Chapter 167: Rainy Night Refusal

Chapter 167: Rainy Night Refusal

The rain kept pouring.

In the evening, Guan Yuanfeng called him again, saying that the river's flood levels were unusually high, and the reservoir dam, which had not been maintained since the apocalypse, was at risk of breaching. Therefore, he was taking engineers, earth psychics, and water psychics to rush repairs overnight, and he estimated he wouldn't return to the city for a few days. Even Qin Mu and the others had rushed to the scene.

Zhou Yun originally wanted to go as well, but Guan Yuanfeng stopped him: "There are light abilities and wood psychic ability users on the mission, and there are doctors too. You stay. The city needs someone to maintain order."

Zhou Yun agreed, expressing some concern: "Be careful. Cloud Peak Mountain Manor is high up and won't flood, so don't worry about me. The city's drainage system was recently inspected, and everything is fine."

Guan Yuanfeng hurriedly agreed and hung up.

Zhou Yun thought about it; after a flood, epidemics are prone to break out, especially in a world of psychics where bacteria's evolutionary direction is unpredictable.

So he went straight to his teacher's office, where he flipped through some ancient medical texts, searching for ancient prescriptions for epidemics. He combined these with the characteristics of current mutated drugs, meticulously drafting some prescriptions to prevent diseases, planning to have them brewed and sent to the flood control workers and military personnel the next day.

He was naturally an independent thinker. Originally, he was flipping through ancient books to find prescriptions for epidemic prevention, but along the way, he came across other useful theories and prescriptions, couldn't help but jotting down a few notes, making some memos and ideas.

The night rain tapped on the window, the unique silence and darkness of the long night made Zhou Yun, who enjoyed solitude, feel at ease. Reading amidst the white noise of the world was a rare indulgence. His thoughts leaped and flew in the sound of the rain, countless ideas surfaced and were rejected, countless threads of thought clearly emerged, allowing him to capture those sparks of inspiration that were too fleeting in the daytime hustle.

With Guan Yuanfeng absent, there was no one to restrain him, and he indulged even more, not returning to Cloud Peak Mountain Manor, but happily reading on his own, sleeping when tired, since there was no need to clock in for work now, sleeping late was no issue.

With this mindset, he immersed himself in ancient medical prescriptions, unknowingly reading late into the night.

The night was as dark as ink, the heavy rain continued to pour, the wind hissing, Zhou Yun suddenly looked up, as if sensing something amiss in the dark rainy night.

He walked to the window, outside a flash of lightning illuminated the sky, instantly as bright as day, the electric light surged, and a roaring thunderclap sounded.

He frowned, opened the window glass, and looked out at the dark night sky, the abundant moisture bringing the fresh scent of the rainy night into the room. The rain was too heavy, lashing the leaves between the buildings with a pattering sound, the outlines of the buildings and trees were unclear, the lush green trees of the day now only swayed with eerie black shadows in the rain, as if countless shadows seemed to surge.

His building was the research building, in front of it was the psychic medical center building, with the inpatient department also located on three of its floors.

The lightning flashed, and the thunder surged again.

This time he clearly saw that the lightning was flashing from the inpatient department.

There weren't many psychic patients. The number of psychics in Guixu City was not as many as in other large bases, especially official bases. Most of those who chose to settle in Guixu were ordinary people, only recently with the opening of travel routes, more psychics have come for tourism.

Psychics have strong physical constitutions, with few illnesses, mostly internal and external injuries from fights. But within the city, Shen Lan was in charge of city defense, Qin Sheng managed the psychics, both with formidable psychic abilities themselves, with strong and capable subordinates, managing tightly like an iron plate, and with the reputation of crystal core weapons, no one dared to cause trouble within Guixu City.

Therefore, the psychic inpatient department was relatively quieter than the external inpatient department. Currently, the only inpatient was Kui Niu.

===

Kui Niu pulled out all the wires from his body, suddenly flipped over from the bed, his arms turned metallic, boom!

Several sharp blades flew from the bed towards the man standing at the door of the ward.

Facing the man, Bi Fang exclaimed: "Captain! Don't use your abilities!"

Kui Niu coldly said: "Focus! Get out!" The opponent was lightning-based, Bi Fang was fire-based, not suitable to be used in the ward, damaging hospital facilities would be difficult to compensate for.

As soon as he finished speaking, he pressed one hand on the windowsill, flipped over, and landed in the dark courtyard from the third-floor windowsill, the heavy rain soaking him instantly.

Bi Fang also jumped down from the windowsill, a fire shield rising from his body, instantly drying the rain from himself and Kui Niu. But a sharp blade had already risen rapidly from the ground, Bi Fang deftly rolled away, but inevitably got mixed with mud.

Kui Niu, however, stood firm like iron, one foot stomping hard on the blade, driving it deep into the mud!

The ground caved in, creating a large pit, the earth psychic inside holding his arm, rolled out from the ground, Bi Fang's fingertips danced with flames, the flames turned into a small, bright phoenix, flapping its wings and flying swiftly, the intense flames breached the earth psychic's defense, forcing him into a corner.

Yet, lightning descended from the sky again, streaking down, the blinding electric light, striking towards Kui Niu and Bi Fang, Bi Fang had no choice but to instantly retract his attack and take cover in disarray. The deafening thunder relentlessly pursued them.

In the pitch-black rainy night, they were unfamiliar with the terrain and couldn’t locate the lightning psychic ability user hidden in the darkness.

Bi Fang gritted his teeth: "Captain! Let’s scatter and wait for Sister Qing Luan and the others to arrive! I just sent them an SOS message!" As soon as he finished speaking, the ground suddenly gave way, opening up a large hole, and the two of them fell straight down.

With their rich combat experience, they instinctively shielded their vital areas. Kui Niu attempted to use his psychic ability to transform into metal, but suddenly felt a sharp pain in his lower abdomen—he felt the familiar loss of control over his psychic ability return!

He gritted his teeth and curled up, expecting to crash heavily into the bottom of the pit, but instead, he suddenly landed in a soft patch of grass. The fresh, rain-soaked scent of grass filled his nose, and he was completely unharmed.

The rain kept pouring down. Bi Fang’s fire shield illuminated the bottom of the pit, where countless vines and grass had sprung up anew in the enemy’s newly created hole.

The ground churned, and vines suddenly appeared, tightly binding a man and lifting him out of the ground! The man struggled, but the vines wrapped around him even tighter.

Bi Fang exclaimed in surprise: "Is Sister Qing Luan here?"

Kui Niu, however, shouted: "Stay alert. There might be more than just two of them."

As soon as he finished speaking, a woman jumped down from the edge of the pit, wielding a dagger, and started cutting the vines that bound her earth psychic companion.

But as soon as her dagger touched the vines, crackle!

A flash of lightning erupted, and the woman’s dagger clattered to the ground. Her arm was singed and numb from the shock. She screamed in shock—the vines were electrified! She quickly conjured ice spikes to slice through the lightning vines.

The nimble lightning vines, crackling with blue electricity, swiftly coiled around her arm. In an instant, the vines wrapped her tightly again, and with a flash of electricity, she was instantly electrocuted and knocked unconscious.

Kui Niu and Bi Fang gaped at the lightning vines in shock. Bi Fang said: "Wow, has Sister Qing Luan developed a lightning psychic ability?"

Kui Niu, however, slightly raised his head: "Fog."

In the dark night, the rain had stopped at some point, and thick fog had silently crept in, blanketing the area in mist.

Bi Fang looked puzzled: "Is it Brother Bai Ze?"

Kui Niu said: "He can’t create fog on such a large scale. It’s probably the enemy trying to rescue their companion. Be careful." His body repeatedly shifted between metal and flesh, causing excruciating pain in his meridians, but he endured it, not wanting Bi Fang to notice.

Bi Fang’s fingertips twitched, and he summoned the fire phoenix again, which circled the bottom of the pit. However, in the blazing firelight, all they could see was the endless fog, so thick they couldn’t see their own hands.

Bi Fang and Kui Niu stood back to back, holding long knives. Bi Fang, hearing Kui Niu’s heavy breathing, said anxiously: "Why hasn’t Sister Qing Luan arrived yet? It must be around four or five in the morning now..."

Kui Niu’s vision was blurry, and he couldn’t see his watch clearly. He forcibly suppressed the burning pain and adjusted his breathing: "Bi Fang, you go first and find Qing Luan and the others. I’ll stay here. They’re probably after me."

Bi Fang stubbornly said: "No."

Kui Niu said coldly: "Follow orders! I’m the captain!"

Bi Fang said: "No. The rescue has already arrived. They might be fighting up there. Let’s wait a bit longer."

Just then, with a thud, another tightly wrapped lightning vine cocoon fell from the edge of the pit. The vines crackled with electricity, and this time the lightning was especially intense, even overshadowing the glow of the vines themselves. Several bolts of lightning struck down from the sky, hitting the vines.

Despite this, the lightning vines seemed to absorb the energy of the lightning, becoming even more vigorous. All their leaves grew larger, glowing with blue light, and the vines wrapped even tighter.

The cocoon, which had been struggling violently, gradually weakened and finally fell still.

Bi Fang said: "This must be the lightning psychic ability user... We don’t have one in our team. Did Sister Qing Luan call for outside help?"

Thud, thud, thud! Several more vine cocoons fell from the edge of the pit.

Kui Niu: "..."

Bi Fang: "..."

The sky gradually brightened, and milky white mist filled the entire hospital, like a scene from a fairy tale. Golden sunlight filtered through the mist, illuminating the deep pit.

Zhou Yun stood by the window, answering the phone: "Yeah, I got up early today because I had some things to take care of. What about you? The rain’s stopped—is the embankment on your side holding up?"

He looked down at the side of the deep pit, where Shen Lan had already arrived with the city defense team. They were cleaning up the scene, pulling people up from the pit, unraveling the vines, and putting them in shadow hemp prison garb and shackles.

Emergency medics had also arrived and were hoisting Kui Niu onto a stretcher. The Shan Xiao team trickled in, one by one, gathering around Kui Niu, discussing and talking.

"Fortunately, we had water conservancy experts, otherwise we would have really encountered a flood this time. You’ve been putting in the work. I’ve already got someone brewing up some medicinal soup, and I’ll have Dean Qi organize volunteers to send it to the embankment for you soon."

"No big deal. I’m not the one who’s been working hard. General Guan is the one who’s been on the front lines of flood control and rescue."

Zhou Yun smiled slightly. Although he hadn’t slept all night, his face still glowed with energy: "I’ve got a new idea. Last night, while flipping through ancient texts on prescriptions, I suddenly thought of something."

Guan Yuanfeng could sense his good mood even over the phone: "What’s the good idea?"

Zhou Yun said: "About the binding of crystal cores. Currently, crystal cores are too easily taken or stolen by others. I previously only considered the idea of the crystal core detonating—when someone tries to snatch it, the core would explode, leading to mutual destruction, like jade shattering."

Guan Yuanfeng felt a pang of discomfort for some reason: "That’s way too extreme. You don’t need a crystal core to live. Ordinary people have their own lives too. As long as you’re alive, there’s always a way. Don’t give up on life so easily, and there’s no need to die with trash."

Zhou Yun felt comforted and smiled: "Later, I thought about implanting a hidden flaw in the crystal core, so that even if someone steals it, they can’t use it. But this is also hard to control."

Guan Yuanfeng said: "That’s still a thought. So, do you have a better solution now?"

Zhou Yun replied: "Yes, by using a special method to fuse and bind the crystal core with a person’s spiritual energy, even if it’s taken by someone else, it can’t be used. Only this way can we completely prevent the evil act of stealing crystal cores."

Guan Yuanfeng watched the sun slowly rise in the east, the river wind blowing strongly, and the waves surging. He smiled: "The Lord of Dongjun is really something else. If this can really be achieved, it will benefit countless people."

The milky white mist had completely dissipated, and the sunlight was now strong. Zhou Yun laughed heartily: "I didn’t expect to come up with such a good idea. Last night was totally worth it."