When Quan Xiaoyu focused his entire mind on the Immortal Dust Abode he had once visited, the space around him began to distort slightly. In an instant, his entire body disappeared from the bathroom.
When he appeared again, he was still standing in that same simple courtyard.
This time, he could completely confirm that this really was a space, a special space different from those possessed by other spatial ability users.
This time, he had come with the intention of exploring, so he began carefully observing everything around him.
He had already seen the courtyard and the house the last time. Therefore, he now walked outside.
When he arrived at the riverside where he had bathed last time, the pile of dirty clothes he had discarded there was actually still there, completely untouched. It seemed that, apart from him, there really were no other living creatures here. Then, what exactly was that cold male voice?
This side of the river was very simple: the courtyard, the grassland, and the river. But on the opposite side was a vast forest.
The small river was only four or five meters wide. The river water was unusually clear, with no impurities or other living creatures in it, so one could see the riverbed covered in fine golden sand at a glance.
Quan Xiaoyu was not wearing any clothes anyway, so he simply entered the river and swam to the opposite bank.
The trees in the forest were very strange. They seemed completely different from all the trees Quan Xiaoyu had seen outside. They were extremely tall, and hanging from their branches were neither flowers nor fruits, but transparent substances that sparkled like light. They looked somewhat like the effect of colorful lights being hung on trees during festivals.
As he walked deeper into the forest, the trees inside took on another form. They were much shorter, looking more like some kind of fruit trees. Some branches had flowers hanging from them, while others bore young, unripe fruits.
Quan Xiaoyu thought that these fruits should be about to ripen. He did not know whether they could be eaten. However, this also proved that time here was not frozen.
The reason ordinary ability users’ spaces could preserve food perfectly was because of the stillness and sealed nature of their spaces. Inside their spaces, both time and space were stationary. Therefore, although their spaces had the ability to preserve freshness, they could not store living creatures.
But this place was obviously different. The plants grew with the passage of time, the river water flowed gently, and there was occasionally a soft breeze, proving that both time and space were moving. Moreover, he could freely enter and leave this place without feeling the slightest discomfort. Perhaps this place could even be used to raise live poultry.
Continuing deeper into the forest, he walked for a long time before finally arriving at a valley. There were mountain cliffs on three sides, and a waterfall flowed down from the mountaintop. Below it was a very large pool, whose water was as clear and pure as the river.
Beside the pool was an even shorter and stranger tree. It was probably only slightly taller than Quan Xiaoyu. The tips of its branches and leaves carried the same shining white light as the trees at the outer edge, but at the same time, there were seven flowers of different colors hanging from it.
The same tree, the same branch, yet flowers of different colors. It was extremely strange.
Quan Xiaoyu carefully looked at it for a while, but still could not figure anything out. He did not dare touch these trees casually, so he gave up observing them.
Once he reached the pool, the space seemed to end there. If one imagined this space as a circle, its area was probably about the size of an ordinary small town.
Quan Xiaoyu closed his eyes and thought about leaving. Sure enough, he returned to the bathroom.
A trace of excitement appeared in his eyes. He reached out again and touched the tattoo on his neck. This thing seemed to have been carved onto his body. It now belonged to him.
Then, could he transfer the supplies in the villa into the space?
If he could, then if the villa was eventually breached one day, he could abandon the villa without any hesitation and leave with Li Nan.
Quan Xiaoyu changed his clothes and returned from the bathroom to his room. Part of the supplies cleared out from the room next to Li Nan’s was piled on the floor.
Following the method of using space that he had heard from spatial ability users in his previous life, he held his hand above the supplies and concentrated on them, hoping that they would appear inside the space.
After a while, there seemed to be a slight fluctuation. Quan Xiaoyu opened his eyes, and the supplies in front of him had already disappeared.
He became happy.
It could be used just like an ordinary space!
He once again brought his body into the space and discovered that he still appeared in the courtyard, rather than beside the pool deep in the forest.
In other words, no matter where he left the space from, he would return to the courtyard, while no matter where he entered from outside, he would return to the location where he had entered.
Then, since he could use his thoughts to enter and leave the space and collect supplies, could he also use his thoughts to move the supplies?
With that thought, he closed his eyes again and silently commanded the supplies to move to the empty area outside the courtyard on the right. Sure enough, the supplies appeared in the empty space on the right according to his thoughts.
Quan Xiaoyu became excited. It was like a child who had just obtained a novel toy. He began tirelessly conducting all kinds of experiments, hoping to quickly understand this space.
After mastering the basic methods of using the space, the last experiment Quan Xiaoyu conducted was to take the raw meat in the kitchen refrigerator that was most likely to spoil and casually place it on the grass. He planned to come back in a few days to see how much the meat had deteriorated.
If the meat spoiled quickly, then he and Li Nan would have to desperately eat up all the perishable food before the power went out.
After doing this, Quan Xiaoyu’s excited mind gradually calmed down. He checked the time. It was six in the morning, and dawn was almost here.
Only then did he hurry to lie down and rest. His body was actually already very tired; he had just been relying entirely on his excitement to keep himself going.
Now that he lay down, he quickly fell into a deep sleep.
When Quan Xiaoyu woke up, he felt a sharp pain just below the tip of his nose. He opened his eyes and saw Li Nan’s anxious face.
“Xiaonan, what’s wrong?” There was a trace of confusion in his voice.
Seeing him wake up, Li Nan breathed a sigh of relief.
“Xiaoyu-ge, you’ve slept for two days.”
That morning, Li Nan had woken up early and prepared breakfast, waiting for Quan Xiaoyu to get up. But by noon, there was still no movement from Quan Xiaoyu’s room.
Li Nan was worried, so he opened the door and went inside to take a look. Quan Xiaoyu was lying on the bed in a deep sleep, breathing evenly, his complexion normal, with nothing strange about him.
Li Nan thought that Xiaoyu-ge was probably exhausted, so he quietly left again, allowing Quan Xiaoyu to continue sleeping.
As a result, he slept for two whole days.
By noon that day, Li Nan was so anxious that he could no longer wait. He was afraid that Quan Xiaoyu had contracted some unknown illness, so he imitated what he had seen in television dramas and pinched the philtrum beneath Quan Xiaoyu’s nose.
Fortunately, Quan Xiaoyu soon woke up.
After shaking off the grogginess of just waking up, Quan Xiaoyu, having rested for two days, felt full of energy. It seemed as though some unknown force was circulating inside his body. Even the rustling sound of the leaves outside the house being blown by the wind could be heard clearly.
His five senses seemed to have become even sharper.
Quan Xiaoyu had already realized this.
Ever since the last time he underwent “marrow cleansing,” all of his senses had become more acute in addition to his speed and strength. For example, he had once felt that he could snap an iron lock apart without any effort. For example, when he had once held Li Shunwei in his arms, he could feel his life gradually slipping away bit by bit. For example, when Yuning used her mental ability, he could quickly sense it and regain consciousness.
He believed that all of this was inseparably connected to that Immortal Dust Abode, but there was no need to seek the answer right now.
After all, the space was already on his body.
“I was probably just too tired.” Quan Xiaoyu gave a casual explanation. “I’m hungry. Is there anything to eat?”
Li Nan nodded. He had been afraid that Quan Xiaoyu would be hungry after waking up, so he had kept food prepared the entire time.
“Come on, let’s eat.”
Quan Xiaoyu got up from the bed and walked toward the door.
“Xiaoyu-ge, are you really all right now?”
Although Li Nan could see that Quan Xiaoyu had woken up safely and seemed fine, he still could not help worrying.
“Don’t worry. I’m fine. I’m full of energy.” Quan Xiaoyu smiled and patted Li Nan’s head. “My stomach is just hungry.”
Li Nan nodded, took Quan Xiaoyu’s hand, and the two of them went downstairs together.
“Nothing happened these past two days, right?” Quan Xiaoyu asked.
Li Nan shook his head. At the same time all communication equipment had failed, the surveillance equipment at home had also become completely unusable. He could only occasionally look outside through the window and did not dare go out.
“It’s just that last night, I think I heard the sound of a car, and also…” Li Nan frowned and said uncertainly, “gunshots. I’m not sure. It sounded like it.”
Gunshots?
Quan Xiaoyu thought of the damaged gate.
It seemed that the villa district would soon become unsettled.
It would be better to put the supplies at home into the space as soon as possible.
“Anything else unusual?”
“Anything else? Oh!”
Li Nan slapped his forehead.
“The sun seems to have gotten bigger. It was really hot outside yesterday. Quite a lot of the grass in the garden has withered, and I’ve kept the air conditioning on at home. But the water coming from the faucet has gradually decreased. Xiaoyu-ge, I think the water and electricity may be cut off very soon.”
Quan Xiaoyu nodded.
“Yeah. They’ll be cut off soon.”
“Then what should we do?”
Li Nan looked somewhat anxious.
Quan Xiaoyu sat down at the dining table. On the table was the steak Li Nan had prepared. Despite being so young, the food he made already looked quite decent. He was much better at it than himself, Quan Xiaoyu thought inwardly.
As Quan Xiaoyu chewed the beef, he began to ponder.
Li Nan did not urge him either. He understood Xiaoyu-ge. He had to wait until Xiaoyu-ge wanted to speak before he would say anything. There was no use in anxiously worrying on his behalf.
The changes in the weather had begun.
In the future, the climate would become erratic. Tomorrow might be scorching hot, the day after tomorrow might suddenly turn freezing cold, and the day after that might perhaps be as warm as spring. The weather would become completely unpredictable.
This strange weather would last for three months, and during this period, a second group of humans would mutate and join the ranks of the zombies.
This was also one of the reasons Quan Xiaoyu had chosen to spend the chaotic period inside the villa.
As the weather changed drastically, the damage to food and the loss of supplies would follow one after another. Once the water and electricity were cut off and supplies became scarce, man-made disasters would immediately descend as well.
Without law-enforcement agencies to restrain violence, the law would lose its effectiveness, and morality would appear insignificant in the face of survival. Human nature without restraints would freely reveal the side that had been unable to show itself before.
While fighting against the zombies, people would also have to face threats from their own kind.