...Isn't That Daylight Robbery?

Su Wuwei stared meaningfully at Ye Buyu's back. According to what he had learned, there really were no first-tier candidates in this year's Gaokao, and her behavior was very strange.

He had actually noticed her long ago and had been watching her in secret for quite some time, taking note of her strange behavior and the nonsense coming out of her mouth.

He suspected that she... might be a Calamity that had slipped in among the candidates.

Su Wuwei asked tentatively, "Ye Buyu, how are you going to pass the Assessment if you don't kill Calamities?"

Ye Buyu scratched her head. "Isn't the Assessment based on exploration progress?"

So she even knows about exploration progress. The corners of Su Wuwei's mouth lifted into a bright, sunny smile.

"But obtaining materials by killing Calamities is an important part of exploration, too."

Su Wuwei's eyes curved with his smile. "After all... most Calamities are very good at disguising themselves. Only their remains reveal a hint of their true nature after death. Collect enough remains, and you can figure out what the Calamities really are, as well as what happened in this area."

Under Su Wuwei's secretly probing gaze, Ye Buyu struck her fist against her palm in realization. "Oh! So everyone ends up learning the same things I do!"

She turned excitedly toward Su Wuwei. "Su Wuwei, do you know what that thing you just burned to death was?"

"I picked up some materials earlier that felt like rabbit fur. Its true nature should be something like a rabbit."

"It was a wild rabbit!" Her big eyes sparkling, Ye Buyu excitedly tugged at Su Wuwei. "Then look behind you. What's that?"

Without even turning his head, Su Wuwei tossed out a ball of fire. "Another forest Calamity, just like the last one."

"No, it's a squirrel!" Ye Buyu pointed at the remains left in the ashes. "Look at that stone. Doesn't it look like a pine cone?"

Su Wuwei was puzzled. "So what if it does? It looks like a twisted Calamity on the surface, but its true nature might be a creature we can understand. That's common knowledge among Awakened..."

His lighthearted voice gradually faded. Su Wuwei finally noticed something was wrong, and his amber eyes snapped toward Ye Buyu. She had called it a squirrel before its remains appeared...

"You..."

Ye Buyu nodded furiously. You figured it out, right? You figured it out! Now you know I can see through appearances to their true nature!

Golden flames flashed across her excited red eyes. Su Wuwei's expression abruptly darkened as he drew his long blade, wreathed it in flames, and pointed it at Ye Buyu.

"You really are a Calamity!"

"I'm not! When did you come to that bullshit conclusion?!" Ye Buyu bristled with anger.

The smile vanished from Su Wuwei's lips. His once sunny, handsome face turned grim, and even the flames along his blade seemed to lose their warmth as he aimed it straight at Ye Buyu.

"I've been watching you for a long time. You've done a fine job disguising yourself, Calamity."

"I told you, I'm not." Ye Buyu gritted her teeth. There was nothing for it. She would have to shoot him to calm him down.

She pulled out the Flower Edict and aimed it at Su Wuwei.

"And you still claim you're not a Calamity. You've already shown your true colors, yet you won't admit it."

"You really need to calm down." Ye Buyu pulled the trigger, and a bullet whistled out.

Su Wuwei's expression was cold and stern. He flicked his wrist, twirling his blade as the flowing flames condensed into a shield. A mere bullet? She was seriously underestimating him.

His confident expression shattered when the bullet passed through his flame shield. He watched helplessly as it turned into a streak of light and struck him.

The expected pain never came. Instead, his accumulated exhaustion melted away like snow in sunlight, and his depleted power gradually returned.

That wasn't an attack?

"Who told you that was an attack? I'm a genuine Healing Type."

Su Wuwei looked up in astonishment, only to see a pair of legs. His entire body stiffened. He lowered his gaze, saw his own knees planted on the ground, and promptly turned to stone and cracked apart.

As though the slightest breeze could blow him away.

Unable to bear the sight, Ye Buyu crouched down. "Calmed down yet?"

"Yes. Let me get up." Su Wuwei admitted that he had misjudged her. A Calamity would never kindly heal a human.

"My ability has a little side effect. Sorry about that. I didn't really have a choice. Um, you might have to pay me some materials before you can get up."

Su Wuwei looked utterly bewildered. "Isn't this... daylight robbery?"

"I don't have any other way."

"It's your own ability. You can't undo it?"

"Compulsory Cost. I can't undo it."

"..."

Su Wuwei's lips trembled slightly, but he maintained his composure and smiled at Ye Buyu. "I don't believe you."

"You don't believe..." Ye Buyu caught a flash of lightning out of the corner of her eye. Her expression changed sharply, and she tugged desperately at Su Wuwei's arm.

"Stop doubting me! Just give me some material you don't need so we can run! There's a Calamity coming!"

Su Wuwei turned toward the lightning flickering through the forest. He knew this was no time to delay. I'll settle this score later!

He took out a material he had no use for and tossed it to Ye Buyu. The next second, he miraculously stood up. With no time to think about anything else, he took up his long blade and prepared to fight.

Ye Buyu's eyes lit up. Judging by that stance, he had to be a pretty strong fighter. Surely he could beat that robot.

When the intertwined figures of the Thunder Monster and Wind Scythe appeared in their line of sight, Su Wuwei took a deep breath, turned, and fled.

"Two level-four monsters. Can't beat them. Retreat!"

Ye Buyu asked as she ran, "You can't handle them?"

Su Wuwei's head ached. "One is fine. Two aren't."

With his strength at the peak of the second tier, he could handle a single level-four Calamity if he went all out, but two were genuinely beyond him.

He glanced at the rapidly moving Thunder Monster and Wind Scythe behind them, and his heart sank. At this rate, they would definitely be caught. There were no other candidates nearby, either. Would he have to take a gamble?

Ye Buyu, who had been blatantly overlooked, glanced behind her, her heart practically leaping into her throat. She suppressed her fear and asked:

"Su Wuwei, want to take a gamble?"

She could still fire a few more bullets. She didn't know whether she could hold up these two Calamities long enough to give them time to escape.

Su Wuwei drew his blade, returning to his bright, sunny demeanor. "No choice. We'll have to gamble."

If I push past my limits, maybe I can carve a way out.

With two wildly different trains of thought, they reached an agreement.

"Okay, let's do it!"

Ye Buyu pulled out the Flower Edict and steadily fired four bullets at the Thunder Monster and Wind Scythe. Su Wuwei held his blade horizontally, gripped its edge with his left hand, and slid his hand along it. Before the crimson blood could drip, it turned into blazing flames along the blade.

Under Ye Buyu's bewildered gaze, Su Wuwei suddenly charged forward, searing golden flames igniting in his eyes.

"Weren't we going to retreat?!"

As Su Wuwei raised his blade to slash at the Thunder Monster and Wind Scythe, Ye Buyu's four bullets arrived before him. Under his astonished gaze, the bullets dissolved and spread, landing on the Thunder Monster and Wind Scythe.

The two level-four monsters paused, then unhesitatingly sliced off parts of themselves and tossed them away, their auras weakening for an instant.