Ling Xiaotian smiled slightly, and as he waved his sleeve, his white robe billowed. A fierce gust of wind followed the signal flare, instantly clearing the darkness from the corner.
Clink, clink, clink! Dozens of dark energy spirit crystals landed on the tiles outside the stadium, making crisp sounds.
On the other side, an ability user responsible for recording the distribution of merit began to quickly log the number of dark creatures killed by Ling Xiaotian.
Then, Yu Zhibo turned the signal gun head towards another direction.
At this moment, he couldn't help but miss the feeling of using a Gatling gun to obliterate dark creatures in the military zone a few days ago. However, this was a city area, surrounded by residential buildings. Without the public announcement of supernatural powers, it wasn't suitable to cause too much of a stir.
Bang!
A low gun sound echoed, and the signal gun, equipped with a silencer, fired again.
Ling Xiaotian employed the same tactic, and instantly, more than twenty dark energy spirit crystals fell to the ground.
"Still too slow!" Yu Zhibo muttered. Killing only dozens of dark creatures at a time. If he had a Gatling gun, he would have cleared them out by now.
Ling Xiaotian, who had been smiling broadly, froze for a moment upon hearing Yu Zhibo's words, then rolled his eyes.
"Good heavens," he thought, "The entire Execution Department, with so many people, spends considerable manpower and resources to clear a thousand dark creatures in a month. Yet Yu Zhibo, from the beginning until now, has already eliminated nearly a thousand, and he still thinks it's slow?"
Yu Zhibo, unaware of the internal monologue he had provoked, continued to recover his spiritual energy while leisurely marking the gathering areas of dark creatures with his signal gun.
The two cooperated in this manner, eliminating over a thousand creatures in a short period.
Soon, the dark creatures in the surroundings became sparse.
Ling Xiaotian's smile was so wide his gums were showing. Over a thousand creatures, even if he only got half, that would be nearly six hundred. Coupled with those eliminated by the department earlier, the Execution Department's target was now only a little over a hundred dark creatures away.
Unfortunately, good times ended too quickly. Yu Zhibo's spiritual energy had recovered considerably.
Putting down the signal gun, Yu Zhibo chuckled, "Team Leader Two, the dark creatures have thinned out and are no longer gathered together. From now on, it's up to me to handle them."
With that, he leaped down from the air dome, his body crackling with lightning, resembling a ball of thunder as he charged towards the dark creatures.
Ling Xiaotian chuckled and said nothing more, standing with his hands behind his back, watching Yu Zhibo's performance.
He always maintained his composure perfectly.
Yu Zhibo, however, was quite anxious.
This was because he was short on merit points and energy points!
This time in the city, it seemed there weren't many dark creatures drawn to the stadium, possibly due to the scarcity of awakened seeds acting as bait. So far, his system had only gained a little over nine thousand energy points.
As for merit points, besides the rewards for eliminating dark creatures, there weren't many awakened seeds either, so he hadn't earned much merit by identifying awakened individuals.
Unlike the soldiers in the military zone, ordinary junior and senior high school students hadn't consumed spirit beast meat and their physical fitness wasn't strong, resulting in a lower chance of awakening. Yu Zhibo had tested thirty thousand students today and only found forty-six awakened seeds.
Therefore, Yu Zhibo decided to harvest the last wave of dark creatures himself.
He transformed into a ball of lightning, leaving a long trail of light as he ran. His Sharingan eyes left streaks of red afterimages due to the rapid movement. Wherever he passed, all dark creatures that touched him turned into dark energy spirit crystals.
This incredibly dazzling scene made the sixteen young awakened seeds in the air dome's interior feel their blood boil, with exclamations of awe erupting continuously. The few girls present also wore infatuated expressions, clearly smitten.
This was a stark contrast to their initial apprehension.
"Is this what a transcendent is like? So exciting! Can I be like this in the future?"
Inside the air dome, a high school student with a honest face and a height of 1.8 meters leaned against the air wall, looking at the ball of lightning in the stadium with excitement.
"I thought the news online before was fake. I didn't expect there to be transcendent beings in this world? I knew it, why have novels about spiritual energy revival become so popular recently? It turns out the country has been planning ahead, laying the groundwork for the emergence of supernatural powers."
A bespectacled student analyzed sagely.
"I'm so looking forward to it! We are all awakened seeds, so we will definitely awaken. I just don't know what abilities we'll have. I hope mine is lightning too!"
A student said with anticipation. He was plain-looking and usually one of the most unremarkable people in his class.
"I, on the other hand, hope I can have x-ray vision!" another student chuckled, then added profoundly, "I hope to see through the truth of this world."
"Pah! Disgusting~" a girl spat.
"Yesterday, I saw news about supernatural events in The Times in the UK. It said that near the Lin Yin Lake on the outskirts of Gamma City, a rooster that breathed fire appeared and burned to death the owner who tried to violate it; and The Lighthouse Times reported a completely black monster that swallowed a person who suddenly burst into flames. Are these news reports all true?"
The speaker was a slender, clean-cut young man with messy hair. As he spoke, he looked at the C-class officer beside him with a questioning expression.
The others were also piqued by his words and looked towards the officer in unison.
A hint of a smile appeared on the C-class officer's stern face as he said faintly, "There's no need to rush to understand now. Once you reach the base, you will naturally learn everything you want to know."
The clean-cut youth nodded and stopped speaking, his gaze returning to the charging ball of lightning in the stadium, a trace of envy in his eyes.
At the same time, a sense of urgency arose within him: "This world is about to descend into chaos, and he needs sufficient self-preservation abilities."
Meanwhile, on the other side...
After quickly eliminating the remaining dark creatures, Yu Zhibo finally stopped. The lightning dispersed, revealing his handsome figure.
He checked his energy points. They had increased from 9640 points before his cooperation with Ling Xiaotian to 15840 points. After dropping the signal gun, he had eliminated a total of 620 dark creatures.
"Not bad!" Yu Zhibo muttered. He looked at his skill bar and found that the Shadow Clone Jutsu still didn't have a '+' sign, indicating that his energy points hadn't reached the requirement for mastery. However, the Basic Hand Seals option had a '+' sign, indicating it could be upgraded.
So, after some thought, he spent 5000 energy points to upgrade Basic Hand Seals to Mastery. Immediately, the suffix of the Basic Hand Seals option changed from Beginner to Mastery.
Ninja hand seals, in the end, were nothing more than a special form of psychological suggestion. Each hand seal gesture corresponded to a different chakra circulation route.
Those who could break free from the reliance on hand seals either achieved a perfect level of mastery in a certain ninjutsu or were so familiar with the flow of chakra within their bodies that they could perform it without hand seals, getting whatever they wanted.
After mastering Basic Hand Seals, Yu Zhibo spent another thousand energy points to learn the Lightning Release Ninjutsu Body Technique [Righteous Thunder's Wrathful Axe], bringing him one step closer to becoming a violent thunder man.
Simultaneously, upon seeing that Body Flicker Technique could be upgraded to Mastery, he spent another 5000 energy points to upgrade it. This significantly reduced the skill's consumption, changing it from 10 spiritual energy per meter moved to 1 spiritual energy per meter moved, a qualitative change.
Mastery of Body Flicker Technique greatly enhanced his mobility and his ability to show off.
After clearing all the dark creatures at the scene, it was already past eight o'clock in the evening. Ling Xiaotian channeled his B-class mental power to gather all the dark energy spirit crystals and placed them in the prepared boxes for the statistician ability user to settle.
At the same time, a green-tarped truck drove into the stadium. This was the military zone preparing to transport the sixteen awakened seeds to the newly established Spirit Array Room within the base.
"Brother, so cool!"
"666, big brother, awesome!"
"Brother, can I add your WeChat? Not for anything else, I just want to ask some questions about ability users."
As Yu Zhibo was quietly upgrading his skills, the sixteen awakened seeds passed by him, exclaiming "666." A girl with bangs even tried to ask for his WeChat.
Yu Zhibo came back to his senses, looked at the energetic awakened seeds, waved his hand with a smile, and didn't reply, disappearing with his achievements unknown.
"Aren't you going back with us?" Ling Xiaotian asked as he brushed past Yu Zhibo, following behind the sixteen awakened seeds.
"No, I still need to buy some things!" Yu Zhibo replied.
Little Timmy didn't speak Chinese yet, and communication was a big problem. He planned to buy some homework for Little Timmy to study. At the same time, although Mo Yu could understand human speech, she didn't understand the meaning of many words and also needed to learn.
"Alright!" Ling Xiaotian nodded and walked towards the military truck with the sixteen awakened seeds. After all sixteen students were on board, he leaped up and sat cross-legged on the roof of the truck, a sword resting on his knees, his long hair flowing in the wind, looking incredibly dashing.
"Comrade, we'll be passing through many traffic lights with cameras later. Could you please sit inside the vehicle with us?"
"Oh, alright!" Ling Xiaotian sheepishly got off the roof and sat inside the carriage with the students.
Yu Zhibo was speechless. After the military truck started, he placed his fingers together in front of his chest and used Body Flicker Technique to disappear from his spot.
"Hmm, compared to putting both hands together, single-hand finger-to-chest looks cooler."