Chapter 1

In the warm spring month of March, the sky brightened at six in the morning.

Xu Qiao made her bed, freshened up, and changed into a simple set of workout clothes.
The building was full of old neighbors who knew each other well. Xu Qiao parked her seven-tenths-new bicycle in the stairwell.

She unlocked it, pushed the bicycle out of the building, and down a cement path that separated two small courtyards enclosed by wooden fences.

These two courtyards belonged to the Xu family in unit 101 and the Lu family in unit 102 across the street. In the base, land was extremely valuable, and houses with attached courtyards meant significantly higher prices than other floors.

To buy this house, Xu Qiao’s grandfather had used the points he had saved up over most of his life.

Such an expensive courtyard was, of course, used to grow expensive fruits and vegetables.

Since global biological mutations, a hundred years had passed since Blue Star entered the New Era, and some humans awakened spiritual forms, becoming superhumans.

Spiritual forms were nurtured in the brain’s crystal nucleus of superhumans and could be released outside, manifesting as nearly transparent, visible, and tangible energy forms.

These spiritual forms varied widely, from plants and animals to electronic products and mechanical weapons, each granting the superhuman related abilities.

For four generations, the Xu family’s spiritual form had been the lotus, likely due to Xu Qiao’s great-grandfather’s obsession with cultivating lotuses.

Plant spiritual forms granted wood-based abilities, which could be divided into three practical categories: cultivation, healing, and combat. As technology in the base advanced, when superhumans awakened their spiritual forms, detectors would automatically measure their ability attributes.

For example, when Xu Qiao awakened, the detector showed:

Name: Xu Qiao
Spiritual Form: Lotus
Primary Ability: Wood-based Healing, Grade: C
Secondary Ability: Water-based Combat, Grade: D

Dual or multiple abilities were very common. For instance, land plant spiritual forms like wheat, corn, elm, and pine had earth-based secondary abilities, while aquatic plants had water-based secondary abilities, though the secondary ability grades were always one or two levels lower than the primary ability.
—-
In the New Era, crops cultivated by non-wood-based superhumans had a 90% mutation rate. Mutated plants either became harmful or inedible, so the base prohibited such individuals from private cultivation.

Among wood-based superhumans, those with cultivation abilities could increase speed and yield, while those with healing and combat abilities could only maintain the old era’s growth rate. Even this was enough to make ordinary people and other superhumans deeply envious.

After all, in the Southeast Base, ordinary people could only drink nutritional liquids, E-grade and D-grade superhumans occasionally cooked, C-grade could maintain a basic standard of living, B-grade had a moderately prosperous life, and A-grade and above were wealthy enough to indulge.

Nowadays, Xu Qiao managed both courtyards.

Two apple trees were in full bloom with small white flowers, and various vegetables planted a week ago had sprouted green shoots.

Inside the base, crime was prohibited, and surveillance was even stricter in the second ring where superhumans lived. The dense monitoring ensured no one dared to risk stealing vegetables.

Xu Qiao contentedly “watered” the green sprouts on both sides with her wood-based ability, then set off on her bicycle.

Ten minutes later, Xu Qiao locked her bicycle and entered the local supermarket along with some elderly folks.

The first five floors catered to the nearby residents’ needs for food, clothing, housing, and entertainment, while the basement level housed various food ingredients and groceries.

Although the Xu family wasn’t wealthy, Xu Qiao’s grandfather was frugal in other areas but generous when it came to their meals. Xu Qiao had developed a taste for fresh ingredients, and unless she was truly desperate, she would never resort to eating those flavorless and oddly textured nutritional liquids.

Before his death, her grandfather had left her a small amount of savings. Now that Xu Qiao was working and earning money, she could maintain her previous standard of living.

After a round of shopping, Xu Qiao bought enough vegetables and fresh meat for three days.

Back at the community, as Xu Qiao pushed her bicycle into the building, the door of unit 102 suddenly opened from the inside. Xu Qiao looked up and saw Lu Yang.

The fifteen-year-old middle schooler was already nearly 1.8 meters tall but too skinny, with his loose black school uniform hanging off his frame.

He was the neighbor’s kid she had watched grow up. He had been sturdy last year, but ever since Uncle Lu died during a mercenary mission, the sudden reduction in their living conditions and his low spirits left the developing teenager growing taller but not putting on weight.

Xu Qiao smiled at him, took two grocery bags out of the bike basket, and said, “Wash up first, I’ll cook, and I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

Lu Yang lowered his eyes and pulled an empty nutritional liquid tube from behind him. “I’ve already eaten. Just make your own portion.”

Before Xu Qiao could respond, the teenager closed the door from the inside.

Xu Qiao: “…”

With one less person to cook for, Xu Qiao still made her planned dish of vegetable and shredded pork egg noodles.

As the noodle soup bubbled, Xu Qiao leaned against the sliding door of the kitchen, reflecting on Lu Yang’s changes over the past six months.

Uncle Lu was a B-grade metal-based ability mercenary. Despite having lost an arm, he was still considered a strong force in the second ring of the base, which housed five million E-grade, D-grade, and C-grade superhumans.
—-
After Aunt Lu passed away, Uncle Lu seemed to live for two things: raising Lu Yang and saving enough for his military academy tuition.

The military academy, a university for superhumans, admitted all students who awakened their spiritual forms at sixteen. However, due to the base’s limited resources and the superhumans being the main force in maintaining base security and resource supply, the academy had to charge high tuition fees as most superhumans were unwilling to risk leaving the base.

Wealthy families didn’t worry about the tuition fees, but for ordinary families, getting their children a complete education as superhumans meant either working tirelessly to save up the tuition or signing a ten-year contract with the military academy. During this contract period, graduates had to stay in the military, undergo rigorous training with the Guard Corps, and regularly venture out to gather supplies.

It was well-known that the Guard Corps often went to unexplored and dangerous areas, with a consistently high mortality rate among the soldiers.

Xu Qiao’s military academy tuition came from the compensation received after her father sacrificed himself on a Guard Corps mission.

Uncle Lu, however, had only saved up two years of tuition for Lu Yang.

After the funeral, Lu Yang briefly mentioned to her that he planned to pay for his first two years at the military academy himself, then earn the third year’s tuition by taking on tasks during the winter and summer breaks.

Xu Qiao sighed.

With both parents being superhumans, Lu Yang would undoubtedly awaken a spiritual form. If he inherited Uncle Lu’s B-grade metal-based ability, performing tasks outside the base would indeed be relatively safe. But what if he awakened Aunt Lu’s cotton spiritual form?

All cultivable land within the base belonged to the government, and superhumans with cultivation abilities could at most earn a modest salary.

Uncle Lu…

A cold and silent face emerged in her mind, and Xu Qiao felt a pang of pain in her heart.

At sixteen, just after she awakened her lotus spiritual form, her grandfather had passed away contentedly. For the next four years, it was Uncle Lu who took care of her, protecting her from some rude and domineering male classmates, guiding her through the biannual mandatory mercenary missions for superhumans, and standing up for her when other superhumans tried to force her to sell fruits and vegetables at low prices.

Whether it was for this care or because she had watched Lu Yang grow up, Xu Qiao treated Lu Yang like a younger brother.
—-
After breakfast, Xu Qiao changed into her work clothes. Just as she opened the door, Lu Yang came out with his school bag.

After a brief, muffled greeting, Lu Yang went straight to get his bicycle.

The middle schooler bent over, his school uniform clinging to his back, outlining his prominent spine. He was indeed too skinny.

Xu Qiao said, “The base limits the purchase of nutritional liquid to three units per day. It’s enough for regular people, but as an aspiring superhuman nearing your awakening, your nutritional needs are higher. Insufficient supply could affect your ability level. Even among B-grades, there’s a difference in strength.”

Lu Yang paused briefly in his actions, then replied with some disagreement, “Only three months left. It’s not as serious as you say.”

Xu Qiao insisted, “Suit yourself. I have a proposal. Move into the spare room at my place and rent out your current unit. This way, you can pay me a meal fee each month and still save some rent.”

Understanding Lu Yang’s strong sense of pride, she knew she had to approach this delicately.

Lu Yang glanced at his home’s door, thought for a few seconds, then said to Xu Qiao, “Besides the meal fee, I’ll also pay for utilities and rent.”

Xu Qiao smiled, “Are you planning to move to the central district once you awaken your B-grade ability and don’t want me to benefit from it?”

Lu Yang got flustered, “No, I…”

Xu Qiao interrupted, “Then let’s do it my way. You focus on your studies, and I’ll handle renting out the place.”

Without waiting for a response, she got on her bicycle and left.
—-
The Southeast Base had many large hospitals, and some private clinics run by superhumans with healing abilities.

The large hospitals offered high salaries and good benefits, but they were also strictly managed, with annual assessments of medical personnel’s professional skills and ability levels.

When Xu Qiao graduated from the military academy, her ability level only earned her a C-grade physician certificate, although her knowledge of pathology and medical equipment operation was comparable to an A-grade physician.

Professor Lin appreciated her skills and recommended her for a position at the First Military Hospital in the central district. Xu Qiao was both surprised and grateful. However, during the short break before starting the job, she accompanied Uncle Lu on a basic mission outside the base. While treating a mercenary, she suddenly felt her spiritual form stirring.

It was an experience Xu Qiao had never had before.

According to what she had learned, plant-based spiritual forms were generally stable and didn’t tend to emerge on their own like animal-based ones.
—-
After finishing the treatment, Xu Qiao intended to release her spiritual form for a check. She only caught a glimpse of a shadow before quickly retracting it.

She couldn’t explain why she felt nervous at that moment or why she instinctively thought others shouldn’t see it. Her speed was so quick that the resting mercenaries nearby didn’t notice the brief appearance of a lotus spiritual form.

Back at the base, Xu Qiao closed her curtains and released her spiritual form.

She was familiar with her spiritual form: a lotus flower emerging from four green, round leaves, with eleven snow-white petals tinged with a hint of pink at the tips.

However, the newly appeared one still had four leaves, but the petals had become…

Xu Qiao counted the slender petals three times, and each time there were thirty-three.

From eleven to thirty-three, it had tripled.

Xu Qiao knew that superhumans could control the size of their spiritual forms; the larger the form, the more mental energy it consumed.

But she had never heard of a spiritual form changing its details on its own. She knew other superhumans with flower-based spiritual forms, including a popular female celebrity at the Southeast Base whose spiritual form was a peony. That peony always had the same number of petals, no matter how often it was released.

The New Era was only a century old, and scholars’ enthusiastic research on various spiritual forms and abilities was ongoing, with new discoveries almost every year. There were rumors that some laboratories and large corporations conducted human experiments on regular people or superhumans, but these were mostly unverified gossip. No one in Xu Qiao’s circle had any concrete evidence.

Previously, Xu Qiao could dismiss such rumors with a laugh. Now that she was experiencing changes herself, she was inclined to believe them.

Especially since, as the number of lotus petals increased, her healing ability had also noticeably improved by a whole level, seemingly reaching B-grade.

Just having a prettier spiritual form wouldn’t attract the attention of researchers, but an increase in ability level certainly would…

Xu Qiao didn’t dare draw attention to herself. She chose to forgo the position at the central district’s large hospital and instead took a job at a private clinic in her community, carefully controlling the effectiveness of her treatments.

Points could be earned sparingly, just enough to get by. Life and freedom were what truly mattered.