After eating and drinking, Xiao suddenly started to feel sleepy for some reason.
A wave of overwhelming drowsiness hit him so quickly that Xiao Du didn't even have time to exit the Daluo Arena. He barely managed to climb onto the bed before falling asleep inside the small world.
As Xiao slipped into deep sleep, the small world around him began to fluctuate unnaturally, and his breathing turned turbulent.
As time passed, Xiao's breaths gradually synchronized with the spatial rhythms of the small world.
With every inhale and exhale he took, the small world pulsed along with him—matching him in perfect harmony. It was the breathing of a world.
No one knows how long it lasted, but eventually the two rhythms drew closer, overlapped, and fused completely… and Xiao finally woke up.
Xiao opened his eyes in a daze, not understanding what had happened. All he knew was that everything around him seemed… smaller.
No—he had grown taller.
"My body?"
Xiao walked over to a mirror and froze in shock. Reflected back at him was a handsome mixed-race man, about 1.9 meters tall, with black hair and blue eyes.
"What the hell is going on?"
Xiao's confusion deepened. He had just fallen asleep—so why had he suddenly grown up?
At that moment, the Daluo Fruit inside his body released a message. This was a necessary process for him to fully integrate with the small world.
At this moment, the small world truly belonged to Sebastian Xiao alone. Before, he had only controlled it through the initial integration of the Daluo Fruit.
After all, the power of a small world originates from the soul. Even if the two Xiaos were the same person, different worlds created different souls.
Therefore, even though Sebastian Xiao inherited everything from Siheyuan Xiao, he still needed a process to truly master the small world.
In the cultivation world's terms, the small world was like a magic treasure. Before, he had only dripped blood to form the initial bond. Now, it had been fully refined—no one could take it away again.
As for why his appearance changed, it wasn't a price he paid. It was simply because the refinement process lasted an extremely long time.
At this moment, divided from the Earth where Xiao originally lived, the Daluo Fruit had taken a full ten years to complete the refinement.
"I—I took a nap and woke up ten years later? Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to explain this to my mom?"
Xiao clutched his head in disbelief at the idea that he had "slept" for ten years.
The Daluo Arena's time was disorderly, true.
And although a fragment of the Daluo Fruit couldn't stop time in an entire world, it could jump timelines.
Even though Xiao had been gone for ten years, the Daluo Fruit could send him back to the exact moment "he" left. To everyone else, it would be as if Xiao had never disappeared.
Moreover, Daluo Fruit's time travel was based on cause and effect. It would not create a branch timeline that continued separately.
In that sense, the Daluo Fruit could be said to stop time—just not in the limitless, all-powerful way one might imagine.
But his problem was this: he left at ten years old… and now he was twenty.
No matter whether he went back to the moment he left or jumped ahead ten years, he had no reasonable explanation.
Was he supposed to tell his mother that his superpower allowed him to instantly grow ten years older overnight? That excuse would get him killed on the spot.
As for traveling straight to the timeline ten years later, Xiao dismissed the thought immediately. It would be cruel torture for his mother, Theresa.
Xiao didn't even dare imagine how much she would suffer if she thought he had been missing for ten years. Compared to that, claiming he mysteriously grew up was almost mercy.
Unable to find any solution, Xiao stood frozen in front of the Daluo Arena's gate, completely at a loss.
Why not ask the Magic Conch (Daluo Fruit)?
A voice straight out of SpongeBob SquarePants echoed in his mind. Xiao blinked, paused for a second, and immediately asked the Daluo Fruit for help.
The so-called Daluo represented an omniscient, omnipotent being chased by knowledge itself—a supreme entity. Even though the Daluo Fruit was now only a fragment, it could still provide perfect answers to questions involving Xiao's powers.
Of course, only powers he actually possessed. Anything he didn't have, the Fruit couldn't answer.
Luckily, the Daluo Fruit gave him a solution: he could extract his height and body shape into the small world so that he would appear as his original age on the outside.
As for giving up his new height and physique… Xiao dismissed the idea immediately. He was very satisfied with his new build.
Finally having a way to trick his mother, Xiao's anxiety eased. He released his grip on the handle of the door leading back to The Boy's World.
Should I… take a look?
Xiao stood before the door leading to the courtyard world, hesitating.
After merging memories, the scenes resurfacing in Xiao's mind stirred something inside him.
There were many women in those memories—top-tier beauties from movies and TV, as well as elite women sent by countless forces.
Although Xiao had "experienced" those memories, he had never personally lived through them.
Before, he hadn't been interested due to his young age. But after suddenly becoming an adult… and with a grown man's body… certain feelings began to stir.
"I'll just… take a look."
finally, Xiao couldn't hold back anymore and decided to take a look—just a look.
As he gripped the courtyard door's handle, his appearance instantly shifted into that of "He I·Xiao."
"Haha~ So I really can change my appearance at will?"
Xiao touched the hard stubble on his chin, feeling a spark of excitement. He hopped up, took the steps two at a time, and pulled open the time-space door to the courtyard world.
Through the doorway, everything in the courtyard looked like an insect sealed in amber—utterly motionless. Time had frozen at the exact moment "He I·Xiao" left.
From Xiao's perspective, it felt as though the entire world's timeline had been put on pause the moment he exited.
Xiao stepped into the courtyard world, and time slowly resumed its flow. The room's layout was exactly the same as the wooden house in the small world that existed in his memory.
Xiao walked toward the bed and looked at the beauty lying there. Just as he sat down, the woman suddenly curled against him like a water snake.
"Hiss~~"
A tight, heavy pressure pressed down on him, and Xiao instinctively drew in a cold breath, feeling completely overwhelmed.
"Master, why did you suddenly go out…? ()!!"
A gentle yet sorrowful voice spoke by his ear. Xiao finally saw her face clearly—and realized it was the owner of the courtyard house, the woman "he" had taken in: Qin Huairu.
"Hiss~~~~"
Xiao sucked in another breath of cold air. How was he supposed to endure this?
People often say a beauty is like jade—today, Xiao finally understood what "round and smooth" really meant.
…
…
In the days that followed, Xiao found himself surprisingly unwilling to leave.
Some people might think it ridiculous: a modern man, who had seen countless online photos and videos of beautiful women, becoming so infatuated with a peasant girl?
Xiao could only say—small-minded. Too small-minded.
How could the women in film and television compare to those in the real world?
The so-called "peasant girls" on screen were all big-name actresses in his previous life. Real beauty existed among the common people, not behind cameras.
Besides, actresses wore full makeup for filming, and the characters they portrayed often radiated a charm that the actresses themselves didn't possess naturally. The screen's beauty was not the actress's true beauty.
And honestly—what modern man doesn't watch videos or scroll through pictures?
If watching videos were enough to satisfy desire, and if looking at pretty faces could raise your standards…
Then why would simps exist?
In reality, any woman with even half of Qin Huairu's looks would already be surrounded by a legion of admirers.
Thinking back to all the women he'd seen on the streets in his previous life, Xiao realized none of them could compare to Qin Huairu. In this life, only his mother Theresa could stand on the same level.