Xue Ji joined the operational plan for City A, her strategic value classified as being on par with Ling Xiaoxiao.
Today was Xue Ji’s first time attending a combat strategy meeting. Unexpectedly, she saw a familiar face there.
It was Officer Chen Shijie, the man with a scar on his face, who was also the main person in charge of the awakening process for Xue Ji’s batch of students. He was the same Chen Shijie who had been utterly helpless against Xue Ji when her supernatural abilities first awakened. (Chen Shijie: “Do we have to bring that up again?! (♯▼皿▼)” )
“To summarize, I will temporarily be taking Ling Xiaoxiao’s place in this operation. If anyone has questions, voice them now,” Xue Ji said with full confidence, sitting at the head of the table and facing the attendees directly.
Although Chen Shijie had personally experienced Xue Ji’s combat prowess, he still found it hard to believe. “I have a question. Why is your strategic value considered equal to the Vermilion Bird’s?”
His question was on everyone else’s mind too. They hadn’t seen her test results and had been busy with preparations, completely unaware of Xue Ji’s true capabilities.
Facing the curious and skeptical gazes of the crowd, a white light flashed around Xue Ji. She transformed into the Sage, clad in white magus robes and holding the Staff of the World Tree.
“You may not know me,” her voice echoed, ethereal and divine, filled with immense authority and sanctity, “But you’ve been investigating this form for quite some time, haven’t you?”
The white-robed individual who single-handedly ended the zombie-wolf tide in southern City A… The investigation department had conducted an intensive search, yet found no trace until now, when this very person appeared in their war room.
“So it really is you? My intuition was right.” Chen Shijie seemed less surprised than the others. The first time he met Xue Ji, he felt this white-haired girl was hard to read. If the idea of the white-robed person and Xue Ji being the same hadn’t been so counter-intuitive, he was sure he would have uncovered her identity himself.
Noting his unusually calm reaction, Xue Ji smoothed her hair and joked, “It seems white hair is just too conspicuous after all?”
Next, Xue Ji presented partial video footage from her test and the capability form personally filled out by Ling Xiaoxiao.
The combat video alone was convincing enough, but the capability form was even more staggering. Even using Ling Xiaoxiao’s (sealed state) parameters as the upper data limit, Xue Ji’s spiritual power control, endurance, and destructive power still exceeded it. The ability entry was simply and brutally listed as ‘Magic – All-Round Warrior.’
When everyone clicked the details button under the ‘Magic’ entry, they were startled by the densely packed records spanning over a hundred pages. And this was just the content from an intermediate magic compendium that Xue Ji had casually given to Ling Xiaoxiao—it was her homework notebook from her apprentice days.
“You must be cheating!” Chen Shijie was truly seeing the light now. While other Awakened were overjoyed at managing to awaken a single combat-capable ability through hard work, Xue Ji’s vast arsenal covering offense, defense, healing, and utility in every conceivable way simply defied all reason.
In this world of spiritual rejuvenation, one could say Xue Ji was an army unto herself.
“You’ve gotta be some grand archmage from another world who crossed over, like the protagonists in those novels,” a younger officer quipped.
…
After Xue Ji’s identity was revealed, the subsequent discussions proceeded much more smoothly. Those who had previously been hesitant now completely cast their doubts aside.
Joking aside, it’s time to latch onto a powerful ally. Gaining support like this would undoubtedly reduce casualties significantly. Who would be foolish enough to oppose her?
After listening to the reports from each department, Xue Ji fully understood the operation’s plan.
Essentially, everyone in City A was categorized into three types: ordinary civilians, combat personnel, and vampires. The vampires’ tactic was to gradually convert ordinary people, establishing their foothold in the city this way.
The military’s countermeasures were twofold: first, overtly raiding vampire strongholds; second, replacing ordinary people with combat personnel to hinder the vampires’ spread.
Both sides were amassing strength for the impending final confrontation. In City A nowadays, even a street vendor selling Jianbing might be an intermediate-level Awakened, while the elderly folks playing Mahjong in the parlors could all be vampires in disguise.
“Since Cain’s manifestation, vampires can now face sunlight directly, making them nearly indistinguishable from ordinary people when they pretend to be human,” the commander in charge of search operations explained the current difficulties. “Furthermore, some locals have been turned, and the vampires’ dependence on blood has weakened. All of this increases the difficulty of our investigations.”
Xue Ji thought for a moment and asked, “Are there any differences in the physical examination parameters between vampires and ordinary people?”
The head of the R&D department responded, “Unbelievably, there are almost no differences.”
‘Well, it’s not too difficult for blood-sucking monsters to manage that,’ Xue Ji thought, flipping through the electronic medical records of all known vampires. Then, she was shocked by what she saw. ‘Hemorrhoids and erectile dysfunction are this common among them?!’
‘Too bad vampires wouldn’t go to a hospital unless there’s something wrong with their brains.’
Xue Ji felt a bit helpless. They couldn’t possibly force everyone to go to the hospital to get checked for those two specific things.
“Ah! There’s a vampire at the municipal hospital! The antibody carrier is there too!” The head of the intelligence department suddenly exclaimed, looking incredulously at the message on his communicator.
Everyone gathered around to look. The image showed a pale young girl covering her right cheek, seeming very uncomfortable, obediently waiting in line to register.
Xue Ji: “…”
An hour later, Xue Ji arrived at the municipal hospital and saw the vampire girl who had come to see the dentist. She was lying on the dentist’s operating table, accompanied by the unlucky Song Liangpeng.
The team Chen Shijie brought immediately secured the entire dental department. Xue Ji had already set up concealment magic outside the hospital, ensuring their actions would go unnoticed by anyone outside.
The dentist attending to the girl suddenly found himself at gunpoint—five or six weapons aimed his way. He instinctively raised his hands.
Seeing his reaction, Chen Shijie quickly explained, “Don’t be afraid. Just proceed with the extraction. We’re only here to observe.”
Dentist: “?”
The girl suspected of being a vampire showed no fear. Instead, she looked around curiously at the surrounding people, her bright, lively eyes darting about.
Xue Ji approached Song Liangpeng and signaled for him to step out for a talk.
The two moved to the corridor, now surrounded by soldiers, and got straight to the point.
“What’s the story with that girl?”
“Well, it’s a long story. That day—”
“Please keep it short,” Xue Ji reminded him.
Song Liangpeng visibly paused before continuing, “She came to hang out with me, got turned by a vampire, then two people suddenly showed up and saved her. They also said I have antibodies and told her to drink my blood.”
“Did one of her rescuers look like this?” Xue Ji showed him a picture of Ling Xiaoxiao on her communicator.
“Yes, that’s her.”
Right then, Xia Jin, who had followed them, suddenly appeared, announcing proudly, “And me too!”
Xue Ji exchanged a glance with her, then turned back to Song Liangpeng.
“I understand. After her tooth is extracted, both of you will come with me. Don’t worry, it’s not dangerous.”
Later, while waiting, Xia Jin showed Xue Ji the video from that night. It included footage of the puppet-like Ling Xiaoxiao and her killing vampires, but also showed the young girl chasing after vampires and biting them.
The bitten vampires convulsed violently before turning directly into dust.
“Holy crap, what a vampire killer!” Xue Ji’s eyes lit up as she watched this slender girl chasing a group of vampires. It was like she had found a treasure.