"However, Ling Xiao, don't hold back. Ling Lan is not as weak as you think she is. She has already obtained your legacy," reminded Mu Shui-qing.

A strange light entered Ling Xiao's eyes. Ever since he had found out that his legacy had suddenly disappeared from the Central Scout Academy, he had already had the premonition that Ling Lan had obtained the legacy. However, so much had happened since he returned that he had not had a chance to ask Ling Lan about it. Now though, Mu Shui-qing's words proved his premonition right. This put him in a very good mood. His legacy had been meant for Ling Lan to begin with — he had only been worried that the military would confiscate it and refuse to hand it over to Ling Lan.

In reality, his worries were not unfounded. The military had indeed refused to hand over the legacy directly to Ling Lan, placing it instead in the virtual world of the Central Scout Academy for all the scout students to attempt when they found they could not crack it. They had still been plotting to keep Ling Xiao's method of ascension within their control.

Although Ling Xiao did not know how Ling Lan had managed to fool those monitoring staff to successfully obtain his legacy from right under the military's nose, this was the situation that Ling Xiao had most wanted to see. He could not help but give his daughter countless thumbs ups inside his heart!

"Alright, Lan-er, just let ... me properly a.s.sess how much you've learned?" Ling Xiao swallowed the word 'daddy' he had been about to say, forcibly changing it into 'me'.

Ling Xiao was still very careful — before Ling Lan accepted him, Ling Xiao did not want to put pressure on her and make her unhappy.

Ling Lan did not respond, merely giving a cold martial salute, and getting into a defensive stance as she instantly activated a spiritual s.h.i.+eld.

To determine whether one has studied well in the Divine Command Sect, of course one would have to examine one's prowess in spiritual confrontation. The sect's unique combat style was very familiar to Ling Xiao and Ling Lan who were both from the Divine Command Sect.

However, when Ling Xiao activated his spiritual pressure, Ling Lan finally understood what kind of existence a G.o.d-cla.s.s operator was. Ling Xiao's spiritual power was as vast as an ocean, but thick and substantial — just activating it made Ling Lan feel like she was a tiny boat on a raging sea, struggling desperately to stay afloat. If she were at all careless, she would be consumed entirely.

Just this little taste let Ling Lan know that Ling Xiao's spiritual power was more formidable than Mu Shui-qing's, even drawing an unfathomable fear from within her.

Ling Lan's expression turned grim. Of course, on the outside, Ling Lan only seemed to grow even colder — the temperature of the entire s.p.a.ce plummeted, bringing a faint chill into the air.

"Your spiritual self mutation is actually along the line of the element of ice!" Ling Xiao sensed the drop in temperature, and his brows furrowed. This type of mutation path was actually not very suitable for piloting mecha. Or more precisely, this spiritual mutation could not add anything to a mecha operator's control skill. That way, it would be very difficult to achieve the merging of human and mecha as one ... For Ling Lan, this meant that she might not be able to touch the gates of becoming an imperial operator in the future. In other words, there was almost no hope for Ling Lan to ascend to become an imperial operator.

Ling Lan knew that the spiritual mutation Ling Xiao was referring to was her awakened innate talent. She replied calmly, "The direction of mutation is not important, and whether or not it is suitable for operating mecha is also not important. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so few imperial operators in the Federation. I believe that ascension to the highest level still depends on serendipity and whether I am putting in enough effort!"

"Lan-er, talent is very important for operating mecha, but the suitability of one's spiritual mutation to mecha is even more important. One cannot lack either one," said Ling Xiao with a sigh. He had seen countless mecha operators who had had the same belief as Ling Lan at the start, thinking that there was hope as long as they worked hard. But in truth, every operator of imperial level and beyond possessed a spiritual mutation which enhanced their mecha operation with its a.s.sociated abilities. In other words, there had not been a single imperial operator whose spiritual mutation was unsuitable for operating mecha thus far.

"Just because no one has found the way, does not mean that the way does not exist." Ling Lan had full confidence in herself. Instructor Number One had said before that her other awakened innate talent, the top-rated Profound Insight, was the talent best suited for operating mecha. Although she did not know whether her dual awakening would bring some unforeseen challenges to her mecha control, she believed that as long as she worked hard enough, she would not lose to the various prodigies of this world with their exceptional talents.

Of course, the inherent weakness of her body was also something that would hold Ling Lan back from ascending to a higher level; the physical weakness of women could not be so easily compensated for. However, for 16 years, Ling Lan had been training hard with the full set of foundational physical skills of the learning s.p.a.ce, along with the Qi exercises of her past life. This had caused all aspects of her physical capacity to become infinitely close to that of the boys of the same age. As long as she continued her training, this inherent disadvantage would slowly be resolved, and would no longer be a factor holding her back from ascending.

"Good, ambitious!" Ling Lan's confidence and conviction swept away Ling Xiao's dejection. He was heartened, and his spirits rallied.

This minor recovery allowed his spiritual power to gather once more. If Ling Lan had not already entered combat mode and kept her guard up impeccably, she might have been overwhelmed by this sudden fluctuation and received damage to her spiritual self.

But even so, Ling Lan still felt a large force slamming into her brain, and was knocked briefly unconscious! This also allowed Ling Lan to experience how her opponents had felt back when she had used her spiritual attacks on them.

"Heptas.h.i.+eld!" chanted Ling Lan mentally. Her fingers twitched, and her spiritual power suddenly s.h.i.+fted rapidly — three approximately 1 square

unit

1

spiritual s.h.i.+elds appeared instantly.

The heptas.h.i.+eld, as its name implied, was a top-level Divine Command Sect technique involving the formation of seven s.h.i.+elds. It swiftly divided the spiritual power of an operator into seven parts, each part forming a s.h.i.+eld in the formation. The defensive ability it created was definitely not limited to the total of the defence values of the seven s.h.i.+elds added together — rather, it used the flexible movement of the s.h.i.+elds to provide a comprehensive defence with no dead angles. If practised till the end stage, the s.h.i.+eld formation could even be used for offence. Of course, Ling Lan currently wasn't at that level yet — out of the seven s.h.i.+elds, she could only control three.

Seeing this, Ling Xiao's smile deepened. "Not bad. I can't believe you've already learned one top-level technique!" The very first top-level technique Ling Xiao had learned in the past had also been the heptas.h.i.+eld. However, back then, he had already been 18 years old, while Ling Lan was currently only 16 right now, so she had learned this technique a whole 2 years earlier. This just proved that, with regards to spiritual power, his daughter's talent was definitely at the most aberrant level ...

At this time, Ling Xiao did not know that Ling Lan possessed such tremendous spiritual power because this was the acc.u.mulation of the spiritual power of both her lives, nothing to do with innate talent. However, all of this was not important, because Ling Lan's current spiritual power was indeed already much, much more than any of her peers.

"Let me test the defensive ability of your heptas.h.i.+eld." With this warning, Ling Xiao charged forwards with a powerful surge of energy. Ling Lan knew that this was the most basic of spiritual power attacks — as long as one has had any spiritual training, the spiritual charge was an attack they would know!

However, a G.o.d-cla.s.s operator's spiritual charge was unlike a regular person's spiritual charge — although Ling Lan could sense that the opponent was only hurling one cord of spiritual charge at her, she could still sense the great threat posed by the attack coming right at her.

Ling Lan's brows furrowed and the fingers of her right hand flicked lightly. The three s.h.i.+elds defending her body immediately s.h.i.+fted into the way of Ling Xiao's attack trajectory. Ling Lan believed in her

sense of danger

2

— this should be a hint given to her by Profound Insight. Ling Xiao's attack may seem normal, but there was probably some trick hidden within it.

Ling Xiao's spiritual charge struck the first s.h.i.+eld. Without putting up much resistance, the s.h.i.+eld shattered. Seeing this, Ling Lan's expression remained unmoved, merely directing the second s.h.i.+eld forwards. The second s.h.i.+eld was swiftly shattered as well, but it managed to sustain itself for 2 to 3 seconds before shattering, unlike the first which had shattered upon contact.

Without any hesitation, Ling Lan brought her third s.h.i.+eld forward to meet Ling Xiao's spiritual charge. But just as the s.h.i.+eld was about to encounter the spiritual charge, the spiritual s.h.i.+eld suddenly contracted, becoming a small mirror s.h.i.+eld the size of one's palm between blinks.

Ling Xiao's spiritual charge crashed soundlessly into that tiny mirror s.h.i.+eld of Ling Lan's. If not for the pebbles and twigs and leaves on the ground being thrown in the air to fly away from the point where Ling Lan and Ling Xiao met, no one would know that the two people facing each other were currently locked in a most dangerous spiritual clash.

The observing Mu Shui-qing tilted his head slightly, dodging a random rock that had flown in his direction. The smile on his face was growing increasingly wider, like a wildly blooming

garden cosmos

3

, as radiant as it could be.

Mu Shui-qing was naturally very satisfied. His whole life, he had only taken in two disciples. It went without saying that Ling Xiao was his most accomplished disciple, now among the strongest in the Federation — a G.o.d-cla.s.s operator, who were called ultimate weapons in this world. And then there was Ling Lan ... Mu Shui-qing felt that their Divine Command Sect surely existed for the sake of an aberrant prodigy like her. Mu Shui-qing believed that the Divine Command Sect would definitely flourish in her hands.

At this moment, Mu Shui-qing could not help but look at Ling Xiao, thinking:

Ling Xiao, oh Ling Xiao, you should take a look at the heptas.h.i.+eld belonging to Ling Lan!

The moment Ling Xiao's spiritual charge met Ling Lan's small mirror s.h.i.+eld, he felt his own spiritual charge being repelled back at him by a ma.s.sive force!

This spiritual power that had been reflected back at him escaped his control in an instant, actually becoming part of the other's attack force targeting him!

"Heptas.h.i.+eld!" Ling Xiao's eyebrows lifted in surprise. His fingers flicked and seven s.h.i.+elds appeared around him. With a thought, one of the s.h.i.+elds flew forward instantly to block this reflected spiritual power.

"This heptas.h.i.+eld is different from mine ..." Who was Ling Xiao? He had noticed that Ling Lan's heptas.h.i.+eld was different at a glance — his seven s.h.i.+elds could only block, but could not reflect attacks.

"Is it because of the contraction?" Ling Xiao flicked a finger, and one of the s.h.i.+elds swiftly shrunk down to become palm-sized as well. However, the s.h.i.+eld only became much thicker, without any sign of that mirror surface like Ling Lan's had. "Looks like this is not the only reason!"

Although Ling Lan had managed to reflect Ling Xiao's spiritual charge, she did not manage to stand steady. She was forced 5 to 6 steps back before all the force behind Ling Xiao's spiritual charge dissipated. Still, even so, she felt a nauseous roiling in her chest. Ling Xiao's power had been too formidable; she had only withstood the hit with great difficulty.