Chapter 24.1 - Master~ We finally meet!

After the call with Li Jinghua, Li Xinwen found himself walking without any destination in mind. Though he did ask about buying underwear earlier, he felt that it would be better if he were to go with Sun Xiao. 'Ah'Xiao's school ends at 2:00pm... and now it's only 10:48am,' Li Xinwen sighed as he thought about how to kill time. 'I'd cultivate but I'd need to consolidate my cultivation since I advanced too quickly.'

As Li Xinwen pondered on how to spend his time, he suddenly remembered that the original owned a residence nearby. Li Xinwen decided to simply go there for a visit.

By the time he arrived at the high-rise building, it was not even 11:00am yet. He entered the building and the security in charge of the entrance bowed to him. "Mr. Li! Welcome back! I heard you had an accident a few months ago. Are you alright, now?" the guard asked. This guard's job was simple, and that was to make sure no one suspicious enters the building. Most of the residents in this building were artists from the same company as Li Xinwen and so he would benefit from this fact from time to time. Especially during valentines when there would be an influx of gifts in the form of chocolates. Some artists aren't able to eat a lot and they would give him some.

"Mr. Yun! Good to see you. Thank you for your hard work!" Li Xinwen replied with a smile as he stared at the guard's nametag which read 'Yun Bolin'. "And yes, I am alright now. You don't have to worry."

"I see. That is great to hear! While you were hospitalized, your sister came to feed your cats. Now that you're here, I'm sure they'll be happy!" Mr. Yun said, and Li Xinwen nodded as he went to the elevator. Once the elevator door closed and the guard saw the lights going up, a frown formed on his face. He took out his phone and sent a message to one of his contacts. The name displayed for this contact was 'client' and the message he sent was quite suspicious.

[Yun Bolin: Li Xinwen came over. From what I see, he made a full recovery.]

[Client: Understood. Keep an eye on him. When he comes out later, try to inquire if he's going anywhere and then inform me.]

[Yun Bolin: Yes, sir.]

After the short exchange, Yun Bolin placed his phone back into his pocket and continued to play with his portable console once more.

Meanwhile, Li Xinwen arrived at his floor and when the elevator door opened, he was greeted with a hallway with several doors. He confidently walked through the hallway while humming a tune he liked back in Long Xing. Arriving in front of a certain door, Li Xinwen could hear rushing footsteps from behind. Beside the door was a nameplate that clearly spelled out his name.

"Here it is," Li Xinwen said as he took out his wallet. The original always kept his key inside his wallet and Li Xinwen never once removed it. When he inserted the key into the keyhole, he heard a series of 'meows' and there was even a scratching sound as the cats pawed at the door. "Alright, alright. I'm here. I'm opening the door now so behave and get away from the door," Li Xinwen said out loud as he unlocked the door.

Li Xinwen was greeted by cats of different breeds. He walked through the door and closed it behind him while he counted the number of cats. '...twelve and thirteen,' he then nodded his head. "Alright, all of you are here. Go on inside, I'll get your food," Li Xinwen said as he walked deeper into the apartment. He went into the kitchen and opened one of the cupboards to take out a few cans of cat food. The original Li Xinwen had always spoiled his cats so they can only eat wet food. He poured the cat food into their bowls and watched as the cats ate quietly.

"I wonder... Hua-jie said that in the apocalypse, humans may change into ability users or zombies and if not, they remain normal. Then she also said that animals and plants can also mutate, or animals can also turn into zombies..." Li Xinwen murmured softly as he stared at the cats on the floor. "Hua-jie never told me about you guys. Did you all die? Become zombies? Mutate?" he asked, and of course, he received no answer.

After a while of staring at the cats, he decided to sit on the sofa in the living room. He grabbed the remote for the TV from the coffee table and turned on the TV. But despite watching TV, he still couldn't get the question out of his mind and he ended up staring at the cats again. By this time, some of the cats had already finished eating and were lazing around on the floor.

'This is a long shot but let me just try,' Li Xinwen thought as he spread out his spiritual energy. Then, he guided the energy into each cat, carefully inspecting them but he could only sigh at what he found. "Xinwen, ah! I don't think any of your cats will survive the apocalypse..." Li Xinwen said out loud, as if trying to inform the original. All thirteen cats inside Li Xinwen's apartment, were normal cats and they did not have the aptitude for cultivation. Even if Li Xinwen wanted to help, he doubted that they could survive through the process. Once he got his answer, Li Xinwen retracted his spiritual energy.

Just then, Lanyu sent out streams of warmth towards Li Xinwen, gaining his attention. "What is it?" Li Xinwen asked and Lanyu answered by creating a trail of spiritual energy leading to Li Xinwen's pocket. It was the same pocket where Li Xinwen placed the pieces of jade he found from the trash bag earlier. Understanding what Lanyu wanted, Li Xinwen took out the pieces and placed it on the palm where Lanyu had disappeared into. Not long after, the pieces of jade disappeared into his palm.

Using his spiritual awareness, he noticed that Lanyu was now almost fully repaired. But this only made him frown. 'These were all the pieces that was in that trash bag, why are you still not fully repaired?' Li Xinwen felt as if he did something that would not benefit him. Just then, he felt the space around him shift suddenly. Then, the scenery around him changed and he fell to the ground. Glancing around, he found that he was suddenly in an open field.

The grass was lush green and when he turned to his left, he saw a cottage. The cottage was not as big as the Li family house, but it gave Li Xinwen a sense of familiarity because this was just like his own cottage in Long Xing. "This is... a pocket dimension?" Li Xinwen felt his heart race. "How big is this place?!" he wondered as he spread out his spiritual awareness to feel the size of the dimension.

Much to his astonishment, the space was huge. 'The space is about 100 li1 big. Last night, Hua-jie mentioned her space is only 15,000 cubic meters... and that's about 30 li?' Li Xinwen began his calculation. 'With this, I can help her store more items, right? The problem now is, how do I tell her? Should I fake it when the apocalypse happens?' he started to wonder. After all, unlike martial arts, he couldn't easily explain how he suddenly had a pocket dimension.

His eyes landed on the cottage and thought, 'Well, I should put this aside for now. First, how should I deal with this creature inside this dimension...'

He was just about to walk toward the cottage when a creature flew out of it. The creature was quite small, about the size of an adult male's palm. On its back were two pairs of translucent wings that kept on flapping as the creature flew nearer. The creature did not exhibit any hostility as it continued to fly towards Li Xinwen so he allowed it to come closer.

Upon closer inspection, Li Xinwen realized that the creature was a small fae spirit. The fae spirit had light green hair and pointy ears. Its eyes were also a shade of emerald as it looked up at Li Xinwen and from its figure, it can be concluded that this fae spirit was male. When the fae spirit was close enough, his eyes shone brightly and a big smile formed on his face. "Master~ We finally meet!"