Liu Qingqing and Zhou Dongqiang left the dorm room one after the other and went downstairs.
Watching their retreating backs, Murong Hao scratched at his hair and said uncertainly, "Old Huang, why do I still feel like something's off? That woman just now didn't really seem like a teacher. Uh—mainly her bearing wasn't right. And A-Zhou's state wasn't right either. You think we ought to follow and take a look?"
Huang Tian replied, "They have something to discuss. It wouldn't be appropriate for us to follow. Wait a few minutes and send a message. If there's no reply, then make a call."
Murong Hao thought it over and nodded. "All right. I'll wait ten minutes and send A-Zhou a message—say, you don't think A-Zhou did something... something not quite proper, do you?"
Huang Tian waved a hand and did not take up the subject. He sat in his chair. His gaze stirred, and a scene appeared before his eyes.
He saw Liu Qingqing leading Zhou Dongqiang around behind the dormitory building, where they got into a black car parked at the roadside.
"Don't be nervous. Have some water." Liu Qingqing picked up a bottle of mineral water and held it out.
"Thank you." Zhou Dongqiang was a little ill at ease. He took it, unscrewed the cap, and took a small sip.
Liu Qingqing waited until he had relaxed a little before smiling. "Student Zhou, I think you should already have guessed why we came looking for you."
Zhou Dongqiang was silent and gave no answer.
Seeing this, Liu Qingqing took out a stack of documents. "You can look at these first."
Zhou Dongqiang reached out, took them, and slowly turned through the pages with his head lowered. The more he looked, the tighter his brows drew, and his breathing grew ever deeper and slower.
For what was recorded there was a rough account of his movements over this stretch of time: going to Heping Park to "fish," selling the gold he had fished up to a gold shop, and photographs of that "wolf" he had fished up injuring someone and then being captured.
When he had finished, Zhou Dongqiang's heart was heavy. His face taut, he said, "What do you mean by showing me these?"
"Please rest assured. We bear no ill will." Liu Qingqing smiled gently and drew an identification card from her pocket. "Now, allow me to introduce myself. Liu Qingqing, official member of the Federation Oddity Management Association."
At her words Zhou Dongqiang's heart shook, yet he spoke with astonishment. "Oddity Management Association? Is there such a department? How is it I've never heard of it?"
Liu Qingqing put the credentials away and said gravely, "We are a confidential department, specifically charged with responding to and handling every matter related to oddities that occurs anywhere in the Federation."
She paused. "Your matter, for instance."
Zhou Dongqiang opened his mouth, wanting to refute her, yet did not know how to put it. After several seconds of silence, he said instead, "Could you tell me what an oddity is?"
"Of course." Liu Qingqing gazed out the car window and spoke slowly. "Starting roughly a year ago, all sorts of strange and bizarre things began appearing again and again throughout the world. The source of these things was, in nearly every case, an oddity, and each oddity has its own properties.
"Some can turn a person into a superman who soars through the heavens and slips through the earth, with strength enough to shatter mountains. Some can turn a person into an uncanny thing neither dead nor alive. Some can make what is illusory become real.
"For example, there is an oddity we have named the Pen of Reality. Its property is that whatever it draws becomes a real thing. Draw gold, and gold appears. Draw an airplane, and an airplane appears—"
Zhou Dongqiang was startled at heart. This thing was far more useful than his fishing rod!
What the fishing rod brought up was uncertain, while the Pen of Reality could follow one's will and draw whatever one wanted.
"From my description alone, do you think the Pen of Reality is the strongest, most perfect oddity in the world?" Liu Qingqing asked.
"Isn't it?" Zhou Dongqiang was puzzled.
"Of course not." Liu Qingqing sighed. "First, what the Pen of Reality draws can exist for only ten seconds. After ten seconds it vanishes into thin air.
"Second, using it has a cost. According to the value of what is drawn, the one holding the pen has a corresponding span of life consumed. In other words, this is drawing with one's life."
Shock showed on Zhou Dongqiang's face, and a little fear with it. "Does using every oddity demand a price?"
"At least so far, we have found no exception," Liu Qingqing replied. "And that is why our Oddity Management Association must control every oddity as far as we can. If the cost of using some oddity were the destruction of Canxing, the explosion of the sun, or even the collapse of the universe, then everyone would die!"
"The sun exploding, the universe collapsing—how could that be possible—"
"It is entirely possible—" Liu Qingqing sank into memory, a trace of fear showing on her face. After a good while she shook her head and looked at Zhou Dongqiang. "In fact, your oddity could lead to the destruction of Canxing.
"According to our investigation, you've taken a liking to fishing during this time and go every day. So your oddity is a fishing rod? A fishing line?"
Liu Qingqing spoke her guess aloud. "Gold, a wolf, jewelry—its property is fishing all things?
"If that truly is the case, what if one day you fish up an evil god? Wouldn't it be effortless for Him to destroy humanity?"
The talk having come this far, Zhou Dongqiang knew he could not conceal it at all. He pondered a long time, and at last spoke. "I do possess an oddity. A fishing rod that can fish up all things. So now—are you going to take it from me?"
Seeing him admit it, Liu Qingqing quietly let out a breath and shook her head with a smile. "We will not take it. On the contrary, I sincerely invite you to join us and become an official member of the Association."
Zhou Dongqiang stared blankly for a moment. "Joining you—what... uh, benefits are there?"
"Money, status, the respect of others—and besides that, we will help you determine the cost of using the fishing rod, as far as we are able," Liu Qingqing answered. "However, if the cost of using it is too great, we will forcibly seal it away. If the cost is comparatively small, it will still belong to you, and we will work with you to develop its properties and put them to good use.
"Beyond that, you will receive the Association's careful training, and so become an extraordinary being!"
Pa—
Liu Qingqing snapped her fingers. In the next moment a plume of orange flame sprang up in the empty air and swayed gently. She swept her hand; the flame vanished, a spray of water leapt up, and many crystalline droplets hung floating in the air, quite lovely.
"Control of fire, control of water—these are all derivative effects of certain oddities. So long as you are infected with these effects, you can do the same. Besides that, you can systematically study immortal cultivation methods, and live forever without aging!"
Zhou Dongqiang's eyes went wide. "Cultivate immortality? Live forever without aging?!"
Liu Qingqing nodded. "Well? Will you join us? You may consider it carefully."
Zhou Dongqiang drew two deep breaths. He hesitated only a dozen seconds or so before saying firmly, "I agree."
Not joining was impossible. Setting aside the benefits of joining, if he refused, would the Oddity Management Association really leave him alone?
Impossible!
When the time came they would simply seize it by force, and he might not even keep his life.
Since that was so, better to agree honestly and be done with it.
At his words Liu Qingqing smiled lightly and held out her hand. "Welcome."
Zhou Dongqiang pressed his lips together, shook her hand once, and said, "I'll go get the fishing rod now."
Liu Qingqing reminded him, "Every new member who joins will undergo at least a month of special training, so you'd best say goodbye to your friends. As for the school, we will request an extended leave for you.
"Mm. In fact, after you join us, there is a very great chance you will not return to school. You will set foot on a road of guarding humanity and pursuing the unknown."
"I understand."
Zhou Dongqiang paused, opened the car door, and walked toward the dormitory building. Zhang Xiong, waiting not far off, saw this and came to the side of the car. "Looks like he agreed?"
"University students may be young, but they are not stupid. When you set every condition out clearly before him, he will naturally make the correct choice," Liu Qingqing said.
"Good that he agreed. What I'm afraid of is running into the stubborn sort who insist on going head-to-head with us. And the properties of their oddities all differ. Even we can come to grief if we are the least bit careless."
Zhang Xiong let out a long breath. "Take Zhou Dongqiang. Who knows what he's fished up before? If he suddenly pulled out a transformation device, a magic treasure, some black-tech weapon or the like, and we were the ones getting beaten down instead—"
He drew his gaze back, and the scene closed. Huang Tian turned it over: the Oddity Management Association; every oddity had its cost of use—
"I'm back." The dorm door was pushed open, and Zhou Dongqiang came in.
Murong Hao hurriedly asked, "Nothing's wrong, is there?"
"Nothing major. I just have to request an extended leave. I don't know when I'll be able to come back—" Zhou Dongqiang answered as he packed.
"Ah?" Murong Hao's mouth fell open. In his heart he guessed: Had he broken the law? Surely not—
A few minutes later Zhou Dongqiang had roughly finished packing, and then said, "A-Hao!"
"What is it?" Murong Hao looked up, and then saw Zhou Dongqiang pull from his backpack a—gold bar!
"Catch!"
"Holy shit! Holy shit!" He fumbled the gold bar into his hands, utterly dumbfounded, feeling that none of this could be real.
"Take it, and don't worry. It came by proper means. I've still got quite a lot." Zhou Dongqiang said it as if it were nothing. He took a pitch-black box from his bag and tossed it. "Old Huang, yours!"
Huang Tian caught it steadily.
"Inside the box is a treasure ginseng I happened to dig up while fishing out in the wild. Didn't you say drinking too much before hurt your health? It ought to be quite useful." Zhou Dongqiang reminded him, "But remember not to eat it all at once. Only a tiny thread of it each day, or a weak body won't be able to bear the tonic. You absolutely have to remember!"
Huang Tian opened the box a crack, and an extremely dense surge of spiritual qi poured out. Inside was a treasure ginseng faintly giving off a red light. The moment he closed the box, the spiritual qi was locked tight, not a thread of it leaking. Even a sweep of divine sense could not detect it.
"Thank you," Huang Tian said.
"It's nothing, nothing." Zhou Dongqiang waved it off, then shouldered his pack and dragged a suitcase with his right hand. "I'm off!"
"We'll see you down."
"All right."
The three went downstairs. Around behind the dormitory building, Zhou Dongqiang put the backpack and suitcase into the trunk of the black car and waved to the two of them. "See you again someday!"
With that he got into the car. Liu Qingqing and Zhang Xiong were sitting inside. Zhang Xiong started the engine, and the car slowly pulled away, heading for the main gate of Changnan University.
Sitting in the car, Zhou Dongqiang watched Huang Tian and the other through the rearview mirror and sighed quietly in his heart. With this parting, they would be people of two worlds—
If he truly became an official member of the Oddity Management Association, he would set out on a wondrous, magnificent journey, and he would hardly have much contact with his former relatives and friends again.
And if he had been tricked and killed by the Association—then they would truly and thoroughly be people of two worlds.
Although that possibility was relatively small, it existed all the same. That was why Zhou Dongqiang had so casually given the gold bar and treasure ginseng he had fished up to Huang Tian and the others.
If his life was gone, what use was keeping these things? Better to give some to family and friends. At least it could improve their lives a little, and that counted as meaningful.
Liu Qingqing said, "Once you leave this time, you will come into a new life, while they will go on living in peace. That is not necessarily a bad thing. In this Age of Oddities, knowing nothing instead lets one live more easily, and more happily."
Zhou Dongqiang drew back his gaze and gave a slight nod.
"Let's go back." Seeing the car grow farther and farther away until it vanished, Huang Tian turned and walked back.
Murong Hao hurried after him, scratching his head without stop. "What happened today is too outrageous. Tell me, is A-Zhou some urban dragon king, some wicked young master of the Flower Capital? Identity hidden for years, playing weak so he could bring down the strong, and now his trusted subordinates have come to welcome him back so he can dominate the world again and suppress everyone who won't submit?"
Huang Tian glanced at him. "Your imagination is quite rich."
Murong Hao laughed awkwardly. "It's just that I feel A-Zhou is too generous. A gold bar, just like that—"
As they spoke, the two walked into the dorm. Murong Hao rushed to his own seat, hugged the gold bar, and looked it over and over, unable to stop smiling no matter what. With this gold bar, he would have at least several decades less of hard struggle ahead!
As for Huang Tian, he opened the box and let his divine sense sweep over the treasure ginseng. The spiritual power within was indeed abundant. "I was already about to break through to Dao Foundation. Once I take this, the Dao Foundation will form at once, and Golden Core will be nearly there as well!"
Once he stepped into third-rank Golden Core, with his divine abilities he could handle even a fifth-rank Yang Spirit. With strength like that, on an ordinary planet he would scarcely need to hold back; even a nuclear bomb could not kill him.
Even in this world of oddities he would be extremely, extremely strong—equivalent to a human-shaped oddity!
After breaking through to Golden Core, he could make bold moves and sound out every side, and at the same time collect some oddities to study. If he wanted to probe the root mysteries of this world, oddities were undoubtedly the key.
Thinking this, he cut a slice from the treasure ginseng and placed it in his mouth. At once, vast spiritual qi poured into his limbs and bones, circulated through a full heavenly circuit, and at last gathered in his Huangting—
In a snap of the fingers, six days passed.
On this day, in Dorm 208, Murong Hao had gone to the cafeteria to eat. Only Huang Tian remained in the room.
"Hoo—hah—"
His chest slowly rose and fell. Strand by strand, the spiritual qi between heaven and earth was drawn into his body, until his skin grew ever more luminous, shining with a clear treasure-light.
Whoosh—
Outside, the sky changed all at once. A great wind blew, shredding the heavy clouds into threads and wisps. The myriad trees bent at the waist; the wild grass crouched low. A clear wind passed through the open window into the dorm, setting his sleeves fluttering and his black hair flying.
"Puh—"
At a certain moment the spiritual qi gathered in his Huangting, fused together, and finally condensed into a perfectly round, flawless Golden Core. The Golden Core hung quietly suspended, blooming with magnificent, dazzling light!
"After all these days, I've finally broken through!"
Chapter 232