“But war didn't leave only bad influences; there were still positive aspects. I mentioned this last class, and now I'm calling on someone to answer.”
“Gu Yu.”
“Gu Yu?”
Liu Gengyan, who was both the homeroom teacher and history teacher, saw someone with her chin propped up, completely lost in thought, and a vein throbbed on her forehead.
Feeling the chalk head flying towards her, Gu Yu casually caught it, stood up, and said:
“It expresses the author's homesickness.”
“Pfft!” A snicker came from beside her.
“This is history class, not Chinese class!”
Liu Gengyan felt her blood pressure shoot up.
Gu Yu finally came back to her senses, glanced at the question on the blackboard, and answered:
“The positive influences include:
1. It ended the thousand-year period of warring states on Blue Star, promoting the establishment of the Blue Star Unified Alliance.
2. It brought miracles and magic, allowing the world to have not only technology but also magic and superpowers.
3. It brought more diverse species, including some that can cure various cancers…”
Although it differed slightly from the reference answer, each point was spot on, indicating that she had listened carefully in class.
Liu Gengyan nodded secretly and said, “Hmm, sit down. Don't get distracted in class. If you're sleepy, go stand at the back for a while.
Every point I'm lecturing on now is a potential exam question, possibly appearing in future midterms and finals. How regretful would it be if you missed a question I've covered because you weren't paying attention…”
Her deskmate sighed softly, “Liu Momo is starting again.”
This was the nickname the students secretly gave Liu Gengyan because she resembled the nannies who raised children in ancient wealthy families.
Liu Gengyan was still fine; the male homeroom teacher in the next class was much worse off, with students secretly calling him Eunuch Qi.
The reason was that during a school sports meeting, he twisted his ankle while running and let out a very delicate “Ah~” sound, his voice much like a eunuch's in a palace drama.
“By the way, Gu Yu, the way you raised your hand to catch the chalk just now was so cool! Did you secretly practice?”
Her deskmate held up a book and whispered.
“It's alright, probably just a sudden inspiration,” Gu Yu whispered back.
In truth, it was part of the muscle memory left after Jing Liu's possession, which Gu Yu had been diligently trying to assimilate, hoping to master Jing Liu's swordplay that could cleave stars from the sky.
However, it was a tiny bit difficult; currently, she had only barely learned how to hold and swing a sword.
“You're right, I had a moment like that once too, casually tossing an empty water bottle behind me~ and it just so happened to land right in the trash can.
Unfortunately, no matter how many times I tried later, I couldn't replicate it. By the way, how is your body?”
Her deskmate was truly enthusiastic; Gu Yu's hospital stay had probably made her terribly lonely, and she kept chattering non-stop.
Gu Yu was a little overwhelmed by the enthusiasm. She whispered a reminder, “Shh, Liu Momo is looking over.”
The chattering stopped abruptly.
With the quiet restored, Gu Yu continued to ponder who to choose for her next Creation-type.
She mumbled, “Liking lolis will land you in jail, young girls lack the refinement of time, only older sisters are the universal truth…”
Gu Yu sadly discovered that there were 0 candidates who perfectly met the criteria.
Damn the old rice, almost everyone had some kind of 'knife' on them; there were no completely healthy people.
Gu Yu regretted not watching more anime and being more open-minded.
Suddenly, her deskmate pushed a small note from the side.
【I feel like you've changed so much recently.】
Gu Yu smiled and wrote on the paper:
【When scholars part for three days, they should be looked at with new eyes.】
“Oh no!”
Her deskmate was about to pick up her pen again when a piece of chalk flying from the podium hit her squarely on the forehead.
Liu Momo's almost murderous gaze glared fiercely at her, scaring the girl into shrinking into a ball, and her in-class distraction ceased.
Gu Yu, however, fell into deep thought.
A person's life is composed of different stages. She could completely choose a life stage with a relatively simple role to sculpt…
…
Mr. Wu, who hired Huihong Manufacturing to assassinate Gu Yu, came from an Ability User organization called “Claw”.
Claw is the claw of a beast.
“You mean, the sacrifice who should have died not only didn't die, but an Ability User suspected to be Intermediate or above appeared beside her?”
“Yes, the other party only took three seconds to kill everyone in the Huihong Manufacturing stronghold,” Mr. Wu nodded, answering calmly.
His superior, who was listening to his work report, was called “Nameless Finger.” In the remote, encrypted communication, no appearance was shown, only a default silhouette.
“With your ability, you could easily wipe out a small, unranked organization, couldn't you?”
Mr. Wu calmly replied, “The first second, that woman appeared at the stronghold, quickly discovered by the night watchmen.
The second second, she condensed a long sword from ice.
The third second, she swung the long sword, and everyone within a five-hundred-meter radius of the factory area, including the low-level mage Shen Yi, died, all frozen into ice sculptures.
That is to say, she only used one move, less than a second, to actually kill people.
Even more incredible is that while killing, the survivors and items she deliberately left unharmed were completely untouched.
I can indeed easily eliminate an unranked Ability User group, but I absolutely cannot do it with such effortlessness.
Although the report states an Intermediate Ability User or above, I have reason to suspect she is an Advanced Ability User, merely not using her full strength.”
Since the extraordinary system was structured during the war, the initial ranking of Blue Star's Ability Users was entirely based on destructive power.
For example: Town-Exterminating, City-Exterminating, Nation-Exterminating…
Later, the number of Ability Users exploded, and nearly sixty percent of them possessed non-destructive abilities.
To avoid affecting internal unity, the Alliance completely revised the ranking system, rating by the total amount of “Source.”
Levels 1-20 are Low-level Ability Users, 21-40 are Intermediate Ability Users, and 41-60 are Advanced Ability Users.
Above these are the Calamity-level, equivalent to natural disasters, and Terrestrial Angels, who stand shoulder to shoulder with gods in human form.
The destructive power displayed by the wandering swordsman named Jing Liu was only at the Intermediate level, but her terrifying control made him extremely wary.
After all, one only has one life; why gamble with it?
Nameless Finger pondered for a moment and said, “When The Brain initially selected Gu Yu as the sacrifice and disguised the ritual as an accident, that woman named Jing Liu did not seem to appear.”
“That old man Gu Changqing is only an Advanced Ability User now.”
“Big families always have some hidden depths that outsiders don't know about, don't they? If I remember correctly, the Gu family seems to have a 【Calamity】, right? As expected of the Creator Clan that rose during the war.”
Mr. Wu sighed.
“Creator Clan? More like a mixed-breed clan. The stolen power will eventually have to be repaid,” Nameless Finger sneered.
If the sacrifice hadn't had foreign blood flowing in her body, she wouldn't have been chosen by The Brain.
The ritual failed, and the large investment made in the early preparations all went down the drain—a huge loss.
…But what did that have to do with them? The Brain made the decisions, and the Heart conducted the ritual. No matter how the responsibility was divided, it wouldn't fall on Claw, this black-gloved organization.
Mr. Wu asked, “Should we call the police? Let the local official forces test them out.”
Due to the increasing number of Ability User friction incidents, the authorities had already begun to classify events by priority.
Within city and suburban limits, no one was allowed to cross the red line.
In rural areas, locals governed themselves, intervening only for major incidents.
In the wilderness, a complete dark forest, magical beasts, wandering mages, and unregistered Ability Users occupied the ungoverned zone.
The Huihong Manufacturing stronghold was located between the city outskirts and the wilderness, an area that could be managed or not.
But in the city, outside Gu Yu's home, a person had genuinely died. Even though that person had turned into snowflakes and scattered everywhere, no evidence could be found.
However, simply making an Anonymous report could cause the little girl some trouble, and perhaps some flaw could be found.
Nameless Finger pondered for a moment and denied, “No, let's observe the situation for now. The Global College Entrance Examination is approaching, and children of this age attract too much attention; it's no longer suitable to act.”
“Understood.”
Nameless Finger thought for a moment, changed the “suspected Intermediate Ability User or above” regarding Jing Liu in the report to “suspected Advanced Ability User or above,” and reported it up.
Actually, he wanted to change it to Calamity, but that would be too exaggerated. If it drew high attention and then backfired, he would be finished.
But an Advanced Ability User was different; it was normal for a subordinate to have poor judgment and make a mistake.
It's not that we are incompetent, but that the enemy is fierce and powerful.
…
Gu Yu returned after using the restroom and saw books scattered all over the floor, some even lying in a puddle of water and stained dark.
She showed surprise.
“Am I… being bullied?”