Doudou and Huang Jiutian were overjoyed to see Qin Xiaoxia awake.

They fussed over him, giving him water and asking how he was.

They didn’t stop until they’d asked whether he needed the bedpan.

But Qin Xiaoxia was extremely weak and couldn’t muster any strength.

When he learned he’d been forced to wear adult diapers the entire time, his expression turned complicated, and any happiness he felt vanished.

"Hey, buddy. You’re finally awake. Looks like we’re in the same boat."

The patient in the next bed, who had been watching TV, saw that Qin Xiaoxia was awake and struck up a conversation.

"How’re you feeling?"

"Not dead yet..."

Qin Xiaoxia answered weakly, his voice raspy and hoarse.

"Yeah, you’re right. We’re the lucky ones who didn’t die... It’s the others I feel sorry for..."

This gave Qin Xiaoxia mixed feelings.

Just then, the evening news started on TV.

After a few national headlines, the broadcast finally turned to the incident.

"We have the latest update on the major incident that occurred on the 16th during the river dredging project in Qingzhen, Kehua District, Yue City. According to reports, severe pollution and silt accumulation at the bottom of the river led to the formation of a massive methane pocket. During the dredging, sparks from mechanical friction ignited the pocket, causing an explosion..."

"As of now, the incident has resulted in 11 fatalities and over twenty injuries requiring hospitalization. With the exception of two individuals who died from falling after being thrown by the blast, the majority of deaths were caused by asphyxiation..."

Listening to the news report, Qin Xiaoxia didn’t feel any strong sense of guilt or remorse.

He felt he had already done enough.

At most, he felt a little regret, along with some frustration at his current condition.

The patient in the next bed, however, was eager to talk.

"Hah! A methane explosion... that’s just a story to fool outsiders who only watch the news. We were there, we saw it clear as day. A monster appeared in the Winding Loach River!"

"A real monster?"

Huang Jiutian, who was in the middle of peeling an apple for Qin Xiaoxia, looked up in confusion.

He hadn’t been there long. Between looking after Qin Xiaoxia and comforting Doudou, he clearly hadn’t had a chance to hear the "inside story."

"That’s right!"

The patient lowered his voice, speaking to Huang Jiutian.

"Just ask your friend, he’ll tell you. Before the explosion, three people had already been dragged under... I bet the army sent planes to bomb it. The news is just a cover-up."

The patient said it with such conviction, wearing a cautious ’I’m-only-telling-you’ expression.

Hearing this, Qin Xiaoxia picked up his phone from the bedside and typed in a few keywords: "Qingzhen river explosion."

A string of links immediately popped up.

It wasn’t completely censored like he’d imagined.

One post even described something close to the truth.

The original poster described a huge monster appearing while the river was being drained. It dragged several people from the bank into the water, and then an attack was seemingly launched to destroy the monster, causing the so-called "major fire."

They also speculated that the military must have used some kind of special weapon.

At the end of the post, the OP earnestly warned everyone that things like Demons might actually exist, or that perhaps prehistoric creatures hadn’t gone completely extinct.

The first few replies were all mocking the original poster, but then a few self-proclaimed "eyewitnesses" showed up to back them up, leaving subsequent readers skeptical but intrigued.

But soon, after the hundredth reply, the tone shifted completely. Everyone was accusing the original poster of "spreading rumors," since the news had already explained the cause of the incident.

There were quite a few similar posts and messages on social media, but most of the comments were dismissive, so the threads were quickly buried.

There were a couple of videos, but they only showed the massive fire afterward. Any footage that might have captured the monster had presumably been confiscated.

Qin Xiaoxia quickly lost interest.

He switched his phone to selfie mode to take a look at himself.

"What the hell!"

Qin Xiaoxia cursed.

It was one thing that his face was sallow and haggard, but his hair had turned salt-and-pepper.

"Doudou, what happened to my hair? Is there any hope for it?"

Huang Jiutian chuckled and handed the peeled apple to Qin Xiaoxia.

"What does a kid know? I think your new look is pretty cool, actually. Makes you look all weathered and mature. You couldn’t get that effect even if you paid to have it dyed. The doctor said it’s from long-term malnutrition and severe mental strain. I say you’ve been whacking it too much."

"What you need to do now is get some nutrients in you."

Behind Huang Jiutian’s back, Doudou threw up his hands as if to say he couldn’t help.

Qin Xiaoxia sighed and turned to Huang Jiutian.

"How’d you get here? Did Brother Gou call you?"

"Who else? Was I supposed to let Doudou stay here with you all by himself? Speaking of which, when did you get such a cute little cousin? I thought you didn’t have any family left."

"I said I don’t have any blood relatives left. This kid is from Old Qin’s side of the family. Something happened to his parents, so there was no one to take care of him. When I heard, I couldn’t just stand by, so I took him in."

Hearing this, Doudou put on a timely sorrowful expression, walking over to Qin Xiaoxia’s bedside and resting his head against him.

"Urk."

Qin Xiaoxia’s mouth twitched. ’This kid’s a fast learner.’

Huang Jiutian seemed a little moved, but he knew Qin Xiaoxia’s character all too well. The guy hated trouble more than anything; would he really take Doudou in out of pure sympathy?

But regardless of whether Jiutian believed him, Qin Xiaoxia had already frozen solid.

As his consciousness returned, some kind of alarm seemed to go off in his body. The emptiness he had felt inside was now being replaced by surging waves of Magic Power.

’You’ve got to be kidding me... Again?’

Sweat beaded on his forehead and trickled down.

’If this happens again, I definitely won’t live to see morning.’

In his tension, he crushed the apple in his hand.

"Hey, Qin Xiaoxia! That’s going too far!"

Huang Jiutian saw the apple he’d painstakingly peeled get ruined and was about to complain, but then he noticed Qin Xiaoxia’s body had gone rigid, his forehead drenched in sweat.

"Are you okay? Doudou, you stay here and watch him. I’m going to get a doctor!"

With that, Huang Jiutian turned and bolted out of the room.

Doudou, meanwhile, shrank back into his chair, looking fearfully at Qin Xiaoxia. He wanted to approach but didn’t dare.

Fortunately, the worst didn’t happen.

After a tense moment, the Magic Power didn’t run rampant. Instead, it automatically entered a state of exchange with the Magic Power in the surrounding environment.

This time, however, it didn’t consume any of his own pitifully scarce Magic Power.

Instead, a concept akin to a feeling of pleasure was transmitted from the surrounding space.

SSSHHH~~

An intensely refreshing sensation, like chugging a bottle of ice-cold soda on a hot summer day, instantly spread through his entire body.

An unseen energy coursed through Qin Xiaoxia’s body, nourishing his previously tormented flesh and promoting an all-encompassing, qualitative change.

Only now, long after his Magic Power had awakened, did Qin Xiaoxia’s physical evolution belatedly begin.

In Magson’s academic terms, Qin Xiaoxia believed he was currently undergoing "Elfification."

Elfification didn’t mean one would become an Elf. Rather, only after undergoing Elfification could a being who had awakened their Magic Power become a true Magic Controller. It was more of an evolutionary ritual than a racial transformation.

’This is definitely not Elfification!’

Doudou watched Qin Xiaoxia in terror. Qin Xiaoxia’s Magic Power had always given him a faint, heart-pounding unease, and now his physical body was starting to evoke the same feeling.

The feeling couldn’t be strictly defined as fear; it was more like an instinctive shudder on the level of Magic Power.

Although his Wish Magic Power was weak, it was a type of transcendent Rule Magic Power and was, by its very nature, exceptionally sensitive.