"Hehe, there is. Look."
Not noticing Chang Yuan's disappointment, Airi condensed a Pink Crystal Flower in her hand.
"This is my ability. Like fairy magic—pretty, isn't it?"
She handed the pink Crystal Flower to Chang Yuan and asked with a light laugh.
Chang Yuan looked at the Crystal Flower and gave it a slight squeeze.
Yet he could not budge it in the slightest.
That was only normal. In the original story, these crystals had helped Hua escape with her life from Kevin's Feather of Conviction.
During that Binding tragedy, if Airi had not saved Hua, she would have become one of the victims as well.
"It's hard. At the very least, I can't damage it at all unless I use my full strength."
"You! I told you to admire this work of art. Who told you to squeeze it? If you break it, you'll regret it."
Hearing that Chang Yuan had actually tried to crush her Crystal Flower, Airi immediately became displeased.
It was clearly the first pink Crystal Flower, one with great commemorative value, yet all he cared about was its hardness.
That gave Airi a bit of a mood.
"Ahem, it was instinctive. But give me this Crystal Flower. I want to keep it as a collectible."
Holding the Crystal Flower protectively against his chest, Chang Yuan clearly had no intention of giving it back to Airi.
Seeing that, Airi nodded in satisfaction. She had intended to give it to Chang Yuan in the first place, but seeing how little he had cherished it just now—and how he had even wanted to crush it—had made her slightly upset.
"Then keep it safe. I'll be checking on it from time to time. If even one petal is missing, hehe, you won't be able to beat me."
She clenched her little pink fist and gave several adorable huffs as she threatened him.
That threat was utterly lacking in force.
Not only did her cute appearance contain no trace of menace at all.
More importantly, he understood Airi. She would never lay a hand on him unless he did something she absolutely could not accept. Otherwise, there was no way Airi would hit him.
"Airi, give me a piece of crystal for research." ×2
The moment Chang Yuan said that, two voices rang out almost simultaneously.
The two speakers were Mebius, who had watched the entire process, and Velvie, who had just come out and only caught fragments of the conversation.
"Sure. Here."
Unlike the pink Crystal Flower she had given Chang Yuan alone, Airi gave the other two each a diamond-shaped crystal.
"All right, Mebius. I know what you're planning. You prepared the materials yourself, right?"
After putting away her crystal, Velvie looked at Mebius and asked.
Mebius tossed a bottle of Gene Serum from her pocket to Velvie.
Velvie easily caught the serum. Without another word, she turned and returned to the operating room in the Spiral Workshop.
Mebius quickly followed after her.
Thus, only two people remained at the scene.
"Well, Airi, can I—"
"Ah Yuan, I just remembered that I promised Himiko I'd go see her new team members with her. Bye."
Without giving Chang Yuan a chance to finish, Airi immediately said goodbye and fled.
In an instant, Chang Yuan was left standing alone outside the Spiral Workshop, a complete mess in the wind.
"..."
Damn it! Damn Mebius. Sure enough, it would be hard to get a second chance like that.
Having lost his chance to take things further with Airi, Chang Yuan's heart ached terribly.
Still, what he gained was fortune; what he lost was fate.
Chang Yuan did not force the matter too much.
Now that there had been a first opportunity, could a second or third one really be far away?
Besides, this showed that Airi's feelings for him were already changing.
Maybe one day in the future, it really could happen.
But the most important thing was still defeating Finality. Otherwise, everything would be empty talk.
"Sigh, it's just that I don't have any abilities. That's a little depressing. When the Thirteen Flame-Chasers become fourteen Flame-Chasers, I won't end up ranked only ahead of Pardo, will I?"
At the thought of that possibility, Chang Yuan shuddered.
How embarrassing. So damn embarrassing. If he really ended up ranked just one place above Pardo in the future—
Then he would probably be the most humiliating transmigrator in history.
"No. I should first see how much my strength has grown."
With that, Chang Yuan headed toward the place where Flame-Chasing Moth soldiers usually trained.
Velvie had developed holographic projections there, with 99.99% realism.
They could be used for practical combat training, though people could still die. The advantage was that it could be stopped in time.
When he arrived, many people greeted Chang Yuan.
After all, he was the Flame-Chasing Moth's second strongest pillar. If they encountered him on the battlefield in the future, perhaps he might look after them a little.
Upon reaching the Holographic Combat Room, Chang Yuan directly selected a projection of the Judgment-class Honkai Beast Shesha.
Fortunately, the Flame-Chasing Moth had deep pockets. This holographic combat arena was large enough; otherwise, it might not even have been able to project Shesha's full body.
Looking at the enormous serpent that stretched nearly a thousand meters, Chang Yuan could not help clicking his tongue.
Then he chose to fight Shesha barehanded.
In the past, one of his punches could only dent Shesha's scales. Now, a single punch blasted a bloody hole directly through Shesha's body.
"My strength has increased by nearly twice as much. What about the rest?"
Chang Yuan then began testing his other attributes.
Including endurance, speed, reflexes, recovery, and so on.
The final results also satisfied him greatly. Aside from his recovery ability, all his other attributes had increased severalfold.
His recovery ability had improved too, though not by much. He could not regenerate severed limbs, but he could pick up his severed arm, reattach it, and have it heal back together.
Finally, after nearly several hours of barehanded bombardment, Shesha shrank to only several dozen meters in size before dying completely.
"You can even simulate this? Velvie, you're a damn genius."
After leaving the Holographic Combat Room, Chang Yuan grabbed several bottles of saline solution and drank them directly.
With his physical attributes already beyond human, he did not fear the other side effects of saline solution at all.
After replenishing the salt he had lost, Chang Yuan also figured out roughly what level his current strength was at.
He was stronger than Kevin as a Fusion Warrior, given his excellent foundation. But if they both wielded Divine Keys, he was still no match for Kevin for the time being.
After all, the Feather of Conviction seemed as though it had been made specifically for Kevin. Other than him, anyone else who used the Feather of Conviction would basically die after a single use.
Thus, only Kevin could perfectly wield this Divine Key, the sword with the greatest destructive power.
The effect of the two of them together was far greater than one plus one equaling two.
But Chang Yuan did not feel much about that.
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