Chapter 536 - 533: Physician, Heal Thyself

Chapter 536: Chapter 533: Physician, Heal Thyself

Healer Xi looked at his companion, who was still trying to persuade him to stop protecting the Red Spirit Flowers and think of himself.

"You have such a bright future. The Elders told me they think very highly of you. They were originally planning to have you work on the central island, but now you’re still so stubbornly misguided..."

Listening to his companion, Healer Xi felt even more guilty.

’It seems I really am the one who’s sick...’

He looked out at the Red Spirit Flowers blanketing the hills and asked, "You’ve been deceiving me all this time, haven’t you? You’re just using me to reproduce, right?"

The Red Spirit Flowers didn’t respond. They just continued to sway, affectionately calling him "Father."

A gentle breeze swept by, sending countless motes of red pollen into the air...

The Red Spirit Flowers, with their simple minds, seemed unable to comprehend Healer Xi’s words. They didn’t appear to know what "deception" or "use" meant, and just kept calling for their father, wanting him to play with them.

Healer Xi was lost in a trance again. He remembered that day, standing among the flowers as they pressed in around him, a rolling sea of red. It seemed nothing else mattered.

Healer Xi looked at his companion with a desolate expression and gave him a final message. "Please tell the Elders... I can no longer live up to their expectations..."

After saying this, Healer Xi plunged into the swaying sea of flowers without a second glance.

His companion scrambled to follow, but Healer Xi had already vanished.

...

In the heart of the Red Spirit Flower grove, Healer Xi knelt, cupping fallen petals in his hands.

"I’m not a worthy healer. I can’t save anyone..."

"I couldn’t save Hundred Flowers Island. I let the Red Spirit Flowers take over the land, crowding out countless other lives."

"I failed to honor the trust the Elders and my companions placed in me. I can’t do anything right."

"And I can’t save you. You, who were born from me, who call me Father. I can’t even protect you."

"And I can’t even save myself... But all of this has to end."

Healer Xi set the petals down and placed his hands upon the earth. Healing power poured from his arms into the ground. A gentle light instantly flooded the entire valley, then spilled out to cover all of Hundred Flowers Island.

Immediately, the Red Spirit Flowers outside the valley began to wither. This was Healer Xi’s healing of Hundred Flowers Island, an expulsion of the Red Spirit Flower "plague." It was also his answer to his companions and the Elders.

Then there was the Red Spirit Flower Valley. Even if they had deceived him, he still couldn’t bring himself to harm the flowers there, because they had truly cured his loneliness.

’Even if it was a lie, so what?’

’If you truly are a terrifying plague, then you will stay in this valley forever.’

Healer Xi used the last of his strength, treating the spread of the Red Spirit Flowers as a disease. He placed a seal upon them, one that would prevent them from ever spreading again. This was both a restriction and a form of protection.

Since he couldn’t completely strip the Red Spirit Flowers of their ability to reproduce, he would limit their range instead. Once the risk of them spreading everywhere was gone, they would no longer be treated as a "plague."

When all his power was spent, Healer Xi collapsed heavily to the ground, the light emanating from his body gradually fading.

This was the price for wantonly using his healing power. Because Healer Xi had his doubts about the true "illness," his healing was incredibly inefficient. He had to pour out every last ounce of his strength.

What he didn’t expect was that after he fell, his healing power shot up from the soil of Hundred Flowers Island into the sky, where it formed a blockade within the dark clouds.

Rain was forbidden.

Without him realizing, his healing power had become twisted, casting a permanent shadow over Hundred Flowers Island.

Although Hundred Flowers Island had escaped the Red Spirit Flower infestation, it had fallen into the grip of a terrible drought.

Even though the Red Spirit Flowers across Hundred Flowers Island had withered, the soil was saturated with their pollen. To prevent them from blooming again, the healing power simply forbade the rain.

By the time Healer Xi realized this, he had already collapsed amidst the flowers. Having lost his control, the healing power surged in directions he had never foreseen.

’When you try to save everyone, you end up saving no one...’

From that day on, not another drop of rain fell on Hundred Flowers Island. All the other flowers withered and died. The once vibrant, multicolored island became the land of desolate silence it was today, with only the valley, where moisture still gathered, remaining home to countless blooming Red Spirit Flowers.

The Red Spirit Flowers were still waiting for their father to awaken, keeping Healer Xi’s body alive. But as the healing power continued to pour from him, he remained trapped in his long slumber.

...

Amidst the dense, wet fog, Li Luo listened to the chaotic chatter and came to understand everything.

Her eyes slowly opened, and she looked once more at the withered figure in the sea of flowers.

The orb of light at its head was incredibly faint, and healing power was still steadily draining away. As long as the rain did not fall, Healer Xi would never awaken.

All his power was being used to cure the "disease" of the Red Spirit Flowers’ spread. As long as that affliction remained, his power would continue to drain away.

"What about his companion? The Elder Council? Aren’t there any other healers who can save him?" Li Luo asked the Red Spirit Flowers, confused.

’Hundred Flowers Island is in this state, so where did all the healers go?’

’Can’t they see what’s happened to this island?’

"Father’s friends? They have more important things to do..."

"A very, very bad sickness appeared. They had to go treat it, so they have no time for Hundred Flowers Island."

"Not a sickness! A patient! A very, very sick patient who could infect the entire Abyss. So all the healers are very busy. They haven’t come to Hundred Flowers Island in a long, long time, and there’s no one to save Father."

The Red Spirit Flowers chattered their replies all at once, but they couldn’t clearly explain what had happened.

’A very serious sickness? A very serious patient? What are they even talking about?’

Listening to their baffling words, Li Luo only grew more confused.

These Red Spirit Flowers were too simple-minded for any real conversation. For now, the only way to understand what truly happened was to wake Healer Xi.

But Li Luo had no idea how to wake him.

’Pain Transfer Pills don’t seem to work on this kind of power exhaustion...’

Gazing at the desiccated body, Li Luo was at a loss.

...

Meanwhile, inside the Block, Mo Ling was also completely bewildered.

’What is she doing?’

Mo Ling hadn’t been linked with the Red Spirit Flowers, so he naturally heard nothing. He had no idea what was going on. He just saw Li Luo muttering to herself and speaking incomprehensibly to the red flowers.

’Are those flowers controlling her?’

But Li Luo seemed perfectly lucid, not like she was under some kind of mental influence.

A dense, white mist filled the air. Sinister red flowers swayed erratically. A withered corpse lay on the ground, the light at its head flickering on and off. And the Young Lady, wrapped in Purple threads, was muttering to herself.

’None of this is normal...’

Mo Ling grew increasingly nervous. Li Luo had been talking to herself for a long time now. Sometimes she would let out a strange cry of surprise; other times, she would bow her head in confused contemplation, looking as if she were possessed.

The bizarre red flowers swayed more and more violently. Thorny vines crept ever closer. And the dim, flickering light on the withered corpse seemed to be staring right at him, making Mo Ling’s skin crawl.

’What are you looking at me for?!’

Mo Ling couldn’t stand it any longer. With a shift of his perspective, he instantly plunged into the orb of light...