Chapter 170: Really? Or Not?

Pain!

Bone-deep agony jolted the girl awake, followed immediately by intense weakness.

She wanted to push herself up at once, but found she lacked even the strength to move her hands, forced instead to strain her neck to see her own condition.

"Don't move around. Your injuries are complicated. Damn, can you even understand me? Shit, not another one who overdosed and tried to kill themselves?"

A slightly unserious, yet weary voice reached her eardrums; the girl barely managed to twist her body and saw a young man in a white coat, beside whom stood a young woman dressed as a nurse, strikingly beautiful.

"Where's my gear?"

Though she couldn't see her own body, the mere fact that she couldn't move told her her gear had been stripped off; the man shrugged and said:

"It interfered with treatment, so we took it off. Right beside you. Nothing inside was touched."

"Phew…" The girl exhaled in relief. Though she hadn't confirmed it with her own eyes, the man had no reason to deceive her—or rather, if she'd truly been captured by those alien bastards, she'd be in an interrogation room right now, dead or alive.

But then she began to doubt: could this be a trap set by those aliens, meant to lull her into complacency and reveal the location of their base?

Feng Xue didn't care what the girl was thinking right now. Though he found her gear interesting, clearly wasn't the time to discuss it; seeing she refused to ask about her condition, he adopted a professional tone:

"Your left kidney, pancreas, and part of your digestive tract were cut open. Fortunately, all the fragments remained inside, so we can still fix it. I've already sutured you up. A few days' rest should be fine."

"Even if I'm not a professional, I know internal organs can't be stitched up this easily," the girl thought silently, but didn't speak; instead, she followed his lead:

"When can I move freely?"

"You have over seventeen fractures in both legs. Though emergency treatment was performed, full mobility will take time. But if you're talking about using a wheelchair or crutches, about a week should do." Feng Xue gave a timeline that deepened her suspicion, but he didn't care whether she believed him—he simply hooked up the diluted beast medicine to her, then left the ward with the nurse-dressed Liu Yunxi.

Feeling the cold medicine flow into her body through the back of her hand, the girl desperately wanted to struggle—she even suspected the vial might contain truth serum—but her body was utterly drained; even turning her neck or blinking was her limit.

She took a shallow breath, resisting mental fatigue, comparing her current state with the drug reactions she'd learned in her organization, while also recalling one question—

Where am I?

"I think I just ran into a… yes! 【Bai Tu Pharmacy】!" As the image of a cute white rabbit sign flashed in her mind, her memories began to return; simultaneously, intelligence she'd seen in her organization surfaced:

"I remember this was an urban legend from over half a month ago—a rumored underground clinic that only opens at night. The doctor here is Gao Chao, fees are cheap, but insurance doesn't cover it… If he actually saved me, it's not just 'Gao Chao'—it's something else entirely!"

Recalling her injuries, the girl couldn't help but doubt: was this just a dream she'd had before dying?

Yet the more she thought this, the more she resisted sleep; yet under the combined exhaustion of body and mind, her willpower ultimately couldn't hold out. After fighting sleep for three hours, she finally lost consciousness.

…

"Finally asleep!" Feng Xue sighed after waiting three hours outside, his tone holding no small measure of admiration—but as he entered, a black mist slowly enveloped the girl.

Her closed eyelids snapped open; her once jewel-bright eyes now held no focus.

Though the girl appeared young, her will was extremely strong—even during unconsciousness, 【Gui Mi Xin】 and 【Gui Shang Shen】 had no effect. Only now, having finally released that breath, did her will show the slightest crack.

Feng Xue sat calmly beside the bed and asked:

"Name?"

"Koyomi Koyuki."

"Identity?"

"..." The girl hesitated visibly, but before the locked 【Gui Mi Xin】, she could not help but speak:

"Member of the Anti-Giant He Xing Front Action Group."

"What is the Anti-Giant He Xing Front?" Feng Xue asked, voice flat.

"A force formed by Nihon natives to resist Giant He Xing rule. Main activities include assassinating Giant He Xing elites, sabotaging Giant He Xing laboratories, and eliminating collaborators with the Giant He Xing."

"About what I expected." Feng Xue muttered inwardly, then asked:

"What was the goal of your mission?"

"To seize the Faith Seed, disrupt the Giant He Xing's research on deities, and attempt to cultivate deities to break through the Giant He Xing's faith blockade."

"Faith Seed? What's that? How did you even know about it?" Feng Xue frowned, sensing this was more complex than he thought—he'd assumed the woman had stolen some critical intel stored in that power-volition-driven gear, but now it sounded like she'd stolen a physical object? And called it a Faith Seed?

"The Faith Seed is the core of a deity. Only by possessing a Faith Seed can one cultivate a deity. Twenty years ago, our organization's predecessors attacked a Giant He Xing research facility, decrypted their experimental data, and learned of the Faith Seed's existence. We spent over a decade, sacrificing countless lives, to finally seize one from the Giant He Xing."

"Holy shit, these idiots must've been fooled!" Feng Xue rolled his eyes. The Virtual God was just something that condensed from sufficient quantities of similar volition—there was no such thing as a Faith Seed!

Still, he didn't jump to conclusions. After all, this world was different—what if here, deities truly required a seed to be born?

Thinking of this, he activated 【Gui Shang Shen】 again, letting Mo Ying take control of the girl's body, then said:

"Do you have the Faith Seed on you? Show it to me!"

"Yes." Under Mo Ying's assistance, Koyomi Koyuki struggled to reach for her gear. After fingerprint, voiceprint, and password authentication, she pulled a metal vial from her combat suit. To Feng Xue's surprise, the object genuinely carried a faint aura of volition.

"Could there really be such a thing as a Faith Seed?" Feng Xue hesitated, then didn't open the vial directly, but said to Mo Ying:

"Go inside and see what's in there!"

(End of Chapter)