After a week of intense hunting, the ground around the apartment building where Ruan Ning lived was thoroughly “cleared.”
The once staggering figures roaming the green belts, playgrounds, and parking lots had mostly become real corpses, slowly decaying and emitting a stronger, more pungent stench.
Ruan Ning’s combat experience rapidly accumulated; her strikes became more ruthless and decisive, and her use of strength increasingly refined.
In her backpack, inside a sealed small metal box, lay five level-1 crystal cores of varying sizes, all emitting a faint milky-white glow.
These were the hard-earned results from painstakingly searching through dozens of zombie brains—an outrageously low probability.
Back at the fortified apartment, she locked the heavy security door and, exhausted but excited, washed away the blood and stench. After changing into clean clothes, she eagerly entered the jade bracelet space.
Inside, it was still tranquil and serene—spring water bubbling, white mist swirling. Compared to the bloody and desperate world outside, this place was like a pure land.
She walked to the spring, sat cross-legged, and placed the small metal box before her. Opening it, the five level-1 crystal cores shimmered with a restrained and mysterious luster under the soft light of the space.
“It’s time to try,” Ruan Ning took a deep breath, her eyes gleaming with anticipation and resolve.
She picked up the crystal core that felt most energetic, holding it in her palm. The cool touch came through, and the faint chill tried to seep into her skin again.
She closed her eyes, focused all her spirit, and guided the warm current in her body—activated by the spirit spring—to reach out and absorb the energy from the crystal core.
As before, the cool flow from the crystal was drawn out and merged with the warm current, transforming into purer energy that flowed into her dantian, strengthening her body and mind. The crystal core quickly depleted and shattered into fragments.
Without pause, she picked up the second, then the third…
When she absorbed most of the energy from the fourth crystal core, the newly born energy surged wildly inside her body, reaching an unprecedented concentration, and then a transformation occurred!
The energy core settled in her dantian suddenly trembled violently, uncontrollably! A strong, unprecedented craving burst forth from deep within her—a thirst for water!
Almost instinctively, her mind was drawn by this craving and suddenly focused on the bubbling spring at the center of the space!
Buzz—
A faint humming, as if from the depths of her soul, resonated.
Ruan Ning clearly “saw” an invisible force spreading from inside her, establishing a mysterious connection with the spring! The white mist around the spring seemed to respond to the call, swirling joyfully.
Inspired, she instinctively raised her right hand, palm up, concentrating her will—
Drip.
A clear, translucent drop of water, exuding a faint coolness and mist, appeared out of nowhere on her palm. It trembled slightly, reflecting the soft light of the space.
Ruan Ning’s eyes snapped open, staring at the droplet in disbelief.
Her heartbeat sped up suddenly; her breath halted for a moment.
This was not just spring water from the space! This was water condensed from her own energy!
She moved her will again, trying to control the droplet.
The droplet, as if alive, slowly floated up following her will, circled flexibly around her fingertips, then with a soft “pop,” fell back into her palm, soaking into her skin, bringing a cool sensation before quickly being assimilated by the new energy within her body.
An indescribable joy, like a surging tide, instantly overwhelmed Ruan Ning’s previously calm and composed demeanor!
She had succeeded!
She had truly… awakened an ability!
And it was extremely practical and precious in the water-scarce apocalypse—water ability!
Excited, she stood up, feeling the energy cycle inside her body that was completely different from before.
That energy no longer merely enhanced her body and mind but now carried a flexible, outward-flowing quality like flowing water! She could clearly sense the thin moisture in the surrounding air, the faint water veins deep beneath the ground beneath her feet, and especially the spring at the center of the space, all resonating intimately with her.
“Is it because of the spirit spring… or my bloodline?” Ruan Ning looked at the jade bracelet mark on her wrist, suddenly understanding. Perhaps both were indispensable.
Her mother’s relic, her mother’s bloodline, combined with the crystal core’s energy, together created this miracle!
She tried again to mobilize the energy. This time, more water vapor gathered in her palm, gradually condensing into a water ball about the size of a ping-pong ball! Though still somewhat clumsy to control and consuming considerable energy, this was undoubtedly a supernatural power!
“Water ability… wonderful!” Ruan Ning clenched her fists, eyes bursting with brilliant light.
She looked at the last crystal core in the metal box, her gaze burning hotter.
She needed to quickly familiarize herself with and master this newborn power, turning it into one of her sharpest blades.
After the exhilaration, Ruan Ning quickly calmed down.
She sat cross-legged again by the spring, holding the newly condensed, gently pulsating water ball in her palm, her gaze deep and sharp.
Memories from her previous life surged.
In common knowledge, water-type abilities, especially in early to even mid stages, were not considered powerful offensive powers. They were mostly seen as “support” or “logistics” roles.
Water-type ability users initially can usually only condense small amounts of drinking water to meet their team’s basic needs, leaving them in an awkward position.
As their abilities improve, they can form water balls to smash enemies or shape water into water arrows or water blades for attacks. However, their power is generally weaker than fire, lightning, or metal abilities of the same level, and even falls short of earth-type abilities in defense and crowd control. Water attacks lack instant burst power and often seem somewhat “soft” or “weak.”
More often, powerful water users are entrusted with important roles like supplying water for large teams or using their powers in specific environments.
But…
Ruan Ning stared at the seemingly fragile, boneless water ball in her palm and moved her mind slightly.
The water ball slowly stretched and changed shape according to her will, sometimes becoming a slender, sharp water needle, sometimes a thin yet tough water shield, and sometimes dispersing into a misty water fog.
“Is water really weak?”
She recalled how mountain floods can break dams, how raging waves can swallow huge ships, how high-pressure water jets can cut steel, how all life depends on water’s nourishment, and how it can silently seep into and erode the hardest rock!
“It’s not that water is weak; most people just haven’t tapped into its true potential!” Ruan Ning’s eyes gleamed with wisdom. “They are limited by conventional thinking, only seeing water’s ‘form’ but not understanding water’s ‘will.’”
Water is the softest, yet also the hardest. It can be still or flowing. It can nurture, and it can destroy.
Its forms are countless, its changes endless!
“Weak attack power?” Ruan Ning curled a cold smile. “What if I compress water to the extreme, forming a high-pressure water gun or even a water blade? Would its cutting power be weaker than metal?”
“What if I refine water infinitely, creating a dense fog covering the battlefield that strips enemies of sight and perception, even infiltrating their mouths and noses to suffocate them? Would this crowd control be weaker?”
“What if I can control the water inside the enemy’s body?” A bolder, even somewhat forbidden thought flashed in her mind, making her heart skip a beat. Blood, bodily fluids… which can exist without water? If she could directly affect that, what a terrifying killing method it would be!
“And defense—flowing water curtains can dissipate force, layered water shields have great toughness… even, what if I could instantly drain all water from an area?”
Once her mind opened, countless possibilities and directions sprang forth like a fountain in her mind.
What she had was not just ordinary water ability.
She also had this mysterious space, and this spirit spring that seemed to hold infinite vitality! Could her water ability carry some properties of the spirit spring? Like… stronger activity? Healing effects? Or special suppression against zombies?
All of this needed her own exploration and development!
“Lightning is domineering, fire is fierce, ice is sharp… each has its merits.” Ruan Ning clenched her fist, feeling the flowing water energy inside her like a stream, her confidence stronger than ever. “But my water ability will never be worse than any of them!”
“There’s no useless ability, only users who don’t know how to develop it!”
She held the last crystal core in her hand and began absorbing it.
This time, as energy poured in, she no longer satisfied herself with just strengthening her body. Instead, she consciously guided most of the energy toward the meridians and energy nodes related to her water ability, carefully sensing every change in the energy and trying more sophisticated control.
She would walk a path unlike any water user in her past life.
A path that would fully realize water’s “softness,” “change,” “toughness,” and “penetration,” combining support, crowd control, defense, and terrifying killing power—a path of the strong!
This would be her most important, completely unique trump card on her road of revenge and survival, alongside her space and foresight abilities!