Seeing it on the screen and experiencing it firsthand was quite different.
Su Aoxue felt the thin air mixed with other toxic gases.
Her personal experience was completely different from what it looked like from the outside.
Even though she had fled earlier and entered the underground tunnel to survive, she had only encountered thin air then.
She hadn’t expected that in the Underground World, even the air itself was toxic, accompanied by a sense of scorching heat.
Su Aoxue adapted for a moment and then returned to normal.
She hadn’t walked far when she encountered the Level 2 Abyssal Creature designated for this assessment.
It looked like an enlarged rat, with a sharp mouth, ape-like teeth, and rock armor covering its body.
One didn’t need to think twice to know its defense was extremely high.
“A high-defense type of Abyssal Creature. Since I can’t use abilities above B-rank, I’ll just freeze you slowly.”
Su Aoxue closed her eyes and murmured.
Her hands had already begun gathering a weakened version of the Power of Extreme Cold.
Countless tiny ice crystals condensed in her palm, then shot forward like bullets toward the nearby Abyssal Creature.
The next second, the ice crystals directly pierced through the body of the Abyss Drill Rat, instantly taking its life.
Facing an outcome completely different from what she had expected, a trace of confusion flashed across Su Aoxue’s face.
“It pierced through?”
“That’s not right.”
“I controlled my strength, so why are you still dead?”
“Why is its body so fragile…”
“Did I just kill it?”
She sighed.
“Even holding back, I still killed this creature known for having the strongest defense.”
Su Aoxue looked down at her palm, feeling somewhat annoyed.
Her control over the overwhelming power within her seemed to have hit a bottleneck after she completely transformed into a girl.
In the distance, the Abyss Drill Rat was oozing large amounts of dark green blood.
It lay in a pool of blood, barely breathing, as if not yet completely dead.
Seeing things had already reached this point, Su Aoxue silently walked over and delivered the finishing blow, killing it completely.
The moment the Abyss Drill Rat died, the guiding rod attached to her body suddenly lit up.
“Since I’ve already one-shotted it, I might as well stop pretending.”
“Let’s end this quickly and go find Old Shen…”
Following the direction indicated by the guiding rod, she quickly exited the Underground World and arrived in the Gray Mist World.
The Gray Mist Creatures there all seemed to look the same.
Su Aoxue still killed them effortlessly.
She became the second examinee in the assessment to eliminate two hostile creatures in such a short period of time.
Such terrifying strength immediately drew exclamations from the spectators outside.
“Dad, I told you Su Aoxue and Shen Yan aren’t weak!”
Inside a small private viewing room, Ye Yao’s eyes sparkled as she stared at the screen and spoke excitedly.
As for her father, he fell silent.
“It is indeed fortunate that you can make friends like them.”
“But others’ strength ultimately belongs to them.”
“Are you certain you want to abandon the path I’ve paved for you and walk another road instead?”
After a moment of silence, an extremely dignified voice echoed through the room.
Ye Yao, who had been staring at the television in excitement, stiffened.
A conflicted expression appeared on her face.
But soon, as though remembering something important, determination flashed across her eyes.
“Dad, I’m sure.”
“I want to go to Xingyue Martial Arts Academy.”
“I want to walk my own path!”
Her father sighed.
“Are you truly doing this for yourself?”
“Or for that boy?”
His serious expression softened slightly.
“I…”
“You have finally grown up.”
“In the future, just don’t regret your choices.”
A trace of guilt flashed through his eyes before he stood up.
When he reached the doorway, he paused.
“I’ll submit a request to the higher-ups and transfer my work to the 3rd Base City.”
With those words, he left the VIP observation room.
Watching her father’s departing figure, Ye Yao’s eyes inexplicably turned red.
“Dad…”
……
Meanwhile, in the Rest Hall, Shen Yan watched the screen displaying Su Aoxue’s section and felt somewhat puzzled.
‘Was Xiao Xue this strong at this point in my previous life?’
A doubtful murmur escaped Shen Yan’s lips.
In his previous life, Xiao Xue had defeated the Abyss Drill Rat—known for having the strongest defense among Level 2 creatures—by continuously accumulating the Power of Extreme Cold and gradually freezing it.
She had never been able to simply overpower and one-shot it.
Shen Yan clearly remembered that Su Aoxue in his previous life had not been this strong.
This level of performance required power far beyond that of a C-rank Martial Artist.
It required the strength of a B-rank Martial Artist.
The discrepancy caused Shen Yan to begin doubting his own memories.
‘How many errors are there in my memories of the previous life?’
‘And this form of power… the more I look at it, the more it overlaps with the Frost Calamity Witch’s combat style…’
‘Tsk. Why did I think of that person again? Did she beat my brain into mush?’
Shen Yan rubbed the bridge of his nose.
It was not a pleasant memory.
Since he had already been reborn, he had no desire to dwell on unpleasant events from the past.
Soon, Su Aoxue walked out of the Battle Simulation Room.
After seeing that Shen Yan was still sitting on the bench, she finally sighed in relief.
“Let’s go.”
“Our assessment tasks for today are finished.”
“Let’s hurry back to the hotel.”
Seeing Su Aoxue looking unusually anxious, Shen Yan didn’t ask any questions.
“Okay.”
……
Outside the Rest Hall, both families had already been waiting for quite some time.
The moment they saw their children emerge, they immediately walked over to greet them.
After returning to the hotel, Su Aoxue couldn’t wait to rush straight into Shen Yan’s room.
“Earlier in the Rest Hall, I told you to use Silence, but you refused.”
“Now tell me honestly.”
“Do you have some dangerous plan?”
Su Aoxue sat in a chair, her expression unusually serious.
Although she knew Shen Yan was a Reborn and likely had reasons for everything he did during the assessment, she was still deeply confused.
More importantly, she wanted to know where his confidence came from.
Earlier, it hadn’t been appropriate to discuss such matters in public.
Martial Artists possessed exceptionally sharp hearing.
Now that they had returned to the hotel, she naturally wanted answers.
“We’re just ordinary people without power or influence right now.”
“Aren’t you afraid of being captured?”
“When the time comes, we might not even know how we died.”
“You’re being far too reckless.”
Faced with Su Aoxue’s questioning, Shen Yan simply smiled.
Then he asked,
“Didn’t you also display astonishing strength?”
“This… I…”
Su Aoxue wanted to hide her strength as well.
Unfortunately, her strength simply didn’t allow her to hide it.
Seeing her reaction, Shen Yan continued smiling.
“Don’t worry.”
“They won’t act recklessly for now.”
“The performance the two of us displayed during the assessment is enough to attract attention from the higher-ups.”
“They’ll arrange people to protect us.”
“Just stay safely inside the hotel.”
“This… that’s it?”
“The Genesis Organization dared to kidnap people even inside a Sub-Core Base City.”
“Don’t you think there could be traitors within the authorities?”
“Can the people they send really be trusted?”
Su Aoxue felt an immediate headache after hearing Shen Yan’s explanation.
‘No.’
‘I need to discuss this with Sister Ling Feng.’
Just as Su Aoxue lowered her head and sank into thought, Shen Yan spoke once more.
“Anli Hotel is very safe.”
“No one would dare cause bloodshed here.”
“Consider it a second layer of insurance.”
Of course, Shen Yan’s real objective was entirely different.
Tonight, he intended to cripple the Genesis Organization’s influence within this Sub-Core Base City completely.
However, in his eyes, Su Aoxue’s current state—whether considering her strength or the functionality of her Talent—made her unsuitable for participating in this plan.
Naturally, he had no intention of telling her the truth.