Chapter 393

The days passed, and January 12th rolled around.

Yelan had returned.

Barely back, she headed straight to Yujing Terrace to report to Ningguang.

"The situation at The Chasm has been preliminarily dealt with. I'll file a detailed mission report a bit later."

"You've worked hard. No rush on the report. Take some time to rest first."

"Mm, right now, I just want to head to the shop and get a good massage from Mr. Xia."

"Well, about that—you're out of luck."

"Oh?"

Yelan lifted her head, looking a bit puzzled.

"Mr. Xia's shop is closed for half a month. He's currently working at the construction site."

"..."

"But, as it so happens, I also need to go see Mr. Xia. We might as well go together."

"Sounds good."

And so, the Jade Chamber, which had been quietly floating in the sky, suddenly began to move.

Under the watchful gaze of the people below, it sailed back to the place where it was originally constructed.

Charlotte was down on the ground, snapping photos furiously.

Awesome! Another huge scoop!

"Miss Ningguang is here, and Miss Yelan too! When did Miss Yelan get back?"

"This afternoon."

"Did things go smoothly?"

"Thanks to the bracelet Mr. Xia gave me, otherwise, it might've been quite a mess."

"As long as all went well."

Ningguang chuckled softly, "Mr. Xia is truly accurate with his predictions."

Yelan turned her head, puzzled. "Predictions?"

"I was a bit worried about you earlier. Mr. Xia then did a divination and said you would make it back before the Lantern Rite. Told me not to worry."

"Is that so? I didn't expect Mr. Xia to be so skilled in the art of divination too."

"Ah, he just knows a bit," Ningguang said warmly. "Come, have a seat for now. Once I'm done cooking, we'll sit down and talk more."

"Alright."

Yelan and Ningguang sat at a corner table, continuing to discuss matters related to The Chasm.

At one point, Yelan suddenly glanced toward the door.

Xia Zhen and Xia Ci were walking in together.

"And who's that?"

"Oh, that's Mr. Xia's older cousin. She came to find him not long ago. Her name is Xia Zhen."

"Xia Zhen…"

Yelan quietly made a mental note.

Before long—

Yelan glanced at the door again.

Mountain Shaper and Moon Carver were walking in side by side.

"Wait, aren't they—?"

"Oh, you mean the two Adepti? They're also moved by a sense of duty and offered to help out with the construction work."

"..."

Once again, Yelan fell quiet.

Since when were the Adepti of Liyue this down-to-earth?

And then a while later—

A noisy group of workers bustled in.

"I moved thousands of bricks today!"

"I moved more than ten thousand bricks!"

"I was moving bricks even last night!"

"Same here, I worked all night too!"

Yelan listened to the loud bragging and made a very strange face.

"What's going on this time?"

"Oh, you mean them? They're caught up in... a bit of a competition. Mr. Xia announced that the names of the hardest-working laborers would be engraved on a monument at the school, to be honored for posterity. So now everyone's scrambling to win a spot."

"..."

Seriously?

She was only away for a little while, and it felt like she no longer understood how anything worked back home.

Head down, Yelan silently pondered.

Seemed like she'd definitely need to thoroughly review all the intel once she got back.

That night.

Naturally, Yelan and Ningguang stayed overnight at the Jade Chamber.

Upon hearing that Yelan seemed to have been injured, Xia Zhi came over to help tend to her.

Lying in bed, Yelan skillfully removed her clothes.

"Sorry to trouble you, Mr. Xia."

"No trouble at all."

Xia Zhi "looked" over her—though he didn't technically need to—and noticed that Yelan was covered in bruises, as if she'd been hit by something massive.

"What did you run into?"

"A mechanical serpent."

"A serpent?"

"Something probably left over from ancient times. It was troublesome, but in the end, I managed to use the terrain to handle it."

"Oh."

Xia Zhi walked over and was just about to grab some essential oil when he suddenly paused, his expression subtly shifting.

Because from Yelan, he could sense a faint trace of Abyssal energy.

She seemed to have been lightly corrupted.

"Mr. Xia?"

"There appears to be... a slight problem with your condition."

"Oh?"

"But don't worry. In your case, one injection will fix it."

"...Huh?"

As Xia Zhi spoke, he pulled out the [Universal Syringe].

Yelan stared silently at the gleaming needle tip and the ominous black liquid inside.

This was the second time Xia Zhi had used the [Universal Syringe].

The last time was in front of the Irminsul, where he used it to extract the Forbidden Knowledge from his cousin's body.

The strange black liquid currently inside the syringe was the very same materialized Forbidden Knowledge he'd extracted then.

It wasn't something easy to deal with. And given that he'd been low on points at the time, he had simply left it sealed inside the syringe, untouched.

"Miss Yelan, please hold still for a moment."

"Alright…"

Xia Zhi opened the Shop and purchased a [Universal Bottle].

[Universal Bottle] 

Quality: Gold 

Type: Auxiliary Item 

Trait: Containment 

Effect: Can be used to hold any item. 

Hidden Effect: None 

Price: 500 points

It was a small, transparent vial resembling a reagent bottle.

Xia Zhi opened it and transferred the entire contents of Forbidden Knowledge from the syringe into the bottle.

The black liquid swirled quietly within, as if alive.

He sealed the lid and stored the bottle in his inventory.

"Miss Yelan, please lie down."

"Mm…"

"Don't worry, this will be over quickly. You won't feel a thing."

"I trust you, Mr. Xia."

The syringe pierced her skin and began extracting the Abyssal Aura from her body.

The manifested Abyssal Aura was also a black liquid, though its color wasn't as deep and ominous as that of Forbidden Knowledge.

There wasn't much of it, either—far less than the amount his cousin had harbored.

In just a few moments, the extraction was complete.

Xia Zhi put the syringe away.

"Miss Yelan, it's done."

"Hm? Already?"

"How are you feeling?"

"I don't… really feel anything."

"That's good. If you were feeling discomfort, it'd mean the problem was already severe."

Thinking for a moment, Xia Zhi bought another [Universal Bottle] from the Shop and poured the Abyssal liquid from the syringe into it, carefully storing it away.

Yelan turned over and spotted the bottle in his hand.

"What is that?"

"That's the harmful stuff I just extracted from your body."

"…Mr. Xia, what exactly is wrong with me?"

"The Abyss."

"The Abyss?!"

"So Miss Yelan is familiar with the Abyss?"

"I've seen references in my family's records. It's said to be the darkest, most dangerous place in the world… I've never been there, but five hundred years ago, there was a cataclysm in The Chasm. One of my ancestors vanished mysteriously during that event… Could the recent anomalies at the bottom of The Chasm be related to the Abyss?"

"Most likely. Did you see anything unusual underground?"

"I came across a lot of murky, black sludge."

"Sludge?"

"It looked a lot like what you've got in that bottle. I had to use Lumenstone and spend quite a bit of effort to clear it away and open a tunnel leading deeper. In the end, I destroyed a mechanical serpent, but… I can't shake the feeling that the core problem of The Chasm still hasn't been resolved."

"If it involves the Abyss, then it's far beyond something you can handle alone."

"I'm aware. The elders in the mines said that five hundred years ago, it took the aid of an unnamed Yaksha to quell the darkness. Looks like I'll have to report this to the Adepti."

"As it happens, a few of them are at the construction site."

Yelan chuckled softly.

"Mountain Shaper and Moon Carver… I honestly didn't expect those two to take on manual labor. Watching them shovel down rice at dinner, they looked nothing like the dignified Adepti they're known to be."

"They're just being true to themselves."

"Yeah… oof…"

"Does it hurt?"

"A little…"

"Bear with it. You've got a lot of bruises and scrapes—I need to work those out properly."

"Mm."

"You should soak in a bath later. There's one on the Jade Chamber, right?"

"Yes, Lady Ningguang had one installed that's modeled after the one in your shop. It's at the end of the corridor."

"Money really can buy anything."

"Right… mmm…"

"If you're exhausted, just sleep."

Lowering his voice, Xia Zhi activated the [Charming Voice] trait.

"I… mm…"

Yelan suddenly felt as if Mr. Xia's voice had turned into the softest lullaby in the world, coaxing her into complete ease. Drowsiness overwhelmed her almost instantly, and she drifted off to sleep mid-massage.

It was clear this mission hadn't been as easy on her as she'd claimed.

Xia Zhi continued massaging her.

Once finished, he gently picked her up from the bed and carried her down the corridor.

He knocked on the bathhouse door—empty, but the hot water had already been prepared.

He placed Yelan into the tub.

Just like last time, he pulled out an [Essence Bottle] and added a single drop of [Essence of Sun and Moon] into the water.

"Rest well."

He turned and left, closing the door behind him, and made his way toward Ningguang's room.

On the way, Xia Zhi opened his inventory and checked on the two bottles.

After filling them with the liquid, a "+" symbol had appeared beside their names.

He tapped the icon, and a new description popped up on the system interface.

[Forbidden Knowledge] 

Quality: Diamond 

Type: Special Item 

Traits: Corrosion, Chaos, Mutation 

Effect: Possesses highly corrosive and chaotic properties; can alter the form of any object. 

Hidden Effect: None 

Non-recyclable.

A Diamond-tier special item… No wonder it had tormented his cousin for so many years.

That "highly corrosive" property… it felt eerily similar to that other thing…

Xia Zhi paused mid-step, falling into thought.

He opened his system panel and looked at the stats for both of his eyes.

Still greyed out, still sealed.

Left Eye: Blind [Supreme Divinity Corrosion] 

Right Eye: Blind [Supreme Divinity Corrosion]

Corrosion again. The same word.

So this Forbidden Knowledge—could it be some sort of divine contamination, a remnant from a higher deity?

But then, the Supreme Divinity's corrosion was far milder. It only blinded him; it hadn't mutated his body in any other way.

And that chaos trait… a strange feature of Forbidden Knowledge…

If this stuff truly came from a god—could it be that the deity went mad for some unknown reason?

Or… perhaps it wasn't left behind by a single god, but a mixture of divine remnants from multiple gods?

Could the so-called Abyss be a mass grave for fallen gods, their divine remnants twisted together into a monstrous corruption?

Xia Zhi shook his head.

Too speculative.

He looked at the second bottle.

[Abyssal Aura] 

Quality: Gold 

Type: Special Item 

Trait: Corrosion 

Effect: A trace of weak Abyssal energy. 

Hidden Effect: None 

Non-recyclable.

Nothing especially useful there.

He tried using the [Universal Syringe] on himself, curious to see if he could extract the Supreme Divinity's essence from his eyes.

"Extraction failed. Target substance quality too high."

Just as he thought—he needed to evolve further.

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