Chapter 1 Highly Effective Kitchenware

Ever since Gung ate the golden apple and turned into a simple-minded girl, Hao Ren had been highly aware of his year-end bonus. He knew that anything related to the True Gods was never simple, whether it was a fruit picked from the divine realm or pots and pans bought from the Heavenly Wholesale Market. But he never expected that the set of kitchenware he casually gave to Vivian would be so powerful—not that the food tasted any different, but everything cooked with that set of enchanted kitchenware came out with seventy or eighty magical effects!

A few days ago, Vivian had been startled when she used the new kitchenware for the first time. A plate of garlic sprouts with pork began to glow golden when it was only eighty percent done, and when the dish was finished, holy light was hitting the ceiling. Hao Ren, who was watching the show, was also dumbfounded. He couldn't help but think of the various Japanese anime he had watched. Vivian had actually cooked a dish with fantasy-like effects in the real world…

The holy light surrounding the table was the special effect added by that set of Starstone kitchenware.

"Is it really okay to eat this?" Liu Sheng pointed tremulously with his chopsticks at a plate of shimmering cloud ear fungus with pork. "I'm not questioning the Countess's cooking, but I'm worried that my constitution is too weak to handle it..."

"It's fine. The effects are just strong, but it still tastes the same," Hao Ren said casually. "I got a new set of kitchenware for the New Year. You know, my superiors are those... they like to tinker with strange things."

As he spoke, he pulled out a cat food bowl from beside him, picked out a small half-bowl of light dishes from the table, and then took out half a bag of cat food from his dimensional pocket, stirring it vigorously with chopsticks before placing it in front of Gung. Gung lowered her head to sniff, and just as she was about to plunge her head in, Hao Ren tapped her with his chopsticks: "Where are your hands?"

Gung looked up aggrievedly and meowed, then grabbed the chopsticks in her hands and poked around in the food bowl: In fact, this cat had already learned to use chopsticks, but she wanted to protest in this way.

To this day, Hao Ren still needed to mix food for Gung. This was not to say that he favored this silly cat or that the latter lacked the ability to take care of herself, but that the cat girl had developed a habit. She could do whatever she wanted when she was living on her own, but as long as Hao Ren was at home, he had to feed her before she would eat—in a sense, this cat girl was quite dependent on her master.

Of course, it was hard to say whether the proud feline in her heart saw Hao Ren as her "master."

Liu Sheng stared dumbfounded at this unnatural scene. After Hao Ren noticed, he quickly explained, "I'm not abusing her. She just likes this flavor. If I don't give her cat food, she'll bite. Besides, her cat food is more expensive than my snacks."

Liu Sheng thought for a while and ultimately said nothing. He dutifully lowered his head to eat, determined not to delve into the lifestyle of these aberrant creatures before him.

These freaks were freaks even among freaks!

Liu Sheng felt immense pressure as he ate this meal. The aroma of the food couldn't suppress the shock to his worldview brought about by the house full of aberrant creatures. He saw the most ancient vampire in her daily life for the first time, but found that she wasn't as difficult to get along with as he had imagined. He re-examined Lily and found that he still couldn't believe that this was the "First Saint," and he also found that the leader of the army of ten thousand demon lords only knew how to tease his daughter at the dinner table. What put the most pressure on him was the little mermaid, who was only a foot long. Dou Dou was jumping around on the table the entire time. The little one had eaten her fill early on, and it was her habit to hop around the table after a meal (ordinary people called it taking a walk, but for her it was hopping around). Liu Sheng almost poked the little mermaid in the head with his chopsticks several times. He had to pay close attention to avoid the little one's hopping trajectory...

He didn't know why this little mermaid had to jump towards the chopsticks on purpose, and more than once.

Unlike Liu Sheng, Hao Ren's family ate to their heart's content. Lily even ate so much that she was lying sideways: After the husky girl was full, she leaned back on the sofa and began to brag shamelessly: "When I was leading the demon hunters, I was a wise king. I was so brilliant. How hard was it on the ice plains back then? I was actually able to feed everyone. Do you think that's easy..."

Vivian whispered in Hao Ren's ear, "Listen to her bragging, as if she really remembers what happened back then."

Liu Sheng looked up at the time, then looked around at Hao Ren's group, and couldn't help but ask, "What about Zhao Xi's side..."

Hao Ren grabbed the data terminal and glanced at it, then suddenly stood up: "Let's go. Whether we can cure her or not depends on this."

The group returned to the basement, and the hibernation pod that Zhao Xi was lying in had just completed a cycle of operation. As the group walked in, they heard a crisp "ding" from inside the device. Liu Sheng felt that the sound was similar to that of his microwave oven...

The lid of the hibernation pod slid silently to the side. Hao Ren leaned in and took a look, and found that Zhao Xi was lying inside with her eyes tightly closed, her face rosy and her breathing normal, just like an ordinary healthy person.

But he knew that Zhao Xi's problem was on the level of the soul and spirit. This superficial health couldn't explain anything.

The data terminal connected itself to the hibernation pod's recording device and began to read the system's record of Zhao Xi's soul fluctuations, hoping to find some clues to separate the mysterious "spiritual parasite." Behind Hao Ren, everyone couldn't help but hold their breath, waiting somewhat nervously for the results to come out.

The surface of the data terminal flickered for a moment, then fell to the ground with a thud.

Hao Ren had maintained a mental connection with the data terminal all along. In that instant, he felt a powerful, incomprehensible will suddenly enter along the mental connection. His mental defenses as an inspector were activated in an instant, blocking this foreign will at the first moment, but he was still scared into a cold sweat by this momentary connection!

Until the data terminal fell to the ground, no one knew what had happened. Hao Ren's reaction was even half a beat slower because of the disturbance in his mind. He suddenly woke up from his trance and quickly reached out to pick up the PDA that had crashed. Almost at the same time, Zhao Xi, who was in a "vegetative" state, suddenly sat up from the hibernation pod.

Her eyes were wide open, completely unlike her previous dull and lifeless state, but she didn't seem to have regained her normal sanity either. She stared in a certain direction, and then a powerful and majestic aura suddenly surged from her body. Liu Sheng, who was closest to her, almost knelt under the impact of this aura, and even Lily, who was usually clueless, was startled by this aura!

"I forgive all the transgressions of my children," Zhao Xi suddenly spoke, but her voice was mixed with another woman's voice. "I will forever absolve them."

Along with this simple sentence, all the lights in the basement suddenly exploded, the wires burned all the way with crackling sparks, and the glassware in the room shattered all over the floor as if struck by an invisible hand. The powerful energy turbulence even triggered visible lightning, which darted around the room. Everyone was thrown into chaos by this sudden anomaly. Lily scurried under Vivian's bed in a flash, leaving only a large tail trembling violently outside. Nangong Wuyue rolled into a ball and rolled into the corner in the blink of an eye. Count Iza, countless demon runes instantly appeared on his body, and he was almost uncontrollably about to transform!

But all of this anomaly suddenly disappeared, because Hao Ren subconsciously stood in front of Zhao Xi. A layer of water-like light appeared on his body, which offset the power of that "word."

"Oh my god..." At this time, the data terminal suddenly jumped up as if it had been resurrected. It crackled and popped with a string of small sparks all over its body, and a series of self-check sounds came from inside the machine. "This scared this unit into rebooting..."

"I am..." Zhao Xi also regained her consciousness at the same time, and it seemed that she had completely recovered. She looked around in confusion. "Where am I?"

Hao Ren interrupted her without saying a word: "Don't ask yet! My head is more messed up than yours. I have to sort things out!"

Zhao Xi: "?"

"Everyone clean up first... Who's going to get some lighting? Lily, stop crawling under the bed, don't you feel ashamed! Hurry up and take out your Fire of Great Joy!" Hao Ren shook his head vigorously, trying to completely drive the buzzing tinnitus out of his mind, while shouting orders and comforting the scene. The anomaly just now had made a mess of the basement, and what was worse was that the house's wiring was obviously burnt out. At this time, it was almost pitch black all around. "Don't panic, don't panic, I roughly know what's going on. Thirty-eight, go help your sister untie her tail... Everyone else who has nothing to do go upstairs! Don't crowd here."

This house was full of people who had experienced great storms. After a brief daze, they all reacted. Soon, the Nangong family of four left the basement with Liu Sheng and Zhao Xi. Iza and his son ran out to check the wiring. Vivian frowned and glanced at the tragic state of her bedroom, and couldn't help but whisper in Hao Ren's ear, "What exactly was that just now?"

Hao Ren wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "If I'm not mistaken... it's a fragment of the Creation Goddess's mind!"