Chapter 438: Underground Passage
The first to leave the operating room were Xu Sa and Liu Rui. Both appeared poisoned to varying degrees, with no control over their bodies or physical sensation. The difference was, Xu Sa was awake while Liu Rui was unconscious.
Lu Xiao had already been briefed by his team on what happened. He was now pressing the doctors for a solution.
“We don’t know what toxin caused this, nor can we determine if the damage is temporary or permanent. Even if you kill me, I can’t give you a definitive answer,” said the doctor nervously.
“What if you knew what the toxin was?”
“Then it depends on whether there’s an unexpired, effective antidote in storage.”
“…” Meeting all those conditions was nearly impossible. “What if you start researching now?”
“We can try—but we’d need virologists, pharmacologists, and more. As for how long it’ll take…” The doctor shook his head again, then softened when he saw Lu Xiao’s dark expression. “We don’t need to think that far ahead just yet. I’ll document their condition and run some comparisons later. It might be a metabolizable toxin.”
Lu Xiao didn’t press further and had them taken to a hospital room.
“Wait,” Xu Sa, looking more stable, scanned the room and asked, “Uncle Lu, where are Li Yan and Antonio?”
“Li Yan and Lin Mo are watching over the healers in surgery. Antonio’s accompanying Lu Xi through his upgrade. If you need anything, just ask me,” Lu Xiao replied.
“I’m fine. I’ll wait here for them,” Xu Sa said. With all five elite ability users either injured or occupied—and one of them being the base commander himself—they had to remain vigilant.
“You…”
“My powers are starting to recover,” Xu Sa added.
Lu Xiao sighed. “I’ll gather local experts for consultation. Don’t stress.”
Compared to them, the other three patients were progressing more slowly. It wasn’t until Lu Xi successfully returned from his upgrade that Ning Yuan was finally wheeled out of the OR.
Seeing Lu Xi alive and well, Lu Xiao finally breathed a sigh of relief. Antonio had Xu Sa and Liu Rui sent to rest, then stepped forward to ask the doctor about Ning Yuan’s condition.
The doctor removed his mask, his expression full of sympathy.
“His kidney is shattered, the bladder punctured by bone fragments, multiple intestinal injuries, and the pelvis is deformed from compression.”
With every word the doctor said, Antonio’s heart sank deeper. He waited for the doctor to finish before asking, “Is it life-threatening?”
“Most of the injuries were already healed by your healing-type ability users. The most critical issue now is the kidney. He’s only got half a kidney functioning, so a transplant is needed urgently. Otherwise, his condition could become critical at any moment.”
Antonio took a deep breath and sat down on a nearby bench.
“I’ll try to find a donor,” Lu Xiao said with a deep frown.
“Thank you,” Antonio replied.
Lu Weiyi and Gu Qingzhi didn’t come out of surgery until the next day. Lu Xiao brought Luo Feifei over, and with the help of three healing abilities, the two had physically recovered—only a few fine nerves and blood vessels still needed time to heal.
Dean was very experienced with this. After replenishing his powers, he pushed through the process and finished quickly. When the two finally woke up from their sleep, they were fully healed.
Due to the excessive blood loss, the entire hospital room reeked of ejiao tonic. Lu Weiyi sat quietly sipping a cup of it while Antonio updated him in a low voice on everyone’s conditions.
“Xu Sa and Liu Rui are both paralyzed, Qingzhi just needs rest and blood supplements—he’ll be fine in a few days. Ning Yuan’s case is more serious.”
“Xu Yi and Dean have been trying to reconstruct his kidney these past two days. There’s been some progress, but it’s slow. The doctors are pushing for a transplant. But matching, testing, and implementation are all complicated and not going smoothly.”
“You could offer a crystal core bounty—that would bring results. The surgery itself isn’t the issue. The problem is the possible aftereffects. No one knows if healing powers can mitigate those, and if not, we won’t have the medical resources to deal with the fallout. That’s the real dead end,” Lu Weiyi said, thinking quickly. “Have you contacted the base yet?”
“We’ve already reported that everyone’s safe. Zhuang told you to focus on recovery.”
Lu Weiyi didn’t respond, instead glancing toward Ning Yuan’s bed. Dean and Xu Yi sat one on each side, seemingly keeping watch, but in reality, their abilities were quietly probing his condition.
Soon, both of their foreheads were covered in sweat. Lu Xi walked over and handed them a handful of crystal cores.
During the noon break, Lu Weiyi asked, “How confident are you two?”
“Xu has better odds. With enough energy, he can sustain longer efforts. I’m not as good—internal organs are just too complex,” Dean replied, visibly frustrated.
“Can Luo Feifei help?” She was the only one at Xu Yi’s level.
Xu Yi shook his head. “She’s a B-rank, but what she can do is basically the same as a C-rank. She’s just faster and can handle more volume. I wouldn’t trust her with something this delicate.”
At that moment, Xu Yi was once again grateful that he’d studied so hard. Not long ago, he and Luo Feifei had been about equal, but now their skill levels were worlds apart.
“Maybe…” Dean turned to Lu Weiyi, “Maybe I should just upgrade.”
“After upgrading, my powers would last longer, and I’d be faster.”
“You’re close to upgrading?” Xu Yi was surprised.
“Feels like it. But I can delay it a bit if needed,” Dean replied calmly, the complete opposite of Xu Yi’s anxious state when he upgraded.
Both men looked at Lu Weiyi. He thought for a while, then slowly shook his head.
“It’s best if you upgrade after the kidney is reconstructed.”
“When we first upgraded, we were injected with stimulants. My crystal core had issues at the time, but during the upgrade, the surge of energy purified it and brought it back. I always suspected that energy had cleansing and healing properties, though probably limited.”
“Later, when Xu Yi upgraded, we had Qingzhi—who was in a neuro-critical state—on hand for observation. He recovered afterward.”
Lu Weiyi looked at the others sleeping in the room.
“So I want to try using your upgrade this time to see if we can purge the toxins in both of them. But first, we finish the kidney reconstruction. If anything goes wrong, maybe the upgrade will be a last chance.”
Neither Xu Yi nor Dean said anything for a moment. Then Xu Yi nodded first.
“Alright, I’ll work harder. Just don’t forget to double my pay.”
Lu Weiyi gave him an “OK” sign and lay back down on the bed.
The next day, after Lu Weiyi recovered, Zheng Yi and Zhao Qiang each came to check on him and asked about what had happened.
Lu Weiyi didn’t hide anything and told them the full story.
“That dangerous? No wonder. But… why are you recruiting earth-type ability users?” Zheng Yi suddenly asked.
“Huh?” Lu Weiyi was confused.
Zheng Yi and Zhao Qiang exchanged glances. Zhao Qiang explained,
“Last night, your base suddenly put out a recruitment call to all bases, asking for earth-type ability users. A-rank gets ten purified crystal cores a day, B-rank gets five. You… didn’t know?”
Lu Weiyi thought for a second and quickly realized: Zhuang Mingxu must be planning to gather earth-types to fill the sea.
Since spring, mutant sea creatures had become more common. They had discussed this before, but their base had too few earth-type users, and material requirements made the project painfully slow.
Looks like Zhuang Mingxu was going national with the plan.
“He’s probably trying to build base fortifications,” Lu Weiyi said vaguely. Then he looked at the two. “You guys… interested?”
“Haha, well, our base is close by, much more convenient for back-and-forth trips.” More importantly, the crystal core offer was very tempting. Purified cores were in short supply, and even if someone had them, the exchange rate made it nearly impossible to absorb them freely.
Once the announcement was made, it instantly became the hottest topic in Capital Base. A lot of ability users had already applied overnight. Zhao Qiang and Zheng Yi figured that rather than let their people get recruited away forever, they might as well join in as a team—keep it in the family.
“Of course we’re in. No big deal. Just tally your headcount and report directly to Zhuang Mingxu. But hey, Brother Zheng, Brother Zhao—you better screen the applicants for me. Don’t slip in any slackers.”
“No need to worry—how could I possibly pull something like that?”
“We’ve picked only the best for you.”
Lu Weiyi still didn’t look well. After sitting a while, the two men had someone bring him some tonic and then left.
Finally having a moment, Lu Weiyi asked Antonio about updates from the base.
“Two main announcements,” Antonio replied. “First, Zhuang lifted all limits on the number of purified crystal cores that can be exchanged across bases—conversion rate remains four to one, no cap.”
“Second, they’re recruiting earth-type ability users, especially high-level ones. Daily pay. If a remote base has more than five A-rankers, they’ll even send a plane to pick them up.”
Antonio couldn’t help but click his tongue at the cost, but then thought of those prehistoric-sized mutated beasts and figured it was a worthy investment for the base’s security.
Lu Xiao also mentioned the same topic that evening to Lu Weiyi—though clearly with the intent of recommending some of his own earth-type users. Then he brought up something else:
“Building underground tunnels?”
“Yeah. The mutated creatures outside are becoming as dangerous as zombies. At this rate, traveling between bases may become nearly impossible in the future.”
“Also, the research institute recently found that the deeper underground you go, the lower the mutation probability for living things…”
Lu Weiyi instantly thought of the place where Qin Xing and the others were stationed.
“Exactly—it’s about them. I later trained with them. We agreed to send a team of experts over: geologists, meteorologists, physicists, chemists, biologists—all to investigate. No exact cause found yet, but one thing’s for sure: zombie energy has already appeared in many parts of our daily life—food, soil, even air.”
“So doesn’t that mean ordinary people carry it too?”
“In theory, yes. But in humans, this trace energy has transformed. It’s no longer pure zombie energy—it’s more adapted to humans. It doesn’t cause mutations. In fact, it might even enhance physical fitness.”
“Haven’t you noticed how much healthier the ordinary people around you look?”
