“Tomorrow morning is the Introduction to Void Realm Knowledge, and the afternoon is the Introduction to Conceptualizing Awakened Ability Development.”
Huang Xiu looked over tomorrow’s course schedule.
Both classes were important, yet she found herself more drawn to the afternoon session, hoping to alleviate a lingering concern.
She hoped to find an answer there to a question that had long troubled her: whether her ability, Senluo, should be enhanced for quality or for quantity.
After reviewing the course schedule, Huang Xiu exited the table. She then became a silent observer, lurking in the new student group chat.
It wasn’t that she disliked group chats. However, whenever she sent a message, she would be met with either endless copycat responses or strange flattery like ‘Hello, Big Boss,’ which always sent shivers down her spine.
Thus, she was effectively forced into lurking.
At this moment, the new student group chat was still buzzing with activity.
The school had just released the class assignments, and some new students were already adding their classmates as friends.
Some had even created class groups, pulling everyone in.
Huang Xiu, however, did nothing. She already boasted a friend list comprising every single new student, effectively controlling an entire pond of them!
She knew that when it came to group chats, she would eventually be added without needing to ask or wait too long.
Sure enough, within two minutes, she was successively pulled into two different class chats for Class 1 of the 2016 cohort.
One had many members, the other few.
The administrator of the larger group was an acquaintance of Huang Xiu’s: a fellow candidate from the re-examination, Moon’s Surface.
Some time later, the administrator of the smaller class group, likely realizing the competition was too stiff, or for some other reason, disbanded their chat.
Thus, Class 1 of the 2016 cohort’s group chat achieved complete unity, completing its transition from division to unification.
With the establishment of the class group, the active chatters quickly moved their conversations, and the new student group chat cooled down rapidly.
Huang Xiu, not in the mood to chat, simply sent a question mark in the group before switching apps to browse videos.
During the holidays, she usually went to bed around one in the morning. However, today, perhaps due to the exhausting battles during the day, she felt drowsiness creeping in even before ten.
Knowing she had an 8 AM class tomorrow, Huang Xiu decided against staying up late. She simply turned off the light and went to sleep.
With a soft click, the room plunged into darkness, save for the faint moonlight streaming in.
No… there seemed to be a sliver of light still.
Huang Xiu’s eyes snapped open. She turned her head, noticing a faint, persistent green glow emanating from the corner.
It was the light from Huang Xiaoxian’s phone, reflecting off their face.
“Xiaoxian, it’s time to sleep,” Huang Xiu said softly.
Huang Xiaoxian lay in the corner, not even lifting their head. “Oh, I’ll sleep right after this episode!”
‘A familiar swallow returning!’
‘Wasn’t that the exact excuse she used to fob off her own mother? When had Huang Xiaoxian stolen it from her?’
‘Oh, you dare use that on me!’
“Huang Xiaoxian!”
Huang Xiu mimicked her mother, raising her voice several octaves and letting her tone grow cold.
Indeed, her mother’s divine technique proved effective.
Huang Xiaoxian didn’t dare disobey. They obediently put down their phone and found a spot to sleep.
This scene, however, gave Huang Xiu a strange sense of déjà vu.
It felt as if she had suddenly transformed from a university student into a mother, with the disobedient Huang Xiaoxian as her child.
‘What am I thinking!’ Huang Xiu shook her head.
Raising a child was something she believed impossible for her in this lifetime, yet she was experiencing such déjà vu.
‘It’s all Huang Xiaoxian’s fault; they’re too mischievous!’
Huang Xiaoxian, unaware that they had been inexplicably scolded, feigned sleep with their eyes closed, while their ears remained perked high.
Only after hearing the faint sounds of breathing in the room did they suddenly open their eyes.
They slowly crept down, making not a single sound.
Dragging the phone they had deliberately left on the floor, Huang Xiaoxian tiptoed all the way under the bed.
First, they pressed the volume-down button repeatedly to ensure the sound was off. Then, they opened their phone and continued watching Digimon.
A dim light stretched out from both sides of the bed, forming elongated, slanted quadrilaterals of light.
On the bed, Huang Xiu opened her eyes and let out a soft sigh.
‘Should she find some schooling for this internet-addicted cactus?’
‘Or perhaps send them to that candidate from the third re-examination project, the one whose ability resembled Pikachu’s, for an electric shock?’
‘Otherwise, all they did was play and eat; they were almost useless.’
Huang Xiu was too lazy to bother with Huang Xiaoxian; after all, they didn’t have class tomorrow.
‘Drat, I’m so envious!’
Huang Xiu thought, closing her eyes once more. She emptied her mind and slowly drifted into dreamland.
****
Time flowed quietly. Who knew how long had passed, but outside the window, the moonlight waxed and waned through several cycles of bright and dim.
Deep in her sleep, Huang Xiu suddenly frowned, her pretty lips drawn taut.
Her legs beneath the covers involuntarily clamped together, and her right hand instinctively rested on her lower abdomen.
Waves of emptiness and searing cramps, accompanied by the sensation of hot liquid flowing, washed over the sleeping Huang Xiu.
Consequently, she, who was usually dreamless, began to experience bizarre visions.
She knelt on the ground, her body covered in wounds, her lips deathly pale. Fiery serpents coiled around her legs.
In the distance, atop the mountain peaks, numerous figures flew on swords, seemingly engaging in a magical battle.
Occasionally, roars echoed through the heavens and earth, carrying for hundreds of miles.
“How dare you!”
Under the bed, Huang Xiaoxian, who had relentlessly binged twenty episodes of Digimon and now looked utterly spaced out, suddenly lifted their head.
They sniffed with their nose, detecting a faint scent of blood that had suddenly permeated the air.
This scent was unlike ordinary blood; it was familiar, carrying a subtle hint of vitality.
Almost instantly, they discerned the source of the blood — their owner, Huang Xiu!
“No, it’s a Void Realm attack!”
Huang Xiaoxian instantly made their judgment, then scrambled out from under the bed using all four limbs.
They scanned the room.
No trace of a Void Realm creature could be found within.
Yet… their owner’s injury was a fact.
Huang Xiaoxian bent their knees and leaped onto the bed, looking at the girl whose brow was tightly furrowed and whose face was glistening with sweat. Their suspicions grew even stronger.
“There’s no mistake,” they thought. “Someone is definitely attacking my owner, but this monster cannot be perceived by the naked eye.”
‘Perhaps it’s a ghost! Or it could be a phantom beast!’
Drawing on their own experience, Huang Xiaoxian found their answer.
They knew that whatever it was, the most urgent task was to wake their owner from her slumber.
“Wake up!” Huang Xiaoxian pushed Huang Xiu’s body forcefully.
Currently, unless they were going out to battle, they would actively retract all the thorns on their body.
They did this partly to make it easier to play on their phone, and partly to avoid accidentally pricking their owner.
However, whether due to their meager strength or some other reason, Huang Xiu did not awaken.
“I’m so…”
“Sorry.”
Huang Xiaoxian raised their right hand. In the moonlight, their brownish-black thorns suddenly sprouted.
“Owner, this is all to save you, please don’t blame me!”
They lifted their right hand and gently poked Huang Xiu’s sleeping face with a thorn.