End Of Co-Assimilation

Duyi sat up suddenly when he remembered the recent events. He gave Wen Yu a proper once over. The kid seemed fine.

He felt a little sad at losing his opportunity to advance but looking at the kid staring at him with large limpid eyes and clothes smeared with dried blood, he felt a bit comforted.

At least his helper was saved and he didn't feel so indebted to him anymore. He spread his spirit consciousness throughout his body to check the extent of the damage the suppression of his advancement had caused.

He froze midway and his eyes widened.

His spirit core was a dazzling yellow colour! He advanced! He had directly gone from being trash at the early stage of the Ginger Phase to mid Yellow Phase. He advanced three stages at once! How?

He didn't notice it before because he held no hope but now, he realized he felt much sturdier and the spirit force that his body refined naturally did not hurt as much.

It still hurt but not so much and he didn't fear his heat episode triggering. Advancement to mid Yellow Phase had eased up his pain this much, just thinking about how much better he'd feel when he became even stronger had him clenching his little fists in extreme excitement.

"Are you okay?" Wen Yu asked slowly but Duyi only gave him a strange look.

Wen Yu frowned slightly. Did he say something wrong? Even if he wanted to be mad at the kid, he couldn't because his memories were swirling repeatedly in his head.

It was a little gruesome.

He finally noticed Duyi was, in fact, staring at his uniform weirdly so he looked down.

'...' Was that... Blood? How? He didn't feel any pain before so he hardly checked his physical state.

He looked at his arms. There were crisscross marks all over. He would have been alarmed but some of them were slowly disappearing as his bracelet worked it's function.

Just how deep had the wounds been? He was sure they were out for at least a few hours and yet the wounds weren't completely healed by now.

He shuddered. He had never expected that the combination of their spirit energies would be so fierce and out of control.

It was a good thing they were both very weak at the time they combined their energies. If they'd been even a little bit stronger...

He shuddered again.

Both boys stood up and Wen Yu gave Duyi a once over and frowned. Before this, he could easily tell the other kid's phase as they were both weak but now..

His eyes widened. "Y..you advanced?"

Duyi nodded with a small smile.

"What stage are you now?" Wen Yu asked excitedly and then he noticed Duyi stiffen. He shook his head. "You don't have to tell me, I was just overexcited by the news that's all."

He turned around to leave but when he heard Duyi's hesitant answer from behind he almost fell hard on his face.

The kid advanced three stages at once?! He turned around again and looked at Duyi. That was really possible? Was the assimilation manual really that powerful?

Wen Yu could barely contain his excitement. His blood was boiling with vigor to go back into the practice room and try again, but then he remembered the wall and paused.

It wasn't even possible to go back now, first Duyi just advanced so his state was a bit fragile and unbalanced and secondly, how was he going to handle the wall and the orange energy strand if they tried again?

The orange strand was beneficial only if it was immediately absorbed in his spirit sea but with that wall, it was too easy for the orange strand to go berserk as the more time it took, the more uncontrollable the combined energy became.

He needed to think of a way to take down that wall. He could actually use the orange strand but the risks were high, just as what happened before, the strand could turn on him and trap him within his consciousness if it went berserk again.

He cocked his head to the side thoughtfully as he stared at Duyi. The kid must have done something to destroy the orange strand. He couldn't remember clearly as his memory was still a bit fuzzy.

If they tried this method again this time and fought against the wall instead, it could be more useful than using the orange strand.

He suddenly gave Duyi a really bright smile and left the hall.

Duyi was a little stumped by Wen Yu's pretty smile and stared at the kid's back in utter confusion. How could somebody display so many different expressions under one minute like that? That Wen kid seemed quite weird.

The moment Wen Yu left the training hall, he found Qi San and Huo Lan outside. Huo Lan was doodling on the floor whilst Qi San was drooling by the side.

How long have the been waiting here? They were behind the high walls of the renowned Lingxiu Academy, did they think he would just disappear?

Even if he thought this, his heart still felt inexplicably warm. He didn't have friends who genuinely liked him in his past life.

And even if Qi San and Huo Lan had originally befriended him because they thought he was strong, he wasn't using it against them.

He was more angry at himself for deceiving them up to this moment. They were kids so it really wasn't their fault that they grew up in an environment that worshipped the strong. That was all they knew.

Huo Lan finally looked up and when he saw Wen Yu, his eyes brightened before he froze and screamed in alarm.

Qi San jumped up immediately and looked around. When he saw Wen Yu, he also froze in shock before rushing over.

"Big bro Yu what happened?"

"Who hurt you?"

"Why are you covered in blood?"

The boys' voices rang out repeatedly.

Qi San was still fussing over Wen Yu when Duyi showed up from behind. He stiffened.

No way! Big bro Yu was just coming out of the training hall looking battered and injured within an inch of his life and then that attendant kid comes out right after.

The kid was also looking neat and tidy without the lightest scratch. He couldn't possibly be stronger than big bro Yu... Right?

He thought back to all the times he was rude to the kid and his legs trembled.