Chapter 41

Shen Tingyu looked down at the medicine in his palm.

It was golden yellow, with flecks of gilded light.

When Xie Nanjun received no response, he rattled on, "Honestly, back then in the Evil Tower, there were gentler ways to end things sooner, but you just had to go that crazy. And now you're left with this condition."

"They put me in Tower No. 1. You still expected me to stay calm?" Shen Tingyu smiled without much warmth. "Or do you want to go in and experience it for yourself?"

The Tower No. 1 Building in the Evil Tower was the smallest of the five tower buildings.

Generally, only serious criminals whose crimes had outraged both heaven and man, along with a few exceptionally extreme and unruly E-Types, were taken there. What awaited them inside were all manner of harsh punishments, particularly electric torture that could inflict tremendous pain and trauma on their Spiritual Pools.

Shen Tingyu was only twelve when he was sent in.

There had been a notorious case in imperial history in which an E-Type had massacred a city, and that E-Type had also settled into his type at the same age. So when an E-Type with similar talents appeared, the empire couldn't put its concerns to rest and wanted to use this to break his spirit before he did anything crazy.

He spent three dark years of his life in there, experiencing almost every punishment in Tower 1.

Later, he left Tower 1 early by using a method that hurt him almost as much as it hurt his enemies.

The suicidal eruption of an E-Type's Mental Power was enough to severely injure anyone in the same space, and it even injured one of the empire's eldest prince's eyes in the blast.

The eldest prince had always liked to use the power of his position to personally torture him.

So he had done it deliberately, choosing the day the prince came over to make his move.

After that incident, he requested a meeting with a representative of the imperial royal family and sat down to negotiate calmly and rationally. The terms were simple: he would join the military and put his power to use for the empire in exchange for his freedom.

Things went fairly smoothly. He was then sent to the outer tower, where he received the Evil Tower's psychological counseling and lessons on establishing the correct values, among other instruction. After passing all the tests and assessments, he graduated from the Evil Tower and became what its staff called an "excellent student."

Hearing that, Xie Nanjun declined. "No, no, I take back what I said."

"Ah, I thought the suppressant would help you keep it under control, but I didn't expect you to start becoming immune to it."

That eruption had ultimately left serious damage to Shen Tingyu's Spiritual Pool. Although it didn't affect his normal use of Mental Power, he experienced symptoms of Mental Power disorder at intervals. When the symptoms occurred, he had to expend more effort suppressing his E-Type's volatile nature to keep his Mental Power from spiraling out of control, while the pain his Spiritual Pool endured also doubled.

According to the empire's past records, everyone whose Spiritual Pool had been damaged had gone mad and been thrown into the Evil Tower. He was an exception; normally, he could only rely on the special medicine Xie Nanjun's sister and their father had developed for him to suppress it.

But as Xie Nanjun had said, the medicine's suppressive effect on him was growing weaker. They had spent more than a year developing it in the first place, its ingredients were hard to come by, and the dose they could prepare for him each year was very limited.

Xie Nanjun hesitated on the other end for a long time before asking tentatively, "So, are you really not going to consider forming a Soul Contract with a high-level D-Type?"

Although the medical field had yet to find a way to completely repair a damaged Spiritual Pool, once an S-Class or higher D-Type formed a partnership, there was a chance they could slowly repair their partner's Spiritual Pool damage through the exchange of Mental Power.

There had been several such miracles in medical history, which was why the D-Type was also doctors' favorite Soul Spirit Type.

Shen Tingyu replied, "There's no one compatible."

Xie Nanjun said urgently, "At a time like this, you're still worried about compatibility? Treating the condition is what matters! With everything you have going for you, even if your compatibility isn't high, there'll definitely be someone willing to be with you."

Shen Tingyu gave a laugh and added, "I mean, there's no one to my liking."

Xie Nanjun said, "...You E-Types are really annoying. It's hard enough for you to find a partner, and you're still so picky."

During their brief conversation, Shen Tingyu's physical discomfort reached another peak. His splitting headache left him unwilling to say more. After telling Xie Nanjun to have his sister prepare a new batch of medicine, he ended the call.

After injecting the special suppressant, he leaned against the desk and rested for a while before the discomfort slowly subsided.

On the desk, the balls of a Newton's cradle knocked against one another.

Shen Tingyu stared at them, his mind wandering slightly.

Although everyone said D-Types were the most suitable partners for E-Types and were the partners many people dreamed of, he wasn't particularly fond of them. D-Types were too weak-willed, and although the empire had arranged plenty of matches for him over the years, the facts proved that his soul really did reject them. Even the highest compatibility he had with any of them was no more than ten percent.

As he pondered, the scene with Xu Qingran at the Grandis Secondary School branch campus a few days earlier flashed through his mind.

He suddenly chuckled.

If there were a D-Type like that, it wasn't out of the question.

Shen Tingyu had just disposed of the empty medicine container when someone suddenly knocked on the door of the bedroom connected to his study.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, walked over, and opened the door.

The person outside wore a set of off-white pajamas that hung loosely on his slender body, exposing a broad expanse of skin below his neck. His hair was a little messy, and both eyes were slightly red and hazy with moisture. Clearly, he had just crawled out of bed.

Shen Tingyu found it a little hard to imagine why Xu Qingran would appear at his door at this hour, so he asked, "Did you need something?"

Then the soft, sleepy-looking person answered with a cool, indifferent expression and a tone as if he had come seeking revenge: "To climb into your bed."

Xu Qingran sat at the foot of the large bed in the bedroom, his body bent slightly forward and his hands clasped against his mouth, lost in thought.

When he looked up again, the bedroom's owner was sitting in the study connected to the room, looking down at official business as though nothing had happened.

Xu Qingran hadn't expected to be let in so easily.