Chapter 31

During the rainy season, Meng Li had been secretly familiarizing herself with the enhancement of her abilities following the upgrade of her spirit body.

Based on her repeated explorations and comparative experiences, her fire, poison, and wind abilities had all reached B-grade. She was already quite proficient in using fire and poison abilities; she just needed to test her attack strength against B-grade beasts. This time, during her practice, Meng Li aimed to master the attack and control capabilities of her wind abilities as quickly as possible.

Thus, after easily killing two C-grade mutated creatures using her fire and poison abilities, and confirming that C-grade creatures no longer posed a challenge for her, she refrained from attacking when encountering lower-level beasts. Instead, she had Xu Qiao and Sun Fushan coordinate to take them down. Her main role was to manipulate wind currents to control the movements of the beasts and, after their deaths, attempt to use wind blades to extract the crystal cores and materials.

Using wind abilities created too much noise. Even though the Meng family lived in a separate villa, Meng Li felt constrained when practicing. It was much more convenient to do it outside.

In contrast to Qin Chi’s elegant techniques, Meng Li’s methods could be described as brutal and bloody.

Sun Fushan, resting nearby, wrote in the dirt with a twig: “How nice, there’s already a ready-made wind ability teacher.”
—-
Xu Qiao looked at the blood splattered around the corpse of the mutated beast, then at Meng Li, who was focusing intently on controlling the wind blade. Her gaze fell on another beast’s corpse, whose head had already been smashed by Meng Li.

A palm-sized water blade quietly appeared. Xu Qiao tried to control the water blade to cut the beast’s body.

Previously, she had mainly mastered water arrows and water balls as her attack methods, with the attack intensity determined by the water’s condensation and release speed. They were mostly one-hit moves, requiring her to condense a second arrow or water ball for another attack.

Now, as she aimed to perform the precise task of cutting the mutated beast, she needed to maintain the stability of the water blade while increasing its strength to gradually slice through.

Highly condensed water arrows or blades were essentially ice.

Water and ice could naturally transform into one another. The difference between the two types of ability users was that the former released water and needed to consume additional mental energy to condense it into ice, while the latter directly released ice, saving the energy required for transformation. Coupled with the low-temperature damage, ice ability users were generally rated higher in combat power than water users of the same level.

However, the fluidity of water made the abilities more flexible and variable. As long as the individual used them appropriately, a water user could potentially kill mutated beasts as efficiently as an ice user.
—-
Watching skilled users apply these attack methods with ease, Xu Qiao realized how difficult it was when it was her turn to try.

After a struggle, she managed to cut through the beast’s hide, but the small water blade transformed back into flowing water and dissipated.

Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Xu Qiao said to Meng Li, “You’re really amazing.”

So what if it wasn’t graceful? As long as it was effective, that was enough.

Meng Li noticed her teammate’s small movements and reminded her, “Don’t forget, my wind is B-grade.”

Working at a smelting factory, she had once tried using wind blades to cut through B-grade metal ores when no one was around. If it could cut through, it proved the level of her abilities.

Sun Fushan encouraged Xu Qiao by writing: “Your spirit body might continue to upgrade, turning you into a powerful combat-type healer as well.”
—-
After learning about his teammates’ secret, Sun Fushan was initially surprised, but then he felt happy for them. Although he was curious about why this happened, it was beyond his academic level. Sun Fushan didn’t pursue it further and didn’t harbor any evil thoughts about sending his two teammates to a lab for research and deriving results to use on himself.

Meng Li was afraid he would drift too far off-topic, so she took the initiative to explain her changes: “The night of the mutation, I just learned that my long-lost biological father is a fire-type spirit. My changes might be related to genetic inheritance and emotional stimuli.”

Sun Fushan replied: “My mother is an A-grade metal ability user. I’ve experienced a lot of emotional stimuli since I was young, so this probably won’t work on me.”

Xu Qiao said, “In our family, my father has a hereditary C-grade lotus spirit, and my mother has a C-grade fish spirit. Although they passed away long ago, my grandfather took great care of me, and my emotions have been quite stable. Besides going out to practice at the base, nothing special happened before my spirit mutation.”

Her mother had died in an accident at the fishing ground when Xu Qiao was only two years old, so she had no memories related to her mother.

Her grandfather told her that her mother’s spirit was a very cute red-and-white koi fish. Once, when her mother went to visit her father’s clinic, her father had just released his spirit, and her mother’s spirit jumped out and dove into the mist under the lotus leaves. That made both the young couple blush deeply, and it wasn’t long before they got together.

Sun Fushan remarked: “This is even less scientifically based, so the upgrade of spirit bodies should be a purely low-probability event, even rarer than awakening an S-grade spirit. It’s something you can’t seek but can only encounter.”

By three o’clock in the afternoon, the three of them worked well together and managed to kill twenty-three C-grade mutated creatures.

Meng Li still had some energy left, but Xu Qiao and Sun Fushan were quite exhausted. If they stayed longer, they would have to rely entirely on Meng Li.

Meng Li said, “Let’s head back and come again tomorrow.”

These two days happened to be the weekend.

As the three of them walked out of the mountain, Xu Qiao said to Meng Li, “Your progress is really fast. Practicing on mutated beasts is indeed the most efficient.”

Now, when Meng Li used wind blades to slice through crystal cores, even though it still resulted in a bloody mess, she no longer smashed the beasts’ heads to pieces.

Meng Li viewed Qin Chi as her target, feeling that she was still far from sufficient.

Xu Qiao, who was most envious of the flying ability of wind users, asked her, “Have you ever tried flying with the wind lifting you up?”

Rarely showing emotional changes, Meng Li suddenly felt her face heat up at this question, her fair earlobes nearly turning completely red.

Of course, she had tried it. At first, she attempted it in her bedroom, and the chaotic wind nearly lifted the heaviest bed off the ground.

Then, on a rainy night when her neighbors were all asleep, Meng Li ran to a corner of the back mountain where the surveillance couldn’t see and practiced flying with the wind. However, after practicing all night, her entire body was covered in mud from the wind swirling around her, and she couldn’t even lift herself up by a millimeter.

Fortunately, the continuous rain washed away the mud on the leaves of the surrounding trees; otherwise, the messy scene could have easily drawn the attention of the scenic area’s maintenance staff, leading to her being reported and fined.

“I’ve tried, but it’s very difficult,” Meng Li said calmly.

Sun Fushan glanced at his communication wristband, confirmed they had enough time, and excitedly blocked the two of them, looking at Meng Li and saying, “Here, try it?”

Meng Li pressed her lips together: “I fell once. I don’t want to try again without being sure.”

Sun Fushan immediately puffed up his chest and slapped it, saying, “Let me try! I’m not afraid.”

He enjoyed watching his teammates grow stronger, and it would be even better if he could help.
—-
Meng Li looked at Xu Qiao.

Xu Qiao also had an expectant expression. If Meng Li learned this skill, she could have Meng Li take her flying in the future. Although Qin Chi was already an experienced wind user, just thinking about the intimate moments when she nervously grabbed his wrist and hugged his waist that night made Xu Qiao prefer to pretend she didn’t want to fly rather than trouble Qin Chi.

Meng Li couldn’t refuse two pairs of sparkling eyes at the same time.

She had Sun Fushan put on his battle armor helmet and told Xu Qiao to step back twenty meters. Then she focused on the already-prepared Sun Fushan and activated her abilities.

A wind vortex with a diameter of five meters suddenly appeared around Sun Fushan, swirling faster and faster. The sand on the ground and the fallen leaves were quickly sucked into the vortex, rapidly rotating and engulfing Sun Fushan’s figure.

Xu Qiao: “……”

Indeed, the more powerful the ability, the more persistent practice it requires. The wind vortex controlled by Qin Chi didn’t have such a large range or spectacle; it seemed to only stir up a negligible amount of dust when lifting off the ground, and then it would carry a person into the sky.

Surprised as she was, Xu Qiao politely refrained from showing it.

Meng Li focused entirely on adjusting the size and lowering the wind circle, trying to lift Sun Fushan’s feet off the ground.

Without the constraints of being outdoors, Meng Li increased her output when she couldn’t lift him.

Finally, accompanied by Sun Fushan’s excited shout of “It moved!”, the whirlwind suddenly lifted the tall figure in armor and then, after shifting uncontrollably for a while, it suddenly dissipated.

With a loud “bang,” Sun Fushan fell sideways from over two meters above the ground.

Meng Li’s pinky finger curled slightly, and Xu Qiao’s eyelid twitched.

Once the dust around Sun Fushan settled and wasn’t as thick, the two teammates approached him with concern, though not overly anxious.

Sun Fushan lay on the ground, his black armor looking like it had rolled in the dirt, now covered in gray.

Hearing his teammates’ footsteps, Sun Fushan struggled to turn over, now lying on his back, revealing a relatively clean mask.

Meeting the eyes behind the mask, which still hadn’t recovered, Xu Qiao couldn’t help but smile and asked, “Are you okay? Did you hurt anywhere?”

Sun Fushan grimaced in pain: “No, I’m not injured, but my chest hurts.”

Xu Qiao quickly provided some healing.

Meng Li helped support Sun Fushan’s shoulder to lift him up. Once Sun Fushan stood steadily, Xu Qiao asked Meng Li to step back. Using her abilities, she gave Sun Fushan a quick shower. When the water stopped, Meng Li skillfully used fire to dry off Sun Fushan’s wet armor.

Feeling comfortable, Sun Fushan took off his mask and said to Meng Li, “Tomorrow, let’s catch some mutated beasts and practice flying!”
—-
At six o’clock, the aircraft landed behind the mercenary association, and the three teammates lined up as usual to turn in their tasks.

Standing in line, Xu Qiao first reported back to Lu Yang that they were safe, then messaged Qin Chi, who was somewhere in an A-grade danger zone: “Reporting to Teacher Qin, we have returned to the base.”

She didn’t expect Qin Chi to reply immediately, guessing that he might be leading a few military academy students to deal with A-grade mutated beasts or setting up tents at a temporary camp to prepare for the night.

To her surprise, before she could switch back to the chat with Lu Yang, Qin Chi had already replied: “How was the harvest?”

Xu Qiao reported on the gains from the crystal cores and the effectiveness of their practice, including sharing a funny incident: “Meng Li hasn’t grasped the basics of wind flight yet; she only managed to create a whirlwind that barely let Sun Fushan fly for a few seconds.”

Qin Chi: “I’ll send her some tips later.”

Xu Qiao: “Are you all resting now?” It was surprising that they had time to chat.
—-
In an A-grade danger zone on the west side of the Southeast Base, Qin Chi looked up and scanned the campsite, taking in the sight of the military academy students, who were all covered in dust. The once spirited second-year elites had been dulled by two days of rigorous training, and they were once again enjoying the leisure of a break: “We’ve returned to the camp; hopefully, no beasts will disturb us tonight. Are you all going out tomorrow?”

Xu Qiao: “We are. Meng Li plans to go every weekend from now on until she’s proficient. I’ll accompany her if nothing’s going on with the captain.”

Qin Chi: “Young people are just different.”

Xu Qiao: “You’re only twenty-nine, not much older than us.”

Qin Chi: “I’ve heard that if there’s a four-year gap, you’re no longer from the same generation.”

Xu Qiao: “…”