I floated myself up to the tree’s branches where the glowing fruit had appeared using Kris’s gravity ability.

It took me a moment to realise it was a gourd, albeit a really small one.

That’s odd... I’m pretty sure gourds don’t grow on trees like these... Then again, this tree was grown from a crystalisation of my Qi in the first place so it’s definitely not a normal tree either.

I flew around the gourd, inspecting it from various angles to see if there was anything special about it.

From what I can see... This was a gold coloured gourd and it was glowing with a golden hue, bathing everything around it in gold.

Aside from that... I’m not really sure if there’s anything special about it and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to pluck it at this point.

I’m guessing I need to absorb more life energy to feed into the tree to make it grow until a more appropriate stage before I can figure out what to do with it.

That was when I looked down and noticed something else had also popped up below on the ground. More specifically, it had popped up outside of the walls that surrounded the courtyard my tree was growing in.

It looked like just a small grey speck from up here so I dove towards the ground to take a closer look, only to realise that it was a small rock jutting from the ground a short distance away from the courtyard wall.

The rock was not even the size of my fist though half of it seemed to be embedded in the ground.

Sure, a rock shouldn’t have caught my attention like this but... The fact that this single rock popped up when the entire space around it was completely white and featureless meant this was meant to be something.

At least... That’s what I believe.

I don’t think a single random rock will just pop up from the ground out of nowhere for no reason after I absorbed another batch of Qi.

The fact that a gourd and this rock appeared at the same time could not be a coincidence.

When I reached down to try and pick it up, I realised that the rock was stuck to the ground and it would not budge.

I could try to dig it out or even use my full strength but... I think this is also one of those things that would grow and evolve as I grow stronger like everything else here...

Hmm... If I remember the things I’ve read from those cultivation stories... Even rocks themselves could also be filled with life energy...

Wait... Then doesn’t that mean that the entire compound here could also be filled with it?

In that case... Maybe instead of just pouring the life energy I absorbed into just the tree, I could try filling the entire space with it instead?

Thus, I left it alone for now and returned to the courtyard, going back to absorbing Qi energy once again.

This time, instead of pouring the energy I absorbed into the tree, I let it flow out all around me and let it saturate the air to be absorbed by everything in this space.

Of course, I did not let all the energy leave my body as I also directed part of it into my core, strengthening my body as well.

The amount of life energy here was also quite significant and I did not hold back and absorbed as much of it as I could.

I maintained my meditation and let myself be the conduit for the life energy being absorbed through my body to bathe the entire space with said life energy.

The torrent of life energy continued to flow and I relaxed myself, immersing my consciousness in the flow of energy and letting my attention drift away.

The feeling was akin to laying myself on top of a river and drifting lazily along its current and I felt my entire being relaxing as I felt more life energy flow into me.

I ended up being quite lost in the feeling and only woke up from it when I felt the flow of energy ebb and slowly decrease into a small stream instead of the flowing river like before.

I stopped absorbing the energy and opened my eyes, taking a look around me to see if there was any changes to the illusory space.

Surprisingly, there were no changes this time though I could definitely feel the life energy permeating the air around me.

When I focused my senses on the energy, I could feel it slowly gather onto the various objects scattered throughout the space including the tree, the building, the walls and the ground before slowly being absorbed by them.

I figured that this illusory space would just need time for the life energy to be absorbed into the various objects before experiencing any more changes so I could just leave things as it is for now.

With that in mind, I let myself ’awaken’ from the illusory space to bring my consciousness back into the real world.

I blinked as my vision came back into focus and I found myself on the bed where I had started my meditation session.

That was when I realised there was another weight on my lap and I looked down to see Olivia all curled up and fast asleep, her head resting on my lap.

I picked up my phone to look at the time, only to realise that I have been meditating for at least two hours.

That’s surprising... I never lost track of time like this before...

There was just way more Qi energy here than I expected which I attributed to the fact that there was more ’life’ here than the places I’ve been cultivating so far.

Seems like if I really want to absorb more life energy, I might need to travel around much more often.

Putting that aside for now, I guess Olivia came in to see me meditating and didn’t want to disturb me so she ended up just waiting for me to finish my meditation.

But the exhaustion from her work must have caught up to her and she laid down to rest for a while, only to end up falling asleep on the bed afterwards.

Then she most likely found me in her sleep and made my lap her pillow and that’s where we are right now.

I couldn’t help but stroke her head gently, finding the red Oni cute while she was asleep like this.

Unfortunately, as much as I wouldn’t mind just crawling into bed with her and falling asleep right now, I was fully awake right now.

I slowly lifted her head up with my hand before carrying her to lay down on the bed properly, propping her head up with the pillow before covering her with the blanket.

I then left the room, intending to find myself a snack outside.

When I entered the living room, I found Maylene still awake and... What the heck is that?

She has some kind of machine set up and she’s currently hopping around it while fiddling with it.

I went up to her, intentionally making my presence known by walking towards her with audible footsteps.

But even with that, she did not even notice me as she seemed fully absorbed in what she was doing so I had to clear my throat to call out to her.

She jumped at the sound before turning around, her eyes widening in surprise.

"Oh! Qing! Erm... Good morning? Woah, what time is it?"

I waved my hand, "Relax, it’s still night time. The date hasn’t even changed yet. I just came out for a late night snack and I saw you working on... Whatever this is."

She grinned, "Oh! This is meant to be an assembly machine that I’m working on! I’m trying to streamline part of the steel assembly process that we are working on back at home! Hopefully this might be able to cut down the time needed to make the steel rods by fifty percent!"

Right... Even though she said she wasn’t as good of a crafter as her sister, she’s still one of them and leagues better than I was at the very least.

There’s no way I’m able to do or even understand what she’s doing right now.

I was just about to tell her that I won’t disturb her and let her return to her work when she tilted her head at me, "So... Umm... Qing? Could I ask if you’re fucking Miss Olivia?"

I did a spit take at her sudden question and I had to take a moment to consider whether I should tell her or not before settling on nodding my head.

"Yes I am, I suppose... Why do you ask?"

As though she solved some great mystery, her face lit up but she quickly turned away, "Nothing! I was just asking! Don’t worry about it! I’ll get right back to work right now!!"

She then made it clear she wasn’t going to say anything more as she dove right back to working on the machine.

Seriously, what was that about?