Epoch of Twilight

Luo Yuan felt helpless and picked up the pace. As he entered the room, he immediately shut the door before the mutated woman was able to sneak in.

The mutated woman accidentally knocked her head on the closing door and hissed angrily. She was very frustrated and unsheathed her claw before she proceeded to vengefully slash the door a few times. Though a few deep claw marks appeared on the door, Luo Yuan did not care about it. Besides, the door was already full of scratch marks anyway even before the mutated woman had clawed at it. Every part of the door was full of abstract arts from "wild cats" and it did not make a difference if there were additional claw marks on it.

The mutated woman probably felt dreadful when she was facing large organisms. Ever since the improvement of Luo Yuan’s attributes that had caused his body size to increase, there were times where the mutated woman felt unaccustomed to Luo Yuan. She was not as dependent on Luo Yuan as she was before and had even picked up the habit of sleeping in her own bedroom at night.

However, those unaccustomed feelings did not last long and after some time, the mutated woman slowly adapted to Luo Yuan’s new appearance and began to return to her old habits of trying to enter his bedroom at night.

Though it was difficult to foster independence into the mutated woman, Luo Yuan did not want to spoil her.

Except for one time where she barged into Luo Yuan’s bedroom and slept for one night, he would intentionally lock the door every night. Regardless of how she scratched or hissed unsatisfyingly at the door, Luo Yuan would ignore her. She would grudgingly give up after several repeated attempts.

To be honest, how could the door stop her from entering the room? Her energy had been constantly increasing ever since the application of the level eight energy crystals. Her power was no longer the same as compared to when she had first arrived.

In the evaluation system, she was already categorized as a level seven creature. When there was a comparison in power, even a special operation team member (original members of the Firearms Bureau) would have had a difficult time getting even with her.

In reality, the thing that was really stopping her was not the door, but Luo Yuan’s attitude!

The mutated woman had been instilled with the idea that she was actually a human after the prolonged exposure of living with other humans. She had slowly escaped from her barbarism characteristics over the period of living with Luo Yuan.

However, it is important to note that the prolonged usage of energy crystals did not change her in a big way and in fact, there were even some weaknesses that had appeared. For example, her scales were shrinking and its texture was getting softer which caused its defense to weaken. Besides that, the color of her scales had faded and was now a jade white color. In the wilderness, such coloration was somewhat eye-catching and apparently, it did not fulfill the principles of apocalyptic evolution.

Luo Yuan once guessed that it was because of the stable life she was living and being in a human populated environment that triggered such changes. Initially, there had been a huge difference between her and the humans that subconsciously made her feel uneasy and uncoordinated and therefore she began to actively mimic human beings and evolved accordingly during the evolution process. In a way, it was a form of protective skin layer.

...

Luo Yuan went to the armory and with a height of two meters; he just had to raise his hands slightly to reach the top of the shelf. When he retracted his hands, he was holding a metallic ball the size of a fist.

One of the levels eight crystals was tightly secured and sealed inside this circular metallic ball just to be sure that no one else could access it.

Firstly, this was to isolate the energy crystal from the air so that it could be stored in dry environments. Energy crystals were like crystal minerals and could dissolve in water very quickly. If it was left alone in the air, it could get damp from the air and would be dissolved, causing an accelerated loss in its energy.

Secondly, it was to prevent the mutated woman from sniffing its way to the crystal. The scent of level eight crystals was an indescribable temptation as it was a creature’s instinct to evolve. Even Luo Yuan was allured to the energy crystal when he first handled it.

Of course, he was no longer affected by it as his body was constantly cultivating a huge amount of energy to the extent that the energy crystal in his heart had grown into the size of a ping-pong ball. It was several times bigger than any energy crystal he possessed and even his blood circulatory system was affected by it.

If his heart ever weakened to the point where he needed a replacement, he would have to open his own chest and substitute the energy crystal himself.

Luo Yuan used his fingernail to draw a circle along the metal ball’s circumference. His nail was apparently much harder than metal and a countless number of sparks came off the metallic ball as his nail dragged across its surface.

He blew off the metal bits and a scar of two to three millimeter appeared on the surface of the metallic ball.

"It is done!" He thought.

He held the metallic ball with both of his hands and twisted both of his palms in the opposite direction. Of course, he made sure that he did not exert too much force on the ball when he was opening it as he feared that the hollow ball would be squashed.

An ear piercing shrill sound filled the armory and the mark had noticeably reddened.

A few seconds later, the metallic ball was opened. There were two intact crystals inside and a transparent thin slice.

This hollow metallic ball was not thin as it had a thickness of 20 millimeters. However, compared to Luo Yuan’s 500 tons of force, 20 millimeters was no different from two millimeters.

"The energy of this thin slice was a one-time use only."

He took out the thin slice and sealed the metallic ball with a gentle press. Continuous kneading was applied while ensuring that his action was gentle and careful. A scorching heat emanated from his palm during the process.

After a while, he stopped.

He looked at the ball and nodded with satisfaction. A metallic ball that had split in half was now sealed back together. It was done without even the slightest flaw (except for some fingerprints) and it was as if it had never been split into two before.

Luo Yuan went to the washroom and used the tap water to cool down the metallic ball before putting it back on the top shelf.

He walked out of the room and the mutated woman suddenly pounced on him and tugged his trousers tightly as she became excited.

"Get off me! Can’t you see that I am not able to walk properly?" Luo Yuan flung his leg and cursed.

The mutated human held onto the trousers tightly, ignoring Luo Yuan and hissed continuously. She seemed to have caught the scent of the energy crystal and had gotten excited.

As he saw that the mutated woman did not want to let go, Luo Yuan had no choice but to allow her to grab onto him as he dragged her down with him.

"Somebody give me five glasses of water!"

"I will go get it!" Wang Xiaguang got up and said.

Zhao Yali was about to get up, but seeing Wang Xiaguang had beaten her to it, she just sat down. She thought only Chen Jiayi was allowed to take the energy crystal, but seeing now that everyone was going to take it, she muttered to herself "I just adapted with great difficulty. How could I do this again? Last time when I was frying, I accidentally broke the wok."

"Yours is only a wok. I broke my bedroom handle and still have not repaired it!" Wang Xiaguang returned with the cups of water and complained after listened to Zhao Yali.

"How come I heard strange noises during the night?" Huang Jiahui stirred the pot for fun.

The ladies let out a lovable laugh.

Wang Xiaguang put down the cups of water and blushed. She was not as experienced as everyone else and was not accustomed to adult jokes.

It was Luo Yuan’s fault; she stared at Luo Yuan and recalled the past moments.

Luo Yuan had been brief about it during the first time so she thought this kind of thing was just as simple as that. However, after a while, she discovered that Luo Yuan was as tireless as a beast and this had made her miserable.

She was suspicious that the reason why Luo Yuan would have them take the energy crystal from time to time was actually to have even more fun in this matter.

Luo Yuan was not aware of Wang Xiaguang’s self-complaints and pretended to ignore Huang Jiahui’s joke. He shook his head and said, "You all do not really appreciate my intention. This is a level eight mutated beast’s energy crystal. Except for you bunch, nobody else has ever taken it!"

Ye Qiuyu looked at all this in envy and felt depressed as this was something that allowed a normal being to become superhuman. It was a fate-changing factor and if this thing was to leak out, she believed it would consume everyone in madness.

As a normal human, she had a huge desire to be strong but she knew that it did not belong to her. She was just the servant, a private doctor and had clearly understood her role even before she got here. She lowered her head and hid her depressed expression, not allowing anyone to see it.

"Doctor Ye!"

"Doctor Ye!"

Ye Qiuyu suddenly realized Luo Yuan was calling her so she quickly regained her composure.

"Take this water to Chen Jiayi and have her drink it!" Luo Yuan said.

"Yes, right away Mayor Luo!" Ye Qiuyu said it in a polite manner.

"I told you already to call me Luo Yuan." Luo Yuan said upon seeing her fearful expression.

"Yeah, Sister Ye. You do not have to be so reserved as we are all are part of a family here." Wang Shishi tried to calm her.

"Sorry, sorry!" Ye Qiuyu panicked and apologized.

"Whatever, whatever. Call me however you like!" Luo Yuan grudgingly said. Even after such a long time, this woman treated him like a lamb had met a tiger.

Luo Yuan shook his head and seeing how Ye Qiuyu took the water and walked off quickly as if she was escaping, he did not know what to say. Everyone just kept whispering among themselves.

Ye Qiuyu still gave him a good impression as she was diligent at home. Not only had she took care of Chen Jiayi but she also actively took care of the chores.

She was probably just a timid person!

Luo Yuan recalled her depressed expression and he muttered to himself as he split the remaining crystal for one more person.

He did not care about the level eight energy crystals even though it looked precious to everyone else. In fact, there were two remaining energy crystals, which was more than enough even if one more person had taken it.

The mutated human which was nearby tugged even more forcefully and hissed impatiently when she saw that the water had been given to someone else. Luo Yuan’s trousers would have been torn apart if not for the fact that it had been made from a space creature’s composite skin.

She was getting impatient after waiting for such a long time and it appeared that her resolution had grown rather thin.

"Brother Luo, don’t tempt her. Give her the crystal first. Otherwise, she will become crazy." Wang Shishi who used to get along well with the mutated woman was worried about her.

"Such a hot-tempered and greedy person. I don’t even know when you will change. Here, catch it!"

Luo Yuan stared at her in a displeased manner and threw a slice of crystal to her. A silhouette leaped up and snatched the energy crystal while it was in midair before the mutated woman excitedly threw it into her mouth. She hurried into a corner and slowly digested it.

Everyone drank the water and soon, a burning sensation spread across their bodies.