Chapter 36

Xu Qiao took off her helmet.

It wasn’t self-deprecating; wearing battle armor all day in such summer heat had made her sweat profusely.

But taking Qin Chi’s car home, whether there was a sense of urgency or not, it felt impolite to keep wearing the helmet as if refusing to communicate.

Qin Chi was focused on driving and didn’t pay attention to her removing the helmet.

Xu Qiao lowered the sun visor and glanced in the mirror to fix her hair. Thankfully, it wasn’t as messy as she had feared.

“I’ve only seen A-level beasts in videos. What was the black snake like over there? Did you see it?”

Since the car ride was long, Xu Qiao initiated the conversation.
—-
Qin Chi replied, “They say it’s over a hundred meters long. Some students who hadn’t completed their mission ran into it.”

Xu Qiao gasped: “Were there any casualties?”

Qin Chi said, “They were lucky. Principal Wei had a friend passing by from the Southwest Base who helped resolve it.”

Having firsthand information piqued Xu Qiao’s interest: “Was it an S-level power user with wind and fire abilities?”

Qin Chi nodded, “Yeah, did you encounter him too?”

Xu Qiao responded, “Yes, he helped us deal with the remaining tiger hawks, but unfortunately, he left right after, so I didn’t get a good look at him.”

Qin Chi laughed, “Sounds like you’re a bit disappointed.”

Xu Qiao admitted, “That’s an S-level! Aside from seeing them on TV, ordinary people only get a few chances in their lives to meet an S-level power user in person. People are even speculating about which phoenix from Marshal Lin’s family he is. I didn’t expect he’d be from the Southwest Base. He’s really great, taking care of the escaping high-level beasts after killing the black snake.”

Qin Chi remarked, “You three are pretty impressive too. You managed to hold on for so long against the beast horde.”
—-
Xu Qiao recounted some of the thrilling moments with lingering fear, noting that Meng Li’s combat strength and Sun Fushan’s A-level equipment were both indispensable for their survival. She…

Xu Qiao said quietly, “I was unconscious for a while, and when I woke up, my water ability had upgraded.”

If this was indeed a qualitative change brought about by quantitative accumulation, then in the future, when the team went out to train or complete missions, Xu Qiao would make full use of her water abilities.

So, there was no need to hide this from Qin Chi.

Upon hearing this, Qin Chi directly reduced the car’s speed and pulled over to the side of the road.

Xu Qiao understood his intention and released a smaller version of her mental body, a lotus flower the size of her palm, resembling a small potted plant kept in a bowl.

A faint fragrance wafted out as a crystal-clear stream of water flowed gently around the lotus leaves below.

The fire dragon, which usually didn’t like water, suddenly surged with a strong impulse to dive into this small pond.

Qin Chi quietly observed for a moment and said softly, “That’s amazing.”
—-
After the demonstration, Xu Qiao retracted her mental body and shared her guesses about the upgrade.

She and Meng Li were peers, with similar experiences, so perhaps Qin Chi, who was older and taught at a military academy, could provide more reliable analysis.

Qin Chi replied, “The guard army includes some professional mercenaries who have been fighting exotic beasts for years, constantly accumulating experience. They face life-and-death crises daily, yet I’ve never heard of anyone upgrading their mental body during battle. The root cause is that… our mental bodies have undergone a rare mutation. If I had to define it, I would call it a growth-type mental body.”

Just like real living beings, it goes through developmental stages from youth to maturity, and growth indeed requires both quantitative change and opportunity.

Xu Qiao asked, “Then why has there been no discovery of such cases before? Why have three examples suddenly emerged all at once in our team?”

Qin Chi explained, “Such abilities might have existed in the past, but those individuals may not have encountered the opportunity to upgrade. After all, most C-level power users tend to stay in the base for a stable life. Another possibility is that they did upgrade but chose to conceal it. Perhaps they never advanced further, resulting in their overwhelming strength being unnoticed by those around them, or they may have perished while silently strengthening themselves.”

For instance, in this case, if Xu Qiao and Meng Li had chosen to train outside the base, without Sun Fushan’s advanced equipment, without Xu Qiao upgrading in time, and without encountering strong support, the two young teammates might have already perished at the hands of the exotic beasts, taking their little-known secrets with them.

The emergence of growth-type mental bodies is already a low-probability event; unless one encounters someone who likes to show off, it’s normal for such things to be concealed.

“As for our team, I was born in the Northeast Base and came to the Southeast Base due to my own mutation, so meeting you is purely fate.”

“You and Meng Li may have been schoolmates for three years, but you only happened to come together two years after graduation. If you hadn’t formed a team, Meng Li might have died at the hands of her mother, and you wouldn’t have discovered another classmate in this base who could also upgrade herself.”

“Look, even though three examples have appeared at once, normally, one is far away in the Northeast Base, one dies quietly, and one hides a secret as a therapist in a small clinic—who would discover the existence of the other?”

Xu Qiao understood. She couldn’t assume that there were many growth-type mental bodies just because of her and her teammates’ situations; rather, it was the miraculous fate that brought them together.

“Ah, I don’t want to think about it anymore. Let’s just take it one step at a time,” Xu Qiao said, leaning back against the seat.

Qin Chi restarted the car and laughed, “Indeed, no need to think too much. If the mental body can continue to upgrade, that’s good news. Remaining stable at B-level also has its benefits. If one day it suddenly drops in rank, then we can worry about it then.”

Xu Qiao released the lotus flower separately, holding the long flower stem and bringing the thirty-three beautiful petals close to her lips for a kiss: “If it doesn’t upgrade, then so be it, but please don’t drop back down! It was beautiful before, but it’s even more beautiful and powerful now.”

Now that she knew her mental body liked to show off, she wanted to encourage it more.

The lotus mental body affectionately pressed against Xu Qiao’s face, as if reaching some agreement.

Qin Chi glanced at her and said, “Actually, I envy you. You can communicate so amicably with your mental body.”

Xu Qiao hugged the flower and smiled, “How fierce is your mental body? It can’t even hurt you, right?”

Qin Chi replied, “Often. It’s just that our abilities are similar, so its attacks don’t harm me. For example, right now, if I let it out, it might pounce on you guys.”

In an instant, the lotus mental body vanished. Xu Qiao was secured by her seatbelt, and though her heart tightened, she could only maintain a smile as if it were all a joke.

Earlier in the day, she had seen a kind of flying beast and was genuinely wary of the sharp claws of the scythe-bird.

When they returned to the safe neighborhood and bid farewell in the hallway, Qin Chi handed her a boxed meal: “I made extra earlier and figured you wouldn’t have the energy to cook tonight.”

Xu Qiao responded, “Thank you! I’m really hungry, even though I drank a tube of nutrient solution on the aircraft.”

Qin Chi smiled and went inside after opening the door.

Xu Qiao also returned to 101.
—-

At the moment, Xu Qiao didn’t plan to share the secret of her mental body with Lu Yang, but she could relax and share her joy with him.

“Look!”

Pulling the curtains, Xu Qiao took out the space crystal core.

To be precise, this space crystal core belonged to the trio’s loot, but no one was willing to use it to exchange for points; they would rather use it themselves.

Sun Fushan had a larger space crystal core, and if Xu Qiao let him participate in the distribution, he might again reveal a hurt look, feeling like an outsider among them.

When Xu Qiao had just mentioned it to Meng Li, she immediately insisted that whoever dug it out should keep it, saying she wouldn’t be polite next time if she found a bigger one.

Lu Yang was indeed very happy: “We can store more vegetables at home with this, so we won’t need to go to the supermarket in early winter and spring.”

Vegetables and fruits in this new era were precious, and the output from their small courtyard was reluctantly sold to neighbors because they couldn’t eat them all before they spoiled.

Anything that could help Xu Qiao save points made Lu Yang as happy as if he had earned money.

However, when Lu Yang noticed the boxed meal in Xu Qiao’s hand, his smile vanished: “What does he mean by that?”

He had clearly prepared dinner for her return home!

Xu Qiao said, “…I’ll go tidy up.”

In the end, Lu Yang’s carefully prepared lavish dinner went unfinished and was stored in the space for him to eat tomorrow morning.

Xu Qiao glanced at the group chat; Sun Fushan hadn’t said anything yet. She then checked the mercenary forum and found numerous discussions about the S-level black snake appearing in Jing City.

In the nearby low-level danger zone, someone confidently claimed that the S-level powerhouse was Lin Zheng from the Marshal’s family.

Xu Qiao knew the truth, but she didn’t want to get involved in the commotion.

Suddenly, a new post was bumped up.

The poster’s nickname: Flamboyant Spotted Pants.

This person claimed to be a graduate of this year’s second school, stating that the S-level black snake was lured out by their team. They detailed the thrilling escape from the snake’s mouth, including the handsome entrance of the S-level powerhouse, their formidable strength, and identity— a friend of their principal from the Southwest Base.

The words might have been fabricated, but this person specially posted two video clips as evidence, both long shots.
—-
In the first video, a powerful figure in black S-level battle armor stood in midair, while the black snake swung its tail and head, creating a whirlwind of flying sand and stones.

In the second video, the camera was even further away, and the powerful figure became a black dot against the backdrop of a raging firestorm reaching a height of a hundred meters, shaking the heavens and the earth.

Many people commented on the post.

“The fighting style doesn’t seem like Lin Zheng; he always uses big moves, while this one seems to be deliberately toying with the black snake.”

“There’s only one S-level exotic beast; it seems a bit unnecessary for someone of that level to wear battle armor. Lin Zheng wouldn’t do unnecessary things and doesn’t need to hide.”

“Maybe this expert prefers to keep a low profile.”

“They are both S-level with fire and wind abilities; I wonder who is stronger, Lin Zheng or him.”

“Need I say? It must be our Phoenix!”

Xu Qiao casually scrolled through and then switched to the technical post section to search for battle videos of water ability users.

Tonight, the principal of the second school, Wei Jian, was quite busy as several S-level individuals from their base sent messages.

Lin Jing’an: “Is it Pang Liben? Did he come to the Southeast for personal matters or official business?”
—-
The four major bases were far apart, and S-level powerhouses were responsible for the safety of their respective bases, rarely traveling far.

The Southeast and Northeast bases occasionally interacted due to dealing with sea beasts, while maintaining official communication with the two western bases, with little personal interaction.

Wei Jian: “Personal matters; I didn’t even disclose it, just said he’d stay a few days and leave, not wanting to attract attention.”

Principal Dong Mingliang from the third school: “Qin? You’re quite cunning to arrange for him to accompany graduates on practice!”

Wei Jian: “I’m asleep; don’t disturb me.”

Sun Jintang, the head of the Southeast Base Security Department: “My little mountain is out there training with his teammates. Because of your second school’s influence, he hasn’t woken up yet. You should express something, right?”

Accompanied by a photo of Sun Fushan “unconscious.”

Wei Jian: “Little Mountain is also a member of our second school.”

Yet he still sent a red envelope.

Sun Jintang opened it and, just as he saw the number “100,” something suddenly hit his foot hard.

He looked down with a twisted expression and saw a small dark, green-shelled turtle spirit lying on his big foot, which was size 40.

The condensed form was just the turtle body, without any weight.

Glancing at his son, who was still asleep on the bed, Sun Jintang realized that this turtle spirit was deliberately causing trouble. After four years, if his son was honest, the turtle was domineering. Even though it was only C-level, it dared to bite A-level siblings.

He lifted a foot, attempting to shake off the little guy.

The small turtle spirit bit onto his pant leg, not caring whether it got flesh or not. Meanwhile, a small mountain suddenly appeared on its shell.

The weight doubled, and Sun Jintang surprisingly couldn’t shake it off.

He looked down again, blinked, rubbed his eyes to confirm he wasn’t seeing things, and his mouth dropped wide open.

The little turtle suddenly transformed into a big turtle, completely pinning its unprepared father down beneath it.

An even larger turtle jumped out angrily and crashed heavily onto the little turtle’s back.

Sun Jintang, at the bottom, thought: “…”

This is outrageous!