Quan Xiaoyu was somewhat at a loss.
He had no idea whether this sudden change was good or bad. Hearing Chu Tian’s words, he didn’t dare reach out again and could only stare at him helplessly.
Seeing the worry and uncertainty in Quan Xiaoyu’s eyes, Chu Tian felt a little heartbroken. He knew that Quan Xiaoyu was worrying too much about him, so he gently said, “It’s fine. I probably just evolved.”
He sat down cross-legged where he was and closed his eyes.
“I’ll see if I can control it.”
Quan Xiaoyu nodded slightly.
He didn’t dare make a sound that might disturb him. He simply stood nearby, staring anxiously at Chu Tian without blinking.
About twenty minutes passed like this.
Chu Tian sat there without moving.
Quan Xiaoyu also stood there without moving, his entire body stiff as he watched Chu Tian.
Suddenly, the silver light around Chu Tian’s body grew intensely bright.
Then, beginning from the top of his head, the silver scales gradually began receding one by one.
Slowly, Chu Tian’s original features became visible again.
The entire process took about five minutes.
When Chu Tian opened his eyes and stood up, he had completely returned to his original appearance.
Even all the scars that had remained on his body from three months of constant fighting had disappeared.
He looked completely refreshed and heroic.
He smiled as he walked toward Quan Xiaoyu, then opened his arms in an unmistakable invitation for a hug.
“Looks like I evolved. I can control it freely now.”
Seeing Chu Tian smiling with his eyes curved into crescents, looking exactly like the familiar person he had always known, Quan Xiaoyu naturally threw himself into his arms.
The heavy stone in his heart finally fell.
His eyes couldn’t help turning slightly red.
But he held back.
He sniffed and hugged Chu Tian, resting his chin on Chu Tian’s shoulder as he scolded him.
“Who told you to eat random things?!”
He had also guessed that the silver fish from earlier might have been responsible.
The identical color of the scales was enough to give it away.
This evolution had truly happened by accident.
But if that was the case, why had nothing happened to him even though he had eaten the fish too?
“This is called having divine assistance.”
Chu Tian stubbornly argued his case.
Although he was talking nonsense, he knew very well that this kind of fusion-type evolution had only happened by chance.
He hadn’t expected the mutated beast genes inside his body to be capable of fusing with the genes of other beasts.
Looks like he really couldn’t eat random things anymore.
What if he suddenly grew a pair of cow horns or something?
How embarrassing would that be?
“Why didn’t anything happen to me?” Quan Xiaoyu asked curiously, voicing the question in his heart.
“The beast genes can fuse. You don’t have them.”
Chu Tian gave him a simple explanation.
“This space really is an enormous treasure! I wonder how many more secrets there are waiting for us to discover.”
He sighed with emotion.
Quan Xiaoyu nodded, then felt somewhat ashamed.
The space clearly belonged to him, yet he knew practically nothing about it.
Chu Tian didn’t notice this, however.
Instead, he said, “We finally have some free time, so let’s stay here for a while. I’ll carefully study the things inside this place. And while we’re at it, we can enjoy this rare, peaceful time together, just the two of us.”
As he spoke, he lowered his head and kissed Quan Xiaoyu on the forehead.
Naturally, Quan Xiaoyu had no objections.
This was his Chu Tian.
The Chu Tian he had finally found again.
The Chu Tian he had lost and regained.
Whatever Chu Tian said, went.
For the next half month or so, the two of them practically lived inside the spatial dimension, exploring it like adventurers and walking through every inch of its land.
Under Chu Tian’s guidance, Quan Xiaoyu’s understanding of his own spatial dimension also improved by leaps and bounds.
Their daily routine consisted of eating and drinking, studying the species and functions within the space, and occasionally going outside to hunt with Xie Mingxuan.
Besides training their physical abilities, they also obtained more beast cores and stored up some mutated beast meat.
With his late-stage Level 6 mental power, his mutated beast genes, and three months of living in the mountains, Chu Tian was now able to accurately determine which of the mutated beasts and plants that had become completely unrecognizable after the apocalypse were safe for humans to eat.
They weren’t hunting for themselves.
Before leaving, Quan Xiaoyu had handed two-thirds of his supplies to Bai Mingxi, which was essentially the same as handing them over to the team.
The remaining one-third was more than enough to keep the two of them supplied with food and clothing.
So their hunting had two purposes.
First, to obtain a large number of beast cores.
After they discovered that Chu Tian could use beast cores as an energy source just like zombie crystal cores, beast cores had also become an essential resource that they needed to collect.
Second, of course, was to give the mutated beast meat to the team after they returned.
Xiao Ziran was preparing to establish a base, and food would certainly be in short supply.
Naturally, the more food they had, the better.
There were also some small changes in the spatial dimension.
For example, at the end of the forest, the two of them discovered a nest of colorful birds.
They looked very much like the phoenixes from legend, but there was no way to verify it.
Another example was that after Chu Tian mutated, the fish in the river suddenly became extremely friendly toward him.
Whenever he entered the river, they would often affectionately swim circles around him.
Quan Xiaoyu teased him, saying that Chu Tian was now one of their kind.
He even laughed and asked Chu Tian, “Was the fish soup good? Want to catch a few more?”
Chu Tian shook his head.
Standing in the water, he reached out and stroked the largest fish crowded around him, smiling innocently.
“It was delicious, but I’m never eating it again. You shouldn’t eat your own kind.”
Quan Xiaoyu laughed so hard that he nearly collapsed to the side.
Because they had hunted together many times and fought side by side, Xie Mingxuan also gradually became friendly toward Chu Tian.
His original anger over Quan Xiaoyu suddenly being “claimed” by this prey disappeared as well.
Sometimes, when he went hunting, he would even deliberately invite Chu Tian along.
With Chu Tian around, many things gradually began to have answers.
For example, regarding Xie Mingxuan, Chu Tian determined that he probably possessed the intelligence of a three-year-old human child.
He had none of his memories from before, but he firmly remembered one thing:
He had to protect Quan Xiaoyu.
Perhaps, while he was alive, Quan Xiaoyu’s rejection had become the one thing he had never been able to let go of.
So after becoming a zombie, it became the only thing he remembered and continued to carry out.
His mutation had also developed along the mental-type path, which resulted in him being able to locate Quan Xiaoyu like a radar as long as he was within a certain range.
This ability of Xie Mingxuan’s had left Chu Tian both amused and speechless on more than one occasion.
Xie Mingxuan was still evolving.
Chu Tian could clearly sense it.
The direction of his mental evolution was different from Chu Tian’s, but they were both at the late stage of Level 6, waiting for the moment when they could break through the bottleneck and level up again.
Chu Tian felt a strong sense of urgency.
He felt that he still needed to become stronger.
At present, he could at most fight Xie Mingxuan to a draw.
But it was obvious that Xie Mingxuan’s rate of advancement was faster than his.
Chu Tian also began educating Xie Mingxuan like he would a child.
He frequently taught him human behavior, but more importantly, he taught him morals and proper conduct.
After all, Xie Mingxuan was a zombie.
Although he didn’t eat people, he could eat people!
As his evolution continued, his intelligence would keep increasing.
If he wasn’t properly educated and his instincts eventually gained the upper hand, they might very well end up raising a great demon king who posed a threat to humanity.
Sometimes, when Quan Xiaoyu watched Chu Tian sternly lecture and educate Xie Mingxuan, he would suddenly have the illusion that they were a family of three.
A strict father was teaching his mischievous, disobedient child.
This illusion often left him mentally scrambling for a while.
Of course, Quan Xiaoyu’s own ability was also improving rapidly.
Under Chu Tian’s guidance, the functions of the spatial dimension were fully utilized.
Quan Xiaoyu’s progress skyrocketed.
In just half a month, he advanced rapidly, and his fire-type ability reached the mid-stage of Level 6.
His speed and strength increased along with the changes in the spatial dimension.
Recently, however, his improvement had become faster and faster.
It was probably because the spatial dimension itself was undergoing positive changes as well.
Quan Xiaoyu still remembered the male voice he had heard when the spatial dimension first opened.
But despite the two of them searching repeatedly this time, they still found nothing.
So they simply stopped thinking about it.
All the fruits in the spatial dimension had matured.
Aside from the seven-colored fruit tree, which was still growing slowly, the two of them harvested all the other fruits and piled them in the courtyard.
They actually filled half the courtyard.
Because of this, Xie Mingxuan even came to complain that the space he had available to move around had become smaller.
When he was inside the spatial dimension, his usual territory consisted basically of the little wooden house and the courtyard.
He didn’t particularly like the spatial dimension, so most of the time, Quan Xiaoyu let him roam outside.
In addition, during their spare time, the two of them used the fruits from the spatial dimension to make dozens of bottles of fruit juice.
They planned to find an opportunity to give them to Xiao Ziran and the others after they returned.
Everything was ready.
The two of them were also preparing to return.
Li Nan and Bai Mingxi were probably still waiting anxiously for them.
Once they left the area completely covered by plants, traces of human civilization became increasingly obvious as they traveled south.
The two of them had already left the spatial dimension and were using a car to travel.
Quan Xiaoyu had originally kept several vehicles inside his spatial dimension.
Before setting out, he kept only one and gave the others to Bai Mingxi.
Half a month later.
The roads leading to Shuguang Base had long since been cleared.
Because Shuguang Base and Tianze Base were both located in the area, it was still relatively safe here.
As a result, many survivors traveled along these roads.
When they arrived in front of the city gates of Shuguang Base, the place was bustling with activity.
Although it was outside the city, the base had still established a sufficiently strong defensive perimeter here and assigned people to manage it.
So some people who didn’t qualify to enter the city simply settled down here.
Shuguang Base did not drive them away.
At the same time, even within the protected area outside the city, Shuguang Base had established rules that everyone was required to follow, mainly concerning public order and security.
As long as they didn’t cause trouble, they wouldn’t be driven away.
Gradually, a small settlement formed here.
More and more people came because of Shuguang Base’s reputation, while more and more travelers passed through.
As a result, a small trading market also formed.
The area was exceptionally lively.