Qin Hong awoke once more in the same familiar room. For a fleeting moment, he wondered if everything had just been an eborate dream. But Xiaoyu's concerned voice pulled him back to reality.

  "You're awake! How do you feel?"

  Blinking away the grogginess, Qin Hong saw Sisi and Madame Chubby nearby. "Guann! Is he alright?" The words burst from his lips before he could stop them, his stomach twisting at the thought that his reckless ssh might have caused irreversible damage.

  A familiar voice answered from the doorway. "I'm fine. Good to see you awake." Guann stepped inside, his usual composed self though Qin Hong didn't miss the fresh bandage peeking beneath his sleeve.

  "Thank...goodness..." Qin Hong exhaled shakily.

  Guann chuckled. "Rex. At that speed, you couldn't have hit a sleeping rabbit."

  *Of course,* Qin Hong thought bitterly, staring at his hands. *The man who commands lightning wouldn't be hurt by someone like me.*

  "Rest now," Guann said, turning toward the door. "I'm heading to Ferron in the south to research your ability." With that, he departed, leaving behind only the faint scent of ozone. Madame Chubby yawned dramatically before melting back into her portrait frame, leaving Sisi and Xiaoyu as Qin Hong's sole guardians.

  Then his stomach growled loud enough to startle them all.

  "I'm starving! I could eat an entire cow!" Qin Hong groaned, clutching his abdomen.

  Sisi nodded knowingly. "Ability usage drains tremendous physical and mental energy. You'll need training to adapt properly. Today your body got depleted instantly—keep this up and you won't live long."

  The gravity of her words sank in. Qin Hong stared at his trembling hands, remembering how the strange bde had erupted from his wrist—and how helpless he'd felt afterward.

  "Hot pot!" Xiaoyu suddenly decred, cpping her hands. "I'll prepare ingredients!" Sisi vanished through the doorway before Qin Hong could respond.

  "Extra meat, please—!" His shout ended abruptly as darkness swallowed his vision again. The st thing he saw was Xiaoyu's horrified face.

  ---

  "Another bowl!!"

  Chopsticks became blurs as Qin Hong shoveled meat into his mouth. Across the table, Xiaoyu watched the mountain of empty ptes with growing arm. "That's your third bowl! Slow down!"

  "Mmph—'m fine," he mumbled around a mouthful, washing it down with an entire milk carton.

  Sisi merely shrugged. "Let him eat. First-timers always react this way."

  And so they witnessed Qin Hong demolish four rice bowls, five ptes each of beef and mb, a block of tofu, and an entire basket of greens before finally colpsing backward with a contented sigh. Staring at the ceiling's swaying pendant light, he murmured without thinking, "Being alive...is nice."

  ---

  When the st morsel vanished, Sisi leaned forward. "Ready to test your ability again? That bde from your wrist was fascinating."

  Qin Hong paled. "What if I pass out again?"

  "Initial awakenings differ," Sisi expined patiently. "Yours was emotionally triggered—your subconscious drew too much physical energy. Stay focused and conscious, and you'll be fine."

  Hesitantly, Qin Hong raised his right hand. Heat pooled in his wrist as the dark violet bde materialized with an audible hum. The air around it shimmered strangely, light bending toward the weapon as if space itself recognized its authority.

  "Give me a milk bottle," Qin Hong ordered, mesmerized by the bde's distortion field.

  Xiaoyu handed him an unopened bottle. Holding it aloft, he carefully touched the bde to gss.

  *Snick.*

  The lower half crashed to the floor, milk spttering everywhere. But all three stared sck-jawed at the remaining upper half Qin Hong held—because the milk stayed perfectly contained within the severed bottle, defying gravity itself.

  Qin Hong slowly turned the impossible vessel upside down. The milk clung stubbornly to some invisible barrier until—

  His wrist spasmed. The bde vanished.

  A cold milk waterfall drenched his face.

  As Xiaoyu and Sisi burst into ughter, Qin Hong wiped his face and asked deadpan, "So...more meat?"

  Their synchronized eye-rolls could've powered a small city.

  ---

  Dawn's light had barely touched the windows when Guann's urgent knocking startled Qin Hong awake. Without expnation, the lightning-wielder dragged him back to the training grounds—where chaos reigned.

  Kangaroos.

  Hundreds of them.

  Madame Chubby and the others were engaged in a losing battle against the marsupial invasion, while more kept pouring through a shimmering rift hanging midair—a rift tracing the exact path of Qin Hong's first ssh.

  "Locke Continent kangaroos," Guann observed calmly over the cacophony. "Your bde connected our space to theirs."

  "But how do we—"

  "Close it manually. Like the milk bottle."

  Summoning his bde, Qin Hong fruitlessly poked at the rift. "Close! Shut! Seal! ...Why isn't it working?!"

  In his frustration, he spun—and sliced open a second rift.

  Snow began bsting outward.

  Just as despair set in, Qin Hong clenched his fist. The bde fshed orange, energy flows reversing. Understanding dawned.

  One upward ssh ter, both rifts sealed shut.

  Panting, Qin Hong turned to Guann. "My ability...?"

  "Temporal Heart," Guann confirmed. "The records were torn out, but your Voidbde confirms it."

  As Guann walked away calling for transport cages, Qin Hong groaned at the remaining kangaroo army.

  Behind him, Sisi and Xiaoyu's synchronized whines harmonized perfectly with his own.