Her wings dissipated, and Xing Lan fell straight from the sky.
"Ah...!"
She hit the ground and lay there.
"Ugh..." Xing Lan struggled to open her eyes, only to see a long saber pointed at her, its tip less than two centimeters from her eyes.
Sun Hai stood beside him, pointing the saber at her, his expression as cold and unchanged as ever.
Xing Lan's pupils trembled slightly. Her disappointment and unwillingness turned into a sigh that escaped her lips.
"I lost..."
Sun Hai put his saber away, then turned and walked back. Seeing this, Si Xiaobei immediately ran over, anxiously concerned about Xing Lan's injuries.
"Sister Xing Lan, how are you? Are you all right? Does anything hurt badly? Should I take you to get checked out?"
But Xing Lan sprang straight to her feet with a carp kip-up, her eyes shining with renewed vigor and drive. Ignoring Si Xiaobei's concern, she shouted at Sun Hai.
"Hey! Am I qualified now?!" Xing Lan looked at Sun Hai, her body trembling slightly with nerves.
The other team members also watched Sun Hai anxiously, waiting for his answer.
Sun Hai stopped, turned around, and slowly opened his mouth.
"Nanming, fill her in on our situation and assign her a dorm room."
"Yes, Captain!"
Then Sun Hai headed for the path leading back up without looking back.
"So... does that mean he agreed?" After staring blankly for a while, Xing Lan belatedly realized what had happened.
"Yeah, I think so." Si Xiaobei nodded, and the next moment, he was swept into a fierce hug.
"Yay-!"
Xing Lan held Si Xiaobei in one arm and leaped high with excitement, then hugged him and spun around on the spot.
She paid no attention to Si Xiaobei, who was already close to suffocating between her enormous breasts.
"I'm a member of the Special Investigation Team too!"
"Hey, Xing Lan! Let go first!" Feng Xuan shouted anxiously from the side, his face red.
Only then did Xing Lan stop cheering and look down at Si Xiaobei.
By now, Si Xiaobei's little face was bright red from being smothered, and he kept struggling with both hands.
Xing Lan loosened her grip on Si Xiaobei and hurriedly apologized. "Ah, sorry, sorry! I didn't notice!"
Si Xiaobei's face was bright red as he gasped for breath, his expression one of utter agony. If Nanming hadn't been holding him up, he would probably have been lying on the ground by now.
"I'm so jealous of you, kid..." Liu Xiaogang, standing beside him, muttered under his breath, his eyes full of envy.
Nanming, who was supporting Si Xiaobei, looked at Liu Xiaogang, who was practically dying of jealousy, and then at the nearly unconscious Si Xiaobei in his arms. He shook his head helplessly.
"Feng Xuan, you fill Xing Lan in. I'll take Si Xiaobei to rest first."
"Sure thing!"
After Sun Xuan agreed, Nanming picked up the barely conscious Si Xiaobei and carried him toward the infirmary.
"Uh... he'll be all right, won't he?" Xing Lan scratched her cheek and looked at Feng Xuan, who shook his head helplessly.
"Hard to say. Si Xiaobei is the darling of our team. He's an ability user, but his constitution is even weaker than an ordinary person's.
"After you squeezed him like that, it'll probably take him quite a while to recover."
"Ah, he's an ability user too!" Xing Lan followed Sun Xuan and the others toward the dorms, looking back at them as she asked.
"Yeah, this is a good chance to tell you more about our situation.
"First up is me! My name's Feng Xuan.
"I'm in charge of logistics, which means I do everything except fight. But what I'm best at is data work, like investigating information and pulling surveillance footage."
"So you're basically a hacker, right?!" Xing Lan's eyes sparkled.
"You could put it that way." Feng Xuan's lips curved into a slight smile. He seemed to like being called a hacker.
Then Sun Xuan pointed at Liu Xiaogang, who was walking on the other side.
"His name's Liu Xiaogang. He's a combatant, and like me, he doesn't have any abilities. There's not much to say about him. He's the all-brawn, no-brains type."
"You're the one who's all brawn and no brains!"
"Oh! Right, you're a narcissist too~" Feng Xuan immediately fled after saying that, while Liu Xiaogang chased after him, his face bright red.
In less than ten seconds, Liu Xiaogang came strolling back, carrying Feng Xuan like a little chick and mocking him as he walked.
"Fengzi, weren't you good at running~? Go on, keep running~ Why'd you stop~? Were you born hating to run~?"
Feng Xuan, looking as though he had nothing left to live for, raised his head and glanced at the still-excited Xing Lan. His face turned red to the roots of his hair, and he simply lowered his head again like a salted fish.
Liu Xiaogang carried Feng Xuan like that as he led Xing Lan out of the training room. No one spoke along the way.
When they reached the dorms, Liu Xiaogang pointed to a room and spoke.
"There's an empty room right there. It's a double, but you can have it to yourself for now." As soon as he finished, Xing Lan eagerly pushed the door open like a child and looked inside.
"Wow, it's as big as I imagined!
"It's so much better than the one at the training camp! Oh, there's even a teddy bear?!"
Liu Xiaogang glanced again at Feng Xuan, whom he was still carrying, and his expression instantly turned strange.
Something's wrong. This is twelve parts wrong out of ten. Normally, Fengzi would have started trading threats and insults with me by now.
But right now he's like a salted fish without a dream.
Seemingly noticing Liu Xiaogang's strange gaze, Feng Xuan slowly raised his head. He first glanced at Xing Lan, who was still looking around the room, then at Liu Xiaogang, before lowering his head again, his face red.
Liu Xiaogang's burly frame jolted, and he put Feng Xuan down.
"Could it be..."
"Aren't you the same?! You just like someone different, that's all!" Feng Xuan shrugged, his face red, and spoke to Liu Xiaogang irritably.
Liu Xiaogang smiled and nodded, looking at Feng Xuan, who looked back at him.
In the deserted barbershop, the two men seemed to have reached some kind of understanding.
Feng Xuan and Liu Xiaogang sat on a mattress that had yet to be made up, with Xing Lan sitting across from them.
"Ahem, ahem."
Feng Xuan cleared his throat and slowly began.
"Besides the two of us, there's the captain, the one you sparred with.
"His name is Sun Hai. He's incredibly strong, a 'Transcendent'-level expert."
"'Transcendent'?" Xing Lan tilted her head, a little confused.
"But I only felt like he was a tiny bit stronger than me." As soon as she said that, her eyes lit up again.
"Oh, I get it! I must be so strong that even an expert a whole realm above me could barely handle me, right?!" Xing Lan straightened her back, looking as though she were invincible among those of the same rank.
"Uh, you're overthinking it..." The two men were speechless.
"The captain was going easy on you. Not only did he not use [Black Crow], he didn't even use his own ability, [Shadow of Illusion]. You could say he beat you purely with fighting skills and physical strength.
"Otherwise, why would he be the captain?"
"Huh? Is that so?" Xing Lan sighed, a little disappointed.