Chapter 563 - 560: The Healer’s Strongest Body

"We were lucky. It was a tall stalk." Xi jumped down from the leaf, his whole body trembling, and collapsed onto the ground like a salted fish.

Li Luo, on the other hand, leaped gracefully over a few leaves and landed lightly beside Xi.

"Are you okay?" Li Luo asked, concerned.

"I'm fine. Just let me rest for a bit." Xi lay on the ground, trembling all over. He had clearly overexerted himself, and his muscles were starting to twitch.

"Humans have such great stamina," Xi couldn't help but sigh.

"It's that Healers are too fragile," Li Luo retorted. She then took the opportunity to ask the question that had been on her mind.

"Why don't Healers use their healing powers to modify their own bodies?"

Xi's answer was completely unexpected.

"Because this *is* our healthiest state."

'The healthiest state?' Li Luo stared at Xi's skeletal frame. He was so gaunt he looked like a terminally ill old man. 'This is considered healthy?'

"Of course. In this state, the healing power we wield is stronger, and our perception of illness is more acute..."

Li Luo nodded, only half-understanding his explanation. Still, she couldn't help but press him. "But why is it stronger? Is there a reason for that?"

Xi didn't try to hide anything and posed a question of his own.

"Let's use humans as an example. Who do you think is more sensitive to illness: a robust young person, or an old man in his twilight years?"

"The old man, of course," Li Luo answered instinctively.

"Exactly. The more fragile the body, the more acute the perception of illness. A common cold might have no effect on a healthy young person, but for an elderly person with a weak immune system, it could be fatal. The symptoms of an illness are far more obvious and intense in an older person's body."

"Only with a body like this can we better sense the presence of disease and understand its cause. A perfect body can't feel illness at all. If our sensitivity to disease were to become dull, our healing abilities would suffer. That's why we maintain this condition. For us, it is the 'healthiest' state."

"I see." Li Luo nodded in understanding. "So, you're not just physically fragile, you also have very weak immune systems?"

"Yes," Xi confirmed. "Our bodies can be infected by almost any disease. Our bones are brittle, our joints have spurs, and our internal organs get inflamed from time to time. We develop cancer cells. Not only that, but we also have endocrine disorders, muscle atrophy, sensitive skin, severe arteriosclerosis..."

Listening to Xi's account, Li Luo started to feel phantom pains in her own body.

"If our bodies were too strong and tough, we wouldn't even be able to sustain external injuries. With bodies as fragile as ours, we often break a bone from a simple bump. This means we can constantly be healing, which allows us to constantly train our healing abilities."

"Are you healing yourself right now, too?"

"Of course. If I stop, my body will fall apart. Like this..."

Xi paused. Then, Li Luo watched as blood began to seep from his skin and horrible bruises blossomed across his body.

"What's happening?"

"My blood vessels burst. Their walls are thin and brittle. I just exerted myself, so my blood pressure is a little high. It makes them burst easily."

Li Luo nodded blankly. Recalling Xi's physical condition, she quickly understood.

"You should heal yourself, quickly."

'My own blood pressure is starting to feel a little high...'

Xi was like someone driving a junker cobbled together from scrap metal. He had to constantly repair the car just to keep it from falling apart mid-drive.

But the whole reason he was driving this clunker was to hone his "repair skills."

Li Luo unconsciously squeezed her own arm. After seeing the bruises on Xi, she felt a little "pained" herself.

"Are you feeling unwell?" Xi noticed her small movement and asked with concern.

"I'm fine." Li Luo quickly shook her head and lowered her arm. "You should worry about yourself..."

Xi was now convulsing all over, strange spots of blood and bruises still appearing on his skin. He lay on the ground like a corpse, limbs curled, looking completely past the point of no return.

"It'll be fine in a second, don't worry," Xi said as he began to heal himself.

Soon, the bruises on Xi's body faded and the twitching stopped. He struggled to push himself up and get to his feet.

...

"That's strange. I'm healing so slowly." Xi looked at his hand, confused. "It seems like my healing ability has been suppressed ever since we arrived on the Central Island..."

Xi stood up straight and looked ahead. They were on the edge of the Sky Island. There were no plants in sight, only bare rock. The distance was shrouded in mist, and they could vaguely make out something moving within the dense fog, but they couldn't see what it was.

"Besides your healing ability, is anything else off?"

Hearing this, Li Luo immediately grew tense.

"The mist on the Central Island is thicker, and there's a strange smell..." Xi stepped forward, reaching out as if to grasp the dense fog.

But the mist swirled abruptly, evading his hand.

Immediately after, a violent tremor emanated from the depths of the fog.

Something was approaching.

Xi's movement seemed to have triggered some kind of alarm. The shadow in the fog, as if it had sensed them, began to approach them rapidly.

Li Luo and Xi immediately went on guard, their eyes fixed on the dense fog.

However, before the shadow could draw near, the dense fog wavered. The violent tremors ceased in an instant, and the shadow vanished. The mist remained thick and still, as if nothing had happened.

"What was that? It just disappeared?" Xi asked, puzzled.

Li Luo, however, looked directly toward the Block.

'The Block must have done it!'

...

「Inside the Block」

Mo Ling sat on a sofa, staring at the enormous body on the metal floor.

'It's that black-sphere weapon...' Mo Ling recognized it at a glance. The body was composed of the same kind of small black spheres they had found in the administrator's Healing Space.

And now, those black spheres had converged to form a massive Headless Giant.

Moments ago, the giant had been about to charge out of the fog to attack Li Luo and Xi. But Mo Ling's vision wasn't obstructed by the mist, and he had acted decisively, teleporting the giant directly into the Block.

Now, the giant lay on the floor.

However, to Mo Ling's shock, the giant was still struggling, trying to push itself up from the metal floor.

'It survived the teleportation? It's not dead?'

'What's going on?'

Mo Ling shot up from the sofa in shock.

This was the first time he had ever seen something that could move freely inside the Block.