Chapter 115: Enhancement, The Separation of Three Attributes

Bian Changxi shook her head with a smile. “It’s not that easy to advance from Tier 2 to Tier 3. I’m still quite a ways off.”

Everyone looked a little disappointed, but not too much—after all, Bian Changxi was already far ahead of them.

They turned to An Ran. An Ran shrank back shyly. “I-I didn’t feel any energy.” Afraid of disappointing everyone, she added hesitantly, “But I think…I think I can see the people in the classroom next door.”

“X-ray vision?” Chen Guanqing’s eyes lit up. Chu Hao pointed at the wall. “You can see through it?”

“It’s not really seeing through.” An Ran closed her eyes. “It’s more like I just know. There are nine people over there—four sitting, one leaning, and four lying down. But among the ones lying down…” She opened her eyes and looked anxiously at Bian Changxi. “Two of them are gray. I think they’re already dead.”

Chu Hao froze, then quickly got up and went next door. He soon returned, his face grim as he nodded. “It’s true—two of them are gone. We only realized after I checked for breath.”

The sudden loss of two people was a shock, dampening the joy from Chu Hao’s breakthrough and An Ran’s new ability. Soon, the sound of weeping and mourning drifted over from next door.

Bian Changxi glanced at the eerily bright moon outside the window and said, “Let’s go take a look.”

She wasn’t too late. Thanks to her wood-type ability, two of the remaining people survived. One fully recovered after two days and gained a speed ability. The other, however, suffered from a persistent fever, delirium, and constant pain. Within days, he was nothing but skin and bones. In the end, Chai Zhong gave him one of their last bullets.

He smiled, saying he was saving those bullets for his brothers and himself. This way was quick and less painful, but Bian Changxi could see the sorrow in his eyes.

But that’s a story for later. By the time Bian Changxi finished her healing, dawn had broken. Most of the water on the ground had dried, but the place was a mess—mud, gravel, branches, all kinds of debris and bricks littered the floor, making it hard to even find a place to step.

Outside the kindergarten, the greenbelt had grown wildly, plants shooting up tall and thick, intertwining in a bizarre, menacing way, completely encircling the kindergarten like a corner of some primeval, desolate jungle.

“Oh my god, is this really the front gate?” Chu Hao came out and stared speechless at the entrance. It was now covered in a tangled mess of vines, completely unrecognizable. Even the high walls were overgrown with branches and leaves, and cracks in the corners had sprouted clusters of dark green plants.

Bian Changxi kicked aside two broken bricks, took a running start, leapt onto the wall, and then onto a pillar by the gate, crouching to look down. The others called out, “How is it? Is it safe outside?”

Bian Changxi nodded. “Luckily, the terrain here is open. Most of the surroundings are reinforced concrete, so there’s not much room for plants to grow. But the bad news is, since there’s no competition, the greenbelt has grown…massive.”

Looking out, the roadside greenery and street trees had become monstrous—twisted and sprawling, roots breaking through the concrete, thick stems and leaves covering the road so much that even walking would be difficult.

And that was with the plants just sitting still. If they could actively attack people…

Suddenly, An Ran cried out. Bian Changxi looked down to see a vine curling toward her calf. She drew her Tang sword and sliced it off with one stroke. “Roar—” The ground trembled as if something underground was howling, and all the branches and leaves around her began to move, lashing out like the tentacles of a monster.

Bian Changxi swung her blade, cutting down several vines, but was eventually forced to backflip down. The vines tried to pursue her, but she shouted, summoning a thick, sturdy giant vine imbued with fire and frost, which swept across the area, smashing all the wooden tentacles to pieces, scattering debris everywhere.

The remaining broken branches hesitated in the air, then slowly withdrew. Bian Changxi curled her lip. “Trying to run?” Her giant vine instantly split into seven or eight thinner vines, chasing after and tightly binding the mutant plant’s broken limbs. A white glow spread inch by inch, as if freezing them solid.

Sensing this chilling, overwhelming threat, whatever was underground howled even louder. The ground rippled like waves, as if something was trying to escape. The surrounding mutant vines, including those clinging to the gate, abandoned their positions and lashed at Bian Changxi with renewed ferocity.

Chen Guanqing immediately acted, firing a black orb that set several vines ablaze with black fire, burning—or rather, corroding—them to nothing but a few wisps of ash in seconds.

George wasn’t slow either, blasting away several vines with two air columns.

With the outside pressure gone, Bian Changxi twisted the captured vines into a knot. The underground creature panicked, trying to flee, and she was pulled back up onto the pillar. From her vantage point, she quickly located the most turbulent patch of ground outside. Sending her white glow and wood energy down, she found a spherical lifeform two meters underground.

The white glow enveloped the lifeform, leaving it nowhere to escape. Green energy clashed and tangled with its own, keeping it fully occupied. A red light at its core probed for a fatal weakness, but couldn’t find one.

Bian Changxi’s face turned pale, veins bulging at her temples, the tendons and veins on her left arm standing out grotesquely. Clearly, her newly acquired ability to separately control three types of energy was still immature—she felt almost overwhelmed, as if she were drowning.

“Bang!” A bullet shattered a vine lashing at her forehead. Her hold slipped for a moment, and the lifeform seized the chance, sending a giant wooden spike shooting up from underground. But before it could fully emerge, a sledgehammer the size of a washbasin smashed it to pieces. Chai Zhong, the strength-type ability user, was about to celebrate when the ground beneath him gave way and he fell.

“Careful!” Chu Hao lunged to grab him without thinking, and was promptly dragged down as well. Chen Guanqing, running out the gate, stared in shock. “Chu Hao!”

Bian Changxi gritted her teeth. “Your energy—corrode it!”

Chen Guanqing nodded, grabbed the spot where her vine and the mutant vine were entangled, and poured black energy down like cement. In just a few seconds, a terrible shriek came from underground, the ground shook like an earthquake, and then everything gradually calmed.

Bian Changxi let go, bracing her waist as she caught her breath. “Everyone, help dig them out.”

Chai Zhong’s four able-bodied brothers rushed over, with Chen Guanqing and George helping too. Guangtou Qiang hobbled over, holding his waist. Bian Changxi turned to him. “Thanks.”

He had fired that shot just now. Even though she could have dodged without it, she couldn’t ignore the favor.

Guangtou Qiang said, “I was just helping myself. If something happened to you, this group would fall apart.”

A shout came from the pit. “Found them! Found them!”

They hurried over to see Chu Hao and Guangtou Qiang squeezed together in a two-meter-deep hole, both covered in mud but otherwise unharmed.

Chu Hao held up a white crystal core. “That thing melted, but left this behind. Pull us up.”

Chen Guanqing grumbled, “Can’t you teleport? Get up yourself.”

“Ugh, my legs are too weak from fright.”

So everyone worked together to haul them out. After they went off to clean up, Bian Changxi realized her gums were sore and bloody from clenching her teeth too hard.

She glanced at the other mutant plants. She knew the one they’d just dealt with was the strongest here—take out the leader, and the rest wouldn’t dare act up. Sure enough, the remaining plants were now listless, even the branches on the wall quietly retreating.

Milk (the cat) came trotting back from somewhere, a trace of blood at the corner of its mouth, looking lazy and content. From two meters away, it meowed, wanting to leap onto Bian Changxi. She quickly raised her hand. “Stay back, you’re filthy!”

“Meow…” Milk rubbed against her pant leg. She crouched to pet its head. “Who did you go bully this time?”

There were only mutant plants here, no animals—thanks to Milk. Judging by its look, it must have hunted down some mutant beast. The thought of this small cat chasing and biting those hulking monsters made Bian Changxi feel both amused and helpless. She also noticed that after all this exercise, Milk had become sturdier, its fur thicker, radiating agility and strength.

Milk closed its eyes, enjoying her touch, then bit at her sleeve and sniffed her left hand, purring. Bian Changxi smirked. “Aren’t you full? Still greedy.” She took out a carton of milk, and Milk perked up, grabbing it and trotting off.

Watching its swaying belly, Bian Changxi sighed. Was she spoiling it too much? Giving it whatever it wanted to eat and drink—its little belly was getting rounder, and its neck chubbier. Cute, yes, but as a spirit beast, it should be fit and majestic.

Most importantly, it exercised every day—so why couldn’t it lose the fat?

After a while, everyone finished cleaning up and came out. Bian Changxi picked up the white core. “This is a Tier 2 crystal core—very potent, worth ten Tier 1s. How should we split it?”

Everyone looked at each other. Chu Hao and the others didn’t seem to care, Guangtou Qiang said nothing, and Chai Zhong looked a bit envious, but since he hadn’t contributed much, he didn’t say anything."