Everyone needs to relax, and everyone loves the feeling of complete relaxation.

Right now, An Ning was facing the temptation to do just that.

But deep down, she was conflicted. ’This isn’t how I should be.’

But what was she supposed to be like?

An Ning tried desperately to think, but her brain felt as sluggish as a body after a full-body massage.

She couldn’t remember.

An Ning was hovering at a finish line. Crossing it meant victory, but she hesitated on the edge.

When Jiang Xia found the cave, he saw An Ning lying on the ground, all alone.

"An Ning—!"

SIZZLE— The sound was accompanied by the smell of scorched flesh.

"HSSS—"

Jiang Xia sucked in a sharp breath. The palm of his hand had been burned by An Ning.

"An Ning, An Ning!"

Jiang Xia shouted her name. The more extreme the situation, the calmer he became.

He had been playing with Da Huang in the courtyard when he saw An Ning run out in a hurry. He left the courtyard and followed her.

Normally, An Ning would have noticed him, but not this time.

Jiang Xia felt that something major must have happened, so he followed An Ning to see if she needed his help.

After An Ning finished her phone call, she didn’t go home. Instead, she headed for the mountain.

Sensing something was wrong, Jiang Xia followed her up. He even called out her name a few times, but An Ning didn’t respond.

Not only that, but An Ning was moving with incredible speed. He couldn’t even manage to keep up, which was why he had fallen behind her.

But what on earth was going on now?

Jiang Xia kept calling out to An Ning, but she remained motionless on the ground. He couldn’t feel any warmth coming from her body, yet the moment he touched her, his fingers were instantly seared.

’Why are her clothes fine? Why haven’t the leaves and branches burned?’

Jiang Xia analyzed the situation.

At this temperature, her clothes should have been reduced to ashes long ago. The leaves and branches beneath her should have caught fire, but nothing had happened.

If he touched her with his bare hands, he would get burned.

What if he didn’t use his hands?

Jiang Xia picked up a branch and touched An Ning with it. Nothing happened.

"An Ning, An Ning? Wake up. You haven’t finished building your greenhouse yet. Don’t you love farming? Spring is almost here, you’ll be able to plant so much."

"Let me tell you, the wild vegetables will all be sprouting soon. There’s one called thorny toon, and it’s delicious."

"Also, also, there’s a mountain stream up on our mountain with a kind of cold-water fish in it. They’re long and thin, and they’re incredibly tasty when you fry them in oil."

Jiang Xia kept talking, his mouth moving nonstop, but his hands weren’t idle either.

He was weaving a pair of temporary gloves for himself out of straw.

When Jiang Xia had more or less finished, he reached out through the straw and touched An Ning.

"Agh—!"

Although the straw provided some insulation, it wasn’t perfect. There were gaps.

Gritting his teeth against the searing pain, Jiang Xia forced himself to lift An Ning into his arms.

"An Ning, I’m about to throw you into the water. If you don’t wake up, you’re going to end up like a drowned rat."

"I’m telling you now, don’t you dare get back at me for this."

"Don’t you like my cooking? Let me tell you, I’ve secretly been learning some new tricks. I picked up quite a few from Master Tang."

"What do you want to eat? I’ll make it for you, okay?"

"Just say something, will you?"

"AAGH—"

A wisp of smoke was even rising from Jiang Xia’s hands.

His arms trembling, he carried An Ning to the mountain stream.

"Don’t worry, I’ll go in with you."

SPLASH—

Holding An Ning, Jiang Xia jumped into the mountain stream.

The bone-chilling cold plunged Jiang Xia into a world of ice and fire.

At that moment, An Ning had one foot almost across the finish line. But a wave of icy coldness surged up from the depths of her being, scattering the alluring mist and gradually restoring her thoughts and reason.

In the water, Jiang Xia stood holding An Ning, keeping her head above the surface.

His eyes were fixed on An Ning’s face. When her eyelashes twitched, he knew she was about to wake up.

Jiang Xia finally let out a sigh of relief.

But in the next second, he carried An Ning to the bank, leaving her half-submerged in the water. He himself scrambled out, biting his lip to keep from making a sound. He moved a short distance away, to a spot where he could still see her.

Jiang Xia hid himself.

He did it for no other reason than that he knew this must be An Ning’s biggest secret.

Her previous bouts of exhaustion and fainting must have been related to her state today.

Jiang Xia didn’t want to stumble upon An Ning’s secret. He didn’t want to know, and he didn’t want to ask.

By the stream, An Ning finally opened her eyes. The moment she crawled out of the water, Jiang Xia, in the distance, left.

An Ning didn’t use her spiritual power, so she didn’t notice Jiang Xia for the time being.

’But how did I get here?’

An Ning remembered being in the cave, her spiritual power fusing with the Klein Bottle. She was a little disoriented to find herself here upon waking.

An Ning first checked her spiritual power.

The Klein Bottle had completely disappeared, having merged with her, but everything inside the space was still there.

If her spiritual power before was a river, then now it was a vast ocean.

An Ning felt that she could probably even teleport a ton of seeds now.

Suppressing her excitement, An Ning stood up.

She needed to solve the mystery of how she had gotten here.

An Ning examined the tracks on the mountain, found footprints, and followed them back to the cave she had been in earlier.

’Someone brought me to the stream. That coolness is what woke me up in time.’

’What is that smell?’

An Ning sniffed the air carefully.

’Burnt flesh... and another familiar scent.’

With the enhancement of her spiritual power, her five senses had naturally become much sharper.

Everyone has their own unique, one-of-a-kind scent.

’It seems to be Jiang Xia’s.’

An Ning muttered, connecting the scent to the smell of burnt flesh in the air.

’He must have been burned.’

When her spiritual power leveled up, it was always accompanied by intense heat. But this heat didn’t harm her; instead, it formed a protective barrier around her body.

Without further hesitation, An Ning immediately headed down the mountain.

When she ran back to the An family home, she sent out her spiritual power and saw Jiang Xia at the Jiang family’s house.

Master Tang was treating his hand—a burn so severe you could see the bone.

"Are you an idiot? Don’t you know to let go when you’re being burned?"

"And here I thought you were so smart."

"With a hand like this, it’s hard to say if you’ll ever be able to use it again."

"What on earth did you do?"

Master Tang berated Jiang Xia, one line after another, but for once, Jiang Xia didn’t retort.

He didn’t want to say anything about An Ning.

An Ning withdrew her spiritual power and whispered, "Idiot."

She rushed into the house, exchanged a few words with Lin Cuihua, surreptitiously grabbed a porcelain bowl, and returned to her room.

Inside her room, An Ning took a deep breath.

’Here we go.’

She closed her eyes, formed her spiritual power into a small knife, and began to sever a piece of it from herself.

"AAGH—"

An Ning bit her lip, suppressing the immense pain.

The sharp knife, like a rasp, ground away at her spiritual power bit by bit.

An Ning bit her lip so hard it bled. The blood mixed with the sweat on her forehead and dripped down.

"Nngh—"

"Huuuh—"

A palm-sized piece of spiritual power was severed by An Ning and fell, unseen, into the porcelain bowl.

"You’ll be okay, Jiang Xia."