CHAPTER 374: CHAPTER 371: [RETURN]

Chapter Three Hundred and Seventy-One: Return

Chen Nuo had never imagined that, having lived two lifetimes, he would one day be compared to a tomato. However, he found himself able to accept such a statement coming from Seed. What could he do, being called such by the most powerful entity he had ever encountered?

"Is the Mother truly unkillable, as that old bastard said? Does it keep spawning new offshoots of itself?"

This was a point of great concern to Chen Nuo. If this were true, he could imagine Noah’s Ark, with its thousands of years of history, completely collapsing. The sacrifices made by countless Ability Users of Noah’s Ark over the millennia would all be in vain. This matter was so severe it could directly topple the foundations of one’s beliefs.

Seed fell silent for a moment before finally speaking in a slow drawl, "Regarding that, I actually don’t know."

Hearing this, Chen Nuo actually felt relieved. If Seed’s answer had been, ’Yes, that’s right, exactly like that,’ it would have been a disaster! That would be tantamount to directly telling Chen Nuo and the others to give up, to stop playing.

"Where exactly the Mother exists, and in what manner—neither you, nor I, nor anyone else has ever really figured it out. The Mother came to Earth and created Seeds like me, imparting to us an initial directive: to search. Every Seed that awakens after birth has this mission implanted within their thoughts: find the Mother. But where the Mother is, or how to find Her, none of that is made clear. Of course, we would assume that finding the Mother is to awaken Her. But..."

Seed paused.

"But what?" Chen Nuo asked.

"But what if that is precisely what the Mother wants?" Seed mused slowly. "I mean, the process of the Seeds searching for the Mother might be a kind of nurturing, an incubation. And not just for us. For you humans as well."

Chen Nuo pondered for a moment. "What do you mean?"

"Mm, that’s exactly what I mean."

Chen Nuo understood Seed’s implication. But thinking deeply about it was somewhat terrifying. Seed’s meaning was essentially this: the Seeds are given the mission to find the Mother. Then, what about Chosen Ones like me, or even the faithful of Noah’s Ark who see eradicating the Seeds as their duty—what if all their actions were also what the Mother hoped for? It seemed as though the Mother was selecting something, filtering out ’Chosen Ones’ like me. If it’s about choosing people, there has to be an interview process, right? Perhaps guiding some humans to seek Her out, to make contact, was also part of the Mother’s intentional design?

In truth, Chen Nuo rather enjoyed these proper chats with Seed. Seed clearly knew much more than he did, and conversations with this being always gave Chen Nuo new information, leading to more speculation and gradually helping him piece together the puzzle. But these opportunities for conversation were very precious. After all, he and Seed were fundamentally on opposing sides. Moreover, Seed still wanted to devour him, this ’tomato.’

Chen Nuo sensed Seed was guiding him in some way, yet dared not guide him too much. This gave Chen Nuo a very uncomfortable feeling. He actually wanted Seed to just tell him everything he could, to tell him what to do. But on the other hand, perhaps doing so would mean falling right into Seed’s guidance, obediently strolling down the path of a ’naturally ripening tomato.’ Then, when he finally understood everything, the end of the road would be Seed’s gaping maw!

Dancing with a wolf requires courage. Walking alongside a tiger requires courage, skill, and intellect. But an ant dealing with a Tyrannosaurus rex... that’s not an interaction; that’s being constantly on the verge of being crushed.

Above the crevice in the ice field, the sky was dim. The crevice had already been re-covered by ice and snow, a layer concealing it and leaving no trace on the surface. A hand thrust fiercely up from beneath the ice, followed by another, then a head, and finally an upper torso struggling to emerge.

When Chen Nuo finally managed to crawl out, he rolled over and lay on the ice field, gasping for air.

"You clearly have Spatial Ability. Couldn’t you have just gotten me out directly?" Chen Nuo complained.

"When you human children watch ants carrying food, you could easily help by moving the food directly to their nest entrance. But why don’t you? Instead, you watch with great interest, don’t you?"

Seed’s response made Chen Nuo shut his mouth. His mouth was shut, but his eyes were wide open. Then, Chen Nuo saw Seed himself. The being was sitting beside the crevice on the ice field. He wasn’t kneeling or sitting cross-legged, just casually slouching, lazily leaning to one side. Chen Nuo was very familiar with this pose; when he was lazing around at home, he would also curl up like that on the sofa watching TV.

"You should actually thank me. I’ve been quite helpful. At least I protected your physical body. Although that fellow who deceived you also used some power to seal your body, he didn’t do a very good job. If I hadn’t intervened, your body might have frozen solid here. Moreover, I used the purest Life Energy to soak your body; it will benefit greatly from it."

Chen Nuo was starting to get annoyed. He felt that Seed’s tone, as he said these things, was just like the elderly in his family talking about soaking medicinal herbs in strong liquor.

Chen Nuo didn’t speak because he had actually seen another person beside Seed! A little girl!

He only glanced once, then, as if nothing were amiss, shifted his gaze away. After a moment, having composed the appropriate expression, he looked back at the little girl.

"Who is this? One of your kind? Another Seed?"

Looking at Fox, a companion he knew all too well from his previous life, Chen Nuo’s gaze was as if he were seeing her for the first time.

"A friend," Seed answered seriously.

Chen Nuo fell silent. Fox was also looking at Chen Nuo curiously. This clean-cut young Asian man seemed quite likable, but there was something about his gaze that made Fox feel it was rather shifty and odd.

Seed sat beside Fox, and in Fox’s arms was a piglet—a snow-white, pinkish pet pig. The poor little thing was looking around at this strange world with terrified eyes. Instinctively, it probably felt that this place, this environment, was somewhere it should never have encountered in its entire life.

The two people and the pig were there as if they felt no cold, likely because Seed had used some sort of energy barrier to block the extreme chill. Fox was even wearing a large, old checkered shirt—clearly an adult’s.

"Chen Nuo, I’ll give you a gift," Seed said.

Chen Nuo’s heart stirred. What’s this? Has the cliché moment of receiving a gift arrived?

Chen Xiaoguo immediately perked up, but more with wariness. This Seed’s gift could very well be poison, leading him down the path to being eaten.

"...What are you going to give me?"

"I’ll give you a sentence."

"..." Chen Nuo didn’t find this problematic; instead, he became even more focused, preparing to listen. He believed Seed was about to reveal some earth-shattering secret, so he took a deep breath. "Go ahead, I’m ready."

Seed stood up, stared at Chen Nuo, and said seriously, "Don’t commit suicide!"

"...What do you mean?"

"If you commit suicide, I might be able to revive you. If I can’t, then even if you die, I will kill your family and everyone connected to you. Consider this a threat."

Chen Nuo frowned at Seed. "I believe you’re capable of doing that—but you’re threatening me with this just to stop me from committing suicide?"

"That’s right. Didn’t that swindler tell you to kill yourself? What’s that human phrase... Oh, right, ’moral hijacking.’ So, he hijacks you, and I’ll hijack you too. This way, you won’t have to feel ashamed for not committing suicide. Tell me, isn’t this gift fantastic?"

Chen Nuo felt that this Seed before him was very different from the previous times he had met him. This bastard seems to have gotten even worse.

Corot was taken away by Seed. Seed forcefully entered Chen Nuo’s Consciousness Space, swept away every trace of Corot’s consciousness, and injected it into the body of that pitiful pig. Indeed, Seed had brought the pig here specifically for this purpose.

"This fellow still has some use to me. And since you can’t object anyway, I don’t really need to explain much, do I?" Seed said.

"You make a lot of sense," Chen Nuo immediately nodded in agreement. If he were more powerful than Seed, he would certainly have smashed Seed’s head into the ice—and he wouldn’t have needed to explain either.

But Seed was still somewhat reasonable. He took Corot and, in return, used his Spatial Ability to transport Chen Nuo directly away from Antarctica.

When Chen Nuo opened his eyes again, he found himself in a bustling place filled with people: screams, laughter, and the unrestrained scampering of innocent children. He sat in a Ferris wheel gondola, observing it all with a complex expression.

However, Chen Nuo was satisfied. When the Ferris wheel reached its highest point, he could see buildings in the distance, some of which were familiar. Clearly, this was Jinling City.

He patiently waited as the Ferris wheel slowly descended, bringing his gondola to the ground. As he stepped out, the people around, including the staff, gave him strange looks. He was wearing thick, grimy cold-weather gear. What puzzled the staff even more was: when did this guy even get on?

Whatever Seed’s purpose or considerations for taking Corot away—and there were perhaps many—Chen Nuo soon learned one of them. If Corot hadn’t been taken by Seed, Chen Nuo felt he would have furiously tortured the old man’s soul thousands of times, slaughtering him over and over again!!

"What?! It’s been eleven months?! It’s already September 2002?! FUCK!!"

Standing at the entrance of a snack kiosk in the amusement park, Chen Nuo’s expression twisted as he stared at the date on a newspaper some customer had left on a table.

"What did you do to this pig?"

Sitting on the steps in front of her house, Fox looked down with dissatisfaction at the pig on the ground. Clearly, the pig was not reacting normally. It lay there restlessly, hooves kicking frantically, but it was pinned down, unable to move, by a foot pressing on its body. That foot belonged to Seed.

"It was perfectly well-behaved a moment ago," Fox said, looking at Seed with displeasure. "You must have done something to it."

Seed didn’t answer.

"Actually, what I really want to ask is, why are we keeping a pig? I don’t like these pet pigs. Only those cutesy, delicate little girls keep pets like this. Why are *we* raising a pig?"

Seed rolled his eyes. "If that guy can keep a cat, why can’t I keep a pig?"

Fox blinked her large, beautiful eyes at Seed. After a moment, the little girl frowned. "But what should we feed it?"

"There’s definitely pet food at the supermarket. However..." Seed paused, then looked down at the pig. "If it’s obedient, we’ll feed it pet food. If it’s disobedient, we’ll feed it chili oil. What do you think?"

Fox considered this, then slowly shook her head and answered seriously, "If it’s disobedient, shouldn’t we just kill it and eat it?"

The pig on the ground suddenly stopped struggling.

Seed smiled, withdrew the foot pinning it down, and winked at Fox. "See? Keeping a pet isn’t that hard, is it?"

Xiao Yezi actually didn’t like pork. To her, fatty pork was too greasy, and lean pork got stuck in her teeth. She even felt that if all the food in the world turned into lollipops, it would be perfect. Okay, french fries could stay. Hmmm... ice cream could stay too.

Because she didn’t like pork, Xiao Yezi felt a little apprehensive. Today was September 12th, marking the twelfth day since she had become a proud first-grade student. Unfortunately, the lunch she brought to school today contained several pieces of pork. In her pink plastic lunchbox, atop a layer of rice, lay a few strands of green vegetables and several finger-wide pieces of braised pork.

Although Ou Xiuhua always told Xiao Yezi that she used to love fatty meat when she was little, Xiao Yezi refused to believe it. Moreover, every time Ou Xiuhua tried to make her eat meat, Xiao Yezi would deeply miss her brother. Her brother never forced her to eat anything she didn’t want. In fact, everything her brother gave her was absolutely delicious. Especially lollipops, sundaes, milkshakes, and...

Ou Xiuhua had to work during the day. Fortunately, Xiao Yezi’s elementary school was a public model school in the district. It offered a lunchtime meal service, specially designed to help busy working parents who lacked elderly family members to care for their children at midday or couldn’t pick them up for lunch. The school hired several auxiliary staff and two student life teachers to supervise lunch for children who couldn’t go home. In reality, the meals were brought from home; the staff and teachers were only responsible for taking the food from the school cafeteria’s refrigerator, heating it, and ensuring the children ate properly and rested after lunch.

Chen Xiaoye dawdled through her lunch and then slowly went to wash her lunchbox. Looking at the three pieces of meat left inside, the little girl’s face was troubled for a long time.

The trash can was right beside her. She didn’t want to eat them. But she was even more reluctant to throw them away. Her brother and mother had both taught her that wasting food was wrong. Besides, she still had fragmented memories from her time with the Gu Family, when there wasn’t enough to eat.

Finally, after a minute of indecision, the little girl furrowed her brow, her small face puffing up like a bun. She quickly pinched a piece of meat between two fingers, popped it into her mouth, closed her eyes tightly, chewed vigorously seven or eight times, and then swallowed it with a gulp. Just like taking medicine.

Having done this, the child seemed to achieve some sort of psychological relief. She let out a long sigh, her expression relaxed, no longer troubled.

There were only two classes that afternoon. When school let out, the entrance was already crowded with parents waiting to pick up their children—mostly elderly people, in fact. Ou Xiuhua had actually been waiting there for ten minutes. Her face was taut, and her hands were unconsciously hidden in the pockets of her work clothes, fingers nervously twisting a loose thread back and forth. This was a habitual action for Ou Xiuhua whenever she felt nervous. Unlike the other parents standing at the school entrance, she sat in her car.

It wasn’t a nice car either—an old van, clearly showing its age, with numerous inspection stickers from different years plastered on the windshield. Prominent lettering on its body read: XX Property Management. This was precisely where Ou Xiuhua currently worked.