Chapter 54

Chapter 54

Leaving the two spirits in the bedroom, Xu Qiao and the other two retreated to the small living room outside.

When the spirits are released, they can no longer share the five senses or memories with their physical bodies during this time. So even if Xu Qiao reclaims the lotus flower, she won't be able to see the memories the lotus flower saw from Black Scorpion. Even if she disregards Meng Qiuyan's privacy and questions the lotus flower, it can only convey the information using water characters and cannot directly share the memories.

Meng Qiuyan was well aware of this, so her embarrassment didn't last long. Moreover, she believed that Xu Qiao wouldn't actively pry into her emotional history.

By the time she brought fruit and tea from downstairs, Xu Qiao had organized her thoughts.

In her role as a therapist, she asked, "Auntie, what was the state of Black Scorpion when you regained your body and consciousness on the night of early June?"

Meng Qiuyan: "It remained calm for about three days, then became agitated again. I would suppress it, but during this process, its emotions also eroded me, bringing me back to the state where I was severely affected by these emotions. When I couldn't maintain my rationality, it took control of my body."

Under normal circumstances, time tends to dilute most people's intense emotions, but some experiences are so profound that one might never get over them.

Ordinary people suffering from emotional trauma may develop psychological issues; for psychics, there is the additional symptom of beastification.

The fragrance of the lotus flower spirit can have a soothing effect, which is an inherent property of the lotus flower.

After Black Scorpion fell into a deep sleep, it either inadvertently opened its mental world to the lotus flower or the lotus flower intentionally perceived why it was in such pain. The sleeping Black Scorpion did not resist the lotus flower.

Meng Qiuyan wanted to encourage Xu Qiao to eat some fruit and was just about to push the fruit plate closer to her when Meng Li shook her head at her mother.

Xu Qiao was clearly deep in thought, probably about beastification, so they decided not to interrupt her train of thought.

Xu Qiao was thinking that the spirit merely endowed psychics with the talent to use their abilities. How to utilize these abilities depends entirely on the psychic's exploration and practice. Once a psychic learns a certain attack technique or healing method, the spirit will also master that skill.

For example, Xu Qiao's precise operation in treating bone fractures—she first learned complex reconstruction techniques at the military academy, so she could heal patients with just ten units of wood-type psychic energy. Without these skills, she would have to forcefully stimulate the psychic energy, consuming hundreds or thousands of units of wood-type energy.

Now that the lotus flower spirit can enter Black Scorpion's mental world, does it mean she can also use her mental power to perceive?

What does the mental world look like?

If she could really see it, could she interfere and solve the problem fundamentally?

Furthermore, could she directly enter a psychic's mental world?

This bold idea had just surfaced when Xu Qiao suddenly remembered two cases from her textbooks.

The first case involved an A-rank psychic who suffered brain damage while defending against a monster. An A-rank healer urgently treated him. When the healer carefully restored the psychic's brain tissue with mental power, his mental power accidentally swept over the psychic's crystal core. In that instant, the healer was subjected to a strong mental attack from the psychic's spirit, causing the healer to fall into a coma and forcing the treatment to stop. The severely injured psychic could not be saved.

The second case occurred during the early establishment of Southeast Base. A B-rank noble's son had his head clawed by a monster. Thanks to the timely treatment by a high-ranking healer, the noble's brain tissue was fully restored, except for the crystal core that was crushed by the monster's claws, which completely disappeared. Even an S-rank healer could not regrow a new crystal core for him.

Anyone who once possessed powerful psychic abilities found it hard to accept losing those extraordinary powers.

To recover his abilities, the noble's son convinced his family to capture several solitary B-rank and A-rank psychics and invited a loyal S-rank healer to conduct a sinister experiment called "crystal core transplantation."

After monsters, insects, and plants die, their crystal cores remain intact and become resources.

Psychics gain a spirit when they acquire psychic abilities. When a psychic dies, the spirit and the crystal core dissipate together.

Therefore, to extract a crystal core for transplantation, the S-rank healer had to ensure the victim's survival.

The S-rank healer devised a method: first, anesthetize the psychic, then ask a high-ranking Combat Department psychic to disperse the spirit protecting the body.

It turned out that even in a comatose state, the spirit maintained resistance to external mental forces, almost instinctively.

The S-rank healer, with his powerful mental force, overcame the victim's spirit's resistance. After breaking through, the S-rank healer perceived a dark and desolate void. When his mental force withdrew from that void, the crystal core dissipated.

The psychic was still alive, but his spirit was gone, turning him into an ordinary person.

The S-rank healer informed the noble's son and his family that the crystal core transplantation plan was unfeasible.

The noble family, believing one case was insufficient proof, insisted the healer continue the experiments with different spirits.

The S-rank healer, lacking combat strength, had no choice but to comply.

After countless failures, the S-rank healer stopped using brute force to overcome the victim's spirit's resistance and instead used gentle mental power to soothe, similar to hypnotizing the spirit. This method indeed did not harm the psychic.

Full of hope, the S-rank healer extracted the crystal core.

However, the moment the crystal core was completely detached from the brain, it dissipated again.

Karma eventually caught up, and the evil experiment was exposed. All involved were executed publicly, including the precious S-rank healer.

The experimental reports left by the S-rank healer proved that psychics, crystal cores, and spirits are inseparable. Forcibly invading the crystal core with mental power would result in the disappearance of the spirit and psychic abilities.

Medical textbooks warned healers:

First, contacting a psychic's crystal core with mental power poses a risk of backlash, which becomes more severe with a greater difference in rank. Therefore, extreme caution must be exercised when treating brain injuries to avoid medical accidents that harm both parties.

Second, attacking a psychic's crystal core with mental power can cause the psychic to lose their abilities. Thus, high-ranking healers must be cautious when treating lower-ranked psychics, as any intentional or unintentional loss of ability could result in substantial financial compensation claims.

Through the second case, all psychics in the four bases realized the fragility of their crystal cores and spirits. To avoid losing their abilities, psychics valued their crystal cores more than life itself. Only in the presence of someone they trusted implicitly would they allow another to touch their precious crystal core with mental power.

Xu Qiao did not mention her thoughts to Meng Li and Meng Qiuyan. Even if Meng Qiuyan was willing to let her try perceiving Black Scorpion's mental world, Xu Qiao dared not, fearing she might hurt Black Scorpion or anger it if it woke up, leading to an attack or a refusal of further help from her and the lotus flower spirit.

At Meng Qiuyan's insistence, Xu Qiao had lunch at the Mengs' house. After eating, she went to the subway station with Meng Li, heading home while Meng Li went to work at the smelting plant.

Everyone found jobs that earned points and helped them practice their psychic abilities.

Back home, seeing Lu Yang still carving wooden pieces, Xu Qiao greeted him and returned to her room.

Drawing the curtains, she released her spirit and asked the lotus flower, "What did the memories you perceived from Black Scorpion look like? I mean, how did you perceive them? Was it like watching TV from a third-person perspective, or did you experience them firsthand?"

Lotus: "It was a bit like watching TV, but with an added layer of mist. When Aunt Meng was happy, the mist around her was white. Later, when she was in great pain, the mist turned black, and the entire world became dark and gloomy. I didn't like it there and came out after just one glance."

Xu Qiao seemed lost in thought.

Lotus: "Aunt Meng is so pitiful, she..."

Xu Qiao quickly said, "Do you want to tell me what she has been through? That's her privacy. Unless she gives her consent, you shouldn't even tell me."

Lotus nodded its flower head.

Xu Qiao asked with concern, "After seeing those memories, do you feel upset?"

Tragedies can affect the mental state of the viewer, depending on their individual capacity to bear it.

Lotus: "I felt a bit uncomfortable in the black mist, but I'm fine now."

Xu Qiao breathed a sigh of relief, praised Lotus for its performance today, and then put it away.

She had worked the night shift last night and should have rested, but Xu Qiao was currently in a state of excitement and really wanted to try something new.

The different colored mists in the spiritual world must represent emotions.

Humans have emotions, beasts and exotic creatures have them too, but what about plants?

Xu Qiao looked at the lemon plant pot placed in the corner of her bedroom facing south.

This was a lemon tree that had grown as tall as Xu Qiao's waist, vibrant and thriving, with fifty-one fruits the size of a baby's fist, half green and half yellow.

Xu Qiao sat next to the plant, looking at the fruits and leaves, and finally chose a lush green leaf.

She closed her eyes and let her spiritual energy seep into the leaf.

For an ordinary lemon tree, Xu Qiao's spiritual energy met no resistance and easily entered a space roughly the size of her bedroom.

The space was filled with white mist, and Xu Qiao's spiritual energy immersed in it, feeling as comfortable as breathing fresh air.

Was this the emotion of the lemon leaf?

Xu Qiao condensed part of her spiritual energy into an intangible bottle shape, which could change in size. When the white mist inside the spiritual energy bottle became dense and the white mist in the leaf space thinned out, Xu Qiao withdrew the part of her spiritual energy responsible for sensing and suspended the bottle containing the white mist beside the lemon tree.

Opening her eyes, Xu Qiao found that the lush green leaf and the entire lemon tree showed no changes.

Xu Qiao tried another leaf, and inside was the same space, with the white mist still at a lighter concentration.

Xu Qiao understood; this was actually the shared spiritual world of the entire lemon tree, accessible to every part of it.

Xu Qiao tried pouring the dense white mist from the spiritual energy bottle back into the space. The dense white mist remained condensed and was even attacked by other white mists.

Could it be that after being separated, this part of the emotion became an outsider not accepted by the spiritual world?

Xu Qiao quickly took the dense mist out again, released the spiritual energy's hold, and the white mist instantly vanished without a trace.

Plants were indeed special. Xu Qiao decided to catch a low-level exotic creature to try when she went out to train tomorrow.

Her curiosity temporarily satisfied, Xu Qiao took a shower and went to bed.

The window was closed, the door was shut, and the twenty-square-meter bedroom formed a relatively sealed space.

Xu Qiao and her spirit body slept soundly until the alarm clock woke her up at five thirty. As Xu Qiao sat up, she suddenly smelled a strong sour odor.

She sniffed and called out to Lu Yang, "Xiaoyang, what are you doing? Why does it smell so sour?"

In the kitchen, Lu Yang, who was being tested by Qinchi on his knife skills, got distracted and cut the meat too thick.

Qinchi: "Practice your focus after school starts."

Lu Yang put down the knife temporarily, glanced at the sealed vinegar bottle, and called back to Xu Qiao, "I'm cutting meat, I don't smell anything sour."

Xu Qiao frowned and sniffed again. It seemed to be the sourness of lemons?

She looked at the lemon plant in the corner.

There was nothing obvious on the surface, but the sour smell definitely came from there.

Xu Qiao leaned in to smell it, almost losing her breath, and quickly opened the window, pulling open the bedroom door as well.

The strong sour smell wafted down the corridor, and this time Lu Yang was stunned, "Are you cutting lemons?"

Xu Qiao ignored him and once again probed the lemon tree's space with her spiritual energy. She then discovered that the originally white mist-filled space now contained a faint black mist.

Black mist, negative emotions...

Was it unhappy? Because she had taken away some of the positive white mist?

Xu Qiao hurriedly conveyed her apologies with her spiritual energy.

At the bedroom door, Lu Yang poked his head in curiously and saw Xu Qiao standing before the lemon plant in her nightgown, hair disheveled, with a devout expression.

Lu Yang was still guessing what had happened when the lotus spirit body, taller than a person, suddenly flew out, blocking Xu Qiao completely.

Noticing Xu Qiao, Lu Yang blushed and stepped back.

In the living room, seeing Qinchi still standing in the kitchen, Lu Yang admired Qinchi's maturity and composure even more.