Su Aoxue felt his younger sister’s worried gaze and felt a bit of regret in his heart.
Immediately, he spoke with an apologetic expression, “I’m sorry, Little Qing. I got off work a bit late today.”
“Alright, don’t block the doorway. I need to get in and cook dinner.”
…
Soon, Su Aoxue served two plates of home-cooked food, their fragrance filling the air.
However, at the dining table, his sister Su Muqing’s eyes remained fixed on him, staring intensely.
This made Su Aoxue feel a bit uneasy.
“I’m saying, is there really a need to keep staring at me?”
“Didn’t I say that nothing happened? I only changed my clothes because they were accidentally torn while I was working. That’s why I swapped them.”
Su Aoxue explained patiently.
But Su Muqing’s eyes remained fixed on him. “Really?”
“Really. I’m not injured or anything. If you don’t believe me, you can check!”
Seeing that his sister still didn’t believe him, Su Aoxue had no choice but to lift his shirt to let her inspect him.
However, the moment Su Muqing saw him lifting his shirt, she instinctively covered her eyes.
But she didn’t cover them completely; her eyes peeked through the gaps between her fingers to look at him.
“You little brat…”
Su Aoxue’s lips twitched at the sight. Just as he was about to pull his shirt back down, he saw his sister using her hands to push her wheelchair toward him.
“Wait, you actually want to touch?”
Sitting in his chair, Su Aoxue instinctively took a step back, the legs of the chair screeching loudly against the floor.
“Brother, don’t move!” Seeing that her older brother was being uncooperative, Su Muqing immediately let out a dissatisfied shout. The latter truly stopped moving.
Instead, he looked at Su Muqing with a helpless expression.
‘Go ahead and check. I’ll let you look, but I doubt you’ll be able to see anything anyway.’ Thinking this, Su Aoxue’s expression steadied.
He couldn’t show a panicked expression and make his sister worry!
However, Su Muqing reached out a hand to pull Su Aoxue’s clothes open and leaned in to look closely.
“Wow, Brother, when did your skin become so good? Huh? Why are the scars on your body gone too?”
Su Muqing spoke curiously while simultaneously reaching out her other hand to press against Su Aoxue’s waist.
Su Aoxue’s eyes widened.
“Don’t just touch wherever you want!”
Su Aoxue patted away Su Muqing’s restless little hand and then pulled his shirt down.
“Well? You didn’t see any injuries on your big brother, did you?”
“Do you believe me now?”
Su Muqing looked up into Su Aoxue’s eyes. After staring for a few seconds, she curled her lip and said, “Fine, I believe you…”
“But you’re keeping secrets, Brother!”
Hearing this, Su Aoxue couldn’t help but let out a quiet “tsk” sound. “You’re so nosy. Just eat!”
However, Su Muqing didn’t move. Instead, she stared at Su Aoxue with her bright, watery eyes, her expression becoming very serious.
“Brother, if — and I mean if — you really encounter any trouble, you must tell me!”
“We… we are family. We’ll face it together!”
Looking at Su Muqing’s determined gaze, Su Aoxue froze for a moment.
A pang of heartache flashed through his mind, but a smile still appeared on his face as he reached out to gently rub her head.
“Don’t worry. What could possibly happen to me?”
Afterward, he placed his hands on Su Muqing’s wheelchair and turned her around to face the dining table.
“Now, eat first.”
“Get some rest early after dinner. You can’t stay awake for too long; it’s bad for your health.”
“Mm…”
……
The scene shifted to Su Aoxue’s room.
At this moment, he was lying on his bed, his brow furrowed deeply.
‘Little Qing’s illness has become so severe that she can no longer go to school. The medical expenses…’
To pay for Su Muqing’s medical bills, Su Aoxue’s mother had already moved into the factory to work herself to the bone for money.
Currently, Su Aoxue was in desperate need of money!
Their family had no relatives in this Base City, so they had no one to turn to even if they wanted to borrow money.
‘Actually, the Witch’s power might be an opportunity for me.’
Su Aoxue couldn’t help but clench his fist.
‘It just depends on whether I can seize it…’
With that thought, a flash of determination appeared in Su Aoxue’s eyes.
He immediately flipped out of bed and quietly walked out of the room.
When he arrived in front of Su Muqing’s bedroom, he tilted his head to listen.
‘She should be asleep.’
Su Aoxue threw his cloak over his shoulders and walked out of the house with light footsteps.
In the next second, a flash of white light erupted. She had once again become the Witch.
From behind, her figure seemed a size smaller.
“From now on, I’ll start adapting to this form.”
Su Aoxue spoke to herself. Her expression was somewhat cold, but she didn’t seem to notice her own abnormal behavior.
Soon, she arrived at a wasteland of ruins.
She had heard that this was once a bustling street, but after experiencing a massive invasion from Abyssal Creatures, it had remained abandoned until now.
No one repaired it, and over time, the surrounding areas had also become desolate. There was basically no one around.
This suited Su Aoxue’s intentions perfectly. A place with no people was exactly what she needed to test the abilities of the Witch.
However…
“It’s so stuffy, and they keep bouncing!”
Su Aoxue looked uncomfortable as she reached out to tug at her collar, attempting to reduce the pressure.
“In this Witch Form, wearing this T-shirt actually makes my chest feel tight. Tsk, having them this big is definitely a hindrance!” she said irritably.
But she had no money to buy suitable clothes for herself in this form, so she could only endure it.
‘Just endure it for a bit. Once I have money, I’ll go buy some proper clothes!’
Su Aoxue thought to herself.
After wandering around the ruins for a while, she fixed her gaze on a wall that looked relatively intact.
She kicked it hard, but it didn’t budge.
“Alright, it’s very sturdy!”
Immediately, she took several steps back. Taking a deep breath, she began to mobilize the power of the Witch within her body.
However, during this process, memory fragments began to flash continuously through her mind.
The sudden development forced her to crouch on the ground while clutching her head.
“Hiss, ah — what’s going on… Why does my head hurt so much!”
Crouching on the ground, Su Aoxue couldn’t stop herself from let out low groans of pain.
This lasted for several minutes before she managed to recover.
At this moment, her azure eyes were like thousand-year-old ice — piercingly cold!
However, this symptom lasted for less than a few seconds before she returned to her normal state.
‘Was that just now… a memory inheritance?’
In Su Aoxue’s mind, many memories and several skills had inexplicably appeared.
At the same time, there was also that massive Ice Castle!
After a long silence, she shook her head and quickly stood up.
Simultaneously, an aura of cold ice began to manifest around her.
“COLD DISASTER: ZERO HOUR!”
As Su Aoxue let out a light shout, a beam of light condensed from extreme frigid power blasted toward the concrete wall in front of her.
In the next second, a booming explosion rang out.
Accompanied by rising dust, the concrete wall was actually pierced through, leaving a circular hole nearly 1 meter in diameter!
Frost spread across the edges of the circular hole at the same time.
More importantly, the wall didn’t seem to have stopped Su Aoxue’s attack; it had penetrated far into the distance, leaving a layer of frost along its path.
The commotion was massive.
“Holy crap, so strong!”
Su Aoxue, the person who had caused this, couldn’t help but widen her eyes.
The power contained in this strike was something she had only seen from the teacher in the combat training class, who had the strength of a B-rank Warrior!
“Did obtaining the power of the Witch instantly give me the strength of a B-rank Warrior?”
Su Aoxue was originally a D-rank Warrior who hadn’t awakened any talent — the lowest level of Martial Artist.
Even if she had a talent awakening in a few days, it was absolutely impossible for her to leap directly from a D-rank Warrior to a B-rank Warrior!
“It seems this wasn’t even the strongest strike. Can I even become an A-rank Warrior directly?”
Su Aoxue’s hands involuntarily clenched tight.
If not for the Witch’s Assessment, Su Aoxue would have been very satisfied with just the strength of a B-rank Warrior. That way, she would have the ability to earn even more money…
But now, she carried the burden of the Witch’s Assessment. She needed at least the strength of an A-rank Warrior to complete the assessment and then survive!
“I have to get stronger. I need to become even stronger. I can’t be satisfied with just this little bit of strength…”
Su Aoxue recalled the meditation technique of unknown grade that she had inherited through the memory inheritance.
After taking one last look at the destruction she had caused, she left the scene.
‘If I can become stronger, then just becoming a woman… becoming a Witch… doesn’t seem like something that’s too hard to accept.’
She’s already corrupted