bookrandom Chapter 9 Exchanging for Ultimate Physical Strength
Chapter 9 Exchanging for Ultimate Physical Strength
"Where are you looking?" Her voice changed.
"Your clothes," Jiang Che said, "there's a loose thread on your clothes."
"..."
Su Qingyuan lowered her head and checked her collar.
There are no loose threads.
When she looked up, the expression on her face was no longer shyness—it was shame and indignation.
It's the shame and indignation of someone who has been exposed but still has to keep up the act.
But she didn't leave.
I didn't scold him either.
"Do you think that just because you saved my life you can do whatever you want?" she whispered.
"No," Jiang Che said, "I just think you're very beautiful."
The moment he said those words, Jiang Che was stunned for a moment.
He hadn't planned what he was going to say.
His mouth moves faster than his brain.
Three years into the apocalypse, he thought his language skills had deteriorated to the point where he could only say "walk," "run," and "hide."
But in this dilapidated ruin, surrounded by eeriness and famine, his mouth suddenly came to life on its own.
Su Qingyuan was stunned.
She looked at him, the blush on her face fading.
"You—" she said, but couldn't finish the sentence.
Her lips were trembling.
[Su Qingyuan's favorability towards the host increases by 1 x 2. Current favorability value: 40.]
40 o'clock precisely. No more, no less.
Jiang Che mentally pressed the redemption button almost simultaneously.
[40 Favorability Points consumed to exchange for the D-rank ability [Extreme Physical Ability]. Confirm.]
[Awakening of supernatural abilities...]
A burst of scalding air exploded from his dantian.
Unlike the previous temporary enhancement, which felt violent and like an electric current coursing through the body, this time it was a deeper and more fundamental change.
He could hear his bones making a faint "crackling" sound—not breaking, but remodeling.
The muscle fibers are as if they have been stitched back together by an invisible needle, becoming tighter, denser, and more elastic.
The blood flowing in my veins felt like it had been replaced with a thicker, hotter liquid, and each heartbeat was like a heavy drumbeat, pumping power to every corner of my body.
But his physical reactions were not limited to these.
The heat brought on by the awakening surged in his abdomen, like a ball of burning cotton, burning brighter and brighter.
The heat surged up his spine, down his lower back, and then down—Jiang Che suddenly squeezed his legs together.
It's not because of pain.
It's because that feeling is so similar to something else.
His face flushed red instantly.
It wasn't because I was shy, it was because I was embarrassed.
He never imagined that awakening a superpower could have such side effects.
His body felt as if it had been set on fire from the inside, and all his senses were magnified tenfold in an instant—he could hear Su Qingyuan's heartbeat, fast and erratic.
He could smell the layers of every scent on her body.
He could see the small, almost invisible mole below her collarbone.
That mole.
He had never noticed it before.
Now he sees it.
He stared at the mole for a fraction of a second, then abruptly looked away.
But he knew that his pupils had dilated in that instant.
That reaction is physiological and doesn't go through the brain.
"What's wrong with you?" Su Qingyuan noticed his unusual behavior.
His face was so red, his breathing so heavy, and his body temperature seemed to have suddenly risen two degrees.
"N-nothing...it's nothing." Jiang Che's voice was hoarse. "My superpower...has awakened."
Su Qingyuan's pupils contracted: "Superpowers?"
"Rank D," Jiang Che said through gritted teeth, trying to shift his attention away from his lower body. "Physical Enhancement System."
Su Qingyuan stared at him for two seconds.
Then her gaze unconsciously slid down—just once, probably from his face to his chest, and then from his chest to his abdomen.
Then, as if struck by something, she jerked her head up in disbelief.
"You—" Her voice shrilly, then immediately lowered, "What have you awakened? Are you sure it's physical enhancement?"
"I'm sure." Jiang Che's voice was still hoarse.
He pinched his thigh hard, using the pain to suppress the fire within him.
Su Qingyuan didn't ask any more questions.
But she moved about five centimeters to the side, as if trying to create distance between herself and him.
But her eyes never left his face—the look was strange, as if she were looking at something dangerous, or as if she were trying to pinpoint the source of that danger.
「苏清鸢对宿主好感度+3×2，亲密度＋1×2。当前好感值：6，亲密度：11。」
Jiang Che took a deep breath.
The heat finally subsided.
His right knee.
The old wound that had tormented him for so long seemed to have never existed.
His left shoulder.
The torn tendon has healed and is even stronger than before.
His breathing.
It changed from shallow, fast, and weak to deep, slow, and strong.
The chest cavity opened up like a bellows, and the lung capacity doubled in an instant.
He looked down at his hands.
It was still those same hands, with long, slender fingers and distinct knuckles, but when he clenched them, he could feel a strength he had never experienced before.
It's not that the muscles have gotten bigger, it's that the density has changed. Same volume, but a more robust core.
[D-level superpower [Ultimate Physical Ability] successfully awakened.]
[Overall Assessment: Peak D-rank, just one step away from C-rank.]
Jiang Che loosened his fist, then clenched it again.
He controlled his strength, not revealing too many weaknesses.
But his body betrayed him—his back straightened unconsciously.
Su Qingyuan looked at him and suddenly said, "Stand up."
Jiang Che stood up.
There are no steel bars.
There was no staggering.
I didn't grit my teeth and endure the pain.
He stood up steadily and firmly.
Su Qingyuan's gaze traveled from his ankles to the top of his head, and then back to his knees.
Her brow furrowed, then relaxed, then furrowed again—her expression was complex, as if she were confirming something impossible.
"Your legs..." she paused, "Are you sure you've only awakened to Rank D?"
"Sure."
"A level D physical enhancement could not possibly repair old ligament damage so thoroughly in just a few seconds."
Jiang Che didn't say anything.
He couldn't explain it.
He can't exactly say, "My system doesn't use a normal superpower awakening mechanism."
Su Qingyuan stared at him for five seconds. Then she looked away and didn't ask any further questions.
Jiang Che noticed that her fingers were drawing circles on her knee.
"What are you planning to do?" she asked.
"Hide it," Jiang Che said. "If Zhao Lie finds out I've awakened my superpowers, he'll either use me as cannon fodder or interrogate me. If Liu Hu and Wang Man knew, they wouldn't dare to act rashly—but I don't want them to know. Things hidden in the shadows are the most dangerous; if they're out in the open, they're just targets."
Su Qingyuan nodded.
She suddenly reached out and patted his knee.
That blow was heavier than before, carrying a tentative, confirming force.
Jiang Che's knees remained perfectly still under her palm.
Su Qingyuan's hand paused for a second.
Then she shrank back.
But before she pulled back, her finger brushed against his knee... just below his thigh.
That location was too close.
It got so close that it crossed some unwritten boundary.
Jiang Che's entire thigh muscles tensed up suddenly.
Su Qingyuan sensed it.
Her fingers lingered on that hard, unyielding touch for less than a fraction of a second before retracting as if bitten by a snake.
She hid the hand she had pulled back behind her back, turned around, and only showed him the back of her head.
"Let's go," she said, her voice strained.
"Where to?"
"Whatever. Just get away from here. Those two are watching you."
Jiang Che followed her gaze.
Liu Hu and Wang Man were indeed looking this way.
Liu Hu's gaze slid from Jiang Che's face to his waist, and then from his waist to his legs.
His expression remained unchanged, but Wang Man's lips twitched slightly.
They hadn't seen anything yet. But they smelled something—the keen sense of smell a wild beast has for changes in the appearance of its prey.
"Let's go." Su Qingyuan had already stood up.
After taking two steps, she realized that Jiang Che could keep up even without the steel bar, so she pursed her lips and quickened her pace.
Jiang Che followed behind her.
He deliberately pretended that his leg was still a bit uncomfortable, bending his right knee slightly with each step, as if he was adapting to the new joint.
But his eyes no longer pretended—his gaze fell on Su Qingyuan's back, on her waistline, and on the natural arc of her hips as she walked.
His peak D-level vision allowed him to see the still-fading red marks on the back of her neck even from ten steps away.
Jiang Che looked away.
It was moved away and then moved back.
He cursed himself silently.
But the tone of that swear word didn't sound like it was really an insult.
In the distance, Liu Hu had a blade of grass in his mouth, which he had picked up from somewhere, and his gaze swept across Jiang Che's back like a blade.
Jiang Che sensed it.
His back felt slightly cold, but his steps remained steady.
Even without temporary enhancements, he can now withstand the combined attack of two ordinary strong men for at least three minutes.
The gap between peak D-level physical attributes and ordinary people cannot be bridged simply by being "stronger".
But he doesn't want to reveal it now.
He bent down, picked up the bent steel bar from the ground, and used it as a crutch again.
He still looks like that limping, pitiful ordinary person who could fall behind at any moment.
However, his fingers, which were supporting the steel bar, unconsciously rubbed against its surface, leaving a few shallow marks.
Su Qingyuan walked ahead without looking back.
But she slowed her pace, and the two of them were almost shoulder to shoulder.
"You go ahead of me," she suddenly said.
Why?
"When I walk behind you, I always want to kick your lame leg."
"...My leg is all healed."
"I know. That's why I want to give you a kick and see if you're faking it."
Jiang Che was stunned for a moment.
He turned to look at Su Qingyuan.
Su Qingyuan didn't look at him; her gaze was fixed straight ahead, and there was a very small curve at the corner of her mouth.
Jiang Che walked ahead of her.
He tucked the steel bar under his armpits, put his hands in his pockets, and walked about ten steps.
Behind him, Su Qingyuan's gaze fell on his back.
From shoulders to waist, from waist to legs.
Then she lowered her head and said in a voice only she could hear:
"Liar."
There are three words in that sentence. But the word "deceive" is disdainful, while the final sound of the word "shrewd" is soft, like the last bit of shape of a cotton candy before it melts on the tip of the tongue.