"Its power has increased quite a bit, and it can fire two Silver Thorns at once now."
Han Ning gazed at the Demon Eye Frog, now shattered to pieces in the distance, and nodded in satisfaction.
"PURR PURR~"
Yin Yi gently stroked the back of Han Ning's hand with its tender leaves, its pink blossom tilting slightly upward.
At that moment, Han Ning felt like Yin Yi was a child who had just aced a test, staring at him expectantly, waiting for praise.
"You're amazing, Yin Yi." He smiled, stroking its leaves.
"PURR~" Yin Yi swayed its body happily, hopped off the windowsill, and shuffled step-by-step over to a roll of paper, resuming its tireless game.
'This poor kid has never had any real toys. It can play with a roll of paper for ages...'
Just as Han Ning was about to make a few simple toys for Yin Yi like the ones he had as a child, there was a sudden knock on the door.
He put down the wire he was holding, walked over, and opened it.
His roommate, Lin Tianhe, stood silently outside, a solemn expression on his face.
"The memorial service for Teacher Zhao and the others is about to start. Let's go together."
'A memorial service...'
Hearing those words, Han Ning's heart grew heavy.
Many people had fallen during this last expedition.
"Okay, wait for me."
After he spoke, Han Ning turned, placed Yin Yi in his backpack, put it on, and headed for Building A with Lin Tianhe.
On the way to Building A, they also picked up their other roommate, Chen Linyu.
"Tianhe, Linyu, have your Silver Lotus Woods changed too?"
Han Ning noticed the two Silver Lotus Woods on their backs had each changed in different ways.
Lin Tianhe's Silver Lotus Wood was similar to Luo Chen's. Its trunk and branches were exceptionally thick, looking like it was heading down the path of Power.
Chen Linyu's Silver Lotus Wood, on the other hand, was a little smaller and darker in color.
"Yeah. Thanks to that giant spider's head, my Xiaoyu's Power has suddenly gotten so much greater. It can lift things as heavy as I am with its vines."
Lin Tianhe reached behind his back to pat his Silver Lotus Wood's sturdy Body and smiled.
"My Mumu hasn't gotten stronger, but it has Awakened the ability to use poison. It's probably from eating too many Demon Eye Frog poison sacs."
Chen Linyu explained, pointing to his Silver Lotus Wood's dark, blackened branches.
Listening to his two roommates, Han Ning nodded. "My Yin Yi Awakened a Spiritual Energy-type ability. You've seen it—it can fire explosive thorns."
His roommates' two Silver Lotus Woods—one with a physical build, one with a poison build—it was hard to say which was stronger.
But one thing was for sure: with two more strengthened Silver Lotus Woods to help, their chances of running into danger on expeditions would be a little lower.
As they chatted, the three of them arrived at the main hall of Building A.
The hall had been temporarily converted into a memorial hall.
They were all students just barely in their twenties, but in the past few days, they had grown accustomed to life and death. The sight of a memorial hall no longer felt taboo.
At the entrance, Han Ning and his two friends took the three paper flowers offered by a female student and silently joined the crowd.
The first-floor hall and its entrances were filled with students who had come to mourn. The line of survivors even stretched out the door.
Everyone had done their best to wear all black, creating a solemn and dignified atmosphere.
In the empty space in the middle, 10 Bodies, devoid of any signs of Life, were covered by relatively plain white sheets.
In the second-floor area of the cafeteria they were assigned to explore, the number of casualties had been kept to a minimum, thanks to the help of the strengthened Yin Yi.
But in other areas, without the aid of more powerful Silver Lotus Woods, the death toll was clearly much higher.
Han Ning saw a female student slumped over one of the bodies, her shoulders trembling slightly as quiet sobs reached his ears.
Wu Zhiyuan, the Dean of the Lin University School of Engineering, walked up to the deceased and spoke in a low, somber voice, "Fellow students, colleagues, today, with a heavy heart, in this solemn and dignified setting, we deeply mourn the teachers and students who tragically fell during the expedition..."
The surrounding students lowered their heads, their faces etched with grief.
"It is because of their sacrifice that we can have a relatively better life. Please, none of you give up hope. Only by helping each other and striving to live on can we honor their sacrifice."
Dean Wu spoke for ten minutes, his voice low and constrained. In the end, he gave three deep bows to the fallen teachers and students.
The other teachers and students followed his lead, bowing to the deceased.
'In a situation where even supplies are scarce, is holding a memorial service really necessary?'
But Han Ning thought it was absolutely necessary.
It was precisely because of the great sacrifices made by the explorers that people could understand how precious it was to be alive.
Han Ning and his two roommates, each holding a white paper flower, walked up to the ten deceased.
In his mind, the image of Teacher Zhao's final shout resurfaced, along with the unflinching faces of his classmates as they fought the giant spider.
'Farewell, Teacher Zhao, and everyone else.'
Han Ning recited this silently in his heart as he placed the paper flower before the bodies.
At this point, only three hundred and fourteen survivors remained in the school.
...
After the memorial service ended, the 10 bodies were buried nearby beneath a relatively unoccupied dormitory building, as everyone watched. Then, the crowd of students gradually dispersed.
Han Ning, Lin Tianhe, and Chen Linyu were about to leave when Teacher Zhou suddenly called out to them.
Besides them, about twenty other students had also been asked to stay behind.
"Students, please don't leave just yet. Let's head back to the hall in Building A. We have something to discuss with you all." Dean Wu clapped his hands lightly, his gaze sweeping over the young faces before him as he forced a smile.
Back in the first-floor hall, Dean Wu eyed the Silver Lotus Woods, large and small, on everyone's backs and got straight to the point.
"I'm sure you can all guess why we asked you to stay, right?"
"That's right. It's because your Silver Lotus Woods are stronger than the others."
As he spoke, Teacher Zhou, who was next to Dean Wu, took out a tablet and tapped the play button on the screen.
"This is footage of Cafeteria Number Nine, filmed by a drone. We used up precious electricity for this," Dean Wu explained.
The view slowly zoomed in. Looking down from mid-air, a massive python, over ten meters long, lay coiled next to a spacious building.
The resting python had clearly spotted the drone. Its enormous head whipped around, its cold, merciless eyes fixed on the drone in the sky as it opened its mouth slightly.
A sharp, piercing screech tore through the air as a stream of dark purple liquid shot out of the python's mouth like an arrow.
Fortunately, the drone had shot upward the moment it detected the python turning its head, narrowly avoiding the spray of purple liquid.
"The Silver-Scaled Python has taken over Cafeteria Number Nine, and we don't know when it will leave. This means we'll soon be facing a food shortage again."
"Of course, that's not the main issue. The most dangerous thing is... that Silver-Scaled Python is less than 500 meters from us in a straight line..."