Chapter 21: Below Critical Level

“But I ruined him.”

Fan Xiangnan, who was dealing with the task of slave settlement, rushed back to meet Zhuang Yu and asked anxiously, “What’s the matter? Didn’t you say last time that the spiritual power of the Chief showed signs of improvement? The red tin mine was just fine that time. Why is it suddenly turbulent now?”

“There’s no time to explain. The most important thing now is to calm down the chief’s spiritual power as soon as possible.” Zhuang Yu hurriedly said. She turned around, took another soothing fluid  from his assistant, and injected it into the healing cabin. Her brows were tight and her expression was solemn,  “The healing cabin can no longer stop the manic spiritual power of the Chief.”

Fan Xiangnan also noticed the increasingly obvious spiritual power fluctuations in the air. His expression changed and decisively ordered, “Close the medical room. Everyone, put on protective clothing! People below mental power level B, proceed outside! Notify the main control room to close the V1 area centered on the medical room! Let the first and second teams stay outside the V1 area, and the second and third teams, have them watch the slaves placed in the X6 area. Don’t let them run around! Call the person in charge of the investigation team back and let him take care of the slave settlement!”

Several officers behind him responded and turned around to convey his orders. The people in the medical room below the spiritual power level B also put down their things one after another and followed them to retreat.

In less than a minute, the medical room was half empty and all the remaining people put on protective clothing. They kept a close watch on the healing cabin and waited.

“It’s started.” Zhuang Yu suddenly said with a serious and heavy expression.

Fan Xiangnan nodded, remembering the scene of Chu Rong last time when his spiritual power was out of control and manic. He was so flustered that he wanted to go back and forth a few times, but was afraid to miss any details, and finally stood silently on the spot.

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Zhuang Yu ordered loudly, took the lead in drinking the medicine, and then rushed back to the healing chamber. Fan Xiangnan, who had been observing honestly, took out a large protective cover to shield everyone, helping them withstand a wave of mental attacks.

The pressure suddenly diminished and everyone recovered, like waking up from a dream. They hurriedly took out the soothing agent and drank it. Then one person walked to the emergency operation panel in the medical room, entered the password, and pulled down a red lever.

Ding, ding, ding—

The ceiling of the medical room suddenly released a few delicate probes. After a period of rotation and adjustment, a stream of white mist was sprayed into the room.

Kacha—

The protective shield in Fan Xiangnan’s hand finally couldn’t withstand the impact of the violent spiritual force. It shattered and disappeared as soon as the spray fell.

As soon as the white mist appeared, the room temperature began to drop madly. Under the influence of the white fog, the impact of the berserk spiritual energy in the air gradually slowed down. The pressure on the crowd eased and they collapsed on the ground one after another.

—It’s terrible. Just a little late, if the spray appeared just a second late, they would all be “slaughtered as sacrifice.”

Qiao Zhiya was feeling unwell, almost out of breath. He curled up on the bed, lying on a pile of magic stones that turned into rubble after exhausting their magic power. His brows were furrowed, his face was pale, and he was full of cold sweat.

After closing his eyes, it took him a while to enter the wonderful state he had experienced in his last dream and “see” the cluster of white lights floating in the air and the black dots in it. He recalled the things he had done in his dream last time, separated the wood magic, rolled towards the black spots that were more lively than the last time he saw them, and then dragged them little by little to devour and purify them.

Everything went smoothly. Although the black spots were a bit more “lively” than the last time, they were not difficult to deal with, and they could be restrained by spending a little more magic. But just as his magic pool was slowly drying up and as he was about to open his eyes to replenish his magic power before continuing, a large black spot, like a black cloud covering the sky, that was completely invisible to the cluster of white lights suddenly rushed out— towards the magic power that he didn’t have time to withdraw.

There was a great disparity between his strength and that of the enemy. This time, it’s his magic power’s turn to be engulfed and assimilated.

He decisively cut off the connection with the magic power, disrupted the black spot, and followed the magic power to the channel of his magic pool. He then took out a magic stone from the storage ring based on his feeling and frantically absorbed it.

But the black spot was like a blood-sucking insect that had eaten delicious nourishment. It kept circling around him, unwilling to leave, and tried to penetrate into his body. No, he had to absorb magic while releasing some power to protect himself.  Later, he found that it was useless just to protect himself. It would only make those black spots more unscrupulous. So he gritted his teeth and started a sharp counterattack with the powerful stability of the earth magic. The black spot just stopped a bit and then a long tug of war began.

When you came, I went. The black spot was being swallowed up but the magic power was consumed like flowing water, and the magic stone in the storage ring was broken piece after piece. Fortunately, the black spot seemed to be constrained by something and could not stop his attack.

Another piece of magic stone was broken and the black spot that had attacked was also broken by him. He touched the storage ring again, but found that there was no longer wood or earth magic stone for him to absorb. To make matters worse, just when he was about to run out of ammunition and food, a black spot that was stronger than before rushed over and instantly swallowed the earth magic power that he was protecting himself with.

The enemy became stronger but he was already at the end of his rope. It’s over.

When the danger came, he gritted his teeth and squeezed out the last bit of magic power to protect his magic pool, enduring the pain of overdrawing magic. He tightly closed his eyes, fumbled, and put away all the magic stone fragments— as long as the magic pool was still there, everything could be done again. Hold on!

The anticipated sense of being swallowed did not come. The black spot that rushed over suddenly stagnated and the white light ball suppressed by the black spot seemed to be stimulated by something, awakening from a half-dead state, dragged the black spot back and locked it firmly. Then it turned around it, separated a wisp of pure spiritual power which was not stained with the black spot, and surrounded it. At the same time, a cool white mist slowly wrapped towards him.

His exhausted physical and mental states were soothed. Qiao Zhiya felt relieved, his head tilted, and fainted.

Beep—

After a pleasant beep sound, the door of the instrument opened automatically.

Zhuang Yu’s heart finally fell back to its original place. Her legs weakened and she collapsed directly on the ground. She wanted to laugh and cry. Her expression was distorted and she looked crazy, “Scared me to death… The Chief is okay. He’s better, actually getting better … Wu wuwu¹[T/N: Sounds of cryings], my medicine is all gone, all gone, wuwuwu…. “

Fan Xiangnan rushed forth to the instrument. After seeing the data, he froze, then he raised his hand to wipe his red eyes and spoke in a hoarse voice, “The contamination value has dropped below the critically dangerous level, it really dropped…”

Hearing this, the other assistants in the medical room who had already collapsed on the ground were stunned, then they exclaimed in surprise, crying and hugging each other.

For ten years, they tried every means necessary to reduce the Chief’s spiritual power contamination value, but all of them were ineffective. They feared that one day, the Chief would suddenly be violent due to uncontrollable spiritual power and become insane.

After ten years under pressure, finally… Although it was extremely dangerous, but after ten years of despair, this tiny dawn was like a gift from a god!

In the medical room, the joy of surviving the disaster was overwhelming. Fan Xiangnan quickly sorted out his emotions, took out the towel and bathrobe from the cabinet next to him, walked to the cabin, looked in, and asked, “Sir, how do you feel? Do you feel any discomfort?”

Chu Rong, who was in a trance, regained his senses, and turned his eyes to look at him. He used his arms to support himself and sat up. He closed his eyes to adapt to the change in spiritual strength and then jumped out directly. He took the bathrobe and casually covered himself. After covering his key parts, he strode to the side of the hospital bed, fixed his gaze on a bulging quilt mass, stepped forward, and directly opened it.

The strong green fragrance of plants came out and Qiao Zhiya’s curled up small figure appeared. He was sweating, pale, and frowning. He was curled up, arms protectively wrapped around his body, cutting a sorry and pitiful figure.

“Ah!”

Zhuang Yu, who just turned her head to look over, couldn’t help but exclaim, then got up anxiously, hurriedly approached, and nervously asked, “What’s the matter? How could the Little Cutie be here? The spiritual power just now was violent…”

Fan Xiangnan was also stunned. He frowned when he thought of the spiritual storm that just made a group of people with mental strength above level B unbearable.

“Adjust the healing cabin.”

Chu Rong ordered towards Zhuang Yu, who was leaning over. He walked forward without expression, picked up Qiao Zhiya, and tore his clothes. His eyes swept past the hand that was firmly holding his arm in defense, despite being in a coma. He reached out to pull it away but he couldn’t move it. He frowned and didn’t care about the details. He turned around, stuffed the person into the healing cabin, and closed the door.

The instrument started running again. Zhuang Yu let go of the old repair fluid and injected new one. While operating the instrument, she kept muttering anxiously, “When did the Little Cutie run in? People with no spiritual power are directly impacted by spiritual power, either become stupid or become… Bah, bah, Cutie will be fine, will be fine… What are you doing in a daze! Get moving!” 

The assistants were yelled back to their senses, got up, and moved. They went back to their designated instruments.

The atmosphere in the medical room became tense again. Chu Rong looked at Qiao Zhiya, who was asleep in the healing cabin with his eyes closed. He remembered the comfort he felt when he was mentally berserked and unconsciously touched the healing chamber.

“He may have recovered his mental strength and it’s partially healing.” He spoke with deep eyes and his tone was heavy, “But I ruined him.”

Fan Xiangnan was taken aback when he heard this and he suddenly turned his head to look at the healing cabin. The mood in his eyes changed and after a long time, he sighed.

After the spiritual power disappeared due to external force, there was a chance that it would recover. Although the probability was very small, if it was recovered once and then destroyed again, then the injured person would not be able to have spiritual power anymore in his life. Human beings were fragile and they simply couldn’t stand the second fragmentation and collapse.