Chapter 71: Walking Together

The footsteps in the first-floor corridor stopped abruptly.

Two figures in black robes walking there raised their heads, looking alertly toward the staircase on the second floor.

There, Bai Jingxuan lay motionless on the ground, unwilling to rise like a turtle tucking in its head.

Although she knew this was useless, whether pretending to be dead or feigning ignorance, neither could change the fact that she had already been exposed. Yet, failing to escape in such a manner was still hard for her to accept.

Having a sudden relapse of an old ailment at such a moment was simply too ill-timed.

The congenital disease she suffered from could not even be diagnosed by hospitals; its trigger was unknown, and there were no such cases on her family's genetic pedigree, yet it happened to her alone.

The clinical manifestation of this illness was exactly as it was now: limb muscles suddenly losing control, accompanied by weakness, as if she were partially paralyzed. Unlike epilepsy in the traditional sense, during this process, Bai Jingxuan's mind remained clear, and she could perceive time and changes in the external environment normally.

The attacks had no pattern, and no known medication could alleviate them. The only thing worth being grateful for was that this illness usually affected only skeletal muscles during an attack, and the duration typically lasted only a few minutes; Bai Jingxuan remembered the caregiver telling her that if a similar condition affected the heart muscle, she might not have survived to the present.

And now, with an attack occurring at such a critical juncture, it made no difference to Bai Jingxuan which part of her body was affected.

Hearing the sound, the two figures in black robes had already ascended the stairs and saw her lying on the steps.

She even saw one of the black-robed figures pull out something resembling a communication device and begin reporting her discovery to someone.

She wanted to stand up and continue fleeing, but the duration of the illness's effect clearly had not ended; her legs would need at least several more minutes to return to her control.

She tried to support herself with her hands and crawl, but her speed could not possibly exceed that of two healthy humans.

She was probably beyond saving; being found by these people surely meant nothing good, it was just a pity she had not yet become a magical girl.

Bai Jingxuan thought.

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

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

Immediately, she felt her body shift sideways, as if someone had hoisted her onto their shoulder.

"It's not time to give up yet!"

A trembling call came from beside her ear.

Opening her eyes, what she saw was the corridor rushing backward at high speed, and the two figures in black robes running and chasing in the distance.

Hadn't she been caught by them?

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

"Uncle Tian?"

That was a male caregiver named Tian Sheng; although he did not usually take care of her, they had interacted a bit in daily life and were relatively familiar with each other.

But where had he appeared from, and why was he fleeing with her?

She did not ask this question, so Tian Sheng would not know her thoughts. But whether by coincidence or not, Tian Sheng was currently thinking about this very thing:

Why was he fleeing with this child? Why had he come out of that storage room?

Wasn't it better to hide inside and wait for rescue? Why come out to seek death?

He knew Bai Jingxuan and knew this child's plight, and indeed held a certain degree of sympathy for her. However, this level of sympathy was far from enough to make him risk his life.

It was just that when he was hiding in the storage room and saw that child lying on the stairs, motionless and appearing as if she wanted to end her life, his feet moved before he could think.

He pushed open the door, which had only been slightly ajar, and rushed forward in long strides.

Before that group of terrorists could catch the girl, he hoisted her onto his shoulder, then began sprinting along the second-floor corridor.

Facing the suddenly appearing Tian Sheng, the figures in black robes were only stunned for a moment before they all moved their feet and followed without hesitation; the two groups thus began a chase through the corridor.

Tian Sheng was not an athlete; his running speed was not outstanding compared to an average adult male, placing him in a weak and passive position during the pursuit.

The figures in black robes following closely behind were different; they were clearly well-trained, their running speed surpassing Tian Sheng's, so even though they started later, the distance between the two was constantly shortening.

More dangerously, when Tian Sheng slightly turned his gaze to look behind him, he saw a purple-black Gao Weiguang flashing in the hands of one of the figures in black robes.

—That was a precursor to casting a spell.

It seems there is no time to drag this out, he thought.

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

Ignoring the girl's confused call, he shouted an order. Then he released the hand holding Bai Jingxuan's shirt, changed to clamping her lower legs in the crook of his arm, and pulled two square objects resembling dice from his chest pocket.

These were the spell mediums he had prepared.

For an ordinary mage, the few basic elements required to research, master, and use a spell are mana, soul, and medium.

Mana is the energy source of the spell; only by stimulating and supplying mana to activate the spell inscription can the spell produce an effect.

The soul is the means of controlling the spell; relying on the guidance of the soul to ensure the spell's stability and direction of effect allows the spell's final result to meet one's needs.

The medium is the operating hub of the spell; the mage relies on materials collected in advance, spending vast amounts of mana, resources, and time to inscribe the spell inscription, integrating the final result into a small device.

To use a metaphor with modern firearms, mana is the bullet, the soul is the hand, and the medium is the gun. Only by using the hand to pull the trigger of the gun can the bullet be fired, causing damage.

However, for mages, their mediums are all painstakingly inscribed with their own mana, so they have extremely high consistency with the individual's mana fluctuations and cannot be used by outsiders.

Furthermore, mediums have a durability; as the number of uses increases, the efficiency of releasing spells will decrease, eventually rendering them useless and unusable.

When that day comes, the mage can only create the medium corresponding to that spell again.

This also leads to the fact that in modern society, the total number of mages is not large; after all, to engage in spell research, one must first possess relatively superior mana talent, while most ordinary people have mana that is too weak; second, one must have a high level of education to learn the complex theories of magical spells; third, one must have corresponding channels to access knowledge of magical spells; on top of this, requiring sufficient financial resources to purchase the magical materials needed to make mediums is simply too difficult.

Ultimately, many mages struggling with income not covering expenses can only turn to crime.

Tian Sheng considered himself a law-abiding good citizen; the money he spent on materials was earned through his own hard work, and therefore his progress was relatively slow, having only just barely crossed the threshold of a Seeker to this day.

The three strength stages of mages are Seeker, Contact, and Control; he was the most inexperienced rookie among them.

A direct confrontation with those terrorists behind him was unrealistic; the only thing he could do was delay them a bit longer.

And at this moment, he took out his spell medium; the spell he was about to use was one even a rookie could master — a Mana Barrier.