Fang Rou watched Zhou Fan walk away.
She wanted to know his name.
But Zhou Fan refused to tell her, so she could only do her best to remember his face.
The others also watched Zhou Fan leave with gratitude.
[Gratitude +10] [Gratitude +20]
Zhou Fan was already far away when the Emotion Points from those people finally came in.
[Ding! Congratulations, host! You have accumulated Emotion Points from 15,000 emotional responses and unlocked the "Heartthrob" achievement!] [Achievement rewards received: 15,000 Emotion Points, Water Release Ninjutsu Gift Pack ×1]
"Achievement rewards?"
"Ten thousand Emotion Points, plus a Water Release Ninjutsu gift pack? What a score!" Zhou Fan's eyes instantly lit up.
He immediately opened the Water Release Ninjutsu gift pack.
[Water Release Ninjutsu obtained-] [Water Release: Water Shockwave] [Water Release: Water Formation Wall] [Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique] [Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave] [Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique]
He had obtained five Water Release techniques in one go.
Awesome!
Fire Release + Water Release-straight-up vaporize damage!
[Detected: The host's current Emotion Points exceed 20,000!] [Friendly reminder: You can unlock a bond character.]
Zhou Fan currently had two bond characters-Obito Uchiha and Hashirama Senju!
Both required 20,000 Emotion Points to unlock.
Zhou Fan now had over thirty thousand Emotion Points, enough to unlock one bond character.
"Obito or Hashirama Senju-which one should I unlock?"
Zhou Fan was torn.
Both bond characters had incredibly powerful ninjutsu.
One possessed the power of Wood Release, enough to pacify a world at war!
The other possessed Kamui, with its nearly invincible defenses!
It was a tough choice.
"I'll unlock Hashirama Senju first."
After a moment's thought, Zhou Fan decided to unlock Hashirama Senju first.
The reason was simple: Kamui had powerful defensive capabilities, but lacked offensive power.
Wood Release was different-it excelled at both offense and defense!
Of course, that only applied to Hashirama Senju's Wood Release.
Everyone knew it wasn't Wood Release that was strong. It was Hashirama Senju.
Not everyone's Wood Release was that powerful.
The perfect counterexample was Konoha's landscaping engineer-Yamato!
They might both use Wood Release, but who used it made all the difference.
Zhou Fan made his final choice.
[20,000 Emotion Points consumed. Bond character successfully unlocked-Hashirama Senju!] [Rewards obtained: Wood Release: Wood Locking Wall, Wood Release: Tree Binding Eternal Burial, Wood Release: Wood Clone, Wood Release: Cutting Sprigs] [Ninjutsu awaiting unlock:] [Sage Mode: 10,000 Emotion Points] [Wood Release: Birth of the Tree World: 10,000 Emotion Points] [Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique: 10,000 Emotion Points] [Wood Release: Hōbi Technique: 10,000 Emotion Points] [Wood Release: Wood Golem Technique: 50,000 Emotion Points] [Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands: 100,000 Emotion Points]
Twenty thousand Emotion Points only unlocked the bond character.
That didn't mean it unlocked all of the bond character's abilities outright.
If it did, those twenty thousand Emotion Points would have been an incredible bargain.
"Only four Wood Release techniques? And I have to spend so many Emotion Points to redeem the rest? What a rip-off!"
At least the system had given him four Wood Release techniques for free... wait!
Strictly speaking, he had spent 20,000 Emotion Points to redeem those four Wood Release techniques!
Sure enough, there was no such thing as a free lunch!
"If you're going to give me techniques, just give me Wood Dragon Technique, Wood Human Technique, Birth of the Tree World, and Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands."
"So stingy!" Zhou Fan looked utterly unimpressed.
[Detected: The host is dissatisfied with the system's rewards. This system can reclaim the free rewards.]
???
"Oh, great system, I was only joking! How could I possibly be dissatisfied with you?" Zhou Fan hurriedly said with a fawning grin.
The system said nothing more.
He breathed a sigh of relief and didn't dare complain again.
Otherwise, he really feared the system would take back the rewards it had given him for free.
Zhou Fan quickened his pace and left.
On the other side of the forest.
Lin Qianqian and Li Mengyao had gone hunting together that day.
"Xixi, I can finally team up with you and go hunting."
"You have no idea how much I've missed you these past few days apart!" Li Mengyao said with a beaming smile.
Only Lin Qianqian and Zhou Fan had received special permission to leave the city the day after completing their training.
Everyone else had stayed at school to cultivate for several more days.
Those with fairly good aptitude could head out after cultivating for two or three days and reaching first-tier two-star.
Those with more average aptitude needed to cultivate for four or five days, or even a week!
Actually, Li Mengyao had finished her cultivation training two days earlier and no longer needed to attend school.
She had an A-rank Wind Type talent, placing her aptitude among the best at Tianhai No. 1 High School.
She had simply spent a little extra time quickly advancing to first-tier three-star so she could team up with Lin Qianqian.
"I missed you too. Let me take you out to farm monsters and level up today," Lin Qianqian said.
She was cold and aloof toward most people.
But around Li Mengyao, she expressed her emotions naturally.
"Hehe, I've been waiting for you to carry me."
"Let's go!"
The two headed straight for the Mutant Beast Forest.
To accommodate Li Mengyao, Lin Qianqian only took her to the Beginner Mutant Beast Forest.
The mutant beasts here were all around first-tier three-star or first-tier four-star.
Although mutant beasts of this level no longer posed much of a challenge to her.
They were perfect for testing the technique she had recently mastered.
Soon, a group of mutant beasts spotted them and closed in.
Lin Qianqian made the first move.
With a gentle wave of her hand, sheets of paper fluttered through the air, raining down among the mutant beasts.
The light, drifting paper gave off no hint of danger, and the mutant beasts paid it no mind.
Until-
"Paper Explosion Technique: Detonate!"
Lin Qianqian calmly uttered those words.
The next second, the sheets of paper began to burn, then exploded like bombs.
BOOM!!!
Every sheet of white paper packed the force of a bomb.
Dozens of sheets exploded in rapid succession, blasting all the mutant beasts away in one go.
They were dead beyond any doubt!
"That's amazing..." Li Mengyao stared in shock.
"Xixi, you're actually this strong now?"
"This is a new skill I only comprehended yesterday. It's still in the testing stage."
"But its power really is pretty good." Lin Qianqian was very satisfied.
This was her newly learned skill-Paper Explosion Technique!
It could turn white paper into explosive tags.
These seemingly harmless sheets of white paper were easy to underestimate in battle, making people assume they couldn't do much damage.
Then the white paper turned into explosive tags.
Anyone who dared underestimate those sheets of paper would pay dearly!
However, Paper Explosion Technique had one drawback: creating explosive tags consumed spiritual energy, so to keep using them in battle, she had to prepare plenty in advance.
But that wasn't a particularly serious drawback.
She just needed to make more explosive tags beforehand.
Before comprehending Paper Explosion Technique, Lin Qianqian could only rely on the basic Dance of the Shikigami in combat, which was somewhat taxing.
But things were different now.
She would show this world the art of explosions!
Before you continue