That afternoon, taking advantage of the holiday and having nothing to do, Xu Chuyao hurried over to the training ground and, much to the teacher’s surprise, had her rank reassessed.
Then she took a photo with her phone and quickly sent it to the group chat.
[Mid Second Rank!]
A single stone stirred up a thousand waves; the team members all popped their heads out, expressing shock and admiration.
[Shi Lei: Oh my god, Leader, are you riding a rocket or what?]
[Zhong Ming: I remember when we first formed the team, the commander was only First Rank, and now she’s already stronger than everyone in the fifth grade.]
[Cheng Li: Group Leader Xu is truly amazing!]
The team members all praised her fiercely, saying things like “incredible,” “awesome,” and “so powerful.” Xu Chuyao returned to the dormitory with an effortless air, slapping her rank certificate down on the desk.
“Lei, look at this. Can you let me stand up next time?” she said to her roommate. “Isn’t Shen Ning due for a good sweat now?”
“Of course she is,” Mi Xiaolu said.
After all, Shen Ning had been working hard on top of it all day, how could she not be sweating?
“Exactly. So, today at noon, it wasn’t her letting me off the hook, it was me sparing her life.”
Pressing on Xu Chuyao only made her stronger that was the magic of the System.
Climbing onto the bed, Xu Chuyao lay on her pillow, fiddling with her phone. “I don’t know what Shen Ning’s up to. No reply in the group chat either.”
“You guys had a great time at noon, right?” Mi Xiaole asked.
“Yeah, it was fun… Wait, I get it now. She must’ve been too shy to get out of bed. I’ll tell you, Shen Ning seems so cold on the outside but she’s actually the pure-hearted little sister type. Last time I told you, she doesn’t even know how to use glue…”
“No way,” Mi Xiaolu quickly denied, “You didn’t tell me that.”
This was the first time Xiaolu had heard this, and she really didn’t want to be the target of any wild stories.
Xu Chuyao paused, then remembered indeed, she hadn’t told her. The last time she was drinking, she thought she was telling Xiaolu a story but had actually been talking to Shen Ning herself. She had even tearfully earned 2000 villain points for it.
“Alright, then I’ll tell you a funny story about Shen Ning. Don’t be fooled by her tough exterior—she’s actually a pure-hearted little sister who doesn’t even know how to use glue…”
After hearing the story, Mi Xiaolu, who was great at listening to stories, had a question.
“Xu Chuyao, since you said Shen Ning went off alone to calm down because she was shy this afternoon, but also said she wouldn’t do those kinds of private things alone, what does she do to calm herself down?”
“I don’t know, maybe it’s something she’s good at.”
Tick tock tick.
In the dark parking lot with no lights, nothing could be seen—only the sound of something like raindrops falling, though whether it was blood or organizational fluid was unclear. Either way, it didn’t affect the outcome.
Everything happened in a flash, and the Sexually Repressed Shadow was shocked:
“You say who? That sentence was mine. Sexually repressed… uh, don’t tell me that’s a nickname for me?”
The Broken Shadow quietly muttered, “Anyway, it’s probably not about me.”
The atmosphere in the Long-range Bird Squad was not so lighthearted.
Dove was the only information officer in the team, their eyes in the darkness. Losing such a vital member left everyone at a loss.
“Damn heretics,” Falcon cursed quietly, activating his communicator. “All units, attention! Dove accidentally fell into enemy hands and is now dead. The enemy used a massive amount of Spirit Power to scatter his remains everywhere. They must have some plan.”
“Team, team leader,” a trembling voice from Spangled Chicken came through the communicator, “That really was caused by Spirit Power shock. But I think it might not quite be… pure Spirit Power.”
Can pure Spirit Power shock cause that kind of effect? Everyone here was at peak Second Rank. Captain, don’t lie to us.
Falcon was silent for a moment, then gritted his teeth: “If not that, then what? Are you telling me it was the wind? That Second Rank peak woman completed Elementalization of Spirit Power?”
It even evolved into Third Rank? Do you think this world is a video game where you kill monsters to level up?
But very soon, a strong gust of wind swept through the surroundings. The Spirit Power Shield around Falcon started to crackle, forcing him to accept the reality.
It was true Third Rank.
“Damn it!”
In an instant, he decided to open the shield fully to resist, shouting into the communicator at the same time: “Listen to my orders, full retreat! I’ll cover your backs!”
The mission was definitely a failure, but as leader of this team, Falcon knew this was his moment to shine.
But then—
“We can’t get out, Captain! We’re under attack too.”
“Requesting backup! Save me! Save ah!”
The reason the wind element hadn’t destroyed his defenses instantly was because it was attacking others simultaneously. This was an indiscriminate large-scale kill cut-off. The wild wind raged through the empty parking lot, sparing no corner and no person.
Sizzle, sizzle!
There was no sound from the communicator anymore—either the device was broken or the others were already dead. Falcon felt his Spirit Power Shield growing thinner; the fierce wind pressure peeled away layer after layer.
From the grating friction, he thought he heard the words again.
“You all… will die here!”
Finally, the shield thinned to a membrane, then was shattered and torn apart.
Silence!
A few minutes later, the howling wind in the parking lot died down, leaving everything peaceful again.
Shen Ning leaned against the steps, sitting down and breathing lightly.
Just having broken through Third Rank, her grasp of the new power was still weak, and her emotions were still quite agitated. She used a Spirit Power Storm to release a surge of power outward all at once.
The effect was obvious; the world instantly quieted. The entire interior of the parking lot was like a blender—everything mixed and evened out.
As a master of skill technique, Broken Shadow felt this move still had room for improvement, but now was not the time to talk about that.
“Let’s go quickly. The smell here will get unpleasant soon, and you definitely don’t want to see what it looks like now.”
Following the descending passage, Shen Ning finally returned to ground level.
Night was already deep, but tonight’s moon was exceptionally bright, with no clouds blocking it. The moonlight seemed to truly shine through the walls and into the parking lot.
“Hurry back,” Sexually Repressed Shadow urged her, “or the curfew will be here soon.”
Shen Ning nodded and ran toward the school, but a few minutes later, she ran back and found the pineapple soda she had left by the corner of the wall.
She touched it—it was still a good temperature, cold and refreshing. Fortunately, it was winter now; if it had been summer dawn, it would have been undrinkable after sitting out for a while.
Shen Ning still remembered that she had come out this time to buy drinks for Chuyao.
“All set? Let’s go, let’s go, run forward.”
Actually, Sexually Repressed Shadow didn’t need to rush so much. The girl who had just broken through Third Rank and resonated with the wind had increased agility. They covered the distance in just a few minutes by jogging, arriving at the main gate of Shengling Academy.
“So late outside… Oh, Specialist, you must be out on a mission.”
The gate guard didn’t stop her and let her through without hesitation.
She jogged back to the dormitory. It wasn’t curfew yet, and the dormitory auntie just glanced at her and said nothing.
After running all the way back to her room, the girl lay on the small bed, her head pressed against the pillow, as if she could hear her own heartbeat, rising and falling with her breathing.
“Good, good,” Sexually Repressed Shadow sighed in relief. “At least you came back on time.”
But Broken Shadow suddenly said softly, “We returned, but some people are forever left there, and since they had missions, chances are someone will handle that.”
The girl’s newly eased heart tightened again.
After reviewing the situation, Shen Ning and her shadows came to the conclusion—returning to the dormitory didn’t mean the situation was settled. On the contrary, the problem was just beginning.
This team, composed entirely of peak Second Rank members, probably came from the Ahab Financial Group. Meanwhile, the organization had purpose and carried missions.
Most importantly, they hadn’t even had time to make their move.
“What do we do? Can we just let this slide?”
Someone asked, but it didn’t matter. All three girls had the same thought. After a heated discussion, they reached a unanimous conclusion: no, that wouldn’t work.
In this world, five people just disappeared like that. Ordinary people might think it normal, and maybe First Rank Spirit Power Users had accidents. But five peak Second Rank Spirit Power Users with missions vanishing—coincidentally when Shen Ning was out—was too suspicious.
After intense debate, the girl came up with a solution—
“Assume they were all killed.”
Then she quickly denied it herself. That was impossible.
“No way. Our usual way of thinking only comes up with this. Unless…”
As she spoke, Sexually Repressed Shadow suddenly brightened: “Hey, what if one of us in a parallel universe is a clever, wise, and scheming person?”
Those words stunned Shen Ning and Broken Shadow.
The former was fine with the idea, but the latter couldn’t even imagine such a description.
“Anyway, since we can’t think of a better plan, why not give it a try?”
Shen Ning thought Sexually Repressed Shadow made a good point. Opening the System panel, she saw she had 2 remaining Achievement Points. After hesitating a moment, she gently tapped.
[Use of Achievement Points successful, summoning in progress.]
Ding dong, summoning successful.
Not long after—barely half a minute—the girl’s silhouette in the little mirror on her bedside began to change.
Her once freely flowing long hair was tidied up—not shortened, but styled more formally. Her figure grew a bit taller, and her body’s curves gained a slight arc, even around the chest area—a subtle curvature hard to say if it was growth or the work of a bra. Atop her head was no longer a point but a large round shadow, as if she wore a big hat.
Minutes later, the figure had fully taken shape.
Shen Ning was about to speak, but the woman in the mirror went first:
“Greetings. To the various versions of myself from different places, it is a rare blessing to meet you among the vast sea of people. If it weren’t for the late hour, I would surely raise a toast with you all.”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.