QT: LAC Chapter 123: Eighth World (6)

Chapter 123: Eighth World (6)
Translated by Zombie Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Sulo

Bai Duan didn’t know anything about the person who sat at his bedside and stared at him for most of the night. Bai Duan woke up the next day naturally, then he stretched his arms and opened his eyes.

The bedsheets on the floor beside his bed had been cleared and placed on the chair, the sound outside the window seemed to be the sounds of wood being chopped, which surprised Bai Duan.

After getting out of bed and scrubbing his face, Bai Duan pushed open the door and saw Nie LanLei sitting in the yard with his knees crossed and his upper body naked, he was shaving a piece of wood with a knife. He looked very serious, and his movements were very careful, but the speed was not slow at all. Several planks with smooth surfaces had been placed beside him, and Bai Duan didn’t know what the other wanted to do with them.

And the dogs in the yard lay not far away from him, looking at him. They were still alert, but they seemed to know that he had been accepted by Bai Duan, so they didn’t make any aggressive gesture.

Hearing the sound of opening the door, Nie LanLei turned to look over and smiled happily, “good morning ~”

“Good morning,” Bai Duan replied reflexively, then frowned, “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to make a bed,” Nie LanLei’s tone was especially calm, “Although it’s enough to have a shelter in this world now, but under such conditions, why do you want to abuse yourself?”

Bai Duan was stunned. He was so shocked by the thickness of the face of this uninvited guy that he didn’t even know what to answer for a while.

And Nie LanLei didn’t seem to care about Bai Duan’s disbelief. He explained his plan on his own, “Besides, last night, I saw that your little bed was very shabby and unstable. It was creaky when you turned over. I should throw it away. I’m going to make a big bed, and we’ll sleep together, so you can feel better,” After a short pause, he proudly added, “My carpentry skill is pretty good. It’s no big deal for me to make a bed. Don’t worry!”

“Don’t worry!?” Bai Duan finally recovered his voice. His face turned red. He didn’t know whether he was angry or embarrassed from the words “sleep together”.

Flustered, he exclaimed, “When did I say you could live here?! And a bed? What are you daydreaming about!?”

Bai Duan’s teeth were itchy. He wanted to lift Nie LanLei upside down and shake the water in his head out. However, as soon as his voice fell, he heard the angry and sharp cry of the monkey, and then the sound of the air breaking.

Nie LanLei responded very quickly. He leaned back, raised his hand and grabbed the object that flew his way. Then he took the object that had been thrown at him into his hand and opened it to see that it was a green crystal core.

After confirming what the object was, Nie LanLei looked in the direction of where the crystal core came flying from, and found a golden snub-nosed monkey squatting on the big tree branch at the gate of the yard, staring at him fiercely with its teeth clenched and claws dancing.

After patting the sawdust off his body, Nie LanLei stood up and raised his eyebrows at the monkey. Nie LanLei looked provocative — as if he didn’t think that steeping as low as a monkey was wrong at all.

The golden snub-nosed monkey was obviously also enraged by the expression on Nie LanLei’s face. He screamed, raised his paw and grabbed something. Several more crystal cores appeared in its empty paw.

The angry golden snub-nosed monkey had one claw on the left and one claw on the right. A dozen crystal cores were thrown towards Nie LanLei, but Nie LanLei was not easy to bully. He lifted his jacket up from his shoulder, and gently hit away all the crystal cores that smashed at him. And effortlessly, he caught all the crystal cores with his jacket until the golden snub-nosed monkey had no more crystals to throw at him. Nie LanLei showed a victorious smile, “It’s very polite to give me so many gifts as soon as I see you. Then I’ll be happy to accept them.”

Golden snub-nosed monkey, who for the first time felt that human beings were so hateful, “……”

Looking at the monkey who was so angry that he jumped, Nie LanLei went to
Bai Duan’s side, not feeling guilty of giving second-hand gifts, “I can’t use these crystal cores, do you want them?”

The corner of Bai Duan’s mouth twitched. The shock in his heart had not yet subsided. He had been added with another layer of embarrassment and silence, and silently took the crystal cores.

Seeing that the crystal cores were all back in Bai Duan’s hands, the golden snub-nosed monkey whimpered, then leapt into the yard in two or three jumps, skillfully climbed up Bai Duan’s shoulder, held his neck, then chirped in Bai Duan’s ears. It seemed to complain and act coquettish, occasionally not forgetting to stare at Nie LanLei, and making his complaint gesture obvious.

Bai Duan couldn’t understand what he said, but he could probably guess that the golden snub-nosed monkey had to release its anger, he used his hand to smooth its hair and calm its mood. Meanwhile, his eyebrows were also furrowed, “These crystal cores… Where did you get it all from? Is it not… Have you evolved and got spatial esper powers?”

The golden snub-nosed monkey looked into Bai Duan’s eyes. His eyes were full of pure loss. Obviously, he didn’t understand Bai Duan’s question very well.

Fortunately, Bai Duan didn’t expect to succeed in communicating with the golden snub-nosed monkey. He pinched a crystal core and shook it in front of the golden snub-nosed monkey, “What are you doing collecting these things? Do you think they look beautiful?”

The golden snub-nosed monkey’s eyes were attracted by the shaking crystal cores, and he thought Bai Duan was playing with him. He barked twice cheerfully, raised his two claws, grabbed Bai Duan’s wrist, and then extending its head, it took the crystal into his mouth from Bai Duan’s hand.

Bai Duan was shocked by the action of the golden snub-nosed monkey and looked at it in surprise as the monkey chewed the crystal cores and swallowed them, as if they were sweet beans.

Bai Duan, who was just stunned, “……”

The emotion in Bai Duan’s eyes was too obvious, and the golden snub-nosed monkey was sensitive. He didn’t know what he had done wrong, but he understood Bai Duan’s incomprehension and extreme shock at his behavior. His instinct was to prove that he was not weird.

In order to achieve this goal, the golden snub-nosed monkey reached out his paw and fished another crystal core from his dimensional pocket, turned his head and barked at the head dog, throwing the crystal cores at it.

Originally, the head dog was lying on the ground and when it heard the call of the golden snub-nosed monkey, it looked up in its direction. It naturally propped up its body and raised its head, then grabbed the crystal cores accurately, chewed and swallowed the core.

Bai Duan watching the scene in silence, “………”

Looking at the head dog that chewed the crystal cores, before it laid on its back lazily. Bai Duan looked complicated and moved his eyes back again on the golden snub-nosed monkey, his tone was a little flat, “So… You’ve been eating crystal cores for a long time…?”

The golden snub-nosed monkey looked innocent.

Raising his hand and stroking his forehead, Bai Duan speechlessly handed the bag of crystal cores to the golden snub-nosed monkey, and watched him stretch out his claws to catch them back to his own dimensional pocket, “No wonder that you even have spatial esper powers now, how many crystal cores did you swallow? Say, how good is your teeth to chew this thing? And there’s no limit on types?”

Bai Duan had long been used to the self entertainment of muttering to animals, and had no qualms about it even with the extra human in the yard. He watched as the golden snub-nosed monkey emptied his bag formed from the jacket, leaving only one green crystal core — the first one he used to throw at Nie LanLei.

The golden snub-nosed monkey pinched the green crystal cores, then shoved it back into Bai Duan’s hands, and chirped at him.

Bai Duan immediately understood, “It’s for me?”

The golden snub-nosed monkey grabbed Bai Duan’s hand that held the crystal core, trying to stuff the crystal into Bai Duan’s mouth. Bai Duan stopped the golden snub-nosed monkey’s action, and then grabbed the crystal core, he sucked the energy contained in them into his body. As the energy disappeared, the hard crystal core turned into powder, and after Bai Duan opened his hand again, the powder slipped out between his fingers and disappeared.

Seeing that the crystal core in Bai Duan’s hands were gone, the golden snub-nosed monkey was satisfied, it grabbed his neck and rubbed against his cheek.

“Thank you,” Bai Duan’s voice was gentle, and he patted the small head of the golden snub-nosed monkey. However, before he and his important good friend could warm up, he found that he suddenly blew his hair and looked in the direction of Nie LanLei. Following the golden snub-nosed monkey’s eyes and looking at Nie LanLei, Bai Duan found that he was still smiling, but there was a dangerous temperament about him.

“…What’s the matter?” Bai Duan subconsciously protected the golden snub-nosed monkey, and asked.

“It’s OK ~” Nie LanLei blinked and said, “I just think the feelings between the two of you are very good. It’s really… It’s enviable ~ ”

The golden snub-nosed monkey suddenly felt a death threat, “…………”

Although he still hated this additional human being, the instinct of animals to seek benefits and avoid harm drove the golden snub-nosed monkey to make a choice to protect himself.

It glared at Nie LanLei one more time, then it was shaken by the spirit energy from the other party. The monkey jumped off Bai Duan’s shoulder and ran out of the yard. Bai Duan, who knew nothing about this invisible fight was surprised by the sudden departure of the golden snub-nosed monkey. He didn’t put it on his mind either — after all, the golden snub-nosed monkey had always been so headstrong, and since he came to the western mountains, his temperament had become more and more wild. He obviously preferred playing in the woods than in the yard.

Seeing the golden snub-nosed monkey leave, Bai Duan gave a slight sigh and said lightly, “I don’t know when they started eating crystal cores. These little guys don’t come back until they’re full every day. I don’t know what they’ve been eating… ”

“It’s probably the monkey’s instinct to imitate,” Nie LanLei shrugged. “It’s probably because they have seen you kill zombies and collect the crystal cores, then absorb them, so there is a kind of learning. But it could not simply absorb the energy in the crystal cores like human beings can. Plus the monkey has a habit of picking up anything and putting it in his mouth first, so he probably stumbled upon this method of using the crystal cores, and then introduced it to the other animals.”

Bai Duan nodded and accepted the other’s guess for the time being, “Since they can even develop powers from eating the cores, and they seem to like them, eating the crystal cores won’t harm them, right?”

“No harm, rather, this is the way they evolve,” Nie LanLei’s expression was subtle — it seemed that he would need to observe the other species in the world as well, and it seems that he needed to add another category.

The world’s variation factors mainly acted on humans and zombies, and generally do not have any impact on animals and plants. However, this was not a ‘general situation’ anymore, they were swallowing so many crystal cores into their stomachs and integrating them into their blood.

Even if every crystal core had little effect on animals, it would become a qualitative leap after accumulating. On the other hand, just because the influence of crystal cores on animals was small, and the element distinction was not obvious, which meant that they didn’t have to absorb crystal cores that were consistent with their own elements like espers and zombies did.

——When the number of crystal cores they absorbed were several times or even ten times larger than espers and zombies, even if the function of each crystal core was small, it could be made up by quantity.

Maybe the winner of this evolutionary battle would not be human beings or zombies, but these animals who were not noticed by either side and were making a lot out of the time they had.

Looking at his lover who knew nothing about his influence, Nie LanLei sighed in his heart, and then decided to erase the existence of Bai Duan from his observation record, and mark it as nothing more than a wonderful accident ~

Maybe even without Bai Duan, there would have been other intelligent animals who would notice the magic of the crystal cores and join in the evolution struggle right?