Chapter 22: Weak Data and Powerful Possibilities

Wang Cheng was an ordinary D-rank ability user.
Because his ability rank was too low, and the ability itself was of little use in combat, his job was to guard the testing area of the “Central Tower.”

There were many advanced instruments in the testing area, which could be used to test various aspects of an ability user’s physical fitness.
However, under normal circumstances, an ability user’s strength grew steadily and slowly, and rarely would someone need to use instruments to gain a deep understanding of their own strength.
Therefore, his job as a gatekeeper was very leisurely.

But there were exceptions to every rule, just like the little girl standing in front of him at this moment.
It was said that she was a newly discovered A-rank ability user, and one who had grown suddenly.
For an ability user like her, whose strength had soared suddenly, it was indeed better to be tested so that she could have a better understanding of herself.

“If I could also suddenly become an A-rank ability user… no, even B-rank would be fine.”

“Mr. Wang, did you say something just now?”

Xia Xingli tilted her head to look at the gatekeeper beside her, who waved his hands with an awkward smile.

“No… nothing, just talking to myself.”

Although she was a little puzzled, Xia Xingli didn’t mind.
After registering her information, the closed door in front of her slowly opened, and Wang Cheng, as the gatekeeper, also dutifully reminded her.

“The time limit is three hours. Please be careful not to damage the instruments.”

Nodding to indicate that she understood, Xia Xingli walked into this testing area.

She completely failed to notice Wang Cheng’s somewhat complicated expression.

“That person seems to be inside right now too… uh, it should be fine…”

In the battle a few days ago, although Xia Xingli had won, and it could be said that she had won very easily, it was also inexplicably won.
Xia Xingli didn’t think she could keep winning so inexplicably.
Moreover, she still wanted to return to the forefront of the fight against the Aberrant Beasts.
So, what she needed to do most urgently now was to thoroughly understand the various indicators of her body, and to recognize what level this body’s stamina, endurance, explosive power, and speed were at.

But just as Xia Xingli walked into the testing area, her face changed, and she immediately wanted to turn around and leave.

“Ah, it’s little Xingli. You scared me.”

The same white coat as always, the same messy blonde hair.
Stephen, holding a wine bottle in her hand, leaned against some unknown instrument and lazily greeted Xia Xingli.

Her body stiffened for a moment.
Xia Xingli turned around and squeezed out a smile. “What… what a coincidence, Stephen.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to escape immediately, but the door at the entrance was already tightly closed, and the place to swipe her emblem to open the door was right next to Stephen.

“Call me big sister, you have no manners.”
Stephen walked over, swaying slightly, and bent down to look at Xia Xingli.
“I say, you little girl, you haven’t visited me at all.
No matter what, I’m your current guardian.
Do you dislike big sister that much?
Hic…”

It wasn’t dislike, but after living with Stephen for a few days, she was simply terrified by the dress-up hell—of course, she couldn’t say that.

“No, no, no, I was just afraid of disturbing Big Sister Stephen’s work…”
Desperately leaning back to avoid the alcohol-laced hiccup, Xia Xingli tried to change the subject.
“Um, Big Sister Stephen, I’m here to test…”

“Ah, I know.
Big sister will just sneak a little drink here.
You go ahead and do your tests.”

Unexpectedly, Stephen didn’t pester Xia Xingli.
Instead, she found a wall to lean against and took a large swig of wine, gulping it down with a satisfied sigh.

“Then, then I’ll go test now…”

Walking around the reeking-of-alcohol Stephen, Xia Xingli let out a sigh of relief and also felt a little speechless.
No wonder no one usually saw Stephen drinking heavily.
It turned out she came to the testing area, where basically no one came, to drink…

No longer paying attention to the drunken Stephen, Xia Xingli took a deep breath, adjusted her state, and walked towards an instrument in the testing area.

This instrument was a bit strange, shaped like a pyramid.
On the front of the instrument was a circular red cushion with a radius of about half a meter, and next to it was a palm-sized display.
The overall size of the instrument was not too large, but the space it occupied was very large, at least enough to fit five more such instruments.

There was, of course, a reason for this strange spatial distribution.
This instrument was actually for testing the physical strength of ability users.
Usually, the ability user would be asked to punch the red cushion with all their might without specifically using their ability.
However, once, an ability user whose ability was body strengthening came to test, and he blew up the instrument with one punch.
To prevent the same thing from happening again, this instrument was allocated a large space, and this space was filled with all sorts of strengthening abilities.
This way, even if the instrument were to be blown up again, at least it shouldn’t affect the other surrounding equipment.

Xia Xingli didn’t think her physical strength could cause any damage to the instrument, so she threw a punch with all her might.
But when her fist landed on the instrument, her expression turned rather unsightly.
And when she looked at the data displayed on the screen, her expression became even uglier.

The result displayed by the instrument was not a clear number, but a rank.
S was the highest, followed by A to F.
These ranks corresponded to the approximate strength range that ordinary ability users could reach at each rank.
F-rank represented the level of an ordinary human, and the result displayed on the instrument in front of Xia Xingli now was F.

“No way… only comparable to an ordinary human…”
Unwilling to accept it, Xia Xingli fiercely punched the instrument again, but the data remained F.

Although it wasn’t that an ability user of a certain rank could hit a certain rank, those who couldn’t even reach E-rank were basically only the pure healers.
The data the former Xia Lixing had hit was A, which was truly worlds apart from the current Xia Xingli.

“Alright… ordinary human strength is ordinary human strength… I could have pretty much guessed it anyway.”

Muttering, Xia Xingli walked towards the next testing station.
She had already noticed the defect in her strength in her daily life these past few days.
Her stamina and endurance were probably also only comparable to an ordinary person’s.
She just didn’t know how bad it would be.

The location of the second test was a long track.
This specially made track, about two hundred meters long, was actually like a long treadmill, except that it could adjust its own speed according to the runner’s speed.
As long as the speed wasn’t so fast that the machine couldn’t react, it could generally maintain a “running in place” state.

Stepping onto the track, Xia Xingli bent slightly, assuming a starting position.
After feeling that she had adjusted to her optimal state, Xia Xingli suddenly pushed off with her feet, and her entire body shot out.

For a moment, Xia Xingli felt as if her body possessed a quality comparable to Xia Lixing’s.
The power that surged from an unknown source made her speed almost surpass the limit of the former Xia Lixing.
This made Xia Xingli a little excited.
Could it be that this body actually had very strong physical qualities?

However, before she could get excited, the rapidly decreasing stamina and her protesting muscles poured a basin of cold water on her.
She couldn’t maintain that extreme speed for even ten seconds.
No matter how desperately Xia Xingli tried to maintain it, her speed still slowed down quickly.
This was probably what was meant by the spirit being willing but the flesh being weak.

In less than a minute, Xia Xingli was forced to stop.
Her legs gave out, and she almost collapsed onto the track.
She leaned on her knees, panting heavily, as if all the strength in her body had been completely drained, leaving her without even the energy to move off the track.

Stephen appeared at her side at some point.
Watching Xia Xingli, who hadn’t moved on the track for a long time, she put down the wine bottle in her hand, walked over, and supported the girl’s body.

Xia Xingli’s body was soft and warm, but Stephen could feel a faint, imperceptible tremor.
Without saying anything, Stephen half-carried the exhausted Xia Xingli off the track, holding the small body in her arms.

The girl’s body was truly too petite; Stephen’s embrace could completely envelop her.
The body in her arms struggled slightly, but perhaps due to a lack of strength, it was only a slight struggle before she nestled quietly in Stephen’s arms.

With one hand around Xia Xingli’s shoulders and the other gently stroking her hair, Stephen said nothing, just holding Xia Xingli tenderly in her arms.
On the hand holding Xia Xingli, a few drops of liquid fell onto the back of her hand.
They were a little cool, and she didn’t know if it was sweat or something else.

“Am I… very useless…”

Her tone was calm, but Stephen could still detect a slight tremor in Xia Xingli’s voice.
Still stroking her hair, this woman, who had always been somewhat improper, replied with uncharacteristic gentleness.

“How could you be? Although your body is not as strong as other ability users, you still have a powerful ability. You are not weak, it’s just that… are you chasing Xia Lixing’s shadow too much?”

“Xia… my brother?”

“That’s right. Xia Lixing’s ‘Ethereal Flame’ gave him almost infinite stamina and endurance. His physical fitness had actually surpassed that of many A-rank ability users long ago. But you are not him. Your strength lies in the ‘Violet Spirit Ice Flame,’ which is even more deadly than ‘Ethereal Flame.’ You could be said to be two different types of ability users, so you don’t need to measure yourself against Xia Lixing as the standard for everything.”

‘So that’s how it is… I’ve unknowingly been using the former Xia Lixing as a standard, so that’s why I cared so much about physical strength?’

To think that Stephen had seen something she herself hadn’t even noticed.
Perhaps this was a case of “the onlooker sees most of the game.”

“You don’t have Xia Lixing’s physical fitness, nor do you need to be too fixated on whether your physical fitness is strong or not. What you need to do is to find a fighting style that can fully unleash the power of your ability. After all, an ability user is not strong because of a strong body,” Stephen said, patting Xia Xingli’s head and gesturing for her to look up at the data on the side.
“Besides, your physical fitness is not as bad as you think.”

On the display next to the track, rows of data were clearly displayed in front of Xia Xingli.
Stamina F, Endurance F, Comprehensive Speed C.
Terrible data, even the comprehensive speed was pulled down to C-rank due to stamina and endurance.
But what Stephen wanted her to see was the last line of data.

Explosive Power: S.

Looking at the stunned Xia Xingli in her arms, Stephen couldn’t help but smile.
Reaching out to wipe away the traces of what might have been sweat or tears from her face, Stephen casually pinched Xia Xingli’s small cheek.

“Perfect, I have an idea. Do you want to hear it?”