Chapter 147: Ability Expansion

Occasionally bragging with Wei Dalei was a rare relaxing activity in Chen Mu's dull life; he didn't expect Old Wei to also foolishly run over to brag to Tang Jing.

It's over; from now on I won't be able to face Tang Jing.

In the following days, Tang Jing hardly looked for anyone to study the Special Ability, but she remained very busy—either sitting at the conference table writing furiously, or running off to chat idly with the two captives.

Chen Mu felt a bit guilty, thought about it, and deliberately made a desk and a chair.

These two items cost him considerable effort.

According to ergonomic design, there was a backrest, a footrest, an exquisite bookshelf, a tea coaster within easy reach… and even a seat cushion woven from cotton thread.

The desk and chair were carved with dragons and phoenixes—complex patterns Tang Jing liked, in the same style as the treasure sword given to her initially; most importantly, the two characters 'Tang Jing' were carved upright and proper in the upper left corner of the tabletop.

After working hard for most of the day, he finally completed it.

Chen Mu examined the desk and chair for a long time, nodded satisfied, then hurriedly moved them over to Tang Jing himself—he didn't call Wei Dalei for help, so it took a lot of effort.

Tang Jing was lowering her head, writing seriously, occasionally lifting her head to think for a moment.

Hearing a movement behind her, she turned around to look.

She saw Chen Mu standing behind with a righteous and solemn expression, beside him a set of exquisite desk and chair.

"What is this?" Tang Jing asked with a smile.

"The conference table height isn't suitable; I saw you writing with some difficulty, so I casually made a single-person desk and chair, a product improved from the classroom style." Chen Mu, holding the tabletop with one hand, spoke in the tone of a real estate salesman.

"Thank you, that's thoughtful."

Tang Jing walked over slowly, lowered her head to glance, then ran her hand over the surface: "The pattern is quite nice, and there's my name?"

"Yeah, I just carved it casually."

"You've become this capable now?"

"Well… I have indeed become a bit more practiced."

Tang Jing moved the chair aside, sat down, then placed her hands on the desk, felt the height, leaned back, looked left and right, and indeed was quite satisfied.

"I didn't expect you to have this skill? Don't tell me you once helped out as a carpenter's assistant."

"No, that's not the case." Chen Mu laughed: "But practice makes perfect; doing it a few more times will make it work."

Tang Jing nodded, leaned her whole body against the chair back, placed her feet on the footrest below, looking relaxed and content, and said: "Your ability is getting stronger and stronger."

"Also, thanks for your help as an advisor."

Making the desk and chair to curry favor was meant to shut Tang Jing up, so she wouldn't spread my embarrassing deeds; but the words of thanks are indeed true.

Tang Jing's guidance on Chen Mu's ability wasn't extensive, but often just a few words gave him great inspiration.

"You said earlier that your control over water has improved now?" Tang Jing asked, tilting her head while sitting in the chair.

Chen Mu immediately became serious: "Well, and it's a significant improvement—I can't even figure out why. The growth of the Special Ability in the past, regardless of speed, has been a steady process with discernible traces—for example, if one day's training was especially arduous, the next day's growth would be a bit more."

"But this time it came out of the blue."

"Can you let me see it?"

"Sure."

The two came to the Water Reservoir's edge; Chen Mu casually made a water basin, then filled it with water.

He put one hand into the basin.

The water surface submerged his palm.

The water in the basin slowly rippled.

Suddenly, a water column shot up like a swimming dragon, carrying a graceful posture; after reaching its highest point, it veered toward the side.

However, a height of over a person's length was obviously the limit; the water dragon's momentum spent, it lost thrust, quickly dispersed with a splash, and water fell all over the ground.

"This is already the limit." Chen Mu shook his hand; the water in the basin was now less than one-third left.

"Not bad at all." Tang Jing nodded, a trace of surprise still on her face.

"It only succeeded just these two days; before, at most I could only cause some ripples." Chen Mu said while wiping his hands on his body.

"Perhaps it's quantitative change leading to qualitative change—your accumulated training value suddenly erupted." Tang Jing said.

"Uh… it's kind of like playing a game?" Chen Mu, although he hardly plays games himself, but Wei Dalei is a typical person who "uses others' study time to play games."

"Although Old Wei's gaming level is still poor, that doesn't stop him from bragging to Chen Mu, who's even worse."

"Maybe."

Tang Jing suddenly asked: "Have you tried potatoes again?"

Chen Mu blinked.

Regarding the objects of his Special Ability, Chen Mu had actually done a classification inventory early on; for ordinary solid substances like metal and plastic, there's basically no problem—just differing difficulty levels.

As for liquid water, although it was difficult at first, it eventually produced a response.

The most troublesome are some biological substances.

For example, at the very beginning he experimented with rice grains, yielding no reaction; later, while out, he also tried the corpses of ant larvae and such, still no reaction; after hijacking a truck from Yi Zhong, he tried vegetables like potatoes and tomatoes, and still got no response.

After infusing mental power into these substances, it was like a mud ox entering the sea—instantly vanishing without a trace.

It seems his ability is hard to affect living organisms.

Chen Mu didn't feel disappointed about this, after all, changing the shape of a potato seems not to have much use.

After learning about Gu Yinglong's ability, Chen Mu gained another explanation to convince himself.

It's quite obvious that some abilities can only target fixed categories of substances.

And Gu Yinglong's ability well compensates for his shortcomings, even performing more excellently.

However, at this moment, reminded by Tang Jing, Chen Mu's thoughts became active again.

"Let me try."

Since water had a breakthrough, perhaps there could also be progress with biological substances.

Chen Mu quickly found a tomato.

Everyone in Qiming eats this thing to death every day, yet it hasn't been used up much; fortunately, not much time has passed, so there's still no sign of spoilage.

Chen Mu, facing Tang Jing, said he would slowly pour his mental power into this bright‑red tomato.

Still no reaction.

He felt a bit discouraged, but still unwilling to give up, so he continued to increase the input.

A steady stream of mental power flowed into the tomato, which was about the size of a fist.

In the end, Chen Mu even poured it in a somewhat venting‑like frenzy.

Suddenly, the smooth surface of the tomato produced a slight wrinkle.

Although it was only a very subtle change, because their attention was fully focused on the tomato, both Chen Mu and Tang Jing noticed this anomaly.

The two looked up and met each other's eyes.

"Sure enough, it works."

Chen Mu's heart pounded.

Although changing the shape of a tomato itself isn't very useful, for his ability it is of great significance.

This further verified that the shape‑changing special ability can be applied to all matter.

Thus.

A long‑suppressed thought of his returned to his mind.