spiritual scholar

Infect

After Rosalie dispatched the enemy, she immediately looked at Su Xiao's arm.

There were several gashes on his right hand, as if they had been cut by an incredibly sharp blade.

"It's nothing serious, no vital areas were hit," Su Xiao said with a smile, despite his injuries. "What about you? Did its Pain Empathy backfire on you as well?"

To Su Xiao, the pain from the wounds was nothing. He had experienced much worse headaches during his training.

Seeing that Su Xiao's bleeding wasn't severe, Rosalie let out a sigh of relief and said, "I killed it directly; it didn't have time to activate Pain Empathy."

Rosalie's gaze at Su Xiao was filled with a mix of admiration, regret, and pity.

To stand against evil with a mortal body—this had been his dream since childhood. He had once told Rosalie and the others that he wanted to fight evil creatures, just like the sages of Zhongxia.

He had been striving for this, putting in untold effort.

Even the esoteric, mind-bending knowledge that gave cultivators headaches, he had persisted through gritted teeth.

But alas, fate was cruel to him!

Rosalie knew that Su Xiao experienced excruciating headaches whenever he trained. She also knew that his parents had taken him to numerous doctors, and even consulted specialized cultivators.

But none of it helped. They never found a viable treatment.

When Su Xiao reached the age to start training, he endured the terrifying pain while overdosing on painkillers just to keep trying.

He even majored in Spiritual Energy Theory in college, hoping to find an answer himself.

But it was all in vain. His efforts seemed completely wasted!

Su Xiao had gambled his youth, all his energy, and time, but he hadn't managed to win even a sliver of a chance to realize his dream.

Unaware of Rosalie's pity for him, Su Xiao nodded, feeling a bit dizzy—symptoms of severe mental fatigue.

Mental energy encompasses focus, spiritual strength, willpower, and all abilities related to the mind. Performing catalytic spells or using psychic abilities consumes this energy.

Before reaching the Awakening stage, exhausting one's mental energy leads to decreased focus, weakened willpower, reduced learning, thinking, and memory capabilities, and slower reactions.

Su Xiao had cast two catalytic spells, one to create a temporary spiritual web and another to briefly restrain Feng Liping, which had severely drained his mental energy.

As for the wooden stick he used to attack the Faceless One, it wasn't a catalytic spell cast by Su Xiao but contained a wisp of sword energy from Rosalie, enough to temporarily hinder the Faceless One.

"However, my mental energy is much stronger than before that strange puppet awakened..." Su Xiao thought to himself.

"Currently, I only feel a bit dazed, which means my mental energy is close to that of a formal cultivator at the Awakening stage."

Su Xiao continued to introspect. Seeing his bleeding arm, he suddenly remembered something, his face turning pale.

He recalled that the Faceless One carried a highly contagious virus, the 'Nightmare Infection,' which could spread through blood.

Su Xiao quickly issued several commands and then adjusted his glasses:

"Activate the Calm Mind Spell, disable the temporary spiritual web."

He glanced at the remaining battery—65%, enough for now...

Then Su Xiao turned to Rosalie, who was trying to bandage him:

"I've been infected with the Nightmare Infection. It can spread through blood."

Rosalie's face changed as she hurriedly asked, "What should we do? There are no medics nearby..."

Su Xiao reassured her, "It's okay, we're not in a secret realm; we're in the city. Reinforcements will arrive soon."

"But you need to be careful. I suspect this emergency situation is targeting you!"

"Think about it. If I weren't here, and you encountered this emergency with him following you, he could use the command hierarchy to gain control."

"Then, if he led you here to rescue at this subway entrance, where the Faceless One was hiding to ambush you, even if you reacted quickly and killed it, you would likely be seriously injured."

"After that... if he told you the hotel he evacuated the crowd to had an issue and you needed to rescue them, he'd attack you with the evil creature when you were already injured. You'd likely be killed."

"I tested Feng Liping earlier; he clearly knows what your natal spell is. When you mentioned your flying sword-type natal spell, he showed a hint of disdain."

"Your natal spell has a certain teleportation ability. If the cult summoned one or two demon-level creatures, you'd have no problem escaping or stalling. But if he slowly boiled the frog or used the crowd to coerce you, making you feel the risk was manageable, you could be trapped."

Su Xiao's mind was exceptionally clear at this moment.

The Nightmare Infection virus had entered his bloodstream, breached the blood-brain barrier, and infiltrated his brain tissue.

The battery on his glasses began to drop visibly.

64% 63% 62% 61%...

Su Xiao started to hallucinate.

The corpse of the Faceless One floating in the air turned into a dense shadow in his eyes. Within that dark curtain, countless deep, venomous red eyes slowly opened, staring at him.

Not only that, but shadows cast by nearby objects under the sunlight also started to reveal different-colored eyes.

Even Rosalie's shadow had numerous dark, murderous eyes opening, coldly watching Su Xiao.

Rosalie laid Su Xiao flat on the ground, kneeling beside him, and asked softly, "How much battery do you have left? Can you maintain the Calm Mind Spell?"

Su Xiao, despite his brain feeling exhausted, glanced at the battery again.

57%

"About 60%, it should last until reinforcements arrive, but I can't be sure. The fact that no one has come from Shuangyue North Station yet means they're also in trouble. If reinforcements come, they might prioritize them..."

"You should hide, don't worry about me. You're not at the Awakening stage yet, and carrying me would drain too much mental energy. I'm not their target; I'm safe."

"The demon-level creature at Shuangyue North Station might come after you. Hide well..."

"Don't worry about me; I have health insurance. Besides, our country provides free treatment for citizens injured in emergencies..."

Su Xiao turned off most functions of his augmented reality glasses, entering super power-saving mode, leaving only the Calm Mind Spell active.

He glanced at the battery one more time.

54%

A wave of fatigue hit his brain, and Su Xiao felt like he had stayed up for several days, about to fall asleep at any moment.

"Okay." Rosalie bit her lip, knowing this was no time for hesitation.

If Su Xiao's judgment was correct, staying by his side would only bring him more danger.

In the next moment, her figure disappeared.

Seeing her leave, Su Xiao finally couldn't hold on any longer and fell into unconsciousness.