Chapter 25: Esther Gets Robbed

Xia Xingli didn’t wander for too long.
Firstly, the sky was getting dark, and secondly, she felt a little tired.

The “Light of Hope” was located in the peripheral area of the central city, and the staff residential area was also nearby.
To get back to the staff residential area from the central area, it would take quite a long walk.
If she didn’t head back soon, it would probably be dark by the time she was halfway there.

The closer she got to the peripheral areas, the more sparsely populated it became.
Unlike other areas, there were no other residential areas near the “Light of Hope” besides the staff residential area.
This form of soft isolation was also for the safety of the children in the school.
After all, with more people, it was easy for chaos to arise, and for members of “The Purge” to take advantage of the situation.

Walking on the road where the houses were gradually becoming sparse, Xia Xingli took small bites of the bread in her hand while looking around boredly.
She had spent her lunch time in the testing area, and she was still very hungry now, having not had lunch yet.

Suddenly, as if seeing something interesting, Xia Xingli’s footsteps paused.
She finished the rest of the bread in two or three bites, clapped her hands, and then veered off the main road, heading towards an alley in a residential area.

Although it couldn’t compare to the flat and spacious main road, the alley was still quite clean, and the road surface was quite even.
The surrounding houses were mostly three or four-story apartment buildings, which blocked the afterglow of the setting sun, making this alley seem a bit dim.

The distribution of residences in the central city generally increased in height from the outside to the inside.
There might be high-rise buildings of more than ten stories in the central area, but in the peripheral areas, the tallest buildings were at most five stories high, and bungalows or two-story buildings were more common.
The reason for not building a large number of high-rise buildings was that the interference field for preventing flying Aberrant Beasts was not that high, and the population after the apocalypse did not require so many high-rise buildings.

The location where Xia Xingli was now was probably the closest ordinary residential area to the “Light of Hope.”
Xia Xingli’s sudden change of direction was not on a whim, but because she had seen two familiar figures.

“Alright, stop dawdling! Hand over your ID cards now!”

Not long after walking, Xia Xingli heard a man’s vicious voice from not far away.
Without rushing to reveal her position, Xia Xingli looked around and, after confirming that there was no one else nearby, crouched down.

“Violet Spirit Ice Flame” silently burned on her body, but in just an instant, it disappeared as if it had been absorbed into her body.
Perhaps it was because of the “Violet Spirit Ice Flame” that Xia Xingli’s originally long black hair now had a faint purple glow, as if a purple flame was burning in her long hair.

After adjusting to her optimal state, Xia Xingli looked up at the roof of the four-story building next to her, pushed off with her feet, and with a barely audible muffled sound, her entire body shot diagonally into the sky.

Xia Xingli didn’t manage to jump directly to the roof, but jumped to a position close to the third floor.
As her upward speed gradually approached zero, Xia Xingli was already close to the outer wall of the building.
Her right foot stepped on the outer wall of the third floor, and after pushing off again, Xia Xingli did a backflip in the air using the wall.
Her height increased again, and her petite figure crossed the narrow alley in mid-air, landing steadily on the roof of the building on the other side.

After landing safely, Xia Xingli let out a sigh of relief.
Her move just now was actually a bit risky.
Although according to the method she had just thought of today, she should be able to make her body surpass that of an ordinary person for a short period of time, she was still not sure to what extent she could do it.
But now it seemed that her instantaneous jumping power could already be compared to that of the former Xia Lixing, which made Xia Xingli quite satisfied.

Gathering the energy spread throughout her body, Xia Xingli’s hair also returned to its normal black color.
Her idea of strengthening her body for a short period of time was partly inspired by the “internal energy” in ancient Eastern legends.

According to legend, in the ancient east, there was a way to cultivate “internal energy.”
People who cultivated “internal energy” would have physical qualities far superior to those of ordinary people.
Although she didn’t know if the so-called “internal energy” was an ability of ancient times, the concepts of “dantian,” “meridians,” and so on still gave Xia Xingli inspiration.

Just as she had done just now, she spread the energy throughout her body and circulated it in a special way, just like the “internal energy” circulating in the “meridians.”
Doing so could multiply Xia Xingli’s jumping power, speed, instantaneous explosive power, and other qualities, but unfortunately, her strength did not increase much, and the strength of her body was far from reaching the standard of an A-rank ability user.
What made her even more dissatisfied was that although this method did not condense abilities outside the body, the consumption was still very huge.
In her current situation, if she fought with all her might, even without using her ability, she could probably only last for about ten minutes.
If she used her ability at the same time, the time she could fight with all her might would be even shorter.

Currently, Xia Xingli had not thought of a better fighting method, and now was not the time to think about this.
Crouching on the roof, Xia Xingli carefully moved her body to the edge and looked down.

Below was a dead end.
A few men who didn’t look like good people had cornered two little girls against the wall of the dead end.
One of them, who seemed to be the leader, was even holding a dagger in his hand.

“Hurry up! Stop dawdling! Hand over your ID cards!”

“ID cards can’t be used by anyone other than the owner… it’s useless for you uncles to take them.”

One of the little girls said timidly, with a hint of fear on her face.

The ID card, something every resident in the central city had, was like an ID card.
It also had the function of a bank card, and consumption points were used with it.

“Who the hell is an uncle? I’m only twenty!”
The man cursed in a huff and pushed the dagger in his hand closer to the little girl.
“Cut the cr*p! Just hand over the ID cards!”

The little girl seemed to be very scared and took a small step back.
Her companion behind her even clutched the corner of her clothes and didn’t dare to make a sound.

“We… we are students of the ‘Light of Hope’! If you take our ID cards, you won’t have a good end!”

“Oh, you’re threatening us now?”
The man laughed disdainfully.
“Nonsense, of course we know you’re students of the ‘Light of Hope’! We’re robbing you little lambs!”

“Hahaha, boss, she said we won’t have a good end. I’m so scared. What should we do?”

“Scared of what! Take the ID cards, transfer the points, and then kill these two stinky girls. Who would know it was us?”

“Kill them? That’s not good. I think these two little girls are quite pretty…”

“Damn, you’re into that!”

As the boss spoke, the surrounding thugs all laughed unscrupulously, some even spouting vulgar words.
The little girl hiding behind her companion didn’t dare to look up anymore, and even the girl in front lowered her head, her expression unknown.

“What? Scared? If you obediently hand over your ID cards now and serve us brothers well, we can consider leaving you alive.”

Seeing that the girl who had threatened him before was no longer speaking, a thug approached, his mouth spouting filth as he reached out to the girl.

He couldn’t touch the girl.
The moment he reached out his hand, that hand was cut off by an invisible blade.

The surroundings suddenly fell silent, so quiet that one could hear the sound of blood dripping from the thug’s severed wrist.

What followed was a heart-wrenching scream.
The thug whose hand had been cut off clutched his wound and screamed his lungs out.
Amidst this scream, the little blonde girl looked up and showed a very cute smile.

“I say, uncles, you knew we were students of the ‘Light of Hope,’ future ‘Guardians,’ and you still dared to lay a hand on us. Should I say you’re brave? Or stupid?”

It was clearly a very cute smile, but the group of thugs all subconsciously took a step back, as if they had seen something terrifying.

“A C-rank ability user, ability is ‘Fluid Manipulation.’ Although the fluctuation is too large for an ability user and the condensation time is too long, to deal with ordinary people like this, as long as she has time to condense the wind blades, the situation will be one-sided even if the number of people is doubled.”

Xia Xingli smiled.
In her perception, the air in the dead end below was already filled with sharp wind blades, so dense that it made her scalp tingle.
If these wind blades were to erupt at the same time, it would be enough to dismember the group of thugs.

It seems that sometimes, ignorance is also a kind of happiness.

“That girl Esther, she still likes to use such an exaggerated formation.”

She had long since recognized the two little girls below as Esther and Erin.
Although she was a little puzzled about what they were doing out of school, seeing that there was no more danger, Xia Xingli planned to leave.

Although Esther was heavy-handed, she wouldn’t go so far as to kill these thugs, so Xia Xingli was very relieved.

But just as Xia Xingli was about to leave, an abnormal fluctuation from below made her face change.
Without a second thought, she flipped over and jumped down, shouting at the same time.

“Get down!”

There was no time to care if Esther and Erin behind her had reacted, because at this moment, what was reflected in Xia Xingli’s pupils was an explosive flame.
The heat wave coming towards her made her involuntarily squint her eyes.

“Tsk, why is there an ability user here?”