After a few seconds to calm her emotions, Marlina adjusted her breathing, trying to keep her steps steady as she walked forward. “Since Mr. Ansel is willing to recognize me like this…” She gently touched her own cheek, speaking softly with both affection and peace of mind, “Then, competing with Seri for priority, isn’t that too childish?” “But… I still don’t want to give in. However—” Marlina’s fingernails lightly traced her tender skin, a bold and decadent pink plan suddenly emerged in her mind, thinking about it, the girl’s steps became a little weak again, leaning on the handrail next to the stairs. “In that case… it’s not impossible.” A gorgeous smile with a hint of seduction appeared on her face, silently, the further corrupted Marlina, had already taken that absurd thing for granted. “Because Mr. Ansel will definitely be very happy… so you won’t refuse either, right, Seri?” In the study, Ansel, who had no idea what strange idea Marlina had suddenly come up with, was completely without her excitement or even loss of control. The young Hydral just closed his eyes, leaning back in the big chair, massaging his temples. “It’s not out of control.” He suddenly said such a sentence. “That’s not out of control, so… I regret it, no, I hesitate.” “Hesitation…” Ansel murmured softly, his fingers tapping on the armrest, the only echo in the silent study. Suddenly, a bottle containing a thick black liquid appeared in his hand. It was the Redemption Water containing the beast element that he had exchanged from Valrhona. Hydral opened his eyes, staring at the liquid named “Redemption” in the bottle, as if lost in thought. “… It’s reasonable.” He answered himself in a gruesome chilling tone, “If I wanted to corrupt Seraphina, there would be no need to get the Redemption Water, both are… the last insurance.”

“…”

He looked at the only snake-headed ring on his thumb, falling silent again.

*

“Aha!” Just as she narrowly dodged the final strike from Gleipnir at a tricky angle, Seraphina, with only two tears in her clothes, cheered joyfully, “I’ve succeeded, Ansel!”

Seraphina obediently followed Ansel’s wishes, actively and seriously contemplating the optimal solution in battle. As it turned out, for a genius… such a task was as easy as flipping her hand. During this process, Seraphina did not encounter the situation she had imagined, where “there’s no time to think once the fight has started”. On the contrary, if she intended to think during the process of physical combat, she could instantly find the answer the moment the thought arose.

Compared to relying on intuition, the approach Ansel provided for Seraphina undoubtedly opened a new path for her. After some familiarity, the young wolf could quickly predict the trajectory of the blade whip through the movement of Ansel’s wrist, rather than relying on her senses to dodge awkwardly. She completed Ansel’s second stage test in just four days.

“How does it feel?” Ansel, with Seraphina who had jumped over and hung on him, asked, “When you try to actively understand the battlefield, instead of relying on instinct to respond, has the fight become simpler?”

“Mm!” Seraphina rubbed Ansel’s face vigorously, “It’s indeed more useful than just relying on feelings… I’m just not very accustomed to it, but it will be fine after practicing for a while!”

She jumped to the ground, her fists and feet tearing through the air with a booming sound. Just a few days had passed, and her physical strength seemed to have taken another step up. The lively girl bouncing on the spot clenched her fists, looking at Ansel with joy, “Ansel, I feel like I should be reaching the third stage soon, my current strength seems to have reached… reached that thing, bottle, uh… bottleneck!”

Seraphina actually had very little clear concept of her own strength. From childhood to adulthood, “becoming stronger” was almost as easy and natural for her as breathing, so she was very sensitive to the feeling of a bottleneck suddenly choking her growth. Ansel was not surprised by this, he knew Seraphina’s talent better than anyone. However, the throne of the third stage, as the real boundary between extraordinary beings and mortals, was not so simple to achieve.

“Seraphina, do you remember how to become an extraordinary being of the third stage?”

“Um…” The girl scratched her head and thought, “I remember it’s about… combining the body and soul? But isn’t the soul already in my body? How is it considered combined?”

Ansel lightly tapped his scepter, and Gleipnir transformed into a grotesquely shaped hand cannon amidst the pleasant sound of mechanical operation. He handed this hand cannon to Seraphina, smiling, “Try pulling the trigger.”

“Ah? Really?” Seraphina’s eyes lit up, she had wanted to play with this seemingly super powerful cannon for a long time. Seraphina took Gleipnir, holding this somewhat exaggeratedly large cannon with both hands, excitedly and carefully aimed at the sky, half-closed her eyes, and forcefully pulled the trigger. But… nothing happened.

“Eh?” Seraphina slightly opened her eyes, and pressed the trigger several more times, but nothing happened. “As a ‘firearm’, its external physical principle dictates that it will fire bullets as long as the trigger is pulled.” Ansel beckoned, and Gleipnir automatically flew back to his hand, spinning in his palm.

“But as an alchemical object, the self-operating rules inside Gleipnir override common sense — this is what it means to be extraordinary.” “The same principle applies to extraordinary beings.”

Ansel looked at Seraphina, succinctly expounding the basic theory of ether studies to her — “Extraordinary beings who ascend through the Heavenly Road, no matter how special their bodies are, even if they use transcendental elements to strengthen them, will ultimately reach the ‘common sense’ limit.” “At this point, the soul, as the element that transforms the ‘internal rules’ of extraordinary beings, is the opportunity for extraordinary beings to truly ascend.”

“Oh… oh!” Seraphina seemed to understand, “Like the big wolf in the Darkwater Forest, although it looks like a wolf, it’s just a monster that looks like a wolf, right?”

–>