296 Willpower

In the evening, all of the refugees gathered around the campfire and waited for the potatoes to be roasted. The smell of roasted potatoes was emanating from the fire. When the Yang Consortium's troops saw this, they said in surprise, \"These people are pretty lucky. How did they manage to stumble upon a patch of potatoes?\"

Only Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu knew this was probably due to Yan Liuyuan's Luck and Curse Manipulation power. As for the specific principles behind it, neither of them knew anything.

Other people's powers were much more concrete to speak of. For example, Ren Xiaosu could see the palace in his mind and could even take the Seeds, the black medicine, the black saber, and the Explosive Poker cards out of it.

Xu Xianchu's power was also very concrete in that he could summon a physical shadow clone. Even Luo Xinyu's power allowed her to open up a visible Shadow Door.

Only Yan Liuyuan's power was something that could not be seen or touched. If it weren't for the many times they had tested it, they wouldn't even know what exactly his power could do. Furthermore, this power could not be used on himself, and that made it extremely strange.

Therefore, this power could only be slowly studied. But even the direction to try to understand it from was difficult to identify.

But now, Ren Xiaosu had used a reverse method of this Curse Manipulation to help them find a potato field. It essentially solved their problem of having something to eat.

For the past two days, Xiaoyu and the rest had to try to eat as little as possible because their food supply was not going to last them much longer.

But after Ren Xiaosu regained consciousness, all of them could have something to eat again, and it was even a lot of food!

Yan Liuyuan was feeding Ren Xiaosu and saying, \"Bro, try to get better soon. Without you around, we're all a mess.\"

Ren Xiaosu checked on how much his bones had healed, then thought for a moment before saying, \"I'll need another 20 to 30 days to recover.\"

Most people would have to wait at least 90 days for their bones to heal, but Ren Xiaosu, whose physical fitness was three times that of the average person, seemed to also be able to heal three times as fast.

Yan Liuyuan heaved a sigh of relief. They would only have to endure for another twenty days or so at this refugee camp before they could leave.

Then Yan Liuyuan said, \"Bro, it doesn't seem like the Yang Consortium is any different from the other organizations at all. Their soldiers also treat human life really lightly, so I doubt the residents in their strongholds are any better than those at the Li Consortium.\"

\"There's good and bad people everywhere.\" Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, \"Just take a look at these refugees here. Lots of them don't have any hate for us and have resigned themselves to the hardship we're facing.\"

\"I still don't like the strongholds,\" Yan Liuyuan muttered.

\"Actually, what you dislike are not the stronghold residents,\" Ren Xiaosu said calmly, \"but the rules that exist within the strongholds. The organizations have placed everyone inside that cage and then used their rules to restrain the people living in it. You yearn for freedom, so of course you wouldn't like living under such rules.\"

Yan Liuyuan grunted. Ren Xiaosu laughed and said, \"Well, I dislike it too.\"

Yan Liuyuan's eyes lit up. \"Then after your injuries heal, we won't have to go to the Yang Consortium's stronghold?\"

The roads leading to the north had been won by the Yang Consortium's forces. However, Ren Xiaosu's group did not have the proper IDs that would allow them to travel there. Surely they could not say to the Yang Consortium's troops that they had the head spy of the Qing Consortium with them and that they wanted to travel to the Yang Consortium's stronghold to have a look, right?

That wouldn't convince anyone!

Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment. \"Let's wait until my injuries get better before deciding on that.\"

He ate some potato just as a cold wind started blowing. That cold air flowed into Ren Xiaosu's mouth and made him choke for a long while on a piece of potato that got stuck in his throat before he finally swallowed.

Ren Xiaosu was amused. \"I guess that was your Curse Manipulation, right?\"

Yan Liuyuan chowed down on a potato and choked on it as well. But he was fine after drinking some water.

Be it a wish or a curse, the backlash would always be slightly less adverse than the original. That was probably a concession given to the user. However, the power had to be used carefully as the backlash could not be controlled.

But in any case, Ren Xiaosu was still very happy. That was because the stronger his and Yan Liuyuan's powers were, the less rocky their future paths would be.

At night, Yan Liuyuan continued testing out his powers by the campfire. From time to time, there would be people either shouting or slipping and falling down at the campsite. Yan Liuyuan suffered quite a bit from the backlash as well. The curses were made on those who had come to ask them for food, though the curses themselves were insignificant. As such, there was nothing to fear about the backlash.

Gradually, Yan Liuyuan became familiar with his newfound power.

He stayed by Ren Xiaosu's side and said, \"Everyone has suffered a lot today to complete the workload required due to our injured members. I feel that the others in the group can be trusted.\"

\"Mhm,\" Ren Xiaosu acknowledged softly as though he had thought of something.

Yan Liuyuan suddenly sensed that Ren Xiaosu's heart was still aching. However, Ren Xiaosu seemed to be hiding the pain deep down inside him.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu called over the other students and asked, \"Y'all've been training for a day now. Has your control over the nanomachines improved yet?\"

The students were taken aback by the question. They then attempted to manipulate their nanomachines before Wang Yuchi said, \"It seems to be responding a tad faster now, but if we don't get a good feeling for it and try it out a few more times, the difference can't really be detected.\"

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, \"You've only trained for a day. This is something that will require a lot of time and effort to improve.\"

Hu Shuo had said there were actually a lot of the Li Consortium's regular troops who had a synchronization rate above 80%. For the average person, the rate was slightly lower.

This made Ren Xiaosu realize that the synchronization rate might not be set in stone for everyone and could still change. How else could there be such a special phenomenon within a specific group of people? So what was the difference between the regular troops and other people?

Regular soldiers would have received systematic training within the military. They were not only trained in military duties but also physical exercise. Soldiers dying during cross-country training was also not unheard of. Although the culture within the Li Consortium's army had been declining over the past two years, their training standards did not drop.

The reason for the decline in culture was due to the military expanding too fast, with too many family members of the Li Consortium entering the ranks without getting properly trained.

So Ren Xiaosu wondered if the synchronization rate had anything to do with the physical exercise that was conducted in the military.

Of course, it could also be due to one's willpower.

For example, a lot of high-intensity training would depend on a person having enough mental strength to get through it. So after such training, the regular soldier's willpower would also become stronger. That in turn would determine whether their synchronization rates were high.

Be it their physical fitness or their willpower, Ren Xiaosu felt that these students would definitely be able to increase their synchronization rates through hard work. That included Li Qingzheng, Wang Dalong, and Wang Fugui as well.

Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something Yang Xiaojin once said to him. \"When a disaster comes, mental strength becomes the highest caliber of weapon humanity has in the face of danger.\"