Chapter 398: Chapter 398
Jing Shu had never thought that transitioning from a seventh-tier Magic Cube to an eighth-tier one would be such a dangerous upgrade. However, in terms of space, the instantaneous increase from 343 to 512 cubic meters provided Jing Shu with an additional 169 cubic meters of space. Indeed, it allowed Jing Shu to store even more precious, rare, and extinct materials, making her life much more comfortable in the apocalypse to come.
At this critical moment, the upgrade of the Magic Cube Space couldn’t have come at a better time!
As the Magic Cube Space reshaped itself within Jing Shu’s mind this time, she actually had a distinct sensation. It was as if she were a patient numbed by anesthesia, lying on the bed and listening to the sound of the scalpel moving within her body. She could distinctly hear her brain being cut open, new space particles being placed inside, the spirit field being repositioned, and then, the password being entered to completely unlock the abilities of the eighth-tier Magic Cube before her brain was finally stitched up. The Magic Cube upgrade was complete.
With each level-up, the Magic Cube Space would be unlocked once more, becoming increasingly powerful. Simultaneously, Jing Shu’s fusion with the Magic Cube Space also grew deeper. After this upgrade, Jing Shu gained a much deeper level of control and understanding of the eighth-tier Magic Cube’s abilities, far surpassing the new abilities she had acquired just days earlier.
Not only that, Jing Shu could also feel the Magic Cube Space infusing special energy into her body. She felt her previously burst blood vessels repairing themselves slowly, not through cellular self-repair, but a sort of time-reversal restoration. It was as miraculous as rewinding her body to its state five hours prior!
This might indeed be the product of a four-dimensional space.
However, this time-reversal healing wasn’t omnipotent. For instance, it couldn’t rewind memories or sensory and tactile perceptions, so her senses continued to react to the pain of her body’s explosion.
"Are you awake?" Lingling asked, looking over.
"Her wounds have healed a lot; surely it’s because she listened to me and applied the ointment," Snake Spirit said proudly.
"It’s also possible she has very high self-healing capabilities," Lingling countered.
Jing Shu slowly opened her eyes. Immediately, a wave of pain surged through her, as if her blood vessels were about to burst and her heart was being torn apart. She frowned and endured it. She tried to move her fingers slightly but felt completely uncoordinated, as if she had lost control over her body. Thıs text ıs hosted at 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡✶𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚✶𝙣𝙚𝙩
"How are you feeling? Any better?" Tan Ke asked worriedly. Her teammates also looked at her with concern.
Jing Shu felt something heavy pressing on her legs, making it hard to breathe. Squinting, she saw she was on a cart pulled by Tan Ke. The group was continuing forward, and the fat chicken lay on her legs, watching her with concern.
"Move away; you’re too heavy," Jing Shu said, kicking the fat chicken off her legs. She felt somewhat breathless. "How long was I unconscious?"
"A whole day," Tan Ke joked. "I don’t know what you did, but ever since you passed out, we’ve all returned to normal. Thinking it had something to do with you, we didn’t dare delay and immediately continued on our way. Your injuries seemed severe, so Snake Spirit found several of your medicines, and Lingling applied them. Don’t worry, we didn’t touch your luggage; your fighting chicken was guarding it. If you hadn’t woken up, we would have faced collective starvation."
Snake Spirit pouted. "I only took one medicine, and your chicken chased me for three kilometers! It only let me go after I convinced it the medicine was for you. That chicken of yours must be a chicken essence!"
Lingling huffed. "If it weren’t for the dozens of eggs laid by the fighting chicken, you all would have been too weak to move long ago."
Monkey said, exasperated, "Fifty Contribution Points for one egg, no credit, and no freebies! I’ve never eaten such expensive eggs in my life!"
The fat chicken strutted around like a tiger inspecting its territory, head held high with immense arrogance. It seized the opportunity to stomp on the Sulfur Ant Queen a couple more times, as if to say, Master, did you see that? While you were unconscious, I protected you and even earned you Contribution Value! This useless thing only knows how to eat and does nothing else!
Jing Shu chuckled. "Alright, alright. I’ll reward you with two chicken legs."
The fat chicken then joyfully spun in circles. As for whose chicken legs would be used for the reward, that was another question entirely.
During the time Jing Shu lay there unable to move, the fat chicken had already become the undisputed top chicken of the team. No one was allowed to touch Jing Shu’s luggage. Whatever Jing Shu needed from it, the fat chicken would fetch itself. The fat chicken was also an avid learner. It enjoyed trying to fly by following Lingling’s bird, despite always falling midway. It also liked to imitate Ah Huang by sticking out its tongue to sniff scents.
While the fat chicken was finally letting loose its natural instincts and truly being itself, Jing Shu had finished familiarizing herself with her upgraded Eighth-tier space and its new ability: Nihility. Previously, her control over making teammates overlook her was only at a rudimentary level. Now, however, Jing Shu could achieve complete integration with any environment, making herself unnoticed and unfelt at will.
This gave her an extra layer of security for her survival in the United States, as well as an additional trump card.
The four-dimensional space was temporarily sealed because Jing Shu had stolen the crystal. Consequently, Jing Shu and her group quickly exited the seemingly endless mountains and soon encountered a town. After acquiring a pickup truck, they rushed to meet Yang Yang at the rendezvous point agreed upon half a month ago.
Speaking of the crystal Jing Shu had stolen, she was still somewhat puzzled. The red liquid inside her Magic Cube Space had diminished slightly, and the crystal itself had also shrunk a bit. Is it just my imagination, or is the Magic Cube Space secretly using this red liquid? Surely not... Jing Shu observed it with wide eyes for two days but didn’t notice anything abnormal.
However, Jing Shu’s attention was soon diverted to their new mission objective. This mission was an important reason for their trip to the United States; after all, it was the price for Qian Duoduo sponsoring Jing Shu and her group’s journey.
Qian Duoduo had publicly fundraised in the Stone Garden, proposing that a team from Wu City go to the United States to acquire a complete set of vegetable dehydration technology. The steward had also explained why they weren’t using domestic services: the technology level in their own country was too costly and yielded ineffective results. Furthermore, with the precious and limited resources of the apocalypse, they couldn’t produce many dehydrated vegetables that way.
In contrast, the United States possessed a complete and mature industrial chain for this technology. However, acquiring it required rare cultivation techniques, a series of complementary planting methods, new machinery, and new technologies, among other things. Moreover, Qian Duoduo wanted the core technology, so naturally, they had to come to the United States to steal these techniques.
Jing Shu didn’t know how much money had been raised at the time. However, it was clearly a significant amount, enough to support several teams traveling to and from the United States and even to arrange for insiders and contacts within the country.
Therefore, even though Jing Shu’s team had disappeared for nearly half a month, Yang Yang’s side had to continue pushing forward under immense pressure. Unfortunately, their progress hadn’t been very smooth.
But luckily, Jing Shu’s team had emerged safe and sound, without any mishaps. After being out of contact for over half a month, they finally reconnected with Yang Yang. Jing Shu and her team then hastened to rendezvous with Yang Yang’s group to complete this highly difficult mission.