Chapter 17

Yuan Hanshuang had a very long dream.

She dreamt that she had returned to the scene of the World Martial Arts Semi-Finals. It was a place that all martial artists in the world dreamed of reaching, and it was also the culmination of her previous lifetime’s hard work and struggle.

In this semi-final match, she successfully performed the seventh form of the Bajiquan – “Sparrow Behind”. In fact, on the entire planet, not to mention the eighth form, even the seventh form had not been successfully executed by any martial artist for nearly a hundred years.

Because of this, when Yuan Hanshuang performed the technique, everyone at the finals stood up in excitement. The referees on the judging panel, the spectators in the audience, and even the commentator who was speaking loudly, were momentarily speechless. The next second, the venue erupted with enthusiastic cheers and applause that lasted for a long time.

“Sparrow Behind! It’s the seventh form of the Bajiquan Fist, Sparrow Behind! The conditions for using this form are extremely demanding. I can’t believe we are able to witness it in a competition!”

“Genius! Our country’s martial arts community has produced another genius!”

Unfortunately, the brilliance of the genius did not last long. After this match, Yuan Hanshuang was involved in a car accident.

When she woke up on the operating table, the finals had already ended. Because of her accident, the finals didn’t even take place, and her opponent went directly on stage to receive the trophy.

There were suspicions that there was something hidden behind the car accident, but all the investigations pointed to it being a mere coincidence. Fortunately, Yuan Hanshuang had taken out a large insurance policy for herself, and including various compensations and social support, she would have no financial worries for the rest of her life. However, none of this could fill the huge void in her heart.

Her injuries worsened, the rescue efforts were in vain, and then she was reborn.

Although she struggled financially in this lifetime, Yuan Hanshuang was content with her loved ones who cared for her and her intact body. She was grateful for everything and wanted to climb to the top of this world and take a good look at the scenery from the top.

The dream finally ended here, and she opened her eyes in a daze, feeling something tapping on her face.

As she opened her eyes, a feather-like fish fin pressed against her eyes, like an eyepatch, smooth and slippery.

“What is this?”

Yuan Hanshuang brushed away the long hair that had fallen onto her forehead, only to find herself face to face with a large fish eye.

There was a moment of silence, and then her consciousness returned.

“How did you become so big?!”

Yuan Hanshuang couldn’t believe that the koi fish, which had barely been the size of her arm before she lost consciousness, had now grown to be almost the same size as her entire body! It almost scared her.

The golden-haired little girl rubbed her head. “What’s going on?”

In the moment she ate the Silver Apple, Yuan Hanshuang felt a fullness as if she had eaten to her heart’s content.

The energy contained within the crystal core exceeded what she could currently digest, causing her to fall into a coma.

The little black bird underwent a magnificent transformation right then and there.

According to the words of those two unlucky guys, it had ascended from a common manifestation to a mythical manifestation.

The koi fish seemed to be affected less, as its appearance hardly changed except for its size.

In theory, if the dual manifestation were to ascend, they should ascend together. But Yuan Hanshuang only felt a great change in the little black bird, and couldn’t find any trace of the koi fish ascending from a common manifestation to a mythical manifestation.

If it weren’t for seeing the Black Prince and the intense competition over the Holy Son of the Luminous Temple, she would think it is  fake. She even wondered if she had gotten a counterfeit product.

Unfortunately, she didn’t dare to seek advice from anyone.

Originally, it was a secret treasure she had picked up, so she couldn’t speak about it or ask questions.

Yuan Hanshuang could only console herself, saying, “It’s okay. The little black bird has indeed evolved, that’s for sure. Great! Now I also possess an S+ grade Manifestation!”

With that thought, she slowly got up.

She had no idea what had happened in this ancient civilization ruin while she was unconscious. The surrounding earth and stones were flying around, chaos was everywhere, and a large section of the passageway had collapsed.

Yuan Hanshuang happened to be lucky enough to be stuck under a fractured triangular relic slab. The once shimmering patterns on the slab had completely dimmed, and everything looked pitch black.

“Well, I’m lucky I wasn’t crushed to death on the spot.”

As she skillfully took out a few crystal cores from her spatial button to calm herself down, she also pulled out a flashlight from the pocket and began to climb out.

Perhaps luck was all used up on not being crushed to death. It was only after Yuan Hanshuang climbed out from under the slab that she realized both ends of the passage had been blocked by collapsed earth and stones, and the only way out was the deep pit.

And she was currently very close to the bottom of the pit. Looking up, the sky was enclosed in a blue circle formed by the pit, and it was several tens of meters away from the ground.

“Why is there still no signal despite the collapse? It seems I can only climb out.”

Yuan Hanshuang turned off the rescue communication device on her wrist and looked thoughtfully at her manifestation.

If the manifestation had self-awareness, it might have seen a trace of pity in the eyes of its usually mature and steady owner.  

Several hours later, she finally managed to leave this ancient civilization ruin, albeit with great difficulty.

She didn’t climb out with her hands. Of course, there were advantages to the manifestation growing bigger, such as carrying people.

It was now late at night, and as she looked around, the dense forest was quiet.

She walked slowly throughout the night and finally made it out of the Third Mountain Range. Perhaps because of the emergence of the ruins, she didn’t encounter a single insect creature on the way until she approached the border of the mountain range.

From a distance, at the junction of the Second and Third Mountain Ranges, Yuan Hanshuang saw the emblem of the Luminous Temple.

Yuan Hanshuang: feeling guilty

Two major forces were fiercely fighting for a mythical crystal core that could elevate the quality of their semblances. It was already embarrassing enough that she just happened to pick it up casually.

The worst part was that her manifestation, the little Black bird, transformed into another form immediately after consuming the “silver apple” crystal core. It couldn’t be stopped and flew away with a flutter of its wings, undergoing a magnificent transformation after shedding its feathers, its resounding howl piercing through the sky.

The more awe-inspiring its rebirth transformation was, the more unpleasant the faces of the two onlookers became.

Yuan Hanshuang was extremely embarrassed at that moment.

They say not to flaunt your wealth, but not only did she reveal it, she even did so in a showy manner. Wasn’t this just slapping the faces of the future leaders of those two major forces?

“Fortunately, I have a dual Manifestation.”

Since the little black bird had been exposed, she would have to keep this form under wraps from now on.

In the world of rivers and lakes, one’s actions are not always under one’s control.

Even if it is an ownerless object, first come, first served, but if you can’t protect it, it will only bring you misfortune.

So Yuan Hanshuang decisively changed her path, figuring that all roads lead to Rome anyway.

With this thought in mind, on the third day at noon, she finally made her slow way back to Star Port.

It’s strange to say that there were far fewer people in the Star port than when she arrived, only a few scattered individuals.

After taking a stroll, Yuan Hanshuang noticed that the notice board in Star Port had no sign of the 1999 Primary Academy. Perplexed, she casually approached a delivery guy.

The guy she stopped was even more surprised than her: “Haven’t you read the news? A month ago, an SSS-level ancient civilization relic was discovered. Many people went missing or got injured, so not many have come here lately.”

“What? A month ago?” Yuan Hanshuang was dumbfounded.

Once the delivery guy left, she carefully examined the notice board. As expected, the displayed date was exactly one month later than when she first arrived on this polluted planet, precisely thirty-one days.

The vague sense of unease she felt along the way finally became clear.

No wonder the weather suddenly became much colder. It felt like she had slept from autumn to early winter.

Yuan Hanshuang was a bit dazed: “I was unconscious in the underground ruins for a month? That can’t be possible, right?”

While it is true that the transformation takes time, one month seems excessively exaggerated.

After further inquiries, Yuan Hanshuang learned that due to the recovery of the SSS relic, many factions intended to send people to this polluted planet and openly recruit exploration teams. However, for some reason, on the second day of the relic’s recovery, it activated its self-destruct mechanism and collapsed, abruptly ending the preparations of all parties involved.

The search teams diligently searched for the missing individuals for a whole half month, but yesterday they announced the cessation of the search and added the unrecovered missing individuals to the death list.