God-Tier Awakening: The Dead Can Still Level Up

Chapter 14: Plans

After storing the final black card into her storage space, Xingluo looked around the empty vault once more before turning toward Shen Wuxia. "So," she asked carefully, "how do we get out now?"

Shen Wuxia did not answer immediately. He only raised one hand and pointed toward the ceiling, where a dark circular opening had appeared without sound.

Several thick tree roots hung from the hole, swaying slowly inside the white room. Seeing them, Xingluo’s face stiffened at once. "No. Not again."

Shen Wuxia sighed quietly while floating beside her. "Unfortunately, this is the way out. Stand under it and say, Business completed."

Xingluo stared at the hanging roots for several breaths, then lowered her eyes toward the storage space filled with equipment, credits, and resources she could barely imagine owning before today.

It was worth it. It was definitely worth it.

After forcing that thought into her head, she walked beneath the opening with a stiff expression and spoke through clenched teeth. "Business completed."

The hanging roots froze for a breath, then dropped downward and wrapped around her arms and waist before she could step away.

Xingluo barely had time to curse before they dragged her upward, pulling her straight through the opening as her scream echoed across the empty vault.

The next moment, her body was thrown onto soft grass, and she rolled once before stopping near the edge of a stone path.

When Xingluo opened her eyes again, she found herself inside a wide garden filled with trimmed trees, pale fountains, and quiet stone benches beneath a false blue sky.

For a moment, she simply sat there and stared. "What is this now?"

Shen Wuxia floated beside her and glanced around once before replying calmly, "An illusion. Do not touch anything, and do not stay here."

Xingluo slowly pushed herself up while rubbing her shoulder, her expression still carrying clear resentment. "Your vault has a terrible way of sending people out."

"It is not my fault," Shen Wuxia replied. "I did not design the place."

Xingluo gave him a tired look but still followed his direction toward the far end of the garden, where a dark metal lift stood between two vine-covered pillars.

She hurried inside the moment the doors opened, only to stop when she saw Murwalk already waiting within.

The man stood there in the same crisp black clothes, his posture straight and his expression unchanged from before.

He bowed toward Xingluo as if nothing unusual had happened. "I trust your business went well."

Xingluo pulled her hood lower before giving a small nod. "Yes."

Murwalk said nothing more. He turned toward the panel, pressed another strange sequence of buttons, and the lift began moving without showing any floor number.

The silence inside stretched for several breaths, and Xingluo kept her fingers hidden beneath the cloak so no one could see how tightly they were clenched.

Shen Wuxia noticed it and spoke in a low voice beside her. "Do not panic now. Walk out normally."

Xingluo did not look at him, but her shoulders slowly relaxed by a small amount. When the lift finally stopped, the doors opened back into the dim corridor they had crossed earlier.

Murwalk bowed once more as she stepped out, and Xingluo forced herself not to hurry even though every instinct told her to leave quickly.

She passed through the quiet hall with her head lowered, moving between hooded figures, sealed documents, and counters lit by dim green lamps.

Only after she pushed open the heavy entrance doors and stepped back onto the city street did Xingluo release the breath she had been holding.

Shen Wuxia floated beside her and looked over the crowd ahead. "Keep moving. Remove the cloak only after we blend into the city center."

Xingluo nodded and walked into the stream of people without slowing down.

Several streets later, when the old black building had disappeared behind crowds, shops, and passing vehicles, she finally lowered the hood and let the cold air touch her face again.

Her fingers brushed the storage bracelet at her wrist, and only then did the tension in her eyes ease a little.

Just then, Xingluo’s stomach gave a low rumble, and she froze in place for a moment.

Shen Wuxia slowly turned his head toward her, and the faint smile on his face made her expression stiffen at once.

"Someone like you better not comment," Xingluo said, pointing at him before he could speak.

Shen Wuxia raised his brows slightly. "I have not said anything yet."

"You were thinking it," she replied with clear certainty. "A ghost would not understand things like hunger anyway."

The smile on Shen Wuxia’s face disappeared. He floated a little lower beside her, his expression turning dull as he muttered, "Better to be a ghost than a living person who shows no gratitude to her helper."

Xingluo looked at him for a few breaths, then her lips pressed together as if she was trying not to laugh.

"Okay, okay, Mister Ghost," she said, waving one hand lightly. "Do not sulk now I will go somewhere good to eat."

Shen Wuxia glanced at her from the side. "You say that as if I can eat with you."

Xingluo paused, then coughed once and looked away. "Then you can watch properly," she said. "That is also a kind of participation."

Shen Wuxia stared at her silently and after a moment, he sighed and followed as she walked deeper into the city center.

Xingluo sat near the window, slurping hot noodles while steam rose against her face. Shen Wuxia floated beside her, looking through the glass at the people passing outside.

After eating for a while, Xingluo finally looked up at him. "So what do we do next?"

Shen Wuxia turned his gaze back toward her. "First, we buy medicine for your mother from the Awakeners Center and after that, we push your level."

Hearing that, Xingluo’s eyes brightened slightly, but the hope did not last long. She lowered her chopsticks and looked at him with a frown.

"How?" she asked. "The university dungeons are all low-grade, and they have been cleared so many times that they barely give any experience."

She paused for a moment before glancing at his translucent body. "And what about you? Are you just going to keep floating like this?"

Shen Wuxia gave a faint chuckle. "Who said we are using your university dungeons?"

Xingluo’s frown deepened. "Then where?"

"Outside the city," Shen Wuxia replied calmly. "You should take leave from the university for a while. Staying there right now is mostly a waste of time."

Xingluo’s hand froze around her chopsticks. "Outside the city? You know how dangerous the wild zones are, right?"

Shen Wuxia did not answer immediately, because she was not wrong. Asterion looked peaceful from inside the walls, but that peace ended the moment people stepped beyond protected zones.

Humanity controlled only a small part of the planet, and even that control was scattered between fortress cities, military bases, trade routes, and isolated settlements.

Beyond them were wild zones filled with beasts, broken dungeon monsters, abandoned ruins, and refugees who had failed to enter proper city bases.

Even among human bases, only the Seventy-Two Pillars could be called real powers. A lower city like theirs barely had a Fourth Transformation player above Level 343 as its peak.

Shen Wuxia looked back at Xingluo and spoke steadily. "I know it is dangerous, but safe dungeons will not get you to Level 80 fast enough."

Xingluo stayed silent, her fingers tightening slightly around the bowl.

"We will not rush out blindly," he continued. "We buy medicine first, upgrade your equipment, prepare maps, antidotes, escape items, and enough supplies before leaving."

Xingluo looked at him for a moment, then asked in a lower voice, "And you?"

Shen Wuxia’s gaze shifted slightly. "As for me, we will see, there are definitely ways, but I will tell you when the time comes."

As he said that, his mind returned to the chain task, the Soul Soldier Card, and the final reward waiting at the end of every challenge.

He still did not know how many tasks the chain contained, but the last line remained fixed in his thoughts.

Physical Body Restoration.

That alone was enough to make him take the risk seriously, but he could not tell Xingluo everything yet.

Xingluo lowered her eyes toward the storage bracelet on her wrist. Inside it were weapons, potions, runes, credits, and resources she had never thought she would own.

For most of her life, she had only followed what was placed in front of her. Low-grade dungeons, cheap equipment, careful spending, and one dangerous raid that might save her mother.

Now Shen Wuxia was showing her another path. It was dangerous, but it was still a path.

After a long silence, Xingluo tightened her grip around the bracelet and raised her eyes again. "Fine, but if I die outside the city, I am haunting you too."

Shen Wuxia looked at her for a moment before replying dryly, "That would make our team composition very strange."

Xingluo stared at him, then gave a small snort despite herself. The fear in her eyes had not vanished, but it no longer stopped her from thinking.

Shen Wuxia noticed the change and turned his gaze back toward the street outside. "Finish eating. We have a lot to buy."