My Apocalypse System Arrives 10 Years Early

"So this is how pandas sound, SQUEAK, SQUEAK~" Jiang Cai’Er was amazed. She had always been focused on her studies, and since her parents were from the countryside, they never took her traveling. This was the first time she had seen a panda in real life.

She had seen them on TV and on her phone before, but it couldn’t compare to the reality of touching one up close.

Jiang Cai’Er didn’t have a Night Vision Superpower, but Li Xiang had a flashlight in his Otherworldly Warehouse. He took it out now to light up the area. In the flashlight’s beam, Tuantuan’s black and white fur gleamed, especially the white parts. The tips of its fur were nearly transparent, as if enveloped in a halo of light.

Li Xiang explained, "A panda’s squeak means it’s happy. They can make many other sounds too. Tuantuan, make some of your other sounds."

Tuantuan: "AWOO~, CHIRP~, HOHO~, WOOF~, COO~, CLUCK~, BAA~..."

Jiang Cai’Er was stunned, her eyes sparkling. "It can make so many different sounds! It’s so Spiritual. Li Xiang, it’s listening to you."

"Of course. I’m its dad," Li Xiang said, taking out another Spirit Fruit and giving it to Tuantuan as a reward.

Tuantuan: "SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK~"

The panda’s face was all smiles, which, combined with its natural black eye patches, looked incredibly comical.

Li Xiang patted its head and said to Jiang Cai’Er, "Panda cubs probably have a smaller range of sounds, maybe two or three types. The reason it knows so many might be because it’s almost an adult."

After all, Tuantuan was an Exotic Beast with the potential to reach Tier Fifteen, so it was naturally gifted. Although it was estimated to be only about three years old, it wasn’t impossible for it to develop faster than other pandas.

For example, some pandas need six years to reach adulthood, while others only need four.

There are individual differences, and it’s the same for humans.

Some people are still clueless at twenty, while others understand everything by fifteen or sixteen, even having tasted the forbidden fruit.

This applies psychologically as well as physiologically. Some people in their forties or fifties still don’t understand the ways of the world, while others are very mature, carrying themselves with great poise by the age of fifteen or sixteen.

Gan Luo became chancellor at twelve, devising a brilliant plan that allowed the Qin State to capture over ten cities without lifting a finger. Huo Qubing was a divine military commander at eighteen, fighting his way in and out of the great desert and being named Champion Marquis.

Take Luo Feifei, for example. At fifteen or sixteen, she was already a top actress with a net worth in the hundreds of millions. She had even performed divinations for many important figures, playing the part of an unworldly master in real life and holding a transcendent status. Meanwhile, others her age were still just snot-nosed kids.

If Li Xiang were to teach her the Breathing Technique and give her Spiritual Medicine, she could probably reach the Saint Tier by eighteen or nineteen. At that age, many people are just starting college, or if they fail the entrance exams, they have no choice but to go work in a factory, tightening screws.

"AWOO~"

In the distance, Tuantuan’s mother appeared. She didn’t dare come closer, instead standing up on her hind legs to peer in their direction. Li Xiang shone the flashlight at her for a moment, and Tuantuan’s mother was immediately frightened, hiding behind a large tree. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Jiang Cai’Er was surprised.

Li Xiang explained, "That’s Tuantuan’s mother. If she’s willing, we can take her with us too."

"Are we taking her today?"

Li Xiang pondered for a moment. "Let’s do it next time. I have to carry you today, so I can’t carry them."

’It wasn’t that he couldn’t carry them, but it would be inconvenient. Jiang Cai’Er on my back, a large panda tucked under each arm? We’d be too big of a target, and I wouldn’t be able to run fast.’

"Mhm, there’s no rush. I think it would be better to bring them over when our tourist spot opens," Jiang Cai’Er suggested.

"Great idea!" Li Xiang snapped his fingers. ’Heh, a grand opening, graced by pandas... what a huge gimmick. It’s sure to attract a lot of traffic.’

’Truthfully, if it were closer, Tuantuan could just run over on its own. But it’s over three hundred kilometers away. What if the little guy gets lost? I might not even be able to find it then.’

Li Xiang figured that if he came to pick them up in the middle of the night, he could envelop them in the Black Light of the Black Mountain Profound Armor. By sticking to deserted, wild areas and using trees for cover, he could easily avoid any satellites overhead.

"Take this fruit to your mom." Li Xiang took out another Tier One Spirit Fruit and handed it to Tuantuan.

"SQUEAK, SQUEAK~" Tuantuan knew Li Xiang and Jiang Cai’Er were leaving and was reluctant to see them go.

"Goodbye now. Make sure you miss me."

Li Xiang patted the little one’s head, put away the flashlight, picked up Jiang Cai’Er, and his figure vanished into the distant darkness.

It was still dark when they returned to Li Family Village.

The two of them practiced the Breathing Technique mouth-to-mouth for a while before Jiang Cai’Er secretly slipped back home.

As she climbed back into her bedroom through the window, took off her clothes and shoes, and lay down on her bed to get some more sleep, she couldn’t help but feel like the night’s events had been a dream.

Recalling her intimate contact with Li Xiang—a first for her—she felt as if she were soaking in a honey pot, sweet through and through.

The last time, that "dragonfly-skimming-the-water" peck at the school gate, had been over in an instant. It naturally couldn’t compare to the sensations of tonight.

Once you taste the marrow, you know the flavor—this kind of thing was addictive. Fortunately, she was an Extraordinary Being and her willpower was usually quite strong, so she could control her impulses. Before long, she was sound asleep.

Naturally, Jiang Cai’Er no longer needed Li Xiang to tutor her with her homework. When it came to just solving problems, Li Xiang was no longer her match. However, she still came over to Li Xiang’s house to study every day, bringing her textbooks, exercises, and test papers.

’Proficiency comes from diligence and is lost through idleness.’ Even with a Memory Palace, she still had to work hard. ’Learning has no limits.’

For a high school student, vacation was short and life was monotonous. Soon, the break was over, and Li Xiang drove her to school.

Jiang Cai’Er lingered in the car, refusing to get out.

"Go on now. I’ll see you next month," Li Xiang comforted her.

"Just a little longer."

A full half-hour later, after a session of the Breathing Technique came to an end, Jiang Cai’Er finally, reluctantly, walked through the school gates with her suitcase, looking back every three steps.

Li Xiang saw that it was still early, so he went for a tour of the county’s pet market, but he didn’t find anything special.

As for the other animals in the village, he often wandered around and had long since taken the opportunity to "look" at them all. None had any Extraordinary potential.

Such things could only be chanced upon, not sought out.

Late at night, Li Xiang arrived at the construction site for the Holy Realm Garden. The place was brightly lit; the workers were actually rushing to finish the job, working day and night.

Li Xiang: "..." ’Is Luo Feifei’s influence really that powerful?’

Ever since Luo Feifei’s last inspection, where she’d said she wanted to rent the cave as a filming location, the workers had been acting like they were on steroids. They didn’t use to work at night, but now they were working in two shifts.

Their speed was indeed impressive, though. The rough structure of the mountainside Shelter was already complete, and now they were working on the interior decoration and landscaping the garden portion.

Since the garden section mostly consisted of one or two-story ancient-style buildings, the rough structures had been erected in the first two weeks of construction. Having been left to air out for so long, the walls and roofs were completely dry, so now they were proceeding with renovations and arranging the surrounding environment.

For example, laying the lawns, transplanting flowers and trees, digging the artificial lake, and building the lakeside pavilion and corridors.

Because this was all relatively "light" work and the site was quite far from the village, not much noise carried over.

The particularly noisy jobs were all saved for the daytime.

Li Xiang inspected the site, chatted for a bit with the person in charge, and then returned home.

That night, late in the master bedroom on the second floor, a golden light flashed.

Fortunately, it was the middle of the night, so no one noticed.

Even if someone had seen it, they would have just assumed it was some kind of special lighting effect. After all, the mood lights on the market today come in all sorts of styles and can produce a wide variety of light patterns.

For example, Li Xiang himself had set up a mood light in his second-floor living room that could switch between thirty-six different effects, including scenes like a starry sky, the ocean, and a snowy mountain.

After airing it out for so long, Li Xiang had already moved into the new house. In fact, he couldn’t smell any strange odors anymore.

As for his grandmother’s room on the first floor, it was filled with her old furniture, so there was even less to worry about.

’Golden Light Shield! My fifth Superpower!’

The Spiritual Power Vortex Li Xiang had condensed this time was located in his lower abdomen, and the Superpower it awakened was a circular Golden Light Shield. Its defensive power was not much weaker than his Black Mountain Profound Armor. Stacked together, it was like having two layers of armor.

However, the Golden Light Shield was shiny and golden, looking much better than the rolling black qi of the Black Mountain Profound Armor. Furthermore, a Superpower could be upgraded in the future, with second, third, and even more forms.

In contrast, upgrading an Extraordinary Item like the Black Mountain Profound Armor would likely be much more difficult. It would require adding High Grade materials and would need an Extraordinary Being proficient in the Artifact Refining Technique.

Li Xiang couldn’t help but feel a little troubled. ’Six Superpowers... and I already have five: Night Vision, Divine Movement Technique, Divine Movement Technique, Cold Ice Sword Qi, and Golden Light Shield.’

’And one of them, the Divine Movement Technique, is a duplicate. What a waste of a slot, right?’

But these Superpowers awakened randomly, so there was nothing he could do about it.

What he didn’t know, however, was that the six-Superpower limit only applied to ordinary Extraordinary Beings. For those with astonishing talent, it was possible to break through this ceiling.

At the same time, the system rewards for breaking through to a new Realm arrived: 4,000 Achievement Points, and the side length of his System’s Otherworldly Warehouse was doubled.

Previously, the warehouse’s side length was 16 meters; now it was 32 meters. As a cube, its volume had expanded to 32m x 32m x 32m, for a total of 32,768 cubic meters.

To use a naval ship’s displacement as an analogy, this was equivalent to 32,000 tons.

For comparison, a Type 055 destroyer is only a little over 10,000 tons, and a Type 075 amphibious assault ship is between 31,000 and 40,000 tons.

As for active aircraft carriers, he naturally couldn’t compare to the large ones, but France’s *Charles de Gaulle* has a full-load displacement of only 42,000 tons, while Italy’s *Cavour* is a mere 27,000 tons.

But if Li Xiang were to level up a few more times, even a 100,000-ton aircraft carrier’s displacement value wouldn’t be impressive anymore.