“Ah?”

Rushing over in haste, only to find her teammates not only failed to capture Kaelis, but were all knocked down by her single-handedly, this scene left the woman momentarily stunned.

Then she stared in shock at the two ferocious beasts beside Kaelis.

“An ascender at the second stage already?”

Yet all her comrades were third-stage Ascender, one step away from becoming full-fledged warriors like herself?

And they'd all been taken down?

Does she have backup?!

Almost the instant she took in the scene, all sorts of thoughts surged through the woman's mind, but in the end, she said nothing.

Instead, she drew her weapon, facing Kaelis directly...

“Grrrrr...”

The ferocious tiger growled low, firmly guarding Kaelis's front.

Beside it, the tall Heather narrowed her eyes.

She stepped forward gently, blocking the stern captain at her side.

The big tigee continued hissing.

“Heather, be careful.”

Though the woman didn't understand Heather's intentions, seeing the agitated tiger, she still frowned.

“...It's alright.” Heather turned back, gently shaking her head at the woman before shifting her gaze toward Kaelis, whose face was full of wariness.

She narrowed her eyes, slowing her voice.

“What's your name?”

Her voice was low and gentle. Though she looked no older than twenty-five or twenty-six, an odd aura of maturity radiated from her entire being. Her tender words, coupled with her slightly lowered posture, made her seem just like a warm, neighborly housewife...

“I know you're probably afraid of us, but... there's really no need for things to be so tense between us. We can talk things over...”

“You did break the law, but... it's not serious. I understand you were just nervous and lashed out. This was our fault for not handling it properly, it's not your responsibility...”

Seeing Kaelis wasn't attacking, the woman kept speaking gently, taking the blame upon herself while slowly inching closer.

So sincere was her tone that even Kaelis felt momentarily dazed.

A thought arose in her heart, perhaps negotiation was possible.

But in that very instant, Kaelis suddenly noticed that her two summoned beasts were beginning to faintly turn transparent.

They wouldn't last much longer.

This being her first time releasing this ability, Kaelis clearly wasn't very skilled. But the woman's subtly shifting gaze revealed she'd noticed this too.

In an instant, Kaelis realized, the woman's gentleness was merely stalling for time!

“Ugh!”

Kaelis's face instantly puffed up.

How could this person be so deceitful?!

But thinking about it now was pointless. After a brief pause, Kaelis frowned.

She needed to break through!

With that thought, the ferocious tiger lunged forward!

The sudden attack caught Heather off guard. The woman beside her, however, reacted quickly, suddenly, a deep crimson aura flared around her body, and thick luminous armor materialized on her frame!

As if some kind of Dark Spirit...

“Boom!”

She reached out, her red armor seemingly possessing physical mass. Even from a slight distance, she actually engaged the charging tiger in a physical struggle!

And she was clearly dominating!

Even the ferocious tiger itself seemed momentarily bewildered.

Its eyes suddenly cleared.

Wu Song?! Is that you?

Why'd you turn into a woman?

Kaelis, seeing someone capable of physically wrestling a tiger barehanded, felt her scalp prickle with terror.

She immediately turned and fled.

Heather instinctively tried to intercept Kaelis, but Kaelis's unpredictable footwork nearly slipped past her.

But the woman clearly had experience dealing with tricky footwork. Though her steps shifted rapidly, Kaelis's body movements weren't very exaggerated.

With a sudden reach, she grabbed Kaelis's veil.

Yanked it off!

Beneath the veil, delicate eyes lifted.

Porcelain-like skin flushed with a faint rose hue, like peach blossoms infused into white glaze. Defiant almond-shaped eyes held two pools of morning dew, their lashes casting rippling shadows when lowered.

“You...”

Seeing Kaelis's face, Heather's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

But before she could look more closely, Kaelis twisted away with another tricky step, continuing her escape without looking back.

Heather wanted to pursue, but seeing the woman currently fighting two beasts alone, she forced herself to stop. After a brief hesitation, she turned and raised her hand.

“I'll assist you.”

...

Kaelis didn't know exactly how much energy she'd expended.

She only knew that from noon onward, she'd been running nonstop through the city, dashing into alleys, disguising herself as a ragged beggar, even hiding for a while in a few unsavory places.

Only when the sun began to set, and she was certain no one was chasing her, did she finally return exhausted to the abandoned mansion at the edge of the noble district.

Hunger and extreme exhaustion made Kaelis's eyelids feel like lead. Her slender legs trembled uncontrollably, her face pale, pitiful to behold.

She plopped down onto her bed of straw, not even having the strength to reach into the ash heap to dig out a potato.

She stretched out her hand, tried several times, but realized her legs truly wouldn't move. Only then did she turn her head and begin visualizing patterns in her mind.

Soon, a droplet resembling ink suddenly condensed at her fingertip, then dripped down along her slender finger to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, two puppy-like creatures rose from the ground, their tiny feet scampering around Kaelis.

Kaelis merely gave a bitter smile.

“Go... get the potato.”

“Woof~”

The puppy quickly scurried to the ash heap, digging around before one returned with a potato in its mouth.

But before it could reach Kaelis, its body suddenly vanished.

Fortunately, the potato had already rolled within Kaelis's reach.

She bit into it, a dry, coarse texture rolled around in her mouth. Her finely arched brows furrowed slightly, revealing her discomfort.

Roasted potatoes were truly tasteless.

But this was her only current food source, just having something to eat was already a blessing.

Kaelis didn't intend to be picky. After finishing the last potato, she dragged her weary body to the side and drank a little cold boiled water.

Only at this point did she finally feel her body recover a little strength.

Too lazy to return to her bed, she simply slumped against the wall, gazing at the city outside the large wall, bathed in the glow of the setting sun.

So much had happened today that even now, she found it hard to believe.

Yet the intense protest from her leg muscles reminded Kaelis, this was all real.

She had no choice but to carefully consider her current situation.

First, her circumstances.

"Well, I've finally run into these people... I wonder how strict the patrol squads are in this world. If they're rigorous, I'll probably need to lay low for a few days and not go out carelessly...

But if I don't go out... I won't have money to buy food... Oh, never mind. My painting tools weren't retrieved, so I can't set up my stall anymore."

A bitter smile surfaced on her face.

They say art is born from suffering, but when suffering reaches this level, having to flee and lose even your tools for survival, Kaelis felt she could probably rank among the top.

But this wasn't a dead end.

In fact, when escaping earlier, Kaelis had realized she probably couldn't retrieve her painting tools. With the firm resolve to absolutely not take a loss, her small hands, never particularly clean, swiftly snatched the long sword hanging at the lead woman's waist.

Kaelis certainly knew she should've fled lightly equipped in such a situation. But... fleeing wasn't the goal. Survival was.

“This sword looks well-crafted... My set of painting tools was worth about two or three silver coins. As long as I can sell this for that price, I won't have taken a loss.”

Looking at the single-edged sword wrapped in ragged cloth, still gleaming with cold brilliance, Kaelis let out a long breath.

There were faint, intricate patterns on the blade, but Kaelis wasn't knowledgeable in such matters and couldn't tell their grade. However, the unique insignia at the hilt's end caught her attention.

She wondered if it would affect the price.

After pondering briefly, Kaelis shook her head, placing the sword aside. She rewrapped it carefully with cloth before turning to consider another matter.

After a moment's hesitation, she pushed herself up shakily on red, strained knees. After searching through the straw paper at home for a while, she pulled out the “Three Birds Contending for a Branch” painting, and her heart stirred.

Her meditation technique activated once more. On the paper, the three birds instantly transformed into black and white, flying out and chirping as they fought over the flowered branch.

Kaelis stretched out her hand, the birds weren't afraid, instead flapping their wings obediently to land on her arm.

As her thoughts shifted, after a brief struggle, the three birds obediently surrendered the branch completely to Kaelis.

This made Kaelis's eyes narrow slightly.

“So it really is possible to control them to some extent.”

The daytime's ferocious tiger and hunting hawk were the same, Kaelis couldn't fully control them, but through simple commands, they would obey her. So far, whether large animals like tigers or small sparrows, they could all understand and execute orders.

Thinking, Kaelis returned the branch to the birds, who immediately began fighting over it again.

But they hadn't fought long before their forms suddenly faded, then slowly vanished into thin air.

The total duration was about a minute and a half.

These were creatures created from paintings Kaelis had prepared long ago with pigments. After awakening her ability, Kaelis discovered she wasn't limited to summoning only pre-drawn beings.

As Kaelis focused her thoughts, the meditation pattern shifted. Soon, black ink began spreading from her fingertips.

As it dripped down, the ink gradually transformed into a group of obedient puppies, rolling and wrestling on the ground.

But these puppies lasted far less time than those summoned from paintings, disappearing in about ten seconds.

“Creatures summoned from pre-made paintings can last about a minute... Those directly released via meditation only last about ten seconds...”

Focusing her mind, Kaelis released them several more times.

Kaelis didn't know if this world had something like a mana bar, but so far, consecutive summoning didn't cause any physical or mental discomfort.

Thanks to this cost-free summoning, Kaelis gradually understood the limits of her ability.

First, summoning quantity...

“It's not fixed, but my body should have a cap. The stronger the creature, the more 'weight' it occupies. After summoning one tiger, I can only summon about a dozen puppies...”

Since ten fingers allowed ten summonings, Kaelis simply used puppies as her unit of measurement.

Her upper limit was roughly 100, summoning one ferocious tiger cost 90 points.

A medium-sized creature like a hunting hawk or hound costs 10 points.

Wolves, leopards, and other medium-sized beasts required 20.

Snakes, scorpions, and similar creatures took less than 10, but they all seemed non-venomous...

As for other random creatures, Kaelis didn't thoroughly check them. She roughly figured out a combination of three wolves, two hounds, and two hawks, that was currently her maximum, and likely her strongest combat configuration.

It could handle both single and group combat.

The only issue was, Kaelis discovered she couldn't prematurely end a summoning. She had to wait for them to naturally disappear before initiating the next summon.

Paintings on paper seemed to reduce the 'weight' occupied, but exactly how, Kaelis didn't have time to carefully examine, after all, painting one picture still took effort. It wasn't like she could really close her eyes and sketch it out in a few strokes.

For now, the strongest single creature Kaelis could summon was probably the ferocious tiger.

As for even stronger creatures...

Kaelis had actually considered trying to summon a werewolf.

But when the thought arose, her fingers failed to produce ink...

“Can't summon it... Must be a power limitation.”

The more Kaelis examined her ability, the more she felt like some kind of otaku girl.

Still, her power couldn't compare to that other person, who possessed a fragment of a colossal beast.

Even so, Kaelis felt quite satisfied.

After all, having gained such strength right after awakening, she actually felt she had a promising future.

Her examination of the ability was about complete. She'd roughly figured out its applications and limits.

But regarding how this ability originated, its connection to the meditation method, and how to advance further, Kaelis remained unclear.

As the outside sun fully set, Kaelis's stomach growled once more.

One potato was far from sufficient to meet her body's energy expenditure. And hunger was truly uncomfortable...

Drinking water could create a feeling of fullness, but she'd definitely have stomach pain the next morning.

And the potatoes at home had already been eaten.

So...

Kaelis's gaze fell upon the long sword she'd taken during her retreat.

########

Wu Song is a character from WATER MARGIN novel. It's one of the four great classical novel. Wu Song fights and Kills a tiger with barehand.

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