Chapter 229: Departure

Chapter 229: Departure

Time had no meaning in dreams. Whether it was due to magic or the inherent nature of dreams themselves, Zheng Yichen wasn’t sure. After teaching Irene everything from the basics of Chinese characters to even pinyin, he felt as though a long time had passed. But when he thought about it carefully, it didn’t seem that long at all. It was truly a divine artifact, just like the last time he had studied in the dreamscape.

“Is there anything else you don’t understand? You can ask me.”

“No, I’ve memorized everything I could grasp.” Irene looked at the book in her hand. This book was generated by Zheng Yichen in the dream, similar to a dictionary but not quite. It was based on his own understanding and knowledge of Chinese, containing all the Chinese characters he knew.

As for Chinese, Irene felt this writing system was truly fascinating. After reading the book Zheng Yichen generated in the dreamscape, her understanding of Chinese advanced from merely recognizing characters to something close to Zheng Yichen’s own comprehension. After all, she had studied magic for a long time, and her ability to understand things was off the charts. With Zheng Yichen’s experiences as a reference, she quickly memorized everything and integrated it thoroughly. It was precisely because of this that she deeply appreciated the charm and diversity of this writing system. A barely noticeable missing character in a sentence, or even a punctuation mark or pronunciation, could completely change the meaning of the entire sentence!

What was even more excessive was that even if the word order was reversed, one could still read it smoothly if they weren’t paying close attention… And what was even more outrageous was that even if part of a sentence was missing, there was still a high chance of reading it correctly. Not to mention, the combination of two words based on different tones and expressions could convey entirely different meanings—whether it was scolding someone, expressing surprise, and so on. All these variations made her deeply feel the “charm” of Chinese.

This writing system was truly something else. In any case, Irene felt her exchange with Zheng Yichen was absolutely worth it.

“That’s it then. I’ve said everything I can add.” Zheng Yichen thought for a moment, making sure he hadn’t missed anything.

“Mhm.” Irene nodded and actively left Zheng Yichen’s dreamscape. Since he hadn’t deliberately tried to keep her there, it was easy for her to leave.

Zheng Yichen shook his head, suppressing the dizzy feeling. This time, he had stayed in the dreamscape for a while again. He didn’t know how Irene was feeling, but he was quite uncomfortable. He took out the pocket watch limited to his dragon form and checked the time. He couldn’t help but click his tongue. Only two hours had passed? The dreamscape was still as miraculous as ever. The only downside was that staying too long didn’t provide any rest; it only made you more and more tired.

“I need to digest this properly. Do as you please.” After saying this, Irene sat in her soft chair that accentuated her height, crossed her arms, and gently closed her eyes. Understanding was one thing, but this understanding was built on crammed learning. To truly grasp it thoroughly, she needed some time to digest it.

Seeing Irene’s silent gesture to send him away, Zheng Yichen shrugged, picked up a few notebooks from her table, and left. Even though she now knew a lot about how to use Chinese, she didn’t have knowledge of Earth. So, when it came to creative and whimsical wordplay, she still couldn’t compare to Zheng Yichen.

Returning to his own residence, Zheng Yichen placed the newly acquired notebooks to the side and waved at Lily in the distance. “Come here, let me check your body~”

Thwack! A small stone hit the back of Zheng Yichen’s head and shattered into pieces. He looked back and saw Loris standing on the other side of the small lake, silently watching him. Zheng Yichen twitched the corner of his mouth slightly and released a few strands of magic threads from his hand. Using these threads along with detection magic, he observed Lily’s physical condition.

Lily’s physical growth was still extremely rapid, even surpassing that of warriors who hadn’t reached the tier. The difference was that her body lacked mana and battle qi, so she still couldn’t defeat warriors of the same level in a fight. Moreover, because her physical strength had grown too quickly, her techniques couldn’t keep up with those who progressed step by step.

“Good. I’ll find a school for you to study at later,” Zheng Yichen said. Over the past few days, while conducting his own research, he could still see that Lily was very interested in the martial arts framework he had created. However, due to her limited abilities, even though she had learned a lot about warrior techniques from books, without a teacher to guide her, her progress remained slow, and she frequently encountered bottlenecks.

“Huh? Are we leaving?” Lily asked in surprise.

“Yeah, we’re leaving,” Zheng Yichen nodded. The research he had been doing with Irene was now complete. Future transactions wouldn’t affect their stay either. As for Zheng Yichen’s injuries, they had long since healed, leaving no scars at all, which pleased him greatly!

“When are we leaving?”

“Hmm… Tomorrow or the day after…”

“Tomorrow,” Loris’s voice came from behind Zheng Yichen.

“Then tomorrow it is,” Zheng Yichen scratched his head and didn’t say much. Staying one extra day or leaving one day earlier made no difference. One extra day wouldn’t bring him any additional gains, and leaving one day earlier wouldn’t cause him any losses either.

Since the departure time was decided, Zheng Yichen didn’t conduct any more experiments. He picked up the notebooks he had just brought over and started reading. The contents made him pause for a moment. Although there was some research related to magic, this time the notebooks mostly focused on the usage of mana—how to use one’s own mana with maximum efficiency. They emphasized that if mana was used delicately enough, it could provide additional bonuses to the magic cast. It could also bypass the need for deep understanding of magic and directly reduce the mana consumption of spells.

Moreover, if one’s mastery of their own mana was delicate enough, the quality of mana would improve faster during cultivation and accumulation. As for magic, Zheng Yichen had temporarily given up on improving it. But when it came to mana, he didn’t mind having more of it or having higher quality. Mhm, these notebooks were definitely worth studying. At the very least, they could help compensate for Zheng Yichen’s broad but shallow understanding of magic. Other methods? Other methods required slow learning and mastery unless one had a unique talent like Irene.

On the day they were preparing to leave, Loris called Zheng Yichen out separately to find Irene. Seeing her still sitting in the soft chair, Zheng Yichen couldn’t help but wonder if she had been sitting there all day.

“Is there something?” Irene opened her eyes and asked.

“There’s something to do, as an additional supplement to the exchange between you and him yesterday,” Loris got straight to the point.

“…” Looking at her expressionless face, Irene responded with the same expression and even wanted to say that this was extortion. “If it’s troublesome, I refuse.”

“It’s not troublesome.”

Loris took out the translucent sphere that contained a space fragment. Looking at the sphere, Irene’s expression changed slightly, though she ignored the space fragment inside. “I see. It really isn’t troublesome. Wait a moment.”

Irene jumped down from the soft chair and left her workshop. Not long after, she returned with some materials. Most of these materials were semi-solid and had to be contained in a vessel to be brought over. The strange appearance of these things made Zheng Yichen’s eye twitch slightly.

After experiencing the full-body baptism of the fate-killer, Zheng Yichen had developed a strong desire to stay away from things with unnatural colors, unless they were something he had created himself and could control.

“Give it to me,” Irene took the translucent sphere from Loris. Zheng Yichen scratched his head, looking at the sphere. It looked somewhat familiar… Oh, wasn’t this the incredibly powerful magic barrier he had encountered before?

Irene quickly used magic to process the semi-solid magical materials she had brought, turning them into a sticky solid substance. Holding the processed material in one hand, she raised her other hand, which glowed with a faint blue mana light. This hand easily reached into the translucent sphere, and with two fingers, she pinched the space fragment inside and pulled it out.

When the fragment was contained within the sphere, Zheng Yichen hadn’t noticed anything amiss. But once it was taken out, the space fragment revealed its power. The irregular edges of the fragment slightly distorted the surrounding space. As Irene moved it, the distortion intensified. Zheng Yichen felt that if he were accidentally grazed by this thing… his newly restored scales would probably need another period of recovery.

Yet, such a ferocious thing was held so easily between Irene’s two fingers. Witches—truly the pinnacle of combat power in this world. Zheng Yichen really wanted to quickly rise above this level and steadily level up by fighting monsters. Starting out in the max-level circle might yield a lot of experience points, but it always felt like exploiting a bug. While it provided significant benefits temporarily, a single careless mistake could trap him. The feeling of walking on a tightrope was truly unpleasant.

The space fragment held by Irene was gradually pressed into the processed material. The supposedly indestructible space fragment began to dissolve upon contact with the peculiar substance. Although the process wasn’t fast, it wasn’t slow either. Soon, the space fragment completely merged into the substance, leaving no trace of its original form. However, the space around the substance remained slightly distorted, and a few faint, starlight-like particles scattered from it.

“Done,” Irene tossed the substance to Zheng Yichen. Zheng Yichen hastily caught the sticky substance, which was only about the size of a child’s fist. The distorted space ripples made his heart race, but fortunately, touching it didn’t have much of an effect on him. Curiously, he pinched the substance—it felt soft yet hard, an unusual texture.

“How do I use it?”

“Just absorb it with mana and mental energy. It’s not dangerous.”

“Oh…” Zheng Yichen nodded and injected mana mixed with mental energy into the strangely textured substance. The material, now infused with the space fragment, gradually seeped into his palm. To his surprise, this wasn’t merging with his body but with his soul!

Was this… a lifetime binding?

…

“Hey, don’t miss us after we leave,” Dan Marina said cheerfully at the entrance of the manor, looking at Irene. “And as for the fate-killer, just hide it somewhere when you’re done playing with it. I’ll come get it when I need it~”

Irene looked at Dan Marina with a cold expression. Dan Marina didn’t mind and took a few steps to the side, not standing with Zheng Yichen and the others. “Since there’s nothing to do for now, I plan to go out and play alone for a while. Let’s part ways here.”

“Uh, alright,” Zheng Yichen was taken aback, unable to think of any reason to stop Dan Marina from leaving. She was a grown woman, not like Zheng Yichen. Forcefully keeping her? That wasn’t an option. “Be careful on the road, and don’t go looking for trouble,” Zheng Yichen said.

Dan Marina rolled her eyes lightly and walked away in one direction without looking back. Under Zheng Yichen’s gaze, her figure gradually blurred and disappeared.

“Let’s go,” Loris sat in another basket Zheng Yichen had woven. Zheng Yichen waved at the silent Irene, lowered his body slightly, and leaped powerfully into the air, leaving the ground. Seeing Zheng Yichen’s less-than-graceful takeoff method, Irene tugged the corner of her mouth slightly, turned around, and walked back into the manor. The luxurious manor gradually faded into the air, and the surrounding environment returned to its ordinary state.

As for Zheng Yichen’s takeoff method, Irene could only say… nothing was truly perfect. As the most perfect cursed dragon she had ever seen, he lacked the various innate abilities of the dragon clan. This was perhaps the price for such perfection. The absence of a dragon’s aura was a common trait among cursed dragons, but the flying talent… It seemed other cursed dragons had it, yet Zheng Yichen did not. Even his physical growth was limited to the young dragon stage.

Even though his size had grown close to that of a juvenile dragon, detection magic still showed his body age as that of a young dragon.

“Are you planning to return to the castle?” Zheng Yichen asked while flying.

“Mhm, I’ve been away for a while. I should go back and check on things,” Loris nodded. It was necessary to return to the castle. “Aren’t you coming?”

“Sure, I can. I set up a workshop near Kaja and plan to develop it further later. After going to the castle, I’ll head there,” Zheng Yichen thought for a moment and said.

Loris didn’t say much. “Take me to see it later.”

“Uh, alright. Just don’t be disappointed when you see it.” His workshop… Well, after seeing Irene’s workshop, Zheng Yichen no longer felt any pride. It lacked even the basic space expansion that a high-end workshop should have. His workshop was just the bare minimum. Thinking about how much effort he had put into designing and excavating the structure to make it spacious enough…

Tsk, what he had struggled with, others could solve easily with a space expansion. It did feel a bit… Well, even a clumsy method had its advantages. At least he didn’t have to worry about stability.