Chapter 128: Chapter 124: The Enhancement from the Cyan Light

Han Ning quickly composed himself and recalled the scenes he had just witnessed.

Most of the scenes were quite normal—just the story of an Insect-man’s struggles.

But toward the end, what exactly did the Insect Master mean when he yelled about a "testing ground"?

He frowned, trying hard to recall that scene.

But he found that besides the Insect Master’s hysterical screaming, the surrounding images were a complete blur. He couldn’t make out anything unusual at all.

’Why were the images blurry? Was it interference from some power, or was there a problem with the Insect Master’s memory?’

After mulling it over for a long time, he still couldn’t figure it out.

’Forget it... I’ll just take it one step at a time and deal with the immediate problem first. Overthinking it won’t do any good.’

He shook his head and focused on the changes brought by the green motes of light that had drilled into his body.

[

Spiritual Power Level: Tier One (60%)

Current Spiritual Power: 18.1

]

Not only had his Spiritual Power increased significantly, but Yin Yi and Egg Pancake had also undergone certain changes.

[

Race: Cyan Jade Wood Demon

Gender: Female

Talent: D+ (Under the effects of Life Blessing, will be promoted to C after a certain period of time)

Level: Extraordinary II (1/3500)

Talent: ?

...

]

[

Race: Rock Fire Lizard

Gender: Male

Talent: E+ (Under the effects of Life Blessing, will be promoted to D after a certain period of time)

Level: Awakening III (1/1000)

...

]

’The level-up isn’t the most important part. This miraculous power can actually help them improve their Talent?!’

’And what’s with the question mark in the Talent section?’

Han Ning wondered, ’Could it be that when Yin Yi’s Talent improves to C, she’ll awaken a Talent?’

He was extremely curious about what a Soul Beast’s Talent was really like.

’I can’t believe that after watching a few minutes of a slideshow, not only did Yin Yi and Egg Pancake gain so much, but my own Spiritual Power shot up by more than 30%. That’s faster than using a cheat code...’ He recalled the gift the Insect Master had mentioned before he died. ’This must be it, right?’

Han Ning reined in his thoughts and looked around.

Yin Yi and Egg Pancake stood frozen in place, a hazy cyan glow still lingering around their bodies. They seemed to be savoring the feeling of the cyan light entering them.

His gaze shifted.

On Nia’s fair palm rested a jade-green dragonfly, about the length of a chopstick.

The dragonfly’s appearance was somewhat similar to the Insect Dragon. It looked rather bizarre; though clearly an insect, its body was covered in snake-like scales, and its eyes had vertical pupils.

She stared blankly at the jade-colored dragonfly, tears streaming down her face, without uttering a word.

Teacher Zheng and the other four were still unconscious.

The most astonishing thing was that their Silver Lotus Wood companions had, at some point, all evolved.

All five Silver Lotus Wood, regardless of their previous evolutionary paths, had uniformly evolved into the form of Tree Demons. They were dainty and petite, with Spiritual Energy swirling around them, emitting a bright cyan glow.

Han Ning didn’t disturb them and sat down, waiting patiently.

"Lingling~" "SCREECH!!"

Yin Yi and Egg Pancake came to their senses one after another, letting out surprised cries.

Next, Teacher Zheng and the four others slowly woke from their unconscious state.

A flash of cyan light flickered in their pupils.

Teacher Zheng blinked, her expression suddenly turning to one of extreme surprise.

She closed her eyes, then opened them again and looked at the Tree Demons beside her. "Han Ning... what just happened?" she asked, astonished. "I can feel a distinct increase in my Spiritual Power. It feels like I’m just a hair’s breadth away from breaking through to the next stage. This feeling... it’s incredible."

’Oh? She went straight from around 50% to the verge of breaking through to Tier One Spiritual Power?’ Han Ning thought to himself.

However, he noticed that the boost from the cyan light seemed to vary depending on each person’s physical condition.

Logically speaking, with his base of Tier One Spiritual Power, a 30% increase was absolutely much greater than what Teacher Zheng and the others received.

Yet the others were still hovering at the Unranked stage and hadn’t broken through to Tier One, which was very strange.

All in all, an increase in Spiritual Power was a good thing. He smiled and recounted what had happened after they encountered the Insect Master to Teacher Zheng and the other students.

"So it seems not every Insect-man is hostile towards us." Teacher Zheng glanced at Nia with gratitude, then frowned. "What is this ’testing ground’ you mentioned? Does that mean there are other civilizations here besides the Yinsaike Race the Insect-man spoke of?"

"There definitely are. When the Insect Master met us, he mistook us for the Purple Crystal Race. That means the Purple Crystal Race must look very similar to us humans, but with slight differences. The question is, where are they, and what are their attitudes toward us?" Han Ning was also a bit lost.

Teacher Zheng said gravely,

"I think we’d better not rush to find them. Looking at the history of our Blue Star, even people with different skin colors have had violent conflicts and discrimination. It would be even worse with an intelligent race that has a different physical structure. Not all of them, perhaps, but I’d wager the vast majority would be highly hostile towards us, or even attack. It’s best we don’t publicize this matter too much, aside from reporting it to Dean Wu and the others when we get back. We don’t want to cause a panic."

"Yes, I understand," Han Ning nodded.

After a few seconds of silence, Teacher Zheng looked at the dazed Alien Race girl—Nia—and asked, "Should we take her back with us... or send her back to her people?"

Han Ning thought for a moment and said,

"Let’s take her back for now. Compared to the three Insect-men we captured alive, Nia will undoubtedly be easier to communicate with. We can ask her for more information about the Insect-men, and maybe even obtain their legacy. That would be a huge help in our future fights against the Insect Masters."

’Besides, Nia’s father was a powerful Insect Master. He might have possessed even more knowledge.’

As he spoke, he tried again to send his Spiritual Power out, projecting the message he wanted to convey to Nia.

But the Spiritual Power he sent out was like a stone sinking into the sea; she didn’t react at all.

This meant that even after absorbing the Insect Dragon’s Life Force, Nia’s Spiritual Power still hadn’t reached a level where she could communicate freely.

At this moment, He Yang, who had been standing by and listening quietly, held up the Wood Demon in his arms and asked, "Han Ning, did they evolve because of that powerful dragon, too?"

"Yes. It paid the price of its Life to help us."

Han Ning said with a sigh,

"If you all hadn’t rushed back to the academy for help, this probably wouldn’t have happened."

After the group talked for a while, Han Ning walked up and waved his hand in front of Nia.

There was no response.

’Insect-men... not only do they look like humans, but their emotions are so similar too... Or are Nia and her father an exception?’

’In his experience—or perhaps it was due to his own limited knowledge—he had always believed that complex emotions were unique to humans, a product of eons of evolution and increasingly complex social structures and cultural development.’