The two suddenly looked at each other, as they thought of something. The library! Their family library was in another room of the house, and the two ran to it, still naked. Long Chen tore book after book off the shelves in a haphazard manner, seemingly uncaring of the history those books represented.

Zeng Lei tiptoed around the floor to avoid tripping, but her enthusiasm was undiminished.

Long Chen had nearly torn apart the whole library by the time he found the book he’d needed. He flipped it open, and looked for the specific section he needed.

She could feel, just by looking at him, how excited her husband was. Her heart pounded as she tried to capture all of him within her gaze. Since her blindness started Long Chen was a special existence, she could see him but no one else and now, after he awakened the so-called cube she could directly see him… That was one of the reasons that made the events from last passionate night to happen. Because she could see the real him, the naked him.

“I found it! I found it!” Long Chen shouted as he excitedly jumped around. The moment he turned around to face his wife, though, he was stunned. “Too beautiful…” He completely forgot about the book in his hands.

Zeng Lei blushed and immediately moved to cover her beasts and lower parts.

Long Chen laughed, “What’s there to cover! I’ve already seen everything.” Even if he said that, his blood rushed to his little brother, making it stand out.

“I can see it, did you forget!” She teased him back, smiling.

If it wasn’t that he had the book in his hands, and he didn’t want to miss out on this potential discovery, he would have started another round of battles.

“Well, come on. Are you going to tell me exactly what you’ve found, or do you want me to beg?” Zeng Lei approached Long Chen and caressed his body.

“Gosh, you were too restrained all these years.” Long Chen embraced her. “Don’t give me more reasons to lose myself or you will regret it!”

Zeng Lei snorted. “Do you dare? This lady would win against you!” Despite her words, though, she wasn’t so sure. Even if she was a Martial Warrior, the last two days of battle had greatly drained her, but Long Chen still seemed to be filled to the brim with energy. Evidently, her husband was going through some changes.

Long Chen raised an eyebrow, but dispelled those dirty thoughts from his head—for now, at least.

“This book states that those who were able to summon the cube had increased appetites. The longer their lives, the more they needed to eat to be satiated. Now, they’d thought that this was the cube draining their strength, thereby making it so that they needed to eat more for the energy, but...you said that my stomach is already different from the rest of my body, right? That the cube is in my stomach?”

Zeng Lei pondered. “Perhaps...perhaps the cube is capable of enhancing parts of the body. Its standard position is in the stomach, so over time, their stomach’s abilities were increased, thus making them hungrier.”

“If that’s the case...then if I were able to move the cube to other parts of my body...could they be enhanced?”

Zeng Lei and Long Chen sat in the cultivation chamber. Facing each other.

“It’s so nice to finally be able to see you. You look so serious, cultivating. Relax a bit!” Zeng Lei advised her husband.

“Thanks, I will keep my dear’s advice in mind.”

“Shall we begin?”

Long Chen nodded with a huge smile.

“Start cultivating. I’ll see if there’s any changes in the cube while you cultivate.”

With a nod, Long Chen began cultivating. He slowly breathed the heaven and earth surrounding him, in...and out. The Mortal Cultivation manual Long Chen followed was one of the lowest ranked ones—he couldn’t afford a better one.

The Long Clan only had Earth Cultivation manuals. As for Heaven Cultivation Manuals, well, they were too rare and ancient for a clan like them to have. At least, that’d what Long Chen had been told. Either way, Long Chen only had a Low-Mortal Manual, so his cultivation was incredibly slow.

Zeng Lei had a High-Mortal Cultivation Manual, so every time she saw or heard about how slow her husband cultivated, her heart ached for him, but she couldn’t do anything. The manual she followed was meant for ladies, and wasn’t something she could simply pass to him.

“So, any changes?” Long Chen asked after stopping his cultivation.

“No, nothing at all. I could see the flow of your energy, but it had nothing to do with the cube.” She paused.

“Nothing to do with the cube…” he muttered.

“Right! The energy never circulated around, or in the cube. Try circulating it through the cube.” She was worried now—it was uncommon for one to bring their qi into summonable items, but… “Perhaps just a bit, and stop if something happens.”

Long Chen nodded and concentrated.

“How are you feeling?” Zeng Lei asked.

“Good, nothing’s going wrong so far. I’ll keep trying.”

While Zeng Lei observed Long Chen, he cultivated. Thankfully, nothing out of the ordinary occurred, and the cube was filled with qi after a half-day of effort.

“How does it look now?” Long Chen asked.

“Mmm… there’s been some obvious improvements regarding your stomach, but not much else has changed.” Zeng Lei’s face showed clear disappointment.

Long Chen couldn’t help but think about his ancestors. How come none of them had realized anything similar regarding the cube? He thought about it again, then went through some of the books on the ground until he found the one he was looking for.

There’d been an ancestor of his who’d immersed himself so deeply in the cube that he’d ended up dying because of it. Long Chen remembered this story, but couldn’t remember why his ancestor had grown so obsessed.

It was worth checking again. Zeng Lei saw Long Chen’s actions, and asked him, “What are you reading?” She seemed apologetic, realizing that Long Chen had seen her emotions on her face.

“Long Wu’s discoveries.” he replied.

“Drop it, immediately! Don’t even think about it! That ancestor of yours was crazy!” Zeng Lei panicked, as she couldn’t lose Long Chen. He was too important to her.

Perhaps Long Chen didn’t remember the contents of the book, but over the years, to pass the time, he’d read most of his ancestor’s books to Zeng Lei for her to hear. After all, she’d said she liked his voice, and for her it was a way for her to appreciate him. After all, she couldn’t in any other way.

In her state of panic, she didn’t even realize Long Chen summoning the cube and moving it towards his forehead until it was too late.

“No!!!” Zeng Lei rushed toward him, her piercing cry resounding through the whole house.

Long Chen fell to the floor as the cube slowly inserted itself into his head, creating a nail-sized hole in his forehead. The hole closed itself and left a tattoo of a cube there.

The cube destroyed everything in its path, even parts of Long Chen’s brain.

He didn’t cry or shout, but his body began to convulse, and each of his cranial orifices leaked blood. Zeng Lei didn’t know what to do—she couldn’t even cry, due to her damaged eyes, yet tears of blood rolled down her face..

Long Chen didn’t even know what was happening to his body. Instead, he seemed to be in a strange dream, in a strange place that was devoid of all things, yet seemed to have the potential to have... anything. He felt incredibly confused by the space. It scared him to the point of wanting to die, yet he felt blessed to be there.

In the outside world, Zeng Lei could see the cube stabilizing itself in the middle of Long Chen’s brain. Once this happened, the flow of blood from Long Chen’s cranial orifices slowed, then halted. She then saw a gold beam, so pure that it almost didn’t seem to exist, pulse through her husband’s head, starting a new set of convulsions.

Zeng Lei anxiously waited. Now that things were as they were, there was nothing she could do.

After a few hours of convulsing, Long Chen opened his eyes to see his wife leaning over him. Clearly, she hadn’t left his side despite the time that had passed.

He didn’t manage to utter a single word before she passionately kissed him, sucking almost all the breath he had inside him. This was then followed up by a series of punches and bites as she vented her feelings.

“Don’t ever do anything so crazy again!” She scolded him.

“Alright. Did you see something?”

Zeng Lei explained the changes he had seen happen in his head.

Long Chen summoned the cube and placed it in his hand. Looking at it, it hadn’t physically changed, and neither had his connection to it. The only difference was that his cube was now in placed in his head, not inside his stomach.

His wife curiously touched it with her finger. It gave her a comfortable feeling, but she didn’t get to enjoy it as her husband immediately shouted.

Origin Rank: 0

Zeng Lei’s finger status: -167%

Insufficient energy to repair.

Repair? What was there to repair? Zeng Lei’s finger is perfect, there’s nothing wrong with it…

Words appeared in his head, followed by a neutral-toned ancient voice that told him that there was “insufficient energy to repair”. This voice, as well as the words, had absolutely shocked him, causing him to shout.

Long Chen’s shout had scared his wife, who’d retracted her finger, but not before he could see that her finger had entered the cube, somewhat.

Could it be…?

Long Chen quickly explained what happened to his wife.

Zeng Lei became serious as they pondered the possibilities of what was happening. She put a different finger of hers into the cube, and waited for him to respond with the results. Then, she bit this finger and checked it again.

The result was the same.

Neither understood—if the finger was hurt, why was the status the same? And why was it negative? In what way was the finger damaged?

This time, Long Chen tried one of his fingers. Despite having a low value, his finger’s status was at least positive. This puzzled the couple, as well. Why were Zeng Lei’s statuses negative?

Zeng Lei tried to use the palm of her hand to interact with the cube, but this time the cube didn’t let her body into itself. She also tried her elbow and leg, but the cube remained impenetrable.

Trying to figure out the rules behind the cube, Zeng Lei then tried her toes. In this case, it worked, and also gave her a negative status.

“What’s with that face?” Zeng Lei had looked up and seen her husband looking at her feet with a weird expression on his face.

“Erm… nothing. It’s just that it’s the first time I’ve seen your feet and... they’re cute.” Long Chen didn’t forget to appreciate the rest of his wife, taking in all the details of her naked body.

“Idiot!” She said, blushing. What woman didn’t like hearing beautiful words complimenting her appearance? “Stop looking and focus on the cube!”

After further testing, the two determined at least one rule: the cube could only interact with one’s fingers or toes.

“Hey!” A shout sounded outside the house, scaring the couple.

“Get dressed, hurry!” The two yelled in unison, then looked at each other, laughing.

After a few minutes...

“Hello, Old Ji.” Long Chen greeted their guest while Zeng Lei served the old man a low-quality tea. Low-quality, being subjective. With how poor they were, it was still the best they could afford.

“It has been decided. Now that you are twenty years old, you need to start contributing to the clan. I have come to deliver your birthday present, but don’t expect further resources from the clan.” Old Ji paused to take a sip of his tea, then spoke again. “You should find something to work on. The clan will take care of your house, chores, and food, but you need to work and pay taxes to the clan. These are the rules.”

“I know, Old Ji. Thanks for warning me.” Long Chen bowed to the old man.

Old Ji was his father’s old friend, and unlike the rest of the clan Old Ji treated them well. He always tried to defend and help them as much as he could. Even Zeng Lei was fond of him.

Old Ji didn’t stay around to chat, opting to leave as soon as he’d said his fill.

“A mid-spiritual stone?” Long Chen pulled a rock from the bag Old Ji had left behind.

Zeng Lei frowned.

Seeing her frown Long Chen asked, “Why are you unhappy?”

“I don’t mean to hurt you, but you’re weak and useless to the clan. A mid-spiritual stone is a treasure for a Martial Warrior, so why would the clan give it as a birthday present to someone who’s not even a Martial Warrior yet? And their opinion is so low…” She grabbed his hands. “I think Old Ji swapped the real present with the mid-spiritual stone. But why would he even have such a treasure? He’s just a mortal” Zeng Lei smile never left her face as to not hurt Long Chen.

“You’re right. A treasure like this would be even more valuable for him, yet he chose to give it to us now. If we had this a few years ago we would be stronger by now and not be seen as so useless by the clan.”

Zeng Lei interrupted him. “Unless something changed his mind, something related to you.”

The two smiled at each other.

Long Chen summoned the cube.

“Precisely,” Zeng Lei said. “This is the only thing that has changed.”

The cube appeared, but this time it was pulsing, as if it wanted something.

Zeng Lei mused. “Try touching it with the stone.”

The mid-spiritual stone contained a great deal of compressed energy, far more than the energy they gained through their breathing techniques. For Zeng Lei, a mid-spiritual stone could save her a few months of cultivation. As for Long Chen, with how weak he was, the stone would be able to make him directly break through a cultivation layer.

“Are you sure…”

“Do it. Don’t make me regret it.”

Upon contact, the cube seemed to absorb the energy in the stone, turning it to dust. The cube trembled, and the space around it cracked as the cube began to maddeningly absorb energy from that crack.

Long Chen could only feel it, but Zeng Lei could see streaks of energy entering the cube.

As the cube absorbed more and more energy, they began to sweat with worry—just how much energy could this cube hold? It wasn’t just them, either. The entire Long Clan trembled, as they could feel the pressure of the cube’s energy. It was even above that of a Martial King!

In panic, the patriarch issued an immediate order for all members of the family to report to the main hall—not for protection, but to find out just who the hell had pissed off such a powerful existence.

While the Long Clan was in disorder, Old Ji stood in front of an old, memorial statue in a corner of the clan’s estate. It was an ugly, weak-looking woman. Yes, the same woman who’d began the demise of the Long Clan all those millenia ago.

“I was late for a few centuries, but your descendant has finally awakened. This could be considered returning one of those old favours. His path has already started. If he can mature, I will return the other favors I owe you.” Old Ji sighed as his body transformed into that of a peerlessly handsome man that looks no less, no more than twenty years old.