Chapter 38: A Breakthrough in the Wind

Quinn pointed at the outfit he was wearing: “I want to learn a piece of Ballet, and then perform it in front of the villagers of Baiyi Town.”

“Ballet?”

Kaka, whose curiosity was insatiable and wanted to try everything, immediately brightened up: “I really want to try it too!”

Quinn was stunned for a moment and pushed up his glasses: “If you want… want to learn, just talk to your parents… that should be fine, right?”

Kaka shook his head seriously: “My dad said that learning is something that requires persistence. If I can’t keep at it, then I shouldn’t learn.”

Hearing this, Quinn nodded in agreement: “That’s true.”

Kaka grinned foolishly, then asked, “Is Ballet hard to learn?”

Quinn hesitated, then nodded and shook his head: “Ballet is… is indeed hard, but Jessica, my Examiner, doesn’t have high requirements for me. I don’t need to do it… do it perfectly. So it’s not that hard.”

“Hey! Isn’t that great?”

Kaka slapped Quinn on the shoulder excitedly.

“Looks like you’ll be the first among us to clear your assessment!”

Quinn adjusted his glasses, which had slipped down from his trembling earlier, and gave a wry smile: “While that’s true, but…”

He seemed to have some unspoken trouble, and didn’t speak for a while.

Kaka, completely oblivious to Quinn’s meaning, spun around him like a top: “But what? But what? Quinn, why aren’t you saying anything?”

Faced with such over-the-top social behavior, the socially anxious Quinn felt a deep sense of envy.

“I… I don’t dare to dance in front of so many people.”

This was clearly outside of Kaka’s knowledge.

He scratched his head, his face full of confusion: “Why? What’s so scary about that?”

Quinn blurted out: “Don’t you think it’s… it’s scary? A bunch of people staring at you, watching you dance a routine you’re not even familiar with, and they might even… even comment on you… Help! That’s terrifying!”

For once, the stuttering Quinn spoke a long string of words to express his inner fear.

Kaka stared with his round eyes, his brows wrinkled in surprise: “Will they beat you up if you dance badly?”

“No.”

“Will they scold you?”

“Will they tell others your dancing is ugly?”

“They can’t get out, so… probably not.”

Now Kaka was even more confused, and asked bluntly: “Then what are you afraid of?”

Yeah?

What was he afraid of?

Quinn was stumped by Kaka’s direct question and didn’t know how to answer for a moment.

Suddenly, he remembered something: “Wouldn’t this count as you helping me pass the assessment?”

Kaka blinked, having never thought of that.

But with Quinn bringing it up, he grew flustered too: “I don’t think so? I didn’t do anything, after all?”

Linggan Yuanbi appeared at the right moment: “Yellow card warning. If you break the rules again, you’ll be disqualified.”

Kaka asked in confusion: “So I really broke the rules?”

Linggan Yuanbi flicked its sleeve: “No, you just skirted the edge. Otherwise, you’d have been out already.”

Hearing this, Kaka only felt relieved, while Quinn was clearly surprised for a moment.

But the glint in his eyes was hidden behind the reflection of his glasses, and he pushed them up to cover his emotions.

After Linggan Yuanbi left, Quinn asked his own Examiner for leave, then, on the way to look for Evangel, pulled Kaka aside to ask in detail about his and the others’ assessments.

After listening to everything, Quinn gritted his teeth and said, “I’m not going with you. I have to go finish my assessment!”

Kaka didn’t understand: “Aren’t you afraid?”

Quinn took a deep breath: “I’m only… only afraid of things I can avoid. If I can’t avoid them, I’ll choose to face them. Since this assessment is… is testing whether I can overcome my inner fear and stand on stage, then I have to do it!”

Usually muddleheaded, Kaka showed surprising sharpness at this moment: “Did you suddenly figure it out because of our assessment content?”

Quinn was stunned, then nodded: “I used to think my assessment was about my ability to dance Ballet, so if I didn’t feel good enough, even if I learned the moves, I didn’t… didn’t want to perform. But after everything just now, I realized: my assessment is actually about my mindset.”

“Mindset, huh…”

Kaka seemed thoughtful.

Quinn hurriedly shook his head: “This might just… just be my assessment, not yours. Otherwise, if I said it so directly, Lord Linggan Yuanbi would’ve… would’ve warned me already.”

“That’s true.”

Kaka wasn’t disappointed at all, and laughed heartily: “Then I’ll go look for Ivan. Good luck!”

After Quinn left, Kaka stretched his limbs and changed direction to keep walking.

He found that this place seemed to have only a few households like theirs, and he hadn’t landed anywhere else.

“Huh? That’s… the Grand Theater?!”

Through the thick fog, Kaka vaguely saw the outline of a theater.

He hurried over, and sure enough, it was a splendid Grand Theater.

“Is this where Ivan’s assessment is?”

Kaka thought, and ran over: “Ivan! Ivan! Are you in here?”

The theater’s doors opened, and Evangel, dressed in different clothes, calmly walked out and stood before Kaka: “Why are you here?”

Kaka said excitedly: “I asked my Examiner for leave to come see how you’re doing! I’ve already seen Su Xing, Quinn, and Apollo—you’re the last one!”

“Oh.”

Evangel lowered his eyes, lost in thought, and asked coldly, “Now that you’ve seen me, can you leave?”

Kaka stared in surprise: “But I just got here! Ivan, what’s your assessment?”

Evangel answered: “Performance. My assessment is to perform as a person. I’m busy. Please don’t disturb me.”

After speaking, he didn’t give Kaka any time to react, turned around, and closed the theater doors heavily.

Kaka was left standing there, dumbfounded: “Eh?!”

***

Back to Su Xing—after refusing the old man, Su Xing continued practicing new moves with Feng Jun.

She vaguely felt that the prototype of the move was almost there.

But whether it was her or Feng Jun, their connection with the wind was too weak, and they couldn’t command the wind elements in the air to move as they wished.

“Focus, close your eyes, and follow the path of the wind!”

Just as Su Xing was at a loss, Shi Lao’s voice suddenly sounded behind her.

Su Xing paused, but didn’t turn to look at Shi Lao, instead following his instructions.

She closed her eyes, feeling the wind blowing constantly from behind.

But that was just the main part—there was wind blowing from both sides as well.

Su Xing rotated along the path of the wind she sensed.

Feng Jun, though his eyes were closed too, rotated in exactly the same pattern as Su Xing.

A look of appreciation flashed in Shi Lao’s eyes: “Feel the shape of the wind, adjust your own state, and let the wind become what you want it to be.”

Let the wind become what you want it to be…

What did she want…

Su Xing turned her body, searching for the right angle.

The strong wind howled, fiercely lashing her face, like a knife cutting across.

Feeling this sharp wind, Su Xing seemed to have an epiphany.

The wind elements in the air drew closer and closer, swirling around Su Xing and Feng Jun.

Feng Jun received Su Xing’s power, mobilizing his own abilities to attract the surrounding wind elements, arranging and combining them into the shape he wanted.

“Gale Blade!”

“Boom!”

In the next second, a stone as wide as a palm in front of Feng Jun was sliced in half, the cut perfectly smooth, as if it had been severed by a blade in an instant.

Su Xing opened her eyes, delighted at the power she’d produced: “I did it!”

“Ying ying ying!”

Feng Jun was just as happy, leaping lightly onto Su Xing, purring as he nuzzled her with his fluffy head.

Unlike the innate starting skill, Gale Blade was a technique created together by one person and one fox.

The appearance of this skill gave them a new bond, and also increased their intimacy.

Su Xing skillfully picked Feng Jun up with one hand, gently scratching the fur under his chin.

Whenever she did this, she couldn’t help but wonder whether foxes belonged to the canine or feline family.

If they were canines, why did cat-petting techniques work so naturally on foxes?

After a couple of strokes, Su Xing turned to thank Shi Lao: “Shi Lao, thank you so much this time. If it weren’t for your help, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to create Gale Blade so smoothly.”

Shi Lao shook his head: “Even without my help, it was only a matter of time before you mastered this skill.”

If he hadn’t just seen the wind elements almost circling around Su Xing, Shi Lao wouldn’t have stepped in to guide her.

Forcing guidance on someone is like pulling up seedlings to help them grow.

Only when the learner is just one step away does outside help avoid causing harm.

Su Xing still gave Shi Lao a deep bow, unable to suppress her excitement: “Then I’ll go test the skill!”

Although she created this skill herself, she wasn’t sure about its actual power.

All she knew was that it gathered wind elements into the shape of a blade and struck at a designated spot.

Su Xing gave Feng Jun a look, and Feng Jun understood, releasing Gale Blade at a thick boulder.

A faint, translucent wind blade slashed over, immediately carving a deep groove into the stone.

The skill was powerful. Against ordinary people, or even beginner Phantom Spirit Masters like herself, it could probably cut through a neck in one blow.

But for senior Phantom Spirit Masters whose physical attributes had all been enhanced, this kind of damage wasn’t much.

However, that was only because she was still young and inexperienced, with a weak understanding and attraction of wind elements.

With training, the power of Gale Blade would only grow.

The earlier a skill is mastered, the greater its potential.

She’d already mastered her own first skill as a first-year, far ahead of her peers.

So even if this skill seemed simple, its future power would be anything but ordinary.