Not long after, Xia Ling also awakened her abilities.
That morning, Xia Yu went to wake Xia Ling up as usual, but nobody answered after he knocked for a long time. So Xia Yu pushed the door open and found Xia Ling still lying in bed, completely unresponsive. Xia Yu walked over, touched Xia Ling's hand, and immediately pulled his hand back. It was so cold—freezing cold—and a thin layer of ice had formed over her body, making her look just like someone frozen solid. Xia Yu hurried downstairs to call Xiong Ge.
"Mom! Younger Sister's whole body is covered in a layer of thin ice, you'd better go take a look!"
Hearing Xia Yu's words, Xiong Ge ran upstairs quickly. The moment she touched Xia Ling's body, she hurriedly told Xia Yu to go find the Tomb Doctor. Xia Yu froze for a moment, then rushed off to find the doctor, feeling puzzled the whole way.
Xia Yu thought to himself: *The Tomb Doctor? That's for treating ability practitioners. Could Younger Sister be getting abilities too? Is it really going to be just me left behind again?*
The Tomb Doctor arrived shortly. Xia Longnü looked at Xia Ling and performed a familiar examination, then said to Xiong Ge standing behind her:
"She's fine. She's just going through the awakening phase for her abilities. She is an Ice Elemental Ability practitioner, which is why her body is like that. After today, once she gradually learns to control her own abilities, she'll be fine."
Xia Ling possessed a ninety-nine percent righteous constitution, with only one percent demonic traits, so unlike Xian Tian and Xia Mei, she did not have a battle spirit inside her body.
Hearing this, Xia Yu let out a self-deprecating chuckle, thinking: *In this family, I'm the only one left without abilities. I was even naive enough to wish that I could protect Younger Sister—who knows, maybe it'll be Younger Sister protecting me instead? Heh...*
From that day on, Grandpa decided to train Xia Ling to be the next head of the family, ignoring all of Xiong Ge's objections.
Xia Ling busied herself with working hard to learn how to control her abilities. She sensed Xia Yu's distant attitude toward her, and she knew the reason why.
Her heart ached, and she could only throw herself into cultivating her abilities every day, enduring Grandpa's rigorous training in the hope that one day she could help Xia Yu.
Ten years later...
Grandpa looked at Xia Ling, whom he had raised single-handedly, and felt deeply gratified. Grandpa had originally decided to hand the Dragon Sealing Card over to Xia Ling, but Xia Ling refused, saying she still needed more time to gain experience.
Xia Ling's abilities were now at least twenty thousand points, and she thought that with her strength having grown so much, she might just be able to awaken the battle spirit (Guifeng) inside Xia Yu.
After school, Xia Ling came home and saw Xian Tian and the others discussing something. Ignoring them, she tossed her backpack onto the sofa and walked into the kitchen to help out.
"Brother Yu! I'm back, let me help!" Xia Ling reached out to take the dish from Xia Yu's hands, intending to help carry it out to the living room.
"No need." Xia Yu slightly dodged Xia Ling's outstretched hand and carried the dish to the living room himself. Xia Ling felt a bit down, pushed the heavy feeling down, and followed behind Xia Yu with a smile.
"Is there anything else I can help with?"
"No. You can go do your own thing." Another cold response.
"Okay," Xia Ling said with her head lowered. "Little Brother, Sis, I'm going back to my room to do homework." With that, she picked up her schoolbag from the sofa and went upstairs to her room.
"Younger Sister, what's up with the snob? Talking so coldly, it's not like you owe him anything," Xia Mei said with a look of indignation on behalf of her younger sister.
Xian Tian said, "Alright, Sister, you know Younger Sister is in a bad mood because of Older Brother, so keep your voice down."
"Airhead Mei! Talk nonsense again and see if I don't dock your entire allowance for next month! You too, Xian Tian." With that, Xia Yu returned to the kitchen to continue cooking.
Xia Yu thought to himself: *I'm just a Muggle without any abilities—I don't even have the capability to protect her!*
At this thought, Xia Yu couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh in his heart.