I came at a bad time, sorry to interrupt your sparring.

After the sparring incident, the days that followed were relatively peaceful for the two of them.

Liu Yuan's school didn’t seem to have any plans to organize another Origin Realm training session.

Su Qi, as her older brother, had his hands full worrying about his sister’s performance.

As her guardian, he had to conduct targeted pre-exam combat training almost every day.

Fortunately, the results were encouraging.

Before the combat exam, Liu Yuan finally broke through the threshold of the fourth tier.

She proudly ascended to the fifth tier—Shadow Candle Realm!

Her unique talent also underwent a transformation.

[When Longing Overflows into Sickness]

[Tier: ?????? (Sixth Tier)]

[Strength +5]

[Agility +15]

[Magic +50]

[Growth Condition: Accumulate 15 billion ‘specific target’ upgrade points (6.91234 billion/15 billion)]

[Current Usable Ability: Heart’s Anchor (Intermediate)]

[Heart’s Anchor (Intermediate): You can sense the surface-level emotional fluctuations of the ‘specific target’ (effective range: 100 meters) and transmit your own emotions or longing to them (no distance limit).]

[Soul’s Oath: No matter where you are, you will always meet ‘that person.’]

[Love’s Curse: (Unlock progress: 66%)]

After reaching the sixth tier, her base attributes even increased.

This was an astonishing development.

Because the attributes enhanced by her unique talent were permanent and didn’t require additional soul force to maintain.

On top of that, Liu Yuan’s somewhat unconventional exclusive card also didn’t consume soul force.

[Card Name: Trash Mob’s Favorite (Temporary name; changes hourly upon encountering special events)]

[Type: Exclusive Equipment · Illusion]

[Rarity: Epic]

[Energy Level: ????? (Fifth Tier)]

[Attributes]

[Strength +30 (Please advance)]

[Agility +30 (Please advance)]

[Magic +30 (Please advance)]

[Special Passive ①: Talent and Effort]

[Special Passive ②: Infinite Potential—This card still seems capable of further evolution.]

[Special Passive ③: Thousand Faces · Myriad Forms]

[This equipment can devour other non-everyday clothing to unlock them as ‘skins’ (current devour slots: 1/2)]

This essentially gave her the equivalent of two extra cards’ worth of attributes.

For example, the Shadow Candle Realm typically only allowed the activation of three cards at once—usually two equipment cards for base attributes and one flexible skill or special card.

But Liu Yuan effectively had the attribute boosts of four equipment cards, and that exclusive equipment card came with multiple passives, far surpassing the single passive of a normal piece of gear.

It was almost as valuable as a skill card.

Now, her ability to challenge opponents a tier above her was no joke.

Of course, that didn’t apply to Su Qi.

Because sparring with Su Qi was always a controlled training session, whereas other battles were life-or-death struggles.

Even though Su Qi went easy on her every day, she still lost more often than she won.

Her only chance at victory relied on the special passive abilities—Phantom Fox Steps + Soul-Stealing Foxfire.

Combined with the attribute bonuses from her exclusive equipment, she could coat her feet in foxfire and exploit her high agility to strike Su Qi’s weak point.

The slight soul-burning sensation inflicted intense control effects on him, making it nearly impossible for him to counterattack afterward.

He could only endure her onslaught.

But high agility came with its own drawback—mobility sacrificed too much raw power, leaving her damage somewhat lacking.

It often took half an hour of relentless attacks before Su Qi would finally concede.

If she failed to land that critical strike, she’d inevitably end up getting thrashed by him.

Liu Yuan briefly recalled the humiliating defeats from their sparring sessions.

It could be summed up in three words:

Too cringe.

Or, more succinctly:

Don’t look.

For those unfamiliar with the more complex characters, a simpler homophone would be…

"Bu Kan."

But to grasp the homophone’s meaning, you’d have to flip your phone upside down to see the true nature of her losses.

One glance was enough to understand why Liu Yuan struggled against Su Qi.

No further explanation was needed.

……

Compared to Liu Yuan, Su Qi had far more to worry about.

Sometimes, ignorance truly was bliss.

Liu Yuan got to spar every day and ate to her heart’s content.

Though her picky eating habits had resurfaced.

No wonder she never grew taller.

Every week, she’d pester Su Qi for a box of fresh cream strawberry cake.

Strawberry cakes were easy to find, but the cream had to be freshly whipped.

What a gluttonous little fox.

Still, Liu Yuan knew her limits and occasionally bought chocolate cake as compensation for Su Qi.

A fair exchange, all things considered.

Setting aside these trivial thoughts, Su Qi frowned at his accumulated points.

He’d been hoarding them for a while now.

It was about time to spend some to bolster his immediate combat strength.

If the enemy proved too strong and he got instantly wiped out, who could he even complain to?

The enemy wouldn’t care about fairness.

Even if you already have three two-star units, because time ran out before you could combine them into a three-star, the enemy won’t wait for your invincible stance next round.

When it’s time to go, you’re sent packing.

【Shining 186】

【Brilliance: 2】

【Joy:】

Hmm?

The Joy points are higher than expected?

Not surprising.

Over a month’s time, how could the points stay stagnant?

Naturally, a few things would trigger some point gains here and there.

Of course, the biggest source of income still came from Yun Huang.

A full 20,000 points.

It was the third day of the martial exam training.

The injuries Liu Yuan had sustained from sparring seemed to have mostly healed.

True to the saying "once on shore, one prays no more," she immediately challenged Su Qi again, eager to prove she could defeat a sixth-rank opponent as a fourth-rank.

Then, right at noon, Su Qi locked her down with a chain of controls.

An utterly one-sided beatdown.

Another "too brutal to watch" crushing defeat.

And just then, the front door swung open.

Su Qi remembered locking it.

No idea how Yun Huang managed to open it or what urgent matter required a face-to-face talk.

Su Qi and Liu Yuan, one looking up, the other down, stared at Yun Huang.

The three of them froze as if hit by a petrifying spell—a full 20 seconds of stunned silence.

During that time, +999 points ticked every second.

Just like that, 20,000 points were deposited.

Finally, Yun Huang hesitated, then closed the door. "I came at a bad time. Sorry for interrupting your sparring."