Breakthrough

Lighting up a fire on her index finger, Lilian Mo lit up the cigarette on her mouth. Exhaling a fume of smoke, her mind temporarily relaxed due to the help of the cancer stick that was the cause of many lung diseases in the world.

She was addicted to smoking in her past life. After arriving at the base where Lin Fang was staying and befriending him, she was nearly crushed by public opinion as his admirers repeatedly made trouble for her, humiliating her every time.

This in turn made her turn into vices like smoking. The military base has a small market area where people could sell a lot of things. There was even cigarette and tobacco sold at limited quantity.

Because Lilian Mo did not want to suffer from a hangover due to drinking alcohol, she decided to smoke instead.

Many times, it relieved her from the pain her heart was feeling and many times it helped clear her mind. She had stopped only when Lin Fang expressed his negative opinions towards smoking.

And because she did not want to disappoint her friend, Lilian Mo began to abstain. It was hard and she was anxious most of the time when she was unable to smoke but she was able to held on due to Lin Fang's continuous nagging.

Now that she was currently alone, she decided to smoke a single stick.

She coughed after only a few tries. Her current body was not used to smoking so she only finished a single one.

Sitting atop a pile of corpses, Lilian Mo was really exhausted. It had turned dark already and she was not sure if her teammates were fine. Despite her tiredness, she went to search for them and circled around the burnt hospital.

Even after searching the whole area, Lilian Mo did not find them.

Where were they?

There was dread in her chest as she imagined the possibilities of them encountering the same kind of mutants she fought earlier. They were still not strong enough for a level two. She could trust on Mizuki Rei's abilities but with Mu Qingqing injured and Lin Jiaojiao who was still not upgraded, their situation was not good.

Lilian Mo began to jump through buildings, climbing and arriving to the rooftop. While observing the area, she could not seem to find any signs of human life. Still, she did not give up and went to search some more.

She arrived at the central roads and found a set of tracks and some blood stains on the ground.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she lifted her gaze, towards the direction where the tracks were heading.

'They must have met people on the way....' She thought. This information made her feel more nervous.

What was worse? Meeting a group of humans or a group of mutants? Both were dangerous and Lilian Mo was not able to sit still.

She decided to enter her space first and wash away all the gore from her body. Changing into some clean clothes and drying her body and hair using her fire, Lilian Mo felt human and clean again.

She made herself a quick meal and drank a few gulps of spring water. Afterwards, she checked on her crops and animals. With her warehouse comparably bigger and fuller than usual, Lilian Mo sat cross legged on the ground and began to absorb the energy from the crystal cores.

In her meditative state, she also absorbed the qi in her space, filling her body with more energy needed for her breakthrough. Greedily, she absorbed the energies from the level one crystal cores at a steady pace.

After a few seconds, Lilian Mo finally broke through. A surge of new power entered her veins. This was comparably better than her previous breakthroughs.

She was somewhat surprised that she was once again almost at the bottleneck of the next level. Her speed of upgrading was shocking but she attributed it to her daily consumption of spring water.

Once again, she meditated and absorbed the level two crystal core next.

The crystal cores that were drained with energies would crack and turn to dust. When Lilian Mo felt herself reaching the bottleneck, she stood up and supplemented the lack of experience by performing katas and exercises.

She practiced her martial arts in the field and trained with one goal in mind. When she felt tired, she would drink from the spring water and start again, continuing her training.

Only after sixteen hours inside her space was Lilian Mo able to fill the lack of experience for the next level.

Reaching Level five, Lilian Mo's gaze changed. Clenching her fists, she thought, 'It sure is good to be strong.'

▪▪▪