TL: Anna
Chapter 3
The Pearl Academy offers specialized courses to teach students how to assess the danger levels of mutated beasts.
When an animal becomes a mutated beast, its eyes become more agile and vivid. As its internal superpowers grow stronger, its eyes will exhibit a distinctive glow.
This glow is invisible during the day, but at night, with careful observation, it becomes noticeable.
A low-level mutated beast’s pupils will have a faint red glow at night. By observing the brightness of this glow, one can determine its rank. As the beast reaches mid-level, the glow in its eyes will gradually become subdued and transition from red to green. Higher levels are indicated by blue, and the top-tier is marked by red.
Zhang Xuan is not an experienced awakener, so he cannot precisely judge the specific rank of a mutated beast by the brightness of its glow. However, by observing the glow in the eyes of the *Celestial Fox, he can roughly determine their ranks.
(PR: *Decided to use celestial instead of Ch name as used in manhwa translation)
According to his observations, the strength of the Celestial Foxes generally ranges between mid-level and high-level, which is around levels 19 to 25.
Unfortunately, the Celestial Foxes do not inherit the talents of the Nine-Tailed Fox, otherwise, he could more easily and accurately determine their levels.
In the wild, many mutated beasts’ levels can be identified without observing the glow in their eyes.
For example, a Nine-Tailed Fox, once it becomes a mutated beast, will definitely have two tails. As it reaches mid-level, it will have three to four tails, and as a high-level mutated beast, it will have five to six tails. Further advancement will result in a top-tier mutated beast with seven to eight tails.
It is said that the king among the Nine-Tailed Foxes possesses nine tails.
Therefore, the rank of a Nine-Tailed Fox mutated beast is easy to determine—just count the tails.
Similar methods exist among awakeners.
According to Zhang Xuan’s knowledge, among awakeners, those with fire abilities can most easily determine their own levels at the early stages.
At level 1, a fire ability user can at most condense a basketball-sized fireball with full effort. At level 2, they can condense two fireballs, continuing up to nine fireballs at level 9. The levels are very easy to determine.
However, after breaking through level 10 and becoming a mid-level awakener, due to the qualitative change in superpowers and the varying tendencies of different individuals in using their abilities, it becomes difficult to determine levels.
Under the cover of night, Zhang Xuan recorded the information of the Celestial Foxes in the nearby streets before returning to the school.
For the next few days, he centered his activities around the school, continuously gathering information on the Celestial Foxes in the city. At the same time, he harbored some doubts: why had many high-level awakeners been deceived by these low-level Celestial Foxes in the city?
“Another low-level fox!”
Zhang Xuan, crouching in a corner not far from the school, mumbled to himself as he watched a Celestial Fox with bright red eyes in the distance.
No matter how powerful a low-level mutated beast’s abilities are, they would seem weak when facing higher levels. For instance, a low-level awakener with ‘mind control’ abilities can hardly inflict significant harm on a mid-level awakener.
Even if they manage to control them, it would only last a few seconds before being broken free, or even suffering a backlash.
Zhang Xuan remembered that their combat instructor, Mr. Chen, was a mid-level awakener, and even when the whole class exerted full effort, they could hardly harm him.
This was partly due to the gap in experience and partly due to the suppression of levels.
So, the question arises.
Why had these low-level mutated beasts been able to eat people in the city without being noticed by mid-level or even high-level awakeners?
Theoretically, no matter how strong the Celestial Foxes’ superpowers were, it would be impossible for them to suppress beings of higher ranks.
But based on Zhang Xuan’s observations during this period, these low-level mutated beasts were rampant in the city, eating people, and those around them were completely unaware.
There must be some unknown, crucial information behind this.
Zhang Xuan glanced at the low-level mutated beast strolling down the street before returning to the school under the cover of darkness.
He had already formed a rough understanding in his mind. At least, the areas within ten or so streets around the school had been infiltrated by the Celestial Foxes, with at least fifty or more of them alive.
Outside the school, the strongest Celestial Fox he discovered was likely between levels 25 and 27, and the weakest was only level 5.
That was a Celestial Fox cub that often appeared around the snack street.
As for inside the school, the Celestial Fox disguised as a teacher was probably above level 29, extremely powerful.
However…
Even more terrifying was the Celestial Fox that killed Luo Shiyu.
Zhang Xuan didn’t even dare to use his identification skill on it.
Several times, when he wanted to identify it, he had a feeling that he would be immediately targeted if he used the skill.
This feeling was definitely not an illusion.
Thus, Zhang Xuan speculated that the Celestial Fox that killed Luo Shiyu had a very high level, possibly a top-tier mutated beast!
“Now, I’ve almost gathered all the information.”
“It’s certain that I can’t deal with all the Celestial Foxes alone.”
“The problem is that the Celestial Foxes’ abilities are too peculiar. Even low-level Celestial Foxes can easily deceive high-level awakeners. Without evidence, no one would believe my words alone.”
“The only way is to kill a Celestial Fox as evidence.”
“Only with evidence can I possibly attract the attention of some powerful individuals.”
In the dormitory, Zhang Xuan analyzed and thought while doing push-ups.
Hunting the Celestial Foxes would undoubtedly alert them.
Moreover, Zhang Xuan was not confident that he could escape unscathed after killing a Celestial Fox.
After thinking it over, Zhang Xuan sighed inwardly, realizing that he was still too weak. If he were strong enough, he wouldn’t have so many concerns.
In the end, strength was the key obstacle to his actions.
“Do fifty more sit-ups!”
Zhang Xuan gritted his teeth and commanded himself.
In recent days, he had been consuming two contract gemstones daily, but no new talents had emerged.
However, with his potential continuously improving, his training results were becoming more and more evident. This sense of daily progress kept him from despair.
In his mind, Zhang Xuan had already confirmed that this city had fallen.
The Celestial Foxes controlled this city, not humans.
The next day.
Zhang Xuan opened his eyes and found himself waking up earlier than usual.
It was just after four in the morning, and the sky was still dark. He was the only one running on the track.
The surroundings were extremely quiet.
As the cool breeze blew, he felt a sense of nostalgia for his previous life in school.
If only there were no Celestial Foxes.
Zhang Xuan thought of the children and students who had been killed, and he subconsciously clenched his fists.
Suddenly, he felt something under his foot. Looking back, he saw a ring on the ground.
“Abandon the morning run, move freely!”
