Lin Yao had just put down his cutlery when dusk streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Dinner was a simple energy porridge with interstellar vegetable salad, which was placed on the dining table. An ice-blue aerial root vine was wrapping a small piece of boiled star leaf, which was being chewed slowly.
The healing particles on the leaves flicker gently as you swallow, as if you are tasting some delicacy.
He wiped his mouth and sat on a chair to rest while browsing his laptop.
A message from Lei Ya popped up on the screen, along with a grinning emoji:
"Mumu, just go to work and relax! When I have a day off later, I'll have the whole day free. We can form a team then!"
Lin Yao laughed and replied "OK".
My fingertips slid across the screen and I saw the push message from the training ground. I was still planning in my mind that if I couldn’t team up with Lei Ya and the others, I could still practice on my own!
I looked at the time, it was exactly seven o'clock in the evening.
Lin Yao stood up and walked into the room where the link cabin was placed, and lay down in it familiarly.
The hatch slowly closed, and his fingertips tapped lightly on the optical computer, and the virtual light screen instantly lit up: "Welcome to the National Training Ground."
After entering the familiar interface, Lin Yao rushed to the personal training room and began to do basic training, practicing the accuracy of vine entanglement over and over again.
When practicing the third set, a dark avatar suddenly lit up in the private message list. Lin Yao was stunned for a moment, and when he clicked it, it was Su Ye.
"Do you usually come up at this time?"
"Team up?"
"Take me with you?"
“....”
Lin Yao looked at the words helplessly. He actually saw the incongruity of a tough guy acting like a spoiled child in the three words "take me with you", which were originally a request.
Maybe it was those dark green eyes that couldn't even hide the imposing aura from the virtual data! Lin Yao always felt that this person was the kind of person who was aloof and imposing.
Lin Yao typed out the reply "reject" with his fingertips without hesitation, but before he could send it out, a video request suddenly popped up on Su Ye's avatar.
He nodded in agreement for some unknown reason.
In the projection interface, the figure in the basic training suit reappeared. His face was still blurry, but his dark green eyes flickered in the virtual light, as if hiding tiny starlight, with an unyielding persistence.
"Just one round." Su Ye's clear voice came through, "Is that okay?"
Lin Yao stared at those eyes, and the words of rejection suddenly got stuck in his throat.
He recalled the time when they first met in the viewing area, when those dark green eyes kept asking, "Why?"
Lin Yao shook his head. This man was even more stubborn than he thought. If he didn't agree, he would probably not give in. In the end, he nodded: "One round only."
"Okay." Su Ye's response was crisp and clear.
"Wait for me ten minutes!" Seeing that he agreed so readily, Lin Yao immediately added that he was in his personal training room and still had ten minutes of practice time.
Su Ye nodded in agreement and said that he would go to the assembly point to wait for Lin Yao first, and then the image disappeared.
-
Ten minutes later, Lin Yao found him according to the coordinates Su Yefa sent.
Lin Yao was just about to raise his hand to say hello when a request to form a team suddenly popped up in front of him.
He looked at the two words "Su Ye" on the interface, smiled helplessly, and tapped his finger to agree.
As soon as the notification sound of the successful team formation fell, he raised the corner of his mouth: "Su Ye, hello!"
"Hello! Mumu!" Su Ye's voice came, as clear as an ice spring hitting stone, with a cold texture, and his dark green eyes fell on Lin Yao.
Lin Yao called up Su Ye's basic information, and his gaze paused for two seconds at the column [Spirit Body: Python];
Like him, the information column did not write the name of the spirit body, but only recorded its species.
"Choose sand worms to fight?" Lin Yao thought about the two people's spiritual bodies and made this suggestion.
"Okay!" Su Ye agreed without hesitation again.
Lin Yao cried out in his heart: No! Don’t you have your own opinions? You just agree with others?
Then he couldn't help but explain: "Your spirit body is a python, which is just right to restrain sand worms. Remember..."
"I know." Su Ye interrupted him with a barely perceptible smile in his tone, "Just focus on the treatment, and leave the rest to me."
Lin Yao choked and was about to say something when he saw that Su Ye had already clicked on the entrance to the copy.
The red-gold portal slowly opened, with dark brown sand flowing inside. It was the exclusive entrance for the sand worms to fight.
He couldn't help but look at Su Ye twice more. The other party remained standing, as if he had never thought about summoning the spirit body in advance.
You have to know that when he teamed up with Lei Ya and the others in the past, when the mission was confirmed, that person would proudly release his spirit body.
A cocky yet cute lion was running around among the team members.
"Let's go." Su Ye took the first step. When he passed by Lin Yao, he paused slightly. A faint light flashed from his sleeves, as if something was being held down tightly.
The moment he entered the dungeon, a cloud of yellow sand blew towards him. The sand under his feet was flowing, making Lin Yao unstable.
He immediately summoned his own icy blue aerial vines, which penetrated into the sand and instantly wove into a dense net, firmly fixing the sand surface within ten meters around it.
Just as he stood firm, he heard Su Ye shout, "Thirty meters to the left!"
Before he could finish his words, a sand worm as thick as a bucket suddenly jumped out of the sand, the sharp teeth in its mouthparts flashing coldly, and it pounced on his face.
At the critical moment, dark light particles suddenly burst out in front of Su Ye. A 15-meter-long black python as thick as an adult male's thigh shot out like lightning and accurately wrapped around the worm's body.
The inky scales shone coldly in the sand, dragging the giant creature back under the sand.
When it completed its mission and came back, wanting to stand in front of Lin Yao, Su Ye suddenly whispered something.
The python suddenly stopped and stopped half a step away from Lin Yao, using only its tail to signal Lin Yao to step back.
Then the tail was placed loosely not far from his ankles, occasionally rolling up a little gravel, as if it was annoyed by something.
At the same time, Su Ye raised his right hand, and the dark mental power condensed into a slender blade in his palm, with a flowing luster on the edge, as if it was forged from stardust.
"Be careful." Su Ye's figure appeared beside him, with sand still on his spiritual blade, and a hint of subtle tension in his clear voice.
"Their hearing is sharper than their sight, and your vine fixation will alarm them."
As he spoke, his eyes quickly swept over Lin Yao's ankle. Seeing that he did not shrink back because of the approaching snake's tail, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Lin Yao's vines swayed gently, and the ice-blue color attracted the curiosity of the python's head, which probed towards Lin Yao, but was calmly blocked by Su Ye with his toes.
Lin Yao adjusted his breathing and injected healing particles into the vines. The icy blue color immediately spread along the sand, weaving a translucent protective net around Su Ye:
"My vines can warn of vibrations. You go forward, and I'll follow behind."
Su Ye agreed to this plan without looking back. Later, when Lin Yao wanted to weave one for the snake, Su Ye refused on behalf of the snake.
The snake's head, which had been expecting the arrival of the icy blue, froze in an instant, and slowly and reluctantly retreated to its original state, but the tip of its tail swept restlessly on the sand, expressing its great dissatisfaction.
Su Ye's figure rushed out like a ghost, the mental blade in his palm drew a cold light, and the python followed closely behind.
When the second sand worm broke out of the ground, it was still very close to Lin Yao. The python leaped into the air and its pitch-black body instantly wrapped around it.
Su Ye suddenly turned his head to take a look. He was about to strangle the worm on the spot, but because of this look, he had to pull it away a little.
Lin Yao's vines caught up in time, and the ice-blue aerial root vines released healing energy and moved towards the snake.
He saw it clearly. The python's head, which was originally slightly raised, was filled with obvious anticipation, and its tongue was intimately probing towards the direction of the energy.
But just before the vines were about to touch the snake's body, the snake seemed to be suddenly pulled by an invisible line, and it made an abrupt turn in the air.
Lin Yao: Am I scary or is my spirit body scary?
He wanted to say something else and ask Su Ye what he was worried about, but Su Ye seemed not to hear him and suddenly turned sideways to avoid a worm that came out from under the sand.
A dark spiritual blade instantly cut through the air, and two words were uttered in a tense tone: "Fight."
Lin Yao choked and could only suppress the questions in his mind and follow his pace.
But for some reason, the cooperation started to get stuck frequently.
It was not a tactical mistake, but the python seemed to be under a spell. As long as Lin Yao's vines approached, it would immediately tense its body with vigilance, and even if they just passed by, it seemed as if it was avoiding some ferocious beast.
Lin Yao originally wanted to set up a protective net for the python. The vines were half woven when he saw the python suddenly leap and rush over the mesh of the net, allowing the flying sand and gravel to hit its scales, leaving a few shallow scratches.
He had previously woven a vine mat on the sand, intending to give the python leverage to jump, but the snake twisted its body in mid-air and would rather fall heavily to the sand than touch the vines.
What's this for? Lin Yao looked at the wounds that appeared out of nowhere on the python's body, his brows twisted into knots.
Those injuries shouldn't have happened, it was all because of this inexplicable avoidance.
Su Ye didn't look back, but swung the mental blade even faster, as if Lin Yao was the only one troubled by this problem.
After enduring three rounds, the vibration of the last wave of insects came from under the sand, so dense that it seemed like thousands of troops were galloping.
Lin Yao grabbed the fabric of Su Ye's combat uniform, his fingertips turning slightly white from the force, and said in a serious tone: "Wait a moment."
Su Ye paused and looked at him with dark green eyes.
"You don't like me being close to you?" Lin Yao's eyes locked on him, "Then why do you insist on teaming up with me?"
Su Ye shook his head without hesitation, so much so that it seemed as if he was trying hard to deny it, his dark green pupils full of denial.
"Then why are you controlling it to move away?" Lin Yaoshou pointed at the snake and asked. He actually realized that the snake was not resisting, but was resisting the person who gave the order!
Lin Yao looked at him stubbornly. Finally, Su Ye's lips moved, and the light sound he uttered shattered in the yellow sand: "Afraid!"
After saying this word, Su Ye turned his head away as if he had done something wrong.
"Afraid?" Lin Yao muttered the word, his eyes moving back and forth between Su Ye and the snake, looking at the snake that was eager to get closer.
The vibrations under my feet became stronger and stronger, and the sand grains seemed to come alive, jumping restlessly on the ground.
Lin Yao knew that if they didn't resolve this issue, they would not be able to cooperate well. Moreover, when he looked at Su Ye's tense profile, he suddenly understood the meaning behind his repeated avoidance.
"I'm not afraid of snakes!" Lin Yao's voice was particularly clear in the whistling wind and sand. Before he finished speaking, he had already given Shasha an order with his mind.
The ice-blue aerial vines seemed to have received the horn of charge, and instantly broke free from the previous compromises and concealments, forcefully wrapping around the python's body.
The healing energy poured down the vines like a bursting dam tide. The unsightly wounds healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, the scratches on the scales were smoothed out, and most of the fatigue that had accumulated before was dissipated.
Shasha was obviously very satisfied with his results. After the healing was completed, he immediately used the python's body as a mold and quickly weaved a protective net that fit tightly against the scales.
The ice-blue net glows with a soft light, which does not affect movement but can perfectly defend against attacks.
The python twisted its body comfortably, looked at the protective shield on its body, then turned to look at Su Ye, its eyes full of pride, as if saying 'Look, he is really not afraid of me'.
It looked so silly that even when Shasha hit its head with its aerial roots as if to vent its anger, it did not affect its good mood at all. Instead, it rubbed its head against the vines as if it was acting coquettishly.
Lin Yao watched Sha Sha finish all this before turning his gaze to Su Ye.
The man had turned around at some point, his dark green eyes were astonishingly bright, as if stars had fallen into them, locking onto him tightly, with surprise surging in them, and a hint of indescribable joy.
Lin Yao looked at him calmly, and said the word "xi" clearly again, word by word.
Su Ye's Adam's apple rolled, the hand holding the mental blade loosened slightly, and his tense shoulders also relaxed quietly.
Lin Yao shifted his gaze to the surging sand surface, where the vibrations were like beating drums, and the vanguard of the insect swarm was about to break out of the ground.
He uttered the following words: "Prepare for battle!"
Su Ye moved almost at the same time, and the dark mental blade condensed again in his palm. This time, the blade was stable and sharp.
The pitch-black python seemed to be freed from its restraints, spitting out its tongue excitedly, circling around Lin Yao's vines half a circle, and then taking an attacking posture.
When the tidal wave of insects rushed out of the sand, Lin Yao's vines had already formed a three-dimensional protective net, which just protected Su Ye and the python.
Su Ye's mental blade was like a precise scalpel, shuttling between the nets, and each swing could accurately pierce the worm's weak point.
The python, with the support of the protective net, leaps and entangles flexibly, firmly controlling the worm that tries to attack from the side.
Lin Yao's vines seemed to be growing on the body of a python, stretching and contracting flexibly with its movements.
Every time the python completes a strangulation, healing energy will flow in just the right way; every time it prepares to leap, the vines will weave a fulcrum in advance to leverage its strength.
The ice-blue protective net and the pitch-black snake body complement each other, creating a strange harmony.
Su Ye's attack rhythm increased significantly, but he no longer needed to focus on controlling the distance from the python. He could clearly feel that Lin Yao's vines could always predict his next move.
When he wants to turn left, the vines on the left will move aside in advance; when he needs to take off, the vines under his feet will instantly form a platform.
There was even one time when his mental blade was about to run out of energy, and Lin Yao's vines seemed to know in advance and sent a light particle condensed with energy to his hand.
"Left rear!" Lin Yao shouted.
Su Ye almost didn't think about it, his body subconsciously turned to the right, and the mental blade slashed out with his backhand.
At the same time, the python also coiled to the left, forming a perfect pincer attack with the vines that arrived in time, instantly strangling the worm that had just broken through the ground.
This series of movements flowed smoothly, as if they had been rehearsed thousands of times.
The last worm turned into light particles under the attack of the ice-blue vines and the dark mental blade, and the vibration on the sand gradually subsided.
Shasha returned to Lin Yao's left wrist, but an aerial vine remained. The python came to Lin Yao earlier than Su Ye, and almost came with Shasha.
"What's your name?" Lin Yao's hand, along with Sha Sha's, fell on the cold scales.
"Call it Xiao Hei!" Su Ye walked over, his clear voice smooth and without any fluctuations.
Lin Yao’s face was full of words: Don’t lie to me!
When the portal on the sand slowly lit up, covering the two figures, Su Ye still insisted that Lin Yao call it Xiao Hei.
Lin Yao: Your spiritual body, you have the final say!
-
When the white light of the teleportation array dissipated, the two were already standing at the assembly point.
The smooth alloy floor reflected the flowing nebula lights on the ceiling, and the draft carried a faint energy, which was completely different from the copy with flying sand and gravel just now.
Su Ye did not take Xiao Hei back, but used his mental power to shrink it into a size of one meter and two meters long and as thick as a baby's arm.
The snake's body coiled docilely on his forearm, its inky scales gleaming with fine luster under the nebula light. Xiao Hei's head rested on his shoulder, and even the breeze created by its venom revealed its cautiousness.
Even so, the players passing by were still shocked by the scene and stopped in their tracks.
The sentry was fine, but the guide reacted violently!
When the two guides saw Xiao Hei, their faces suddenly changed and they subconsciously dodged to the side. One of them even pulled his companion to speed up his pace, muttering in a low voice: "Why don't you take it back!"
Similar gazes came from all directions in the west, some curious, some vigilant, and more often than not, some instinctively avoiding.
Su Ye seemed to have gotten used to this. The lines of his profile were as tight as a pen tip. His dark green eyes swept calmly over the crowd and walked straight to the corner. Lin Yao followed him.
"Sorry." He said to Lin Yao after he stood still, with a hint of subtle tension in his clear voice, "I have a fixed impression during the battle."
Lin Yao looked at the snake head swaying slightly on his shoulder, glanced at the players in the distance who were still looking back, and shook his head slightly:
"No need to apologize. Your preconceived notion may not be wrong."
He paused, his fingertips unconsciouslyHe tucked his sleeves and said, "Most guides are afraid of snakes. I'm the only one who's afraid of them."
"You're not." Su Ye retorted almost immediately, his voice half a degree deeper than before.
The little black snake on his arm seemed to understand. It suddenly stretched out its head and spit out its tongue in the direction of Lin Yao. Then it turned around and nudged Su Ye's chin with its head, as if to join in.
Lin Yao was amused by this interaction and replied softly, "Thank you, you're not either!"
Su Ye's Adam's apple moved and he nodded.
"Wait a moment!" Before Lin Yao asked Su Ye what he was going to do next, the man spoke first.
Seeing Lin Yao nodded, Su Ye headed towards the left side of the assembly area. Xiao Hei was left behind because he was unwilling to follow.
When Su Ye came out again, he saw Lin Yao leaning against the alloy pillar with a kind smile on his face.
Following his gaze, Su Ye discovered that the tip of the little black tail at Lin Yao's feet was quietly hooked on a strand of ice-blue vine, gently pulling it like playing tug-of-war.
Shasha obviously thought that his little trick had not been discovered. His aerial roots and vines secretly stretched out half a foot, wrapped around the tip of Xiaohei's tail and swung it left and right, rubbing the healing particles on the snake's scales like sprinkling sugar, just like a child playing secretly.
Xiao Hei was happy to cooperate. He had clearly noticed the vines touching him, but he pretended not to notice.
But the unusually active tip of its tail betrayed it. Not only did it sway gently with the force of the vine, but it also rubbed the inside of the vine with its scales from time to time. Even the frequency of its spitting out its tongue was half a beat faster than usual, and its unconcealable joy oozed out from every scale.
"Where is it?" Su Ye handed the energy tank to Lin Yao with one hand, his eyes falling on the pair of spiritual bodies that were secretly interacting with each other, and there was a hint of smile in his clear voice.
The other hand touched Xiao Hei's snake head, and the snake immediately rubbed his fingertips obediently, but the tip of its tail did not stop moving.
Lin Yao took the energy tank and when he looked at Shasha again, it suddenly tensed up, like a criminal who had been caught red-handed.
"Kill, kill."
After saying this, Lin Yao was stunned.
Although he felt that the name "Xiao Hei" was too perfunctory and was comparable to the name of the old yellow dog at the village entrance on Earth, he still couldn't help but reveal the real name of his spiritual body. You know, Lei Ya and the others and Lin Yao all used the pseudonym "Zhizhi".
Lin Yao couldn't tell why, but he just felt that he was not on guard against Su Ye.
He was clearly wary of this person when they first met, so why did he change so much after just one team-up?
Su Ye was stunned for a moment, a hint of confusion flashed in his dark green eyes, and without thinking, he asked which 'sha' it was.
Lin Yao smiled cunningly: "Guess!"
Su Ye looked at the soft and weak vine again, and did not answer the question "guess". Instead, he thought in his heart that it was probably "rustling"!
The name comes from the meaning of rustling. When the vines climb, the friction between the leaves does make a rustling sound, like a spring breeze blowing through the grass.
"Rustle?" He murmured tentatively, his eyes falling on the vine leaves. "That's quite fitting."
Lin Yao didn't say much this time, just smiled and nodded.
He watched as Shasha heard the name and quietly extended the vine to hook Xiaohei's tail. This time, even the healing particles lit up even brighter, as if to say, "Yes, it's me."
Xiao Hei's tail tip swung immediately in response, and the snake's head deliberately turned towards Su Ye, pretending to look elsewhere. The look of "I didn't do anything" made Lin Yaoshou laugh.
"Let's go! Don't you still need to go to the personal training room?" Su Ye watched the interaction between Xiao Hei and Sha Sha for a while, and suddenly spoke to Lin Yao, with a subtle reminder in his clear voice.
This was beyond Lin Yao's expectations.
After this battle, he felt that he and Su Ye had cooperated very well, especially in the last wave of insects. The two's movements were seamless, and the tacit understanding between them was something they had never experienced when they were in a team with Lei Ya and others before.
Although he said at the beginning that he would only play one game, at this moment he felt a strong urge in his heart to break his own words and team up with Su Ye to play another game.
Su Ye seemed to see through his thoughts. A smile flashed in his dark green eyes, but his tone was firm and unquestionable: "One game is one game."
He paused, his gaze falling on the spirits still interacting intimately at his feet, and added, "Isn't there still tomorrow?"
Lin Yao was stunned for a moment, then reacted and a relieved smile appeared on his face.
He looked at the smile and expectation in Su Ye's eyes, and the thought of continuing to form a team was instantly replaced by tomorrow's appointment. He nodded and said, "Then, see you tomorrow!"
"See you tomorrow." Su Ye replied, reaching out and gently picking up Xiao Hei from the ground. Xiao Hei twisted his body reluctantly and stammered in grievance.
The vines of Shasha also swayed, as if saying goodbye to Xiao Hei.
Lin Yao gently patted the vine, signaling it to retract. The ice-blue aerial root vine reluctantly let go and slowly wrapped around his wrist.
He turned and walked towards his personal training room, but his heart was not at peace. Su Ye's words "tomorrow" echoed repeatedly in his mind, carrying an inexplicable warmth.
After driving him a distance, he turned back inexplicably.
Over there, Su Ye was holding Xiao Hei and standing there without leaving, watching him leave.
This scene overlaps with the previous one, but there are some differences.
Lin Yao smiled, waved his left hand goodbye again, then turned around and continued walking.
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