"Finishing move."
Ye Xiaojing's voice carried not the slightest hint of emotion, as cold as an executioner about to carry out a sentence.
At that moment, dissection plans for invertebrates, vertebrates, and even the human body flickered chaotically through Jiang Qian's mind.
The animal specimens he had prepared with his own hands still looked lifelike, preserving their vivid appearance from when they were alive.
"If you walk through the Super-Species World without the skills to reap lives, you'll become someone else's target at any moment."
Ye Xiaojing stood beneath a spotlight, her hands tucked into her coat pockets. Her refined features and cool demeanor, paired with a khaki beret and long trench coat, gave her a distinctly British air.
Withered Leaf Mantis, Ye Xiaojing...
For the first time, Jiang Qian studied the low-key girl with some seriousness. She was the accomplished Hunter Lan Junxian had mentioned. He imagined how dashing she must look as she manually chopped up spiders.
No, mantises liked live prey. Rather than use their hands, they preferred to use their mouths.
"Want to try?"
Ye Xiaojing suddenly fixed her gaze on Jiang Qian. A hint of provocation mingled with the chill in her eyes.
Jiang Qian froze for a moment.
Huh? I haven't offended you, have I...
"What kind of martial arts have you studied? Karate? Kickboxing?" As she spoke, Ye Xiaojing walked toward Jiang Qian, who was sitting in his seat and listening attentively.
She strode forward without so much as glancing aside, as if she were about to draw a blade the very next second.
"Wait! Xiao Jing, how can you bully the new student right in front of the teacher?" Lan Junxian couldn't take it anymore. "Let me finish the theory first. It'll be quick."
Judging by his expression, he wasn't worried about Jiang Qian getting beaten up. He was afraid of getting blood splattered on himself.
"Sure, boss."
Jiang Qian: "..."
So Lan Junxian, with no personal stake in the matter, began explaining the power structure among the License Holders in the country, the unavoidable "dungeons" involved in vertical evolution, and the use of special resources.
First came the divisions among License Holder factions. They generally fell into four categories:
1. Law-abiding official elites and all the License Holder employees within the Wanzhong Group;
2. Unregistered independent practitioners and civilian organizations;
3. Non-law-abiding organizations primarily made up of Mutants;
4. Independent Mutants.
Law-abiding License Holders were mostly concentrated in local Special Affairs Centers and branches of the Wanzhong Group. These included both law-abiding officials and personnel on file who held no official positions.
There were also law-abiding independent practitioners and civilian organizations that weren't on official records, but they were few and far between.
The rest were organizations and individuals made up primarily of Mutants.
As Lan Junxian put it, there weren't many of them, but their negative impact on society couldn't be underestimated.
As a law-abiding License Holder, Jiang Qian would likely have plenty of opportunities to encounter or clash with Mutants in the future.
Among the Mutant organizations Lan Junxian had singled out, besides God Mountain and the Black Alliance, which Jiang Qian had already encountered, there was another mysterious and representative group that came up repeatedly: the Ashes Organization.
If the Black Alliance were rats scurrying across the street, burning, killing, looting, cheating, and doing every foul deed imaginable without a shred of decency,
then the Ashes Organization was just the opposite.
It wasn't that Ashes had no principles. Its principles were simply extraordinary.
Its members believed that Mutants were evolution's ultimate destination, a higher species freed from biological nature. They called mutation "metamorphosis."
They thought highly of themselves, held themselves to strict moral standards, and imposed those same strict standards on others.
They would often draw their blades and kill over the most trivial matters. They even had a lofty justification for it: to turn every seed of evil to ash.
"These lunatics are much harder to deal with than the rats in the Black Alliance. They're extremely disciplined, so most of them are pretty strong," Lan Junxian said.
At this, Jiang Qian asked, "What kind of 'trivial matters' usually get them riled up?"
"Anything!"
Lan Junxian rubbed the space between his brows and thought for a moment. "Last month, East Sea handled a case where more than a dozen students living in the same apartment were all murdered."
"The killer has been caught. According to the sympathizer on the fringe of the Ashes Organization, he killed them simply because they threw a party in the middle of the night and disturbed the neighbors."
Well, disturbing the neighbors in the middle of the night was pretty bad, but not bad enough to deserve death... Jiang Qian thought he'd found the root of these lunatics' problem: paranoia and narcissism.
"If you run into people like that in a dungeon, stay as far away as you can. Getting hunted down for spitting on the ground isn't worth it."
As he spoke, Lan Junxian shifted the lesson to the Evolution Dungeons.
Jiang Qian's battle that had made him famous was his clearance of the trial-stage horror nightmare, "Whispers of the Inner Demon." He'd even walked away with the Little Devil Set, perfect for guarding the house and acting as a safety net, as well as the Secret-Seeking Notebook, whose functions were as unconventional as they came.
So he was looking forward to his next dungeon:
He wanted to get stronger and collect more chips and trump cards!
He figured he'd had enough of the loss of control that the Peacock Spider had brought him.
And the only way to avoid that feeling was to increase his own strength.
"Evolution Dungeons come around once a month. Aside from the first trial dungeon, every later dungeon will come with a countdown. Usually, you'll get an hour's notice, along with the dungeon type, so License Holders can make any necessary preparations."
"For example, carry my body home and hide it?" Jiang Qian joked.
"That's not necessary. Your body will come with you into the Evolution Dungeon, and you'll disappear from where you are. Of course, when you come back, you'll reappear in the same spot."
Lan Junxian warned him again:
"Whatever you do, don't try to tempt fate by standing in the middle of the road. Even if you make it out of the Evolution Dungeon, there's no guarantee you won't get sent off for good the very next second."
Jiang Qian nodded as he took notes.
The rest of the material, like dungeon difficulty levels, was more or less the same as what the young lady had told him before.
The final topic covered the uses of two special resources in the Super-Species World: items and Super-Species Crystals.
Items needed no explanation. All their information was contained within them like an instruction manual, and touching them or making similar contact let you learn how to use them.
Whether they were living items or consumables, they strictly followed the functions and costs laid out in their own "instruction manuals."
For Jiang Qian, who had started off with two top-tier items, this was nothing new.
What delighted Jiang Qian were Super-Species Crystals!
As the genuine hard currency of the Super-Species World, Super-Species Crystals could be used to pay for your life.
At Jiang Qian's current level, using ten Super-Species Crystals each time would complete one unit of the stake:
Super-Species Crystals*10=Life*1.
There were currently ten of them sitting in his virtual cabinet.
He was set for the next dungeon!
Watching the corners of Jiang Qian's mouth slowly curl upward, Ye Xiaojing had already started loosening her wrists.
"That's it for today. Class dismissed."
Lan Junxian wore an expression that suggested he was looking forward to a good show. "You two shouldn't stay up too late. Helping a junior is part of a senior's duty, but don't overdo it. Take care of yourselves."
"No problem."
As she spoke, Ye Xiaojing slipped a pair of wrist guards over her hands.
They were suppressor items. Once worn, they prevented the use of Mutant abilities above the Second State.
As the girl watched Lan Junxian saunter away, her gaze shifted to Jiang Qian. "I won't use any abilities above the Second State. We'll only do a teaching exercise within the First State. I'll test what you can do first, then decide what to teach you."
Test what I can do? You're not holding a grudge because you didn't get to eat the Peacock Spider, are you... Jiang Qian was speechless.
He even suspected that Lan Junxian and Ye Xiaojing were in on it...
Pushing him to his limit and forcing him to grow too fast!
"I haven't studied any kind of martial arts," Jiang Qian said honestly.
"Oh. Then get ready to be beaten up, rookie."
No use. Ye Xiaojing was completely unfeeling!
She went to the weapon rack and picked up two wooden long swords. She weighed them in her palms, gave them a look that said "these'll have to do," then headed toward the center of the sparring area.
"Come on. It's getting late."
As she spoke, she raised both hands high above her head. With a swish, the girl's body unfolded gracefully, her twin blades spreading out on either side of her.
Just from that opening flourish, Jiang Qian was sure he was screwed.
"Okay."
Whether he stood tall or cowered, the blade would fall either way.
Jiang Qian also picked up a long weapon from the rack: a wooden sword. He copied Ye Xiaojing, weighing it in his hand.
His movements weren't exactly graceful, but he did his best to look composed.
He turned to face his opponent. "Actually, I don't really want to fight you, since you're a girl."
"You can say that once you're strong enough to crush me."
As soon as she finished speaking, Ye Xiaojing blurred forward, instantly closing in on Jiang Qian's unarmed left side—her twin blades slashed across!
Before you continue