Chapter 147

An incredibly enticing aroma of braised meat wafted from the kitchen.

It made it hard to focus on playing mahjong.

It was almost time for dinner.

"Time to cook rice."

"I'll go!"

Zhu Zi eagerly ran into the kitchen.

Shenhe stood up to help carefully put away the mahjong tiles on the table.

Xia Zhi picked up his teacup, drinking tea while using the cooled-down [Skill Steal] on Shenhe.

"[Skill Steal] successful, learned skill [Innate Super Strength] from target."

"[Innate Super Strength]: Passive, Strength +100 points."

Xia Zhi felt a surge of immense power suddenly well up in his body.

At the same time, a "crack!" sound rang out as he accidentally crushed the teacup in his hand.

The sharp ceramic shards cut his palm, causing a stinging sensation.

But the next moment, that pain-inducing feeling was replaced by a soft touch.

Shenhe was holding his hand, her cool and delicate face showing a rare look of panic and helplessness.

"Boss, you're hurt."

"It's nothing."

"There's a lot of blood."

"Just a small wound."

"I have medicine in my room, I'll go get it!"

"No need."

A white light suddenly shone from Xia Zhi's hand.

[Heal].

Moments later, not a trace of the wound could be seen on his palm, the skin restored to perfection.

"See, it's fine now."

Shenhe stared in a daze, forgetting to let go of his hands.

"It's healed?"

"You didn't know I had healing abilities? Didn't your master tell you about me?"

"No... Master only said you saved her, then told me to come to Liyue to find you..."

"I see. You don't know how badly injured your master was then. The whole crane was a mess, couldn't even stand up. I used that ability to heal her for a long time..."

"Mm, it's fortunate Master met you, Boss."

"Haha, I guess we were fated to meet. Go get a wet towel to help wipe off this blood. Don't let it stain the new clothes Miss Ganyu gave us, those are hard to wash. Also, please help clean up the ceramic shards on the floor later."

"Okay."

Shenhe finally let go of Xia Zhi's hands and went to get a wet towel.

Xia Zhi gently clenched his fists, feeling unaccustomed to this suddenly much greater strength.

So he temporarily turned off the [Innate Super Strength] skill.

Moments later, Shenhe brought the wet towel, bent down in front of him, took his hand and carefully wiped off the blood, then cleaned the blood drops on the table.

After wiping, she crouched down to pick up the small ceramic shards piece by piece.

Just then, Zhu Zi came out of the kitchen.

"Boss, I've washed the rice and put it on to cook."

"Mm."

"Eh? Miss Shenhe, how did the cup break?"

"I accidentally dropped it on the floor just now and broke it."

"Oh! Boss, you need to be careful! Don't hurt yourself!"

"I'll be more careful in the future... Zhu Zi, you didn't cook extra rice again hoping to have golden egg fried rice for breakfast tomorrow, did you?"

"I didn't! Boss, don't make things up!"

Zhu Zi's face immediately turned red.

"I only cooked a little extra! Afraid it wouldn't be enough! I didn't do it on purpose! Really!"

Xia Zhi nodded with a smile, choosing to believe this reason for now.

When the rice was ready.

Everyone filled a large bowl with steaming white rice, topped it with a big scoop of tender, juicy braised meat, poured on a spoonful of savory thick gravy, added some chopped pickles and mixed it in. It was extremely satisfying to eat.

That night, in a room on the second floor of the shop.

Xia Zhi reactivated the new skill he had [Skill Steal] from Shenhe that afternoon, first getting used to it for a while.

Then he stood in front of the bed, bent down, gripped the bed frame with both hands, and effortlessly lifted the entire bed with a slight upward force.

[Innate Super Strength]: Passive, Strength +100 points.

This skill effect was truly simple and brutal.

In the system's classification, a normal adult male's strength attribute is 80-90 points.

Those over 90 points are considered strongmen, over 100 are world record holders, and beyond that is superhuman level. The growth curve of primary attributes is not linear.

Xia Zhi's strength attribute was 85 points.

He remembered it was only 84 points when he first crossed over, probably increased by 1 point due to the good food lately, plus consuming a lot of juice and other supernatural ingredients, enhancing his constitution.

After gaining the [Innate Super Strength] passive skill, plus the amplification effect of [Scholar's Ring] (when worn, all non-damage passive skill effects increase by 30%), Xia Zhi's strength attribute had skyrocketed to 215 points.

If he went to work as a porter at the docks, he could unload an entire ship's cargo by himself, even lift the ship onto shore, easily lifting several tons.

Xia Zhi couldn't help but recall Shenhe saying she was very strong when they first met.

How honest of her.

But this skill was indeed very useful for him.

With this great strength, his spear techniques would truly be like a dragon now.

Even that large shield-wielding hilichurl he once saw in the wild, he should be able to easily take it down now.

Xia Zhi gently put the bed down, thought for a moment, then moved it to a new position.

This way the room's layout looked more aesthetic.

After familiarizing himself with his strength, Xia Zhi finished his daily basic tasks and entered the dream world.

Then, he randomly chose a dream bubble and reached out to touch it.

A strange attractive force came over him, and the scene before Xia Zhi's eyes blurred before he appeared in a stranger's dream.

Waves, huge waves!

One after another, forming a terrifying tide.

Xia Zhi found himself completely submerged in seawater.

He looked up.

In the distance, he could see the outline of a harbor.

He turned back.

Behind was a shocking scene.

Five huge snake-like monster heads broke through the sea surface, roaring and howling at the sky incessantly.

What... were those things?

Were they nightmare monsters imagined by the dream's owner?

Xia Zhi looked in the direction of the monsters' roars and saw an enormous, magnificent palace floating in the sky.

That was...

A flash of insight struck Xia Zhi's mind.

Monsters in the sea, a floating palace.

Could it be Osial, the vortex god, and Ningguang's Jade Chamber?

Was this the scene from the chaos in Liyue a while ago?

As he watched, the palace in the sky suddenly began to teeter, then seemed to transform into a huge meteor, crashing down hard towards the multi-headed monster in the sea.

A terrifying explosion erupted from there.

The dream began to distort.

This was a sign that the dream was about to dissipate.

Xia Zhi looked up at the sky.

In the last moment before the dream dispersed, he saw the figure of a tall, elegant woman in a noble qipao.

Was that... Liyue's Tianquan... Ningguang?

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