Chapter 424: Prediction! Special Ability: Spirit Summoning!

After the birthday banquet of Master Song Daoyuan ended, Xu Jingming returned to the Song family villa to study combat techniques.

Meanwhile, Song Qiuyun carried her own halberd and trained on her own.

Besides, while studying the combat manual of "Lei Long Shu,"

occasionally pausing to admire Song Qiuyun's graceful figure truly offered a unique charm and helped slightly relax his mind.

Of course,

he couldn't help but occasionally get hands-on to experience it himself.

By nightfall, Song Qiuyun still hadn't left.

She declared she had begun practicing Body Strengthening Art and would make Xu Jingming pay.

Yet in the end, she couldn't even last two hours...

The next morning, Xu Jingming left the Song family.

He went to the airport, boarded a combat aircraft, arrived in Gui Province, and returned to the Thunder Martial Arts Academy headquarters.

"Lin Hui, I'm back. Have you found everyone?"

As soon as he stepped into the academy headquarters, Xu Jingming called Lin Hui.

"Don't worry, boss, I've found them all. Also, Xia Lan seems to have found a decent teammate too."

Lin Hui's voice came through the phone.

The single word "boss" was enough to show his respect for Xu Jingming.

"Oh? Xia Lan found one too?"

Xu Jingming was surprised. "Tell her we'll meet at Xiyè Coffee House. I'll go ahead and wait for you."

"Understood. We're on our way."

After hanging up, Xu Jingming headed straight for Xiyè Coffee House.

It was noon, and the coffee house wasn't crowded.

Xu Jingming entered, ordered a coffee at random, and found a seat.

Then his thoughts shifted, and he opened his system panel.

【Name】: Xu Jingming

【Level】: Fifth Rank Lower Tier

【Ability】: Dou Tian Shen Lei (SS)

【Physique】: 9352 Qi Blood (+)

【Spirit】: 9834 He (+)

【Skills】: Spear Technique (Master), Fist Technique (Master), Lei Shen Jiang Shi (SSS, Beginner), Xin Wang (SS, Beginner), Lei Guan Mo Sha Qiang (S+, Beginner+), Lei Shen Zhi (S+, Beginner+)...

【Body Strengthening】: Thunder Indestructible Body (S, Sixth Stage)

【Spirit Refinement】: Shen He Guan Xiang Fa (SS, Second Stage)

【Ability Points】:

"The 'Lei Long Shu' combat technique will probably take another one or two days to grasp preliminarily. I'll use the system to allocate points."

"These 30,000 ability points should be enough to level up this S+ technique..."

Xu Jingming thought silently.

The more combat techniques he mastered, the more proficiency points he needed to allocate.

Yet his ability points remained perpetually insufficient.

"The ability points I harvested in Myanmar were meant to raise my rank."

"Also to level up Body Strengthening and Spirit Refinement—these two foundational techniques."

"But since the No. 3 Civilization Ruins contain a better SSS-level Spirit Refinement technique, I don't need to rush allocating points there."

"As for Body Strengthening..."

Xu Jingming's eyes flickered.

After reviewing several Body Strengthening manuals these past days, he realized creating an S-level Body Strengthening technique was far more difficult than he'd imagined.

Yet his review of Body Strengthening manuals wasn't solely for creating his own technique.

He was testing whether the Deep Blue System could use his current knowledge of Body Strengthening techniques

to directly evolve and allocate points into an S-level Body Strengthening technique based on Thunder Indestructible Body!

This hypothesis wasn't baseless—after all, the system panel already changed according to his knowledge of technique tiers.

It could even allocate proficiency points and raise his ability rank.

Evolving an S-level technique didn't seem impossible.

"But right now, I've only read D-level Body Strengthening manuals. I'm still far from having sufficient knowledge reserves."

"To attempt evolution, I'd need to at least preliminarily understand an S-level Body Strengthening technique."

"Also, I need more ability points ready."

"Otherwise, if the evolution conditions are met but no plus sign appears due to insufficient points, it'll be a problem."

Xu Jingming silently planned ahead.

The Deep Blue System was perfect in every way—except for the lack of a user manual, which was frustrating.

"But all that's something to consider only after I go to Myanmar, kill enough beasts, and accumulate plenty of ability points."

"For now, I'll just focus on studying combat techniques."

Shaking his head, Xu Jingming pulled out a random D-level Body Strengthening manual from his space ring and began reading.

"Lei Long Shu" was an S+ technique, uniquely created by the founder of the Thunder Martial Arts Academy.

In public, he didn't want to draw attention by reading it openly.

"Xu Boss, we're here."

Over twenty minutes later, Lin Hui and Xia Lan arrived at Xiyè Coffee House.

But beside them were two additional people.

Standing beside Lin Hui was a man slightly older in appearance.

He was tall and broad-shouldered, with a square face and an expression as rigid as stone.

Beside Xia Lan stood a young woman, apparently under twenty-five.

She had shoulder-length hair, adorned with a cartoon strawberry hairpin.

Combined with her doll-like face, she looked like a middle school student—adorably cute.

Upon hearing Lin Hui speak, both chimed in: "Hello, Xu Boss!"

One voice was strong and resonant, the other timid and shy, as if painfully introverted.

The two contrasting tones nearly made Xu Jingming laugh:

"You two shouting like that, someone might think we're a gang."

"Isn't that exactly what makes us a team? If you don't like it, we can call you Captain instead."

Lin Hui grinned and sat down with the group on the sofa.

"Hmm, Captain sounds more natural."

Xu Jingming nodded slightly and returned the combat manual to his space ring.

"As the Captain commands." Lin Hui chuckled, then introduced the square-faced man beside him:

"Captain, this is Li Xiang, the helper I found. He possesses an A-level Spirit-type ability and is Sixth Rank Lower Tier."

"He previously served in the Public Security Bureau and has extensive interrogation experience before joining our Talent Training Camp."

"With him tracking leads, our search will be much easier."

"Hello, Captain Xu," Li Xiang said respectfully.

"A Public Security Bureau expert? Good."

Xu Jingming nodded, then turned to the cute girl with the cartoon hairpin: "And this one?"

He sensed her strength was weak, and she seemed painfully shy.

For a team, she was clearly a liability.

But since Xia Lan had brought her, she must have something special.

"Her name is Du Wan. Like us, she's a first-year student."

Xia Lan quickly explained. "She's Fourth Rank Upper Tier and possesses a Special-type A-level ability: 'Spirit Summoning.'"

"She can summon the spirits of corpses deceased no more than one day and communicate with them."

"I think she might help us gather clues for our mission."

"Human spirits?!"

Xu Jingming's eyes widened, nearly spitting out the coffee he'd just sipped:

"There's an ability that can summon something like that?!"