On the other side, just after Li Cheng頤 returned home, the chubby Gongshan Heng, carrying the Blue Fin Fish, also went home and told his father about the matter, not mentioning his father's intention to visit Gongshan Qingyang with gifts.

He himself took the Blue Fin Fish to the kitchen.

"Master Huang! Is that Blue Fin Fish from yesterday ready? It should be edible today, right? I want to take it to my brother," the chubby boy said loudly as he entered the kitchen with the fish.

But no one responded in the kitchen. Chef Huang and the two kitchen helpers stood blankly in place, staring motionlessly at the sink.

"Master Huang?" The chubby boy was puzzled and quickly approached.

"Young Master Heng... where exactly did you get this fish?" Before he got close, he heard Chef Huang ask, his voice trembling.

"Where did I get it? It just floated up from the Bi Hai (Azure Sea)," the chubby boy said strangely. Where else would a sea fish come from but the sea? Did he really need to ask such a question?

Chef Huang shook his head, stepped aside, and revealed the sink in front of him.

Inside the gray-black metal sink, what entered the chubby boy's eyes was a large fish with a black body, the same size as the Blue Fin Fish in his hand.

"This is...?" He was a little dazed, feeling a chill coming over him.

Then he saw that the water around the big fish was full of floating ice shards.

"This is the Blue Fin Fish we brought back yesterday. We... we clearly killed it, cut it into sections, and put it in the ice cellar… but when we went to check this morning, not only had it recovered on its own, but its whole body had turned black..." Chef Huang pointed to the basin around the Blue Fin Fish.

"Moreover, this fish now automatically absorbs the heat of anything it touches..."

"This..." The chubby boy was also stunned. What was going on? The dead Blue Fin Fish had come back to life??

*Poof!*

Suddenly, the Blue Fin Fish in the basin and the Blue Fin Fish in the net in his arms struggled violently.

Driven by the huge force, the four people nearby were startled and quickly backed away. At the same time, True Essence emerged from their bodies, protecting them.

*Poof.*

Chef Huang raised his knife and chopped one of the Blue Fin Fish in half.

But it was useless. After the two halves fell to the ground, they quickly and automatically pieced themselves together, reforming the image of the black fish.

A kitchen helper had a flash of inspiration, picked up a special clay pot used for stewing soup, and suddenly put it over the black fish.

A sizzling sound of roasting meat came out, accompanied by a strong smell of burning.

*Bang!*

The clay pot exploded, and the black fish rushed out of it again, unscathed, the charred parts on its body automatically and quickly disappearing.

For a time, the four of them were chased all over the kitchen by the two Blue Fin Fish.

They tried cutting with knives, hacking with swords, splitting with axes, all methods had been tried, but the fish had no reaction at all. Even if broken into pieces, they could reassemble themselves.

Not only that, but they also frantically attacked the people around them. One of them bit off a large chunk of meat from a kitchen helper's arm.

This farce lasted for more than an hour until the chubby boy's father returned and instantly cut the fish into powdery small pieces, packed them separately, and everything was completely calm.

More than ten walls away from Gongshan Heng's house.

Li Cheng頤 sat quietly cross-legged on the bed.

Outside, the night was dark and the wind was howling.

He slowly closed his eyes and entered the dimension of vitality again.

The image composed of countless light red threads appeared in his mind. But what he was paying attention to was not these, but the fish whose vitality line he had severed before, and Gongshan Pingqiu.

It was wonderful. He had a clear sense of every individual whose vitality line he had severed.

He knew where they were and what their state was.

'Interesting… vitality severance, it seems it’s not as I imagined... a complete death.’

Li Cheng頤 raised his head, his eyes seeming to pierce through large sections of walls, seeing the courtyard belonging to Gongshan Pingqiu.

At this time, Gongshan Pingqiu was sitting cross-legged in his room, cultivating. The True Essence on his body constantly released an ochre-yellow glow, flowing through his whole body.

Next to him, a man with gray hair was sitting cross-legged, protecting him. It was his father, Gongshan Ding.

Suddenly, while cultivating, Gongshan Pingqiu shuddered, and the ochre-yellow True Essence on his body rapidly dimmed and weakened.

“Qiu’er?” Gongshan Ding opened his eyes in confusion and looked at his son.

But there was no response. Gongshan Pingqiu still maintained his cross-legged sitting posture, sweat pouring from his forehead.

“Son?” Gongshan Ding frowned slightly and reached out to touch him.

*Poof.*

Suddenly, Gongshan Pingqiu opened his eyes, his eyes full of bloodshot.

“Dad, I… I feel so uncomfortable…!!” He uttered with difficulty.

The skin exposed outside his body was rapidly turning gray.

“What’s going on!?” Gongshan Ding was shocked. He pressed his hand on his son’s head, about to check.

*Pa.*

Suddenly, his son grabbed his wrist. The painful expression on his face rapidly disappeared, turning into an icy and expressionless look.

An extremely Yin and cold aura entered his body along his wrist.

Gongshan Ding became even more flustered.

He exerted his strength, golden True Essence all over his body like the sun, dazzlingly bright, about to forcibly inject it into his son's head, even his whole body, to control his movements.

But strangely, Gongshan Pingqiu’s body also burst out with ochre-yellow True Essence, and the color of the True Essence quickly turned gray-black, emitting an ominous black aura, and the strength was at least twice as strong as before.

The True Essence of the two father and son suddenly collided, and the gray-black True Essence was forcibly defeated.

Gongshan Pingqiu did not say a word, stood up and opened his mouth, biting his own father.

“Qiu’er! What’s wrong with you!?”

Gongshan Ding shouted, pressing down on his son with one hand. His Gold Jade-level internal strength meant he did not have much burden. But the key was that this was his son!

Worry for his son's body was the greatest panic at this time.

But Gongshan Pingqiu did not respond at all. His eyes had completely turned pitch black, he had lost consciousness, and was just fiercely struggling, bursting out circles of gray-black True Essence.

“What kind of evil spirit dares to act up in my Gongshan family? You’re simply courting death!!” Gongshan Ding roared, his body erupting with brilliant golden light. He grabbed his son and rushed out of the courtyard, heading towards the patriarch’s place.

Within the family, only the patriarch, as a peerless expert, might know how to save his son.

*

*

*

The next day.

Early in the morning, Li Cheng頤 went to the literature class alone.

The chubby boy did not come, nor did Gongshan Pingqiu. Their seats were empty, causing the teaching instructor to frown slightly.

But he did not say anything. Anyway, he was only invited to lecture, and that was enough. As for whether the children wanted to learn or not, it was none of his business. These were matters for the parents to consider.

Soon, the sound of loud reading rang out again.

Gongshan Leijiu, sitting on Li Cheng頤’s right, read while secretly getting closer, asking in a low voice.

“A’Zhu, what exactly did you guys do yesterday?”

“What’s up?” Li Cheng頤 knew something must have happened, but he did not know the details.

“Don’t you know, something happened to Fatty’s side. And something happened to Gongshan Pingqiu’s side too,” Leijiu whispered.

“What happened?” Li Cheng頤’s heart stirred, and he asked without showing anything on his face.

“The two Blue Fin Fish that Fatty brought back earlier, suddenly came alive while cooking in the kitchen yesterday! Not only did they come alive, but they also bit people everywhere, injuring two kitchen helpers,” Leijiu said mysteriously.

“Ah? Something like that happened??” Li Cheng頤 showed an appropriate look of surprise.

“That’s quite strange.” Han Zongdi, sitting in front, quietly spoke, also joining in.

She had been very aloof and fierce these days, constantly emitting a low-pressure aura that said ‘don’t mess with me.’

But no matter how fierce and aloof she was, she was still just a ten-year-old girl. The childishness of childhood was still there.

At this time, hearing something interesting, she immediately perked up her ears to listen quietly, and could not help but take the initiative to interject.

“Fish that have died can come back to life. This can only be achieved by those evil and demonic cultivation methods, and to be able to cast it inside the clan grounds, to be able to hide it from the Gongshan patriarch, just to revive two fish? It’s a bit far-fetched…” Han Zongdi speculated.

“Could it be that a demonic grandmaster passed by here and just made a joke?” Leijiu stroked his chin.

“Impossible. I went over and saw it with my own eyes yesterday. Two fish is one thing, but in Gongshan Pingqiu’s courtyard, that guy Pingqiu actually turned gray-black all over, and was fighting with his dad fiercely, making quite a commotion.” Han Zongdi also stroked her chin and said in a low voice.

“You’re saying Gongshan Pingqiu also had an accident?” Leijiu was stunned. He looked at Han Zongdi.

“Yeah, according to my guards, that guy’s aura was as dead as it could be. His dad took him to the patriarch, wanting to save him, but it seemed like they tossed and turned for most of the night without any solution. In the end, the patriarch had no choice but to imprison him with a sealing formation.” Han Zongdi knew more than Li Cheng頤 imagined.

“A’Zhu, you guys had a conflict with the Pingqiu family yesterday, and today they had an accident… someone will definitely come to investigate you later. Be careful,” Leijiu instructed.

Because he sat close, his relationship with the chubby boy and Li Cheng頤 was pretty good.

Moreover, because he was hiding a lot of secrets, he felt everyone was naive, but after contacting Li Cheng頤, he found that the other party also seemed to have a maturity far exceeding other children.

So he felt that in the whole class, only Li Cheng颐 and he had some common language.

“It’s okay… it was just a small misunderstanding yesterday.” Li Cheng颐 frowned and shook his head, “But now that you mention it, I remember, that Blue Fin Fish seemed to have floated out of the sea on its own. It was already dead when it floated up. The chubby boy was very happy at the time, and took the initiative to hug it out. If there’s something wrong with the fish, then could it be some kind of infectious disease?”

“Infectious disease?” The two children were stunned, as if they had thought of something.

“Could it be Bai Ruyi, the Hundred Fungus Demon Lord?” Han Zongdi said thoughtfully.

“It’s more likely to be Qiu Hansi, the Immortal Xiao Tian.” Leijiu shook his head, “Bai Ruyi’s style has always been upright and open, while Qiu Hansi likes to cause trouble from time to time.”

“Doesn’t seem like it…” Han Zongdi shook her head, and began to analyze Qiu Hansi’s specific cultivation methods.

The information they knew far exceeded the other children, and now that they were discussing it, Li Cheng颐 was listening with great interest on the side.

While listening, he also had a general understanding in his heart.

Within the vitality dimension, severing the vitality of a creature does not actually bring about death, but rather mutates it into a special existence that is neither dead nor alive.

This was something he had not expected at all.

Soon, the one-hour literature class ended. Li Cheng頤 was walking alone back to the courtyard, moving along the tall gray wall.

Suddenly, his footsteps stopped, and he stopped.

His gaze fell on a dark green weed on the side of the road.

In the blink of an eye, the vitality of that weed was instantly severed.

Li Cheng頤 remained calm, and continued to move forward, but his perception had been focused on that small grass.

He saw that the grass quickly turned black, emitting cold air, and in an instant seemed to have completely turned into another strange form.

‘That’s right, if severing the vitality line just killed creatures, it shouldn’t consume so much of my consciousness.’

Thinking of this, his consciousness crossed the wall on the right, and suddenly fell on a gray-white pebble in a garden three hundred meters away.

With a thought, the pebble’s vitality line was also severed.

In the blink of an eye, the originally gray-white stone quickly turned gray-black, and emitted a faint chill.

After doing these things, Li Cheng颐’s expression was calm, and he continued to return as if nothing had happened.

‘The bait has been thrown, next, it depends on the clan’s reaction and exploration.’

Relying on his own research, the speed was too slow, but if he used the power of the whole clan, it would naturally be much faster.

Feeling the Chong Hai Yuan (Heavy Sea Origin) in his body that had been completely replenished overnight, Li Cheng頤 once again manipulated it to enter the sword furnace for burning.

Soon, for the second time, a new pitch-black Hai Yuan flew out of the sword furnace.

This time, the density of the Hai Yuan was much denser than last time, and the intensity was also much greater.

‘This kind of Hai Yuan that has been tempered by secondary burning, let’s call it Second Level Hai Yuan.’ Li Cheng頤 casually took a name.

These energies were meaningless to him, they were just convenient to use here temporarily.

Even if the power he cultivated was not the strongest of the same level, he didn’t really care, because with the Flower Language Flower Scale Clothes, killing enemies above his level was not difficult for him.

What he really valued was the progress in the dimension. With the development of burning Second Level Hai Yuan, a trace of new consciousness was extracted and integrated into his mind.

Then, it integrated from his mind into the dimension of vitality, expanding the range of control.

This was unadorned hard work, with no shortcuts.

(End of this chapter)