Elemental Burst

Time rewound to a few minutes earlier.

Lin Yun hurried along a street in North City, unmistakable worry written across her face.

She had come as agreed to visit Jiang Mian at her new place, only to find her not at home.

Something's wrong. She clearly said she'd be home waiting for me at this time. That girl's always been honest, and she takes promises seriously. Unless...

Thinking of Li Hao, that unpredictable factor, having been released, Lin Yun grew more and more uneasy.

Just as she was about to expand her search, she spotted a Security Officer conducting a routine patrol not far away.

"Officer!"

Lin Yun hurried over.

The female Security Officer who'd been called over had a brisk, short haircut. The badge on her chest showed that her name was Chen Qing.

"Hello. Do you need help?"

Chen Qing stopped and looked at Lin Yun.

"Excuse me, have you seen a girl around here? About this tall, wearing glasses, and looking very quiet..."

Lin Yun quickly described Jiang Mian's appearance, her voice urgent.

As she listened, Chen Qing unconsciously activated her ability.

Sequence 123, [Elemental] Path, [Wind Whisper].

It was a rare reconnaissance ability within the [Elemental] Path. It allowed an Awakened to sense subtle changes in the surrounding air currents and catch fragments of information carried within them, making it quite useful for keeping watch or tracking someone down.

At first, the wind brought only the desolate sounds of North City and the occasional rumble of a car engine.

But soon, she caught a few voices speaking in deliberately hushed tones.

"...Over by the warehouse, several guys have surrounded a girl..."

"She looks pretty pitiful. The girl's got her head down, and they're dragging her along..."

"Mind your own business. Don't get yourself into trouble..."

Chen Qing's expression changed. Just from those few sentences, combined with Lin Yun's description, she could more or less piece together what had happened.

She shook her head at Lin Yun and said seriously:

"Sorry, I haven't seen her. But..."

Chen Qing pointed toward the Warehouse District. It was some distance away, but she could clearly sense an unusual disturbance.

"The person you're looking for may be over there, and she might be in serious trouble. Stay close to me, and be alert."

I hope we're not too late...

Chen Qing murmured to herself, then hurried toward the Warehouse District with Lin Yun.

The closer they got, the more Chen Qing felt that the air currents here were in complete disarray, and quite violent, as though something had affected them.

She had a vague sense of foreboding. The source of this turbulence... seemed to naturally suppress her, severely restricting the flow of her ability.

As Chen Qing led Lin Yun toward a Dilapidated Warehouse, they happened to see Red Hair and Green Hair prying at the door.

"What are you doing!"

Chen Qing's sharp shout made both of them flinch.

"O-Officer..."

A Jie stammered, unable to explain himself for a long moment.

"You two?!"

Lin Yun's heart sank.

She recognized them at once. They weren't from her school, but they often followed Li Hao around, sucking up to him.

"Where's Li Hao?!"

She looked toward the warehouse, her heart tightening as she began to guess what had happened.

Had she arrived too late...

A wave of guilt surged through Lin Yun.

She knew exactly what kind of person Li Hao was. She knew he'd never let this go. And yet she'd still failed to protect Jiang Mian.

If Jiang Mian had suffered even the slightest harm because of this...

"Li Hao's inside, isn't he? What did he do to Jiang Mian?!"

Lin Yun's voice turned shrill with agitation. She was nothing like her usual gentle self.

"Calm down!"

She tried to rush forward, but Chen Qing grabbed her and held her back.

Without saying a word, Chen Qing stared fixedly toward the warehouse. The information [Wind Whisper] brought her was... extreme danger!

Something unknown seemed to have happened inside the warehouse. The disordered air currents began to converge, growing sharp enough to tear everything apart as they ripped at the heavy iron door.

Even as an Awakened who'd only just entered the Second-tier, she found this extremely difficult to handle.

"This is bad... You two, get back! Now!"

As soon as the words left her mouth, an invisible shockwave suddenly burst outward from the warehouse, knocking the two people closest to it to the ground.

Chen Qing shielded Lin Yun and used her ability to soften the impact, barely managing to keep her footing.

"Elemental Burst..."

At this level... ordinary First Order Awakened couldn't withstand it at all. And the Sequence was extremely high, severely suppressing even her own ability.

"Blood..."

Red Hair and Green Hair struggled to their feet, only to find several cuts had appeared on their bodies out of nowhere, and seemed to be widening by the moment. They panicked.

Just then, the roar of a motorcycle suddenly came from far away, growing closer.

Ye Chenyang swung his bike through a crisp skid and stopped squarely in the open space outside the warehouse.

Seeing so many people at the scene, he frowned slightly. The situation seemed even more complicated than he'd expected.

Ye Chenyang had encountered situations like this a few times before.

Though he wasn't an Awakened of the [Elemental] Path, he was an Apex Sequence, after all—and his [Radiance] ranked second only to the [Soul] Path in terms of perception.

The Flowing Wind raging through the air was clearly an Elemental Burst caused by someone!

But why was it causing his ability to fluctuate?

He clearly remembered that the Apex Sequence of the [Elemental] Path, Sequence 3's [Myriad Manifestations], had never come to Base City No. 144, hadn't he?

"Ye... Chenyang?"

Chen Qing looked at Ye Chenyang's uniform and the badge on his chest. Was he a newcomer? Or from the South District?

She was a little puzzled, but with the situation so urgent, having another person there was still a good thing. Chen Qing immediately shared the information in brief:

"We suspect an Awakened is holding a female student inside. There's an abnormal internal energy reading, possibly an out-of-control Wind Element ability!"

She turned to ask Lin Yun:

"Is the girl you're looking for an Awakened?"

"No, she isn't! She failed to Awaken a month ago!"

Lin Yun answered hurriedly. But since Chen Qing had asked, she came around and realized that this could be what had happened.

Natural Awakening.

A Natural Awakening brought on by extremely intense stimulation!

And judging by the scale and power of the elemental forces she'd stirred up, the Sequence she'd Awakened to... had to be extraordinary!

Natural Awakening?

Ye Chenyang looked toward the warehouse in the distance. A sizable Wind Field had already formed around it. To trigger an Elemental Burst of this scale right after Awakening, it would have to be a High-tier Sequence ranked at least in the top fifty.

But his senses told him something very strange. He felt compelled to go to the center of the storm and investigate.

Bang!

The warehouse doors were suddenly blown open, and violent air currents swept out with dust and debris.

"Get back!"

Chen Qing instinctively shielded Lin Yun.

Ye Chenyang narrowed his eyes slightly. A golden glow rose around him, keeping the shockwave at bay.

"Senior Chen."

After thinking it over, Ye Chenyang decided to go inside and take a look himself.

"My ability has a degree of resistance to all physical attacks. I can try to clear a path and go in to assess the situation."