"Ling Feng, y-you have a nosebleed?"
Mei suddenly pointed at Ling Feng, her expression somewhat strange. Ling Feng had a nosebleed—could it be because of her...?
"Huh? I do?"
Ling Feng touched his nose. Sure enough, there was blood. Then blood began seeping from his mouth, eyes, ears, and even his skin...
"Uh..."
Ling Feng immediately lost consciousness...
"Ling Feng!"
Mei hurriedly caught Ling Feng before he could fall to the ground. She also realized that his nosebleed was not because of that kind of thing. At that moment, his skin had burst open in many places, blood continuously pouring out. He had become a complete blood-soaked mess...
"Ling Feng, Ling Feng!"
Sensing Ling Feng's condition, Mei kept calling out to him, but he no longer gave any response...
"Mei, calm down first..."
Himeko slowly walked over and said, "Get him into the Hyperion's Bio-pod, quickly..."
"Yes... I'll go right away!"
Mei tried with all her strength to lift Ling Feng, but she had already run out of Honkai energy, and she had just gone through a battle. Forget lifting Ling Feng—even being able to walk was already impressive enough!
"I'll help!"
Kiana quickly rushed to Ling Feng's side and supported him together with Mei!
"Let Bronya handle it!"
Bronya controlled Project Bunny to fly over to Ling Feng. It directly placed him onto Project Bunny's arm, then swiftly returned to the Hyperion...
"Himeko, are you... all right?"
Mei glanced at Himeko. In the earlier battle, there was no way Himeko should have been unable to defeat an Emperor-class Honkai Beast. So there was only one possibility...
"Hehe, I'm fine!"
Himeko stretched lazily and smiled. "It's just an old problem. Don't worry about it!"
"..."
Mei said nothing, but she understood very clearly in her heart...
"Yo-ho, we meet again!"
Within the space of consciousness, Ling Feng once again saw the blonde mature beauty before him. Well, it was Chiyou...
"Uh... Looks like I made it back to the Academy alive!"
Seeing Chiyou appear, Ling Feng knew he had been saved. Still, that sensation of his skin bursting open earlier had really been intense. He had thought he was done for...
"Say, what happened to you earlier?"
Chiyou walked over to Ling Feng and asked curiously, "There's barely a single intact muscle left on your body. This isn't even a comminuted fracture anymore—you've been completely pulverized..."
"I used up a little too much energy..."
Ling Feng could not be bothered to get up and simply kept lying there. He smiled helplessly. "Earlier, I ran into an Emperor-class Honkai Beast, but I didn't have a suitable weapon. I could only carry a giant sword weighing over a hundred jin and go head-to-head with it. Then I fought a Pseudo-Herrscher whose consciousness had been corrupted by Honkai. That was basically it..."
"You really had it rough..."
Chiyou sat down in a chair and sighed softly. "Let me tell you the truth. Your body has basically reached its limit. Next time... I might still be able to restore you. The time after that, I could probably barely manage it too. But a third time, I don't think my abilities will be able to heal you anymore, unless you can find that guy Shennong!"
By the way, how long had I been here? Had my body fully recovered?"
Because he was in the space of consciousness, Ling Feng had no idea what condition his body was in. Put simply, this was a virtual world, one within Chiyou's system. Without using the appropriate equipment, it was normally impossible to sense the outside world!
"It's the fourth day!"
Chiyou calmly answered Ling Feng. "As for your body, it's more or less recovered. But I truly hope you won't keep doing this in the future. After all, we're the only two people here who have each other to rely on!"
"Got it, but I should get going. I'll come see you next time!"
Since his body had recovered, Ling Feng planned to return to the real world first. He wondered how Mei and Kiana were doing. They should be fine, right?
"Mm, take care!"
Chiyou smiled and sent Ling Feng out of the space of consciousness. Then she looked sorrowfully over that lonely space. "This guy only comes when he gets hurt. Being alone is so boring..."
Look, I Can Do a Midair Split Too!
After waking up, Ling Feng found himself lying inside a completely sealed Bio-pod. At the same time, the Bio-pod detected his condition and automatically opened its hatch...
Ling Feng sat up and tried moving his body. There was not the slightest discomfort. It seemed Chiyou had completely repaired him. It was fortunate that Chiyou was there; otherwise, in his condition at the time, forget recovering—whether he could have even survived until now would have been uncertain!
Looking at Chiyou, which he still held in his hand, Ling Feng smiled. "Thanks, little sister Chiyou... Though if we go by age, you should be much older than me..."
"Yo, you're awake?"
At that moment, Tesla entered through the only door. She smiled and said, "With the condition you were in, if we used modern medical technology, you probably wouldn't recover even in a month. But following the Academy Head's instructions, we placed you together with the Divine Key Chiyou, only to discover that your body was repairing itself. In the end, we put you in a Bio-pod where no one would disturb you, and you recovered in just three days!"
As she spoke, Tesla walked closer to Ling Feng. With her index finger hooked against her lips, she asked curiously, "Ling Feng, how many undiscovered functions does this Divine Key still have? And what principle did it use to heal you?"
"That's about all the functions the Divine Key has. As for the principle, I don't know either... If I had to say, it was probably Honkai energy!" (Don't ask. If you ask, it's Honkai energy!)
Ling Feng was not putting on an act. He genuinely did not know the principle behind how the Divine Key healed him. In the Honkai world, anything that could not be explained, or was difficult to explain, could be attributed to Honkai energy. It would neither expose him nor sound too fake!
"That really is a pity..."
Tesla looked somewhat disappointed, then asked, "If you've recovered, can you lend me this Divine Key for two days so I can study it?"
"Here!"
Ling Feng directly handed the Divine Key to Tesla, then said, "If there's nothing else, I'll head back to the apartment first. Honestly, I'm a little hungry right now..."
"Huh... Hehe, all right, all right. Go on back!"
Tesla chuckled. "Actually, they've been very worried about you, especially Mei. She came to see you more than ten times a day. You really should go back. I'll let the Academy Head and Himeko know. Just head straight to the apartment!"
"Thanks, Tesla. I love you!"
Ling Feng made a farewell gesture and cheerfully slipped out of the testing room. When he went downstairs, he even jumped directly from the second floor, then cleared the railing with a dashing midair split before landing safely. Technical execution: technical difficulty: ninety-nine points. One point was deducted because his midair split pose had not been perfect enough!
"I love you... This guy should say it properly if he's going to say it..."
Tesla smiled helplessly, then looked at Chiyou in her hand. It seemed she would have to spend some time studying it, though she would most likely come away empty-handed just as before!
"Ling Feng? You..."
Upon returning to the apartment, the first person he saw was Mei. She looked pleasantly surprised and hurried over to him, appearing slightly displeased. "Why did you come back without telling us first? You should have notified us so I could pick you up. And since you were all right, you should have told us right away! Don't play mysterious and surprise us with this sort of thing anymore!"
"Uh... Sorry, but I still don't have a phone..."
Ling Feng smiled awkwardly. It really was not because he wanted to play mysterious. He genuinely did not have a phone...
There was nothing he could do about it. His phone from fifty thousand years ago had not been sealed away with him. After coming to St. Freya Academy, his daily routine was basically just the same three places in a line, and he only knew a handful of people. On top of that, his salary was not high, so he had never bought one!
"Forget it. It's good that you're back!"
Mei stopped dwelling on the matter and smiled helplessly. "How do you feel now? Has your body completely recovered? Is there anywhere that still feels uncomfortable? If there is, you have to say so. The Academy's medical equipment is very advanced!"
"Wait, Mei, you asked way too many questions at once!" Was this what it felt like to be cared for? Ling Feng felt a little touched. Still, looking at Mei like this, she really resembled Kuroki...
Ling Feng habitually rubbed Mei's hair and smiled. "Don't worry, Mei. I've completely recovered now. There's just one tiny problem..."
"A tiny problem?"
A question mark seemed to pop up over Mei's head!
"Mm... I'm hungry!"
Ling Feng helplessly rubbed his stomach and imitated Kiana's tone. "This should be the fourth day, right? I haven't eaten anything at all. Mei, do we have food?"
"Food? Yes, of course we do!"
Mei immediately nodded. "There are still some snacks left from our last shopping trip. It's not much, but I'll prepare dinner right away. I'll have it done within thirty minutes!"
"Huh? Ling Feng is back?"
At that moment, Kiana upstairs also heard the commotion. The moment she saw Ling Feng, she ran downstairs with a bright smile. "You're finally back! We've been worried sick these past few days. How are you? Your body's okay now, right?"
"Of course I'm fine. Don't forget who I am!"
Ling Feng smiled smugly, and then...
"Grrr..."
His stomach growled...
Ling Feng: "..."
"Hehe, I'll treat you to snacks! Come upstairs!"
Kiana grinned and pulled Ling Feng upstairs as she spoke. "I'm telling you, these are snacks I've been saving for ages. Even Mei and Bronya don't know about them..."
Mei: "..." I genuinely didn't know...
Bronya: "..." I knew, but I didn't say anything...
Forget it. Time to make dinner. Mei opened the refrigerator, took out the ingredients, and began preparing the meal!
Meanwhile, Ling Feng stayed in Kiana's room and ate snacks with her. Compared to Mei's room, Kiana's room was extremely messy. Mm, what a familiar feeling. Now this was what a normal girl's room should look like...
At the same time, Ling Feng asked Kiana about what had happened after he fainted that day. Actually, nothing much had happened. Because Herrscherized Mei had defeated the final enemy, the Emperor-class Honkai Beast, the mission had ended once Mei returned to normal!
"Himeko's body must be nearing its limit..."
Kiana said sadly, "Aunt Himeko is almost thirty years old now—though she seems to only be twenty-seven; thirty was what Kiana said, it has nothing to do with me!—and she became the Far East Branch's ace Valkyrie through absolute strength. She completed countless outstanding missions, but because of that, her body has been severely corroded by Honkai energy. This time..."
"After this, Aunt Himeko's body will probably be in even worse shape..."
Although Kiana had always liked avoiding Himeko because she was constantly punished with copying homework, she had always cared deeply about Himeko. That was especially true after learning Himeko's true condition!
"Himeko... really should retire..."
Remembering the scene from that day, Ling Feng knew Kiana was not lying. An A-rank Valkyrie had ended up like that after fighting a single Emperor-class Honkai Beast. In that physical condition, not only should she retire, it would not be excessive for her to be hospitalized for recuperation. Ling Feng truly did not understand why Himeko insisted on pushing herself so hard!
It seemed he would need to find some time to talk with Himeko!
A Lap Pillow—What Has Blinded My Eyes?
Mei had also prepared a lavish dinner table for the first time in a while. Though there were only four dishes, everything was there, and there were only four people anyway, so it was about right!
After dinner, the four of them sat in the living room to relax as usual. Since it was Friday, Kiana could leave her homework for tomorrow or the day after. She was currently playing games with Bronya, while Mei watched television intently. Ling Feng, meanwhile, yawned a little. Wait, this scene felt so familiar...
"Yawn..."
Ling Feng quietly yawned. Although he had slept for four straight days, he was still somewhat sleepy. There was nothing he could do about it—after eating and drinking his fill, he wanted to sleep...
"Ling Feng, are you tired?"
Although Ling Feng had been very careful, Mei immediately noticed. Even though she was watching television, her attention had never strayed far from Ling Feng!
"I'm a little sleepy. You guys keep playing. I'll go rest first..."
Ling Feng truly was sleepy. He stood up and planned to return to his room first. A shower? Forget it, washing tomorrow would not be too late...
"Ling Feng, wait!"
Mei also stood up and asked, "Um, if you're tired, do you want me to give you a massage? The effect might not be obvious, but it can definitely relieve fatigue. At least, it'll make you feel more comfortable!"
"A massage... Sure!"
Ling Feng agreed without the slightest hesitation. He knew Mei's massage skills very well. Naturally, he could not miss an opportunity like this. He could sleep every day, but he did not get the chance to have a massage every day!
Seeing that Ling Feng had not refused, a hint of delight flashed through Mei's eyes. She looked around at their surroundings. There did not seem to be anywhere convenient for a massage, but going back to the room...
"Ling Feng!"
Suddenly, an idea flashed through Mei's mind. She sat directly on the sofa, then gently patted her thighs with both hands and said in all seriousness, "Ling Feng, do you want to sleep on my lap?"
"Huh?"
Ling Feng froze. Wait, had he... started hearing things?
Before you continue