Back wall of the Tianhai Third High School infirmary, a narrow alley piled with discarded medical waste.
The air was thick with a pungent mix of disinfectant, rotting matter, and some kind of chemical solution.
Lin Xiao leaned his back against the cold, damp, stain-covered wall. His right arm had been re-secured by Fatty Wang using relatively clean gauze and a makeshift piece of cardboard. The pain had eased slightly, but the deep-seated exhaustion from the overdraft—originating from the depths of his soul—still pressed down on him heavily, like a bone-gnawing maggot.
Every breath felt exceptionally laborious, and tiny golden stars flashed across his vision from time to time.
Source Energy Points: -1.4.
This crimson number hung like the Sword of Damocles above his head, and chilling warning tones chimed intermittently in the depths of his mind, cautioning him about "core function restrictions" and "unpredictable consequences."
Repairing the hairline fracture required 3.0 points?
Right now, he found it difficult even just to stay conscious!
He had to find a source of energy as soon as possible!
Fatty Wang squatted nearby, carefully peeling a cold steamed bun he had smuggled from the cafeteria, broke off half, and handed it to Lin Xiao. "Brother Xiao, line your stomach first? You took the medicine, the wound's dressed, what's the plan now? That bastard Zhao Hu is crippled, but his lackeys are still around, and then there's the Blood Wolf Gang..."
Lin Xiao took the cold, hard bun, mechanically shoved it into his mouth, and chewed. It tasted like sawdust.
Yet his gaze swept sharply over the figures of students occasionally passing the mouth of the alley, his brain operating at high speed despite his weakness.
Su Qingxue... This thread could not be severed for now, nor could she be pushed too hard.
That woman had just experienced the shock of her talent being modified, and her emotional state was extremely unstable. Going to her now to demand an Energy Stone carried too much risk.
Besides, he needed to maintain the long-term value of this "friend" identity.
But he could mine for intelligence!
"Fatty," Lin Xiao swallowed the last bite of the bun. His voice remained hoarse, but his gaze regained that wolf-like focus, "Help me keep an eye on Su Qingxue."
"Huh? Su... School Belle Su?"
Fatty Wang was taken aback, his small eyes widening. "Brother Xiao, you're not actually crushing on her, are you? She's an Awakened martial artist now! And outside the cafeteria..."
"Cut the crap!"
Lin Xiao interrupted him, his gaze turning fierce. "I'm not asking you to harass her. See where she usually trains, who she interacts with, and especially, pay attention to whether she uses or mentions things like 'Energy Stones'."
"Energy Stones?"
Fatty Wang looked blank. "Aren't those things legendary treasures that only wealthy families have? I heard they're ridiculously expensive—a piece the size of a fingernail could buy an apartment next to our school!"
"Yeah, that's the stuff."
Lin Xiao licked his somewhat dry lips, a flash of greedy, sharp light passing through his eyes. "Watch out for whether she wears any special accessories, or if she goes to specific places in the school, like the martial arts gym's cultivation quiet rooms. Let me know immediately if there's anything unusual."
This was currently the safest source of information.
"Oh... oh! Got it, Brother Xiao!"
Even though Fatty Wang didn't understand why Lin Xiao suddenly cared so much about Energy Stones, seeing that familiar, unquestionable light in his eyes, he immediately patted his chest in promise. "Leave it to me! Skinny Monkey is well-connected; I'll have him help keep watch too!"
After sending Fatty Wang away, Lin Xiao leaned against the cold wall, feeling the bouts of dizziness caused by the overdraft and the dull ache in his right arm.
Waiting for news from Su Qingxue's side was too passive; he had to take the initiative!
He couldn't let a single Source Energy Point slip away!
His gaze swept across the few peering, sneaky figures at the mouth of the alley like a cold probe.
They were those useless lackeys of Zhao Hu!
With Zhao Hu crippled, they had lost their backbone. At this moment, like stray dogs, they were both terrified of Lin Xiao's retaliation and unwilling to let it go, daring only to spy from afar.
"Heh..." Lin Xiao curved the corner of his mouth into a cold, roguish arc. A bunch of trash—they were just right for recycling!
He took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the weakness in his body, and forced himself to straighten his back so he wouldn't look too pathetic.
Then, he stepped forward, carrying a deliberately cultivated aura that was lazy yet overwhelmingly oppressive, and walked toward those people at the mouth of the alley.
Seeing Lin Xiao walk over, the group reacted like startled rabbits, subconsciously wanting to hide, but the alley was narrow with nowhere to run.
"Stop." Lin Xiao's voice wasn't loud, carrying a hoarse magnetism born from having just survived a life-and-death struggle, yet it clearly entered the ears of the few like cold chunks of iron hitting the ground.
Their bodies stiffened, and their complexions turned instantly pale.
The leader, a skinny guy with dyed yellow hair, mustered his courage and shouted bluffing-ly, "L-Lin Xiao! What do you want? Hu-ge's affair has nothing to do with us!"
"Hu-ge?"
Lin Xiao walked up to them, tilting his head slightly with his signature roguish smile on his face, though his gaze scraped across their terrified faces like knives. "What Hu-ge? There's only a sick cat I stepped on under my feet."
He deliberately paused, savoring the color instantly draining from their faces and the fear in their eyes.
"He's crippled."
Lin Xiao's voice suddenly turned cold, carrying a substantive chill. "Guess what? Would he be very interested to know what his 'loyal' little brothers were up to while he was lying in the hospital?"
Yellow Hair and the others shivered violently!
The threat in those words couldn't have been more obvious!
If a furious and heavily injured Zhao Hu found out they hadn't made any "contributions" and might even have been used by Lin Xiao, the consequences would be unimaginable!
"Y-You're talking nonsense! We didn't do anything!"
Yellow Hair's voice trembled.
"Is that so?"
Lin Xiao pressed forward a step, the invisible pressure causing Yellow Hair and the others to back up instinctively. "I'm a bit tight on cash lately, and my mood isn't great either. You tell me... if I'm in a bad mood, will I feel like going to the hospital to 'visit' Hu-ge and chat with him about his brothers' 'loyalty'?"
Naked extortion!
Yellow Hair and the others turned green.
They knew Lin Xiao was entirely capable of doing it!
This guy even dared to cripple Zhao Hu; crippling a few of them would be child's play!
"Y-You... how much do you want?"
With a crying face, Yellow Hair completely caved.
"Money, Energy Stone Shards, or... other things worth a bit, things carrying some 'energy'."
Lin Xiao cut straight to the point, his sharp gaze sweeping over their entire bodies. "As many as you have, bring them out.
Don't play tricks with me; my mood is really bad."
Under absolute fear and the pressure of Lin Xiao's substantive murderous aura, the few lackeys tremblingly began digging into their pockets.
The loose cash added up to roughly seven or eight hundred yuan.
There were also some miscellaneous items: cheap cigarettes, small razor blades, and a few fragments of stones of unknown origin with dim colors, irregular shapes, and the size of only a pinky nail—precisely the low-grade Energy Stone Shards Lin Xiao needed!
Without hesitation, Lin Xiao grabbed all of it in one clutch. Weighing those fragments—which felt cold to the touch, had a rough texture, and contained extremely weak and impure energy inside—a trace of imperceptible craving flashed deep within his eyes.
"Get lost." He coldly spat out two words.
Yellow Hair and the others were granted a grand amnesty, scrambling head over heels out of the alley without even daring to look back.
Watching the figures disappear, the cold, roguish smile on Lin Xiao's face vanished instantly, replaced by a fit of violent coughing and an even deeper sense of weakness.
The aura he had forced himself to project just now had exhausted almost every last shred of his strength. Leaning against the wall, he gasped for breath as fine beads of sweat seeped across his forehead.
Yet, looking at those grayish, unremarkable Energy Stone Shards in his palm, a huge wave of joy instantly diluted his fatigue!
Source Energy Points! There was hope!
Dragging his heavy steps, he found a more secluded, filthier corner of the garbage heap and curled up inside.
After confirming no one was around, he impatiently picked up the largest shard and clenched it tightly in his palm.
Concentrate!
Hum!
The faint blue light screen in his mind struggled to manifest, dimmer than before and flickering unstably.
Low-purity energy source detected...
Absorb or not? Estimated conversion rate: extremely low...
"Absorb!" Lin Xiao roared in his heart! Mosquito legs were meat too!
Command received... Energy extraction in progress... 1%... 50%... 100%...
Conversion complete. Obtained Source Energy Points: +0.05.
The chilling prompt tone fell.
An extremely weak, almost negligible warm current flowed through his palm into his body, slightly easing a trace of the desolation deep within his soul, much like a single drop of dew falling upon a long-parched desert.
It worked! It really worked!
Lin Xiao's spirit surged, and he immediately grabbed the second shard!
Low-purity energy source detected... Absorbing... Conversion complete. Obtained Source Energy Points: +0.03.
Third piece: +0.01.
Fourth piece: +0.01.
All four shards absorbed, yielding a grand total of just 0.1 Source Energy Points!
Current Source Energy Points: -1.4 + 0.1 = -1.3.
It was still a glaring negative value!
The overdraft alarm was still humming in the depths of his mind!
Yet, looking at the number on the light screen that had jumped from -1.4 to -1.3, Lin Xiao let out a long, slow breath of foul air.
A massive sense of relief, akin to surviving a disaster, welled up.
Though it was only 0.1 points, a drop in the bucket!
It proved the path was correct!
Energy Stones (even low-grade shards) were the source of Source Energy Points!
This 0.1 point was like the first handful of muddy water found in a dried-up riverbed; although turbid and bitter, it gave him hope for survival!
More importantly, the bone-gnawing desolation and dizziness originating from the deepest parts of his soul had indeed eased by a tiny fraction due to the injection of this 0.1 point.
Though he was still weak, he at least felt that a bit of sustaining strength had been re-injected into his body, and the near-death sensation of imminent collapse had temporarily receded.
"Damn it... finally... caught a breath..."
Lin Xiao leaned against the foul-smelling garbage heap, pulling a tired yet fiercely satisfied smile across his stain-covered face.
He opened his palm, looking at the fragments that had completely lost their luster, turning grayish-white like ordinary stones, and covered in cracks.
The cost was huge (2.5 points), the harvest minuscule (0.1 points), and the road ahead remained perilous (overdraft, Blood Wolf Gang, watchers)...
Yet the spark of hope had already been ignited by this first barrel of "Source Energy Points"!
The wolf-like, greedy light in his eyes burned fiercely once more, more intensely and stubbornly than before!
Right at that moment—
"Brother Xiao! Brother Xiao! There's news!"
Fatty Wang's voice, deliberately lowered but still unable to mask its excitement, accompanied a burst of hurried footsteps coming from the mouth of the alley.
Lin Xiao abruptly raised his head, a sharp light flashing in his eyes!
There was movement on Su Qingxue's side?
Before you continue