Reborn as a lotus, she initially refuses to hand it over to the state.

An hour later.

Lingnan Awakeners Academy.

An alarm sounded on the training field.

A group of newly enrolled awakened students were gathered together.

They were both excited and nervous, since most of them had only been testing their abilities in the training field since they awakened.

This was the first time Su Wan had ever truly faced a strange beast. Standing at the front of the group, she said coldly, "A disturbance of spiritual plants has occurred on the outskirts of Black Dragon Mountain. Some low-level strange beasts have been agitated and are now attacking the mountain path."

"Your mission this time is to assist the Ninth Bureau in clearing out the surrounding alien beasts and rescuing the trapped civilians."

"Remember, you're not going on vacation or to show off your skills. This is real combat. There will be bloodshed, and people may die."

The students, who had been somewhat excited, immediately fell silent.

Among the crowd, Jiahao stood at the front of the line, wearing a black printed hoodie and tactical gloves, with an barely suppressed excitement in his eyes.

Since awakening his fire element, he has become the center of attention at school.

Now that he's been specially recruited into the Awakened Academy, his ego has inflated considerably: "Finally, I can really take action."

A boy next to him whispered, "Brother Hao, don't be too impulsive. I heard there are strange beasts over there."

Jiahao sneered, "What's there to be afraid of? They're just a few wild boars and wolves. I'll set them on fire, and they'll run away!"

Not far away, Lin Qingxue frowned upon hearing this. She didn't say anything, but felt inexplicably uneasy.

Soon, the college's practical training team set off.

Several armored vehicles drove out of the academy and headed towards the outskirts of Black Dragon Mountain.

Half an hour later.

The convoy arrived at the mountain road.

As soon as everyone got out of the car, they saw a scene of utter chaos ahead.

The road was blocked by vines, and the transport truck was overturned on the side of the road, with several trapped drivers hiding behind the vehicle.

In the distance, several armored wild boars and mutated mountain wolves were roaming in the mountains.

The air was filled with a faint fragrance of grass and trees, but beneath that fragrance was a chilling, unsettling atmosphere.

Lin Qingxue's expression changed slightly: "These vines are not right."

Su Wan looked at her: "What did you sense?"

Lin Qingxue said in a low voice, "They are not attacking on their own initiative. They must have been stimulated in some way and lost control."

Su Wan's expression shifted; this assessment was just as she had guessed. At that moment, an armored wild boar spotted the group.

It let out a low growl, stomped its four hooves on the ground, and charged straight at us, shaking the ground.

Many students turned pale instantly.

"Prepare for battle!"

Su Wan gave a cold shout, and several awakened students immediately took action.

Some released ice spikes, some enhanced their bodies and charged forward, and others tried to use their minds to interfere with the wild boars.

However, since it was their first real battle, their coordination was extremely chaotic. The ice spikes missed their mark, and the enhanced students were knocked away by the wild boars as soon as they rushed out.

The students majoring in mental health turned pale and nearly suffered a backlash.

Seeing this, Jiahao's eyes lit up: "Make way, everyone!"

He raised his right hand, and flames instantly shot out from his palm.

boom!

The flames struck the armored boar, causing it to scream in agony, and the surrounding students gasped in alarm.

"Amazing, fire magic is indeed powerful!"

Jiahao's face showed a smug look.

But the next second, an accident happened. The flames not only ignited the wild boar's bristles, but also burned the out-of-control vines next to it.

The vines, stimulated, suddenly erupted into a frenzy.

Dozens of vines sprang up from the ground and wrapped around the group.

"Back off!"

Su Wan's expression changed, and Jiahao was also stunned.

He didn't expect that his flames would make the vines even more frenzied. A girl couldn't dodge in time and was caught by the vines around her ankle, dragged directly into the forest.

"Help!"

Everyone's expression changed drastically, and Lin Qingxue rushed out almost instinctively.

A blue light shone from her palm and landed on the ground.

Several soft green vines sprouted from the soil, wrapped around the girl's wrists, and forcibly pulled her back.

At the same time, Su Wan took a step forward, a flash of cold light.

The long sword slashed down, instantly severing the out-of-control vines.

The girl collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath, her face deathly pale. Jiahao stood there, his earlier smugness gone.

Su Wan gave him a cold look: "Who gave you permission to use fire recklessly?"

Jiahao's face was grim: "I just wanted to kill the alien beasts."

Su Wan's voice was icy: "On the battlefield, if you act recklessly without understanding the environment, you'll not only kill yourself."

"Awakened individuals are not just showing off in the street."

"Using your abilities incorrectly can lead to murder."

Jiahao's face turned pale, feeling both ashamed and embarrassed.

Just then, the scorched armored boar charged again.

This time, Lin Qingxue was the first to sense the changes in the ground plants.

She gritted her teeth and released her cyan spiritual power. Several vines sprouted from the ground, and although they were not thick, they precisely wrapped around the wild boar's front hooves.

The wild boar suddenly swayed to the side, and Su Wan seized the opportunity, her figure flashing past.

puff!

The long knife sliced ​​across the wild boar's neck, and blood gushed out.

The Tier 2 Armored Boar collapsed to the ground with a thud.

The students around were all stunned by what they saw.

This is real combat. It's not about who has the coolest skills, but who can make the right judgments in the chaos and survive.

The battle lasted for half an hour.

Led by Su Wan and the members of the Ninth Bureau, the students of the academy finally cleared out several low-level alien beasts in the vicinity.

All the trapped people were rescued, but many students were pale, and some even vomited on the spot.

For the first time, they witnessed the slaying of a strange beast and smelled the stench of blood. The path of the Awakened was far less glamorous than they had imagined.

Lin Qingxue stood in front of a patch of severed vines. She reached out to touch it, and the next second, she frowned: "Captain Su."

Su Wan walked over: "What's wrong?"

Lin Qingxue's face turned deathly pale as she spoke, "There are two kinds of auras in these vines. One is very pure, and the other is like some kind of rotten spiritual power."

Su Wan's expression changed drastically, and she immediately ordered, "Seal the samples, everyone retreat."

Soon, several vine samples were placed into an isolation box.

Su Wan's expression grew increasingly grave as she looked at the black-striped vines still wriggling slightly inside the isolation box.

She finally understood that this riot on the periphery was not initiated by the Azure Lotus Forbidden Zone. The real cause of the chaos was another corrupting force hidden beneath the aura of the Azure Lotus.

That power likely originated from beneath Black Dragon Mountain.

at the same time.

In the center of Black Dragon Lake, Chu Zhou also sensed that the battle on the periphery had ended.

He did not stop humans from cleaning up the out-of-control spiritual plants, because that was already a problem caused by the aftershocks.

However, the moment Lin Qingxue released her cyan spiritual power, he still vaguely sensed a familiar aura.

"That human girl who survived from Black Dragon Mountain..."

Chu Zhou's expression shifted for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure.

Now is not the time to make contact with humans; his gaze fell toward the underground ancient city.

The strange stone then spoke with a cold laugh: "Lotus Demon, you can protect Black Dragon Mountain, but can you protect all the living beings outside?"