Chapter 867

·

·

·

Main Character:

Shen Yao

Chen Xuanxuan watched Shen Chengyi and the others walk into the training room, then she became bored again.

She really didn't have any great ambitions; the treatment given by the Official was decent, and its demands on her weren't excessive. Chen Xuanxuan had thought several times about giving it another try—whatever other ability users could do, she could too.

But things always turned terrible the moment she chose to take the initiative, and she would therefore be timid, not daring to take the first step.

Perhaps this was just her nature; no matter how much she wanted to change, she couldn't change her inner heart, and in the end she had failed the mindset she had when she first took the Evolution Potion.

Raising her hand to wipe away tears she hadn't noticed falling, Chen Xuanxuan dried them forcefully and revealed a smile. Well, no matter what, her current life was something she had earned; whether others were unhappy or angry, it couldn't affect her.

She quickly composed her emotions, then Chen Xuanxuan sat down again and returned to normal. This was her comfort zone, and also her most comfortable way.

On the other side, Shen Chengyi and the others entered the training room. Because the area here was large enough, they could do their own things.

Shen Chengyu and Shen Chengning went together to the corner to train, while Shen Chengyi stayed behind to briefly guide Shen Yao. After Shen Yao became familiar with the equipment inside the training room, Shen Chengyi went alone to another corner.

Crackle crackle

Various abilities intertwined to form a dazzling array of colors, and naturally the most eye-catching was Shen Chengyi's lightning ability. This type of ability had enormous killing power; once it appeared, it was sufficiently shocking.

Water and wood abilities entwined, sometimes gathering together, sometimes separating from one another, just like two butterflies, following their whims.

Mental ability stood independent of the three elemental abilities, but it had its own characteristics, making it impossible to ignore.

Shen Yao had always known what she wanted. Her mental ability was so extraordinary that, whether for self-preservation or anything else, she had to raise her ability as soon as possible.

Although she had once told Shen Chengyi that she didn't care about ability strength, that was only based on normal logical considerations. If all other circumstances were taken into account, then Shen Yao's mental ability was indispensable.

Whether used on humans or Mutated Creatures in the future, it was a means to defeat the enemy. Compared to cold offensive abilities, mental ability could be silent and soundless—that was the most terrifying part.

Time spent in the training room always passed quickly. Shen Chengyu and Shen Chengning were panting from exhaustion, their abilities constantly being used up and recovered, used up again and recovered again, until finally they could no longer persist and simply collapsed onto the ground, hands spread, unmoving.

"So tired, so tired."

"Trained for so long today, need to rest."

Although this kind of squeezing training could raise the upper limit of their abilities, and they might even break through their ability level to go further, the two of them still couldn't endure this bitterness.

Shen Chengyu felt stars in her eyes, able to see nighttime scenery in broad daylight, while Shen Chengning felt her whole body light and floating, with a lightness as if rising from flat ground.

Shen Chengyi took out two tubes of Evolution Potion and handed them to them respectively.

The silver-white liquid kept changing inside the tube, like ribbons before the Milky Way, unforgettable at a glance.

Glug glug

Unscrewing the tube cap and drinking the liquid into her mouth, Shen Chengyu smacked her lips, indicating that the Evolution Potion would be better if it had other flavors; otherwise, every time she drank down this tasteless liquid, she felt it didn't match its eye-catching color.

"What does the taste matter? What's important is that it helps our abilities evolve."

After saying this, Shen Chengning turned her head and dry-heaved once. Mm, she really couldn't swallow it down.

Shen Chengyu:...

Shen Chengyi couldn't be bothered to deal with these two. After delivering the Evolution Potion, she went to look at Shen Yao.

The Evolution Potion in Shen Yao's hand had already run out, and her depleted mental ability was gradually recovering. Because every time she trained she squeezed her mental ability completely dry, when recovering her head would feel somewhat swollen, and at the same time there would be a slightly sour, numb, tingling sensation, like suddenly taking a cold shower on a hot summer day—an indescribable freshness.

Shen Chengyi currently didn't need Evolution Potion, because her lightning ability was now at a bottleneck; only Crystal Cores could let her break through.

The energy inside the Crystal Core was relatively mild and non-stimulating compared to Evolution Crystals, but compared to Evolution Potion it was still very dangerous and violent. Shen Chengyi took out a Crystal Core the size of a pigeon egg from her space and held it in her hand. Then she sat on the ground, closed her eyes to rest her mind, and absorbed the Crystal Core's energy bit by bit.

A layer of fine marks slowly covered the surface of the pigeon-egg-sized Crystal Core, like cracks; a light touch would cause scraps to fall down.

Sweat began to appear on Shen Chengyi's forehead, dripping drop by drop onto her body, soaking a small area of clean clothes around her.

Shen Chengyu was pulled up by Shen Chengning, and the two secretly observed their eldest sister a few times, then silently exchanged glances before becoming serious and diligent again.

Mm

With such a volume king as their older sister, what excuse did they have not to work hard? They certainly couldn't be shameless enough to be a drag and a burden, could they? They also had self-respect. Compared to lying flat and relying on family, relying on oneself was certainly more fulfilling.

After encouraging each other with a few words, they began cooperating again. The combination of water and wood abilities was full of romantic and imaginative possibilities—one plus one greater than two—perfectly embodied in them.

After Shen Chengyu and Shen Chengning recovered their energy, Shen Yao also joined the training. She continued to train her ability alone, using her fingertips to condense mental ability into threads—one, two, three, four, five... Slowly, the threads became a net, densely covered with grids of uniform size. At Shen Yao's command, the grids emitted silver-white light and landed on the ground with a snap.

The grids disappeared, as if they had never appeared. But as Shen Yao lightly waved her fingers and wrist again, the disappeared grids returned to their original state, not only rising steadily from the ground to their original height, but also degenerating from net back into threads, finally retracting into Shen Yao's fingers.

Closing her eyes to carefully feel the different changes just released and absorbed, Shen Yao successfully calculated the approximate range of energy her body consumed for one attack.

It seemed to be within her tolerance, but this was the result of missing. What if this time she hadn't missed, but simply failed to capture it?

Constantly conducting hypothesis analysis on the problem, Shen Yao bit by bit excavated the upper limit of her own ability, and by the way drained her mental ability dry.

Back and forth, constantly repeating.

Shen Yao's clothes began to show a cycle of drying then getting wet, wet then drying. During this time, Shen Chengyu and Shen Chengning again couldn't persist and chose to rest briefly, but Shen Yao and Shen Chengyi did not do so; instead, they continued to persist in their respective training.

"Monster!"

She had never seen someone work so hard, and this person also had an inseparable blood relationship with her.

Shen Chengyu's mouth gaped open as she muttered to herself, mainly because Shen Chengyi and Shen Yao's performance was too terrifying—they were simply volume kings among volume kings.

Bang!

The heavy object that had been lifted fell to the ground because it lost ability support, making crashing sounds, and almost hit her toes.

Shen Yao exhaled in one breath, raised her hand to wipe her forehead, then sat on the ground, controlling her trembling arm, and shakily gulped down the remaining half tube of Evolution Potion into her mouth.

The gentle energy of the Evolution Potion nourished her body and also relieved the soreness and swelling of muscles all over her body. In a short while, the tense muscles relaxed, followed by the recovery of her mental ability.

Opening her eyes again after closing them, Shen Yao silently sat up from the ground. Her clothes stuck clammily to her skin, and fine strands of hair clung to both sides of her cheek.

Not minding her disheveled state, Shen Yao was checking her ability status. After a short day of training, her mental ability had improved, like a cup of water that was originally filled to the brim, tight and seamless, but now had some gaps opened up on top, enough to add a few more drops.

Although a few drops compared to a cup of water seemed insufficient, constant dripping wears away a stone, and little by little adds up. As long as she continued to persist from now on, she believed ability improvement would cause a qualitative change from quantitative change, eventually turning a cup of water into a vat of water.

"Home home!"

Shen Chengyu began bustling about with the arrangements for going home; today she truly exerted tremendous effort — not only did she not slack off or shirk, but her coordination with Shen Chengning had also improved considerably, and one believes that before long the two of them, twin swords combined, will surely be able to contend a few rounds with Eldest Sister.

Mm.

Even with confidence soaring through the roof, Shen Chengyu still did not dare to lightly run her mouth at Shen Chengyi; from this one can see how powerful Shen Chengyi is in everyone's hearts.

Casually closing the training room they had finished using, then borrowing the washroom outside the training room to clean up simply, the four of the Shen family spent nearly the whole day at the Ability User Center; for dinner they simply bought cafeteria food directly.

Big-pot dishes, ordinary and common in taste; the only thing worth mentioning is that the portions are large and fill you up.

Shen Chengyu and Shen Chengning were truly starved; the evolution potion's energy had all been used on their abilities, causing their bellies to growl with hunger — a normal single portion of food wasn't enough to eat their fill, and only after adding a second helping did they barely manage.

Shen Chengyi and Shen Yao ate elegantly and swiftly; anyone who saw them would be surprised by their good appetites.

Having eaten and drunk their fill, they stood up and went home.

Just out of the cafeteria, they hadn't walked more than a few steps when Shen Yao saw a figure running toward them.

"Chengyi ah."

"Director Yuan."

Shen Chengyi seemed quite surprised that Yuan Chunyan would appear at the cafeteria — where ordinary people are most numerous — at this time; this situation was originally somewhat ambiguous.

After all, Yuan Chunyan is Official personnel, and normally wouldn't come to the cafeteria to eat; moreover these past few days Yuan Chunyan has been very busy, and simply hasn't had time to come find trouble for Shen Chengyi.

Stepping forward to block Yuan Chunyan, who was still trying to squeeze over, Shen Chengyi spoke first: "Today I went to the Ability User Center intending to find Director Yuan and ask about yesterday's situation; I didn't expect to run into Director Yuan right here in the cafeteria."

Yuan Chunyan:...

She had been summoned away by the leaders above first thing this morning, and only now was she let go; Yuan Chunyan thought to herself that if it weren't for an urgent matter, Shen Chengyi would never have been able to find her.

"Director Yuan, what did the higher-ups say? Openly attacking and killing an Official Ability User is no small matter; there must be some force interfering behind the scenes."

So the Official stance is whether to tacitly drop it or pursue it to the end — she's waiting.

Yuan Chunyan:...

"Little Shen ah, this matter is still under discussion by the higher-ups."

Unable to help herself, she raised a hand to wipe the sweat beading on her forehead; Yuan Chunyan also didn't know why she was so flustered.

Logically it shouldn't be — Shen Chengyi may be an Official Ability User, but she's only officially listed as one; when it truly comes time for sacrifice, she would certainly be the first.

That Yuan Chunyan could become Director of the Ability User Center and still hold a post at the Mission Center shows she carries considerable weight in the leaders' hearts; compared with Shen Chengyi, Yuan Chunyan is definitely more important.

Only the situation changes in an instant — today's red-hot favorite, tomorrow's universally despised pariah.

Yuan Chunyan is currently in a teetering state; coming to find Shen Chengyi she also harbored thoughts of using her — pity the other party gave her no chance to speak at all, seizing the initiative with a few sentences that left her unable to open her mouth.

"Director Yuan, it's almost month-end, and my Official mission for next month still hasn't been done."

Before you can give me an acceptable result and compensation, don't even think about getting me to exert effort on Official missions.

Yuan Chunyan heard the threat in Shen Chengyi's words and wanted to counter, but found that no matter how she spoke she couldn't get around the original topic.

Fine then.

"The Official side will naturally have an explanation; don't rush," she soothed perfunctorily for a few sentences, then Yuan Chunyan found an excuse to leave.

"Sister, look at her" — she runs fast, as if afraid of being caught up to.

Shen Chengyu muttered a complaint in a low voice; mainly it was because Yuan Chunyan's performance was too clownish, inexplicably so!

"She's afraid that if she keeps talking, she won't pull any support and will only add new resistance."

Shen Chengyi crossed both arms across her chest, fingers lightly tapping the muscle of her arm bend.

Sure enough, although one doesn't know what Yuan Chunyan is plotting, it's definitely nothing good.

Taking out her phone, she posted a reminder in the group; other people might not have her kind of backbone — faced with a plea from the Ability User Center's Director, they'll dodge if they can, and if they can't dodge they'll play dumb.

"What if playing dumb doesn't work?" Shen Chengning asked curiously.

"Just surrender directly," Shen Chengyi indicated there's no way out of this kind of thing; the only thing on them currently worth scheming for is crystal cores — they can't even protect their own things, so does she still have to compensate them?

Naturally Shen Chengyi doesn't need to compensate them, because the crystal cores had already been fully allocated upon mission completion, and they're merely teammates, not family; the final ownership of the crystal cores just depends on one's own capability.

Obviously, certain people in the group lack Shen Chengyi's capability and skill; they each lost varying amounts of crystal cores — whether coerced or lured, in short they all suffered losses to different degrees.

Shen Chengyi:...

Expressionlessly she put down her phone; the content on it still lingered on the group's flood of messages — the miserable little pitiful ones huddling together cursing Yuan Chunyan's shamelessness; among them a male student named Yang Liu had it worst — the bit of crystal cores he'd taken back were all given away for nothing by his family, and in exchange he got only a few tubes of evolution potion and visible-but-intangible special points.

Special points have many more uses than ordinary points, but special points aren't omnipotent either.

Crystal cores can be exchanged for special points, but special points cannot be exchanged back for crystal cores, and even purchasing evolution potions has quantity restrictions.

Yuan Chunyan didn't even promise much benefit, yet ordinary people eagerly took the bait — one can see the information gap between the two sides is not just a little.