Su Li turned around and saw Gong Xiao walking out with a dry towel, slightly tilting her pretty face while wiping her damp, waterfall-like black hair.
Like Su Li, she had also bathed and changed into clean clothes, but she was much slower at it than him.
"How did you know?" Su Li asked, looking at Gong Xiao with curiosity.
Gong Xiao curled her lips and said, "A blind person could tell. You were staring at her with that dazed look, like you'd lost your soul. What, do you actually like her?"
Su Li laughed heartily. "I really admire you—you can say fake things and make them sound real. I was just thinking about the sea cow she mentioned. She said its meat is tender, nutritious, and has no side effects. If that's true, it could be an important food source. We need to find a way to hunt it."
Gong Xiao snorted lightly. "Who knows if she's telling the truth? Maybe she just made it up to trick us. Besides, there are so many kinds of monsters out there. Where are we supposed to find this so-called sea cow?"
Su Li pondered for a moment. "She mentioned a sea cow nest. I suspect there might be a large number of them somewhere, otherwise why call it a nest? The problem is, we don't know the exact location yet."
Gong Xiao smiled. "Then you can use that as an excuse to go to the Jinhui Center building and ask her. I think it's a perfect excuse—not too abrupt. She'd definitely welcome you. She even invited you to visit earlier."
Su Li looked at Gong Xiao and said, "Why does what you're saying sound a bit strange?"
"Strange? I'm just looking out for you. What if you two hit it off? I'd be making a match made in heaven."
Su Li shook his head. "You're taking this way too far. I only met her today. Besides, she didn't just invite me—she invited all of us."
Gong Xiao said, "Don't pretend. When she was talking, her eyes were almost always on you. She was just going through the motions with us, but with you, it was different. I'd say there's a good chance she's taken a liking to you."
As she spoke, she looked Su Li up and down. "Tsk, tsk, I never noticed you had this kind of charm..."
Although he knew Gong Xiao was mostly teasing, Su Li still felt a bit pleased. He smiled slightly. "I've always had charm. You're just now noticing? How about it, want to seize the opportunity and make the first move? I'm easy to catch—I won't resist."
Gong Xiao's face flushed slightly. She spat, "Su Li, you're shameless, you pervert. I'm not talking to you anymore."
She turned and stormed into the room, slamming the door behind her.
"Hey..." Su Li watched her close the door forcefully, shrugged slightly, and turned to look down the corridor.
Although the rain had stopped, the sky was still dim. Night was about to fall.
The entire Zifeng Building was bustling with activity. Ding Longyun was on the 37th floor directing a group of people to reorganize and move supplies. Because of Ding Longyun, Zhong Rongrong was now fully in charge of the kitchen on the 34th floor, with Zhou Li and Tao Yuezhi working under her guidance. The three women's main task was managing the kitchen.
Qi Mengyu's primary responsibility was cleaning the 38th floor and taking care of Su Li's daily needs.
It could be said that no one in the Zifeng Building was idle—everyone had their own tasks.
On the football-field-sized floating island, a dozen people were approaching on rafts. Su Li could see from a distance that the leader was Luo Jun, followed mostly by level 3 spirit source users, along with a few level 4 ones, including Bai Wenwei.
There were many corpse beasts and various monsters on the floating island. As they entered, a fierce battle erupted.
Su Li's mind stirred. These monsters seemed to love climbing onto the floating island. It was a natural hunting ground. Luo Jun had led these people onto the island to hunt monsters and level up.
Earlier, when they had charged onto the island and destroyed the blood crystals inside the blood crystal beast, everyone had gained a fair amount of spirit sources from fighting the elite and leader beasts. Only Luo Jun had to dig pits with Su Li, losing out on some spirit sources. Now, leading the group onto the island to hunt, he wanted to level up and become stronger.
Su Li had originally planned to return to the 32nd-floor building where they had stayed before to retrieve supplies, but with night approaching, traveling in the dark was unsafe. He would have to wait until tomorrow.
As the sky grew darker, more and more monsters climbed onto the floating island, and they were getting stronger.
Someone cried out in alarm—they had been injured.
"Retreat!" Luo Jun decisively ordered a withdrawal. It was also time for dinner.
The group retreated from the floating island, and the monsters didn't pursue, simply occupying it.
"This is a great hunting spot. When night falls, even more monsters will probably climb onto the island." Su Li's eyes gleamed. He had already decided to go hunting there at night to level up faster and become stronger.
He had just reached level 6, and his "Demon Muscle" ability had slightly improved, increasing his overall strength by about 600 jin. Compared to before, his power had grown further. The change wasn't dramatic, but once he reached level 7, "Demon Muscle" would enter its second form, granting a qualitative leap. He was eagerly looking forward to it.
As his muscles continued to strengthen, Su Li not only gained more power but also underwent a subtle change in his overall demeanor. When not using "Demon Muscle," his muscles were visible but not overly exaggerated, nor did he look too thin or weak. His body shape became more balanced, and even his facial features shifted slightly, becoming more defined—a perfect blend of strength and aesthetics.
Su Li had never been ugly; his looks were at least above average. Now, with the improvement in his overall aura and the continuous strengthening of his muscles, every part of his body became more proportionate, subtly altering his appearance. It was as if he had been reborn, exuding a powerful masculine charm in every movement.
As he grew stronger, this change would become even more pronounced.
In fact, as everyone evolved, each person's aura and appearance improved to some extent.
For example, Gong Xiao had always been pretty. As she evolved and leveled up, her face became more delicate, and her body seemed to undergo a second development, becoming more curvaceous and alluring.
Even the most beautiful woman inevitably had some flaws—a mole here, larger pores there, or skin that wasn't smooth or fair enough. But the most astonishing aspect of evolution was its ability to gradually eliminate these imperfections. Moles would disappear, pores would shrink, and skin would become smoother.
Of course, these changes were subtle and not very noticeable for most people. Only Su Li, having had an extra chance to strengthen, showed the most obvious transformation—almost double that of others. This made him stand out, like a crane among chickens.
Now, when Gong Xiao was with him, she sometimes dared not look at him for too long. Every time she did, her heart would race, as if she couldn't tear her eyes away. She found his face strangely captivating, the more she looked, the more she wanted to look, which she thought was eerie.
By nightfall, more and more monsters had gathered on the floating island, and everyone from the Zifeng Building had mobilized in full force.
This was Su Li's order. Since he was now a level 6 spirit source user, he needed to kill level 6 or stronger monsters to gain effective spirit sources. The large number of low-level monsters on the island were useless to him, so it was better to let the lower-level people have them. This would strengthen the overall power of the Zifeng Building, and with his current strength, he had no fear of anyone developing ulterior motives. After all, no one could surpass him in level. Using this to win people over was a win-win situation.
With so many people hunting together and helping each other, it became much easier, especially for the lower-level ones, whose leveling up would be very fast in the early stages.
As he stepped onto the floating island, Su Li noticed that the monsters ranged from level 2 to level 5, but level 6 ones were hard to find.
After reaching level 5, only killing monsters of the same or higher level yielded effective spirit sources. Killing lower-level ordinary monsters no longer worked.
As a level 6 spirit source user, Su Li needed to kill level 6 or higher monsters to level up further.
Of course, killing level 5 elite or leader monsters would also yield effective spirit sources, but such monsters were far rarer than ordinary ones.
All 32 members of the Zifeng Building were deployed, climbing onto the floating island to engage the hordes of monsters in battle.
The monsters before Su Li were too low-level to help him improve, which was frustrating. He casually wounded them while searching the area for stronger monsters that could provide him with effective spirit sources.
The battle lasted over an hour. Including the four women and Yan Fang, everyone had at least reached level 4.
Four people had gone from level 4 to level 5: Bai Wenwei, Jin Sixing, Ling Tian, and Wang Xiaofei.
Ding Longyun, Gong Xiao, and Xu Haishui had successfully reached level 6.
Su Li had gained only 12 effective spirit sources that night, some from killing level 6 monsters and some from killing level 5 elite beasts.
During the battle, he frequently used his newly acquired special ability, "Silver Armor Cover," practicing it from a mastered level to proficiency.
This "Silver Armor Cover" was indeed a special ability gained from killing the level 7 leader beast, the Silver Armor Giant.