Chapter Ninety: A Clever Woman Is Not Easy to Fool

Ye Chen now had enough inner energy to keep his farsight eye active, so he focused on the position of the watch crown.

He discovered that the structure inside the crown was still the same as before.

Only all the spheres had shrunk in the same proportion.

Tap... tap... tap...

The sound of high heels striking the floor echoed through the room, rapid and urgent.

You Ya rushed up to Ye Chen, seized his arm, and studied carefully this self-awakened relic that had once been a box and was now a watch.

Too excited, her breathing had grown a little heavy, and Ye Chen could feel her hot breath brushing against his wrist.

You Ya looked up at Ye Chen, then glanced around at the researchers present. Without another word, she took his hand and dragged him out the door toward her own laboratory.

Only after several seconds did the other researchers react, chasing after them and shouting:

“Chief Director You Ya, you can’t do this. Let us join the research too...”

“Exactly. How can you hog the whole project all to yourself?!”

“I’m going to tell your brother on you!”

Inside the doorway, seeing the crowd about to catch up, You Ya curled her lips, lifted her pointed chin, and said:

“Wait until I’ve had my fill of researching it first.”

Creak!

You Ya shut the door to her laboratory, pressed a finger to the touch panel, passed fingerprint authentication, and locked it from the inside.

...

The two of them stood facing one another in the room, the atmosphere turning strangely awkward.

Was this not the classic case of a lone man and a lone woman sharing a room?

When standing together, their heights were nearly the same.

But if You Ya took off her high heels, she would be exactly half a head shorter than Ye Chen.

She let down her tied-up hair and shook it free, and a waterfall of black tresses poured over her back.

She walked straight to the table, picked up the coffeepot, poured herself a cup, then turned and asked:

“I only have coffee here. Want a cup?”

“Sure. I don’t drink it much, but I can manage.” The awkwardness was broken.

After taking a deep breath and settling her mood, You Ya said:

“Sit down. Let’s talk first. This is my private laboratory; no one else can come in.

“Except my brother.

“Of course, if I don’t get the answer I want today, you won’t be getting out either.”

“Cough... cough...” Ye Chen, who had just taken a sip of coffee, nearly choked on it.

How was he supposed to react to that?

How was he supposed to respond to that?

“What's wrong?”

“It’s too hot.”

“Really? It doesn’t seem hot to me.”

You Ya did not press the matter and instead said, “Bring me your awakened relic. Let me have a look.”

Ye Chen knew that what had to come would come sooner or later.

A self-awakened relic was not something you could get for free that easily, and coffee brewed by a beauty was not something you could drink that easily either.

You Ya held the broken blade in her hand, turning it over and over. There was nothing special about it—just a hunting knife broken off partway down.

The only unusual thing about it was perhaps the blade, which Ye Chen had sharpened to an extreme edge.

Still, she also understood that in the hands of someone who was not its owner, an awakened relic was no different from an ordinary object.

Only in the owner’s hands could it reveal its true abilities.

Just as she was about to touch the blade with her finger, Ye Chen, sitting across from her, quickly stopped her.

“Don’t. It’s really sharp. It’ll cut you.”

It was not that he was moved by tender feelings for her, but that if something went wrong, he would have no choice today but to hack his way out through the door.

Besides, Ye Chen knew very well that once his broken blade had become an awakened relic, even without activating any skill, its edge was far sharper than before.

You Ya’s eyes flickered, and she said lightly, “So you mean one of its awakening traits is sharpness?”

Ye Chen frowned. This woman did not look easy to fool.

I only mentioned it in passing, and she already started guessing—and even guessed right.

Seeing Ye Chen’s uncertain expression, You Ya smiled inwardly. Trying to hide things from me? You’re still far from it.

“Go on, then. What is its skill?”

Trying to bluff your way past the chief director of the Transcendent Bureau was indeed difficult; every question she asked went straight to the point.

Ye Chen sighed and said,

“I can use inner energy to condense an invisible blade. For example, like this...”

He took the broken blade back, formed the remaining half of the blade, and slashed at the corner of the table.

In You Ya’s eyes, the broken blade seemed to cleave through empty air; the visible edge never actually touched the table’s corner.

And yet, after that single strike, a corner of the table was truly missing.

“Oh! That’s interesting!” You Ya’s eyes brightened, and her interest was piqued.

“Your awakened skill isn’t bad at all. It’s practical in combat, far better than those random, miscellaneous relics.

“If developed properly, it’ll shine brilliantly in the future.

“What skills have you developed so far? If I’m not mistaken, you must have used an improved skill to open this box.”

You Ya made her guess with confidence.

No, you’ve already guessed wrong...

“Mm, Chief Director, you guessed correctly,” Ye Chen replied seriously. “When I cut the corner of the table just now, my blade was at the normal length of a hunting knife.

“But I can control the length and size of the blade.”

Ye Chen’s explanation of the broken blade’s ability was entirely true and would stand up to testing.

“And then you used a very tiny edge to open the lock core inside the crown. I’m right, aren’t I?”

Ye Chen nodded in agreement.

Though inwardly he was complaining that if she could see the structure of the lock core, she would not be so confident.

The first riddle had been solved, and You Ya took a satisfied sip of coffee.

Next came the second.

She set down her cup gently and said in high spirits:

“Then what is this box—oh, it’s not a box anymore, this watch—what exactly does it do?

“Once a self-awakened relic recognizes its owner, we can’t take it back, because even if we did, we still wouldn’t be able to use it.

“But since this is something our Transcendent Bureau gave out, we at least have a right to know about it.

“And we also have many experiments and theories that are based on a deep understanding of self-awakened relics.

“So please understand, and please cooperate with our research.”

There really was no such thing as a free lunch in this world. If you took something from someone, you had to do work for them in return.

Last time, he had taken You Ya’s trainee researcher card, which allowed him to come and go from the inner city with ease.

Later, he took her gift as well, and that helped him reverse the tide in his battle with the cloaked man.

And this time, he had directly plucked a massive tuft of wool from her; if he did not cooperate and contribute some real work, it would be a little hard to justify.

Most importantly, he rather liked the Transcendent Bureau...

Though Ye Chen would rather die than admit that he was also somewhat coveting You Ya’s beauty.

And her fine uniform.

After a moment’s thought, Ye Chen said, “Er... I still don’t know yet. Why don’t you take it and study it first?”

As he spoke, he generously reached out as though to take off the watch and hand it over.

You Ya shook her head, revealing a smile capable of killing men where they stood, seemingly very pleased with what Ye Chen had just done.

“No need to take it off. I’m not its owner, so it won’t do any good for me to hold it. The most efficient way is for you to test it yourself, and I’ll watch right here.”

Damn, this woman really was not simple. If the results were tested on the spot, then later on I won’t even be able to make up some random excuse to gloss over it.