Mina

The unbroken rain had ceased, but Grim Port was finally shrouded in damp, bone-chilling Gray Mist.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The clinic door was being pounded hard enough to shake the heavens, and Brent's tear-choked voice came from outside. "Doctor Lu! Open the door!"

Lu Yuan frowned and opened it.

Brent, drenched from head to toe, rushed inside with Mina wrapped in an overcoat on his back.

His eyes were bloodshot, like a frightened wild beast. The moment he entered, he nearly dropped to his knees.

"Save her... Doctor Lu... Mina, she's not going to make it!"

Without wasting words, Lu Yuan stepped aside to let him in, then shut the door behind him.

Brent placed Mina on a chair.

How did the little girl still resemble the sweet, well-behaved child Lu Yuan had first seen?

She was curled into a ball, clawing desperately at her own ears. Her nails had even torn through her skin, blood streaming down from her auricles.

Her eyes had rolled white, and indistinct screams and delirious mutters kept spilling from her mouth.

"Stop singing... It hurts... Go away!"

Lu Yuan's gaze sharpened.

He strode forward and grabbed Mina's wildly flailing arms.

The next instant, gray-white text surfaced above the girl's head.

[Observation Target: Mina (Spirituality Rampage in Progress)]

[Status: Severe Mental Contamination / Auditory Overload]

[Talent Analysis: Echo of All Things. The individual possesses exceptionally high innate inspiration and has not yet been contaminated. She can hear the whispers of different entities and use sound to locate the source of "filth."]

[Warning: Lacking protection, she is currently like a lavish feast drifting across the sea, easily drawing predators.]

"What an outrageous talent..."

Lu Yuan's eyes shifted slightly as he looked at the line.

In Grim Port, a place filled with fog and the unknown, having someone who could provide advance warnings—or even locate Eerie entities—would greatly increase their chances of survival.

Especially if Mina could help him find the source of Strange Dream, the odds of his being cured would rise dramatically.

With that thought, Lu Yuan gave Brent an order before turning toward the alchemy bench.

"Hold her down. Don't let her move around."

Lu Yuan's Deep Study ability had already activated.

The knowledge he had previously learned and encountered began automatically arranging and combining in his mind, ultimately deducing an entirely new solution.

[Plan Generated: Targeted Spirituality Sealant (Improved)]

[Principle: Calming Flower soothes the brain; Mercury powder is used to forcibly "settle" Spirituality. Combined with a high-concentration sedative, it can forcibly seal the drinker's five senses and Spirituality channels.]

[Estimated Success Rate: 78%]

[Note: This is a customized plan and is unsuitable for others.]

A success rate close to eighty percent was enough for Lu Yuan to try. Without further hesitation, he took out a dried Calming Flower, pinched up a little Mercury powder with his fingertips, then mixed in half a small tube of high-concentration sedative.

As it heated, the liquid in the bottle turned a deathly dark gray.

[Pharmacology: +2]

As the skill experience increased, Lu Yuan knew clearly that he had succeeded.

"Pry her mouth open."

Lu Yuan walked over holding the bottle.

Steeling himself, Brent tremblingly pried apart his sister's tightly clenched teeth.

After making sure it had cooled enough, Lu Yuan poured the gray medicine down her throat.

The effect was immediate.

Within a few short minutes, Mina's taut body slackened. The hand gripping her ears fell limply, and her ragged breathing gradually steadied.

She fell into a deep sleep, temporarily free from the torment of those voices.

Seeing Mina finally sleeping peacefully, Brent's tightly drawn nerves finally snapped. He collapsed into a chair, and some of the terror faded from his eyes.

Lu Yuan did not speak right away. Instead, he unhurriedly wiped the bottle in his hand. Only after Brent's breathing had calmed somewhat did he speak.

"This medicine can only let her sleep for a while. If the source isn't dealt with when she wakes up, she'll suffer even more than she is now."

As he spoke, Lu Yuan turned to look at Brent. "The medicine I gave you last time should, in theory, have kept things suppressed for a while longer. Why did it suddenly flare up so badly this time? What happened?"

Brent's body stiffened. He did not answer Lu Yuan's question about Mina's condition.

Instead, after a long silence, he rose onto his knees and slammed his forehead heavily against the floor with a dull bang.

"Doctor Lu! Let Mina stay here! I'm begging you!"

He lifted his head, his eyes bloodshot, and pleaded incoherently. "Let her be your servant, or clean for you! Just let her hide in the clinic—don't send her out!"

Lu Yuan frowned. Brent's mental state was clearly wrong. How had this once shrewd child turned into such a state after only a few days?

Still, looking at the terrified boy before him, Lu Yuan spoke.

"I think you need to explain yourself. This is a clinic, not a place for raising children."

"And if you're worried about her situation, I can prescribe a few bottles of medicine for you to take home. Why must she stay here?"

"We can't take her back... We can't go back..."

Brent raised his head, his eyes full of despair. "If I take Mina back, she'll be taken away! Just like Little Tom next door...!"

"Taken away?" Lu Yuan caught the key words sharply. "Taken by whom?"

"No, it's the Church... that group of priests!"

Brent swallowed, instinctively lowering his voice.

"These past few days, people from the Church have been wandering around the docks and the slums, saying they're looking for children 'favored by Angels' and will take them back to the Church to enjoy a good life."

"That's why I never dared take Mina outside."

At this point, a trace of relief entered Brent's voice.

"Just yesterday afternoon, priests from the Church came to the floor below our cheap rental."

"They were carrying a Bible. That book was wicked! Whenever it got close to certain children, its cover would glow red."

"At the time, only Mina and Little Tom next door were nearby! But that book lit up!"

"I was terrified. While they were still upstairs, I took Mina and climbed out through the back window... If we hadn't run, I'm afraid Mina would've been taken too..."

"Doctor Lu, she's my only family... Please, help me."

Brent's voice was full of pleading, his eyes brimming with fear.

"Only here... Doctor Lu, you belong to the Night Watchers. This neighborhood is Night Watcher territory! Even the Church wouldn't dare charge straight into a Night Watcher clinic to search for someone!"

After hearing him out, Lu Yuan tapped his fingers lightly against the table, a flash of understanding passing through his eyes.

So that was it.

Mina had just awakened her talent after the shock of her uncle's death, and those people from the Church had come sniffing after her scent.

That glowing Bible was clearly an alchemical item used to find gifted children like Mina.

This so-called "favor of Angels" was nothing more than an excuse to cover up their child-snatching.

Still, it fit Lu Yuan's impression of the Church.

A pack of people who ate others alive without even spitting out the bones.

That also explained why Brent was acting like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring, desperate to stuff his sister into the clinic.

He had no one to rely on in the slums. Faced with such a Colossus, his only path to survival was finding a sturdier backer.

And Lu Yuan was that backer now. Perhaps not sturdy enough, but absolutely the strongest one Brent could find.

Most importantly, taking Mina in would help both Lu Yuan and the Night Watchers.

And it would disgust those Church bastards as well. Why not?