Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 549 – The Secret of Fluorescence

The pool water was very still.

The three of them each occupied a corner, steam rising in the air, a languid atmosphere filling the bathroom.

Xiao Yao lay sprawled at the pool’s edge, her arms resting on the tiles, her chin propped on the back of her hands. She was just about to close her eyes and doze off when the corner of her vision caught something wrong.

There was light on the water.

Not the reflection of the overhead lamp.

It was an extremely faint green fluorescence, slowly spreading outward from where Lin Li was soaking—like a drop of ink falling into clear water, spreading in silence.

“Wait.”

Xiao Yao jerked upright, eyes wide, staring at the water’s surface.

Lei Li noticed it too. She looked down at the water around her. The faint green glow had already drifted to her waist, and within the warm pool water, there was a warmth that didn’t belong to temperature alone.

Lin Li herself was completely unaware. She leaned against the pool wall with half-lidded eyes, her white lashes trembling slightly, looking so relaxed she might fall asleep at any moment.

The source of the fluorescence was her.

From her skin—beneath that layer of translucent, jade-like flesh—threads of green light seeped outward. As natural as breathing. As rhythmic as a heartbeat.

Xiao Yao opened her mouth to say something, but the next second, her entire body went rigid.

A surge of heat rushed into her body from the water.

Not the kind of heat from temperature. It was something at the cellular level.

Her muscles were tightening, her bones trembling, the blood in her veins suddenly accelerating. The sensation was exactly the same as when she devoured a Crystal.

No.

It was smoother than devouring a Crystal. Gentler. No rejection reaction, no splitting headache as a side effect.

Xiao Yao suddenly gripped the edge of the pool. Her fingers were straining, her fingertips turning white.

“Xiao… Xiao Yao?” Lin Li was startled awake by her movements, blinking groggily.

Xiao Yao didn’t answer. She stared intently at her own palm.

She could feel it.

The barrier of Level Two—that wall that had blocked her for over half a year—was loosening. Not slowly loosening. Collapsing on a massive scale.

Level Three.

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She was about to break through to Level Three.

“Lei Jie.” Xiao Yao’s voice trembled slightly. She turned to look at Lei Li.

Lei Li didn’t speak. But her expression said it all.

As a Level Five Evolved being, her perception of her own energy fluctuations was far more acute than Xiao Yao’s. At this moment, the Spirit Energy within her body was also stirring—not as violently as Xiao Yao’s, but growing, truly and steadily.

The threshold from Level Five to Level Six was extremely high.

But now, she could touch its edge.

“It’s her.” Lei Li’s voice was barely a whisper.

Both their gazes landed on Lin Li at the same time.

Lin Li tilted her head, looking at Xiao Yao, then at Lei Li, completely bewildered.

“What’s wrong with you two?”

“Nothing.” Lei Li spoke immediately.

Xiao Yao opened her mouth to say something, but a single look from Lei Li pinned her in place.

Don’t say it.

Xiao Yao understood instantly. She swallowed the words at the tip of her tongue and forced herself to release her clenched fist.

The bathroom fell silent for a few seconds.

Lei Li’s mind was racing.

No Crystals needed.

Just soaking in the same pool of water could raise an Evolved being’s level.

What did that mean?

It meant that if this news got out, every survivor stronghold on Blue Star would go insane. It meant Lin Li would become the target of everyone’s pursuit. It meant she would be surrounded by wolves.

“Lin Li.” Lei Li’s tone suddenly softened.

“Hm?”

“The green glow on your body—do you know about it yourself?”

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Lin Li looked down at the water’s surface.

The green fluorescence was still seeping out of her, tracing rippling halos of light in the water. She reached out and stirred the water with her hand, the glow flowing along her fingertips like something alive.

“It’s beautiful,” Lin Li said.

There was no surprise in her voice, no fear—only pure appreciation.

Like a child watching fireflies.

Xiao Yao and Lei Li exchanged a glance.

This woman truly had no idea what she was doing.

“Has this happened to you before?” Xiao Yao tried to keep her voice as calm as possible.

Lin Li thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t remember.”

“Maybe it’s the water temperature?” Lin Li tilted her head in speculation. “When you soak in hot water, your body relaxes, and then… you glow?”

Xiao Yao’s mouth twitched.

Soak in hot water and glow.

Did she think she was a glow stick?

Lei Li stood up from the water. Droplets slid down her sturdy body as she reached for the towel on the shore and wrapped it around her waist, her movements brisk and decisive.

“Xiao Yao.”

“Here.”

“What happened tonight stays between us.”

“I know.” Xiao Yao nodded, her expression serious. “You don’t have to tell me not to say anything. I won’t.”

Lei Li turned her gaze to Lin Li.

Lin Li was still playing with the green light in the water, her fingers tracing patterns across the surface, the glow shifting shapes with her movements.

“Lin Li.”

“Hm?” Lin Li looked up.

“From now on, when you bathe, it’s only with me and Xiao Yao.” Lei Li’s tone left no room for negotiation. “Don’t share a pool with anyone else. Understood?”

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Lin Li blinked. Though she didn’t quite understand why, she obediently nodded.

“Okay.”

Lei Li looked at those eyes of hers—clean, without a single trace of impurity—and the taut string in her heart loosened just a little.

Whatever this woman was, at least for now, she meant no harm.

And this ability of hers…

A thought flashed through Lei Li’s mind.

If used well, the combat power of all of Fragrant Hills International would undergo a qualitative leap.

But the prerequisite was that no outsider could ever find out.

“Come on, the water’s getting cold.” Lei Li reached out her hand to Lin Li.

Lin Li took her hand and stood up from the water.

Xiao Yao quickly handed over a towel and wrapped Lin Li up. As she dried her hair, she secretly observed her own arm—the muscle definition was noticeably tighter than half an hour ago.

Level three.

Locked in.

Xiao Yao took a deep breath, suppressing the wild joy rising in her chest.

The three of them were getting dressed in the changing room when hurried footsteps suddenly sounded from outside the door, followed by a knock.

“Lei Jie! Is Lei Jie in there?”

It was Xiao Zhang, on duty.

Lei Li frowned slightly and called out, “What is it?”

“Sun Jing from Magic City is here!”

Lei Li’s hand, buttoning her shirt, paused for a moment.

“She says it’s urgent—she must see you.”

Xiao Yao turned to look at Lei Li, lowering her voice. “Sun Jing? Why is she coming from Magic City again?”

Lei Li didn’t answer. She quickly pulled on her leather jacket, zipped it up, and swept her wet hair back with one hand.

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“Have her wait in the sixth-floor meeting room.”

“On it!”

The footsteps faded into the distance.

Lei Li turned and glanced at Lin Li.

Lin Li stood quietly in the corner, her long white hair still dripping, those black eyes reflecting the dim yellow light of the changing room.

“Go back to the infirmary and rest,” Lei Li said.

Lin Li nodded, but her gaze lingered on Lei Li’s face as she asked softly.

“The person coming—is she important?”

Lei Li was silent for a moment.

“I don’t know.”

She pushed open the door and walked out.

Lin Li stood in place, looking down at her own palm.

Just now, when she was in the water, the feeling of those green lights flowing out of her body was strange.

It wasn’t pain. It wasn’t itch.

It was an instinct.

As natural as a heartbeat, as effortless as breathing.

She clenched her fist.

That woman named Sun Jing…

When the name slipped into her ears, a faint throb pulsed again at Lin Li’s temple.

It was a distant, hazy sense of familiarity.

Like something on the other side of a thick fog, calling her name.

She couldn’t make it out clearly.

But she knew—that voice had always been there.