Tang Yin did not know how long she remained there; frankly, she didn't even remember correctly, something she was rather grateful for since it felt like forever. She did not want to know just how long her entire body had burned and burned on as if she didn't have blood in her veins but liquid magma.
"You are mean.", she creaked as she was laughed at by the giant snake and turned into a woman who found her absolute outrage at the insufficient warning hilarious. She didn't stop laughing. Instead, she just enjoyed herself.
"Honestly." Tang Yin was less than amused, "a warning would have been nice, and how does a death snake have a spirit bone anyway? Don't you need a body for that?"
"Mhhhh." she said and grinned brightly, "That's a secret."
Tang Yin felt like someone had just played her like a fiddle but didn't protest. If she had been played, it was her own fault. No use complaining.
"Little Girl, your spirit power problem is solved for now. So I suppress the trouble-making part; you should be around level 29 now and remain there for a while until your body can handle more." the snake woman bowed down, smiling as she patted Tang Yin's head, "Remain entertaining and don't be surprised when your spirit ring is purple, no need to shock too many living lights out of your very much worried companions."
"Thanks, snake?" She was not sure if she was supposed to be thankful or not.
"You are welcome, and my name is..." She didn't hear that part anymore.
The sight before her eyes went blurry and slowly faded into the distance as if someone had closed a door or had exceeded a time limit.
Pictures floated into her head of images, books, and stories. University and her boyfriend, who got her killed, appeared. Lucilla, her Family again, her enjoyment when she held her driving license in her hands for the first time. It was as if someone had been moving a Film inside her brain that had been stopped somewhere. What surprised her most was the image of an older, grown-up blue-haired man who looked like Tang San and a grown-up Xiao Wu with empty, soulless eyes next to him. It just didn't quite fit; she felt as if regretting something. Before thinking about what happened, she opened her eyes and saw her Brother as she knew him.
"Yin, Yin, are you fine?" He asked, worried, and she nodded in a delayed reaction. She was fine, and she just vaguely remembered basic stuff.
"Yeah, I am fine, Bro. It's just a headache.", she answered and slowly sat up with her Brother helping her out. Looking around, she saw everyone's faces.
Tang San, Yu Hua, Ning Feng, Lize, Yule, Ari, and the Grandmaster.
Only the Grandmaster and Tang San was supposed to be here.
What the hell? A piercing pain shot through her brain, and she had to shake it off. Just now, she had remembered something, it had been significant, essential, but she just couldn't recall it as if a giant wall was between herself and her memory.
"Tang Yin." the Grandmaster said, pointing at her as she raised her eyebrows to ask, her throat still feeling parched. "How are you still alive," she said, and she blinked; huh, what was he talking about...
Looking down at herself, she gulped; oh damn, purple. She had a yellow and a purple Spirit Ring floating around her and smiled awkwardly. She was very sure if the Grandmaster knew that this spirit ring was originally red, he would probably start doubting his profession.
"I am just that great?" she said, "and once you know my new ability, you will have to readjust some of your theorems."
"I already have to do that.", he said blankly, "because you keep throwing out the common sense of a metaphorical window."
"Yu Hua, suggest you hold on tight because my second ability is way cooler than yours." She said and released her blue silver grass, "Lock."
Her blue-silver grass did nothing but lighten up for a split second in brilliant silvery red, and Yu Hua blinked at her, not knowing what now.
"And?" he asked, and she smiled triumphantly.
"Try using your spirit ability.", she said, and Yu Hua did so, but nothing happened.
"What?" he tried again, and still nothing happened.
The Grandmaster and Tang San seemed to understand first as Ning Feng's eyes widened shortly later than theirs. The mercenary's realization hit too after a while
"Lock." Yu Hua looked at his flower petals in pure astonishment and then at Tang Yin's blue-silver grass. "Lock as in Lock spirit ability?"
"Well yeah. I can temporarily suppress another person's ring-given spirit abilities as long as they are below me, less than ten levels. Anything lower than level 19, completely. Depending on how big the difference is."
Yu Hua did mental calculations like everyone else and gazed at her, slightly out of their wits.
"You are Level 29?" the Grandmaster asked, and Tang Yin nodded in agreement; she was Level 29 currently and would remain there for a while now, more or less stable. Apropo's problem solved her arm. She glanced down at it and tried moving her fingers at a snail's tempo, slowly closing to a fist. She could even feel something, not much but at least something.