Cave Refuge

"Son, put away your Companion Spiritual Treasure," said Mrs. Thompson. "Although the protection of your Companion Spiritual Treasure is pretty strong, it's a bit cramped to live inside. Make some room in the backyard for your dad's Companion Spirit."

Upon hearing Mrs. Thompson's words, Zachary immediately understood why Mr. Thompson had refused to enter his Companion Spiritual Treasure and insisted on entering the villa from the second floor.

In order to save face for his old man, Zachary stifled the laughter in his heart and retracted the Companion Spiritual Treasure in the backyard back into his Sea of Consciousness. The sudden disappearance of the Companion Spiritual Treasure turned the once calm waters of the backyard into a turbulent surge.

The family of three stood together. Mr. Thompson of course noticed the odd expression on Zachary's face, but acted as if he hadn't seen it and directly called out his own Companion Spiritual Treasure from his Sea of Consciousness.

However, an impatient Mr. Thompson forgot to shrink the size of his Companion Spiritual Treasure when summoning it, so when it appeared, it immediately knocked down the dividing wall between the backyard and the neighboring villas.

Seeing this scene, Mrs. Thompson, who was previously calm, couldn't help but laugh out loud. The noise caused by Mr. Thompson immediately caught the attention of several neighbors nearby.

When the neighbors saw Mr. Thompson's actions, they didn't come over to complain, but stood on the second floors of their own homes and gave Mr. Thompson a thumbs-up.

If they had complained, Mr. Thompson might have become angry and argued with them. But being praised from afar made him blush a bit and feel somewhat embarrassed.

Therefore, Mr. Thompson immediately retracted the Companion Spiritual Treasure he had summoned back into his Sea of Consciousness and then called it out again, this time a smaller version just the size of his own backyard.

The reason the others gave Mr. Thompson a thumbs-up was that they admired his idea. With the water still not receded and the second floor prone to leaks, it was unsuitable to live in. Seeing Mr. Thompson's action, they instantly realized they too could find themselves a dry and comfortable living environment at this time.

Compared to Zachary's Companion Spiritual Treasure, which chose the Submersible Navigation branch and transformed into a fully enclosed submarine-like vessel, Mr. Thompson's choice was the Wave-Breaking branch, enhancing the vessel's speed so its exterior naturally resembled that of a streamlined speedboat, with a streamlined hull and fully enclosed cabin.

Normally, following Mrs. Thompson's words in the villa, only her Companion Spiritual Treasure, which chose the Bearing evolutionary branch, had a flat deck very suitable for leisure and viewing. But to help Mr. Thompson save face earlier, they had to let him summon his Companion Spiritual Treasure.

After watching his parents enter the cabin to change out of their wet clothes, Zachary then expanded his Divine Sense to observe the situation in the villa area.

Perhaps inspired by Mr. Thompson's example, or because others had thought of it too, now almost every household had summoned their Companion Spiritual Treasure and entered it for rest.

Just as Zachary was about to expand his Divine Sense again to observe the situation outside the villa area, Mrs. Thompson walked out of the cabin and called Zachary in for a meal.

Perhaps because all three of them had Storage Equipment, although they did not cook in the cabin, the meal was still quite rich.

Two meat dishes: braised pork and soy sauce pig's trotters, and two vegetarian dishes: shredded potatoes and onion with wood ear mushrooms.

Looking at the soy sauce pig's trotters on the table, Zachary knew that this dish had been stored in his parents' Storage space for quite a while. Without the time-stopping and absolute preservation capability of the Storage space, this dish would have spoiled due to lengthy storage time.

But with the Storage space, time was no longer a reason for food ingredients to deteriorate. Just like this soy sauce pig's trotters, which had been stored for who knows how long, it still steamed as if it had just come out of the pot.

The three of them had a simple meal and, just as Mr. Thompson said, felt somewhat oppressed by staying in the boat cabin the whole time. Although there wasn't much scenery to admire outside, they didn't linger in the cabin for long.

"Mom, Dad, how about I take you both out for a stroll?"

Before Mr. Thompson could respond, Mrs. Thompson flatly refused, "If you're bored, you can go for a walk by yourself. There's no need to stay with us; we'll rest in the cabin in a bit."

Hearing Mrs. Thompson speak like this, Dong Tianyu instinctively turned his gaze to Mr. Thompson. In fact, Mr. Thompson was somewhat tempted by Dong Tianyu's suggestion, but after hearing Mrs. Thompson's response, he ultimately chose to stay and accompany her. Therefore, Mr. Thompson could only wave his hand reluctantly, signaling Dong Tianyu to leave quickly.

Seeing that his father was already shooing him away, Dong Tianyu didn't say any more and took flight on his sword, preparing to get a high-altitude view of the current situation in the camp.

Once Flying Swords carried Dong Tianyu into the skies above the base, he noticed that, somehow, the boat-shaped Companion Spiritual Treasures, unseen for a long time since the floodwaters receded, were now commonplace in the camp.

Unlike the villa area where everyone stayed inside their own homes, perhaps because the Companion Spiritual Treasures of other survivors in the camp hadn't chosen evolutionary branches, or were even still in their primitive states, their bodies were not large and could move freely throughout the camp without restriction.

Additionally, although the accumulated water in the camp had not yet receded, it was, at most, only about one meter deep, so even without using Companion Spiritual Treasures, wading through the water wouldn't be too problematic.

For these reasons, compared to the somewhat deserted villa areas, the survivors living in other parts of the camp were quite lively; Dong Tianyu could see several groups joyfully playing in the water.

After seeing that there were no issues within the camp, Dong Tianyu didn't immediately return to the base but instead went above the city wall. Seeing that patrol members of the Guard Squad had resumed their duties on the wall, Dong Tianyu didn't linger and left the camp to investigate the situation in the wilderness.

Compared to the camp, the wilderness that had been submerged underwater now inexplicably sprouted many trees. Although these trees hadn't grown to their former height of more than ten meters, judging from their height above the water's surface, these seedlings were roughly two to three meters tall.

It was unclear whether these seedlings had been hidden underwater all along, only to emerge after the floodwaters retreated, or if unknown seeds scattered after the water receded and began to grow anew.

However, this had little to do with Dong Tianyu. Just as he felt the environment was a bit barren and was about to return to the camp, he suddenly spotted several dark shadows darting under the water.

Curious, Dong Tianyu pulled one of the shadows out of the water, discovering it was a small black snake, about thirty centimeters long with a girth no thicker than a pinky finger.

The small black snake, now confronted by Dong Tianyu, writhed incessantly, and as soon as it noticed Dong Tianyu not far away, it instantly tensed its body in Dong Tianyu's direction, seemingly perceiving him as an enemy.

But Dong Tianyu was quite far from the little snake, so even though it tensed up, it was still some distance away.

Just as Dong Tianyu, somewhat bored, was about to throw the small black snake back into the water, in an instant, countless little black snakes burst out of the water directly below him, charging straight toward Dong Tianyu in mid-air.

Anyone suffering from trypophobia who saw the scene beneath Dong Tianyu might very well faint from terror.

And as for Dong Tianyu, standing on Flying Swords, even though he had already noticed the situation below, he still stayed in place without moving an inch.