking stone.

His gaze swept over several palm prints left on its surface. Perhaps they had wanted to destroy the stone before leaving, but found it extraordinarily hard. Without using some special means, they could do nothing to it.

Forcing its destruction was not worth the trouble, so they had simply left it here and ignored it.

Chen Jing jumped down from his palm, lightly patted the stone, and pressed her ear against it as though listening for something.

Once, twice, three times...

Each pat landed on a different part of the stone.

On the sixteenth pat, a crack suddenly appeared in the stone.

The crack widened at a visible rate. In less than a minute, Chen Xu vaguely saw that something seemed to be lodged within the crevice.

"Da... ddy." Chen Jing tugged on Chen Xu's pant leg, trying to pull him toward the crack.

"Hah." Chen Xu stepped forward and threw a punch.

A fierce gust swept out, shattering the stone. A deep-blue ore dropped to the ground with a smack, and the room's temperature suddenly fell by several degrees.

Such a chill naturally could not harm Chen Xu. He reached out and picked up the ore, which constantly radiated cold. One look was enough to tell that it was no ordinary object.

Chen Xu had initially thought she had found herself more food, but seeing her puff out her chest and wait for praise, he muttered inwardly.

Could she be a treasure-hunting kid?

"Chubby, how did you find it?" Chen Xu wrapped the deep-blue ore in a scrap of cloth.

Chen Jing put on a thoughtful expression, then smacked her forehead as though she had understood Chen Xu's question and pointed to her small ear.

Chen Xu nodded thoughtfully and placed the cloth-wrapped deep-blue ore in front of her. "Can Chubby carry it?"

Chen Jing scratched her head in confusion, then stepped forward and easily lifted the ore over her head with both hands.

Her strength truly far exceeded what her size suggested.

Chen Xu was not surprised in the slightest. Given that Chubby had taken his full-force strike without a scratch, possessing such strength was nothing unusual.

After arranging for Chubby to carry the ore out through another route, Chen Xu composed his expression and walked out of the Martial Pavilion.

"Deputy Pavilion Master Chen, you're out." Qi Jingquan hurried over to Chen Xu's side.

"How is the resource warehouse?"

"Hmph, that terrorist organization has become outrageously arrogant. It would have been bad enough if they had merely taken the resources, but they even left behind the words [Martial Alliance] to publicize themselves. They simply do not take the Great Abyss seriously." Chen Xu's face was filled with righteous indignation as he spoke animatedly.

"Officer Qi, even though Chen is merely passing through Qianshui Commandery, as a member of the Great Abyss, I cannot sit by and watch the Martial Alliance commit such acts. To prevent other commandery cities from suffering the same disaster, I need to make a trip to the prefectural city and discuss countermeasures."

After saying that, he gently patted Qi Jingquan's shoulder in encouragement.

"The Great Abyss will certainly not forget Officer Qi's contributions. The next time we meet, perhaps I should call you Deputy Director Qi."

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare. Deputy Pavilion Master Chen is joking." Qi Jingquan modestly denied it again and again, yet he seemed somewhat distracted, as though imagining his life after becoming a deputy director.

"If Deputy Pavilion Master Chen wishes to go to the prefectural city, you can only take the highway. There are no trains on the Abyss Rail in Qianshui Commandery yet, so it is impassable.

How about this? I'll find someone to drive Deputy Pavilion Master Chen there, so you won't waste any time."

Qi Jingquan waved toward the crowd. "Old Wu, come over."

"Officer Qi, did you need something?" The man called Old Wu squeezed through the crowd, his face carrying a hint of ingratiating eagerness.

"This is Deputy Pavilion Master Chen from the Jinning Commandery Martial Pavilion. Later, drive Deputy Pavilion Master Chen to Peace Prefecture City. No problem, right?"

Amid Old Wu's repeated assurances, Qi Jingquan said, "Deputy Pavilion Master Chen, Old Wu has been driving for the Public Security Office for more than twenty years. His skills are beyond question. Just sit back. If you need anything, tell him, and he'll definitely handle it properly for you."