RIACMET chapter 65

 

After a long rustling sound, Jiang Nian emerged with a towel in hand, wiping his hair.

Cheng Jing shot him a displeased look.

“Eat your food—and remember this next time.”

Jiang Nian pursed his lips. He casually draped the towel around his neck and sat down.

“At worst, if you can’t resist, we’ll just do it again and then have dinner. Why would I need to remember anything?”

Sometimes he did it on purpose. It was just a little hobby—nothing worth fussing over.

“…”

Faced with this shameless attitude, Cheng Jing couldn’t get angry. He could only clamp his mouth shut and silently fill Jiang Nian’s bowl, determined.

Seeing that he was secretly pleased but unwilling to admit it, Jiang Nian felt like teasing him a bit more.

“Brother Jing, do you want to—”

“Quiet! Eat.”

Cheng Jing’s ears turned red. He stuffed a piece of braised pork into Jiang Nian’s mouth.

“You’re all talk and no eating!”

“Mmm…”

Jiang Nian puffed out his cheeks, fighting the urge to laugh so hard that he nearly choked. In the end, he ate obediently, adding just a touch of drama to his eyes.

He was fierce when Jiang Nian teased him, but sometimes he looked so pure and shy that Jiang Nian couldn’t help but like this side of him even more.

“It’s rude to stare at someone while they’re eating.”

The gaze from across the table was so intense that Cheng Jing felt a little overwhelmed.

Now that he could come home on time every day, he always brought his meal back to eat with Jiang Nian. Somehow, he ended up eating more when they were together.

Jiang Nian pretended to be innocent and turned his eyes away.

“Is it rude because I’m staring at you? Would you rather I stare at someone else?”

Hehe—he won this round!

Cheng Jing: “…”

…

After the meal, Jiang Nian hurried to clean the table. Cheng Jing told him to leave it alone so he wouldn’t get in the way, but Jiang Nian didn’t listen.

“Brother Jing, you worked all day and still cooked for me. It’s only right that I clean up.”

Without him, Brother Jing’s life would be much easier.

Cheng Jing smiled and sat down on the sofa, watching Brother Jing bustle in and out.

Honestly, he was willing to spoil Jiang Nian, but Jiang Nian always said that life was for two people. He laughed, saying that if you married a scumbag, you’d end up working like a slave for the rest of your life.

After washing the dishes and wiping down the stove, Jiang Nian rested his palm lightly on the kitchen cupboard. With a thought, blue-white purification energy spread from his palm.

Cheng Jing was no longer surprised. To hone his skills, this man regularly transformed their home into a giant disinfection cabinet.

The blue-white light slowly spread from the kitchen and quickly filled the entire house before fading away.

“All done!”

Jiang Nian clapped his hands and walked out.

Despite having spent so long using his power today, he didn’t look the least bit tired. Cheng Jing casually asked,

“Niannian, what’s your range now?”

“Two hundred meters across.”

Jiang Nian answered breezily. Though he acted laid-back, he was working hard.

At home, he often pushed himself to the limit trying to break through, to the point that he’d faint with a nosebleed.

“That’s fast.”

Cheng Jing couldn’t hide his amazement. Jiang Nian didn’t have as much combat experience as they did, but he’d progressed so quickly. It showed just how hard he was working in private.

Maybe he was even doing something reckless.

“Brother Jing, you know a man shouldn’t say ‘fast.’ Hahaha…”

Jiang Nian hopped onto the sofa, sat cross-legged beside Cheng Jing, and grinned widely.

Two hundred meters was just the beginning. His first small goal was 500 meters—the limit he’d reached in his past life.

Once he reached 500 meters, his power would evolve into the final form of the purification attribute.

According to the researchers who experimented on him in his previous life, his abilities’ ultimate limit was a circle with a diameter of about a thousand meters.

Therefore, 500 meters was the watershed moment.

He needed to reach it as soon as possible to confirm his suspicions from his past life and provide more security for those around him.

“You sure talk a lot.”

Cheng Jing scolded, ruffling his hair before smoothing it back down. Then he asked again:

“Do you know what the main attribute of purification is?”

“…”

Jiang Nian paused and looked at him.

“Why are you asking this all of a sudden?”

Sometimes he wondered if Brother Jing could read his mind. He’d just been thinking about it when Brother Jing asked.

Cheng Jing smiled and shook his head.

“No reason. It’s just that when I saw you use your power, the idea popped into my head. I checked the supernatural ability records some time ago, and there’s no description of the final form of the purification attribute. Everyone else with the same power as you has died.”

“…”

Jiang Nian nodded, then said softly,

“Even if it looks useless to outsiders, purification isn’t a common attribute. The people who tortured me in my previous life were secretly searching for it. I don’t know what happened after that, but they never found it before I died. Everyone who recorded the information was killed.”

He sighed softly as he said this.

“A special, non-aggressive power is dangerous in its own way. If no one notices, you end up as cannon fodder[mfn]characters who are doomed to fail, suffer, or die, often to make the protagonist look better or to advance the plot.[/mfn]. But if they find out, you become a lab rat.”

That was why he was so determined to keep it hidden in this life.

“Yeah.”

Cheng Jing thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

“I figured as much. That’s why I asked.”

“I know.”

Jiang Nian relaxed his shoulders and gazed at him. After thinking for a while, he added,

“I already told you. Back then, in my last life, my supernatural ability expanded to a 500-meter radius because of the drugs they used. Not long after, they took my crystal core and transplanted it into Chen Yue.”

“Yeah.”

Cheng Jing nodded. Just remembering it made him want to skin those bastards alive.

“…”

Jiang Nian pressed his lips together before continuing.

“Actually, before they took my core out, I felt my power advancing. Experts call it ‘homogenous mutation.’ It was evolving into its ultimate form. But I didn’t tell anyone.”

Seeing Cheng Jing’s stunned expression, he added softly,

“At the time, I thought I’d wait until my range really reached 500 meters. Then, I’d tell you after confirming it myself.”

In his past life, he had been tortured until he was half-conscious, and he had worried that it was all just a hallucination. Even if he had said anything, those people wouldn’t have let him go.

Cheng Jing wrapped his arms around him.

“It’s all right. You can talk about it anytime you want.”

“Yeah.”

Jiang Nian smiled again and finally answered his original question.

“Brother Jing, the main attribute of purification is cleansing. As for how far it can reach or if there are side effects, I don’t know.”

As abilities grow stronger, users naturally become aware of changes in their power. It was an instinctive understanding.

“Cleansing?”

Cheng Jing’s eyes widened in surprise. He murmured to himself.

“Purify… then cleanse.”

Jiang Nian nodded.

“Yes, an evolved power never strays from its fundamental attribute. No matter what, abilities remain extremely stable. They only grow stronger and more refined based on their original foundation.”

“Cleansing is the ultimate form of purification…”

Cheng Jing murmured, then suddenly realized something.

“That’s why purification works on the zombie virus. Maybe it isn’t just effective against zombie infections but against any similar viruses …”

If a healing power defied the will of Heaven, then purification—

—might be considered a power capable of saving the world.