Chapter 31
Luo Shizhen looked at the map seriously.
The watches issued by the school were high-end. Not only did they have every function imaginable, but they also featured holographic display technology.
With the user’s coordinates and the destination coordinates marked, all one had to do was follow the route.
Upon arriving at the field training ground, before they even got close, the brothers Ying He and Ying Liu felt the hair on their bodies stand on end.
They stared at the training ground as if staring at a terrifying beast coiled there.
Instinctively vigilant, their Qi surged out, expanding their forms as much as possible.
But in the face of the older Awakener’s externalized spirit, which had firmly encompassed the massive training ground within its domain, the two students’ Qi seemed like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
Lin Qi arrived at the monitoring room and, seeing this scene, tutted and shook his head.
“Boss, look at them. You scared them stiff; they look like startled cubs.”
Though he said this, he knew Sui An hadn’t done anything intentionally.
After all, as a Manipulator and Sequence 01, he naturally suppressed other Awakeners. Not to mention, Sui An had fought Anomalies for years; his level was high and his experience vast. He usually suppressed his Qi when meeting students.
Today, in order to control Lu Qiujin’s situation, he had directly brought the entire field training ground into his Domain, effectively making the whole area his territory.
Even if he deliberately restrained it, the young Awakeners would instinctively feel the pressure.
Just as Lin Qi was thinking this, he saw Luo Shizhen, completely unaffected, bury his head in the map and step right into the field training ground.
He: “?”
Lin Qi: “Boss, did you two secretly bond behind my back? Why isn’t Student Shizhen afraid of you at all?”
Even if Sui An’s spiritual projection didn’t block him, logically speaking, facing such a massive Qi coiled right in front of him, Luo Shizhen should have felt at least some pressure.
Sui An was in a good mood. “He respects his teachers very much. Why would he be afraid of me?”
Lin Qi thought to himself, You’re really addicted to playing teacher, calling yourself ‘Master/Teacher’ at every turn.
Luo Shizhen didn’t feel the pressure, though he could now sense the existence of Qi.
He just hadn’t expected that the entire field training ground seemed to have turned into a massive ball of Qi.
It looked calm, but within its flow, the powerful aura it contained was like a dull, gigantic peak hidden beneath an iceberg. Revealing just a corner was enough to intimidate everyone.
“Ji ji gu gu!!”
Da Huang popped his head out of Luo Shizhen’s collar, trembling.
But before it could issue a warning sound upon discovering the powerful Awakener aura, Luo Shizhen had already stepped across the “deadline.”
Da Huang: “?”
It clung to Luo Shizhen’s shoulder in disbelief, looking back at the gate, its small hands and feet struggling to twist around and check its own body.
It seemed unable to believe that it had crossed over without any damage whatsoever.
“Da Huang, what’s wrong?”
Luo Shizhen patted Da Huang’s small head.
“Ji ji gu gu!”
Da Huang looked suspiciously at the entrance again. Ensuring its life was not in danger, it crawled back into Luo Shizhen’s collar.
It wasn’t that it was familiar enough with Luo Shizhen to crawl into his collar, but rather, after careful consideration, the little spirit felt that hiding inside the collar was better than facing Luo Shizhen directly.
Because of Da Huang’s sudden outburst, Luo Shizhen noticed that the Ying brothers hadn’t followed him.
He turned back in confusion. “Ying He, Ying Liu, aren’t you coming?”
Ying Liu, unwilling to give up, wanted to force himself forward, but the Qi all over his body screamed of danger. He could only stop reluctantly.
Ying He was calmer.
“There is an instructor’s aura here. We are both Combat types; Ying Liu and I will be suppressed by instinct. Can you go in alone?”
Luo Shizhen said “Oh.”
“I can. Then wait for me outside, or if you have things to do, you can go first.”
After speaking, he continued to follow the route map straight ahead.
Ying Liu looked at Luo Shizhen’s back, feeling somewhat frustrated. “Does he think we’re weak chickens?”
He actually only wanted to compete with his brother out of habit, but now that he had shown weakness in front of Luo Shizhen, he felt inexplicably upset.
Ying He’s face was calm. “We are still in the early stages of Awakening. We couldn’t compete with high-level teachers anyway.”
It was just that in the past, the school arranged for Awakener teachers with milder personalities, so they hadn’t felt it deeply.
This time, due to the increase in Anomalies, the school had brought in two high-sequence Combat instructors. Only now did the students realize just how terrifying high-level Awakeners were.
However…
Ying He looked at Luo Shizhen’s receding figure and slowly frowned.
Student Luo didn’t seem to be affected by the high-level Awakener’s Qi suppression at all.
Was he naturally gifted, or was that instructor deliberately holding back?
If it was Luo’s natural gift, that was fine. But if the instructor was holding back, that was bad news.
Ying He saw clearly that Luo Shizhen’s personality was simply too compatible with an Awakener’s criteria for a mate.
Currently, there weren’t many people around him only because he hadn’t been at school long.
In his opinion, the three who had been thrown into confinement were more or less interested in Student Luo.
Ying He wasn’t afraid to compete with people of the same age, but if an older Awakener intervened…
Luo Shizhen didn’t find it strange that the field training ground had an instructor’s aura.
Instructors were often at the training grounds anyway. Wasn’t this just like the Vice Principal’s aura being in the classroom?
He walked for a while following the map and soon saw Lu Qiujin.
Lu Qiujin had cast his weights aside and was lying on the ground, staring blankly at the sky. There was a deep cut on his right arm; blood had soaked his combat uniform, and some had even dripped onto the grass.
“Lu Qiujin!”
Luo Shizhen’s heart skipped a beat. He quickly ran over, helped him up, and checked the wound on his arm.
“Why didn’t you contact the teacher when you got hurt?”
The wound was deep. Awakeners had strong healing abilities; for it to be this deep now proved that the wound must have been even deeper when first inflicted.
Luo Shizhen didn’t think of this point. After all, he hadn’t been enrolled for long, and accepting new things took a long time for him.
His mindset regarding wounds was still stuck in his time as an ordinary person.
However, he had learned bandaging quite well.
Luo Shizhen opened the weight bag, found the medical kit, and began to work. His movements were a bit unskilled, but the steps were correct. He earnestly followed the procedure and treated Lu Qiujin’s wound.
Then he immediately called Sui An.
“Teacher, Lu Qiujin hurt his arm. It’s quite deep. I’m applying for medical personnel to come.”
“Okay.” Sui An stared at Luo Shizhen’s worried frown on the monitor, his voice steady. “It will take some time for the medical staff to arrive, about twenty minutes.”
Luo Shizhen didn’t suspect anything. “Okay, Teacher.”
He thought of something else. “Teacher, is that your Qi at the entrance? Can you carry Lu Qiujin out like last time?”
Sui An laughed. “He is a Combat type and has a natural repulsion towards me. Probably not.”
“Alright then.” Luo Shizhen was a bit regretful.
Fortunately, Lu Qiujin had no other wounds. Twenty minutes was a wait they could afford.
He carefully moved Lu Qiujin’s bandaged arm aside. Keeping Lu Qiujin leaning against him with one hand, he looked down and asked:
“Lu Qiujin, does it hurt a lot?”
Seeing that Lu Qiujin remained silent, Luo Shizhen guessed he was in too much pain to speak.
Lu Qiujin’s face was somewhat pale from blood loss. Hearing this question, his eyelashes trembled.
“Yeah, it hurts.”
“Later, we’ll ask the doctor teachers to give you some painkillers. How did you get hurt? Don’t we carry vital sign monitors? Why didn’t the alarm go off?”
As Luo Shizhen spoke, he stroked Lu Qiujin rhythmically, as if trying to soothe him.
Although he didn’t know if it was useful, his grandmother used to do this when he wasn’t feeling well.
“I took it off because it was noisy,” Lu Qiujin said, leaning against Luo Shizhen.
The feeling was strange. The warmth belonging to another person faintly transmitted through their clothes. Luo Shizhen was genuinely caring for him, yet he despicably only wanted to use the other person.
It was just like during training—when he wanted to wait for Luo Shizhen to get tired so he could approach and offer kindness, Luo Shizhen had unhesitatingly taken his weights onto his own back instead.
At that moment, Lu Qiujin even felt like his clothes had been stripped away, revealing the dark, ugly face underneath.
But no matter what, he wanted to live.
Despicable or disgusting, as long as he could survive, it was fine.
Lu Qiujin whispered, “I cut the arm myself.”
Leaning in Luo Shizhen’s embrace, he looked up at him.
On that beautiful face that always appeared exceptionally elegant and noble, a trace of fragility was now revealed.
“I am on the verge of alienation. I heard that if an Awakener is injured, the Qi in their body decreases, which might temporarily pause the alienation process.”
Around the edge of his bandaged arm, there were other scars, deep and shallow, clearly left from before.
Given an Awakener’s recovery ability, the oldest of these scars must have been from recent months.
Luo Shizhen was shocked. “Did… did you do all these yourself?”
“It was me. Because I don’t want to alienate. I don’t want to become a monster.”
Lu Qiujin’s voice became very soft, unlike his usual self.
He looked incredibly pitiful. “Shizhen, can you help purify me?”
Luo Shizhen was a soft-hearted person, and a kind one. This was Lu Qiujin’s observation record.
He had originally intended to boil the frog in warm water, but he never found the chance. Seeing that Xiao Shan, Chu Xiao, and Rong Nian were about to be released, Lu Qiujin decided to gamble—gamble that Luo Shizhen would be soft-hearted toward him.
Luo Shizhen was indeed soft-hearted.
He agreed almost immediately, without suspicion or hesitation.
“Okay, I’ll purify you!”
Lu Qiujin’s heart felt as if it had been poked by something.
A sour, astringent feeling made him instinctively lower his eyes, hiding the emotions within.
He thought that if the old him had met the current Luo Shizhen, he could have interacted with him without a trace of gloom.
But sadly, it was the current him—Lu Qiujin, living in a swamp of mud.
Aside from money, he had nothing to give back to Luo Shizhen.
Luo Shizhen’s hand landed on Lu Qiujin. It was warm and soft, without a hint of coldness.
Lu Qiujin felt as if a heavy stone had been lifted from his heart, yet also as if it hadn’t.
He was even somewhat confused.
Is it over?
Is the problem that has plagued me for so long solved this simply?
Luo Shizhen earnestly tried to purify Lu Qiujin.
But he discovered that after sucking for a long time, he hadn’t sucked anything out.
Luo Shizhen pursed his lips, scratched his head, and continued trying hard to suck.
Time passed minute by minute. He hadn’t extracted even a speck of dust.
He even had a feeling that Lu Qiujin’s body was resisting his treatment.
His body was guarding those black vapors, hiding them tightly and refusing to let them appear before Luo Shizhen.
Luo Shizhen dug for a long time but found nothing.
In front of the surveillance monitors, the two instructors watching this scene also noticed the changes in the pollution values on the screen.
Lin Qi’s originally relaxed expression grew slightly grave. “Self-destruction…”
“This isn’t forced alienation. Lu Qiujin has a self-destructive mindset.”
No matter how powerful a Purifier was, they couldn’t save an Awakener who wanted to destroy themselves.
“Let Luo Shizhen come back.”
Lin Qi stopped looking at the screen. “And have the medical team send Lu Qiujin to the ward for convalescence.”
Calling it convalescence was really just a variation of house arrest.
For an Awakener with such a self-destructive psychology who likely couldn’t be cured, even if he was still human at this moment, he needed to be kept within a controlled range.
Once he alienated, he could be dealt with quickly.
Sui An, however, did not give the order. He continued to watch the screen where Luo Shizhen was trying his hardest to use his ability.
“Let him try again. We can’t just give up because hope is slim.”
Luo Shizhen tried for a long time with no results. He felt that Lu Qiujin’s body was resisting his treatment.
But Lu Qiujin had just said he was afraid of becoming a monster. That definitely couldn’t be right.
Who would want to become a monster?
Luo Shizhen couldn’t understand it at all, so he could only give up temporarily. “I don’t think I can help you purify it.”
Lu Qiujin blinked slowly, then, as if he had expected it all along, he chuckled.
“Ah, is that so?”
True. How could such a lucky thing happen to him?
He started to get up slowly. All his scheming, disguises, and deliberate acting had become a joke at this moment.
Other than realizing clearly before he died that he was the same kind of person as his parents, there didn’t seem to be any other benefit.
“Thank you.”
Lu Qiujin reverted to the elegant, noble young master appearance Luo Shizhen had seen before.
After thanking him, he took out a card. It contained twenty million—a thank-you gift he had prepared for Luo Shizhen.
Although purification was no longer possible, since he was going to die anyway, giving it or not made no difference.
At least Lu Qiujin believed that Luo Shizhen had genuinely wanted to save him just now.
The school had sent two powerful instructors, disrupting Lu Qiujin’s plan. Once he alienated, he absolutely wouldn’t be able to escape.
Therefore, before being sent to the ward for treatment, he needed to return home and kill his parents and brother. He needed to hurry; Eternal Day wouldn’t let an Awakener who could alienate at any moment roam free for too long.
Lu Qiujin calmly planned in his heart and held out the card again.
“You don’t need to take what I said just now to heart. There is…”
Before he could finish, his shoulders were suddenly grabbed by Luo Shizhen.
“I know!! It must be because we aren’t familiar enough!”
The boy, just turned nineteen with a temperament that still carried a hint of naive honesty, looked determined.
“The teacher said that the better the relationship, the smoother the Purifier can use their ability.”
Luo Shizhen felt that he and Lu Qiujin indeed weren’t very close, but that didn’t matter. Aren’t friendships built over time?
He hadn’t known Big Brother for long either, but they already liked each other very much now.
“Lu Qiujin, we just need to become friends quickly!”
“Don’t be afraid. We still have time. I will cut down on some study time and play exclusively with you.”
Lu Qiujin was stunned.
The more Luo Shizhen thought about it, the more sense it made. He hugged Lu Qiujin tightly and, clumsily imitating Teacher Chen, gently rubbed Lu Qiujin’s head.
Unfortunately, he rarely had the chance to rub someone else’s head—usually, he was the one being rubbed. His hand was heavy, and in two or three strokes, he turned the elegant Lu Qiujin’s hair into a chicken coop.
Luo Shizhen felt a bit guilty and tried hard to pat the hair back down, but it only ended up messier.
Seeing the hair getting worse the more he tried to save it, he stammered, “I want to ask you, um, are you easily angered right now?”
It seemed like in the books, Awakeners on the verge of alienation would have volatile emotions.
For example, Chu Xiao got incredibly angry just because he made a new friend.
Lu Qiujin was still in a daze. Hearing this question, he felt genuine confusion. “What?”
Luo Shizhen felt guilty. “No, n-nothing.”
He was really afraid that Lu Qiujin would alienate on the spot out of anger after seeing his current hairstyle. Being unable to lie, he could only clumsy try to hide the matter.
“It’s just, I think you’re really good-looking. Even without hair, you should look even better!”
Lu Qiujin couldn’t care less about being sad now. His expression turned peculiar.
“Is that what you think?”
Is Luo Shizhen’s aesthetic preference… baldness?
Thinking of Chu Xiao and Xiao Shan’s hair volume… no wonder those two failed to move his heart.
However, he hadn’t expected Luo Shizhen to have such a good impression of him. Not only did he praise his looks, but now he was hugging him very intimately from behind.
In Lu Qiujin’s memory, even Chu Xiao rarely received such intimate gestures from him.
Behind him, Luo Shizhen carefully hugged Lu Qiujin’s head, trying to cover the ugly hairstyle.
Ahhh! What to do!!
Maybe I should knock Lu Qiujin out, then find Chu Xiao to help fix his hair!
Recommended Reads
