IPC Chapter 5: Ability

Interstellar Power Couple

Translator: Leslie

Quality Check: Vemmy

Editor: Chesh

First Published on Chaleuria

Chapter 5: Ability

Luo Yuling hadn’t been lying—there was a menagerie of weak and sickly little animals in the house. Some of them were lame, some were blind, and there were also some that were old, and listlessly laid in their nests since they didn’t like to move. Strangely enough, the moment Lei Jue arrived, all of them got up. The various animals—whether Lei Jue had seen them before or they were unfamiliar to him—all eyed him with either wariness or curiosity, waiting for him to come a bit closer before carefully walking over to him.

When Lei Jue was at Mount Fanjing, he would help the vets tend to some of the animals’ injuries. Sometimes he would participate in animal delivery operations as well, so he had indirectly learned a lot. He saw a little pure white monkey that had its left arm wrapped in bandages and couldn’t help but take a few more glances. 

“This is a snow marmoset that just picked up yesterday. Seems like its arm was bitten by something, and left quite a large wound at that, so even though it’s been treated, it hasn’t healed yet,” Luo Yuling said. “Be careful that it doesn’t claw you.”

“No need to worry, Aunty, I see that they’re all really docile.“ They were all little critters and basically had no offensive instincts.

“Your Big Brother Lingshu hasn’t gotten off of work yet. When he comes back, he’ll probably come here to change its medicine.” Just as Luo Yuling finished speaking, her communicator rang. She looked at the caller then told Lei Jue, “Little Jue, take your time, I’ll just go out for a bit.”

“Alright.” Lei Jue patted the snow marmoset. This little primate was about the height of two of an adult’s palms. Its entire body was white as snow, it had blue eyes, and the fur on its tail was exceptionally thick. However, its head was its cutest feature: the fur on its head was curly, like a doll with permed hair, making it extremely adorable. Lei Jue patted it for a while and it didn’t protest, so he simply scooped it up before carefully looking at its tiny injured arm. The little marmoset seemed to know that he wouldn’t hurt it, and when it was patted it let out a light squeaks. With its gentle, half-lidded eyes, it looked very comfortable.

“You’re so sweet and obedient, I’ll bring some tasty treats the next time I come. You’d better get well soon.” Lei Jue gently stroked the marmoset’s head. He wanted to place it down, but when he tried to set it down, the snow marmoset didn’t seem to want to be separated from him and its claws tightly gripped him. When he finally released it, the marmoset’s claw tips had scratched a few shallow trails of blood on his palm. This sort of pain was relatively minor, so he didn’t pay attention to it at first, but when he looked at the spot where he had been clawed, he was shocked. This was because those streaks of blood were disappearing at a noticeable rate, as if whatever he saw earlier was a complete hallucination! 

What was going on?

The snow marmoset also seemed to sense this oddity and moved away with a squeak. Lei Jue held his hand tightly as he stood up. He didn’t believe in the supernatural, so he used his own nails to forcefully scratch his other hand before staring at the scraped area. The results were the same as before—the part which had been scratched was healing swiftly, without any outside influence.

“Aunty, may I borrow your photon computer?” Lei Jue closed the door to the animals’ hutch, then turned to ask Luo Yuling, who had returned after answering her call. 

“Why are you still being so polite? I’ve said before that you should treat this home as your own,” Luo Yuling said, laughing. “It’s still somewhat cold outside, so you should go back in first. I’ll go get you a spare computer that we have lying around. Later on, we can go get a new one of your choice.” 

“It’s fine as long as it’s in working condition. Thank you.”

The photon computer that Luo Yuling brought for Lei Jue was one that Xiao Lingyu had used before. It didn’t have a password, so Lei Jue could use it right after switching it on. Once he booted it up, he immediately went on the internet to search for the characteristics and skills of plant type users. He then discovered that his ability may be a plant type with regenerative abilities. Otherwise, there could be no other explanation.  

“Why can’t I call you on your comm?” At that moment, a man’s voice rang out from the computer that had previously been silent. An image of Xiao Lingyu’s face proceeded to fill the screen of the photon computer.

“I didn’t like it, so I asked Aunty to help me destroy it,” Lei Jue said. “Sorry, I’m using your photon computer.”

“Come out, I’ll take you to buy a new one.” Xiao Lingyu vanished from the screen once he had finished speaking, and soon after, an aircraft was flying outside the window.

Lei Jue grabbed his coat and went outside, thanking Luo Yuling before he left. When he boarded the aircraft, he realized that Xiao Lingyu had actually changed from a suit to a military outfit with a long overcoat, which made him look cold and unapproachable. He was dazzlingly handsome, to the point that the surroundings seemed to light up.    

“Did my mum help you pick those clothes?” Xiao Lingyu’s gaze swept over Lei Jue’s attire.

“Yep.”

“So unfashionable,” Xiao Lingyu said with a hint of disgust in his voice. “it’s completely covered up what little sexiness you did have.”

“…” You motherf*cker, do you know that you’re just asking to be punched? Lei Jue was rendered completely Speechless, with a capital ‘S’, by the person sitting next to him, who made his hands itch.

Although online shopping mall services were already extremely good—if you bought something anywhere within the empire’s boundaries, you could exchange it any number of times on the very same day; service was that quick—there were still some who would go to physical malls to buy certain items. 

Lei Jue descended from the aircraft and got on the shopping cart provided by the mall.

The malls here were at least thousands of feet tall. The structure inside was designed like a tube—there were no stairs, so customers used self-driving shopping carts to fly around for their shopping. The way the items were arranged was like a library; tens of thousands of items with different designs and various brands were placed on display grids resembling bookshelves. If there was something you liked, you only needed to point at it and the product would automatically fly off the display grid before automatically demonstrating its features and functions. If the customer wanted to purchase it, they only needed to scan it with the onboard product scanner, choose how many units they wanted to buy, and pay. Once the amount had been paid, the storage cabinet that held the stock would open and a new item would fly out. The display product would then fly back to where it was supposed to be.  

Lei Jue was perfectly fine when it came to looking at animals, but he had no idea at all when it came to choosing digital products here. The main reason for that was that the original owner of his body rarely used these novel items, so he really didn’t have any experience with this.

Xiao Lingyu browsed through the items that he wanted to buy, completely ignoring Lei Jue. However, Lei Jue didn’t want to spend money and end up getting something crappy, so he tapped Xiao Lingyu and asked him to recommend a computer.

The one Xiao Lingyu himself used was high spec. When he had gotten it, it underwent two upgrades. It was the kind of computer that even money couldn’t buy, which was why even though he browsed for ages, there were none that caught his eye. At last, he just had the robot sales assistant bring him two limited edition computers and a selection of communicators that younger people liked. He made the robot get every available color for each model and let Lei Jue take his pick. 

“I’ll get the red one,” Lei Jue said, feeling that the red looked warm. 

“Are you sure?” Xiao Lingyu had thought that Lei Jue would have chosen either a white or a blue communicator.

“I’m sure, why?”

“Aren’t those who like red as enthusiastic as a fire? You, on the other hand? You’re not quite it.” Xiao Lingyu paid and, again, used the same method to let Lei Jue choose a photon computer. In the end, Lei Jue picked another red one.  

“I just like red, that’s all. Also, I’m borrowing this money from you, so I’ll repay it someday.” Lei Jue felt as if he had just been robbed; those two items alone needed 130,000 galactic dollars.

“Actually, you don’t need to be so modest. Your father was once my combat instructor and I owed him as well, so it’s nothing to spend that bit of money on you. Besides, you’ve just come of age and don’t have a job, so according to the law I have a duty to support you financially. I’ll put your name on my bank account. In the future, when you want to buy something, you only need to scan our marriage registration number. The money will be deducted from my account.”

“How could I accept this?”

“You’re asking me this when you only have twenty dollars to your name?” Xiao Lingyu was carrying out the joint account declaration on his communicator. Once it was done, he raised his head and said, “Little Jue, why don’t I take you to buy a few sets of pajamas? Let’s see if we can get your butt to look a bit perkier. I’m sure that it’ll definitely look—”  

“No need for that, thanks!” Lei Jue descended from the aircraft after saying those words, determined to ignore this person. Xiao Lingyu couldn’t behave seriously for more than three minutes; his head was practically filled with fluff! Lei Jue had actually thought that this person was well-mannered earlier, but the way he had done a one-eighty was infuriating!

“Back so soon?” Luo Yuling smiled as she walked over. “Little Jue, did you buy a communicator that you like?”

“Yep. Aunty, what are all of you looking at?” When Lei Jue entered the house, he saw quite a few people huddled together.   

“We’re looking at the snow marmoset. Its injuries have actually completely healed, it’s unbelievable.” Luo Yuling said as she pointed at the small primate. Lei Jue looked in the direction of where she pointed and saw that the little marmoset was holding a fruit in its paws, squeaking as it ate, cradled in Xiao Lingshu’s arms. It was enjoying itself immensely.   

“Typically, it would need another two or three days to recover.” Xiao Lingshu’s tone held a hint of puzzlement. Compared to Xiao Lingyu, he seemed more motherly. His expression was really gentle, and when he spoke his voice was quite warm and tender. It was comfortable to listen to, like a gentle breeze washing over you. He smiled and looked toward Lei Jue. “You’re Little Jue, right? Welcome to the Xiao family, have you gotten used to this place yet?”  

“Quite well actually, thank you Second Brother.” Lei Jue slowly stepped forward. “May I see that little primate?”

“Of course you can.” Xiao Lingshu passed the snow marmoset to Lei Jue.  

Lei Jue received the marmoset and cradled it, before discreetly focusing his attention on its injury. He realized that this little critter had indeed recovered without so much as a scar, as if it had never been injured before. With the mysterious and weird situation that happened to his body earlier, he had no choice but to ponder—was this also related to him?

If it was true, then he, as this kind of ability user, could not only heal himself, but others as well. It was simply incredible. Out of the plant users, perhaps the only other users who had this ability were red peak lotus users. 

Of course, before ascertaining the cause of this, he decided that he should keep his head down. After all, he had never treated a person before and he didn’t know whether the snow marmoset was a coincidence, or a proper example of his power.  

That night, Xiao Lingyu headed out again, and asked Lei Jue if he wanted to follow. Lei Jue didn’t go and took the newly-bought photon computer to the guest room to research online again. He not only searched for information about ability users, but he also took a look at the local laws—especially those concerning lawbreaking and sentencing. He noted down the important points so he wouldn’t unintentionally do anything that went against the laws of the Northern Ling District.

After he had finished all of that, he switched off the computer. However, three minutes later, he switched it back on, seemingly on a whim, and typed the words “elemental ability” into the internet browser. He stared at the information displayed on the screen and practically sat there till daybreak.