The perspective shifts back to the room shared by Yu Jing and Yu Xiaoxiao.
When Yu Xiaoxiao proposed taking action tonight, Yu Jing immediately rejected the idea.
"Yu Xiaoxiao, we have no experience fighting these ghost creatures. Let's stay calm tonight. We can explore the inn slowly tomorrow morning, try to understand every part of it, and get information from that old woman at the front desk. Once we have enough knowledge, then we act. Tonight is far too dangerous."
"I may have never killed a real ghost, but I've killed plenty of bad people," Yu Xiaoxiao replied coldly.
Usually quiet, Yu Jing suddenly became more talkative in front of Yu Xiaoxiao.
"Let me break down how bad the situation is. There are over 800 newcomers in physical training, and only a handful of ghosts in the deep mountain area. Doing the math, that's roughly one ghost per hundred people. Even with those odds, Commissioner Lu Chuan said it's still extremely dangerous and opposed the Empire Hua's approach…
"Also, that old woman we saw in the lobby showed no signs of being alive. If we count her as another ghost, that means the six of us here could be facing two real ghosts. Acting recklessly will only get us killed. There are still a few critical questions I haven't figured out, so we should stay in the room and rest tonight.
"Though I've never encountered ghosts before, from what I know, nighttime is when they're strongest. My abilities actually improve under sunlight, so let's investigate during the day, okay?"
Yu Xiaoxiao blinked her big round eyes and looked at Yu Jing after he finished speaking.
Finally, she nodded and said, "I knew you were smart. We'll go out in the daytime tomorrow. We still have seven days of training anyway. We can kill whoever's hiding here at any time."
"You should get some sleep. I'll keep watch," Yu Jing smiled.
"Mm."
Yu Xiaoxiao showed no doubt or worry, covered herself with the blanket, and closed her eyes on the bed beside him.
Yu Jing sat at the edge of the bed, staring at his right palm. Green vines sprouted from the center of his palm as he pondered some questions.
"Why was I singled out? Why was I targeted the moment I entered Empire Hua's domain and not someone else… Wait, this ghost was assigned by the commissioners from various departments. Could Commissioner Liang have ordered his subordinates to pick this ghost specifically to target me? Then observe how far I can go fusing with this unknown plant under crisis?"
"That's the only possibility!"
Yu Jing's gaze swept the corners of the room. Having witnessed the spatial transfer and storage tech displayed by Empire Hua, he knew the enemy must have special ways to monitor this place. In fact, their ordeal was likely being live-streamed to Empire Hua's evaluators. Even Commissioner Liang was watching this like a spectator.
Yu Jing glanced sideways and then raised his left middle finger.
At that moment, in a laboratory inside a building at Empire Hua's Academy, Commissioner Liang watched the surveillance screen. Although the footage suffered occasional signal interruptions, Yu Jing's cold gaze and the raised middle finger were clear to him.
A shadow in the lab handed steaming hot coffee to Liang.
"Your reaction and thinking are impressive. I see you've secretly been getting familiar with the plant inside your body. Let me see to what extent you can use this plant at the 'Human Death Stage.'"
…
Back in Yu Jing's room, he lowered his middle finger and stared at the controllable vines in his palm. Following his command, a vine retracted back into his arm, and he made a hand gesture across his face that the monitors could not detect anything suspicious.
"If I hadn't spent these two months familiarizing myself with the plant in my right arm, Commissioner Liang would've killed me here already."
A secret vine had been implanted in Yu Jing's eyeball, connecting to his retina. This allowed him to have an internal plant-filtered visual layer besides the normal scene in front of him.
Yu Jing discovered this accidentally during training when the plant in his right hand touched his eyeball.
A personal status and plant organism report was projected through his retina directly to Yu Jing's view. The plant in his right arm could monitor his physical condition at any time.
The current evaluation was as follows:
—
Symbiotic organism's overall health saturation: 87%. Recommended to increase to 95% full health through sleep and plenty of water intake.
The symbiotic plant body has been infected by a strange core virus, resulting in the complete loss of all abilities and regression to the lowest developmental stage. It is strongly recommended to find a way to eradicate the virus to restore the plant body, or to evolve the primary plant form back to its original state by absorbing energy.
Plant form: Grass Organism (lowest level)
Grass Organism evolution progress: 0%
Current primary abilities that can be granted to the symbiotic host are as follows:
Plant Healing: Accelerates the repair of surface wounds. For severe limb severance, it can perform a one-time full restoration, but doing so will force the grass organism into a long dormancy period until it absorbs sufficient nutrients and vitality.
Vine Control: Can split out numerous vines for binding and attacking. The control strength is related to distance, with a maximum range of fifty meters.
Root Tip Absorption: Absorbs nutrients from other lifeforms. Any organic matter can be converted into energy supplied to both the grass organism and the host. Evolutionary energy must be acquired from organisms stronger than the current plant body.
—
This ability description was as detailed as character analyses in games Yu Jing had played before. He had thought about it—before this plant body fell to him, it must have had a previous host, since such a plant body requires symbiosis with a host.
Symbiosis means the host provides nutrients to the parasitic plant within the body, while the plant returns certain benefits to the host.
The method Yu Jing used earlier to cover the walls of his room with vines was the second ability, "Vine Control." Of these three basic abilities, Yu Jing considered that they made his body somewhat inhuman. As long as organic matter and plenty of moisture existed nearby, Yu Jing could survive indefinitely without eating.
"These three abilities don't enhance my physical body, and their offensive power is relatively weak—mostly supportive. But in a fixed environment like this inn, they're extremely useful. Once sunlight appears tomorrow morning, I'll spread the plant throughout every corner of the inn."
As Yu Jing was lost in thought,
"Zzzzt!" The TV, which hadn't been plugged in, suddenly turned on by itself.