Chapter Ninety: Speculation

After leaving the advanced medical room, Ye Chong still heard the doctor’s words echoing in his ears: “Teacher Ye, your body is perfectly healthy! Healthier than almost everyone else’s, in fact! There is nothing wrong at all! What you described today is most likely an illusion. When a person is under severe psychological strain or extreme fatigue, such hallucinations can easily occur! Although your constitution is far stronger than that of the average person, I still think you should take more rest!”

An illusion? Impossible.

The sensation from moments ago was still vivid in Ye Chong’s mind. The instant he recalled that boundless agony, a torment from which there was no escape, a chill ran through him.

What on earth was going on? This was the one thing Ye Chong most urgently needed to know. It hung over his head like a sword, filling him with a terrible sense of danger and leaving him unable to eat or sleep in peace.

Could it be some strange illness? But he had never had anything like this before. Besides, even the doctor could not find anything wrong, and Mu had said that the advanced medical room at Blue Sea Academy was of fairly high standard, so the chance of a misdiagnosis should be very small.

He absolutely did not want to experience this again.

If it happened again, Ye Chong was not even sure he could endure it.

“Mu, do you have any guess?” Ye Chong wanted an answer desperately, even if it were only a conjecture. He felt as though he were about to go mad; anxiety and irritation were growing within him, and the composure and calm he had always prized had long vanished without a trace.

Sensing Ye Chong’s abnormal state, Mu said calmly, “Yezi, take a few deep breaths. Like when you fight, negative emotions are of no help to you at all. On the contrary, they will drag you into panic. Yezi, deep breaths. Breathe.”

In an instant, a violent sensation seemed to sear Ye Chong’s nerves. A scorching current of fire surged through his entire body, and he could even feel that his eyes must have turned red as flames. The exposed skin on his hands had also taken on a strange red hue, as though heated iron plates. Agitation and suffocation filled him; his whole body burned with restless heat. The only thing he wanted to do now was destroy, to vent.

If those words had not come from Mu, Ye Chong was certain that no matter who it was, he would have smashed them to pieces with one punch.

He panted harshly, the scorching breath burning the inside of his nostrils as though he were exhaling not air but a sheet of fire.

Ye Chong struggled to suppress that ferocious impulse. Almost the moment it rose, he sensed that something was terribly wrong. He had always been calm and collected, so when that violent urge surged up, his instincts immediately sounded an alarm and resisted it.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

Once, then again, and again, Ye Chong forced himself to perform deep breathing, something that in the past had been easier than anything else for him.

“Deep breaths... keep the rhythm... deep breaths...”

Mu’s voice seemed hypnotic, and Ye Chong unconsciously matched his breathing to that cadence.

As his breaths gradually lengthened and deepened, Ye Chong’s mind slowly cooled, the burning current receded little by little, and he finally returned to his usual state.

That struggle had drained Ye Chong’s strength tremendously. Sweat ran down his forehead in winding streams, and his clothes were already soaked through. When a breeze passed by, he could not help shivering.

Ye Chong gave a bitter smile. “Mu, it looks like I’m in trouble this time.”

Mu agreed. “Mm, Yezi, your condition does look very bad. But for the moment, I can’t think of any good solution either.”

“What exactly is going on?” Ye Chong was somewhat irritated, and the slight fluctuation in his emotions caused his blood and qi to churn violently. Startled, he hurried into another round of deep breaths before finally steadying himself.

Mu said, “Yezi, keep your emotions stable. Based on all the data, if this condition is not inherited from your own body or something that had already been lying dormant inside you on Garbage Star, then I have one theory.”

“What theory?” Ye Chong asked.

“I suspect the silver liquid you soaked in at Black Horn caused this. Probability: sixty-seven percent,” Mu explained. “It is the most suspicious factor.”

Ye Chong was not stupid. A moment’s thought made everything clear. “No wonder they kept the people in Black Horn under such loose control. So they had this kind of trap hidden there all along.”

His thoughts flashed like lightning. “No wonder Johnson had no intention of killing me last time. Nine times out of ten, he wanted me to follow him back. Heh, so that’s probably the reason he was so confident I’d go with him.”

Mu sounded surprised. “Yezi, it seems you’ve become smarter.”

“Mm. If that’s really the case, then this thing...” Ye Chong’s expression suddenly changed. “Then it definitely won’t flare up just once!”

The instant he finished saying that conclusion, Ye Chong’s mind went blank with a loud buzz.

At the thought of enduring this hell who knew how many more times, his face immediately turned as ugly as a bitter melon.

Mu could only sigh from the side. “Poor Yezi.”

Still, Ye Chong had no way back now. If he were made to return to Black Horn and become another man’s tool, he would sooner die than accept it. The tough nerves and unyielding fighting spirit he had honed on Garbage Star were, without doubt, exactly what he needed most at this moment. Not to mention Mu and Shang.

The strange illness he had long feared had somehow failed to strike, even after several days. That, rather unexpectedly, left Ye Chong deeply puzzled.

Yet when he thought it over, he realized that even if he had been prepared, it would have been useless. By then he had already completely lost control over his body, and Mu had not even been able to receive his brain waves. With that in mind, Ye Chong felt much more at ease. For the sake of safety, he tried to go out as little as possible, not even visiting Grandpa Qian anymore. He had no idea when the illness would strike; but once it did, if anything unexpected happened, he would be nothing more than a lamb awaiting slaughter, with no power to resist.

So Ye Chong stayed in the modification room all day, while Mu remained outside. There were plenty of battle armors in here anyway, so Mu did not stand out. Besides, he could protect Ye Chong at critical moments.

However, while Ye Chong shut himself away, others came looking for him.

The one who came was Rui Su. The moment she saw Ye Chong, she wore a dark expression. “Ye Chong, my sister wants you to come to my house!”

“Your sister?” Ye Chong asked with a frown.

“The one who came with me that day!” Rui Su suddenly remembered what had happened then, and her face reddened slightly.

“Oh.” Ye Chong understood it was the woman he had fought before. If it had been any other time, he would probably have gone. He had great interest in that strange move of hers. But now, he absolutely would not go.

Without even thinking, and without asking what it was about, Ye Chong refused flatly. “I’m not going.”

Rui Su was instantly furious, her face going white with anger. “Y-you...”

Ye Chong felt that the woman before him was somewhat inexplicable, so he simply ignored her.

Seeing that Ye Chong had no intention of paying her any mind, Rui Su’s expression changed again and again. At last she reverted to her usual fierce nature. “Ye Chong, are you even a man? I’ve never seen such a spineless man as you. I’m telling you to come to my house and you won’t even dare. You coward, you lily-livered wretch...”

Ye Chong watched Rui Su’s solo performance with indifference. He had always had a very high immunity to verbal attacks.

“Mu, shouldn’t people be afraid of death?” Ye Chong asked.

“Should be,” Mu said.

“Then isn’t being a coward perfectly normal?” Ye Chong asked.

“Mm. In society, people all regard fearing death as shameful, even though in truth they all fear death very much,” Mu explained.

“How boring,” Ye Chong sighed.

“Indeed,” Mu readily agreed.

At last Rui Su realized that none of this had any use against Ye Chong. She had cursed herself hoarse and grown tired from the effort, though her anger had faded by quite a bit.

Seeing that force would not work, Rui Su switched to softness. “Ye Chong, please, just go to my house once. My sister really just wants to meet you. Mm... come on...”

Her watery, pleading eyes were full of entreaty. If it had been anyone ordinary, they would probably have had a burst of hot blood and agreed on the spot.

But Ye Chong had no concept of that at all.

“Mu, what is she doing?” Ye Chong asked in puzzlement.

“Mm, she’s hoping to awaken your protective instincts by taking on the posture of a weaker person,” Mu answered succinctly, then added, “Many women use this method to win a man’s sympathy.”

“Hoping the enemy will sympathize with her?” Ye Chong asked in disbelief. The logic struck him as absurd.

“Er...” Mu clearly paused. “The relationship between men and women is not an adversarial one.”

“Then what is it?” Ye Chong asked.

“Mm, you should ask Shang about that. He has more research in this area,” Mu replied quickly.

No matter what Rui Su said, Ye Chong paid her no attention at all. Rui Su had never expected him to be so troublesome—immune to force, impervious to coaxing, and not swayed even by the most reliable methods. She was completely out of tricks.

Thinking of what her younger sister had told her, Rui Su’s tears suddenly poured down.

That did surprise Ye Chong a little. But only a little.

Rui Su stopped crying and looked at Ye Chong with tear-filled eyes. “What exactly will it take for you to see my sister?”

Ye Chong thought for a moment. “If she wants to see me, let her come here.”

With Mu here, Ye Chong believed that even if his strange illness suddenly flared up, nothing would happen to his safety.

Rui Su rushed out of the modification room in tears.

Along the way, the students who witnessed this scene could not help feeling heartfelt admiration for Ye Chong. The once-unbeatable “Demoness Su” had actually shed tears before Teacher Ye Chong not once, but twice. Truly formidable.

What Ye Chong had not expected was that Rui Bing actually did come in the end—and alone.