Chapter 15: Ability Assessment

“Wow… this is really good tea.”

Stephen knelt on the tatami in front of a medium-sized square table, holding a cup of fragrant tea in his hand, and sighed.

“It’s great that you can accept this taste.” A girl with long light golden hair also knelt down opposite the square table. She was wearing a simple shrine maiden’s costume, which was a little too large to cover the beautiful curves of her body.

The girl glanced at the girl next to Stephen, whose posture was obviously a little stiff, and couldn’t help but smile softly: “What’s wrong? Is this tea not to your taste?”

“No, no…” Seeing the girl asking, Xia Xingli quickly picked up the warm teacup and took a sip carefully. The slightly hot tea flowed into her mouth, bringing with it a unique fragrance of tea leaves and a slight bitterness.

This nostalgic taste made Xia Xingli unable to help but take another small sip. Feeling the tea flowing through her throat, leaving a lingering fragrance in her mouth, Xia Xingli sighed in satisfaction, squinted her eyes slightly, and looked very happy.

“Little Xingli is really like her brother in this respect. I remember that Xia Lixing’s expression would be much softer when he drank tea.” Stephen’s voice sounded sudden, startling Xia Xingli from her state of enjoyment.

“Ahahaha… after all, we are Orientals…”

While laughing, Xia Xingli stole a glance at Stephen, and saw that the latter seemed to be just talking casually, so she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. But then she remembered where she was and suddenly tensed her loose body, looking ready for battle.

This small house is located near the top floor of the “Central Tower”. Different from the overall style of the “Central Tower”, the interior of this house is in Japanese style, with tatami mats covering most of the place. In the middle of the house stands a huge bookshelf filled with books. This bookshelf is not only used to place books, but also serves as a space divider. There is a half-open wooden door in the middle of the bookshelf. From the gap, you can see what seems to be a bedroom behind the bookshelf.

There were some ink paintings hanging on the wall, while the wall on the other side was made of a completely transparent glass-like reinforced material. Looking out from there, one could see most of the central city. However, in front of that special wall, there was a flower stand filled with flower pots. Some flowers and grasses that Xia Xingli couldn’t name were arranged in an orderly manner, which looked very beautiful.

This house, which looks like the one where grandpa and grandma live, is actually the residence of the Oracle, one of the five super S-class esper in the central city “Xia”.

The girl kneeling opposite Xia Xingli who always seemed to have a gentle smile on her face was the Super S Psychic, and she was the Oracle who specifically requested to see her.

Xia Xingli had never been as nervous as she was now. When she was facing Shun, the murderous aura on him had no effect on her, but when faced with the oracle that was as gentle as water, she was a little at a loss.

It was not because the other party was a superior super S-level psychic, but because of his gentle temperament that made Xia Xingli not know how to respond for a while.

“Relax, I’m just curious about what the new superpower person is like, so I wanted to meet you. Now it seems that you are a very cute child.” As if she saw Xia Xingli’s nervousness, the girl chuckled and comforted her.

Different from Xia Xingli’s crisp and tender voice, the girl’s voice was very soft. Hearing it made people feel as if warm sunshine was shining on them. Xia Xingli gradually relaxed in the girl’s voice.

“Come to think of it, you and your brother are of Oriental descent, and I happen to have some Oriental descent as well. It’s just that it’s Oriental descent…” The girl said and shook her head, “Forget it, it seems a little ridiculous to say this in the end times.”

Oriental blood, no wonder the style of this room is so Japanese. Xia Xingli muttered to herself, and secretly looked at the girl’s appearance. The girl’s facial contours are very delicate, but there is indeed a unique beauty between her eyebrows and eyes. Although her hair is light golden, her pupils are black. The clear pupils are like a deep spring, smart but also unfathomable. Moreover, when staring at those pupils, you can feel an inexplicable attraction that makes people involuntarily immersed in it, unable to extricate themselves…

“Collect the gods!”

The girl’s stern voice suddenly rang out, which made Xia Xingli sober up all of a sudden. Cold sweat slid down her forehead. Xia Xingli didn’t know what happened just now, she only knew that she almost lost consciousness.

“It’s better… not to stare into my eyes without any defense.”

The girl’s expression was a little gloomy, but she soon put on a gentle smile again: “Okay. This time I called you here, in addition to my personal curiosity, I also want to test your supernatural powers. Although I’m sorry, your power is still very strong, if I don’t record it…”

The girl didn’t finish her words, but Xia Xingli understood this very well. Even in the end times, evil people still exist, and as more and more people awaken their superpowers, those evil superpowers once gave people a headache. A superpower like her, whose origins are unknown and whose strength is strong, must at least leave a record here with the [Guardian].

“Of course, if you are willing to join the Guardians…”

“I’d like to join.”

Xia Xingli, who had recovered, answered before the girl finished speaking. Her firm tone and eyes showed that she was not joking.

The girl was stunned for a moment, as if she didn’t expect Xia Xingli to answer so quickly, but soon, she nodded: “Since you agree to join the [Guardians], it couldn’t be better. But before that, can you let me test your ability and data strength first?”

“Testing superpowers… yes, but can we test them here?”

Xia Xingli looked around the room. This small room obviously didn’t look like the place to hide the equipment used to test superpowers. So she had to go there specially for the test?

In response to Xia Xingli’s question, the girl just smiled, picked up an apple from the fruit plate on the square table and threw it to Xia Xingli.

“It’s okay, just use your powers on this apple.”

Xia Xingli took the apple in a flustered manner, and was shocked by the girl’s words. Although she didn’t know exactly what her new ability was, judging from the purple flame before, it should be a special flame, or an unnamed substance like “virtual flame”. Is it really okay to use this kind of ability, which can be said to be quite dangerous, in this small room? What’s more… Xia Xingli is not confident that she can fully control the new ability without any problems.

“Well… I can’t control my ability very well now. After all, it seems to have become stronger after what happened before…”

After thinking it over, Xia Xingli tactfully expressed her concerns.

“It’s okay, just try.”

The girl looked completely unconcerned.

“But……”

Xia Xingli wanted to say something else, but Stephen, who was sitting next to her, tapped her head gently.

“Don’t say buts. This is the Oracle’s place. Are you afraid that your supernatural power will get out of control and cause trouble?”

Stephen’s force was very light, and it didn’t hurt when he hit her head, but Xia Xingli covered the place where she was hit and was a little dazed. Stephen’s hit made her feel strangely familiar, as if someone had hit her head like this before.

But… neither “Xia Lixing” nor my current self have similar memories…

“What’s wrong? Is there anything else that worries you?”

Xia Xingli, who was distracted, was brought back to her senses by the girl’s question. Shaking her head, Xia Xingli held the apple in her hand, knowing that she had no reason to hesitate any longer.

Anyway, we are under the nose of a super S-level psychic, so it would be difficult for anything to go wrong.

After taking a deep breath, Xia Xingli carefully called upon her supernatural powers. Her mental power firmly controlled her every move. As she called upon her supernatural powers, a fist-sized purple flame burned on the apple in Xia Xingli’s hand. But to her surprise, the apple was not burned into a black mass. When the purple flame dissipated, the apple in her hand was sealed in a purple crystal.

This purple crystal looked very much like ice, and Xia Xingli could also feel the chill it emitted. But why was the apple “frozen” when it was clearly burning with fire?

“Purple flame-type energy… I don’t feel the high temperature of flames. Could this be considered… ice flame?”

The girl looked at the frozen apple with great interest, muttering to herself. Xia Xingli scratched her head in confusion and handed the apple over.

“Well…after being rescued, my ability became like this.”

The girl reached out her hand, wanting to take the apple. However, the moment her fingers touched the purple ice, the entire ice layer cracked, and the apple inside turned into countless tiny crystal fragments, which then gradually sublimated and disappeared into the air.

Xia Xingli was stunned, and the girl’s outstretched hand also stopped in mid-air. None of them had expected this situation to happen. Xia Xingli thought that her ability was just to freeze burning objects, but now it seems that it is not that simple.

“Not only does it freeze the object, it also freezes the life force within it… No, should I say it directly wipes out the life force… It’s a very powerful ability.”

The girl took back her hand and spoke thoughtfully. Then, she reached out and picked up something that looked like a tablet from the cabinet behind her and operated it casually. As she operated, rows of data were suddenly projected above the square table. The dark blue data kept flashing, and Xia Xingli looked confused.

Stephen on the side had his eyes shining, which was rare, like a dog seeing a bone, and he wanted to put his face close to it to take a closer look.

“This is… Void Projection Technology! Is it already so perfect? It looks like it will be available for widespread use soon.”

Xia Xingli didn’t understand what Stephen was mumbling, but the projection in the air attracted her attention. After countless lines of incomprehensible data flashed by, a line of text was slowly displayed.

“A-level psychic, ranking 39th in A-level data strength, ability unknown. I’ll have to trouble Stephen to take this child to the professor to register. As for potential…”

The girl who was reading this line of text suddenly paused, and then directly turned off the projection in the air that only displayed the ranking information.

“You have great potential, and you have been rated S+. It looks like you have a good chance of becoming the twelfth S-class psychic.” The girl put the “tablet” back to its original place, and winked at Xia Xingli with her right eye in a slightly naughty manner, “Or maybe you could be the sixth super S-class psychic.”

“That’s too much of a stretch…” Xia Xingli smiled bitterly.

She didn’t pay attention to the girl’s unusual behavior of suddenly turning off the projection, nor did she notice the girl’s slightly trembling hands under the square table.

Therefore, she also didn’t know that at the end of that evaluation text, the evaluation of potential was: “Error, unknown data!”

The evaluation system is a database with the data limit of the most powerful and mysterious guardian, who is like a god. When evaluating any human being, it is theoretically impossible to exceed the range. Unless… it can reach the true meaning of infinity!

The girl looked at Xia Xingli, who was kneeling obediently opposite the square table, and some sweat seeped out of her palms.

Xia Xingli, you are…what?