Winx took Su Xing and the others back in a small segment-worm.
Segment-worms are fascinating creatures; several of them can link together to form a single life, serving as a train.
When they separate, each segment becomes a regular single-compartment minivan.
Along the way, Irene received a message from her superior.
She confidently left Keno in the vehicle, then, citing further assignments, got off midway.
Only Su Xing and her three companions, Winx, and the physician Lampson remained in the vehicle.
Lampson drove in the front while Winx explained the situation to Su Xing and the others.
Usually, this wasn’t his duty; students were generally left to figure things out themselves.
However, given the rare opportunity, and with each of these students having their own unique issues, there was no harm in him saying more.
“When Spirit Realm Academy starts, there will be an initial ability registration process. You must release your ability for the teachers to register it. After registration, it will be displayed to the entire grade. This is to help students form teams, as not every student has a team before enrolling.”
Su Xing’s expression changed.
Her ability simply couldn’t be released—wouldn’t that be incredibly embarrassing?
Winx naturally understood her concerns and gently said, “But you don’t need to worry. Our academy treats everyone equally; we won’t discriminate because your initial ability is lacking. Besides, you’re not bad yourself, are you? Just show your strengths when you’re on missions.”
“Missions?”
Su Xing was surprised that attending school would involve being assigned missions.
Winx nodded, “Yes, but you don’t need to worry. They are all very simple missions designed to help you familiarize yourselves with Phantoms more quickly. Especially for first-years, the missions will likely involve cleaning large Phantoms or helping teachers capture harmless Phantoms. There won’t be any danger.”
It felt like they were being recruited for free labor, thought Su Xing, sensing she was touching on the truth.
However, a certain single-celled organism clearly didn’t think so, “Wow! That sounds so fun! I can’t wait to play with Phantoms!”
Su Xing and Evangel’s faces darkened.
Quinn tried to whisper a reminder to him, “Th-that, Phantoms probably won’t interact with you. If you, if you anger them, you might even get hit.”
Kaka became even more excited when he heard this, “Fighting Phantoms? Is the first year that thrilling? That’s amazing! I have to try it!”
Evangel closed her eyes in despair, “I definitely don’t want to go on missions with him.”
Winx chuckled at their antics, enjoying the scene for a moment before continuing, “Generally, new students need to form teams, 3-5 people per team. The main purpose of this is to make it easier for you to complete missions and to build team chemistry. The four of you have already gone through life-and-death situations together, so it’s perfect for you to form a team, right?”
“Wait?!”
Evangel suddenly opened her eyes, wanting to refuse, but Su Xing quickly clapped a hand over her mouth, “Alright, it’s decided!”
Evangel, with her mouth covered, showed a look of despair in her eyes, struggling continuously, “Mmph mmph! Mmph mmph!”
Kaka and Quinn also quickly helped cover her, determined not to let Evangel speak.
Winx ignored her struggles, winking at Su Xing, “Okay, I’ll register you all in advance, don’t worry.”
Su Xing returned a smiling wink and released her hand.
Evangel knew it was a done deal, desperately covering her face with her hands, slumping into the seat.
But looking at the corner of her mouth, not covered by her hand, a slight smile was clearly visible.
“Oh, by the way, have you given your Phantom a name?”
Winx asked casually.
Kaka and her two companions nodded, while Su Xing shook her head.
Then Quinn, Kaka, and Su Xing looked at Evangel in surprise, exclaiming, “You actually named your Phantom?”
Evangel scoffed, “Of course, isn’t it what you should do, to name your own Phantom?”
She felt that she was being subtly criticized and also felt a little guilty.
Thankfully, the little fox was put away, or it would probably be angry.
Kaka asked, “So, what’s your Phantom’s name?”
“Zero.”
Hearing this answer, Quinn also became interested, “Is it the ‘ling’ from ‘ghost’?”
Evangel shook her head, “It’s the number ‘zero’.”
***
“Why that, that name?”
“Because… it’s a homophone for ‘spirit’ from ‘ghost’?”
“Then why… why not just call it ‘spirit’ from ‘ghost’ directly?”
Evangel finally seemed impatient with the incessant questioning and let out a heavy “Hiss”.
“Are you a chatterbox? I just like calling it that.”
“And one last thing,” Winx said, his expression serious as he adjusted his glasses.
“Regarding your recent experience, we still need to have a discussion before we can give you a result. Before then, I hope you won’t mention this to anyone, as it’s of great importance, and no information can be leaked.”
Su Xing and the others exchanged glances and nodded seriously.
Su Xing didn’t have a Big Ear Conch, so Winx generously gave her one, “This is for you. I was going to get a new one anyway.”
Su Xing quickly took the conch and put it in her pocket, then asked flatteringly, “Teacher, is there anything you need help with? I’d like to contribute too.”
Winx thought for a moment and casually replied, “Then, a month after school starts, you can clean the storage room for a week. It’s very dusty and messy in there. You’ll need to use your wisdom to tidy it up. The first month will be busy adapting to school life, so I won’t make it difficult for you.”
Su Xing readily accepted the task.
A week of cleaning for a valuable communicator – she clearly came out ahead.
A Big Ear Conch could record the sound wave signals of ten other conches.
Winx had already cleared the conch’s previous records, and Su Xing took the opportunity to record his and Lampson’s conches, then those of Kaka and her two companions.
Winx himself was extremely busy.
After dropping them off in the city, he drove away.
Kaka stood in place and bounced, “I’m going home soon! My mom will be so proud of what I did on this trip!”
Su Xing secretly thought to herself, if your mom really heard, she’d probably beat you to death.
Quinn reminded her, “Don’t forget we can’t talk about these things yet.”
“Huh? Oh, right!”
Kaka remembered, sighing sincerely, “Then how do I explain to my mom that I ran away from home for a trip and came back having gotten into Spirit Realm Academy? Can I tell her that our ancestors’ graves are smoking green and they sent a dream to Director Winx?”
You really aren’t afraid of being beaten to death 🙂
To prevent her newly formed team from losing a member in an instant, Su Xing quickly said, “You can just tell your parents that you encountered something you can’t talk about yet, and you have to wait for the higher-ups to decide. Your dad is so smart, he’ll definitely understand you.”
Kaka nodded repeatedly, then suddenly remembered something and excitedly asked, “Oh! Do you want to come over to my house to play? Come on, come on! I’m so bored at home alone! If you’re all there, my parents won’t have time to lecture me!”
Evangel sneered, “Inviting an assassin who wanted to kill you into your house? Are you trying to invite a wolf into your home?”
Kaka retorted confidently, “I’ve already teamed up with you, and we’ll be together for the next five years (Spirit Realm Academy is a five-year program). What’s wrong with you coming to my house?”
His thinking was always straightforward, without any complicated twists and turns.
Yet, it held the other three completely captive.
However, this conversation did remind Su Xing, “By the way, Evangel, you failed your mission. Will there be any punishment when you go back?”
Evangel hesitated before replying, “I came to capture Kaka because someone who claimed Kaka’s parents swindled all their family’s assets issued a mission to capture Kaka to threaten her parents. But now, it seems there might be more to this story?”
Kaka immediately denied it, “My parents wouldn’t do such a thing. Who was the person who issued that mission? I’m going back to ask my parents about this.”
Evangel shook her head, “Assassins cannot reveal the identity of the mission issuer; that’s the rule. Besides, this is a long-term mission. Now that I’ve accepted it, no one should have any ideas about you, you fool, for a while. But I still have to go back and report.”
Kaka nodded with some regret, then looked at Su Xing and Quinn, “What about you two?”
Quinn shook his head, “This… experience has made me very interested in life genetics. I want to go back and thoroughly re-research, read more related books, so… I won’t go to your, your house.”
Su Xing also shook her head, “I’ll be studying at Spirit Realm Academy later, which is a boarding school, so I need to finish up a lot of odd jobs. Besides that, I need to prepare some daily necessities, so I don’t have time to go to your house. Let’s wait until next summer. We should be able to go to your house and play then.”
Seeing that not a single person could be roped in, Kaka’s head drooped in disappointment.
Perhaps due to her aura, it felt like her curly hair had flattened.
Su Xing couldn’t help but rub his head, “Even though we can’t go to your house, you can still find us during the holidays. It’s only mid-July now, school is still far away.”
The four went their separate ways.
Su Xing took a bus back to her small rented house in the suburbs.
The room was very simple: a bed, a table, and nothing else.
In the corner of the room was a small closet for clothes.
Su Xing had arranged a row of toiletries on the windowsill.
This small room naturally didn’t have a toilet; to wash up, she had to go to the public restroom outside.
This was the little fox’s first time seeing Su Xing’s room.
It proudly circled the room, as if surveying its territory.
“You’re weak, fine, but why are you so poor?”
After completing its tour, the little fox lightly jumped onto the bed and complained.
Phantoms are clean when first summoned from the body, so Su Xing didn’t stop it.
She sat upright on the chair opposite the bed, seriously saying, “Now I’m going to give you a name!”