“Plant a tiny seed, and a tiny flower blooms.”
“In the big, big garden, dig and dig and dig. One hole to the left—nothing there. One hole to the right—still nothing there.”
Lin Xiaohe sang as she sighed.
The good news: she had probably escaped that so-called Fallen Land of the Supreme Gods.
The bad news: she had no idea where she had ended up!
In a scene like this, if there were a coffin lying around, she could lie down in it quite peacefully.
The entire cave was pitted and full of holes, with dirt flying everywhere—but there wasn’t even a single bug in sight.
Lin Xiaohe felt like she was starring in her own version of Robinson Crusoe. Except instead of drifting on the ocean, she was bouncing around the cosmos. She couldn’t even tell who had it worse.
When people get bored, they start running their mouths.
“Hey, Supreme Lord, how did you manage to make yourself so hated by everyone? Even your own disciple doesn’t love you.”
“I’m different—I’m a flower that everyone adores. My family loves me, my disciples love me, my followers love me, even ordinary citizens love me.”
“Wow, you’re so pitiful. You really hit rock bottom, huh?”
The Supreme Lord’s forehead veins bulged. He wasn’t easily provoked—unless he absolutely couldn’t help it.
And Lin Xiaohe had that special talent of annoying him to death.
“Shut up! Focus on digging your holes. The Fallen Land of the Supreme Gods connects heaven, earth, and time-space. Heh. Just pray we’re not caught in a dimensional rift.”
Otherwise, one wrong swing of her pickaxe, and they’d all be done for.
Lin Xiaohe grinned roguishly. “Supreme Lord, that’s not very nice of you. What’s our relationship?! We’re life-and-death partners! And you’ve been hiding such important information from me? I’m so hurt.”
The Supreme Lord took a deep breath, then another, silently telling himself not to get angry—no one would take his place if he got sick from rage. “Don’t you go slinging mud at me. I don’t believe for a second that you don’t have secrets of your own.”
They were both old foxes of several tens of millions of years—who were they trying to fool? For all he knew, Lin Xiaohe had been alive even longer than he had.
An ancient old demon, and she had the nerve to play the young innocent card. Shameless.
Little did Lin Xiaohe know that in the Supreme Lord’s eyes, she had already become a billion-year-old monster. If she knew, she would definitely cry foul!
Clang!
Lin Xiaohe’s eyes lit up. That sound—she had hit something!
She called Little Black over, and together they dug out whatever was buried underground.
“A fossil? A statue?”
It was a statue of an adult male, about two meters tall. His skin was like polished obsidian, his eyes tightly shut, and his muscle lines clearly defined. He looked like a rock formation weathered over eons—radiating raw power.
He was completely naked, with veins of mineral deposits embedded across his body, glowing faintly red.
Curious, Lin Xiaohe reached out and rubbed the mineral layers on his legs.
Maybe she used a bit too much force—because with a crack, she actually broke one of the veins right off.
“Sorry about that… Let me see if I can find some glue to stick it back on.”
Lin Xiaohe felt a little guilty. A perfectly beautiful piece of mineral art—and she’d gone and damaged it with her clumsy hands.
“Mmm.”
Huh?!
Lin Xiaohe’s eyes went wide as she watched the sculpture furrow its brow and open its eyes.
Great, great, great—another non-human!
His eyes were amber-colored, with no pupils. Right now, they reflected Lin Xiaohe’s stunned face.
She felt a faint vibration in the air, and then the non-human man’s gaze flickered with hesitation before shifting to something like pity and determination.
“My name is Tiesheng, of the Rock Clan. Today, I take you as my daughter, to spare you the suffering of a wandering life.”
Lin Xiaohe’s face was full of question marks. What the heck?!
His pronunciation was strange—like it was produced through air vibrations, rather than from a throat or chest.
Even stranger—she could actually understand what he was saying. His name was Tiesheng, and he wanted to be her dad.
So… she had dug up a father for herself?
Lin Xiaohe nodded. “Okay. My name is Lin Xiaohe. From now on, you’ll take my surname. You’ll be called Lin Tiesheng.”
Tiesheng didn’t argue. Rocklings were like that—they often had odd little whims.
Xiaohe just wanted to change his name—that was already pretty well-behaved.
Tiesheng sat up, picked up the broken mineral vein from the ground, and pressed it back onto his leg, explaining hastily:
“I’m about to evolve, so my veins are a bit brittle right now. But actually, Dad is very strong.”
For the Rock Clan, the rarer and more complex the crystals or veins on their bodies, the older, more powerful, and more prestigious they were.
Tiesheng glanced down at his own simple, unremarkable veins and felt a pang of shame.
He stole a peek at Lin Xiaohe, checking for any sign of disdain in her eyes.
Even though this rockling was an unwanted, under-evolved, bald little runt, this newly-minted dad still wanted to maintain a dignified fatherly image.
Lin Xiaohe had no idea about Tiesheng’s tangled thoughts and just gave a casual “Oh.”
She was ninety percent sure she had landed in some prehistoric civilization, and that the man before her was most likely her father, Lin Tiesheng.
Thinking back to the pitiful look on Father Lin’s face back on Jiuzhou Star, when he had quietly complained that he and his daughter had no little secrets together—Lin Xiaohe’s expression softened. She stepped forward and gave Tiesheng a hug.
“Dad, I’m here.”
Now we can share our little secrets together.
Tiesheng’s pupils dilated dramatically. His whole body went rigid—he didn’t dare move a single finger.
AHHHH! The rockling hugged him!
AHHHH! She’s so soft—softer than magma!
So this was the special trait of an under-evolved being? How could she possibly be this soft?!
“Ahem, ahem. I’ll take you home. We’re the Crystal Vein Clan. There’s Grandpa, Grandma, and your older sister at home—they’re definitely going to love you.”
Tiesheng crouched down, waiting for Lin Xiaohe to climb onto his back.
This soft little rockling—he was afraid his own back might hurt her.
His mineral heart was practically melting into a puddle.
“Okay! Let’s go home!” Lin Xiaohe gave a little leap and landed on Lin Tiesheng’s back.
Just like when she was little, she wrapped her arms around his neck, her feet swinging restlessly back and forth.
Lin Xiaohe had a vague feeling that the Lin family’s bond might have been something she herself had pieced together.
Tiesheng glanced at Little Black, who was following closely behind, and tried to make his voice sound gentle rather than reproachful.
“Xiaohe, what is it?”
“My companion. His name is Little Black.”
Tiesheng wanted to scratch his head—he wanted to tell Lin Xiaohe that Lava City wasn’t exactly welcoming to carbon-based lifeforms—but in the end, he just smiled.
“Welcome, Little Black. From now on, you’re part of our family too.”
Tiesheng strode toward the rock wall on the right.
The rock instantly turned transparent, like a block of clear gel.
Tiesheng carried Lin Xiaohe right through it.
When they emerged on the other side, what greeted them was a magnificent city!
Once again, Lin Xiaohe felt the awe of witnessing a foreign civilization. This was a city built right on a planet’s core!
No—more precisely, it was a city carved out of the core itself!
“Xiaohe, welcome to the capital of our Rock Clan—the Forge-Heart!” Tiesheng declared with immense pride.
“Pfft.” Several Rock Clan men with particularly intricate patterns on their bodies let out snickering laughs.
They had been watching from the side for who knows how long.
One of them, who had no eyes, pointed at Lin Xiaohe on Tiesheng’s back and sneered, “So this is your rockling? A bald runt with incomplete evolution? Tiesheng, you’re utterly useless—wasting a precious breeding opportunity like that. The clan chief will never agree to add her to the family registry.”
