268: Chapter 268 Fragment of the Blazing Sun Technique

Jiangcheng Shelter, core living area.

Brightly lit and steaming with heat.

Unlike the icy world and zombie roars outside, a fierce "war" was currently being waged here.

"Ye Qingyue! Put that piece of tripe down! That's mine!"

"Nya-nya-nya~ Once it's in my bowl, it's mine! If you have the ability, come and grab it!"

"Ahhh! Boss, look at her! She's bullying a new comrade!"

"You brat, take this 'Frost Touch'!"

"What the hell? Sis, are you playing for real? Using a Superpower while eating hotpot? You're going to freeze the soup solid!"

Around a huge round table, the women were gathered together.

In the center was a special one-meter diameter yin-yang hotpot.

The spicy red broth was boiling, and the mild white broth was fragrant.

Thinly sliced Mutated Beast meat, as delicate as cicada wings, was swished in the broth for seven or eight seconds, scooped out, and dipped in Lin Yuan's special secret sauce. One bite in, it was tender, juicy, and overflowing with spiritual energy.

Qin Ziyan held her bowl, staring blankly at the chaotic scene before her.

Is this the legendary cold and icy CEO, Ye Qingxue?

Was that really her using an Ice-type Superpower to steal meat just now?

And what about Chen Hanyue, the Shadow Empress who usually carried an aura of murder? She was actually puffing out her cheeks in anger because a piece of duck blood was stolen from her?

The most outrageous one was Xia Muqing.

This crazy woman was stuffing meat into her mouth while staring at the ingredients floating in the pot with an extremely professional gaze.

"Boss, according to my analysis, this Mutated Fire Cloud Pig must have been an athlete in its previous life. Look at the muscle fibers of this hind leg meat; the texture is clear and highly elastic... If we could apply this muscle structure to the transmission system of a mech..."

"Shut up and eat your meat."

Lin Yuan picked up a piece of meat and stuffed it into her mouth, saying irritably.

"Just eat your food, don't start doing any autopsies."

"Mmm-mmm-mmm... Delicious!"

Xia Muqing was instantly conquered by the delicious food, casting her thoughts of mechs to the back of her mind.

Suddenly, she seemed to think of something.

With a mysterious look, she pulled a huge, dark red object emitting strong energy fluctuations from her backpack.

"Oh right, Boss! Although I dissolved the corpse, I specifically saved this!"

"This is the essence of the Titan King!"

"According to my tests, it contains terrifying amounts of Yang energy and vitality!"

"As the saying goes, you are what you eat..."

Xia Muqing pushed that object in front of Lin Yuan with a lewd, scientific quest-for-truth expression.

"This kidney... is practically custom-made for you!"

"Pfft—"

Luo Qinghan, who was drinking water, sprayed it out instantly.

The whole room fell into dead silence.

Everyone's gaze focused on those two basketball-sized "Titan Kidneys," and then they all looked in unison at Lin Yuan's... waist.

Their expressions were strange.

Lin Yuan's face turned black instantly.

"Xia Muqing."

"Yes!"

"Your research budget for this year is completely cut."

"Huh?! Boss, please don't! I was wrong! Can't I just eat this kidney myself?"

"Get out!"

After some banter, the atmosphere became unprecedentedly harmonious.

Qin Ziyan had initially been somewhat reserved, feeling like an outsider.

But when Ye Qingyue mischievously added a large chopstick-full of "insanely spicy beef" to her bowl, and then handed her a glass of iced milk while she was teary-eyed and looking for water...

That sense of distance seemed to quietly melt away at that moment.

There were no strict military ranks here, no scheming or plotting, only the purest form of... life.

After eating and drinking their fill.

The women lounged on the sofa without any decorum, digesting their meal.

Lin Yuan tapped the table, and the previously lazy atmosphere instantly vanished; everyone straightened up.

It was time to talk business.

"Everyone performed well in this battle against the Titan."

Lin Yuan waved his hand, and a pile of glowing crystal cores and materials appeared on the table out of thin air.

"Distribute according to contribution; pick what you want."

"Wow! Long live Brother Lin Yuan!"

Ye Qingyue was the first to pounce on them.

She hugged a dark-element crystal core emitting a faint glow and rubbed against it affectionately.

"This is the crystal core of that Rat Emperor! This is great! My Shadow Ability just happened to hit a bottleneck!"

Ye Qingxue took a piece of Titan fragment emitting cold air.

Her Death Domain needed this kind of high-strength carrier to advance.

Needless to say, Xia Muqing had already claimed the pile of Titan bones and was drooling while planning her great mech enterprise.

Even logistics personnel like Su Yuyan and Wang Yaqin received some low-level spirit fruits that nourished the body.

Finally.

Only one crimson crystal remained on the table.

It was a fragment of the Titan King's heart crystal. Although it wasn't the core piece, it still emitted a heart-palpitating, violent fire element.

"Qin Ziyan."

Lin Yuan looked at Qin Ziyan, who had been sitting in the corner without moving.

"This is yours."

Qin Ziyan was stunned and pointed at herself: "Mine?"

"You have Fire-type Superpower; this thing is useful for you."

Lin Yuan casually tossed the scorching crystal over.

Qin Ziyan caught it in a panic.

The moment she touched it.

A burning, stinging sensation came, but following it was the joyous cheering of the Superpower within her body.

Good stuff!

Absolutely top-tier!

If she were in the military region, a treasure of this level would probably only be accessible to those old, immortal generals.

And Lin Yuan... just casually tossed it to her?

"Lin Yuan, this is too valuable..."

Qin Ziyan subconsciously wanted to decline.

After all, today was her first day joining.

And in battle... honestly, she felt her performance was very mediocre.

Her output wasn't as good as Lin Yuan's, her crowd control wasn't as good as Ye Qingxue's, and even her sneak attacks weren't as good as that little girl who played with shadows.

This "Valkyrie" title she had once been so proud of seemed... mediocre in Lin Yuan's freakish team?

"If I give it to you, take it."

Lin Yuan didn't look at her; instead, he lit a cigarette for himself.

"I don't keep trash in my team."

"Since you've joined me, don't embarrass me."

"Although this thing is a bit violent, if you can absorb it, the probability of breaking through to SS-rank... is very high."

SS-rank!

These three words struck Qin Ziyan's heart like a heavy hammer.

She had been stuck at the peak of S-rank for a long time.

Although the military region had many resources, most were mild strengthening agents that couldn't help her break through that solid bottleneck.

But this Titan crystal...

Qin Ziyan gripped the scorching object in her hand, and the hesitation in her eyes turned into determination.

"Thank you!"

She shouted loudly, mimicking how Ye Qingyue and the others addressed him.

Lin Yuan waved his hand, signaling that the meeting was over.

Late at night.

The Shelter gradually quieted down.

But the training room door remained tightly shut.

"Hah! Hup!"

Muffled sounds of impact echoed continuously.

Qin Ziyan, wearing a tight tank top soaked in sweat, swung her alloy spear like a wild dragon, blasting simulated dummies into fragments.

But her brow furrowed tighter and tighter.

Not enough. Still not enough!

Today's battle scenes replayed in her mind like a slideshow.

Lin Yuan's thunderous strike, like that of a god or demon...

Ye Qingxue's Death Domain that froze time and space...

Even that rat could bite a piece of meat off the Titan...

And what about herself?

Besides doing some insignificant harassment on the flanks, she even needed Lin Yuan to be distracted to save her.

"Qin Ziyan, when did you become so weak?"

She stopped her movements, looked at her disheveled self in the mirror, and smiled self-deprecatingly.

An unprecedented sense of crisis enveloped her.

In the military region, she was the irreplaceable strongest combat power.

But here, by Lin Yuan's side... she felt she could be replaced or abandoned at any moment.

That fear of being abandoned reminded her of her childhood.

That afternoon when her parents left her unattended in the mall just to buy a toy for her younger brother.

"No... I cannot be abandoned."

"I must become stronger."

"I want to be the sharpest sword in his hand, not a vase to be protected!"

A flash of ruthlessness crossed Qin Ziyan's eyes.

She walked to the resting area and pulled out two things from her bosom.

A yellowed ancient book — "Fragment of the Blazing Sun Technique".

This was the Qin family's ancestral ancient martial arts mental cultivation method; it was said that if practiced to the extreme, one could summon true fire to burn the heavens and boil the seas.

But because it was incomplete, it was extremely easy to suffer from qi deviation, so it was listed as a forbidden technique.

The other thing was that violent Titan crystal.

"Ancient martial arts to guide, Superpower to break through."

"Seek life through death."

"I'll risk it!"

Qin Ziyan took a deep breath and sat cross-legged.

She began to forcibly circulate her Superpower according to the meridian routes in the fragment.

At the same time, she swallowed that violent crystal in one gulp!

Boom!

The moment she swallowed it, it felt like she had swallowed a bomb.

Terrifying Fire-type energy instantly exploded inside her, rampaging wildly along her meridians.

Pain!

Heart-wrenching pain!

It felt as if countless red-hot knives were churning in her blood vessels.

"Suppress... it!"

Qin Ziyan gritted her teeth, trying to use the "Blazing Sun Technique" to guide this torrent.

Initially, everything was still within controllable limits.

But at the critical moment, her mind suddenly became dazed.

That "weak self" in the mirror suddenly came alive and looked at her with a grimace:

"It's useless..."

"You're just unwanted trash..."

"Your parents didn't want you, and Lin Yuan will sooner or later not want you either..."

"Look at Ye Qingxue, look at Su Yuyan, they are both better than you..."

"You are destined to be redundant..."

Inner demon!

This was the biggest side effect of the "Blazing Sun Technique" — triggering the deepest fears in one's heart during extreme pain.

"No! Shut up! Shut up!"

Qin Ziyan roared frantically in her sea of consciousness, her mind in chaos.

With this chaos, the energy in her body completely lost control.

Pfft—

A mouthful of blood sprayed out wildly.

When the blood hit the ground, it actually made a "hissing" burning sound and evaporated instantly.

Qin Ziyan's skin instantly turned red like a branding iron, her blood vessels bulged like ferocious fire snakes, and the temperature on her body surface soared rapidly.

40 degrees... 50 degrees... 80 degrees...

Her clothes instantly turned to ashes.

She was like a powder keg about to explode.

Her consciousness gradually blurred.

At the last moment before falling into darkness, only one thought remained in her mind:

"Am I going to die..."

"What a pity..."

"I haven't had the chance... to eat that hotpot one more time..."

"I haven't had the chance... to tell him..."

Boom!

Just at this moment.

The alloy door of the training room, which could withstand missile strikes, was kicked flying by someone.

A figure carrying a biting cold wind instantly appeared before her.

"Stupid woman."

Those were the last three words Qin Ziyan heard before losing consciousness.

Although he was scolding her.

But for some reason... it sounded really nice.