Chapter 168
Under the water.
Zhou Qi quickly came back to his senses. He raised his hand and touched the boy's face, and found that everything he saw was neither a dream nor an illusion.
His hands were very hot, and when they touched Tang Yu'an's cold face, he immediately frowned.
No matter what, we can't stay in the water any longer!
Zhou Qi looked up, wanting to take Tang Yu'an out of the undercurrent.
However, Tang Yu'an, who was hugging him, looked behind him with a panicked and frightened expression.
Could it be a mutant underwater creature?
Zhou Qi looked back vigilantly, only to see a huge underwater whirlpool - it turned out that the underwater undercurrent was caused by this whirlpool!
As they got closer to the vortex, the suction became stronger.
Zhou Qi quickly dragged Tang Yu'an and swam away from the whirlpool, and Tang Yu'an also tried hard to wave his limbs.
However, the two teenagers had just escaped from danger and their strength had not recovered yet. They could not resist the suction at all. No matter how they swam, they were getting closer and closer to the whirlpool.
The emeralds wrapped around them once again sprouted several vines, which continued to grow into the mud at the bottom of the water.
However, there seemed to be an unknown force surging in the water, which soon tore its vines to pieces.
In the end, they were sucked into the vortex.
Yuanbao and Black Pearl, who had fallen behind because of resisting the mutant creatures, finally caught up.
Seeing Tang Yu'an being sucked into the whirlpool, Yuanbao jumped in without hesitation. Black Pearl hesitated for a moment and followed closely behind.
In the end, the two teenagers and their pets disappeared into the whirlpool...
-
When Tang Yu'an woke up again, he was greeted by the blinding sunlight.
He raised his hands to block his eyes, and when the memory before he fell into coma came back, he hurriedly turned over and sat up, looking around for Zhou Qi.
Then he froze.
here it is……
He was standing on a beach surrounded by gravel, and not far away was... the ocean?
Weren't they sucked into the underwater whirlpool in the deserted city? How did they end up at the seaside?
And there are a lot of crystal stones on the beach!
Thanks to the identification technique, Tang Yu'an could see bubbles popping up at a glance, with the words "Water Psychic Stone" marked on them.
The scene he had dreamed of before happened.
There were just too many bubbles! Crystals, so precious in the wasteland, were scattered randomly on the beach, sparkling in the sun.
This doesn't feel real no matter how you look at it.
Because there were too many bubbles, Tang Yu'an had to make settings to minimize the identification bubbles.
He looked at the "sea" over there again, feeling the wind blowing from the water. Tang Yu'an lowered his head and licked the wet water stains on his clothes, and found that he did not taste the unique salty taste of sea water.
This seemingly endless body of water is not the sea, but perhaps a large inland lake?
Tang Yu'an withdrew his gaze and observed the current situation again.
He and Zhou Qi were separated by the current, and the vines that tightly entangled them were torn into pieces by the current, leaving only a short piece wrapped around his clothes.
Tang Yu'an carefully untied that part, and Emerald's faint emotional fluctuations were transmitted from the vine.
It rubbed Tang Yu'an's fingers affectionately with its vine leaves, as if to comfort him.
Tang Yu'an felt a little sad. If it weren't for the emerald, he might not have been able to save Brother Xiaoqi just now.
He quickly took out a cup from his portable storage and was about to fill it with water when Emerald pointed to the body of water not far from him.
"Do you want the water there?"
The emerald conveyed to him a feeling of affirmation.
"Okay." But Tang Yu'an did not walk to the water's edge. He was worried that there might be unknown dangers waiting for him in the water.
He found a small puddle on the shore, filled it with water, and asked Emerald, "Is this okay?"
Emerald thrust the cane directly into the cup.
Tang Yu'an breathed a sigh of relief and dug some more soil from the puddle and put it into the cup. As a result, he found two more earth crystals in the soil.
The two crystals were very small, only about half the size of the index fingernail.
Tang Yu'an threw the two earth crystal stones into the cup, and picked up a few crystal stones and threw them in as well.
Emeralds convey a feeling of joy and excitement.
Tang Yu'an smiled and put it and the cup into the pet compartment to let it sleep. Fortunately, it was just a branch and the injury did not affect the main body.
He opened the map and, as expected, saw a fog.
When he saw the light spot belonging to Zhou Qi, Tang Yu'an breathed a sigh of relief. This meant that Brother Xiaoqi was still alive, and it also meant that he could find him accurately.
What surprised him was that Yuanbao and Black Pearl also followed?
When did they come?
Although he was not sure, Tang Yu'an was still very moved. The stone in his heart fell to the ground, and he became a little calmer.
Tang Yu'an zoomed out the map, wanting to see how far they were from the deserted city, but found...
No matter how he zoomed out, the fog that covered the entire map seemed to have no end.
He finally got annoyed and used the search function to find Ping An Grocery Store.
【Sorry, not found! 】
Tang Yu'an was stunned and quickly changed a few more labels, but the results were all...
【Sorry, not found! 】
What's going on? Why can't I find it?
After trying several times, he finally gave up, retracted the map to its normal size, and prepared to meet up with Zhou Qi.
Brother Xiaoqi must have been very worried when he woke up and didn't see him.
result……
A shadow appeared behind him. Tang Yu'an was startled and subconsciously rolled to the side and hid behind a rock.
When he looked closely, he found that it was a crab nearly one meter tall!
Looking at the crab's huge claws, Tang Yu'an swallowed his saliva, turned around and ran away.
However, he soon realized something and quickly cast a levitation spell on himself, flying in the air.
However, he was not completely safe.
The big crab with its claws and fangs bared suddenly shot out a water arrow from its mouth. Tang Yuan narrowly avoided it, but was still hit on the arm by the water arrow.
The sleeve on his arm was torn, and his skin was cut, and blood immediately gushed out.
Without giving Tang Yu'an time to breathe, the next water arrow shot out again. He dodged in a panic and was about to launch the marbles, but saw...
A larger figure appeared behind the crab.
The giant crab rolled its eyes vigilantly, but before it could swing its claws to attack, the other party pressed it directly into the sand with a claw.
Two golden lights flashed, and the crab's two big claws were forcibly removed.
"Black Pearl!"
Looking at the big cat torturing the crab, Tang Yu'an was delighted, but suddenly felt a sour feeling as if he had seen a relative.
He quickly controlled the power of the wind and flew towards the big black cat.
Black Pearl's fur was also wet, but as a solid cat, this did not affect its majesty and handsomeness.
After cutting the crab into pieces, it looked at Tang Yu'an, looked at him for a few seconds, and then its eyes fell on his arm.
"I'm fine, just a bandage will be fine."
Tang Yu'an took a step forward and hugged Black Pearl, burying his face in its furry chest and rubbing it for a while. Unfortunately, the fur was wet, so it was not very comfortable to rub against it.
"When did you come after me? I didn't even know. I'm so happy to see you!"
Tang Yu'an said with a smile: "Black Pearl, you are so kind to me."
Black Pearl meowed, her expression full of disgust. She stuck out her tongue to lick Tang Yu'an's wet hair, then began to comb and lick her own hair.
With Black Pearl by his side, Tang Yuan immediately relaxed and felt safe.
He collected the chopped crabs on the ground into his personal storage, then he thought of something and used his telekinesis skill.
As a result, it failed to be used again.
Did they actually come to a place 10,000 kilometers away from the grocery store? However, Tang Yu'an felt that it didn't seem that simple.
At this time, he saw that the information in slot 3 of the portable warehouse had been refreshed.
It's Xiaoqi! He took the phone.
Tang Yu'an quickly opened the message board and saw that Zhou Qi had also sent a message in the administrator channel.
[Jiangzai Zhou]: An An, how are you? Where are you?
【帅仔州】: Reply to me immediately after seeing the message.
Brother Xiaoqi must have been very anxious, so Tang Yu'an quickly replied to the message.
【东土大糖】：Brother Xiaoqi, I'm fine! Black Pearl is by my side, I'm safe.
[Dongtu Datang]: What about you? Do you still have flames burning on your body?
Recalling the sight of Zhou Qi being burned beyond recognition by the flames, Tang Yu'an couldn't help but tremble and felt a pang of pain in his heart.
Although he recovered quickly and grew new flesh and skin, the pain he endured in the process made him feel uncomfortable just thinking about it.
[Jiangzai Zhou]: I'm fine
Seeing Zhou Qi's reply, Tang Yu'an quickly sent him a message.
【东土大糖】：That’s great!
[Dongtu Datang]: Brother Xiaoqi, don't move from where you are. I can see your location on the map. Wait for me to find you!
[Dongtu Datang]: No, Yuanbao is near you, you can meet up first.
Zhou Qi looked at Tang Yu'an's reply and pursed his lips slightly.
Naturally, he didn't want to stay there and wait, but his reason told him that this was the best solution. Moreover, An An had Black Pearl by his side, so his safety could be guaranteed.
In the end, he could only reply with a single word, "OK," and then, under Tang Yu'an's guidance, decided to go find Yuanbao first.
Zhou Qi was on a rocky beach, surrounded by large and small stones. The largest ones were several meters long, and the smallest ones were as big as a head.
There was a big tree not far from him, or it would be more accurate to describe it as a giant tree.
Its trunk is at least as high as a dozen stories, and its canopy blocks out the sun, and it feels like the coverage diameter is at least hundreds of meters.
The key point is that there seems to be more than one such giant tree.
There was a high stone wall behind the giant tree. Since the ingot was located there, Zhou Qi climbed over the stones and came to the bottom of the stone wall to climb.
He felt that his physical condition seemed to have improved again.
Thinking of the pain of being burned by the flames before, Zhou Qi smiled bitterly. Is this considered rebirth from the ashes?
His body was still hot, but it was within a tolerable range, and... he felt that his fire power had also increased.
Now, he can release large areas of flames at will, just like a red carp.
This stone wall is about seven or eight meters high. Even without the help of the light body technique, with his current physique and speed, he quickly climbed to the top.
When he climbed over the stone wall, he saw huge trees towering into the sky twenty or thirty meters away.
Zhou Qi inexplicably felt like he had arrived in the land of giants.
This was confirmed even more when he saw a fluttering butterfly whose wings were half his size when spread out.
Where on earth did he and An An come to...
Zhou Qi looked at the lush and huge forest with a cautious look on his face. He was not sure whether he should enter.
This forest of giant trees gave him a very dangerous feeling.
“Chirp—”
A clear bird song was heard, and Zhou Qi saw a large gray-brown bird flying towards him.
It opened its claws with sharp eyes and attacked him.
Zhou Qi directly released flames.
The big bird suddenly braked in mid-air, flapping its wings violently, stirring up a strong wind.
Fortunately, Zhou Qi lowered his body in time and stabilized his lower body, so he was not blown away.
The wind was strong, but it fanned the flames. The big bird didn't get any advantage, so it screamed unwillingly and flew away in shame.
Zhou Qi breathed a sigh of relief and was hesitating about what to do next when he saw a tall figure flash out of the woods and appear in front of Zhou Qi.
"Woof woof!"
Yuanbao followed the noise and came over, calling out to Zhou Qi.
Against the backdrop of the giant tree, Yuanbao looked like a puppy even when he turned back into his original form.
Zhou Qi breathed a sigh of relief and reached out to Yuanbao.
Yuanbao stared at him and initially stepped back in fear, but when Zhou Qi approached it, it transformed itself back into the appearance of a four-eyed puppy.
Zhou Qi touched its head, then found a huge rock at the edge of the forest to hide under.
They waited and waited, from day to night.
If Tang Yu'an hadn't been talking to Zhou Qi on the message board, reminding him that the distance between them was getting closer, he probably wouldn't have been able to help but go out to look for him.
The time when he and Yuanbao were hiding was not peaceful either, as giant insects would appear from time to time.
Fortunately, these insects are afraid of fire and their intelligence is not high, so Zhou Qi did not need any Yuanbao to take action and he solved them.
It's just... there are too many of them.
Zhou Qi looked at the forest of giant trees. Under the cover of night, the giant trees looked like standing giants.
One can imagine how many creatures live in such a primeval forest.
If these creatures were all gigantic...
Zhou Qi frowned deeply. Could this forest be the center of the deserted city? The place where Old Xie and Chi Hao had failed?
But if it really is the center of a deserted city, why are there no traces of human activity here?
At least there should be something like collapsed buildings, right?
While Zhou Qi was thinking, Yuanbao suddenly looked towards the stone wall, and the little tail behind him shook wildly.
Zhou Qi's heart moved and he stood up hurriedly.
Then he saw a huge black shadow leap up and then land gracefully on the ground.
"Brother Xiaoqi!"
"An An!"
The two boys shouted in unison.
Tang Yu'an jumped off Black Pearl's back, ran to Zhou Qi, and hugged him.
"Brother Xiaoqi!"
There was an obvious cry in his voice.
Zhou Qi reached out and rubbed the top of his head. After traveling for most of the day, Tang Yu'an's hair was already dry.
"Don't cry, I'm fine here, right?"
"I'm not crying!"
The two young men who survived the disaster hugged each other, feeling deeply frightened and moved. They separated after a long time.
"Are you hungry?" Zhou Qi touched Tang Yu'an's pale cheek, "Finish your soup first."
While waiting, he lit a fire, took a pot from his portable warehouse, condensed pure water from the environment, and then boiled a pot of broth with the ingredients in his portable warehouse.
“Gurgle—”
As soon as Tang Yu'an smelled the fragrance, his stomach started growling.
Black Pearl and Yuanbao were also hungry, so Zhou Qi poured a basin of milk for each of them, the cat and the dog, and then took out their favorite meat and egg pancakes.
Seeing this, Black Pearl also turned into a kitten and began to enjoy the food.
Tang Yu'an sat down by the fire, took the bowl handed to him by Zhou Qi, and after taking a sip of the delicious soup, he felt refreshed.
Zhou Qi dug out two potatoes from the fire, peeled them carefully, put them in a bowl, sprinkled them with sea salt and sesame seeds, and then placed them in front of Tang Yu'an.
Tang Yu'an watched him reach directly into the fire to look for potatoes, and couldn't help but stare in amazement.
"Brother Xiaoqi, you..."
"I don't seem to be afraid of fire now."
Zhou Qi spoke lightly with a faint smile on his face, but Tang Yu'an's eyes turned red when she looked at him.
"Why are you crying again?" Zhou Qi chuckled.
Tang Yu'an sniffed hard, holding back the tears, and then said, "You have suffered."
Zhou Qi looked at him, stood up, walked over to him and sat down. After a while, he whispered, "It's good to be alive."
"An An, thank you for saving me."
"Do we even need to say thank you to each other?" Tang Yu'an choked up, "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been parasitized and you wouldn't have almost died..."
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
Zhou Qi patted him on the head and said, "I'm living well now, aren't I? Stop dwelling on this. Even if you weren't sick, I would have left the grocery store to look for customers."
"Um……"
Tang Yu'an wiped his tears while eating mashed potatoes. After he finished eating the mashed potatoes, his mood finally calmed down.
And Zhou Qi also exchanged information with him.
"So the parasite in my body is a spirit insect?" he frowned.
"That's what it says on the panel."
So, was the red carp also transformed into a fire snake due to the backlash of the spirit insect? Would someone like her, who gained superpowers through parasitism, lose their powers after the parasite leaves her body?
Zhou Qi thought about it and said, "Probably not."
It may be weakened, but it will not completely lose its superpowers, because just like him, after being devoured by the spirit insect, the body gained a strong fire resistance ability.
Moreover, he could feel that the power of fire had been integrated into his flesh and blood, and did not come from the spirit insect.
that is……
"The spirit insect in my body seems to have a strong desire to devour."
It showed this from the very beginning. Before, it only devoured crystals, but now it even devours its own kind.
"How do you feel now?" Tang Yu'an asked nervously.
"It feels good." Zhou Qi said with a smile.
The fire spirit insect should not have been completely digested yet. If he could completely absorb its energy, he felt that his supernatural powers might be able to reach a higher level.
Tang Yu'an breathed a sigh of relief, "That's good..."
"Are you full?" Zhou Qi asked.
"Yeah." Tang Yu'an nodded.
Zhou Qi pointed to a tent next to the campfire, which he had set up while waiting.
He said, "Can you try to turn this tent into a branch?"
Although they didn't know where they were swept into by the vortex, they were still calm because they could set up branches and build teleportation arrays.
"Okay." Tang Yu'an stood up and walked over. After entering the tent, he chose to establish a branch.
Soon, a system message popped up: [Please select a building as the branch address]
"No, we need a building to build a branch." Tang Yu'an muttered.
This is quite troublesome...
Zhou Qi frowned and said, "It seems we need to build a house ourselves."
However, there are enough materials here, so maybe building a small house with stone and wood for emergency use is possible? After setting it up as a branch, the protective barrier can be activated.
With the protective barrier in place, it doesn’t matter if the house is a little fragile.
At this time, Tang Yu'an told him about the anomaly of the map, and...
"From the moment I woke up this morning until now, I haven't received any employee profit points." He said seriously.
This is very unusual because daytime is the active trading period for employees. How come there are no points earned?
Zhou Qi's expression also became solemn.
He thought for a moment and asked, "How many points do we have left?"
"About 70,000 or 80,000."
Originally, Lan Yunqing brought them 20,000 to 30,000 points, but because they bought underwater breathing potions, 20,000 of them were used up at once, and the balance dropped again.
"That's enough." Zhou Qi nodded.
As long as we can take the teleportation array back, these problems can be easily solved.
Because it was already late and the surroundings were unfamiliar and dangerous, they decided to wait until daybreak to rebuild the house.
"Yuanbao, can you help us keep watch tonight?" Tang Yu'an discussed with the four-eyed puppy.
Because Black Pearl had been running with him for most of the day and was very tired, he needed to rest and recharge his energy, so Yuanbao was the best choice.
Yuanbao barked, then turned into a giant dog and stood guard beside the tent like a loyal guard.
Tang Yu'an touched the hair on its chest, thanked it, and then went into the tent with Zhou Qi.
The fire did not go out because to the giant carnivorous creature, this fire was probably similar to Mars. The fire could also repel insects and was safer.
Of course, they sprinkled insect repellent around the tent and put up umbrellas to block out all smells and sounds, and only then did they feel settled.
There were quilts and mattresses in his portable warehouse, and Zhou Qi soon arranged the tent comfortably.
At night, the sound of insects chirped outside, but Tang Yu'an felt particularly safe when he squeezed into the same quilt with Zhou Qi in the tent.
“Clatter-clatter-clatter-clatter—”
The tide surged, creating a white noise that didn't seem noisy.
Tang Yu'an was really tired today, both physically and mentally exhausted, so he soon fell asleep in a daze.
In his sleep, he still held Zhou Qi's arm tightly, as if he was worried that he would suddenly disappear, just like he disappeared in the water during the day.
Soon, the boy's shallow breathing could be heard in the tent, even and long.
I don’t know how much time had passed, the fire was about to go out, and Zhou Qi, who had his eyes closed in the tent, opened his eyes reluctantly.
He listened to the sound of Yuanbao biting a branch and throwing it into the fire, and listened to Tang Yu'an's breathing. His eyes were fixed on the roof, his eyes were exceptionally clear, and he didn't feel sleepy at all.
Besides being in an unfamiliar environment and feeling nervous, it was mainly because...
The scenes that happened underwater today flashed through his mind again, and finally stopped at... the image of Tang Yu'an feeding him medicine mouth to mouth.
Zhou Qi felt his heart begin to beat violently and his breathing became disordered.
Of course he knew that it was an emergency measure taken by An An to save him, just like artificial respiration, it was a normal behavior.
But…but…
Reason could not suppress the surging emotions in his heart.
He will never forget Tang Yu'an who suddenly appeared in front of him when he was about to suffocate to death and saved him decisively and firmly.
Normally, he looked like a child who would never grow up, but at that moment, he was so dazzling that he seemed like a god descending from the sky...
"Brother Xiaoqi——"
Suddenly, Tang Yu'an's soft murmur was heard. Zhou Qi's heart skipped a beat and his body tensed up, not daring to move.
Perhaps because of his silence, the boy reached out his hand in a daze and actually touched his cheek.
Week: (//o////o//)
"Brother Xiaoqi, your face is so hot, and your body is so hot too..." The young man's soft voice became clearer, and he seemed to be awakened by the heat.
"Is the spirit insect causing trouble again?"
The author has something to say:
Xiaoqi is already in high school. In two months, he will be 16 years old. He is 17 years old in lunar age. He is at the age of first falling in love, so he will be more concerned about this kind of contact. But he will not cross the line before he becomes an adult. Don't worry [milk tea]
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