novelraw Chapter 161 : Zone Eleven
Chapter 161 : Zone Eleven
[Energy Monitoring Level—Normal]
The highest monitoring instrument in the Energy Field Management Department sounded the territory-wide alarm.
This sound traveled through light screens connecting to the control room, spreading throughout all regions of the Star Alliance.
The instant Zhao Loulan heard the alarm, her entire body felt relieved, her heavy frame collapsing backward uncontrollably.
Her aide watched her figure, quickly kicking over a chair, allowing the Commander to land precisely on it.
"It's done..." she murmured.
Zhao Loulan's scattered gaze fell on the ceiling, her thoughts drifting for a few seconds before suddenly focusing. She stared at her aide and raised her voice again: "It succeeded?"
Just as the aide was about to answer, she excitedly stood up. "It succeeded!"
Song Baining, who had just connected to the communication, heard this final part and smiled at Zhao Loulan's delighted expression: "It succeeded."
She said calmly.
Behind her, the military students who had been anxiously waiting relaxed at this moment, sliding down from their chairs one by one.
Gu Qinxue looked over, her ice-cold gaze crossing the light screen, her tone somewhat expectant: "Is Little Sui alright?"
"Flower Cloud Dream energy level zero!"
Zhao Loulan announced this news a beat later.
Everyone watching the message was stunned.
Song Baining's smile instantly disappeared. She pursed her lips and quickly said: "Open a channel, enter Flower Cloud Dream immediately, and rescue that student!"
Having drained the entire Flower Cloud Dream of energy, the Star Alliance's abnormal energy was still decreasing. Song Baining couldn't imagine how much energy storm Chen Sui had absorbed.
The space attribute energy crystal was absolutely insufficient to support her to this extent. Even Wu Ye, under such an energy wash, would have exploded and died.
Song Baining saw the expressions of the military students behind her. Her lips moved, guessing what to say but finding it difficult to speak.
She swallowed for a long time before finding her voice: "Let's wait until she's found to see the specific situation."
Several members of the Zhu Jing Fu school team looked at her from behind the other military students, their gazes intense, making Song Baining somewhat unable to meet their eyes.
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The rescue starship from the Seventh Star Ring arrived even later than the Flower Cloud Dream rescue.
When the starship docked at Zone Eleven, Song Baining and the military students disembarked.
In the control room, upon hearing the subordinate's report of the starship's arrival, Zhao Loulan's movements froze for a moment before she immediately took off her hat and walked outside.
For the first few steps, she maintained some composure, but as she crossed the corridor, Zhao Loulan's pace grew faster and faster, until finally she broke into a run.
Meanwhile, in the distance, the man who had arrived at Zone Eleven starport via the council's starship tidied his long curly hair. In the Prison Tower, he had been somewhat negligent in grooming, and his hair had grown quite long, covering his thick black eyebrows.
Xie Liuyun's features were sharp and handsome, with pointed eye corners and thick eyebrows that still carried a youthful air. His fingers stroked his jaw a few times, feeling some stubble sprouting. At a glance, it wasn't noticeable, but the touch had an unusual sensation. He suddenly turned back to look at Jian Run: "How is it?"
Jian Run was adjusting his clothes and looked over in confusion, only to hear him ask nervously: "Looking like this, my sister won't dislike me, right?"
Jian Run couldn't help but roll his eyes at him.
He pushed Xie Liuyun with his palm. "Are you going or not? If you're not going, I'm leaving."
Xie Liuyun immediately turned around. "Let's go!"
"Sister must miss me so much."
With that, he strode away.
Jian Run watched his retreating figure and suddenly snorted with laughter.
What a ridiculous lovesick brain. I think it's you who desperately misses your wife.
From various positions in Zone Eleven, rapidly running figures could be seen. Border Army members who noticed this scene didn't find it surprising; they even understandingly cleared the path.
Everyone knew.
—The former Star Alliance First Commander, Zone Eleven Director, Song Baining, had returned.
In Zone Eleven plaza, a resounding, clear voice broke the surrounding silence.
"Song Baining!!"
Zhao Loulan jumped down from the stairs and ran toward her rapidly.
The instant Song Baining turned her head and Zhao Loulan saw her face, Zhao Loulan's legs grew weak, almost collapsing to the ground. Song Baining took large strides forward and gave her an enthusiastic embrace.
At this moment, on the road from Zone Eleven plaza to the Medical Ward.
Students wearing uniforms from various military academies ran with all their might toward a certain location in the Medical Ward.
From within Zone Eleven, students from Jacques Delot, Golden Tower, Zhu Jing Fu, and other major academies poured out.
"Where's Chen Sui?"
"She's back, she's back!"
"Is she alright?"
"Which ward..."
"Shh... lower your voices, let's be quiet..."
On the stairs of the Medical Ward, the sound of running was minimized. After entering the medical building, no one spoke. Everyone followed the direction led by those at the front, treading lightly, their breathing calming down, yet their inner tension continuously rising as they approached the ward.
The danger of the Flower Cloud Dream plan was unimaginable. Chen Sui had gone alone, without support. The speed of energy dissipation had broken Star Alliance records, making it impossible to guess how severely she might be injured in such an energy storm.
The only thing that could somewhat calm their hearts was a single point: at least, thankfully, she was still alive.
Arriving at the ward door, the people at the front of the crowd suddenly paused as they raised their hands to knock, looking at each other. After exchanging glances, they tacitly moved to both sides, their gazes falling on those behind.
Several Zhu Jing Fu members squeezed out from the crowd. Zhou Chen panted heavily, gratefully patting those who made way. Xie Chunshi's eyes brewed emotions that couldn't be clearly seen unless one looked, his knuckles white with tension. He raised his hand.
A crisp knocking sound rang out dully.
"Come in."
A voice came from inside.
A medical professional wearing protective clothing opened the door.
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Chen Sui always felt her body somewhat swollen, especially in her mental domain. The feeling of expansion made her feel like an inflated balloon when her consciousness wasn't very clear.
—She could burst at any moment and turn into a wisp of green smoke.
She rolled around in her mental domain, not knowing how long she rolled.
Until at a certain moment, a white light shone in.
A very familiar crystal suddenly appeared in her mental domain.
Chen Sui tried to reach out and touch it, but her fingers strangely passed through the crystal.
Even so, she had a feeling that this was her core crystal.
Core crystal?
Chen Sui turned her head to look in another direction.
An extremely rich green light flickered, with some cracks on the green energy crystal.
Wasn't this her core crystal?
Her brain felt like it had turned into a pool of paste, with memory and thinking ability all melted inside. While sleeping, she could still hear someone sobbing softly. The voice was beautiful, like a mermaid's heavenly music. But as her consciousness slightly recovered, the sobbing quickly disappeared, like an elusive ringing in her ears. If it weren't for a familiar and pleasant male voice constantly calling her by her ear, Chen Sui would have wondered if she was hallucinating.
"Ah Sui..."
"Wake up..."
The male voice was particularly low, the voice slightly trembling, very similar to the sobbing mermaid.
After a while, Chen Sui heard many voices saying: Ah Sui, Little Sui, your analyst, Wood-Born Flower...
So many people talking.
Very noisy. Chen Sui felt her blood vessels pulsing violently, the frequency of the beats causing the vast darkness before her to flicker, with tiny white light dots jumping in.
She wanted to open her eyes to see the white light clearly, but her entire consciousness felt like it was pressed under a thousand-pound boulder, the resistance extremely powerful.
Until at a certain moment, she felt her whole body loosen, lifting her heavy eyelids.
The light from the monitoring equipment shone on her pupils, and a clear voice sounded in her ear.
"Her mental domain has undergone an extremely powerful energy wash. Currently, we believe that space energy may have restructured her mental domain."
"According to the information provided by Director Song, this student was originally a space attribute awakened individual. Now she has assimilated a wood attribute energy crystal with 100% resonance. Basically, we can consider the wood attribute energy crystal as existing as her core crystal as well. In other words, after mental domain restructuring, she has become a dual-attribute awakened individual."
"The disadvantage? Perhaps she won't be able to use summoned bodies anymore, after all, the mental domain's upper limit is the energy of two energy crystals."
"Zone Eleven has already made changes to the level assessment."
"Why hasn't she woken up?"
"She absorbed too much energy. Her core crystal is damaged, and the existence of cracks is inevitable. Normally, in this situation, the energy crystal would completely collapse, but due to the influence of the space attribute core crystal, you can understand it as the space attribute helping her stabilize the energy crystal. Her core crystal and mental domain belong to two different spaces, creating a spatial difference in energy mobilization, causing her core crystal's energy mobilization to be out of sync, forming a small-scale energy storm at the space connection point. If she were an analyst herself, she should be able to solve this energy transition quickly. If not, she would need an analyst with high compatibility to help, as high-compatibility energy soothing is beneficial for both the core crystal and the awakened individual."
The medical professional's lengthy explanation sounded by her ear, but Chen Sui's gaze was fixed on the light above.
She tried to lift her finger but found that no matter how she moved, she couldn't sense the existence of her fingers.
Until she was pushed back to the ward, military students guarding outside her treatment pod approached, still thinking she was in her usual sleeping state. They maintained their posture of talking with those around them. After finishing, they instinctively turned to observe their comrade's condition in the medical pod, but unexpectedly met a pair of pure white and deep blue heterochromatic eyes.
The dual-colored heterochromatic eyes stared blankly upward. When Zhou Chen leaned in, they reflected the surrounding colors, the highlights brightening.
"Holy shit!!"
Zhou Chen was startled and leaned back.
"Little Sui!" Gu Qinxue saw her open her eyes and immediately looked down.
Chen Sui's lips moved slightly. Through the treatment pod, the outside world couldn't hear her voice.
Xie Chunshi crouched on the other side and opened the pod's amplification device.
Chen Sui blinked, and a hoarse voice came through.
"I said—"
"I killed the main energy body in the God-Abandoned Domain."
"The energy crystal fell in the energy field. Did you pick it up?"
Xie Chunshi hadn't expected her first words to be this. His face momentarily went blank, his brain stunned.
Behind the Zhu Jing Fu members, Zhang Yingjie and Noya looked at each other after hearing Chen Sui's words.
Everyone couldn't help but smile.
Noya stood by the medical pod, his golden curls flattened. The soft, cute aura of a young boy was diminished, making him look very efficient, his age suddenly seeming to double, finally looking somewhat like an adult. But the expression as he spoke still revealed a clear, foolish innocence: "Are you still thinking about this when you're bedridden?"
Xie You glanced at her. Even through the medical pod door, Chen Sui could feel his speechlessness. He tapped his finger on the pod door, his snake-like pupils showing interest: "Thanks for telling us. We'll immediately apply for a flight route. Na Luo River picked it up, so it's ours."
Chen Sui's eyes rolled around, fixing on Xie You's position, and she coldly laughed: "You can try."
"If I let you leave the combat arena, consider it my loss."
Xie You immediately retorted: "Talk when you can move."
Chen Sui remembered this issue and hurriedly sought Xie Chunshi's voice, seeing the curly-haired wolf-tailed young man pressed against the treatment pod. Her expression instantly brightened.
Xie Chunshi's gaze carried the joy of recovery after loss, and some emotions Chen Sui couldn't understand, suppressed deep in his eyes. But overall, he still had the reliable Commander appearance that Chen Sui was familiar with.
"Commander, Ah Xue! Why can't I move?"
Xie Chunshi activated the slow-release medication: "Your neural damage is too severe. The Medical Ward has prescribed paralysis medication for you. Once your nerves are repaired, you'll be able to move."
Chen Sui was relieved: "That's good."
"So can you bring the energy crystal out?"
Zhou Chen showed her his white teeth, smiling insincerely: "I really don't know what to say to you. When you're better, we'll settle the account of you doing this earth-shattering deed all by yourself."
"Um..."
Chen Sui blinked guiltily.
The treatment progressed steadily, and Chen Sui felt herself recovering.
After she regained consciousness and spent over a month in the Medical Ward, she finally welcomed her discharge day.
The Zhu Jing Fu members pushed the analyst in a wheelchair outside. The moment she came into contact with sunlight, Chen Sui lazily leaned back in the chair. The wheelchair drove past the giant statue in front of the Medical Ward.
"Hey, wait."
Xie Chunshi's movements paused as he saw the analyst looking toward the statue of Master Jin.
The Star Alliance's image of Master Jin had always been a dreamy angelic appearance, while her actual appearance was rarely known. Such a statue placed in such a solemn and serious place as Zone Eleven seemed somewhat childish, but because it represented Chen Youjin, it gave people a strong sense of security.
The halo at the top of the statue was completely obscured. Chen Sui looked up at it, thinking it seemed like something she would do, just like how Chen Jia had fabricated the master of the underground city, Li Ye.
"What kind of person was Chen Youjin?"
Chen Sui asked softly.
She wasn't asking for an answer but suddenly realized that this world wasn't completely unrelated to her.
She turned around, her gaze taking in her teammates behind her.
—She had more than one bond with this place.
Zhou Chen was secretly eating the nutritional fluid Noya had given to Chen Sui. When she stared at him, he roughly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand: "You want to know? After the league matches are finished, you can go see at Zhu Jing Fu."
The Zhu Jing Fu he mentioned was the ancient building in Seven Academy where Zhu Jing Stones were stored.
"We're still having the league matches?"
Chen Sui thought that after such great turmoil in the Star Alliance, the league matches should have other arrangements.
"Why do you think the others aren't here?"
"Noya and Jacques Delot arranged a training match. These people are working themselves to death. Zone Eleven issued a statement that the league matches will continue. We still have two matches."
Gu Qinxue nodded: "In a while, when the Star Alliance returns to normal, the preparation period will begin."
Chen Sui nodded in understanding, suddenly thinking of something, and looked up at Xie Chunshi: "That shouldn't matter to us, right? With our points, ahem..."
"Firmly in first place."
Zhou Chen looked at her: "Of course. It's just that some people haven't recovered yet, so in the league matches, you'll just have to watch me dominate."
Chen Sui: "Then I'll look forward to it. You'd better not get hammered to death by Noya and Chi Buyu."
Zhou Chen's smile instantly froze.
The others laughed happily, while Zhou Chen went to Chen Sui like a little chick to question her.
"Little Sui! You won't watch me get beaten up, right?"
Puluo grabbed him with one hand, his tone flat but his words quite provocative: "No way, no way. Don't tell me you've already admitted you can't beat Noya and Chi Buyu? Besides, our analyst is a patient and won't intervene."
"Puluo, you've changed!"
Zhou Chen accused all four of them.
The group walked out of the Medical Ward, laughing and joking all the way.
Chen Sui wore a faint smile on her face. During her recovery period, she had gained some weight, no longer looking malnourished. Following the traces of her smile, her cheeks slowly rounded, a small dimple forming, making her look obedient and cute.
It happened to be high noon, with fiery red light spreading across a large part of the sky. The bright rays lengthened the shadows of the group, and the military students' eyes were brighter than the sunlight.
All Zhu Jing Fu members passed their health inspections, about to step onto the league match battlefield once more.
[End of Main Text]