Chapter 354 – Hiding Pangpang in the Space
Tu Ran woke up, under Pangpang’s careful care.
Pangpang, with teary eyes, was extremely excited, afraid that something might happen to Tu Ran again. It followed her everywhere, like a little tail, never leaving her side.
“Stop, I’m going to take a bath, and I’ll be back soon. Don’t follow me,” Tu Ran said firmly, pressing one finger against Pangpang’s forehead to stop it from following her into the forest.
“…Alright,” Pangpang reluctantly agreed.
Tu Ran moved swiftly, vanishing into the dense forest in the blink of an eye.
After all the blood loss, her wounds had dried into the fabric of her clothes, mixing with the seawater. After being exposed to the sun, the smell was almost the same as that of dried fish.
Tu Ran found a small lake nearby. The water was clear, and she jumped in, washing the bloodstains from her body. Several of her wounds had healed, with new flesh growing over them.
After her bath, she climbed back onto the shore, pulling out some loose, comfortable clothes she had prepared on Blue Star from her space. She quickly put them on and retraced her steps.
Pangpang was peeking out from the edge of the forest, its little eyes wide open, nearly twice their normal size.
When it saw Tu Ran, its eyes instantly lit up, and it waddled towards her excitedly.
Its body was round, and its short little legs made it waddle like a penguin when it ran.
Tu Ran couldn’t resist, rubbing its soft belly, which was surprisingly squishy, then lifting it for a quick shake. “Tsk, looks like you’ve been living well these past two months.”
“Hehe.”
The two of them returned to the shore, where the Qiyu was still watching them eagerly from the water.
Tu Ran pulled a box of apples from her space and, under the watchful eyes of the two bright, eager gazes, she divided it in half.
Pangpang sat on the shore eating its share, while Tu Ran jumped onto a reef, tossing apple after apple to the Qiyu. In this moment, her actions resembled those of someone feeding a small dog.
“Cha, go call your partner. Don’t you still owe it a meal?”
At that moment, she suddenly plunged into the water, the icy sea engulfing her, and her mind briefly woke up.
She felt her body sinking deeper, and more terrifyingly, an unknown creature grabbed her leg, trying to drag her to the depths of the ocean. She tried to struggle, but her whole body was weak, and she couldn’t even lift a finger.
At that time, she felt a sense of despair. Past images kept flashing in her mind. She regretted not leaving the scene immediately when she had seen the future images of bodies splashing. Why had she still tried to escape with a slim hope instead of opening a portal and leaving right then?
The past flashed before her eyes, and death seemed to engulf her.
Just then, something soft and flat caught her falling body, lifting her upward until she broke the surface of the water. Then, she heard the conversation between Cha and its companion.
The Qiyu was obedient. It disappeared beneath the surface, returning an hour later with a companion that looked exactly like it.
As its companion’s dog head emerged from the water, Tu Ran froze.
[Amphibious]
A green light appeared above its head, gently swaying with its head movements.
Tu Ran clearly saw the description of this superpower. With this inner core, it could survive both underwater and on land.
[Level: Advanced.]
The two Qiyus swayed their fish fins in sync underwater, their eight tentacles spreading behind them like the fan of a peacock.
The first Qiyu, with its large, watery eyes, looked at Tu Ran. “Cha… food…”
The newly arrived Qiyu, also with innocent, large eyes, mimicked the first one. “Cha… food…”
Both of them said in unison, “Cha… food…”
They splashed happily in the water, sending droplets flying. One drop landed on Tu Ran’s eyelash, cold, like the icy water that had engulfed her as she kept sinking that day.
She snapped back to reality, quickly raising her hand to wipe it away and tossed all the remaining apples in the basket to them.
The two Qiyus tumbled in the water, devouring the apples joyously.
Tu Ran quietly watched their figures, the corners of her lips curving into a faint smile.
Last time in the Threshold, Tu Ran had been running around every day, searching for inner cores.
Now, she was focused on feeding a chicken and two dogs with all kinds of delicious food.
She had replenished supplies in other worlds, and the space was filled with many types of food, some specifically prepared for Pangpang.
Pangpang loved sweets, so she had prepared plenty of sweet human foods. As expected, Pangpang loved them, and the two Qiyus did too.
Tu Ran’s desire to find inner cores had disappeared. First, she no longer lacked them. Second, after this near-death experience, she realized that her problem wasn’t the lack of inner cores.
Nearly a hundred inner cores hadn’t kept her unscathed after the self-destruct.
It was her own problem.
In the daily moments of playing with Pangpang and the Qiyus, Tu Ran would recall that self-destruct, carefully analyzing her actions at the time.
Various issues kept surfacing.
Her power usage was unrefined, her analysis of the situation was inaccurate, her reactions were slow, she was arrogant and overconfident… and she hadn’t even chosen the most suitable ability for the situation.
From the moment she predicted her own explosion to the actual blast, there were five seconds in between. The explosion radius was about five hundred meters. She had chosen [Invisibility] and [Penetration], moving five meters at a time—how fast could she really go?
She should have kicked the leader out first. She had [Immense Strength], and with a high probability, she could have kicked him over a hundred and fifty meters away. Then, she could have used [Space Cutting] to slice through all the green-eyed warriors in her way. [Teleportation] could cover hundreds of meters in a second.
If she had chosen this combination of abilities, would she have still been blown to half-death?! No matter how perfect her plans were, she couldn’t turn back time.
She quietly stayed near the sea with Pangpang and the Qiyus for three more days, watching as Pangpang and her two new companions grew familiar with each other, playing and teasing together.
She felt reluctant to tell Pangpang that she was leaving.
But, unfortunately, she had to admit it.
Before leaving, she had to send Pangpang back to the Mountain God’s cave.
However, this time, Pangpang was determined to follow her. No matter which world she went to or what dangers she might face, Pangpang insisted on staying by her side, even losing interest in playing with the Qiyus.
Tu Ran felt a helplessness, as if she were a parent with a child to care for.
“Pangpang, you said that you’re free. A free Pangpang should go wherever it wants to go.”
Pangpang lowered its head, its silly tuft of hair hanging in front of Tu Ran. It helplessly tugged at the fur on its belly. “Pangpang just wants to go where you go.”
Tu Ran straightened its tuft of hair and said earnestly, “The place I’m going is dangerous. It’s not suitable for you.”
Pangpang anxiously stomped its feet. “But you shouldn’t go to dangerous places either. Let’s stay here. It’s safe here.”
Tu Ran was, of course, moved by how much this little one cared, but ever since she had acquired the [Space-Time Manipulation] ability, that responsibility had weighed on her. She couldn’t just abandon everything halfway.
She was about to continue persuading Pangpang, but the Qiyu, which had been silently watching them, spoke up. “Cha… You can do what you did with the apples and just bring Pangpang out.”
Tu Ran instantly understood Cha’s meaning.
The apples had been taken from the space.
Tu Ran decided to try storing Pangpang in her space and only bring it out when it was safe, putting it back when things got dangerous.
She thought this method might work. Currently, her [Shadow Storage] was at an intermediate level, meaning it couldn’t store living creatures. But what if it were upgraded to advanced?
Looking into Pangpang’s hopeful eyes, Tu Ran made up her mind to give it a try.
Upon reviewing all the abilities she had consumed or not consumed so far, Tu Ran realized that some of their effects were quite similar.
For example, the [Copper Wall, Iron Shield] from Xie Xie Ao’s collection and her original [Diamond Body] both enhanced the body’s defenses. While the [Copper Wall, Iron Shield] offered slightly higher defense, it lacked the repair ability of the [Diamond Body]. Tu Ran chose to discard [Copper Wall, Iron Shield].
Similarly, between [Teleportation] and [Shrinking Distance], Tu Ran opted to keep the one she was more familiar with, [Teleportation].
Following this pattern, upgrading her intermediate abilities to advanced ones was an eight-to-one trade-off. She already had three weak intermediate abilities, and after carefully choosing from the other four, she decided to discard seven abilities in exchange for upgrading [Shadow Storage] to an advanced level.
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