Chapter 103
Su Jing changed into a lightweight, cold-proof inner liner, clipped the Tier 3 laser gun to her waist, and ran her fingertip across the system panel to check her ability status—
The icons for Flight Ability (Beginner), Ice Ability (Tier 3), and Lightning Ability (Tier 3) lit up in turn. The patrol robots "Patrol 1" and "Patrol 2" next to it had arrived at the open snowfield on the west side of the villa as instructed and deployed infrared surveillance. The screen displayed "The surveillance range has been expanded to 50 meters, and there are no abnormal energy fluctuations."
Without any extra preparation, she stepped out of the villa's side door, her footsteps sinking into the ankle-deep snow, and headed straight for the open space she had explored before—a place with no tall trees to block the view, and a flat surface, making it an excellent area for practicing her supernatural abilities.
"Practice flying ability first." Su Jing stood in the center of the open space, closed her eyes and concentrated her mind, guiding the spiritual energy in her body to gather on her back according to the information she obtained when she was suppressing her ability.
A gentle warmth surged up my spine, and a slight throbbing pain gradually arose in my back. Then, a pair of translucent pale blue wing membranes unfolded out of thin air, their edges shimmering with tiny glimmers of light, just like the wing membranes of the previous flyer.
The flapping of the wing membrane produces a slight "buzzing" sound, stirring up the surrounding snow particles and forming a fine mist of snow.
Su Jing tried to use the wing membrane to exert upward force, but her body staggered forward two steps uncontrollably and almost fell on the snow.
"Lack of balance."
She opened her eyes, adjusted her breathing, and evenly distributed her spiritual energy throughout the wing membrane. She exerted her strength again—this time, her body slowly rose. When she was about 30 centimeters above the ground, the wing membrane suddenly swayed, and her body tilted to the left. She quickly mobilized her spiritual energy to correct the tilt and barely maintained her levitation.
"As expected, basic superpowers are limited; I need to gradually find my footing in terms of height and balance."
She stopped rushing to ascend, maintaining a slow flight at a height of half a meter, and the frequency of her wing flapping gradually became steady from chaotic.
The patrol robot on the snow was capturing her movements in real time, and the screen displayed "Flight altitude: 0.6 meters, duration: 1 minute 20 seconds, balance coefficient: 65%".
Su Jing moved slowly along the edge of the clearing, avoiding the protruding snowdrifts, and gradually mastered the turning technique—the left wing membrane exerted slightly more force when turning left, and the opposite when turning right.
As the duration approached 5 minutes, her wing membrane began to become transparent, and her spiritual energy consumption intensified. She slowly landed on the snow, her wing membrane dissipated into specks of light, and her back was slightly sweaty, which quickly condensed into a thin layer of frost in the extremely cold air.
"The cooldown is 30 minutes, which is a good time to practice ice-type skills."
Su Jing didn't rest. She raised her hand and activated her third-tier ice-type ability, and pale blue cold air condensed at her fingertips.
The extreme cold environment made her ice-type abilities twice as powerful. She made a grasping motion in the air towards the snow in front of her, and the cold air quickly gathered to form a half-meter-long ice blade. The surface of the ice blade gleamed with a cold light, and its edges were sharp and distinct. It was more solid than when she practiced indoors.
“Test the hardness.” Holding the ice blade, she chopped at a frozen rock next to her. With a “crack,” the rock was split open, leaving a deep crack, but the ice blade remained intact.
Then, she adjusted her power output, and the cold air at her fingertips transformed into dozens of tiny ice spikes, which she shot towards the withered tree branches in the distance.
The icicles moved extremely fast, piercing through the branches in an instant and pinning them to the snow. A thin layer of ice formed where the icicles touched the branches, securing them firmly in place.
"Ice spikes are suitable for ranged attacks, while ice walls can provide defense." With a thought, Su Jing instantly erected an ice wall two meters high and one meter wide in front of her. The ice wall had a smooth surface and was about 10 centimeters thick. The system notification read, "Ice wall hardness: 1.5 times that of ordinary manganese steel, capable of withstanding attacks from third-tier or lower supernatural abilities."
She tried shooting the laser gun at the ice wall, but the laser beam hit the ice wall, leaving only a shallow white mark and not penetrating it.
After practicing ice-based abilities for half an hour, the cooldown period for flight abilities ended.
Su Jing activated the wing membrane again, this time rising directly to 5 meters, and the flight speed also increased significantly.
She hovered over the open space, sometimes diving, sometimes turning, and the balance coefficient of her wing membrane gradually increased to 85% on the patrol robot's screen.
When she tried to fly over a one-meter-high snow slope, her wing membrane was suddenly hit by airflow, and her body shook violently. She quickly mobilized her spiritual energy to reinforce the wing membrane and at the same time reduced her altitude, landing steadily on the other side of the snow slope. The duration was exactly the maximum of 5 minutes.
"I'm much more skilled than the first time. I can try a higher height next time."
After resting for a while, Su Jing began practicing her lightning-based superpowers.
She walked to the center of the open space, her feet shoulder-width apart, her fingertips glowing with deep purple lightning, unleashing her full third-tier lightning-type ability.
A thick bolt of lightning shot out from his fingertip and slammed into the rock he had previously struck. With a deafening roar, the rock shattered instantly, sending fragments flying and leaving a half-meter-deep crater in the snow.
The power of the lightning pillars had increased significantly compared to before, clearly due to the enhancement of Qi Refining Level 2 spiritual energy.
"Try the lightning net." Su Jing clasped her hands together, and lightning gathered in her palms before spreading outwards to form a three-meter square lightning net. The lightning net floated in the air, flashing with a dangerous light.
She manipulated the lightning net to cover the dead tree in the distance. The moment the lightning net touched the tree trunk, it made a "sizzling" sound. The tree trunk was struck by lightning, instantly charred, and broke in two.
"Thundernet is suitable for large-scale attacks and is useful for dealing with clustered targets."
During practice, Su Jing gradually mastered the combination techniques of the three superpowers—activating the ice-type superpower to condense ice blades while flying, which can achieve aerial attacks;
After landing, use an ice wall for defense, and at the same time release lightning pillars to counterattack.
She tried to simulate a real combat scenario: activating the wing membrane to fly to a height of 3 meters, condensing ice cones to shoot at distant rocks, then quickly diving down, raising an ice wall to block the virtual attack upon landing, and releasing a lightning net to cover the area in front.
The entire routine was fluid and smooth. Although there were two miscommunications in the middle, the overall effect exceeded expectations.
After practicing for three hours, Su Jing's spiritual energy was more than half depleted, and the sweat on her forehead froze into ice beads. She recalled the patrol robot and prepared to return to the villa to replenish her energy.
Just then, inspiration detected a faint energy fluctuation about 1 kilometer to the southwest, resembling the traces of some kind of supernatural collision.
Su Jing did not rush there, but instead had the patrol robot expand its vigilance range and record the location of the energy fluctuations—today's main goal was to practice her superpowers, and the exploration could be left for tomorrow.
After returning to the villa, Su Jing took off the snow-covered inner lining, took out a spiritual fruit from her spatial storage, and took a bite. The pale green spiritual energy flowed into her body through her throat, quickly replenishing her consumed spiritual power.
She brought up the system panel to check her ability status: Flight Ability (Beginner, Proficiency 45/100), Ice Ability (Tier 3, Proficiency +15), Lightning Ability (Tier 3, Proficiency +20). "The effect is good. I can level up the Flight Ability after practicing a few more times."
She walked to the metal control panel and had the patrol robot transmit the video data from her practice session. She carefully reviewed her balance issues during flight and the gaps in her ability integration, and mentally planned the focus of her next practice session.
The north wind outside the window was still biting, but Su Jing was filled with a sense of accomplishment—the improvement of her three superpowers had greatly enhanced her ability to survive in the extreme cold of the apocalypse.
After resting for half an hour, Su Jing began to organize the supplies she had used in the practice: there were 35 spirit fruits left to replenish spiritual energy, 10 bottles of emergency healing pills, 8 energy cores for the laser gun, and 2 iron ore hand warmers that had consumed energy.
She sorted and put the supplies back into their corresponding areas in the space, and at the same time made a list of supplies for tomorrow's exploration: 2 pieces of burning iron ore, 3 spirit fruits, and 1 spare ice blade to ensure she could deal with any emergencies.
The patrol robot "Xun1" suddenly issued an alarm: [The energy fluctuation in the southwest direction has disappeared, no other anomalies have been detected, and the warning range has been restored to 50 meters].
Su Jing nodded and closed the alarm interface.
She knew that tomorrow's exploration would likely encounter more unknown situations, such as other mission participants or mutated creatures, but after today's training in her abilities, she was fully prepared.
As night fell, the temperature inside the villa was stabilized at 25°C by the iron ore heating equipment.
Su Jing sat by the window, looking at the snow outside, her fingertips occasionally flashing with a faint blue or dark purple light as she familiarized herself with the subtle manipulation of her supernatural abilities.
The wing membrane of her flight ability briefly unfolded behind her, then quickly dissipated, her proficiency slowly and imperceptibly increasing.
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