Flaw

In the silence, the long silence, everyone stared at Huai Shi, dumbfounded.

More precisely, they were staring at Huai Shi's... arm.

After bearing that immense power in overload, that arm was now covered in cracks. Blood slowly seeped out from beneath the fissured skin and dripped onto the floor.

This was the price of controlling such terrifying power.

Then, the moment they came to their senses, terrified screams erupted!

The scholars in the observation room descended into chaos, staggering backward and nearly rushing for the door.

In the confusion, even the teacups on the table were swept to the floor. Clear tea streamed across the ground, but no one felt any regret. Instead, they avoided it as though it were poison.

"Alarm! Alarm!"

Frantically putting on a gas mask, the first scholar to react shrieked, "Biochemical contamination warning! Level three! Level three! Contact the administration immediately and conduct a full decontamination, full—"

"Hey, isn't this a little unnecessary?"

Huai Shi's eye twitched. Sitting on the platform, he shook his head helplessly and watched as the panicked scholars bundled themselves into hazmat suits layer by layer, injecting one another with antidotes.

He lit a cigarette and enjoyed the farce.

It was not until every one of them had jabbed two doses of antidote into their chests and finally calmed down that Huai Shi slowly exhaled.

"Don't be afraid."

He flicked off some ash and reassured them, "It's not poisonous anymore."

"...Cough, cough."

Apparently realizing that they had overreacted, the disheveled scholar picked up his glasses from the floor and gave an awkward laugh. "We were just being cautious, weren't we?

Besides, why didn't you say so earlier..."

"You were already halfway into the suits. I felt awkward interrupting you."

Huai Shi raised an eyebrow and sighed helplessly. "Besides, it was pretty