25 Rejected

Checking the time, it was just past seven in the morning, and the rain outside was still falling.

Li Xiaoxiao had left the room to return to the one where Lin Qiu and the others were staying. The three of them were already up. When Lin Qiu woke and realized Li Xiaoxiao wasn't there, she assumed she had gone into her spatial storage and didn't think much of it. But after waiting for half an hour without seeing her, she grew anxious.

Just as she reached for the door to go look for her, she saw Li Xiaoxiao standing right on the other side.

"Mom, were you going out?" Li Xiaoxiao asked, puzzled.

"It's not that I was going out; where have you been?" Lin Qiu looked her up and down, and only after confirming she wasn't injured did she let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, I went to kill some zombies," Li Xiaoxiao said nonchalantly.

"Sister Xiaoxiao, didn't you say the rainwater contains a virus and we shouldn't let it touch us?" Lin Shuangshuang recalled what she had said earlier.

"Yes, it shouldn't touch our skin, but our gear protects us well enough that not a drop of rain can get through," Li Xiaoxiao replied, her brow arching slightly.

"Really? Then can we go kill zombies too?" Xu Zixuan had been brimming with excitement since awakening his lightning ability the previous night and had been dying to go out and fight.

"Of course. Let's eat first, then we'll go kill zombies."

...

"Big Sister, why aren't these zombies moving?"

Xu Zixuan looked at the zombies standing motionless before him, his small brow furrowed so tightly it could have pinched a mosquito.

"I'm not sure why they're just standing there, perhaps it has something to do with this rain. But that doesn't stop us from taking advantage of their vulnerability. Hurry, aim for their heads and unleash your abilities."

"Everyone, stay alert. These zombies could wake up at any moment, so don't let them ambush you."

"Also, this cat will collect the crystal nuclei, so just focus on killing the zombies; you don't need to worry about anything else." Li Xiaoxiao gestured toward the beckoning cat near her feet.

"Wow! When did this cat get here? I didn't even notice it."

Following Li Xiaoxiao's gesture, the others looked over. Lin Shuangshuang was the first to exclaim, and she made a move to pick up the cat. The beckoning cat immediately hopped away, dodging her grasp and turning its head away in disdain.

"Did I just get snubbed? That was definitely disdain, right? Yes, it was definitely looking down on me!"

Lin Shuangshuang was stung, feeling completely defeated. She rolled up her sleeves, ready to square off with the cat, only to find that it had already darted ahead.

Taking a closer look, she saw that Li Xiaoxiao had already severed the heads of five zombies, and little Xu Zixuan was already working on his second. The beckoning cat had landed by the head of a fallen zombie, swiped its tiny paw, and plucked the crystal nucleus out, which vanished the next instant. Even Lin Qiu, who was closest to her, was busy hacking away at zombie heads.

Left all by herself, still childishly wanting to fight a cat, Lin Shuangshuang felt her face flush with heat.

"Shuangshuang, hurry up and kill them, or it won't be as easy once the zombies start moving again," Lin Qiu called out to her.

Lin Shuangshuang’s expression shifted. She was right; the priority was killing zombies—she had no time for self-pity.

Because she wanted the three of them to get some practice, Li Xiaoxiao didn't use her abilities, opting to hack and slash with her blade. Taking a moment to look back, she noticed Lin Qiu was quite slow, so she walked over to her.

"Mom, you don't have enough physical strength. Try using your ability; it will save you a lot of effort."

"I... I don't know how." Lin Qiu felt a bit embarrassed. She had seen Xu Zixuan use his lightning, striking a zombie’s head and leaving it charred and collapsed.

"It's okay, I'll teach you. Here, follow my lead." Li Xiaoxiao raised her hand and condensed a ball of water. "Focus your mind, concentrate, and imagine a sphere of water in your hand. Yes, just like that."

Li Xiaoxiao glanced at the water ball in Lin Qiu’s hand. "Now, imagine it turning into an ice blade."

Lin Qiu watched as the water ball in her daughter's hand transformed into an ice blade. She tried hard to visualize the same, and to her surprise, the water ball indeed began to change. But the moment she lost focus, it reverted to its original state.

"Don't be discouraged. It's not easy at first; just try a few more times. Since you awakened a variant ice ability, it should be easier for you to sense the ice elements. I’m a water-type, so I’m teaching you the method of condensing water into ice, but perhaps you can condense the ice blade directly without forming the water ball first. Why don't you try that?"

Li Xiaoxiao was patient and meticulous, offering constant encouragement. Lin Qiu closed her eyes slightly, feeling the flow of energy within her body, then raised her hand. Sure enough, an ice blade appeared.

"Mom, congratulations, you did it." Li Xiaoxiao smiled faintly. "Now launch it. Aim for the head, or better yet, the neck—that’s the most vulnerable spot."

Lin Qiu opened her eyes, overjoyed to see the ice blade in her hand. She followed her daughter's advice and flung the blade, but she missed, the blade grazing the zombie's scalp as it flew past.

Lin Qiu felt a bit embarrassed, but seeing Li Xiaoxiao had already turned to walk toward Lin Shuangshuang, she let out a quiet sigh of relief and began condensing a second blade.

Lin Shuangshuang, seeing Li Xiaoxiao teaching Lin Qiu, was itching for some guidance. She had been trying for a while but couldn't quite get the hang of it.

"Don't rush. It's raining, which affects the use of wind-type abilities, but it doesn't mean you can't use them at all." As she spoke, Li Xiaoxiao’s feet lifted off the ground, and she began to hover.

"No way! Sister Xiaoxiao, you have wind abilities too?" Lin Shuangshuang gasped in shock.

"No, I have wood abilities. Wood generates wind, but it consumes quite a bit of energy, so I don't use it often. Try to sense it carefully—as the rain falls, it creates tiny gusts of wind. They are almost imperceptible, but as a wind-type ability user, you should be able to feel them."

Hearing this, Lin Shuangshuang closed her eyes and focused. The sound of the falling rain filled her ears—*swish, swish, swish*.

She found it. Tiny wisps of wind brushed past her ears, carrying a faint chill. One, two, three...

Countless wisps as fine as hair gathered before her, dense and thick, forming a web of wind needles.

Li Xiaoxiao raised an eyebrow. The girl had good intuition! She quickly dodged out of the range of the wind web. The next instant, the countless tiny needles shot forward, instantly taking down several zombies.

The attack power was decent, though it was a bit taxing on her energy. Li Xiaoxiao steadied the slightly exhausted Lin Shuangshuang and slipped a few first-level crystal nuclei into her hand.

Looking at the dense swarm of zombies still clogging the street, she knew that hacking through them one by one was too time-consuming and labor-intensive. With no idea when they might wake up, it was best to take advantage of the situation while they could.

Li Xiaoxiao stopped holding back and began using her abilities on a large scale. Aside from the water-type’s effectiveness in the rain, there was also the lightning ability.

Over there, little Xu Zixuan’s lightning was like a cheat code in the rain. A single bolt would cause at least three zombies to collapse. The boy was smart and had quickly discovered the trick: water conducts electricity. The zombies were packed together, and since they were soaked to the bone from the rain, a single strike would affect several of them at once.

Once he realized this, he began dispatching them even faster.

[Ding! Xu Zixuan’s corruption value -1, -1, -1.]