Two days later, on the Snowfield.
"Safe. Hurry and warm me up." Xia Yan watched the two people run into the Natural Cave and spoke to Jiang Xiao.
Jiang Xiao, who had just run in, raised his hand and cast Blessing.
"Mm." Xia Yan shuddered in comfort, her voice soft and trembling. "We're far enough from the battlefield now~ We can take a break."
Han Jiangxue looked around and said, "There are traces of White Ghosts living here. They should have gone hunting. Be careful."
"Mm-hmm, I'll listen to you. Hurry and open the pack." Xia Yan excitedly rubbed her hands together and stared at Han Jiangxue with burning eyes. The past two days had been agonizing, and Xia Yan had been cooped up terribly.
Han Jiangxue glanced at Xia Yan and helplessly shook her head. She opened the Space Coffin and rummaged around inside.
She took out half of a torn Marching Pack and casually removed the scattered items as well.
"Let's see if there's anything good." Xia Yan hurried over, squatted down, and began looting the pack.
Her excited expression gradually stiffened. The Marching Pack contained nothing but issued wilderness-survival supplies. There was nothing valuable at all. It was just like the Marching Pack Jiang Xiao carried, with even the items being standard-issue.
"Not a single Star Pearl? Don't these guys keep any in reserve?" Xia Yan complained.
"They encountered an unprecedented crisis. The Star Pearls they had probably got absorbed while they were fleeing," Han Jiangxue calmly analyzed.
"Ugh." Xia Yan dropped onto the ground, scratched her slightly curled chestnut hair, and said with a troubled look, "You should absorb that Awakened's Star Pearl. See if you can break through to the Star Cloud Middle Stage."
"From the perspective of the team's needs, you should have this Star Pearl." Han Jiangxue maintained a strictly official attitude, as though she had never been tempted by anything. She directly pulled out the small, frozen half-corpse covered in ice and snow.
Jiang Xiao came over, finally having time to examine the Awakened.
He was an adult man, probably in his forties. His expression was extremely terrified, and he had a full beard and a face covered in rolls of fat. He looked as though he had been living quite comfortably.
"He might be a long-range damage-dealing Awakened." Xia Yan turned back and looked at his chubby face, saying disdainfully, "No close-combat Awakened could eat themselves into this shape. He's obviously the pampered-master type."
As everyone knew, increasing one's Star Power required physical strength. If an Awakened was striving to grow, they would definitely train their body like mad.
This Awakened had probably gotten stuck at a certain Star Power stage. After finding that no amount of effort could help him advance, he had begun indulging himself.
"Open it," Han Jiangxue said.
"I hope the Star Power level he got stuck at was high." Xia Yan had evidently reached the same conclusion. She casually flipped the frozen half-corpse over, took out a dagger, and skillfully extracted the Star Pearl from the Awakened's brain.
This was also Jiang Xiao's first time seeing what a human Star Pearl looked like.
It was nothing breathtaking. It was simply a Star Pearl about the size of a glass marble, no different from a White Ghost Star Bead, emitting a faint fluorescent glow.
"Can I take a look?" Jiang Xiao asked.
"This was taken from a human corpse, you know." Xia Yan extended the hand holding the Star Pearl and teasingly looked at Jiang Xiao.
Jiang Xiao pursed his lips unhappily. Xia Yan had teased him quite a few times over the past two days.
Everyone needed time to grow. That was unavoidable. No one was born a cold-blooded, emotionless killer. Later training and environmental factors were both extremely important.
Jiang Xiao took the bloodstained Star Pearl, and at that very instant, his entire body froze in place.
Xia Yan and Han Jiangxue had repeatedly stated that it was impossible to absorb any Star Skills from human Star Pearls.
Yet at this very moment, a vast amount of information suddenly surged into Jiang Xiao's mind.
?? Star Pearl (?? Quality) Star Skills: 1. Green Glow: Delivers a Powerful Strike to the enemy, increasing damage to the Green Glow area and adding a slight knockback effect. (Bronze Quality, upgradeable) 2. Endurance: Passive Star Skill, increases one's own defense. (Bronze Quality, upgradeable) Can be merged and absorbed. 3. Blessing: Slowly restores the target's vitality. (Bronze Quality, upgradeable) 4. Decoy: Creates an illusion to confuse the enemy. (Bronze Quality, upgradeable) Can be merged and absorbed. 5. Scorching Flame: Condenses lines of fire that cover the body or equipment. (Silver Quality, upgradeable) 6. Exploding Flame: Condenses a fireball and creates an explosion. (Silver Quality, upgradeable) Can be merged and absorbed. 7. Bell Chime: Releases Medical Light to heal the target's body; can connect multiple targets. (Silver Quality, upgradeable) 8. Bearing Seal: Leaves a seal on the target to guide the connection and jumping of Medical Light. Can be merged and absorbed.
"Gulp." Jiang Xiao swallowed, held the Star Pearl in his hand, and stared blankly at the two women.
"What's wrong?" Han Jiangxue asked.
"I..." Jiang Xiao hesitated.
"Little Pi?" Xia Yan sat on the ground and slowly raised her head. Her eyes shone as she looked at Jiang Xiao. "Is there anything you'd like to share with me?"
Han Jiangxue knew that Jiang Xiao was not a greedy person.
She would not have dared make that guarantee before.
But ever since Han Jiangxue had told Jiang Xiao that the Gold Quality Star Pearl containing the Shattered Space space was left to him by their parents, the feedback Jiang Xiao had given her had been exceptionally heartwarming.
Over this long period, Han Jiangxue had also seen how Jiang Xiao had changed.
At this moment, a Star Dust Stage rookie had no need to take this Star Pearl. It would not be of much use to Jiang Xiao and would instead waste a large amount of his Star Power.
"I..." Jiang Xiao was still somewhat hesitant.
Han Jiangxue sensed that something was wrong and beckoned to Jiang Xiao.
Jiang Xiao walked over, and the siblings went to the cave entrance.
"What's wrong?" Han Jiangxue asked quietly.
Jiang Xiao thought it over and came up with a reason. "I sensed that this Star Pearl contains Medical Star Techniques."
Han Jiangxue was somewhat surprised. "Hmm?"
"I'm serious." Jiang Xiao knew that what he had said was too bizarre, but he could not tell Han Jiangxue that he possessed the Inner Star Map, could he?
"You can extract Star Skills from human Star Pearls?" Han Jiangxue said quietly. "That wouldn't be good news for the other Awakened."
Jiang Xiao froze when he heard this.
The fact that Star Power could be extracted from human Star Pearls would make them somewhat attractive to Awakened.
But if Star Skills could be extracted from human Star Pearls, their attraction would increase by thousands or even tens of thousands of times.
The reason this world remained relatively stable was largely because Star Skills could not be extracted from human Star Pearls.
If Jiang Xiao broke that restriction... But the facts proved that Jiang Xiao really could break it. The Inner Star Map had given Jiang Xiao unlimited possibilities!
"No, I can't sense the other Star Skills. I'm just exceptionally sensitive to Medical Star Techniques." Jiang Xiao lowered his voice. "You didn't believe me when I said my Star Skills could increase in quality, either."
Han Jiangxue remained silent for a while before continuing, "Can you only absorb Star Skills from Star Pearls? What about other things?"
Mm. That was a question.
Han Jiangxue had once asked: What did humans possess? Indeed, humans did not possess innate Star Skills, but what humans possessed innately was the Star Map!
Could Jiang Xiao absorb a Star Map from a human Star Pearl? Could he increase the number of his Star Slots?
Before you continue