These past few days were spent studying and training.
Su Li hadn’t given much thought to his future goals, but he never slacked off on his lessons.
After all, the prerequisite for a better tomorrow was being fully prepared.
You Xue…
Su Li sighed.
He still thought of that girl from time to time, without meaning to.
He remembered the soft, ashen strands of her hair, her sea-blue eyes, and the peaceful, beautiful smile she’d give him when she sat beside him.
Yet the moment that image surfaced in his mind, he forced himself to stop.
‘She doesn’t care about you anymore,’ he told himself.
‘So you shouldn’t care about her either. She’s a selfish, mean person. Don’t think about anything else.’
He pushed aside his thoughts of You Xue and decided to focus on the present.
It was afternoon, and Su Li was about to meet up with Cheng Yehai and Alice.
They were now members of the same combat squad, assigned by Teacher An Bian during training class.
Apparently, it was a tradition at Qiming Academy—almost all students formed three-person teams that stayed together until graduation.
Of course, everyone had the right to choose their teammates.
Since Alice was one of the top students in combat ability, Teacher An Bian probably hoped a strong student would carry two weak ones.
Su Li had expected Alice to ask for a different squad, but instead, she just frowned and said, a bit annoyed:
“What the heck? They gave me two dead weights. But with my skills, even carrying two losers is a piece of cake.”
Su Li looked at her, thinking she really did have the qualifications to say that.
But when their eyes met, Alice was the first to look away, her golden hair swinging in an arc.
Then she said:
“What are you staring at? Now that we’re a team, train hard. Don’t hold me back.”
And just like that, the three of them somehow completed their squad formation.
Su Li quickly arrived at the training ground.
Cheng Yehai and Alice were already waiting at the agreed spot.
“Bro Su!”
Seeing Su Li coming, Cheng Yehai waved his hand vigorously, wearing his usual carefree smile.
“Too slow!”
Alice snorted.
“Don’t be so harsh, Squad Leader. It’s not even training time yet, right?”
Cheng Yehai said cheerfully, trying to smooth things over.
In fact, after a few days of getting along, both of them had realized Alice was the type with a sharp tongue but a soft heart.
As long as no one crossed the line, she wouldn’t really get angry.
Thinking about it that way, her complaints actually seemed kind of cute.
Su Li smiled and apologized first.
“Sorry, I’m late.”
“Since you apologized so sincerely, I’ll forgive you.”
Alice closed one eye, then seemed to think that didn’t fit her image, so she added sternly:
“But you’d better take today’s training seriously!”
“Roger, Squad Leader.”
Su Li answered.
Cheng Yehai was still giggling at the scene, apparently enjoying seeing Su Li get scolded by Alice.
“What are you laughing at?”
Alice’s gaze swept over, her tone sharp.
Cheng Yehai’s smile froze.
He turned to look at the sky and said awkwardly:
“Wow, look at that fiery cloud—it looks just like a skewer of meat! Haha, so funny.”
Alice let out a cold laugh.
“I think you’re the funniest thing here. If you can’t activate Rewind on your own by today, no breaks.”
Cheng Yehai gave a bitter smile.
“Squad Leader, supernatural abilities need to be developed step by step. I really can’t do it…”
Cheng Yehai looked pitiful, as if he was about to grab their dear squad leader’s leg.
From what Su Li knew of Cheng Yehai, he actually had the nerve to do that.
Seeing Cheng Yehai’s pathetic state, Alice pinched the bridge of her nose and gave in.
“Fine, fine. Just practice like before. First get your ability to be used multiple times, okay?”
Watching the noisy pair, Su Li felt his heart wasn’t so empty anymore.
Training time was almost up, and he looked in the direction Cheng Yehai was staring.
There really was a fiery cloud shaped like a skewer of meat, floating in the orange-red sky.
Immersed in that warm color, it felt almost tangible.
The evening was for self-study.
Many squads took this time to train their supernatural abilities on the field.
After all, the better you understood your own ability, the stronger you could make it.
The current squad’s plan was for Su Li and Cheng Yehai to become more proficient in their abilities, while Alice began training her magic power storage capacity.
The more magic power a Superpowered Individual could store, the stronger their sustained combat ability—only then could they shorten the downtime after using their abilities.
Su Li walked into a room alone.
His ability tended to interfere with his teammates’ training; the intense light pollution could easily blind the other two temporarily.
However, in the past few days, Su Li had gradually noticed how his ability differed from Blaze.
The light he emitted seemed controllable.
It was like a newborn learning to control its limbs—clumsy at first, but with repeated use, Su Li was slowly figuring out the trick.
Yesterday, he’d tried to gather all the emitted light into a single point, but failed.
The ability had exploded like a flash grenade again.
He had to keep at it.
This was the only way he could tell he was getting stronger.
Su Li raised his right hand, activating his ability in his mind.
He wanted to concentrate all the light onto his palm.
Magic power surged from deep within his body, flowing along the path he’d traveled countless times toward his palm.
Light flickered from the center of his hand—first as small as a needle tip, then spreading like ink dropped into clear water.
Su Li gritted his teeth, trying to suppress the outward-spreading light.
This light felt like part of him.
He could sense it, could move it, but could never adjust it to the right angle.
Still, it was changing.
And not for the worse.
Eventually, the scattered light—strand by strand, cluster by cluster, mass by mass—moved gradually, slowly, from his palm and fingertips to the correct position.
All the intense light successfully converged onto a single point.
The target dummy had a small hole burned into its chest, and the ray passed through the hole to hit the training room wall.
He did it.
Almost all his magic power was depleted.
Su Li canceled the ability and sat down on the floor.
He was exhausted, but happy.
Still, Su Li had a strange premonition.
He felt his ability was capable of more than this.
It was just an unfounded feeling, but being able to do this already made him very pleased.
Look—he was moving forward, in the right direction.
One day, he would become better, much better.
Even better than the person You Xue was relying on now.
He wanted You Xue to witness that moment with her own eyes, and then realize what a terrible choice she had made.
Su Li wanted her to regret it, to feel guilty for abandoning her childhood friend, and then tell her:
It wasn’t You Xue who gave up on him—it was him who abandoned You Xue.
When that day finally came, she would regret it to death.
Su Li thought so, then pulled himself together.
He couldn’t stop.
He had to get even stronger.