"This is Yi Country, not White Star." Mr. Xindela shook his head, "If he can't even get past the first blind spot, then he is not the contract signer I need."
"Understood." Ah Ran nodded.
"Be careful in what you do, someone is always keeping a close eye on us." Mr. Xindela advised.
"Understood."
*
*
*
Bang, bang, bang, bang.
Inside the shooting range.
Li Chengyi put down the pistol in his hand, removed his earplugs, and let out a long breath of pent-up air from his chest.
On the target thirty meters away, a series of wildly distorted and wide bullet holes were clearly visible.
"Thirty and fifty meters are considered close-range shooting, which is mainly what you need to practice," explained a broad-shouldered instructor in black standing to the right.
"Since firearms are mainly effective against people, you must train with moving targets at close range after stationary target shooting practice."
"No need for rifles, just practice with pistols."
He took the black pistol from Li Chengyi's hand.
"This one was specially selected for you, the Deling G17 model, made of engineering plastic, weighing 600 grams, with a 17-bullet capacity, fully automatic firing. The only thing you need to remember is not to empty all the bullets with a single press."
"So, maintaining a steady emotion is the most important thing when using it, right?" Li Chengyi responded in understanding.
"Yes, don't get excited. The bullets are also made of enhanced plastic, which will easily shatter upon hitting hard objects. This can avoid ricochets in enclosed environments," the instructor said with a smile. "Of course, the bullets we're giving you now are just common practice rounds."
Li Chengyi removed the earplugs from around his neck and nodded.
"Can I practice alone for a while?"
"Sure, the bullets are on the side, help yourself, but you can't take them out of this isolation booth," the instructor said with a friendly smile. "Also, don't play for too long; there's an evasion training class later."
"Got it!" Li Chengyi nodded firmly. What he was eagerly thinking about at the moment was finding an opportunity to test the strength of the Floral Armor.
Now that he had the pistol in his hand, he wanted to test it first.
As for how to test it, it was actually quite simple.
"I'm going to take a rest now, I'll give you fifteen minutes of free time. Remember not to point the gun at yourself," the shooting instructor said, before turning and walking out of the shooting booth.
Li Chengyi was left holding the pistol, his face full of curiosity.
Firearms, this top-tier killing tool invented by humankind, evoke a special feeling in everyone's heart.
Typically, shooting ranges would not allow someone to handle a gun alone without an instructor present, not to mention a fully automatic firearm.
But Li Chengyi was different.
Because this shooting range was owned by Mr. Xindela and was his private property.
So it was normal to provide some special privileges.
After all, what he wanted was to become proficient quickly.
Holding the Deling G17, Li Chengyi glanced at the camera in the corner and raised his gun, pretending to aim at the red and white circular target in the distance.
For this test, he had specifically bought a pair of black cloth gloves.
The gloves were in a cosplay style, embroidered with shamefully overdramatic patterns all over.
At that moment, Li Chengyi took out the gloves from his pocket, put them on both hands, then grasped the gun and struck a few silly poses, like he was imitating characters from movies or anime.
Then...
He quickly raised the gun and aimed.
Bang.
The bullet fired instantaneously, but unlike before, it was not a simple flat trajectory.
It grazed over the tip of Li Chengyi's left finger before slightly skewing off course.
Yes, at the critical moment, he had shielded his finger with the gun barrel, covered by a piece of Floral Armor.
He was wearing Floral Armor on just one finger at the edge of the gun barrel, which was grazed by the bullet, but because of the thickness and the angle, it did not injure his finger.
In an instant, Li Chengyi nonchalantly retracted the Floral Armor and lowered his hand, his fingertip red.
'Floral Armor damaged, please repair promptly.'
The prompt from Evil Flower quickly appeared.
'As expected, the strength is not enough; the Floral Armor cannot completely withstand bullets.'
Apart from bullets, he had also tried using knives and lightly chopping at home.
The result was that the surface of the Floral Armor was quite hard, seemingly made of a metal-like material, but it was not thick, and it could withstand ordinary force, but not strong force.
Now it seemed that it could not withstand bullets either.
'What about after evolution? According to the feedback from Evil Flower, the strength of the Floral Armor will be higher after evolution, and Flower Language Ability will also be stronger; perhaps...'
After confirming that the Floral Armor couldn't stop bullets, Li Chengyi placed his hopes on the Floral Armor after evolution.
Right away, he took off the gloves and looked at the slight damage on the fingertip of the gloves, the mark left by the bullet that had pierced through just now.
'The day after tomorrow is the scheduled time to go to the Qingrun Flora Base; we'll see how strong it is after evolution...'
At that moment, he put aside the random thoughts, took off the gloves, and continued to lift the gun and practice shooting.
In the blink of an eye, two days passed.
Li Chengyi and Xindela took a leave of absence and boarded the shuttle bus heading to the flora base.
Qingrun Flora Base was located within a forested area on the outskirts of Suiyang City.
It was surrounded by dense forest.
The entire base was wrapped in huge silver-white greenhouses.
Rows upon rows, pots upon pots of bright flowers competed in splendor, displaying a variety of colors, and attracted many butterflies and bees fluttering back and forth in the greenhouses.
"This way is the Vine District. Go through here." The base had specifically arranged for a young girl to lead the way.
Li Chengyi followed behind, the two of them walking along the paths between the greenhouses.
"White Wisteria is a perennial climbing plant and needs a structure for climbing, so we've allocated a separate area for all climbing plants. If you're buying in bulk, we can offer a discount..."
The girl explained as they walked.
Li Chengyi didn't care to listen to this nonsense at all. If he were actually here to purchase, it might be different, but since he had come with the intention of benefiting without giving compensation, he could only reply perfunctorily along the way.
Soon, they arrived at a long, rectangular greenhouse on the edge, with staff at the entrance using long tubes that could spray mist for watering.
"We have indoor artificial rain; it's mixed with insecticide. Let's wait until the mist settles before we go in," the girl explained, waiting at the entrance with Li Chengyi.
As they waited, she continued to introduce the advantages of their base: the wide variety of flowers, the good quality, speaking with bubbling enthusiasm.
Li Chengyi responded mechanically, feeling somewhat bored, and his gaze scanned around randomly.
Suddenly, a green spiky plant not far away caught his attention.
"Is that…? The Iron Tree Flower blooming?!"
He was a bit surprised.
"Oh right, Boss, you're lucky. Our Iron Tree was planted when I was a child. It just bloomed recently. Normally, most people wouldn't be lucky enough to see it," the girl turned the topic enthusiastically, beginning an endless introduction about how precious and rare their Iron Tree was.
At that moment, Li Chengyi wasn't listening to her at all. Instead, he approached closer and looked at the pale yellow spherical flower at the very center, amidst the large green spiky leaves.
The fist-sized flower was like a fluffy ball, very cute and eye-catching.
"This is a Female Iron Tree Flower. They're generally this flattened spherical shape. If it were a male Iron Tree, it would look different," the girl leaned closer and said.
"There's a distinction between male and female Iron Trees?" Li Chengyi asked casually, pretending to be completely ignorant. In reality, he majored in plant care and knew these facts very well.
"Yes, yes, male Iron Tree flowers are cylindrical and look very yellow, you know what I mean," the girl made a suggestive gesture with her eyes.
Li Chengyi smiled.
"May I touch it gently?" he asked.
"Just be careful not to damage it," the girl replied nonchalantly, clearly not considering the Iron Tree Flower as precious as her previous words had suggested.
Li Chengyi stepped closer and gently pressed down the spiky leaves of the Iron Tree, bent down, and stretched out his hand to touch the flower at the center gently.
As his fingertips approached, and the moment they touched the petals,
A cool breath seeped into his fingers.
'Female Iron Tree Flower: Named for its wood that is hard as iron and requiring a large amount of iron for growth. Slow-growing and difficult to bloom, the plant is sexually dimorphic. Its stem contains edible starch, and its seeds are slightly toxic, which can be used to treat dysentery, coughs, and stop bleeding. Generally, it blooms once every ten to twenty years.'
'Flower Language Ability: Steadfast Spikes. (Cover the body with an invisible force field for a short duration, causing reciprocal spike attacks on any who touch the force field. The durability of the force field is proportional to the strength of the Floral Armor.)'
'Flower Language Ability: Hardening. (A passive ability that significantly increases the hardness of bones and Floral Armor.)'
'Floral Armor: Divine Flower Position not unlocked.'
Two Flower Language Abilities!!?
Li Chengyi's pupils shrank slightly.
He had fumbled around the botanical garden, testing many flowers, but never had he encountered one like the Iron Tree Flower that boasted two Flower Language Abilities.
And one of them was passive, an ability that could be effective without intentional use.
'Impressive...! If only I had used the Iron Tree Flower from the start...'
This thought flickered through his mind momentarily before he suppressed it, knowing that given the Iron Tree Flower's lengthy bloom cycle, gathering enough for the Floral Armor would be no easy task.
If he had chosen this plant from the beginning, by now his body would have likely decomposed completely.
'Two Flower Language Abilities complementing each other... Hardening enhances the strength of the Floral Armor, and Steadfast Spikes increase the upper limit of the durability the armor can withstand... Impressive!'
Li Chengyi silently marveled, earnestly memorizing the Iron Tree Flower in his heart. He was set on it!
"It's alright now, we can go in," the girl beside him reminded.
"Thank you for the trouble," Li Chengyi withdrew his hand, straightened up, and looked toward the entrance of the greenhouse.
From the entrance, he could see rows of metal racks inside, laden with various Wisteria Flowers.
Among them, a conspicuous white spot was clearly visible in his field of view.
"Over here, do you need a mask?" the girl asked. "There's a lot of pollen inside, so be careful if you're allergic."
"No need, thank you," Li Chengyi's heart began to stir as he eagerly anticipated what the evolved Floral Armor would look like.
"Then let's go."
The girl took the lead, moving ahead.
They both entered through the large doorway, one after another.
"White Wisteria. We have a special section for them here. Look, on the right side, the third row,"
Following the girl's direction, Li Chengyi looked over and indeed, far off to the right, he saw a cluster of white hanging down from the racks.
White Wisteria!
He had found it!