Chapter 00041: The Humanoid Earth Deity
# The Humanoid Earth Deity
Chapter 41
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 41: The Humanoid Earth Deity
It had been pure coincidence that Xue Wenshu ended up walking home with that girl.
A few days ago, Li Chengxi was closing up as usual when he happened to glance toward the alley entrance.
But realizing that the boy had feelings for the girl—that wasn’t a coincidence.
That came entirely from a man’s instinct.
Because this girl—was just too pretty.
A classic goose-egg face with a hint of baby fat, her features were delicate and well-defined.
Even without a trace of makeup, she looked refreshing and natural, exuding a charm that needed no embellishment—easy to like at first glance.
She wasn’t very tall, but that only stirred up a man's protective urge.
Especially when she was milling around between the shelves looking for things—no matter how you looked at her, you'd recall a squirrel holding a pinecone.
Adorably cute.
A pretty girl like her could spark daydreams no matter which man she stood beside.
No wonder that the moment Li Chengxi saw her appear at the corner of the street with Xue Wenshu, he immediately understood.
If Li Chengxi were a few years younger, he might’ve dropped his games in a heartbeat and gone after the girl himself.
But now, acting as a reliable grown man, he had his sense of restraint.
He knew he didn’t stand a chance, so he didn’t let his mind wander.
It was just like math—if you can’t solve it, you just can’t.
Before long, the girl named Leilei approached the cashier with a shopping basket.
“Boss, do you have any hand cream?”
“Yeah. Not any big brands, though—it’s near the back, right side of the shelf.”
As he scanned the items, Li Chengxi noticed that she’d only bought daily necessities like shampoo, body wash, soap, and sanitary napkins.
That was a bit… odd.
It wasn’t rare to see teenage girls around sixteen or seventeen come out at night to buy snacks or ice cream.
But buying this kind of full set of toiletries all at once, and with every type included? That was unusual.
Given how convenient online shopping was these days, people only came out for one or two things when they were in a hurry.
Buying a complete household set in one go…
So, when Leilei came walking back with the hand cream, Li Chengxi casually asked:
“You just moved into the neighborhood recently, didn’t you?”
The moment he said it, he regretted it.
No matter how you heard it, it sounded like the words of a creep.
He was about to explain that it was just a friendly gesture, but the girl surprised him with a soft, sunny smile:
“Yeah, big bro. Moved in just today! Do you know any good and cheap places to eat around here?”
No wonder they say looking at a pretty girl adds years to your life.
Under Leilei’s smile, Li Chengxi felt easily soothed.
Such a good child.
Might as well wipe off those extra two yuan on the total.
“There’s one not far from here that’s good, but the owner’s out traveling with his family, won’t be back for a while,” he replied.
Leilei smiled sweetly at the news, took the plastic bag he handed over, and paid using her phone.
“Thanks, big bro.”
“No problem.”
As she got to the door, Li Chengxi suddenly added:
“Be careful walking alone at night. If you want, have Xue Wenshu walk you home. He’s next door—was just here a moment ago.”
Leilei paused mid-step, turned her head slightly, and wore a polite but unmistakably awkward smile:
“No need, thank you.”
Ah.
That boy Wenshu was out of luck.
The way she hesitated before recognizing the name “Xue Wenshu” showed she clearly hadn't put him in her mind at all—maybe didn’t even remember who he was.
People think as long as you furiously chase a girl, you’ll win her heart.
But that’s totally wrong.
At the very least, the girl has to have you somewhere in her heart first—only then can your efforts amount to anything.
Without that, you’re just a backup plan at best.
So when Li Chengxi saw her reaction, he knew there was no chance.
——
Night had fallen.
Most of the stores along the shopping street had already closed.
Li Chengxi headed to his kitchen on the second floor.
He took out the tribute of roast quail and vegetable soup that Viola and the others had brought earlier, planning to toss it in the microwave for a quick heat-up.
While staring at the induction cooker, mulling over which brand of BBQ seasoning might best suppress the gaminess of the meat, he failed to notice something rising behind him—his own shadow slowly beginning to stand.
It took on the shape of a hazy humanoid figure.
Only the faintest outline was visible, and it silently reached toward Li Chengxi’s back.
Right as its blurry fingers were about to touch him, a golden spiritual radiance shield suddenly surged from the surface of Li Chengxi’s skin, vaporizing the shadow instantly.
Li Chengxi felt something and turned, but nothing was there.
“Could’ve sworn a mosquito got in…”
Not wanting to forget during dinner, he quickly dashed off to find a mosquito repellent coil, stepping away from the kitchen window.
And this entire scene was witnessed clearly by someone hiding in an apartment across the street, on the fourth floor of the residential building opposite the kitchen.
“Who the hell is that guy?”
A faint flicker of flame lit up a cute face with a hint of baby fat—it was Leilei, the girl who had shopped there not long ago.
With a flick of her wrist, a yellow talisman paper she had activated caught fire and disintegrated to ash in an instant.
“The Shadow Talisman was completely ineffective on him. But he didn’t seem to detect me at all…”
Leilei’s real name was actually Lei Lei, but the name was a bit awkward to pronounce, and Xue Wenshu had remembered it wrong.
She flicked her finger again, and a fan-shaped array of talismans appeared between them.
Her eyes stayed locked on Li Chengxi, who had returned to stand by the kitchen window.
Should she make another attempt?
In her mind, she weighed the risks and benefits.
A moment later, she gave a subtle flick of her wrist, sweeping the talismans back into her sleeve.
Too risky to keep testing—not worth it.
Back inside the room, a tall man stood in the living room, already done unpacking her luggage.
Lei Lei formed a seal with her fingers, and the man’s body quickly shrunk and narrowed, turning into a paper talisman that vanished into her sleeve.
She leaned back against the sofa, deep in thought.
The items she had just bought still sat untouched on the coffee table, not even removed from their shopping bags.
Her attention had been drawn to Li Chengxi completely by accident.
Lei Lei had been brought up deep in the mountains and had heard plenty about the outside world but seen little of it herself.
Her master, however, insisted she undergo mundane-world training and experience.
But while the vast human world was fascinating, trying to find an area rich in spiritual energy like back in the mountains was almost impossible.
She had ended up near the street with Xue Wenshu purely by chance—the spiritual-detection disk she carried had pointed her in the direction of a place with unusually high energy levels nearby.
Her encounter with Xue Wenshu was just incidental.
Following the direction of the Spirit-Seeking Disk, Lei Lei had quickly discovered that the area around this convenience store had unnaturally high spiritual energy.
So, she contacted a rental agency and got an apartment close by, to observe more closely.
And as she watched, she discovered Li Chengxi.
According to everything Lei Lei understood, the concentration of spiritual energy should be tied to underground spirit veins, and really shouldn’t have anything to do with people.
But after watching for a few days, she became convinced—the unusual energy concentration was coming from around Li Chengxi himself.
She’d originally thought to get a little closer by virtue of being neighbors and maybe strike up a conversation to figure things out.
But it seemed that her actions might already have been spotted.
That morning, while she was using her Spirit-Seeking Disk and had her talisman warrior with her, trying to confirm the spiritual energy location on the street, she suddenly felt an intense sense of being watched.
She panicked inside but put on a calm exterior.
She didn’t dare linger on the street afterward, running straight home to spend most of the day talking herself through what to do.
Finally, gritting her teeth, she’d decided to make direct contact.
“Be careful walking alone at night…” She recalled. “Did that mean—don’t make a scene?”
With the information gap so wide, Li Chengxi’s casual words of concern sounded to Lei Lei more like a veiled warning.
From every angle, this person looked like a completely ordinary man with no cultivation whatsoever.
But with such high density of spiritual energy oozing from him, and no malevolent spirit able to get close...
Could it be that he carried a supreme magical treasure?
Or, could it be—
“Could he be... a humanoid Earth Deity?”
Lei Lei burst out laughing at her own absurd thought.
There’s no way an Earth Deity would be in humanoid form.
(End of Chapter)