I walked along the canal behind our apartment, the only source of illumination being the streetlamps beside the cycling and jogging path I was currently strolling on.
At this time of the night, I was the only one that was up and about so there was no one else around except for me.
I stopped underneath the Old Jurong Railway bridge, a relic from the past that is no longer being used today and is now overgrown with vines and trees that stretched over the small canal beside me.
It wasn't exactly an isolated area since there's a cycling path over here but no one would come here during the dead of the night.
I sucked in a breath and exhaled, the air not exactly that fresh considering the main road was only about a hundred to two hundred metres away from where I stood.
I'm not really sure if this is far enough for me to be able to absorb a new batch of Qi energy since it's only a few hundred metres away from home, but I guess I might as well give it a shot.
I relaxed myself and sat down on the ground facing the canal in the lotus position once again.
Once again, I relaxed myself and I settled into the breathing rhythm that I have started to grow accustomed to, reaching the same state even faster than the last few times.
I waited for the orbs to appear and while they did appear eventually, the amount was clearly fewer than what I saw earlier inside my room.
No doubt, I was still too close to the last place I had absorbed them… Next time I should just head out even further.
Hmm… Maybe… If I use this point and my home as a pivot to draw a circle around… I could figure out how far the absorption distance was? Then that could help me plan out where I need to go to absorb the Qi energy for maximum efficiency.
I pressed my palms together and felt the Qi enter my body, revitalising me once again and making me feel just a little stronger.
The warmth spread throughout my body and I let out a breath when the process was complete.
I opened my eyes once more and everything looked just a little clearer and brighter to me… Or it could just be a placebo effect where I'm expecting it so it looked different even if it was the same.
That reminds me…
I summoned the jade book and it appeared in front of me once again.
I tried to flip through it manually but all I saw were blank pages while I was looking for one of the three entries that I knew was recorded in the book.
But when I thought about the entry I was looking for, the book immediately flipped itself to the page, showing the picture of the wolf Anomaly drawn in the chinese brush painting style.
Nothing seemed different about it so I thought about the next Anomaly entry and the book automatically flipped itself to the page in question.
Just like the previous picture, this one was also drawn in the chinese brush painting style and it looked just as fearsome as I remembered.
But aside from the illustration, there doesn't seem to be anything else recorded in the book.
At least I know that I somehow got extra powers just from having them inside this book.
I then thought about the last entry and the book flipped itself to the correct page again, showing the black and white illustration of Olivia.
The drawing showed her standing imposingly and looking straight at the viewer in her office suit, her bearing strong and regal like she was a warrior that was getting ready for battle instead of just a simple office lady.
With this entry, I know I received her lightning powers somehow and I'm guessing that this is only a part of what it is able to grant me seeing it wasn't even coloured.
I wonder what the criteria was to have it be filled in with more details? Was it to have a better understanding of her powers or something?
I definitely do not think I need to kill her because I killed those assassins earlier and I do not see any new entries showing up like that fire guy with the sword.
If I had a new entry where it shows that guy on the page of this book… I might be incentivised to start hunting down criminals with abilities just to get stronger.
Still… When I stuck my hand on his neck and felt his power… It was quite an experience.
It was like I had gained his experience with his powers which allowed me to use it immediately.
Heck, I think at that moment, I might even understand his own powers better than him.
It happened pretty fast but now that I was thinking about it clearly, his powers aren't actually fire manipulation but more like heat manipulation.
He is able to draw heat from somewhere and concentrate it somewhere else to cause the place to combust into flames.
His sword must have some special property that makes it really hot or something which allows him to easily shoot out flame projectiles by swinging it around.
When I had my hand on him, I was quite literally drawing heat from him directly to create the fire I summoned.
Which explained why he was suffering from hypothermia when he detached himself from me… I must have drained a lot of his body heat away just to create that gout of flames.
It was definitely an interesting ability for sure.
Right then, the jade book started to flip again of its own accord which surprised me, until it stopped at another page and this time… I saw an illustration of the guy with the sword appearing on the page in real time.
It was like watching a sped up video of an artist painting the picture in real time.
The illustration wasn't just in black and white either as colour also filled the page and the picture was complete in just a few seconds.
I was just seated there staring at the page in surprise for a few seconds before I realised what this meant.
Wait… Could this actually be possible?
I looked around and… Well… I don't exactly have a source of heat near me so…
I pressed my palms together and started rubbing them quickly, feeling the centre of my palms heat up from the friction.
I then focused on the heat and tried to draw it out into the air in front of me to try and create a small flame and suddenly, I felt my hands go cold. Painfully cold.
It felt like I had submerged my hands in a tub of ice cold water and my entire body shivered right before a small flame appeared in front of me, confirming that I had indeed gained this guy's ability.
I quickly shut off the power and placed my hands underneath my armpits, shivering from the sudden coldness that assaulted me.
Wait… I should be able to also draw the heat back into me, right?
I focused on the air around me and tried to draw in the heat into my body.
Almost immediately, I felt the centre of my body heat up and the heat slowly spread down to my hands and my fingertips, warming them up once again.
I finally stopped shivering and I took out my hands to look down at them, checking to make sure I didn't accidentally give myself frostbite or something.
Thankfully, it seems I didn't and my fingers were just fine.
That was dangerous… I pretty much almost froze a guy to death just to summon a flamethrower and just creating one small flame already drained that much heat from me… Seems like if I want to use this to shoot fireballs, I would need a better source of heat instead of my own body.
Still, that wasn't the main thing here… I have now confirmed that I am able to obtain even more abilities through this jade book by another means.
I know that killing those boss type Anomalies will have their entries added into the book automatically and I will also get their abilities.
I'm not too sure about Olivia's entry but I have a feeling it's something to do with her being my Guardian or something.
Then this last one should be the fact that I had understood the guy's abilities and maybe also because I was the one who defeated or killed him, allowing me to take his ability for myself.
I looked up at the sky and some ideas started racing through my mind.
…
Do I need to give myself some kind of superhero costume and go out in the night to start fighting crime?
…
Let's just… Walk around a bit for a little longer…