021 Zhou Xiaoxiao

The girl was quite understanding, with a black rubber band in her mouth, combing her hair while raising her hands high, as her yoga tank top twisted and deformed.

The mountain breeze blew past, carrying a faint scent of perfume, especially enticing.

Any man would be moved when such an enticing girl drew close.

Unless, he had grand ambitions in his heart.

Lin An did not want this person to come closer, as he wanted to focus more on studying painting. Not only to cultivate the Breathing Skill to control his hallucinatory disease, but also to hope that this skill would help him grow more in his career.

The pressures of life often made him feel short on time—he truly did not wish to interact with this obviously ambitious girl, as that would be a tremendous hassle.

Especially since the girl looked seriously occupied with her hair, her big double-lidded eyes sneakily glanced at Lin An.

That gathered gaze of hallucination appeared once more.

A huge pink leech extended its soft tentacles, attempting to touch him.

Lin An's attention was originally on the painting basics course introduced in a smartphone forum post, but by accident, when he lifted his hand, he felt it covered with slime.

He immediately released his hand as if electrocuted.

With the interaction, suddenly a gurgling sound came.

—"Why are you ignoring me?"

"!!!"

Lin An sighed inwardly, saved the post, then lifted his head again to see the leech squeezed between the girl and himself.

Suddenly, as if he had realized something, he rubbed his fingertips together with a weird expression on his face.

It seemed...

As if...

His hand had absorbed the slime?

Lin An hurriedly recalled the drawing of a cat's tail he had done, trying to enter the state of the Breathing Skill, but he was unsuccessful.

He quickly switched to the drawing of a deer, and immediately felt a lively and sprightly state surging within his body.

The leech hallucination in front of him disappeared, and he vaguely felt as if there were waves moving in his heart.

He closed his eyes, letting himself immerse in the darkness, and soon saw the nebulous dark golden glow of spiritual blood, and also a crystal-like transparent droplet resembling amber, radiating a faint light.

Upon careful feeling, an inexplicable sadness transmitted to him.

The sorrow within that amber droplet was so powerless, so pale, it inexplicably made one feel it was yearning for something to rely on.

Lin An was startled and suddenly realized.

He wasn't just able to glimpse the spirituality of others!

He could even devour someone else's spirituality!

This...

Seemed a bit evil.

Lin An pursed his lips, returned to breathing normally from the Breathing Skill, and the leech reappeared before him. He hesitated for a moment and reached out to touch the leech again.

Through the continuously falling layer of slime, what his fingertips felt was warm and soft.

Like jelly, very bouncy.

At this point, Lin An was utterly certain that he really could absorb someone else's spirituality.

He resumed the Breathing Skill, hesitated for a while, activated the dark golden spiritual blood, letting this Wizard's power help him begin to recall all the spiritualities he had come into contact with in the past.

"!!!"

He suddenly realized how special the girl before him was.

It seemed that be it the Witch-hunting Knights, Wizards, or ordinary people, their spiritual hallucinations were all complete. The only two he had come across that continuously emitted something were.

One was the leech of the girl in front of him, constantly seeping out slime.

One was his own Ugly Head, constantly seeping out blood!

Speaking of which, my own Ugly Head is far more disgusting than this girl's leech, I really shouldn't judge others based on the appearance of this leech.

Lin An frowned slightly, pondering what it all meant.

Were their spirits fading away?

The world of Transcendent powers was so mysterious, the more he saw, the more he thought, the more Lin An felt his ignorance.

The girl across from him finally fixed her hair, casually tied her hair with the rubber band from her mouth into a ponytail, and skillfully let two locks of hair fall on each side of her oval face.

Efficient yet sweet.

She finally put down her raised arms, seemingly aware that making such a gesture in front of this man was a bit embarrassing, her complexion appearing somewhat flushed.

"My name is Zhou Xiaoxiao..." she bit her lower lip, crossed her legs, "I run a pet store."

As he thought about it, exploring the other's magic, Lin An had no intention of getting involved with these strange occurrences. Not to mention this woman in front of him would probably be a bit of a hassle to deal with.

He lifted his head with the stereotypical dazed expression of a standard programmer, "Lin An, programmer."

Zhou Xiaoxiao paused for a moment, "Programmer? I've heard they make a lot of money."

The leech made a gurgling noise.

——Ah~, after looking around, can I only find a programmer? I'm clearly so pretty, why doesn't any rich person notice me.

——Never mind, this is at least more reliable than going on blind dates.

Wow~

She's even being picky about me now.

Lin An twitched the corner of his mouth, "The salary is okay, enough for the month's expenses."

Gurgling.——Just getting by, hehe, goodbye!

Zhou Xiaoxiao smiled sweetly, "You jest, after all, it's a high-paying job, you'll save up for a down payment on a house soon."

She seemed to think they were getting along well, apparently not planning to leave?

Lin An kept observing, his mouth twitching slightly, "I don't really want to buy a house; it's too exhausting. Renting is good enough, and the money saved can be spent on a lot of collectibles."

Ah, this...

Zhou Xiaoxiao couldn't hold back any longer; her face lost the polite, seemingly insincere sweet smile, and she said very flatly, "Oh, collectibles, I've heard they are expensive."

Lin An shrugged, with a 'you know how it is' look.

Both were silent, only the mountain breeze blew.

Lin An noticed that the girl seemed really weak, sweating profusely.

He took a look, although she had a fit figure and obviously exercised regularly, she looked so frail.

"Are you feeling very hot?"

Lin An was startled.

Zhou Xiaoxiao just smiled and said, "Yeah, this summer has been really hot."

Gurgling.—My dad is sick and requires a lot of money every month, and my mom owes so much due to a failed business. I've been working hard for years, and my health has suffered. I started doing some yoga this year, and it got a bit better.

Gurgling.—I'm great, aren't I? Despite the difficult circumstances, I still manage a decent life, but I'm just so tired, it would be so nice to have someone to rely on.

Yes.

Impressive!

Lin An silently gave her a thumbs up, suddenly understanding her behavior of looking around for a wealthy husband.

Life is full of suffering; he couldn't help much, only wish the girl good luck.

Fate is a very interesting thing.

Lin An, who currently had no interest in having a girlfriend, focused on watching a drawing course video, while Zhou Xiaoxiao, perceiving that Lin An was not her target and had no interest in her, quietly retreated to a cool spot to play with her phone.

The mountain birds chirped continuously, the trees swayed in the wind, and everything seemed very quiet and pleasant.