Chapter 87: Forced Awakening
Zhan Ye’s body temperature grew cold against her legs. Su Tang raised her hand to cover the bloody hole, blood slowly flowing through her fingers. Her spirit power suddenly surged, and pale gold spirit threads constructed a barrier to plug the wound.
Su Tang lowered her eyes, her hand hovering just above the barrier as she gently traced the air. Her jawline was set tight. She gathered every ounce of spirit power in her body and crashed it toward her Sea of Consciousness.
The sensation of being scoured by her own spirit power was agonizing. It felt like a dull knife was slowly carving through her brain; every nerve twitch brought a jolt of pain through her entire body.
She knew exactly what she was doing.
She was going to force her Spirit Core to awaken. If a spiritual entity was a Sentinel’s greatest weapon, then what about a Guide’s? For the first time, she felt she had been too passive, failing to seriously cultivate her spirit power and release her entity sooner. If she had released it before the mission, would Zhan Ye have ended up like this?
Her Spirit Core was not yet fully mature. Forcing it to awaken was like using a crowbar to pry open moving gears to make them spin faster. The price was immense physical agony.
“Zhan Ye, it’s going to hurt a little.”
“But it’s okay. Compared to you, I can endure it…”
Su Tang looked down at the pale face in her lap, as if expecting an answer, or perhaps just needing an outlet for the pain in her heart.
Hum—
Waves of pain hit her incessantly. Her vision began to darken. Su Tang bit her lower lip hard, forcing back the metallic sweetness rising in her throat.
“Ugh…”
A suppressed groan escaped her teeth. The vibration of the Spirit Core grew more violent, her body filled with a pain that felt like it would tear her apart. Su Tang didn’t stop; she urged her spirit power to continue striking the Spirit Core.
An annihilating pain swept through her body for the nth time. Suddenly, Su Tang noticed the core in her Sea of Consciousness emitting a faint light. Within the light and shadow, faint crackling sounds could be heard from time to time, like energy particles colliding and reorganizing frantically.
Her vision blurred, and her ears rang. The temperature of her fingertips dropped rapidly. Only that cluster of light grew brighter, so bright it nearly burned her eyes. Finally, as a soul-shattering pain erupted in her mind, the light took its final shape.
“Captain Mo, what’s wrong?”
Klei took a large step forward to support Mo Xiao, whose body was nearly collapsing to the ground. Mo Xiao steadied himself and waved Klei off.
A burning sensation ignited in his chest, sweeping through his body in waves. He knew that Su Tang must be using her energy. Just how massive was the scale for him to react this strongly?
Unease surged in Mo Xiao’s heart. The little black cat on his shoulder let out a roar of urgency. When Su Tang and Zhan Ye were sucked into the channel, she had left Xiao Yu behind. This allowed them to track Su Tang’s location.
The little fellow seemed to be in a state of high stress; the cat’s temper was at its absolute worst. Seeing Mo Xiao stop, it unceremoniously swiped at him with its claws, urging him to keep moving. Mo Xiao suppressed his unease and followed Xiao Yu’s lead, moving much faster than before.
White Tower, Medical Department.
Ya Suo’s body jerked. The coffee cup in his hand fell to the floor, the brown liquid soaking into the tiles. His expression grew increasingly grave.
“What happened?”
Anse heard the commotion and walked in. As soon as he pushed the door open, he was startled by the piercing alarm of the monitor. It was the spirit power fluctuation monitor installed in the room.
“Why are your spirit power fluctuations so high out of nowhere? What did you do?”
“It’s not me. It’s Xiao Yu…”
“Something happened to Su Tang.”
Ya Suo struggled to calm his emotions. He sat on a nearby chair and tapped his wristband to locate the neck ring.
“The energy fluctuations coming from Xiao Yu are very wrong. It’s like it’s out of control. The intensity is so great that even I’m being affected.”
Anse knew that Ya Suo had lowered his connection with Xiao Yu to the minimum. Seeing Ya Suo’s obvious emotional turmoil now, one could only imagine what kind of situation Xiao Yu was facing.
Anse tapped his wristband to access the White Tower’s internal news channel. As the Head of the Medical Department, he had the authority to enter the high-level channel. When he saw the last directive issued, his pupils constricted.
“What is it?”
“Have Mo Xiao and the others not evacuated the Abyss yet?”
Ya Suo looked at the location on the map and nodded. “They probably haven’t left yet.”
“The latest directive from the White Tower: in eight hours, top-secret weapons will be deployed to destroy the Abyss. But none of the aircraft in the White Tower have received field orders…”
Anse’s words were clear enough. Ya Suo clenched his fists and slammed them onto the table.
“Those bastards!”
“How many more disgusting things like what happened to Si Yu are they going to do?!”
…
A shadow became increasingly clear as the light faded. A half-person-tall Moon Jellyfish slowly emerged. The edge of its transparent, umbrella-shaped body was fringed with a circle of soft, silver-blue light, elegant and beautiful like gauze dipped in moonlight.
Countless slender tentacles extended around its body, swaying lightly like a dancer’s ribbons. Yet, at the ends of the tentacles, sharp golden gleams were condensed.
Su Tang looked at her spiritual entity. Her vision went black, and she nearly collapsed. She used her last bit of strength to prop herself up. Small beads of blood seeped from her fingertips—no, not just her fingertips. The metallic taste in her mouth and the warmth at the corners of her eyes and under her nose indicated varying degrees of hemorrhaging.
This was the manifestation of spirit power being overextended to the absolute limit.
The little jellyfish seemed to feel its master’s pain. Its umbrella body gently brushed against her back, and the golden light at the ends of its tentacles shone brightly as warm spirit power spread across her back.
“I’m fine…” Su Tang panted. “Save your spirit power. Use it where it’s needed.”
She raised her hand and pointed toward the Cocoon not far away, which was restless after sensing the threat. The little jellyfish shook its body as if responding to its master’s order. It slowly floated up, its tentacles trailing a long trail of light. A spiritual entity required the master’s spirit power to survive, and the Moon Jellyfish wasn’t even supposed to appear yet. Every move it made required siphoning Su Tang’s strength.
Did it hurt? Of course it did. But compared to the fatal hole in Zhan Ye’s chest, what did this pain matter?
Su Tang’s gaze fell on the Cocoon’s massive, tooth-filled maw. A faint, blood-stained smile slowly curled on her lips.
It was time to settle the score.
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