Chapter 71: Fleeing Together

The footsteps in the first-floor corridor came to a halt.

Two figures in black robes walking within looked up, gazing alertly toward the stairwell on the second floor.

There, Bai Jingxuan lay motionless on the ground, not wanting to get up, like a turtle retracting into its shell.

Although she knew it was useless—whether playing dead or pretending to be ignorant, nothing could change the fact that she had already been exposed—she still found it hard to accept failing to escape in such a manner.

To have an old illness flare up at a time like this was simply too ill-timed.

She suffered from a congenital disease that even hospitals could not diagnose; the trigger was unknown, and there were no such cases in her family’s genetic history, yet it had happened to her alone.

The clinical manifestation of this illness was just as it was now: a sudden loss of control over limb muscles, accompanied by weakness, as if she were partially paralyzed. Unlike traditional epilepsy, however, Bai Jingxuan’s mind remained clear during this process, and she could perceive time and changes in the external environment normally.

The attacks had no pattern, and among known medications, there was nothing that could alleviate them. The only thing to be thankful for was that when this illness struck, it usually only affected skeletal muscles and typically lasted for a few minutes; Bai Jingxuan remembered hearing a nurse say that if a similar condition affected her heart muscle, she might not have lived until now.

But at this current juncture, regardless of which part of her body was affected, it made no difference to Bai Jingxuan.

The two black-robed figures, having heard the sound, had already walked up the stairs and spotted her lying on the steps.

She even saw one of the black-robed figures take out something like a communication device and begin reporting their discovery to someone.

She wanted to stand up and continue running, but the duration of the illness’s effect was clearly not over; her legs would need at least several more minutes to regain control.

She tried to use her hands to support her body and crawl, but her speed could not possibly be faster than two able-bodied people.

She was likely doomed; nothing good would come of being found by these people, it was just a pity she hadn't yet become a magical girl.

Bai Jingxuan thought to herself.

No longer struggling, she closed her eyes and accepted her fate.

Then, a pair of hands reached under her armpits and lifted her high up.

Immediately after, she felt her body go horizontal, as if someone had hoisted her onto their shoulder.

"It’s not time to give up yet!"

A call filled with a slight tremor reached her ears.

Opening her eyes, what she saw was the corridor receding at high speed, and the two black-robed figures chasing from behind.

Hadn't she been caught by them?

Bai Jingxuan was momentarily stunned, unable to grasp her current situation, so she tried to turn her head to look at the person carrying her. Even though she could only see the back of his head, the vaguely recognizable figure still allowed her to identify who it was.

"Uncle Tian?"

That was a male nurse named Tian Sheng. Although he was not responsible for taking care of her on a daily basis, the two had interacted before and were relatively familiar with each other.

But where had he appeared from, and why was he carrying her to escape?

She did not ask this question, so Tian Sheng would not know her thoughts. But whether it was a coincidence or not, Tian Sheng happened to be thinking about this very thing right now:

Why was he running away with this child? Why did he come out of that utility room?

Wouldn't it have been better to hide inside and wait for rescue? Why did he have to come out and court death?

He knew Bai Jingxuan and was aware of the child’s plight, and he did indeed harbor a certain degree of sympathy for her. However, that level of sympathy was not enough to make him risk his life.

It was just that when he was hiding in the utility room and saw the child collapse on the stairs, motionless as if she were seeking death, his feet had moved before his mind did.

He pushed open the door that had only been left ajar and charged forward with long strides.

He hoisted the girl onto his shoulder before that group of terrorists could catch her, and then began to sprint along the second-floor corridor.

Faced with the sudden appearance of Tian Sheng, the black-robed figures only paused for a moment before moving their feet and following without hesitation; the two parties thus began a chase in the corridor.

Tian Sheng was no athlete, and his running speed was not outstanding compared to an average adult male; he was in a weak and passive position in the pursuit.

The black-robed figures following closely behind were different; they were clearly well-trained and their running speed surpassed Tian Sheng’s, so even though they started later, the distance between them was constantly shrinking.

Even more dangerous was that when Tian Sheng glanced slightly to the side to look behind him, he noticed a purple-black shimmer appearing in the hands of one of the black-robed figures.

—That was the precursor to using a spell.

It seemed he couldn't drag this out any longer, he thought.

"Hold on tight! If you fall off again, I won't have time to turn back and save you!"

Ignoring the girl’s confused cry, he shouted an order. He then let go of the hand holding Bai Jingxuan’s jacket, instead tucking her lower legs into the crook of his arm, and pulled two square, dice-like objects from his chest pocket.

These were the spell mediums he had prepared.

For an ordinary mage, the basic elements required to research, master, and use spells were magic power, soul, and a medium.

Magic power was the energy source for a spell; stimulating and supplying magic power to activate a spell inscription was the only way to make the spell take effect.

The soul was the means of controlling a spell; relying on the guidance of the soul to ensure the stability and direction of the spell was the only way to make the final effect of the spell meet one’s needs.

The medium was the operational hub of a spell; mages relied on materials collected beforehand, spending a great deal of magic power, resources, and time to carve a spell inscription, ultimately consolidating the final result into a small device.

Using modern firearms as a metaphor, magic power was the bullet, the soul was the hand, and the medium was the gun. Only by using one’s hand to pull the trigger of the gun could one fire the bullet and cause damage.

However, for mages, their mediums were all painstakingly carved with their own magic power, so they had a very high degree of consistency with their own magic fluctuations and could not be handed over to others to use.

Furthermore, mediums had durability; as the number of uses increased, the efficiency of releasing spells would become lower and lower, until they eventually broke down and could no longer be used.

When that day came, the mage would have to make a new medium corresponding to that spell.

This also led to the fact that in modern society, the total number of mages was not high. After all, to engage in the research of spells, one first needed to possess relatively superior talent for magic power, whereas the magic power within most ordinary people was too weak; second, one needed a high level of education to learn the complex theories of magic spells; third, one needed the corresponding channels to access knowledge of magic spells. On top of this, requiring sufficient financial resources to purchase the magic materials to make mediums was simply too difficult.

In the end, many mages struggling to make ends meet could only embark on a path of crime.

Tian Sheng considered himself a law-abiding citizen; the money he used to buy materials was all earned through his own hard work, and because of this, his progress was relatively slow, and to this day he had only just barely crossed the threshold of a Seeker.

Of the three stages of a mage’s strength—Seeker, Contact, and Controller—he was the greenest of greenhorns.

Fighting head-on with the terrorists behind him was unrealistic; all he could do was stall for more time.

And right now, he took out his spell medium, intending to use a spell that even a greenhorn could master—Magic Barrier.