However, before that, Xu Xin took Li Wenxi out from the World Tree for a bit.
He brought her to the crystal house and injected the gene medication.
"It hurts so much!" Li Wenxi cried out, "Wow, why does it hurt so much!"
"âImmortalityâ comes at a price. Well, now youâre also someone who can âlive foreverâ, and the price was just a little ache in your arm." Xu Xin laughed.
"Sigh... achieving âimmortalityâ was so simple." Li Wenxi withdrew her arm from the device, leaving a tiny puncture mark on her slender, fair arm.
She touched the area where the medication was injected: "It feels... a bit unreal somehow."
She reached out and touched her face: "So, now I wonât age anymore? This is really nice, just moments ago in the World Tree, I was thinking, being in the World Tree all the time, with time flying by so quickly, might there be any issues... huh?!"
She looked at her hand, and on it were bits of peeling dead skin from her face.
A scream echoed out of the crystal house, reverberating through the empty Crystal City.
...
"Blub blub..." Li Wenxi emerged from the lake, puffing bubbles in frustration.
She was still upset with Xu Xin for not telling her sooner, making her momentarily think she was allergic to the gene medication and was turning into a monster.
"Hahaha..." Xu Xin was still laughing, "Hey, your reaction was entirely within my expectations."
"Oh! You did it on purpose!" Li Wenxi suddenly stood up from the lake, glaring at Xu Xin.
She was completely naked at this moment, her newly transformed skin smooth and fair as polished jade, with a glimpse of spring visible on her chest, and just a sliver of her perfectly long legs showing above the water, enticingly half-revealed, leaving Xu Xin slightly stunned.
It had been a while since Xu Xin had seen Li Wenxi or been affectionate with her, and this emerging-from-the-water scene was making it hard for him to resist.
Li Wenxi noticed Xu Xinâs unusual behavior, smirked, and took two slow steps toward him.
The closer to the shore, the shallower the lake water.
"The water temperature here is so comfortable, you should come down and take a bath too." Li Wenxiâs words were filled with temptation.
Xu Xin took a deep breath, took a step forward, but eventually didnât continue, and said helplessly: "Alright, alright, come out quickly, stop messing around, weâre outside the World Tree here."
"Whatâs the big deal about being outside the World Tree, letâs just hurry up and finish!" Li Wenxi did not hold back at all.
"How fast can you finish." Xu Xin said with some annoyance, "Think about it, when we get back, if someone asks âwhy did you two spend so many days outside?â, how would you answer? Tell them we were having fun out there?"
"Oh..." Li Wenxi blinked, "Are you that strong?"
"Are you underestimating me?" Xu Xinâs eye twitched, almost jumped into the water to prove it, but ultimately shook his head helplessly, "Alright, hurry up and come out, weâll talk after we get back."
"Oh oh oh, okay." Li Wenxi walked out of the water and got dressed.
"Letâs hurry back, brought you for the injection, then had a bath, itâs already been twenty minutes." Xu Xin checked his watch.
Inside, itâs been over a day already!
Of course, because there isnât a twenty-four-hour day-night cycle internally, itâs continuously daytime, so people inside the World Tree arenât very sensitive to the passage of time.
"Ah! Letâs hurry back!"
The two hurried back to the World Tree.
"...Wow!" As they entered the World Tree, Li Wenxiâs eyes widened in surprise, "Huh... was the layout here originally like this?"
The treehouses once located at the center of the cleared region were now all relocated.
This area had completely become a farm and ranch.
And all the treehouses had been moved to the other side of the vine ball elevator exit, becoming a dedicated... residential area?
"Is this... functional zoning?" Xu Xin figured it out.
"Wow... I truly realize how exaggerated the hundredfold time flow is now..." Li Wenxi looked at everything before her, her throat moving a bit awkwardly, and chuckled sheepishly, "Good thing we didnât do anything outside..."
They went out for just twenty minutes, but inside had undergone such drastic changes.
"Here, isnât it worry-free?" Xu Xin said, looking at Li Wenxi.
...
"Hey? Was that Brother Xin and Wenxi? Did they go out?
"No idea, didnât Sister Wenxi say sheâd take us to mine? Itâs been almost a day, oh wait, over a day now!"
"Sigh, everything in the World Tree is nice, except the day-night length can be really strange, itâs just too long."
"Hey, whatâs that to complain about, I just love the light!"
"Then if thereâs over a dozen days of constant night, donât say I didnât warn you!"
"Cry about what? I love the night too! As long as thereâs no danger here, I love everything about this place!"
"Yeah yeah, you love everything... hey? Did Brother Xin and Wenxi head straight to Wenxiâs treehouse?"
"Why does it feel like theyâre in a hurry? Did they discover something outside that they urgently need to study?"
"Since theyâve been out for over a day, they must have found lots of things!"
...
Li Wenxi lay snugly in Xu Xinâs arms, feeling very content.
Xu Xin also felt refreshed, feeling the fatigue accumulated over this period completely swept away.
Returning inside the World Tree, under the hundredfold timeflow, thereâs nothing too urgent to worry about.