Perched on his sword, the old man looked down upon the vast, lake-like pool, a smirk playing on his lips. “Old scoundrel, aren’t you always like a destructive husky, best at tearing things apart? Why don’t you put on a show for your old friend today?”
“You dog! Fine, for the sake of my student, I won’t bicker with you for now.”
Yuan Fei’s face was etched with displeasure as he pressed his hand to the ground, a clear, luminous white light emanating from his eyes.
The white light intensified, growing brighter with each passing moment.
Should anyone have gazed into Yuan Fei’s pupils at that instant, they would have beheld a boundless, solid, jelly-like white ocean within them.
Crack!
From his palm, the ground began to fracture, inch by inch. Jagged fissures snaked forward, extending deep into the pool.
“Mountain Fold!” Yuan Fei murmured, his eyes blazing with an intense light.
Rumble!
The earth quaked and mountains swayed as the ground, using the fissures as its central axis, began to fold inward. Even the dark green pool water churned into countless towering waves, converging and surging violently.
With a mere press of his hand, Yuan Fei had conjured a localized cataclysm, rivaling the power of an earthquake and a tsunami.
The immense commotion was visible across the vast expanse of the Dragon’s Den, even from tens of kilometers away.
Innumerable Dragon Abominations crawled out from bottomless caverns. Guided by their emperor, they swarmed towards Yuan Fei and the old man like a plague of locusts.
The old man stomped his right foot, and his flying sword spiraled upward, swiftly carrying him to a great height.
He cast his gaze downwards.
A black tide of creatures converged from all directions.
“They’re here,” Yuan Fei said softly.
Suddenly, numerous bubbles erupted on the surface of the pool, and a colossal whirlpool formed in its center. A barely perceptible shadow began to emerge beneath the water.
Splash… water cascaded from its pitted scales.
An expanse of “land,” the size of a small island, slowly rose from beneath the surface.
The land continued to grow taller and larger, causing the pool’s water level to visibly recede.
“Take care of the small fry for me! I’ll go meet it first!” Yuan Fei shouted, raising his voice.
“Alright.”
In this critical moment, the old man had no mind for bickering.
“What a massive undertaking!” he exclaimed, clicking his tongue as he observed the Dragon Abominations covering the mountains and plains.
Having received the affirmation, Yuan Fei cast aside all other distractions, focusing his entire attention on the formidable presence before him.
By then, the “land” had ceased its ascent, revealing two cave-like openings, each tall enough for two people. A visible white mist billowed from within these openings.
The next second, it opened its eyes.
Its colossal, golden eyes, brilliant as pure gold, coldly regarded the two ants before it, who were smaller than a single one of its scales.
“Die!”
The immense sound wave repelled the surging tide, tearing the ground apart inch by inch, and even generating a ferocious gale. The wind whipped at Yuan Fei’s white shirt, revealing the full expanse of his chest hair.
‘Just as I suspected,’ Yuan Fei thought, a faint smile playing on his lips.
He had already recognized the identity of the Emperor-rank Dragon Abomination before him: the strongest entity in the Dragon’s Den, the emperor who commanded the core item of this Void Realm.
Even among Emperor-rank Dragon Abominations, disparities in power existed. The Emperor-rank Dragon Abomination whose arm he had broken last time could only bow in submission before this one.
“Last time, I severed an arm from your vanguard. This time, let’s fight to our heart’s content!”
Yuan Fei laughed heartily, flashing forward. His challenge was met with an enraged roar.
The battle was about to begin.
****
This was the culmination of Huang Xiu’s efforts, combining insights from three different works, to conceptualize the future development of her own Awakened ability. She successfully completed Teacher Yuan’s assignment on the final night.
Opening the Void Web, she used the built-in email system to send the meticulously crafted paper to Yuan Fei’s inbox.
She stretched, her gaze sweeping over the luggage packed for her trip tomorrow night. She had prepared everything a day in advance.
There wasn’t much: four essential changes of clothes and the plant seeds she had painstakingly prepared beforehand. This was her solution to the lack of plant mutations during the initial stages of the previous two Touchpoint battles.
Her strategy involved rapidly establishing her initial forces by mutating seeds. Huang Xiu had found inspiration for this method while researching for her paper, drawing from other works.
She had later found time to privately verify her theory. While mutation from seeds was slower and resulted in lower strength, it was indeed viable.
However, it also consumed more Void Energy and blood than mutating mature plants. Even so, it remained Huang Xiu’s best temporary survival method when no plants were readily available.
‘I’ll be heading back tomorrow afternoon…’ Huang Xiu thought, filled with anticipation for her first mission outside the university.
To be safe, she planned to bring Huang Xiaoxian as her personal bodyguard, a powerful protector from within. This would also be an opportunity to test how much the previous modifications had boosted its combat strength.
Huang Xiu retrieved the internet-addicted cactus from under her bed.
“You’re coming with me on a mission tomorrow night.”
Only after Huang Xiaoxian’s agreement did she contentedly return it to its spot under the bed.
After a restful night’s sleep, she ate breakfast the next morning and eagerly headed to Training Room No. 1.
However, she was met with rather unwelcome news. Due to Professor Yuan Fei’s sudden unavailability, the scheduled Awakened Ability Development class had been replaced by a Combat Training class.
‘Could something serious have happened?’ Huang Xiu’s heart fluttered with anxiety. ‘Even if he went to the Void Realm, Professor Yuan Fei should have returned by now!’
Seizing the moment while Teacher Yuan was setting up the training ground, she quickly sent a message to Yun Ning, asking if he knew about Yuan Fei’s current situation.
[Yun Ning: Don’t worry, Teacher is fine. He’s just having one of his old episodes.]
In Yuan Fei’s faculty apartment, Yun Ning pressed the send button. Yuan Fei, his body wrapped in numerous bandages, lay on the sofa, drinking and playing on his phone.
He had returned from the Dragon’s Den Void Realm late last night. His injuries were not severe, but he had managed to coax the school hospital staff into issuing him a medical certificate. He then promptly used it to request a week-long leave.
‘The teacher’s ‘episodes’… they’re just laziness and slacking off!’
“Teacher, if you don’t teach next week’s classes, the students in Class 1 will fall behind the other classes’ progress,” Yun Ning said, his face etched with helplessness.
“Ah, I just returned from a major mission,” Yuan Fei said, taking a swig of vodka from the bottle. “Can you bear to make your teacher teach while injured?”
“Cough, cough, don’t look at me like that. Even without injuries, it’s only right for me to take a vacation after completing a major mission.”
Yun Ning fell silent.
Taking a vacation after completing a major mission was indeed within regulations, as was taking leave due to injury.
“But you were the one who wanted to take Class 1’s lessons in the first place!” Yun Ning retorted.
“How about this?” Yuan Fei’s eyes darted around as he conceived a plan that would benefit both of them. “You can teach my classes next week. I’ll pay you twenty credits per lesson.”
“Teacher, that’s against regulations.”
Yun Ning couldn’t believe Yuan Fei would come up with such a ridiculous idea: having a sophomore teach freshmen.
“It’s fine. You’re my student, and from now on, you’re also my teaching assistant,” Yuan Fei declared, leaving no room for refusal. He patted Yun Ning’s shoulder. “Good little Ning, remember to cover my classes next week!”
“Sigh!” Yun Ning sighed, nodding reluctantly.
Reading the message on her phone, Huang Xiu finally relaxed, redirecting her focus back to the combat training class.
Teacher Yuan had once again arranged a foundational training session for this class. In addition to sparring and evasion drills, he had added basic stance training.
Stance training, or ‘Zhan Zhuang,’ referred to traditional martial arts stances like plum blossom piles and horse stance. Huang Xiu was surprised that combat training included this, but she embraced it readily.
She remembered how, as a child, she would imitate martial arts heroes after watching wuxia films. The dream she couldn’t fulfill in her youth was now appearing before her in a different form.
“I can’t hold on much longer!” Ying Zhiyu exclaimed, sweat pouring down her forehead as she held her horse stance. They had been in the stance for over an hour.
Huang Xiu was also drenched in sweat, her slender legs trembling, yet she gritted her teeth and offered comfort. “Think of your hero dream!”
“But, Sister… I dreamed of being a magical girl!” Ying Zhiyu wailed with a mournful face.
They continued the horse stance for another half hour until Teacher Yuan saw that most students had reached their limit. Only then did he wave his hand, signaling that they could rest.
Huang Xiu immediately plopped down, surrounded by students lying on the ground, groans and gasps filling the air. For a group of high schoolers without martial arts experience, holding a horse stance for almost two hours, even as Awakened individuals, was quite outrageous.
“The horse stance is the most basic. You only truly pass when you can fall asleep while holding it,” Teacher Yuan said coldly.
Such an absurd standard even left Huang Xiu a little dumbfounded. Sleeping while holding a horse stance—was that even possible for a normal person?
However, they weren’t exactly normal people; they were Awakened individuals whose physiques far surpassed ordinary humans… If that was the case, then they would just have to keep practicing!
And so, Huang Xiu and the others were once again made to hold the horse stance by Teacher Yuan for another half hour, even extending a few minutes past class time. Huang Xiu never expected her first university class extension to be for horse stance training.
Friday afternoon was a holiday, so with classes ending in the morning, their two-and-a-half-day weekend officially began. Tiandu City was the capital of the Great Xia Nation, and for most freshmen, it was their first time visiting.
They discussed plans to take advantage of the rare weekend to explore Tiandu City, recharging their weary selves. Ying Zhiyu knew Huang Xiu had a mission, so she had already made plans with Jia Qianrou, Chi Xue, and Liu Lu to go shopping over the weekend.
“We can even visit the Great Wall while we’re there!” Ying Zhiyu exclaimed, her face brimming with anticipation.
“That sounds wonderful! I wish I could go too!” Huang Xiu grumbled, biting into her meat bun. Listening to her roommates discuss their weekend plans, her initial excitement for the mission waned. After all, this was overtime!
“Oh, right, have you all registered your outings?” Huang Xiu asked. Whether from the Research Department or the Exploration Department, any student leaving campus needed to register their outing a day in advance. The Student Union would then allocate vehicles based on the number of registered students.
Tiandu University was located in the suburbs near Tiandu City. Not only were there no direct buses, but navigation apps were useless for calling taxis. If the school didn’t provide transportation, these freshmen without cars might not leave campus for an entire semester.
“Of course, we’ve all registered,” Ying Zhiyu replied. “Sister Xiu, you didn’t forget to register, did you?”
Huang Xiu chuckled. “I don’t need to register. I’m riding with my senior male student.”
Yun Ning didn’t own a car, but Yue Zhengyang did. To facilitate their departure, Yun Ning had borrowed a car well in advance. The school’s shuttle bus was scheduled to arrive at one o’clock. After lunch, Ying Zhiyu and her friends returned to their dorm, grabbed their luggage, and hurried off. They planned to stay in the city for two nights.
Looking at the empty dorm room, Huang Xiu sighed. She had just been about to retreat to her room to play games, intending to pass the time.
But then, her phone suddenly vibrated in her pocket. Pulling it out, she saw Yun Ning’s name on the caller ID.
“What’s wrong?” Huang Xiu asked.
“Latest update: we’re departing now,” Yun Ning’s voice came through the receiver. “I’ll wait for you at the school gate.”
“Okay.” Huang Xiu hung up the phone, scurried into her room, grabbed her suitcase, and headed out. As she reached the doorway, she heard the sound of a movie playing from under her bed.
She remembered, bent down, and pulled out Huang Xiaoxian, who was engrossed in a film. She casually tossed it, phone and all, into her suitcase.
Huang Xiu quickly reviewed her belongings, confirming everything was packed, then swiftly dragged her suitcase towards the school gate. It took her ten minutes to cross half the campus from the student dorms to the gate, even at a brisk pace.
Outside the school gate, numerous vehicles were parked. There were school buses that hadn’t yet departed, as well as cars purchased by senior students. Motorcycles, sedans, sports cars, SUVs—every type imaginable. Huang Xiu even spotted an old man’s electric scooter.
However, judging by its sturdy chassis and bulging hood, this scooter had likely been modified by students from the Research Department. “Extremely dangerous,” was Huang Xiu’s assessment.
After a week of observation, she had gleaned some insights into the Research Department from her senior male student. Products that received official approval could always be trusted. However, products that hadn’t passed approval, meaning they were still in the testing phase, could have any number of issues.
Vehicles, in particular, were a high-risk area. After more than a decade of intense competition, most enhancement methods for vehicles had already been exhausted. To create new products, these mad scientists from the Research Department would often resort to extreme measures, adding all sorts of outrageous black technologies.
There was a past incident where a Gold Rank senior, whose Awakened ability involved physical enhancement, nearly died when a Research Department car suddenly exploded. Afterward, a ridiculous rumor even spread that Research Department cars weren’t cars at all, but rather plump little boys.
As a physically vulnerable freshman, Huang Xiu instinctively distanced herself from the scooter, lest it explode and splatter her. She passed by car after car, finally spotting a pure black BMW by the roadside. This was the model Yun Ning had mentioned.
To be safe, Huang Xiu intended to check the license plate. Before she could reach it, the car window rolled down. Yun Ning rested one arm on the window, his thumb gesturing backward. “No time! Get in quickly.”