The fifth-rank house upgraded the same way as before: its domain doubled from its original range.
At first-rank, it was only Room 16-1.
At second-rank, it was the entire sixteenth floor.
At third-rank, it was the five floors from the fourteenth to the eighteenth.
At fourth-rank, it became the whole of Building Seven.
Now that it had reached fifth-rank, the house’s domain instantly covered the whole complex. All ten buildings belonging to Senyu Residential Complex were within its range. It could even expand its domain outside the streets, stretching continuously until it covered a radius of one kilometre.
Fu Erdie stood on the top floor, feeling the evening wind and looking at the limit of the house’s coverage. Her spirit trembled.
This feeling of slowly expanding territory, as though opening up new lands, left her unable to calm down for a long time.
At present, the most comfortable and relaxed coverage range for the house was the entire complex.
Extending outward was like a person stretching both arms and reaching forcefully outward. After doing it for too long, its arms would ache.
So after testing its limit, the house shrank back again.
It could control the size of its own domain. It could return to covering the complex, or return to Building Seven, or even shrink back to its original state of only Room 16-1.
However, shrinking too small also felt uncomfortable. After repeated attempts, its comfortable range was from Building Seven to the entire complex.
And with the house’s upgrade, its control over its main body had also reached an unprecedented level.
Building Seven was no longer a neat, square structure. Nor was it like when it was fourth-rank, when it could only slowly and gradually change bit by bit. Now, according to its own wishes, it could more easily and freely become taller, shorter, fatter, thinner. Even its weight became much lighter after it adjusted itself and discarded part of the gel-like material transformed from steel bars.
It extended several piles to support its main body and used them to stand up. However, these piles could only change shape; they could not flexibly perform the action of stepping forward. As soon as one leg tried to lift, the entire house lost balance and tilted toward the missing corner.
The house had no choice but to put the leg back down and hand the task of walking over to the succulent and the others.
So Fu Erdie began working on upgrading the succulent.
The succulent was currently third-rank. After eating one thousand crystal cores, it reached fourth-rank. Then, after eating nearly three thousand crystal cores, it reached fifth-rank.
Each upgrade was a qualitative leap. Back when it had been third-rank, it had already been able to support the whole building with the help of the other plants. Now, after eating enough crystal cores and upgrading, its fleshy leaves and strength instantly grew larger.
It easily wrapped around all of Building Seven. Then its roots exerted force, successfully accomplishing the feat of lifting the house with ease even without the help of the other plants!
Fu Erdie was pleasantly surprised. She had the house change shape to cooperate with the succulent’s movements, adjusting its own form as they tried to leave the complex.
The ten buildings in the complex were not arranged neatly. Building Seven first made itself taller and thinner, adjusting its body according to the succulent’s direction of movement.
For example, in open spaces, it maintained its chubby, square shape. When passing through corners, it became long and thin, imitating a snake’s forward movement, advancing while twisting itself into a serpentine waist.
When they reached the courtyard wall, the wall was about two or three metres high. Relying entirely on the succulent’s roots and fleshy leaves to lift that high was still somewhat strenuous.
So the house cooperated. First, it created more than ten piles to lift itself up to around three metres. Then, after the succulent stretched its fleshy leaves and roots outside the courtyard wall and supported them firmly, the house tried to slowly retract the pile legs near the wall, shifting its weight and centre of gravity backward. After the succulent moved one front corner outside the courtyard wall, the house promptly extended the pile leg again, propping it diagonally against the ground ahead. It imitated a person stepping over a hurdle, first crossing one leg over, using that slanted support to hold up its body, then relying on the succulent’s more flexible support and cooperation to move the other leg across.
Just like that, the house and the succulent carefully shifted forward bit by bit. Finally, ten minutes later, they successfully moved the entire building out!
The people in the complex had nothing else to do, so they watched from the side as the house moved out step by step. The more they watched, the more excited they became. They clapped loudly, wishing they could also put in strength and help climb over the courtyard wall together.
After leaving the complex, the house came to the road, followed the slope upward, and reached the very familiar hillside behind the complex.
The terrain was high, the view was open, and beneath the clear night sky, starlight and the lights of the complex reflected one another. The whole of Building Seven also shone brightly.
The plants could not make voices, so they imitated the sound of knocking on boxes, banging and thumping in celebration of their first time coming to the world outside the house complex.
That night, Building Seven and all the plants on that floor did not return. They stayed on the windy mountainside for the night.
Early the next morning, Fu Erdie woke up and began thinking about her own upgrade.
Yesterday, when upgrading the succulent, in order to record more accurate values, all the crystal cores used were first-rank.
According to Professor Zhao’s analysis and records, when eating first-rank crystal cores that were not of one’s own attribute, going from third-rank to fourth-rank required one thousand different-attribute crystal cores. Going from fourth-rank to fifth-rank required three thousand different-attribute crystal cores.
Fu Erdie had been stuck at fifth-rank for some time now. She also wanted to use her own situation to verify approximately how many crystal cores were needed for later upgrades.
She currently had twenty-one thousand crystal cores in hand, of which around fifteen thousand were first-rank. Whatever number of first-rank crystal cores she needed to upgrade, an ordinary ability user would probably need to multiply that by ten.
To make the record and calculation of this value more precise, Fu Erdie also absorbed first-rank crystal cores in batches of one hundred.
Her absorption speed was very fast: one hundred crystal cores every five minutes. In less than an hour, she had absorbed eight or nine hundred crystal cores and reached sixth-rank.
Fu Erdie calculated it and felt that adding in the time she spent training with Sang Wenhao every day, it was about equivalent to one thousand first-rank crystal cores.
She carefully sensed the changes in her ability and vaguely felt a very strange, subtle sensation, as though some kind of barrier had been broken through.
For the moment, she did not carefully investigate what had become so different. She continued absorbing crystal cores at a terrifying speed of one thousand per hour. After continuously absorbing for an entire day, ten hours later, the feeling of the barrier breaking grew stronger and stronger.
When night fell again, after she had absorbed ten thousand more first-rank crystal cores on top of sixth-rank, she unexpectedly reached the critical point and broke through to seventh-rank.
Some kind of special informational resonance seemed to arise between heaven and earth. She felt her energy space become a vast ocean, unconsciously absorbing all the pheromones around her that could promote her positive mutation.
And those close to her — Sang Wenhao, Cen Xiyang, as well as the house and the plants — all seemed to undergo subtle changes under the radiation range of her ability.
Fu Erdie moved her fingers, wanting to see the little pothos.
As soon as this thought arose, she felt her finger being tugged and held by a smooth pothos leaf.
Then she wanted to smell the fragrance of gardenias. In the next second, gardenias naturally bloomed all over Building Seven, bursting with a rich fragrance.
Fu Erdie froze, her body growing slightly cold.
Had she stripped away the plants’ will and turned them into her puppets…?
Before she could scare herself with her own imagination, Cen Xiyang cried out, “What, what! Die’er! I can feel your thoughts!”
Fu Erdie snapped back to herself and suddenly looked at Cen Xiyang, who had been guarding her all day.
Cen Xiyang shook her best friend’s hand hard. “You didn’t turn us into puppets! It’s your thoughts that can be transmitted over! Ask Brother Sang if you don’t believe me!”
Fu Erdie looked at Sang Wenhao. He was also in a somewhat shocked and dazed state. When he noticed her looking over, he nodded firmly. “I can sense your mental state, and… for the first time, I can see the energy space you’ve always talked about.”
Most of the plants’ energy spaces were natural forests, wilderness, grasslands, and little wooden houses where Fu Erdie lived.
Because Cen Xiyang had previously absorbed the crystal core of a spatial ability zombie, she had long since seen her own energy space of tall buildings and city streets, so she did not react too strongly.
But for Sang Wenhao, this was the first time he intuitively knew what the so-called energy space was like.
Dark, hollow, filled with raging metallic elements. When he held Fu Erdie’s hand and was soothed by her, it would actually feel more peaceful. The energy fluctuations would no longer be so violent, becoming gentle and at ease, as though pacified.
He could see his own energy space, and under the enormous influence of Fu Erdie’s seventh-rank ability, he also saw Fu Erdie’s energy space.
He had thought Fu Erdie’s space would be similar to the plants’, a natural and refreshing scene.
Unexpectedly, Fu Erdie’s world was pure white.
There was no sky or earth, no grassland, no beloved little wooden house from childhood, no plants, no animals, no people, and no version of herself.
Complete blankness and emptiness.
But precisely because it was empty, it seemed to overlap with her attribute-less state.
Because of this blankness, she could harmoniously train and push-pull with humans, plants, and the house.
She did not have a world of her own. When she used her ability, other people’s worlds became her world.
Sang Wenhao did not know why, but he felt a little sad.
He gently hugged Fu Erdie, passing his body warmth to her.
Cen Xiyang did not understand why, but unwilling to fall behind, she hugged Fu Erdie from the other side.
Seeing this, the other plants also crowded over and hugged Fu Erdie, layer upon layer, soon wrapping her into a rice dumpling.
Fu Erdie: “…”
That trace of confusion and panic was instantly scattered. She wanted to open her mouth and tell everyone that it was enough, they should do what they needed to do and not be inexplicably sentimental.
As soon as this thought arose, the other plants sensed it, rubbed her face, and quickly let her go.
Fu Erdie laughed helplessly.
That evening, after eating a big meal, Fu Erdie tried to further understand the changes brought by her rank advancement.
If the only thing she could do was communicate mentally with people and plants close to her, then this ability… how should she put it? It seemed to have gone off track, and did not have particularly obvious practical meaning.
Ten thousand crystal cores. A full ten thousand crystal cores!
If an ordinary ability user wanted to upgrade, the number of crystal cores required would be one hundred thousand!
She had spent ten thousand crystal cores to upgrade. No matter what, she ought to have a stronger ability!
As probably the only seventh-rank ability user in Hua Country, she should have some more heaven-defying changes!
As she studied and explored it, she gradually discovered the trick.
If beings like Sang Wenhao, Cen Xiyang, the plants, and the house — ability bodies that allowed her to freely push and pull abilities — were called her “close friends,” then, with a close friend’s consent, she could perform ability push-pull with them without physical contact.
The range currently covered was quite large. Fu Erdie had Sang Wenhao step on metal and fly outward, discovering that within a radius of about one kilometre, she could still push and pull abilities.
Fu Erdie continued trying, then discovered that, with a close friend’s tacit permission, she could also use the close friend’s ability.
When she saw herself use Sang Wenhao’s energy to condense a piece of metal, Fu Erdie’s pupils shook.
Although she had not yet thought of combat methods or anything like that, she simply felt that she was, well, a little invincible!
Taking a deep breath, Fu Erdie began using Cen Xiyang’s ability.
Cen Xiyang’s spatial ability was spatial compression. It also had the special property of transmitting ability through a contact medium.
After training abilities in the complex for so long, Cen Xiyang could already use contact with the plant babies to successfully transfer her ability to the farthest ends of plant roots, branches, and leaves, then attack the target point.
Fu Erdie simulated using Cen Xiyang’s ability. Unfortunately, without vision from the ends of the plants, she could not see the places that far away by sight alone.
So Fu Erdie looked at Han Zhi with burning eyes.
She needed his ability.
Han Zhi felt uncomfortable for an instant.
But he still stretched out his hand, willing to try ability push-pull with Fu Erdie again.
He was a very guarded person, deeply unwilling to let others control his ability.
But he was no longer the careless ability user who had joined Senyu Residential Complex only because of Cen Xiyang. It had been a year since Fu Erdie had taken him in.
He had also followed Fu Erdie out on missions for four months.
They were teammates.
After spending so much time together, he was willing to hand his ability over to Fu Erdie to handle.
Fu Erdie looked at the hand he solemnly stretched out and openly held it.
Han Zhi’s energy space was very special. It was the inside of a mountain, a dark, narrow cave.
She travelled through the cave that looked like the scene of a horror film without obstruction. Although she could not move as smoothly and easily as she did with the other close friends, it was already enough.
The instant Han Zhi sincerely stretched out his hand and accepted her ability control, she gained the ability to use his ability.
And at that moment, her vision began to twist. She could control herself to see a bird very, very far away, and she could also see the people in the complex eating fruit and chatting inside the buildings.
She could also share the plants’ vision and see the extremely tall world through the eyes of a tiny gardenia on the first floor.
She could even, through a flying dandelion, see the relaxed and free world of flight.
Fu Erdie let go of Han Zhi’s hand and could still continue using the shared-vision ability.
But she was somewhat worried.
“When I use your abilities, do you get tired?”
Han Zhi shook his head, and Cen Xiyang also said, “No.”
Sang Wenhao said, “Your ability reserves far exceed ours. The amount of ability needed to use a certain ability should also be related to both sides’ ability strength. For example, if your ability reserve and mine are in a 100:1 ratio, then when you use metal-type ability, you would provide 100/101 of the ability energy, and I would only provide 1/101.”
To verify this guess, Fu Erdie activated the metal-type ability and controlled the entire several-hundred-ton Building Seven, which had fused with steel-bar gel, to rise into the air.
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