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At seven in the morning, right on schedule, Zhou Chen got out of bed. He pulled open the curtains, letting the warm sunlight flood his bedroom. Facing the Sun, he gave a long, refreshing stretch, beginning another perfectly ordinary day.
After washing up, he went downstairs to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. The nu for the morning was toast with butter and jam, a side salad, pan-fried bacon, and to top it all off, a cup of rich, aromatic coffee.
Since moving in with Li Xiye temporarily, Zhou Chen had beco the household chef. It wasn’t that Li Xiye couldn’t cook, but rather that her food had only one redeeming quality: it could fill a stomach. The taste, however, was truly unbearable. Sotis, she would inexplicably produce culinary disasters like "Blue Noodle Soup," "Dark Scrambled Eggs with Tomato," or "Dark Green Pumpkin and Wood Ear Fungus Soup"...
Li Xiye was quite frustrated about this herself. She always followed the recipes to the letter, so why did her dishes always turn into culinary disasters?
Therefore, unable to stomach her cooking, Zhou Chen had no choice but to take over, which vastly improved the diet of both Li Xiye and her dog.
Half a month had passed since the Love Hospital incident. In that ti, Hong City had been quiet, free of any further disturbances. The commotion stirred up by the Eternal Life Project seed to have subsided. Even the Extraordinary battle that made headlines was slowly fading from public mory, lost in the frantic pace of modern life, as if it would soon be forgotten entirely.
Zhou Chen had been going out every day searching for clues—the whereabouts of the Blood Race, the movents of the Abyss Church—but had found nothing. After the last incident, they had all gone into hiding, fearing retaliation from the Star Association.
During that ti, the famous celebrity Julie Eva had secretly sought him out, begging him to erase her mories. She was terrified that knowing too much would get her killed.
The incident had caused quite a stir, and word had spread throughout the Abyss Church: the near-total annihilation of the Blood Race and the Crimson Sect had been orchestrated behind the scenes by a certain Eternal Fire Steward. The story went that this Steward took his paynt, then promptly turned around and backstabbed them, brutally screwing over the Crimson Sect.
Fueled by all sorts of conspiracy theories, the Abyssal Sect in Hong City now viewed the Eternal Fire with intense hostility. Though they didn’t dare show it on the surface, they had secretly severed all cooperation and contact.
The once-amicable relationship between the Eternal Fire and the Crimson Sect was shattered. The surviving Crimson Sect cultists launched a series of assassination attempts against the Eternal Fla Cultists in the na of "Revenge." Naturally, the Eternal Fire wouldn’t take this lying down; they hunted down and eliminated the remaining stragglers, driving the Crimson Sect out of Hong City for good.
The local Eternal Fire Steward, for his part, was both pleasantly surprised to reap the benefits and furious at the fallout. He cursed the ddling outsider Steward for stirring up Hong City’s underworld, making enemies for the Eternal Fire on multiple fronts, and ruining a great deal of their business.
While ordering all his cultists to lie low, Steward "Viper" also told them to gather as much information as they could on the Steward codenad "Butcher," though for what purpose, no one knew.
Julie Eva almost imdiately thought of Zhou Chen. After much agonizing, she decided to keep his secret. To prove her loyalty, she even sought out Zhou Chen herself and pleaded with him to erase her mories concerning him.
To better cover his tracks, Zhou Chen granted her request. Using the Wish Value she provided, he made a wish and erased her mories of him.
By now, Zhou Chen had started to adopt a more hands-off approach. Embracing a "co what may" attitude, he decided to let things take their natural course. He would no longer seek trouble out; he would wait for it to co to him.
"Mooorning~~"
Just then, Li Xiye ca downstairs, yawning and rubbing her eyes. She looked exhausted.
"Didn’t you ditate?" Zhou Chen asked, looking up at Li Xiye as he spread jam on a slice of toast.
"Sleeping is way more comfortable than ditating. I started a ga of *Civilization 18* last night and played until three in the morning. I crashed the second my head hit the pillow. I fall asleep way faster than I can enter a ditative state." Li Xiye poured a glass of water, gulped it down, then snatched the piece of toast he’d just finished and took a huge bite.
"What’s on the schedule for today?" she asked, her words muffled by a mouthful of food.
"No lessons today. I need to build sothing."
Lately, Zhou Chen had been using his free ti to ntor Li Xiye, teaching her everything he could about Alchemy, Fighting Skill, and sharing all sorts of practical experience.
Li Xiye certainly lived up to her reputation as a top-ten student. She was in high school, an age when most people are at their intellectual peak, and on top of that, her ntal acuity had skyrocketed since her awakening. She was a fast learner, and her passion for the subject drove her to work hard. With her natural talent, she was even better at learning Alchemy than Zhou Chen would be without his "hacks."
However, to keep anyone from discovering her "live-in big brother," Li Xiye still attended her classes at the Star Association every day. Thanks to this dual-track instruction, her progress was astonishingly fast.
It was sumr vacation now, so she had plenty of ti ahead of her to absorb Extraordinary Knowledge. By the ti sumr was over, she was bound to have transford into a true Ascender.
As for her howork...
Wasn’t there a highly intelligent husky at ho for that?
After all, Li Xiye always had her dog do her howork. A single piece of chicken breast was enough to hire the husky’s services for an entire day.
"You’re going to make an Extraordinary Weapon?" Li Xiye asked, her voice full of excitent. "Can I watch?"
Having studied Alchemy, she was fascinated by such processes and often pestered Zhou Chen to perform his Hand Refining Alchemy or demonstrate the power of Forbidden Object C-011: Emotional Outburst.
"Trade secret. No spectators allowed."
Zhou Chen crossed his arms to make an ’X,’ and Li Xiye’s face imdiately fell. She puffed out her cheeks, pouting.
"However, this artifact is for you... You’ll see when I’m done."
"Really?" Li Xiye’s eyes instantly lit up. She had been desperately hoping for an Extraordinary Artifact of her own.
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