Chapter 288: The Cube
To be honest, even though he had been staying there for a few days, he never had any intention to really explore the depths of the cave.
As they delved deeper, Yun Zhonghe started feeling something wasn’t quite right.
The deeper parts of the cave seemed to lead to another world, almost like a fairy cave with signs of human habitation.
Before Yun Zhonghe could take a closer look, Chen Leling grabbed his arm and rushed toward a corner, almost bursting with excitement as if she wanted to show him a big treasure.
There was a small hidden hole that she could squeeze through, looking pretty secretive.
Chen Leling went in headfirst, her b*tt poking out awkwardly and revealing everything.
Yun Zhonghe looked away politely until her entire body disappeared inside.
Sure enough, at the other end lay a stone chamber!
Inside, the stone chamber was minimalistic, containing only a bed, a table, some chairs, and a couple of scattered futons. Not much else could be seen.
His eyes landed on a stone table where a few empty porcelain bottles were placed. Some residue still clung to the necks of the bottles, suggesting they had been recently opened.
Just as he began to wonder, Chen Leling pointed at her mouth, as if signaling that she had eaten everything herself.
He joked, “Didn’t you become smart after eating all those dan pills?”
Chen Leling nodded affirmatively, howling with excitement.
Curiously, Yun Zhonghe wondered if Chen Leling had, by a stroke of luck, escaped from the Chen family and found this chamber, consuming a large amount of dan pills in the process and thereby gaining her current state of enlightenment?
What kind of divine elixir?!
Could it be something that enhances spiritual energy? Unlikely…
Elixirs that boost spiritual energy are extremely rare and difficult to produce.
Yun Zhonghe couldn’t help but curiously pick up an empty porcelain bottle and sniff it deeply—it smelled somewhat familiar.
It felt like an elixir meant to supplement yang energy.
Yun Zhonghe had cultivated the Golden Yang Art for years, so he recognized the smell of qi-supplementing herbs very well. After all, he had been taking such pills since childhood to strengthen his yang energy.
Examining the empty bottles on the table closely, he became more convinced of his guess—these were undoubtedly precious qi-supplementing pills.
Could it be that Chen Leling resurrected herself due to the effects of these pills?
As he pondered these questions, he suddenly felt a warm and solid touch come from behind.
Chen Leling secretly hugged him around the waist from the back, making it seem like she was his personal accessory, clinging tightly to him as if this was the only way for her to feel secure.
At the same time, she held a cubical wooden box and gently handed it to Yun Zhonghe.
At first, he thought it was a valuable treasure chest possibly hiding some shocking secrets, but when he carefully examined it, he realized—
“Leiling, where did you get this?”
Chen Leling continued to hold onto him while pointing towards an empty bed, motioning that the box came from under the bed.
Yun Zhonghe’s heart was filled with excitement for reasons unknown.
Because what he held in his hands was not just any ordinary wooden box, but a wooden cube!
More precisely, it was a third-order wooden cube. Although it wasn’t painted, each piece was intricately carved with patterns. If restored correctly, it would form six complete pictures.
Yun Zhonghe had vaguely searched the history of the magic cube before, knowing that it seemingly simple object was actually invented in the 1970s; he didn’t remember the exact date but knew it was a modern puzzle toy.
In this world steeped in fantasy, it didn’t make sense that such an item should exist.
Of course, one might argue that women wearing stockings isn’t too surprising here.
True, reflecting on his experience in the game, he hadn’t discovered anything beyond the ordinary except for the deliberately designed “stockings” to cater to player preferences.
Therefore, as this wooden cube appeared in his hand, his instinct told him this thing was far from ordinary.
Yun Zhonghe covered the wooden cube with his spiritual energy. He discovered an anomaly inside—an unstable core emitting weak spiritual energy.
Perhaps solving this scrambled cube would lead to answers.
Before diving into the puzzle, Yun Zhonghe decided to thoroughly search the stone chamber, including bedsides, the insides of futons, and drawers—all to no avail. Except for the cube, he found nothing of value or relevance.
Honestly, it felt rather meager—nothing much and barely any furniture. It certainly didn’t seem like something left behind by an extraordinary master.
Maybe, even if he managed to solve the puzzle, it wouldn’t reveal anything meaningful, and he would have just wasted his time.
A notion crossed his mind that someone was snickering and gossiping behind his back.
He quickly turned around, but there was nothing, just an empty stone chamber.
Chen Leling, however, gazed at him full of eager anticipation, seemingly urging him to get cracking.
Curiosity got the better of the little investigative child within her.
Perhaps Chen Leling brought him here specifically to solve this cube’s mystery.
Still, Yun Zhonghe was fond of her. If it’s what Chen Leling wanted, then why not?
Indeed, despite regaining some intelligence after being revived, Chen Leling still had her limitations. An intellectual puzzle would probably be quite challenging for her.
Even normal people can struggle without mastering the technique required to solve the cube.
It needs a formula, after all.
Fortunately, Yun Zhonghe had experience with this in his past life and remembered the formula for the third-order cube.
Sitting on the lone futon in the chamber, Yun Zhonghe began trying to reconstruct the cube using his memory of the formula.
Meanwhile, Chen Leling watched him curiously, like a child. Even after he sat down, she remained in a kneeling position, hugging his neck from behind.
Due to their different postures, her breast landed squarely on Yun Zhonghe’s head.
Yun Zhonghe: “…”
Forget about the mountain on his head.
The process of reconstructing the cube went exceptionally smoothly with hardly any trouble from Yun Zhonghe.
Though occasionally he made minor mistakes due to foggy memory, his deep understanding of the cube’s formula and constant recalculations eventually led him to successfully restore the wooden third-order cube to its original state again.
