Only I can make them stronger

Xia Ye was thinking and estimating the difference in combat power between the two sides while observing the surrounding environment.

"There are mostly small mountains and mine tunnels, with a few larger mines... If I were Shadow Claw, I would start from..."

"Is this the residential area? It looks so simple..." At this time, Leah's voice interrupted his thoughts.

The truck has reached its destination, and in front of it is a gray building that looks quite simple.

Just by looking from the outside, the four of them could already feel the roughness of the building. The windows were wide open, and dust was pouring in. Through the windows, they saw that the empty room on the first floor was extremely simply furnished, and there seemed to be nothing else except a bed, a table and a cabinet.

It looked almost the same as the guesthouse where I stayed for thirty-fourty-one nights in my previous life, and the environment was even worse.

"After all, we're not here for fun, so just stay for two nights..." Seeing this, Xia Ye could only helplessly comfort Liya and comfort himself at the same time.

"Kareya the forger, from the city-state of Shia... The rooms assigned to you and your guards are 405 and 407. Here are the keys, please keep them safe."

"You will need to stay here for three days. The first two days are for sample screening. You need to arrive at the East District mining site at nine o'clock every morning. The third day is a mining seminar. After that, you can return to the Xia City-State."

"Thank you for coming, and welcome to the Stone Hotel in the Livica Mine."

A man who looked like a waiter was waiting at the door. After seeing several people get off the car and checking the information just passed by the security personnel, he made a slightly ugly salute, but still welcomed everyone politely.

68. The Coldness in Leah’s Body

The interior of the "Stone Hotel" seems even worse than it looks from the outside.

Walking on the stairs, Xia Ye could even feel that the stairs were shaking slightly with the footsteps of the four people, as if they might collapse at any time.

"It's hard to imagine that even guests from outside are staying in a place like this..."

"Don't doubt it." Kareya seemed to be accustomed to this situation, and took over Xia Ye's words:

"Those miners are considered quite capable to have a container to sleep in. Normally, they are basically sleeping in the wilderness. They also have to face mines that may collapse at any time and monsters that may jump out of cracks in the rocks."

“Those with power won’t be willing to come here, and those without power can only hope that they are lucky enough to survive and earn enough money to settle down in the city.”

"But the vast majority of people won't make it to that day... This kind of work is a life-threatening job."

"See that mine? There may be more bodies buried in it than ore."

She seemed to be able to empathize with this type of low-level workers, and I think she also had a past that she couldn't bear to look back on.

This topic was a bit too heavy. The simple-minded Leah and Xia Ye, whose most memories were still in the beautiful city life, didn't know what to say for a moment.

The group of four slowly walked down the stairs and came to their room.

"I will be responsible for Kareya's safety today. Liya, you and Xia Ye will share a room."

Standing in front of the two doors next to each other, Shana took the initiative to speak.

"Okay." Xia Ye didn't care much about it and answered casually.

And Leah just nodded, instead of cheering excitedly like usual.

……

As I entered the room, a musty smell hit me in the face.

There was only a bed about 1.5 meters wide and 2 meters long in the room, and the bedding was casually spread out and covered with sand and dust.

As soon as she entered the door, Leah was choked and coughed twice.

"...Let's clean up first." Xia Ye couldn't stand the mess in the house anymore, so he pulled up the quilt and started shaking off the dust.

"Xia Ye, tell me... one day, will we be like them..."

Liya stood there, looking at Xia Ye who was busy, and suddenly spoke.

Hearing this, Xia Ye paused for a moment, but soon resumed his work, saying:

“I don’t know, but I don’t think so.”

"I know that some of them were also abducted or sold by the city." Liya recalled some bad memories and lowered her eyes:

"If I hadn't stood in front of that girl that day, she might have appeared here..."

"This world is like this, cruel and cold, we can't help everyone."

Xia Ye looked at Liya, his eyes firmer: "I can't feel sad for everyone."

"What we have to do is to become stronger, protect ourselves, and then protect the people we want to protect."

"Luo Qi said the same thing..." Liya lowered her head, "I just... every time I think of this kind of thing, I feel scared."

"I'm afraid that the warmth and beauty we have now, everyone in Qianshi Office, and you, will leave me one day..."

Xia Ye frowned. He felt that Leah seemed a little different from usual.

It’s not that the sentimentality this time is any different, but... the words Leah used are different from before.

At times like this, she usually calls herself "Xia Ye" instead of "you".

Moreover, the whole sentence does not sound at all like Leah's "straightforward" style, but instead sounds quite "cultured".

"Liya, have you felt anything special recently?"

Xia Ye put down the work in his hands, sat down beside the bed and hugged the girl directly.

Leah also sat obediently on his lap face to face, with her two plump breasts pressing against Xia Ye's chest. Her big brown eyes stared at Xia Ye with a somewhat depressed look, and there seemed to be a deeper dark light in their eyes.

"Special? It seems... there's nothing special. If I have to say, it's just that I seem to be prone to random thoughts recently."

"It started two days before we set off. It's just that we talked about those things just now. I was really a little sad, so I took the initiative to say it... Xia Ye, do you think Liya is annoying? There are always problems like this..."

"How could that be?" Xia Ye tightened his arms around the girl, leaned forward and gently rubbed Leah's nose with his nose.

After being comforted by Xia Ye for a while, the latter narrowed his eyes, leaned over and gently licked Xia Ye's ears.

He found that in this quiet and peaceful moment, he really enjoyed this kind of intimate interaction with Leah.

"Then Leah, can you let me 'take a look'?" Feeling that Leah's mood had calmed down a little, Xia Ye straightened up and asked.

He could also take this opportunity to try to understand what Luo Qi asked him to figure out.

"See? Liya is sitting here, Xia Ye can see whatever she wants." Liya was puzzled by the other party's question.

"What I mean is, use inspirational vision." Xia Ye smiled helplessly, almost forgetting Leah's natural insensitivity.

"Of course! Xia Ye can see it however she wants!" Leah didn't seem to quite understand the difference between inspirational vision and ordinary seeing.

Anyway, she wouldn't mind whatever Xia Ye wanted to do to her.

"It seems like this is indeed a bit redundant question..." Xia Ye complained a little and directly activated [True Insight], focusing his attention on the girl who was nearby.

Soon he saw that, similar to Shana, Leah also had a ball of dark brown light in her body. Just by seeing it, Xia Ye felt that several vague words were wandering back and forth in his mind and were gradually forming complete sentences.

As she focused more, the dark brown ball of light seemed to become more solid, much more concrete than the electric light in Shana's body.

Like a big ball of dirt.

Then, a cold feeling began to envelop Xia Ye's body.

This feeling is extremely real, and it is not like the coldness of ice. Instead, it is as if one is buried deep in thick soil, with an extremely oppressive coldness, and a hint of loneliness and darkness.

Xia Ye was shocked and confused by this——

Inspiration usually does bring some feelings related to the things you focus on. For example, when you look at Shana, you will feel a slight numbness in your body, and you can clearly feel that the blood in your body will be agitated with the amplitude of the electric surge.

But he couldn't figure out why Leah gave him this feeling?

Isn't this girl in front of me innocent, enthusiastic, lively and cheerful all day long?

With such doubts in mind, Xia Ye focused more attention and stared at the ball of light in Leah's body.

But the ball of light did not change. Unlike Shana, it did not spread out blood vessels to outline a pattern, but just floated there quietly.

He could not feel anything except endless cold.

69. The Desire in Leah

[True Insight] From Xia Ye's current experience, it is safer than ordinary inspirational vision, and will involve some additional, more specific descriptions and pictures. Moreover, it will take effect immediately as long as the ability is enabled in the system, making it more convenient to use.

But the situation inside Leah's body was beyond his expectations.

"A little more...pay more attention..." Xia Ye felt that something was not right.

He increasingly felt that Leah's emotional problems were not accidental.

So he gathered all his willpower and focused all his attention.

The world around her gradually turned dark, and the sound began to be swallowed up, as if she was in the deep space of the universe, and the light ball in Leah's body was the only star.

An even more unbearable coldness swept over, but Xia Ye's body perception had begun to gradually decrease, and he did not feel as uncomfortable as before.

He fell into the same situation as when he was observing the [Eternal Fire] before.

Inspiration is a terrifying and subtle force.

Some people say that when the interference power of inspiration is strong enough, it can completely concretize abstract things.

Perhaps it was because Xia Ye's inspiration was too high, whenever he concentrated all his attention to observe certain things with a strong influence, some of the characteristics of these things would in turn affect him synchronously.

What’s even more frustrating is that this situation is usually invisible.

In order to gain a deeper understanding of the things in his field of vision, Xia Ye must concentrate all his attention and focus all his inspiration and intelligence on it. This will cause his sensitivity to the things around him to drop significantly, and he may even ignore the abnormalities in his own body.

"Give me freedom!"

Fortunately, the sudden words broke the cold and dark silence.

"What?" But Xia Ye didn't react for a while. Why did such a message suddenly come out of Leah's body?

"The soil is a yoke, burying the bound directions, one leading to gaze, one leading to devouring, and one leading to destruction."

Strange descriptions followed, and at the same time, the khaki ball of light finally began to change.

Its color became darker, and three branches spread out, stretching into the shape of chains and collars, binding three locations in the void.

And looking at the image of the collar, Xia Ye felt that it was very similar to the one that Luo Qi showed him at that time.

A guess suddenly arose in Xia Ye's mind - the prototype of Leah's mutant factor could not be an ordinary dog, but the legendary mythical creature, Cerberus, the three-headed dog of hell?

This description is exactly like...

Cerberus, who is responsible for guarding the gate to the underworld, has one head responsible for keenly examining all passing souls, one head responsible for destroying those who disobey the rules of life and death, and one head responsible for devouring all the redundant souls.

So this brown-yellow light ball does not represent some kind of power, but soil! ?

In mythology, Pluto is in charge of the land where corpses are buried. In many legends, the underworld is another world located deep beneath the soil.

That is why it makes itself feel the endless pressure, loneliness, darkness and coldness brought by the absence of sunlight all day long under the earth.

"If the source of the mutant factor is a mythical creature, then everything seems to make sense."

"More powerful than ordinary mutants of the same level, and much more difficult to grow than ordinary mutants..."

Xia Ye felt that the more he thought about it, the more reliable it seemed, and the more he guessed, the more it seemed to be true.

He believes in his outstanding experience and imagination in plot reasoning.

"So, the abnormality that Leah is showing now, could it be that as her power grows and she becomes stronger under Shana's training, she begins to awaken the will of her other two heads, and then begins to show a state similar to schizophrenia?"

"That's why they become sentimental, a little cold and 'cultured'."

Xia Ye felt that his speculation was quite reasonable.

Then he exited the state of [True Insight].

It's not that he didn't want to look a few more times to confirm his guess, but just after the change in his field of vision, his mental strength began to decline sharply. At this time, his vision became blurred, which meant that he could no longer bear it.

"If my guess is correct, there is no need to worry about Leah's condition for the time being. After all, this is one of her own attributes and characteristics, and it is unlikely to have any negative impact on her."

"As long as we take care of her emotions, there shouldn't be any problems."

While thinking, Xia Ye looked at Leah who was close by with curiosity in her eyes.

The girl now seems to have quietly returned to her usual state, with a kind of "clear innocence" revealed in her eyes.

"Did Xia Ye see anything special?" Seeing that Xia Ye's eyes had regained clarity, Liya probably knew that he should have returned to normal vision.

"I didn't see anything special, but I heard a voice saying 'I like Xia Ye so much'..."

It was rare for him to utter such greasy, teasing words.

Under normal circumstances, Xia Ye would have refused to speak like this out of embarrassment.