Chapter 466: Absorbing the Jade Stone
“What are you doing?” Lu Weiyi asked warily.
“There’s something… off about him,” Wen Jing said, realizing he had acted rashly. He quickly explained to Zhuang Mingxu, “Are you sure this is your son? He’s absorbing the spiritual energy from the jade stone.”
Following Wen Jing’s gaze, they saw the jade cicada that Zhuang Aiyi had stuffed into Taotao’s hand—within just a few seconds, its luster had completely faded. It now looked like an ordinary, dull stone.
To Lu Weiyi, this was a familiar sight. He had countless jade stones just like that stored in his space—remnants from when the space was being repaired. All of them had been drained and left looking exactly like this.
Lu Weiyi said nothing. But Zhuang Mingxu seemed to suddenly remember something. “Just now, you mentioned your master? Didn’t you used to practice something before?”
Hearing this, Wen Jing immediately understood that they were aware the child was… unusual. “Just some basic Taoist practices. What happened?”
“My son…” Zhuang Mingxu emphasized the word son before continuing, “Yesterday we encountered a Taoist. After we got back, Taotao started showing symptoms—he’s been unconscious ever since, and looks completely drained…”
He didn’t know whether he should mention the change in Taotao’s body, so he could only try to express it from other angles.
Wenjing’s expression flickered slightly, and he turned his gaze to Lu Weiyi. “Can I take a look at him?”
Seeing Zhuang Mingxu nod, Lu Weiyi then pulled aside the thin blanket covering Taotao, revealing the child’s exquisitely carved little face.
Wenjing took a deep breath. “Last night, my master told me he saw a strange little child—must’ve been Taotao.”
“Taoist Tian Ning?” Lu Weiyi asked.
“Yes,” Wenjing glanced at the person who had just left at the front door, then looked back. “He needs long-term spiritual nourishment, otherwise his body will gradually shrink until he disappears.”
The living room fell silent for a long while. Zhuang Mingxu gripped Lu Weiyi’s sweat-dampened hand and looked calmly at Wenjing. “What do we do?”
“This shouldn’t be a human, but it’s not a ghost either—not even a spirit. It seems to be something in between. I’ll need to ask my master for specifics,” Wenjing said, fingers playing with the prayer beads on his wrist.
“But I can be sure that this kind of being grows differently from humans. And he doesn’t seem very healthy—if it goes on too long, there’ll be problems.”
Seeing both men remain silent, Wenjing removed the bracelet he’d worn for years and slipped it onto Taotao’s wrist. “His growth is probably very slow, and he rarely changes, right?”
Before they could answer, the once-green bracelet visibly dulled and lost its luster, even developing a few cracks. Meanwhile, Taotao’s body—noticeably—grew back to the size of about a two-year-old.
His long eyelashes fluttered, he opened his eyes, blinked twice, and softly called out, “Father.”
Lu Weiyi, who’d been tense all morning, finally felt relieved.
“You’re awake? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
Taotao shook his head. Seeing Zhuang Aiyi next to him, he reached out and held his hand, calling him “gege” in a babyish voice and asking if they still had any of the little cakes they brought back yesterday.
“We do. I saved them all for you,” Zhuang Aiyi replied, glancing at Lu Weiyi.
Lu Weiyi set Taotao down and told the boys to go off and play.
Once the children were out of sight, the three adults shifted their focus back to each other.
“Sorry about your prayer beads. Our base has lots of advanced equipment—feel free to take whatever you like as compensation,” Zhuang Mingxu said. That bracelet had been on Wenjing’s wrist for over a decade, and now it was ruined—he genuinely felt bad about it.
“Well, how about this—we cut the compensation for the Xiaoyang Squad by half?”
“Sure,” Zhuang Mingxu agreed generously. “But are you sure they can even afford the remaining 500,000?”
“Isn’t the Ruthless Squad still around?” Wenjing smiled.
From the look exchanged between the two men, Lu Weiyi finally understood the unspoken message: the Ruthless Squad was taking over the Xiaoyang Squad.
“Then I’ll be waiting for those crystal cores.”
With a few words, they settled the matter of the Xiaoyang Squad. Then Zhuang Mingxu returned to the topic of Taoist Tian Ning. “I remember years ago, Xiao Yi kept having accidents. You said your master gave you a protective charm—is that Taoist Tian Ning?”
“Yes, my master gave it to me. He also said you should get a protective item as soon as possible,” Wenjing admitted.
Zhuang Mingxu glanced at Lu Weiyi’s abdomen, where the broken Taiji yin-yang jade pendant had left a faint imprint on his skin. At the time, he’d been desperate and bought the pendant on a whim—but after that, nothing strange happened again. It was hard not to believe.
“But to be honest, I can’t figure out exactly what your child is. Should I invite my master to come take a look?” Wenjing asked.
“We’d appreciate that.”
After setting a time, they saw Wenjing off and then took the kids to Lu Xiao’s villa.
Following the end of the Ability User Conference, the Capital Base had returned to a busy state. Many bases had ordered the suppressant drugs for mutated animal growth. Capital Base divided the region into several zones, assigning the spraying tasks to various forces.
With more and more flying mutant animals, spraying by aircraft wasn’t exactly easy. Lu Xiao and his subordinates had been discussing all morning how to minimize manpower and resource expenditure.
Even by the time Zhuang Mingxu and Lu Weiyi arrived, they still hadn’t come up with a final solution.
“You all go discuss further. We’ve collected the crystal cores. Give me your solution as soon as possible,” Lu Xiao said, waving the meeting to an end.
“Boss…” Cong Qing’s gaze locked onto Lu Weiyi, giving Lu Xiao a very obvious hint. “If we had a high-level spiritual ability user…”
Even if Lu Weiyi didn’t know what they were planning, it was obvious what that meant. He said nothing and looked at Lu Xiao.
“The base assigned to us is in the south. The most remote one—Panshui Base—used to be a national bird sanctuary before the apocalypse. It held over 65% of the country’s bird species. I’ve inquired about their current state: they’re now under siege by mutated birds and have begun moving underground. The number of people still living on the surface is minimal,” Cong Qing explained quickly when he saw Lu Xiao frown.
“I’m not asking Young Master Lu to take the lead for us. I just hope he can provide some protection—anything that might give our team a better chance at survival,” he said seriously. “We can’t build more helicopters anymore. The cost of each one is too high.”
That was also why, despite the Capital Base proposing aerial drug spraying, there had been no unified execution—no team wanted to risk their people or aircraft.
Lu Weiyi quickly calculated the location and travel time to Panshui Base and spoke before Lu Xiao could say anything. “Alright. I’ll make the trip with them. One round trip within a week.”
Lu Xiao clicked his tongue in irritation, face darkening. He waved the others away with a gruff, “Get lost.”
Cong Qing was the first to dash out of the courtyard, shouting back, “I’ll have our people get ready—we’ll depart with Young Master Lu at any time!”
Lu Weiyi waved his hand with his back to them, signaling Zhuang Aiyi to take Taotao out to play, and then began telling Lu Xiao about Taotao’s situation.
On the way over, he had already discussed with Zhuang Mingxu that he would briefly explain Taotao’s origins.
When Taotao first appeared, the timing was ideal—everyone in the base was on high alert. Lu Weiyi simply introduced him as a child he had brought back, and no one had the time or energy to question it. Over time, people got used to Lu Weiyi keeping the child by his side, and no one pried any further.
If it weren’t for this recent incident, Lu Weiyi had planned to keep the truth hidden for life—after all, this kind of thing was even more unbelievable than superpowers.
Lu Xiao had initially been annoyed about his nephew going out with teammates. But after hearing this unbelievable story, he was silent for a while. He looked over at Taotao, who was giggling, and his probing gaze revealed no emotion.
“No wonder I thought he hadn’t grown in years. Turns out he’s not even the same species.”
He sighed deeply and ruffled Lu Weiyi’s hair with his large hand.
“My nephew really does encounter all kinds of rare luck. Clearly born with a smooth and safe life ahead.”
“Uncle…” Facing his only elder, Lu Weiyi rarely showed a hint of asking for help.
“It’s fine. I know Daoist Tianning. He had some connection with your grandfather back in the day. He’s an upright man. I’ll go visit him.”
“Even if you have a connection, shouldn’t we also find a few more experts?” Zhuang Mingxu asked respectfully.
“Yes, we need to. We can’t figure this out ourselves, and we can’t put all our hopes on one person—what if we get misled?” Lu Xiao agreed. “When you called this morning, I already had people start looking. This is the capital base—surely we can find one or two qualified individuals.”
Lu Xiao had been watching Taotao from a distance, his eyes full of curiosity.
“You said he shrank completely? What kind of shrinking are we talking about?”
“He looked about one year old,” Zhuang Mingxu explained Taotao’s condition that morning. “Couldn’t walk, no energy, slept the whole time. Then after absorbing a tourmaline bracelet from Wen Jing and two high-quality jade cicadas, he visibly recovered.”
“So he’ll need to be nurtured with jade from now on?” Being older, Lu Xiao was clearly more open-minded about such things and had already started thinking ahead.
“Wen Jing wasn’t sure. He said his master would come take a look tomorrow.”
“Then I’ll go visit Daoist Tianning today, ahead of time.”
“I’ll go with you, to avoid seeming rude.” Ever since Lu Weiyi’s earlier incident, Zhuang Mingxu hadn’t paid too much attention to spiritual matters, but he still had a certain level of respect—he didn’t want to offend anyone, even over small details.
“No need, I’ll go on your behalf.” Lu Xiao decisively refused. Seeing Zhuang Mingxu about to speak again, he waved him off and didn’t let him continue.
True to his word, Lu Xiao arrived at the villa the next day with Daoist Tianning. Wen Jing came along, bringing the 500,000 crystal nuclei as compensation from the Glory Squad.
