"Roar!"
A thunderous roar erupted from the lake. The Landwalking Ancient Whale burst through the surface, and a gray stone sphere, wrapped in lake water, spun as it blasted toward the two people in the air.
"Watch out!"
Ji Zhixing had been watching the Landwalking Ancient Whale the entire time.
When he saw the stone sphere spat out by the Landwalking Ancient Whale spinning toward them, he hurriedly called out a warning.
The officer's expression remained unchanged. His wings beat, carrying Ji Zhixing in an arc through the air as they narrowly dodged it.
The stone sphere flew past them and struck the distant lake surface. With a boom, a column of water exploded upward, sending spray more than ten meters high.
We dodged it! Relief washed over Ji Zhixing.
Still held aloft by the officer, he heard the wind howling past his ears as the lake raced backward beneath his feet.
The ability to fly... A fierce longing welled up inside Ji Zhixing. If only I could fly too. Unfortunately, I've already integrated the Three-Inch Stone Monkey Gene into my first gene aperture.
My second gene aperture isn't compatible with avian genes, either.
At the thought of his second gene aperture, his eyes flickered as he silently planned. Soon. Once I get back and advance the Three-Inch Stone Monkey Gene into the second-order Pikeman Stone Monkey Gene, I'll start integrating my second gene.
The officer carried him over Stone Lake and the Ruins before landing in the temporary camp in Stone Lake Town.
After steadying himself, he turned to the officer and thanked him. "Thank you! Thank you all for coming to rescue me!"
The officer waved a hand and withdrew the pair of wings formed from gene source force. "It's our duty," he said with a smile. "You're Ji Zhixing from Rain City No. 3 High School? Were you the one who left those words on the beach on Lake Center Island?"
"Yes, that was me." He nodded, then asked, "Sir, how long has it been since the Otherworld Secret Realm appeared? I've been in the Underground Water Cave the whole time, so I completely lost track of time."
"It's been eighteen days."
The officer glanced at Ji Zhixing, marveling at his luck in surviving.
Ji Zhixing froze.
Eighteen days. He had spent eighteen whole days in that Underground Water Cave.
"Eighteen days..." he murmured. "Does that mean I've already graduated from Rain City No. 3 High School?"
The students in his year at Rain City No. 3 High School should have graduated a few days earlier.
In the end, he had still missed Rain City University's admissions window.
Rain City University controlled a wealth of resources, including all kinds of resource-rich secret realms, as well as high-quality general-purpose cultivation methods and staff techniques.
He needed all of those.
If he had returned earlier, sold the hematite ore, and bought a Gigantification Gene Potion, he might really have been able to evolve his Three-Inch Stone Monkey Gene into the second-order Pikeman Stone Monkey Gene before Rain City University's admissions began.
"What matters is that you're alive." The officer patted his shoulder reassuringly. "Surviving beside the Landwalking Ancient Whale all this time-you've already been blessed with incredible luck."
Ji Zhixing nodded and forced a smile. "Yes, I've already been blessed with incredible luck."
He remembered the classmate carried off by the Black Eagle that day, and the sight of Li Qiang being swallowed by the Twin-Wing Thousand-Steel Python. He sighed inwardly.
Compared with them, he really was fortunate.
"Are you going to school or heading home? I'll have someone drive you," the officer asked.
"Home, please. Sorry for the trouble."
Ji Zhixing glanced at the sky. The setting sun had already sunk below the horizon, leaving only a streak of dark red along its edge.
"All right." The officer nodded, then turned to call over a soldier and arrange a military vehicle.
"Here, kid, take off your clothes. I'll help dry them."
Noticing that he was soaked through, a soldier came over and asked him to take off his clothes.
Ji Zhixing did not refuse. He took them off and handed them over.
The soldier accepted the clothes and extended his hands. Warm flames rose between them, enveloping the clothes Ji Zhixing had handed him.
Steam rose, and within moments, the clothes were dry and fresh, still slightly warm to the touch.
"Thank you." Ji Zhixing took his clothes back and hurriedly thanked him.
"No trouble." The soldier smiled, then turned and left.
"Let's go." Another soldier came over and led him to the vehicle.
The engine started, and they drove out of Stone Lake Town.
The Landwalking Ancient Whale had emerged late that day, and by the time everything was over, it was nearly dark. By the time the military vehicle entered Rain City Base City, night had fallen completely.
The vehicle stopped at the entrance to the Rain-Listening Garden.
Ji Zhixing thanked the soldier who had driven him home once again, pushed open the door, and got out.
He quickened his steps toward Building Three, eager to see his parents and tell his younger sister that he was all right.
He jogged up the stairs and reached his family's door on the fifth floor. Just as he was about to take out his key, he suddenly heard an argument upstairs.
The voices were loud enough to hear clearly through the ceiling, and his mother's voice was among them.
He frowned, turned, and headed upstairs.
The sixth-floor door stood open, light spilling out onto the floor of the stairwell.
As Ji Zhixing climbed the stairs, he immediately spotted his parents standing at that apartment's entrance.
Zhang Yulan's face was flushed crimson. "You've been making a racket in the middle of the night every day lately. How are we supposed to rest downstairs? We've spoken to you about this so many times already."
A middle-aged woman in pajamas stood in the doorway, her voice loud. "We're in our own home. We can do whatever we want. What's it got to do with you?"
"How can you behave like this?" Ji Guodong stood beside Zhang Yulan, his voice low. "Inviting so many people over in the dead of night, singing and drinking-do you have any idea how late it was?"
"If it's too noisy, move out!" The middle-aged woman rolled her eyes. "This building doesn't belong to you."
"Besides, our son awakened a second-order gene aperture and is going to Rain City Middle School. We're happy. What's wrong with celebrating?"
"Even if you're celebrating, you can't do it in the middle of the night every single day!" Ji Guodong said angrily.
This family had moved in a few years earlier, and they had always been like this, often making a tremendous racket late at night. Speaking to them several times had done no good.
Only after word spread that Ji Zhixing had awakened a second-order gene aperture had they restrained themselves.
Yet now that Ji Zhixing had gone missing and their son had awakened a second-order gene aperture and was about to attend Rain City Middle School, they had actually reverted to their old ways.
"Mom, stop wasting your breath on them!"
A young man with a swaggering air walked out of a room and pointed at Ji Guodong. "And you two-you really have nothing better to do, do you?"
"I'm in my own home. I can do whatever I want. What, you lost your useless son who integrated a first-order gene, and now you're taking your anger out on us?"
"I'm telling you, not a chance!"
"You..." Ji Guodong clenched his fists, his eyes blazing.
"What, are you going to hit someone?" The man of the household, a burly middle-aged man, snorted coldly and stepped forward to block him.
Back when the Ji family had Ji Zhixing, he had not dared provoke them.
But that brat Ji Zhixing had now been missing for over half a month. He must have died out there.
And with his own son having awakened a second-order gene aperture, what did he have to fear anymore?
"If you want a beating, I wouldn't mind helping you out." Just then, a youthful voice rang out, and a figure came up the stairs to stand beside Ji Guodong and Zhang Yulan.
"Zhixing?"
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