Chapter 238: Xiao Yi
While she waited, the doctor prepared the medicine prescribed for Xu Zhi.
Unlike the big bags and bundles Zhuo Xu had given her, almost everything this doctor from the Upper District prescribed came in the form of potions.
“Once a day. Drink one every night before bed.”
There were only five bottles—five days’ worth. Seeing the confusion on Xu Zhi’s face, the doctor explained:
“Upper District medicine is different from what you find in the Lower District. The effects are stronger, the side effects fewer, and the results faster. One course only takes five days. After five days, we may need to change the medication.”
“I see.” Xu Zhi nodded.
After a while, the “custom-made” glasses were delivered to the room.
“Take a look.”
The doctor slid a white glasses case toward Xu Zhi. Curious, Xu Zhi opened it. Inside lay a pair of silver-rimmed glasses. When she picked them up, she noticed a thin glasses chain hanging from the right temple.
She fiddled with it curiously, and the doctor quickly warned her, “Careful. Don’t drop that. Most of the runes are engraved into that chain.”
Xu Zhi’s eye injury was too severe—without the chain, there simply wouldn’t be enough space to inscribe all the necessary runes.
“I see.” Xu Zhi nodded and carefully stopped touching the chain.
“Put them on and try.”
Urged by the doctor, Xu Zhi hesitantly put on the glasses. The instant she did, she failed to hide her surprise, letting out a small gasp.
The doctor smiled. “Clear now, right?”
Xu Zhi nodded.
It really was unexpected—these glasses actually worked?
The moment she put them on, the world snapped into clarity. She hadn’t experienced this feeling in a long, long time. And in that same instant, she clearly saw the lotus emblem engraved on the doctor’s white coat, as well as the especially eye-catching hammer symbol on the cuff.
Though she didn’t know what they meant, Xu Zhi silently committed the symbols to memory.
Aside from her vision becoming clear, unfortunately, there were no other sensations. The relief from pressure in her eyes, the lightness in her head the doctor had mentioned—none of that happened.
These expensive glasses, carved with numerous supernatural runes, seemed to function as nothing more than a pair of ordinary corrective lenses once Xu Zhi put them on.
She didn’t mention any of these anomalies. She simply nodded obediently, then at the right moment let a trace of fatigue show on her face.
“You look a bit tired. Let’s stop here for today. I’ll have someone take you back to rest.”
After thinking for a moment, the doctor added, “Maybe tomorrow or the day after—once there are results from below—I’ll call for you again.”
Xu Zhi nodded without objection. The other party didn’t bother hiding the fact that Xu Zhi was merely an “appendage,” and Xu Zhi didn’t particularly care.
Back at the tent, Qi Yanxin hurried over to meet her. She said nothing at first, waiting until the soldier who escorted Xu Zhi back had left before asking how she felt.
Xu Zhi nodded and said she was fine, then pointed at the glasses and said they were a free gift from a doctor in the Upper District.
At the word free, Qi Yanxin didn’t relax—instead, she grew even more tense.
“Free?”
As a scavenger, she knew better than anyone that there was no such thing as something truly free in this world.
“Don’t worry. People from the Upper District are rich. They don’t care about things like this.”
Xu Zhi only offered a simple explanation. It might not have convinced Qi Yanxin, but she sensed that Xu Zhi said it to reassure her. Feeling her own helplessness, Qi Yanxin fell silent. A quiet, unspoken understanding settled between them for the first time—yet it filled Qi Yanxin with a faint sadness.
Time had passed so quickly. Not even a month, and she was already unable to help Xu Zhi in any real way?
She forced a casual smile and complimented Xu Zhi, saying she looked very pretty with the glasses on.
That was the truth. With the glasses, the sharp edge of Xu Zhi’s looks softened a little. She appeared gentler, more refined—like a well-behaved child. It was a different kind of beauty from before.
Xu Zhi, a little pleased, adjusted the glasses with her finger. “What wouldn’t look good on me?”
Only now, facing Qi Yanxin, could she relax a little. In the doctor’s consultation room, her nerves had been taut the entire time. In fact, whenever she was around anyone other than Qi Yanxin, she remained on guard. Only beside this “older sister” with no blood relation did she feel even slightly at ease.
That was a situation she had never imagined before.
That night, Xu Zhi lay awake for a long time. She carefully reviewed every step she was taking now. In the past, she had almost never been this cautious—she did whatever she wanted, rarely thinking about consequences. Now, every word she spoke and every expression she showed required careful consideration.
As she thought, she didn’t stop controlling the supernatural energy of her [Lamp] attribute. She could now absorb more and more of it, and she could feel that the critical point for another “breakthrough” was close.
For that reason, even at such an important moment, she sacrificed rest. She would rather endure physical exhaustion than slow down her absorption of supernatural energy.
Effort paid off—or perhaps, for Xu Zhi, breaking through levels she had already reached before was as easy as eating and drinking.
As dawn began to lighten the sky, she finally accumulated enough supernatural energy. The [Lamp]-attribute circuits within her surged again, and this time, a vague, half-formed pattern was on the verge of completion.
At that very moment, she seemed to hear the sound of a bubble popping—pop. A barrier that had been blocking her vanished, and in the next instant, she clearly sensed what she had been longing for:
The locations of the other familiars.
The first one she sensed was her very first familiar—Xiao Yi.
To her delight, Xiao Yi was also in the Lower District, not very far from her.
Moreover, after this breakthrough, she could spend a portion of her supernatural energy to directly perceive a familiar’s current state. In simple terms, what had once been abstract data now became an information stream projected straight into her mind—at the cost of energy.
She could also spend energy to issue simple commands to familiars she had reconnected with.
What once required a game console was now accomplished purely through supernatural power. In the past, the console paid the cost using energy drawn from the air. Now, she had to pay it herself.
Still riding the rush of excitement, Xu Zhi didn’t pause to study these changes in detail. Instead, she immediately issued a command to Xiao Yi.
Under the premise of not attracting any attention, come to me as quickly as possible.
With Xiao Yi, she finally had a bit more confidence to take further action.
