Chapter 849: New Ability

"What's up with your subordinates having issues at home?"

Leyan was dressed in a plain shirt and jeans as she slowly came down the staircase with a bit of her hair dripping with water.

"Not really nice of you to eavesdrop on people's conversations... Has anyone told you correlation does not imply causation?"

"Mhm. Anyway, you hungry right now? I can go make your breakfast." Leyan answered back as she ignored Xiaoyun's comment.

"That will be great."

With Leyan over in the kitchen, Xiaoyun was now sitting all alone in the living room. Bored, he took out his phone and checked the time.

Ten minutes past six.

"After breakfast, I really need to press Leyan about Houqin... Now where did I put the metal box again?"

Leaning down underneath the coffee table, Xiaoyun quickly took out the metal box that Renqin had given to him earlier.

Flipping the hatch over, the treasure was revealed once again.

A shiny chunk of obsidian the size of his fist, reflective enough to see himself. A young, pale face with an Adam's apple barely visible.

The more he looked into the rock, the more mesmerizing it became. He couldn't resist moving his attention as his hand slowly reached closer.

It was almost as if his soul was demanding that he grab it. Not a single inch of muscle could be mustered to stop his hand.

Touched.

A bright light flashed before his eyes. A warm embrace around his arms followed by a cold shiver down his spine.

Everything froze.

Xiaoyun's heartbeat had stopped. His lungs couldn't breathe. His eyeballs were stuck in place towards the rock.

All the clothes he wore, the sofa he sat on, even the air around him could be felt pressing against every inch of his skin.

The whole world was rejecting him as the soft press turned into more of a hydraulic press pushing from all sides, squeezing him into jelly.

Then it was gone.

Everything had resumed to normal. His heart started beating on its own again. He could breathe normally and blink his eyes.

Only seconds had passed.

Looking down at his hand, the piece of black rock was gone. Over to the metal box, it was empty inside.

Nothing seemed to have changed, other than the fact that he had seemingly absorbed the rock.

"Huh?"

Just as Xiaoyun was puzzled by the rock's lack of change for him, a sudden scream immediately from the right snapped him back into reality.

"Honey, what happened to you!"

"Hm?"

Turning his head to the right, Leyan was coming out of the kitchen and pointing her finger towards him.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Y-Your face!"

"My face?"

After Xiaoyun took out his phone to check, it was still the same young, pale-looking face from earlier.

"What's wrong with my face?"

"T-Turn on the selfie mode," Leyan answered as her voice started to sound a little scared for some reason.

With a press of a button, what happened next made Xiaoyun drop his phone. He couldn't believe his own eyes.

A black, shiny face. The same reflective obsidian look that was on the rock was now in small little chunks on his face.

"What the fuck?"

"Honey! What did you do?" Leyan worryingly asked as she quickly ran up closer to examine the skin herself.

"I don't know... I mean, I touched a rock that Renqin gave me as a gift and now my—"

Before Xiaoyun finished talking, a bright light suddenly appeared for a second, forcing Leyan to cover her eyes.

When it was gone, Leyan's jaw dropped. Xiaoyun's jaw dropped next as he could see his very own hand.

It was all black and shiny. What was only on his face was now all over his body, covering every part of his skin.

Every single one.

"Shit, shit, shit!"

"Honey, you—"

This time, before Leyan finished talking, a bright light appeared once again. After a second had passed, the light vanished just like earlier.

Xiaoyun was back to normal.

It wasn't just any normal. He was back to his usual self. Full-size hands and arms, their eyes matching the same level.

"Yes, yes, yes! Fuck yes! Thank the fucking god! I can't believe this! Holy god damn fucking shit!"

As Xiaoyun celebrated regaining his ability, Leyan was still stunned by everything, all the changes in the matter of a few seconds.

"Honey, you...?"

"Leyan! I got my ability back! Look! I can make a bottle of water and a bullet as easy as a snap of a finger!"

Seeing both items appearing out of thin air once again, Leyan's mind was still too stunned by the drastic recovery her husband had gone through.

But after a big, warm hug, her brain finally processed it. A smile appeared as she celebrated it together with him.

"Honey, you did it!"

"We did it! We got to tell everyone this—"

"What's up with all the loud noises so early in the morning... Xiaoyun?"

As the two of them looked over to the hallway, it was alternate Tianci with red pupils standing there in her pajamas.

"Tianci, I got my ability back!"

---

Nine o'clock.

All of Xiaoyun's wives sat at the dining table with breakfast. Yet their eyes were constantly looking towards his body with newfound curiosity.

Their husband had just explained to them that he had gotten his ability back, but they still found it hard to believe another part of the story.

A new ability.

"Xiaoyun, you're telling me you can change your skin into anything now?" Shuli questioned first.

"Mhm. Look at this. Steel skin!"

Within a blink of an eye, they could all see a layer of steel smoothly wrapped around his skin from his elbow up to his wrist.

"Is it actually steel?" Lily questioned next.

"Of course it is. Here. You can touch it."

As Lily reached out and flicked her fingernail up against the metal, it bounced right back with a crisp metallic ring.

"This is absurd..."

Anna quietly murmured to herself, her eyes genuinely looking a little afraid towards her husband's steel body part.

"At least it's our husband that has it, not some crazy maniac out there in the streets."

Kate pointed out, her face looking happy for her husband as her eyes stared towards her husband's face with a hint of admiration.

"Can I touch it?" Tianci nervously asked, her hand still a little afraid to move closer to his steel forearm.

"Of course."

The moment Tianci's open palm touched the steel part of Xiaoyun's forearm, her pupil suddenly flipped blood-red.

Alternate Tianci had taken full control as she closed her open palm, squeezing the steel forearm as hard as she could.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! S-Stop it! I-It fucking hurts."

"Not so tough after all."

The redness in her pupil vanished as normal Tianci took over her body once again. Her hand immediately loosened up as the steel became inverted.

"That was so uncalled for... Tianci, tell her to come out. I need to teach her a lesson about respect for her husband."

As the inverted metal forearm instantly bent right back out, everyone was a little shocked by how fast and easy Xiaoyun repaired it.

"She's asleep now... Sorry."

"Running away like a coward. Whatever... You still want to touch it?"

"Y-Yeah."

This time, Tianci's hands were able to run all over his steel forearm. Her fingers gently tapped onto it as if she was trying to examine something.

"Wait a moment, Xiaoyun. Is your skin now metal, or can the metal layer be applied on top of your skin at any time?"

Nami's question made Xiaoyun fall into silence for a second before he came up with a question of his own.

"Is there a difference?"

"Um... I don't know. But surely that's an important distinction you need to know. Am I right, Tianci?"

Nami asked as she looked over to the expert next to her chair, whose hand was still busily running over Xiaoyun's hand as if it were a treasure.

"Definitely an important distinction... Xiaoyun, you want to go to the lab together? I can have a closer look at your new ability."

Everyone at the table immediately stopped eating and looked. To their surprise, he shook his head, rejecting the offer as his forearm returned to normal.

"I have more important things first."

"What important thing can be more important than learning about your new ability?" Wuli curiously asked.

Xiaoyun didn't answer back. Instead, he turned over to Leyan, who had been mostly silent ever since the celebration.

"Leyan, when are you fulfilling your promise and bringing me to see Houqin?"

"Do we have to do it now?"

Leyan asked, her face looking uneasy at the sudden confrontation in front of everyone, whose faces all looked a little confused.

Only two of them outside of Leyan didn't flinch a single bit. Tianci and Yueyue maintained a poker face as if they knew something.

"What are you two talking about? What about Houqin? Yueyue, you know something?" Yuqi asked as she looked over to her own sister.

"I-I know nothing!"

"Tianci?"

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