As he dodged the steel, he subconsciously looked down at the ground. He had thought Zhou Ning was hiding in the hair strands below, but in the blink of an eye, she had moved from in front of him to behind, and then from behind above. Her movements could be described as eerily unpredictable.
After a pause, he took out the fairytale book again and, as he started telling the story, the attacking hair snakes froze once more. Following this, Zhou Ning was seen carrying a several-meters-long piece of steel that she had jumped down with, wildly swinging her arms with her eyes closed!
Xu Huo found an opening and kicked the steel away, reaching out to press her shoulder to calm her down, but as soon as his palm touched her clothes it was bitten by something. On a closer look, he saw several small hair snakes, as thick as fingers, emerging from her collar, and her skin was showing some cracks.
"Zhou Ning!" he called out.
Zhou Ning suddenly came to her senses, turned around and saw him stepping back in fear, hurriedly saying, "Close that book of yours first!"
As the effect of the fairytale book wore off, Zhou Ning took a long breath, controlled the hair snakes to disperse, and touched the painful wound before saying, "I lost again."
"What happened to you just now?" Xu Huo asked.
"What?" Zhou Ning was somewhat slow to respond, "Was there something wrong just now?"
"Were you conscious when you were using your ability?" Xu Huo pointed to her shoulder and eyes, "Didn’t you notice the abnormalities in your body when you used your ability?"
Zhou Ning touched herself with confusion and then opened her clothes to find that the skin on her shoulder had cracked open with patterns like snake scales, but as she was examining, her skin was also healing.
"What’s going on?" she appeared even more shocked than Xu Huo.
"Your movements were somewhat snake-like, not only that, but the shape of your pupils had also changed." Xu Huo looked her over, "Have there been any changes in your diet and daily habits?"
Zhou Ning thought for a moment and shook her head, "No."
"That’s good," said Xu Huo. "If this is a feature that only appears when you use your ability, there should be no problem, but if it subtly changes your daily habits, you’ll have to be careful."
"Careful of what?" Zhou Ning asked subconsciously.
"Illusions and reality," Xu Huo said. "Logically speaking, it’s impossible for a human to suddenly turn into a snake, but it’s not impossible for an Evolver to undergo a mutation. There are also some Aliens in the dungeons that clearly exhibit animal characteristics, but that’s when their own evolution has failed."
"You are evolving normally, and the most significant difference between a normal Evolver and an Alien, frankly, is rationality. Perhaps your spiritual power could induce some changes in your body, but you can’t actually become a snake."
"Ancient Medusa is just your profession."
Upon hearing the last sentence, Zhou Ning suddenly shuddered, she couldn’t help but slap her forehead and said, "I was confused just now, always feeling that something was off, and it turns out to be this!"
"You’re right, Ancient Medusa is just my profession, I can use my powers, but I can’t consider myself a real snake."
After a pause, she said with distress, "But only this way can I bring out the fullest effect of my abilities."
When she was synchronized with the hair snakes, she felt a sense of calm and efficiency that was different from usual.
Xu Huo pondered for a moment and then said, "Try to see if you can quickly come out of your ability during training. When I strike later on, you report a count every ten seconds. If you feel you are losing self-control as the ability period extends, call a stop."
The two soon began fighting again in the factory. With each count, Xu Huo found that Zhou Ning’s ability duration did not have a limit, and the longer she used it, the calmer she became. He intentionally wounded her severely in the middle of the battle, but after counting, she did not withdraw from her ability but repeated the previous attack.
Xu Huo called a halt on his own initiative, and Zhou Ning’s movement was very swift, immediately retracting the hair snakes, but her body still bore traces, with her pupils nearly vertical.
She stood still for several seconds before coming to herself. When her pupils returned to normal, her expression also changed, covering her ribs, which had been kicked broken, gasping in pain.
After their exchange, Xu Huo then said, "It seems that you are conscious when using your ability, just temporarily blocking part of your bodily sensations, which is advantageous in real combat."
Zhou Ning nodded slightly, but her expression was somewhat serious.
Xu Huo noticed her concern and said, "Do you feel that in the state of your ability, you have lost the normal reaction to danger?"
Zhou Ning nodded vigorously, "Under normal circumstances, I should have thought about escaping when I got hurt, but I didn’t have that thought just now." All she wanted was to defeat Xu Huo.
Her ability was very special, Xu Huo was clear about this from the beginning and regarded her as a type of evolutionary sample.
Human behavior under any circumstance reflects one’s psyche and character. No matter what changes occur, it is hard to break away from established patterns. Zhou Ning’s psychological state changed along with her ability, something unlike any other player Xu Huo had encountered.
"Let’s do this," Xu Huo said, "Set a fixed time for yourself in your daily training. When it reaches that time, end the ability. If you cannot end it willingly, then resort to external force, at least achieve control over it."
Zhou Ning breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank you, Xu Huo."
"Don’t mention it," Xu Huo said. "That’s the situation for now. I’m going to be leaving Ting City for a few days, if there are any problems call me."
"You’re planning to enter a dungeon again?" Zhou Ning asked in surprise, "Didn’t Yuan Yao say you’ve just come out of one?"
"No, got something to handle back home." Xu Huo patted the dust off his clothes, ready to leave.
"Let me take you," Zhou Ning quickly stood up, her face slightly twisted from pulling on the injury, but seeing him look at her, she hurriedly smiled, "I’m fine, it will heal in two days."
"I went a little too far," Xu Huo said apologetically.
Zhou Ning hurriedly shook her head, "You were just helping me, and I’m really fine. It’s just a small injury, besides, getting hurt in training is better than getting hurt in the game."
Xu Huo took out his phone, "I’ll have Hu Wenhao come pick you up."
"Aren’t you coming back to the city with us?" Zhou Ning looked at him.
"I’m heading straight to the airport," Xu Huo said after he got hold of Hu Wenhao and prepared to hail a cab.
"Sister Ning, are you okay?" Hu Wenhao arrived in a rented car and, seeing the blood on Zhou Ning, exclaimed, "Were you attacked?"
Zhou Ning smacked the back of his head, "I’m fine, just take Brother Xu to the airport first."
"Brother Xu is leaving, huh," Hu Wenhao said. "It’s not a problem for me, but your injury..."
"No need, just drop me off at the intersection. It’s not easy to get a cab around here," Xu Huo said. He caught a taxi halfway and changed course for the airport.
As he left straight away, Zhou Ning appeared slightly absent-minded, and Hu Wenhao, sticking his head out, said, "Brother Xu really is busy, just came out of a dungeon and already running around non-stop."
"He’s different from us," Zhou Ning said softly.