I Contracted Myself

4 AM.

Liu Sishan returned.

Her eyes, beneath the mask, looked weary and sorrowful.

She bypassed the campfire and entered the tent, seeing Zhang Ping doing push-ups.

"Sister Sisi, you're back."

Zhang Ping, drenched in sweat, looked up and greeted her with a smile.

After leveling up to Level 9, although his strength and other attributes hadn't increased much, his main attributes, stamina and mental strength, had improved significantly. The most noticeable change was that he now only needed three hours of deep sleep each day to fully recharge, even feeling like an over-energized husky at times.

With nothing else to do, he decided to warm up with 5,000 push-ups.

Liu Sishan knew Zhang Ping woke up early. She sat down to the side and nodded, "Good morning."

"Sister Sisi, how's the situation in Mingzhu City now?" Zhang Ping asked, catching his breath.

Liu Sishan took out a silk pouch and poured a bunch of miscellaneous items onto the wooden bed. As she sorted through them, she said somberly, "With the Illusory Light Sky in place, the Tianchang Fox is trapped in the City Lord's mansion. Over the past two days, the Moon Prince has led his men out to hunt, resulting in over two hundred victims.

My teammate Jin Bo couldn't stand it and insisted on testing its strength. It turned out the Moon Prince was much stronger than we estimated. Jin Bo was severely injured, and two other teammates who were providing support were killed.

Your training has to stop here. At dawn, we'll return to the city."

"What abilities did the Moon Prince use?" Zhang Ping's expression grew serious.

Liu Sishan paused her actions and replied, "It only used its tail. Its tail can split and extend freely, with incredible penetration power, flexibility, and speed."

"......"

Hearing this, Zhang Ping couldn't help but recall the vision he had seen from the watchtower.

If he had used the Appraisal Skill on the Moon Prince back then, his head might have been blown off by its tail in an instant.

Half an hour later, Zhang Ping completed his 5,000 push-ups.

He got up and sat on the wooden bed opposite Liu Sishan, wiping his sweat with a towel.

Then he noticed the various metals and materials on Liu Sishan's bed and asked, "Sister Sisi, did you go back to Mingzhu City just to get these things?"

"Yes, you have an ability that lets you gain the corresponding physique by eating things, right? These materials are for testing that ability." Liu Sishan nodded.

If Zhang Ping could transform his body into steel or even superalloy, his defense would be greatly enhanced.

Compared to transforming into soft water, harder and heavier metals would undoubtedly have stronger offensive power.

Water requires extremely high mental strength and control to be effective.

She only developed lethal moves after her mental strength improved, and initially, using pure water in combat was quite powerless.

Zhang Ping's main attributes were stamina and mental strength, while hers was purely mental strength.

So every time Zhang Ping leveled up, his attributes were evenly distributed, whereas hers focused solely on mental strength.

For Zhang Ping to train his Pure Water Body to her level of lethality would be far more difficult.

To illustrate:

At Level 1, Zhang Ping's mental strength was 2, and his stamina was also 2, while her mental strength was 4.

At Level 2, Zhang Ping's mental strength was 3, and his stamina was also 3, while her mental strength was 6.

At Level 3, Zhang Ping's mental strength was 4, and his stamina was also 4, while her mental strength was 8.

At Level 4, Zhang Ping's mental strength was 5, and his stamina was also 5, while her mental strength had already reached 10!

The difference in mental strength between them was obvious.

Therefore, knowing Zhang Ping's main attributes, Liu Sishan had been considering how to train him, how to play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses.

Unfortunately, with Jin Bo severely injured and other Sweep Team members also wounded, she had to return to the Sweep Team to replace Jin Bo, and her plan to personally train Zhang Ping fell through.

After much deliberation last night, she applied to the organization for these materials to see if Zhang Ping could gain a more suitable physique. Once they returned to Mingzhu City, Zhang Ping could figure it out on his own.

Zhang Ping reached out and picked up a black iron block, asking, "What if I get metal poisoning?"

"I brought the antidote, so go ahead and eat it." Liu Sishan encouraged.

Zhang Ping thought for a moment, then his mouth and throat turned into pure water. His mouth split open like a snake's, and he swallowed the iron block.

His stomach hadn't turned into pure water, so he could feel the iron block falling into it.

After a while, feeling uncomfortable, he asked, "Sister Sisi, what kind of metal is this iron block I just ate?"

"You said it yourself, it's an iron block." Liu Sishan said with a smile.

Zhang Ping frowned and turned his abdomen into pure water, reaching in to retrieve the iron block. "This is definitely not ordinary iron. Even if it were, it wouldn't make me feel this bad. What kind of metal is it?"

"Why didn't you ask me before eating it?" Liu Sishan laughed.

Zhang Ping rolled his eyes. He had been too lazy to think after exercising and had trusted her. After all, Liu Sishan had no reason to harm him. But this lack of vigilance had cost him.

He wasn't particularly smart.

Like any ordinary person, he could be lazy and have many little thoughts. When he first crossed over, he had even opted out.

If it weren't for the Contract Gem's unique ability, he might have been eaten by the Tianchang Fox or ended up farming or sweeping the streets.

Seeing Liu Sishan being mysterious, he used the Appraisal Skill on the iron block and found it was just an iron block coated with poison.

It was indeed an iron block, but it was poisonous!

He looked at Liu Sishan and frowned, "Sister Sisi, why did you coat the iron block with poison?"

"To test your resistance to various toxins and harmful substances. Since you can absorb my pure water, why not absorb toxins and transform into a Poison Body?" Liu Sishan explained.

Her pure water might seem harmless, but it was more toxic than poison.

If someone else drank it, not only would their life be in her hands, but if the pure water entered their brain, she could even control their thoughts.

She had intended to teach Zhang Ping a lesson about not eating or drinking anything given by others. But before she could start, Zhang Ping had already digested her pure water.

Knowing Zhang Ping had the Unusual Eater ability, this lesson was unnecessary.

Feeling dizzy, Zhang Ping couldn't help but complain, "The result is, I'm about to be poisoned to death."

"Why not try turning into your Pure Water Body?" Liu Sishan suggested.

Zhang Ping was stunned. The next moment, he transformed into his Pure Water Body, and the feeling of being poisoned disappeared.

He was surprised, "It really worked. So the Pure Water Body can detoxify and remove negative states."

He then tried reverting to his flesh-and-blood form, and the poisoning symptoms were gone.

Liu Sishan wasn't surprised. Pure water had a characteristic of repelling and purifying all impurities. The dust on Zhang Ping's body had been repelled this way, and even hidden impurities in his body, like waste, were purified.

This was more efficient than any cleansing technique.

"Zhang Ping, I asked the Captain how someone with your abilities should train.

The Captain suggested focusing on one or two abilities, using the others as supplementary methods.

Because you will have more and more abilities in the future, but you can't master each one fully or train each to its peak.

The strength of an ability depends on how much effort you put into training it. The higher the training level, the stronger the ability.

So you need to decide which abilities to focus on."

Liu Sishan looked at Zhang Ping seriously.

Hearing it was Situ Shibai's advice, Zhang Ping humbly accepted it.

He knew who Situ Shibai was and how powerful the old man was.

A replicator.

Just by the name, one could tell Situ Shibai had numerous superpowers.

Situ Shibai's advice was highly valuable to him.

Most Awakeners had only one ability, so they had no choice but to dig deep into its potential, naturally achieving a high level of mastery.

But for multi-ability users like Situ Shibai and Zhang Ping, having too many abilities could scatter their focus, leading to lower mastery levels compared to single-ability users.

For example, the Pure Water Body.

Zhang Ping had just discovered that it could detoxify when he transformed into it.

This showed his lack of familiarity with the ability and insufficient control. If he knew the ability well enough, he would have transformed the moment he was poisoned to neutralize the toxins.

The Appraisal Skill could tell him the basic information of an ability, but not everything.

How to develop an ability.

How to train an ability.

These required time and effort to research and experiment.

The more developed and familiar an ability, the more effective it would be in combat.

Situ Shibai's advice was timely.

At least Zhang Ping realized that having more abilities was good, but he needed to be clear about which ones to focus on.

Currently, excluding the untrainable Contract Gem and Night Walker, and the purely auxiliary Appraisal Skill and Unusual Eater, his strongest abilities were Misty Body, followed by Pure Water Body, with Fire Eater being the weakest.

These three abilities made it hard for him to choose.

Misty Body was strong, but he didn't understand its essence. An unknown ability could be dangerous if the enemy knew its weakness.

For example, in battle, if the enemy targeted the ability's weakness, it could be fatal.

Pure Water Body had strong survival capabilities but was easily seen through and countered.

For instance, a fire element Awakener of the same level could almost suppress him if he only used Pure Water Body. Nine fireballs could evaporate his body in an instant, effectively killing him.

Fire Eater had similar issues, being easily countered.

Moreover, his fire element storage was limited, making it hard to sustain a full battle.

After some thought, he asked Liu Sishan, "Sister Sisi, what's the Captain's highest mastery ability?"

"You want to reference the Captain's ability? As far as I know, the Captain's strongest ability is Light Element Control." Liu Sishan realized Zhang Ping's intention and answered.

Light Element Control?

It seemed light-based abilities were hard to counter, with fast attack speed and great power.

But how to acquire this ability?

Eat light?

Look up at the sky with his mouth open, letting light into his stomach?

Zhang Ping thought about it and realized it was completely impractical.

"Don't rush to choose now. Let's finish these materials first and see if you can gain a better ability. Then you can decide." Liu Sishan said, seeing his dilemma.

Zhang Ping looked at the various materials on Liu Sishan's bed and couldn't help but ask, "Sister Sisi, are all these materials poisoned?"

"Some are coated, and some are inherently toxic. Try them first. Even if the Pure Water Body can't detoxify, I have antidotes." Liu Sishan replied.

Zhang Ping took a deep breath and decided to eat them.

Sometimes, you have to be hard on yourself to get what you want. You can't have everything while staying comfortable.

He picked up various materials and ate them one by one, taking them out when he felt uncomfortable, repeating the process.

After a few hours, he felt he couldn't eat anymore. Even though he had taken out everything from his stomach, he still felt full.

"Sister Sisi, I can't do this. Your method doesn't seem reliable." Zhang Ping lay on the bed, feeling miserable.

He hadn't gained any abilities.

The metals hadn't been absorbed, and the toxins made him feel terrible.

To gain abilities, he endured the pain, only transforming into his Pure Water Body to detoxify when he couldn't bear it anymore.

But it was all in vain; no new abilities appeared.

"Why is this happening?"

Liu Sishan looked at Zhang Ping, puzzled.

Yesterday, Zhang Ping had gained three abilities in a row, making her think it was easy for him to gain abilities.

But now, it seemed otherwise.

After a while, Zhang Ping turned into his Pure Water Body and lay on the bed. In this form, all discomfort disappeared, replaced by a keen sense of temperature.

The campfire outside the tent, Liu Sishan on the opposite bed, the salt carriers having breakfast in the distance—everyone's temperature was different, and he could sense it.

"So the Pure Water Body has this ability too."

Zhang Ping marveled. The more he used an ability, the stronger it became, and the more he understood it.

He manipulated his body to turn into a snake, slithering on the bed, then into a wolf, trying to walk on all fours.

Finally, he turned into a bird, but no matter how he adjusted, he couldn't fly.

The bird he turned into had a wingspan of three meters, and its abdomen was hollow. Though it couldn't fly, it could glide from a height.

He reverted to his flesh-and-blood form and looked at Liu Sishan, saying, "Sister Sisi, abilities indeed need constant practice to become stronger. For now, I'll focus on Misty Body and Pure Water Body. I'll consider new abilities when they come."

For now, he would ride the horse he had.

With no other choice, he stopped worrying.

He had ideas for developing Misty Body, and initial plans for Pure Water Body after the recent practice.

Misty Body would follow the Grim Reaper route.

A black cloak, a black skull mask, and a giant scythe would create an intimidating appearance, potentially scaring enemies before the fight even began.

Pure Water Body would focus on versatility.

First, he would train the speed of transforming between flesh-and-blood and pure water forms, then simulate various animals, adapting to most environments.

These two abilities could also be used together.

Using Mist to form a shell around Pure Water could insulate against high temperatures and create new forms.

Thinking this way, the combination of these two abilities had great potential for the future!