Chapter 220: Feeding Blood
After closing the door, Xu Zhi carefully sensed her condition for a while. The newly formed circuit had an enormous demand for [Lamp]-attribute extraordinary energy, and because it was still too “young,” the amount of energy it could store in her body at once was very limited. Before long, it was completely drained.
Once the extraordinary energy inside her was exhausted, Xu Zhi experienced that long-lost sensation again—like extreme hunger after one’s extraordinary power runs dry, every cell screaming with craving for extraordinary energy. She released the deliberate suppression she had placed on absorbing external energy, and in the next instant, the [Lamp]-attribute extraordinary energy contained in the air surged toward her.
But the same problem remained: her current “reservoir” was far too small. She simply couldn’t store much extraordinary energy at all. After absorbing for just a few seconds, she had to shut it off again. Xu Zhi couldn’t help but start experimenting with creating a kind of “faucet,” allowing herself to regulate the rate at which she absorbed extraordinary energy.
This was the first time she had ever done something like this. She’d never heard other extraordinary beings mention needing to deliberately slow down their absorption of extraordinary energy—after all, in the past, she couldn’t even sense the extraordinary energy in the air.
Only later did she understand that those energies had been converted into extraordinary power to keep the game console running. Now that the console was gone and [Lamp] had returned to her body, it was only natural that she could sense and absorb the extraordinary energy in the air.
Xu Zhi didn’t understand the principles, nor did she know the correct method. She simply took a crude, straightforward approach—gradually loosening the perception she had previously suppressed completely, bit by bit, until absorption and the circuit’s digestion reached a balance. Just reaching that “balance” took her nearly an hour, and even after achieving it, she couldn’t simply “let go.”
Because she had to keep her attention on it at all times. The moment she relaxed, the suppression would vanish, the balance would collapse, and the energy would flood in to capacity within seconds.
“So troublesome,” Xu Zhi sighed. Not only did she have to maintain the size of this “faucet,” she also had to finely adjust the absorption efficiency step by step as the circuit gradually grew.
As a result, almost all of her attention had to be devoted to this.
The upside was that she could observe the growth of the “circuit” more carefully. But contrary to her expectations, she had thought she would need to slowly carve out a complete circuit piece by piece herself. Instead, it seemed she had planted a “seed.” Once nourished with extraordinary energy and sprouted, the subsequent growth of the circuit developed according to its own logic—she no longer needed to personally shape it.
That was for the best. She had no idea how to draw it in the first place. If something went wrong, there would be no one to help her fix it. Letting it grow on its own was ideal.
More importantly, Xu Zhi was almost completely ignorant when it came to “extraordinary circuits.” She didn’t even know what kind of circuit she had carved out.
She had to figure out knowledge related to circuits. But in the lower levels, she had barely seen any books in all these days. Even when she occasionally went to the clinic with Qi Yanxin, she never saw a single bookstore along the streets.
And judging from people’s everyday conversations, acquiring “knowledge” in the lower levels was extremely difficult—and expensive.
Ask Doctor Zhuang or Xiao Man?
Even if she did, there was no guarantee they would answer. Why would they teach her such “knowledge” for free? She couldn’t afford an equivalent exchange anyway.
She still had to improve her strength first.
The good news was that with the establishment of the extraordinary circuit, once extraordinary energy entered her body and passed through the circuit, it seemed to “recognize its owner” and began to circulate gently within Xu Zhi. Those injuries that had been recovering slowly now healed at a faster pace—her self-healing ability seemed to be gradually returning.
Everything appeared to be moving in a good direction. She once again clearly felt her connection to the incantation. As long as she was willing, she could pay the extraordinary energy cost at any time and activate the incantation’s power.
Some time later, it was already 2 a.m. Her body was exhausted, but her mind didn’t feel tired at all. The sensation was somewhat similar to how she’d felt when she first encountered the game console. As always, the incantation had little presence aside from a slight discomfort in her throat. But to her delight, when her circuit advanced another notch toward completion, she suddenly sensed the small aberrant being.
It was like a vast, empty night sky, with the small aberrant being a dim star somewhere not far away. She had only been able to observe it before—but at this moment, a thin thread suddenly connected her to that faint star. She was no longer merely observing passively; she could truly feel its existence, as well as its current weakened state.
Xu Zhi clearly sensed that the small aberrant being was in even worse condition than she had been when she first woke up. Back then, she had been on the brink of death but at least still possessed self-awareness. Now, the small aberrant being was truly reduced to nothing but a sliver of life essence—awakening itself had become a luxury, and even the slightest disturbance could extinguish that tiny flame of life completely.
Xu Zhi frowned, her expression darkening. She didn’t know what had happened during the time she was unconscious to reduce the small aberrant being to this state. Now, most of her past bonds were already shattered, and what remained was precious. Her retainer was among the most important of those remnants—she really didn’t want to see it like this.
With that thought, Xu Zhi maneuvered her wheelchair to the cabinet where Qi Yanxin kept the medicine. She took out a small bottle of coagulant, then placed the “life-saving pill” Zhuang Xu had given her within reach. After that, she found the needle Qi Yanxin used for sewing and cautiously pricked her fingertip.
Blood quickly seeped out from the puncture, but it wasn’t the frightening sight it had been before—it was closer to normal.
Xu Zhi let out a small sigh of relief. Then she took the small aberrant being out of her pocket. It was still tiny, like an ordinary seed.
She applied a bit of pressure, squeezing a drop of blood from her fingertip and letting it fall onto the seed. Soon, the scene she’d been hoping for appeared—the seemingly withered black seed directly absorbed the drop of blood that landed on it.
Joy lit up the girl’s face. She squeezed out more blood, letting it drip continuously. The seed accepted everything without discrimination, absorbing every drop the instant it touched its surface. Only when Xu Zhi began to feel dizzy and somewhat unwell did she finally stop feeding it blood.
If she were being more cautious, she shouldn’t have tried feeding the small aberrant being so soon—right when her extraordinary power had only just begun to recover. She should have waited until her body was in better condition. But Xu Zhi really didn’t want to wait any longer.
With a nervous heart, she carefully sensed the small aberrant being’s condition after it consumed her blood. Then she was delighted to discover that its once flickering, candle-in-the-wind aura had grown noticeably stronger.
“As expected—my blood really is some kind of miracle medicine, huh!”
Under the dim candlelight, the girl said happily to the seed in her hand.
