Chapter 2 Days Later, in the Snowfield

"Safe! Quick, warm me up," Xia Yan said to Jiang Xiao as she watched the two of them run into the natural cave.

Jiang Xiao, who had run in, immediately cast a Blessing.

"Mmm..." Xia Yan shivered comfortably, her voice soft and trembling. "We're far enough away from the battlefield now. We can rest for a while."

Han Jiangxue looked around and said, "There are signs of White Ghosts living here. They must have gone out hunting. Be careful."

"Mmhmm, I'll listen to you. Hurry up and open the package," Xia Yan said excitedly, rubbing her hands together. The last two days had been too difficult, and she was feeling stifled.

Han Jiangxue glanced at Xia Yan, shook her head helplessly, opened the spatial coffin, and reached inside to search.

She took out half of a torn military pack and took out the scattered items as well.

"Look for anything good," Xia Yan said hurriedly, squatting down and eagerly going through the loot.

The excited expression on her face gradually stiffened. The military pack was full of standard-issue wilderness survival items. There was nothing of value at all. It was just like the military pack Jiang Xiao was carrying, with the same standard-issue items.

"Not a single star bead? Don't these guys hoard anything?" Xia Yan said, dissatisfied.

"They encountered an unprecedented crisis. They probably absorbed all the star beads they had stored while fleeing," Han Jiangxue analyzed calmly.

"Ugh..." Xia Yan sat down on the ground, scratching her slightly curly chestnut hair, looking troubled. "You should absorb the Awakened's star bead and see if you can break through to the mid-stage of the Star Cloud."

"From the perspective of the team's needs, you should take this star bead," Han Jiangxue said in a businesslike manner, seemingly unmoved by any temptation. She directly pulled out the small half of the frozen corpse covered in ice and snow.

Jiang Xiao came over, finally having time to examine the Awakened.

It was an adult male, probably in his forties, with an extremely terrified expression, a thick beard, and a face full of橫肉 (heng rou, excessive flesh), looking like he lived a good life.

"Probably a ranged output type Awakened," Xia Yan said, looking at the man's fleshy face with disdain. "No close-combat Awakened could eat like this. He's obviously the pampered type."

As everyone knew, upgrading star power required physical strength. If an Awakened was working hard to grow, they would definitely train themselves like crazy.

This Awakened was likely stuck at a certain star power stage and, unable to improve no matter how hard he tried, began to indulge himself.

"Open it," Han Jiangxue said.

"Hopefully, the star power level he was stuck at is high," Xia Yan said, having clearly analyzed the information. She casually flipped over the frozen half of the corpse, took out a dagger, and skillfully extracted the star bead from the Awakened's brain.

It was also the first time Jiang Xiao had seen what a human star bead looked like.

It wasn't anything earth-shattering. It was just a star bead the size of a glass marble, no different from a White Ghost star bead, emitting a faint glow.

"Can I see it?" Jiang Xiao asked.

"This was taken from a human corpse, you know," Xia Yan said, holding out the star bead, looking at Jiang Xiao teasingly.

Jiang Xiao pouted unhappily. Xia Yan had teased him a lot in the past two days.

Everyone needed a growth process. It was unavoidable. No one was born a cold-blooded killer. Postnatal nurturing and environmental factors were extremely important.

Jiang Xiao took the bloodstained star bead, and in that instant, he froze in place.

Xia Yan and Han Jiangxue had repeatedly stated that it was impossible to absorb any star techniques from human star beads.

But at this moment, a large amount of information suddenly flooded into Jiang Xiao's mind.

"?? Star Bead (?? Quality)

Star Techniques:

1. Azure Edge: Powerfully strikes the enemy, increasing damage to the Azure Edge area, with a slight knock-back effect. (Bronze Quality, Upgradeable)

2. Endurance: Passive star technique, increases self-defense. (Bronze Quality, Upgradeable)

Mergeable Absorption.

3. Blessing: Slowly restores the target's life force. (Bronze Quality, Upgradeable)

4. Decoy: Creates an illusion to confuse the enemy. (Bronze Quality, Upgradeable)

Mergeable Absorption.

5. Scorching Flames: Condenses lines of flame, covering the body or objects. (Silver Quality, Upgradeable)

6. Explosive Flames: Condenses a fireball, creating an explosion. (Silver Quality, Upgradeable)

Mergeable Absorption.

7. Chime: Releases healing rays, healing the target's body, can connect multiple targets. (Silver Quality, Upgradeable)

8. Imprint: Leaves a mark on the target, guiding the healing ray connection to jump.

Mergeable Absorption."

"Gulp." Jiang Xiao swallowed, holding the star bead, staring blankly at the two women.

"What's wrong?" Han Jiangxue asked.

"I..." Jiang Xiao hesitated.

"Little Rascal?" Xia Yan sat on the ground, slowly raising her head, her eyes burning as she looked at Jiang Xiao. "Is there anything you'd like to share with me?"

Han Jiangxue knew that Jiang Xiao was not a greedy person.

If it had been before, Han Jiangxue wouldn't have dared to make that guarantee.

However, ever since Han Jiangxue had confessed to Jiang Xiao that the gold-quality star bead, which contained the "Shattered Void" space, had been left to Jiang Xiao by his parents, the feedback Jiang Xiao had given Han Jiangxue had been exceptionally heartwarming.

Over this long period, Han Jiangxue had also seen the changes in Jiang Xiao.

At this moment, there was no need for a Star Disciple novice to take this star bead. It wouldn't be of much use to Jiang Xiao and would instead waste a lot of star power.

Why was Jiang Xiao being so shameless as to say such a thing?

"I..." Jiang Xiao was still hesitant.

Han Jiangxue realized that something was wrong and beckoned Jiang Xiao over.

Jiang Xiao walked over, and the two siblings walked to the entrance of the cave.

"What's wrong?" Han Jiangxue asked quietly.

Jiang Xiao thought about it and found a reason: "I sense that this star bead contains medical star techniques."

Han Jiangxue was a little surprised. "Huh?"

"I'm serious." Jiang Xiao knew that what he was saying was too bizarre, but he couldn't tell Han Jiangxue that he possessed the Inner Vision Star Chart.

"You can extract star techniques from human star beads?" Han Jiangxue said quietly. "That's not good news for other Awakened."

Hearing this, Jiang Xiao was stunned.

The fact that star power could be extracted from human star beads would be somewhat attractive to Awakened.

But if star techniques could be extracted from human star beads, then that attraction would increase a thousandfold.

The fact that star techniques couldn't be extracted from human star beads was a major contributor to the world still being relatively stable.

If Jiang Xiao broke this constraint...

But the truth was, Jiang Xiao could really break the constraint. The Inner Vision Star Chart provided Jiang Xiao with infinite possibilities!

"No, I can't sense any other star techniques. I'm just unusually sensitive to medical star techniques," Jiang Xiao said quietly. "When I said my star techniques could be upgraded in quality, you didn't believe it either."

Han Jiangxue was silent for a moment, then continued to ask, "Can you only absorb star techniques from star beads? What about others?"

Hmm, that was a problem.

Han Jiangxue had once asked, what did humans possess?

Indeed, humans didn't have innate star techniques, but what humans innately possessed was the Star Chart!

Jiang Xiao...

Could he absorb Star Charts from human star beads?

Increase the number of his star slots?