Hearing Dong Tianyu say so, Liu Zi was so frightened he almost turned and ran, but before he could even turn around, Dong Tianyu, as if having anticipated his attempt to flee, let out a cold snort.

It was this cold snort that immediately calmed Liu Zi down. After standing still, he didn’t wait for Dong Tianyu to speak and spontaneously spilled out his entire ’adventure.’

Originally, Liu Zi was just an ordinary person, whose life before the natural disaster was neither good nor bad. Before the disaster struck, this place was actually a county in Anhui Province. Liu Zi wasn’t a local, having come here on a business trip due to work requirements.

He should have left after completing his work early, but due to some stupidity on the part of a company leader, he was indirectly forced to stay and finish up some work.

It was during this period that an outbreak occurred, trapping him for two years. Just as the major lockdown had lifted, for the same reasons as before, he found himself stranded here once again.

When all his work was done and he was prepared to catch the bus back home the next day, a natural disaster struck again, and by a remarkable coincidence, he was trapped here once more.

But despite being just a county city, it boasted fairly good economic development, and the city was equipped with all kinds of facilities you’d find in an urban center.

Moreover, because it belonged to a county city, the agricultural produce from the surrounding villages was mostly to be sent here first before being transported as a transit point to other places.

Because of this, after the disaster, although it was only a county city, food was not lacking in the early stages of the disaster.

And it was for this reason that many outsiders like Liu Zi didn’t starve to death after the initial appearance of the disaster.

With no friends or relatives in the area, Liu Zi could only undertake some unrestricted public tasks issued by the Officials.

Although life was tough, during this period of catastrophic disaster, Liu Zi not only had no worries about food and shelter, but he also came to own property there, and if it weren’t for his parents back in his hometown, Liu Zi would have considered putting down roots here.

The public tasks issued by the Officials were almost always labor-intensive. Especially during earthquakes, even though they occurred daily, the Officials would still publish ground repair tasks every day.

The tasks were not hard; they consisted merely of finding things to fill in the cracks in the ground caused by the earthquake. Typically, they’d gather nearby stones and construction debris to fill the newly formed fissures.

Owing to the earthquakes, building rubble or broken stones were easy to find. Although the filling materials were easily available and the tasks quite straightforward, the job was complicated by the need to pack the crevices tightly.

Liu Zi, who had accepted the task, was repeating this monotonous work day after day until one day, while performing ground fissure repair in the area assigned to him, he noticed a stone with a very peculiar shape among the rubble near a crack.

Driven by curiosity, Liu Zi quickly approached the pile of rubble, glanced around to make sure no one was nearby, and cautiously picked up the stone from the heap.

Liu Zi didn’t study it on the spot but instead found a bag on him, wrapped it up carefully, and concealed it close to his body, before carrying on with his daily task as if nothing had happened.

After his day’s work, Liu Zi went to the Grand Dining Hall for dinner as usual before returning to his room.

Like any other day, after carelessly locking his front door, Liu Zi immediately pressed his ear against it and listened intently to check for anyone following him.

Only after confirming there was nothing unusual outside the door did Liu Zi venture cautiously back to his bedroom, where he took out the item he had concealed all day.

After unwrapping it layer by layer, Liu Zi held the object he’d picked up earlier up to his face for a closer look.

It was only then that Liu Zi realized he’d found a stone carving that resembled an eye.

Looking at the eye-shaped stone carving in his hands, Liu Zi couldn’t help but think it must be the eye of some Buddha statue.

As this idea formed in his mind, the more Liu Zi looked at the stone carving, the more it seemed like an eye from the head of a Buddha.

While fiddling with the eye-shaped stone, Liu Zi subconsciously placed it over his own eye socket to compare.

Liu Zi was just bored, pretending to be a stone statue and mimicking one, but when he placed the stone eye over his own eye socket,

Liu Zi suddenly realized that even with the stone carving blocking one eye, the vision in that eye was not only completely unobstructed, but it could see farther than the other unobstructed eye.

Besides, Liu Zi saw many things through the stone eye he had never seen before.

For example, x-ray vision. However, Liu Zi only dared to test it at home since conducting experiments outside would draw attention, not to mention the fact that covering his eye with the stone carving would arouse people’s curiosity.

Even if Liu Zi had brought his relatives with him, he doubted they could handle the situation when it arose.

So, Liu Zi dared only to experiment at home quietly each day after work, exploring the functions of this discovery.