章 23: Back Outside - 23

It wasn't long before Zhou Fan made a Qi for everyone. Their Qi all looked like smaller and less detailed versions of themselves.

Each of the beasts had broken through to the first level and gotten rid of their impurities.

However, even after they were introduced to the Qi, they couldn't absorb it from the world without Zhou Fans' assistance. Zhou Fan was stumped with this issue. Perhaps the only Qi that existed naturally was Chaos Qi. Thinking further, Zhou Fan pondered what chaos Qi was.

It has a light gray color and no single form. At sometimes it acts like a solid, at others, it will act like a liquid or gas. After an hour, Zhou Fan had come up with a few thoughts.

"Maybe chaos Qi is the combination of everything?" Zhou Fan thought out loud. Maybe that's why it can turn into anything by taking parts away. Zhou Fan felt that such a conclusion made sense. However, he couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that he was missing something. Either way, chaos Qi wasn't something he could fathom at this point.

Zhou Fan walked to his yard and decided to start cultivating for the first time in a while. He got in position and started absorbing Qi. The speed of absorption was much faster than it was when he was in foundation establishment.

As he was cultivating, the beasts gathered around him. Xiaolong curled around his body without touching him while the others lay on or against Xiaolong. They quickly fell asleep and if one looked from afar, they would see a perfect scene of harmony between humongous beasts and a human.

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After two straight days of cultivation, Zhou Fan broke into the second level of core formation. Although he felt an immense difference in power, Zhou Fan had no point of reference. He couldn't go around blowing up mountains every time he broke through after all. When he opened his eyes, Zhou Fan smiled at the scene of his pets gathered around him.

When he opened his eyes, so did Xiaolong. Zhou Fan spent a little bit of time trying to communicate with him before silently floating away. He didn't want to wake them up just to tell them that he had to leave. He entrusted Xiaolong to somehow get them to understand. While Zhou Fan was hesitant to leave, he did have a job soon. Somehow, four days had passed down there. Zhou Fan exited through the snake-filled path and found himself back at the courtyard.

On his way back inside, he saw Fui Rong knocking on his door.

"Hello."

"AAHHHHHHH." Fui Rong stumbled backwards and fell on the ground. It seemed she wasn't expecting someone to appear behind her.

"You're alive?!"

"Yes? Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you bought a house that's known for dead owners and then disappeared for 4 days. Did you think we would think you're alive?"

Her logic had reason. Zhou Fan had completely forgot about the fact that his house was treated as a place of death.

"I might have found the reason behind the murders." Zhou Fan suddenly said. He remembered the snake that he captured. He thought there was a chance that it was venomous and that's why the owners were dying.

"Really! What did you find?" She curiously asked.

Zhou Fan walked inside and saw the snake slithering around on the floor. It seemed that the cage had dissipated and it had been locked in the courtyard. Zhou Fan made sure that Fui Rong wasn't looking and formed another cage around it.

"Here, this snake might be venomous. I spent the last few days destroying their nest and this is the last one." Zhou Fan had come up with such an excuse after realizing he had disappeared for 4 days.

"Really!? In that case, let's take it to the lab!" Fui Rong grabbed Zhou Fan by the arm and dragged him to the library. It seemed she was quite interested in solving this decade-old mystery.

Since he had to travel at her pace, it took nearly an hour to make it to the library. Fui Rong attempted to drag him to the 5th floor before Zhou Fan pulled out his silver card.

"Wow! How did you get that!" Fui Rong was quite surprised to see the silver card. After all, Zhou Fan didn't seem like someone who could afford a 1 gold card. Even she couldn't afford one.

"I got a job here and they gave me one for free." Zhou Fan said.

"Nice."

Zhou Fan walked up to the 8th floor and Fui Rong followed. Luckily, Zhou Fan was allowed to take someone who didn't have a silver card to a research floor.

When they arrived, the area was busy as usual. Suddenly, Fui Rong loudly cleared her throat and declared their intentions.

"EXCUSE ME! We believe we may have found the solution to a 5-decade old mystery. Would anyone like to assist us?"

Everyone stopped in their tracks after hearing her loud voice. After they heard what she said, half the people on the floor rushed over toward her. Something like this wasn't seen every day after all.

"There is also a high chance it is an undiscovered species" Zhou Fan added. When the researchers heard this, a fire lit in their eyes as they ran toward Zhou Fan.

Zhou Fan simply threw the cage to the most trustworthy-looking old man. It merely took an hour before the 30 or so researchers compiled a book on the snake. The old man that Zhou Fan threw the snake to walked over and handed him it.

"Here. We have confirmed that it is an undiscovered species and that it is venomous. Please decide on a name so we can add it to the library records."

Zhou Fan didn't have to think about it for long before he named it the 'Hidden Rainbow Snake'. He called it this due to the fact that it led him to a hidden underground world and that it was rainbow-colored.

Although the old man looked at him weirdly after hearing the name, he didn't argue with Zhou Fan. After asking his name and writing him down as the discoverer, the old man sent the book down to the main floor for confirmation and revision.