Chapter 23: The Omnipresent She Ruiwen

  "Ah——oh——ah——” Su Qi's every move was now a heart-wrenching pain. Even the simple action of getting out of bed had to be divided into three parts: first, she would turn onto her side, then sit up, and finally jump down from the bed. Her entire body felt stiff, like a wooden puppet, perhaps even less agile than one.

  "Su Qi Ruo, aren't you just taking a break? Do you have to torture yourself like this?" The dormitory sisters saw Su Qi Ruo being supported by Lu Ke and walking slowly towards the dormitory on the day they returned to school. The most exaggerated thing was that she had to rest after every two steps, and it took her almost an hour to walk from the school gate to the dormitory, which is only about 300 meters away. This was still with Lu Ke's support, if Su Qi Ruo were walking by herself, who knows how many hours it would take.

  "I'm going to climb Mount Tai." Su Qi said with a forced smile, every step feeling like a knife cutting through flesh. I finally understand the struggles of The Little Mermaid, if it were me, I would definitely give up on the prince, it's just too painful.

  "You're so tired and still going to self-study? Won't you miss your little boyfriend?" Dormitory sisters teased Su Qi with a big eye roll. "I'm doing it for the postgraduate exam, what's this about a little boyfriend? Don't corrupt your minds!"

  "Hey! Your little boyfriend is waiting outside!" The sister in the dormitory suddenly changed her tone and looked out of the window with a serious expression.

  "What? Is it true?" Su Qi Ruo was so excited that she immediately forgot about her nearly disabled legs and took a step forward before falling back onto the bed, "Ahh— Ahh—"

  The sister in the bedroom couldn't help but remind her, "Don't look anymore, they're really waiting downstairs. Hurry up and go down, you can make it within half an hour."

  "Okay, okay." Su Qi Ruo slowly made her way out of the room, and just as her dorm sisters had said, it took almost twenty minutes for her to appear in front of Lu Ke.

  Lu Ke looked at Su Qi's legs, which were still a bit swollen and not very agile, "How come it's been so many days and you're still not better?"

  "It's only been a few days! Just three days!" Su Qi suddenly remembered that he was opening the water vein in Zhengjia Village, but somehow he fainted and didn't wake up until two days later. When he first woke up, he had no idea what his physical condition was like, and when he made a sudden movement, he almost cried out in pain. It wasn't until later that he heard from She Ruiwen about the situation at the time, but he didn't know if She Ruiwen was exaggerating or not, saying things like "a whole family almost died to save you" and so on. When Su Qi asked him to elaborate, he refused to speak, clearly making it up. Fortunately, the important matter had been taken care of, and a new water vein had been rebuilt. It seemed that the Wood Spirit was quite powerful, able to rebuild water veins. The gap between Su Qi and the Wood Spirit was still quite large, but he couldn't let Lu Ke and She Ruiwen know about the Wood Spirit's involvement in opening the water vein, or they would start to fear him.

  "It's been three days already." Lu Ke stepped forward and supported Su Qi Ruo, "Let's go to the study room and use spiritual energy to help you unblock your body, it will speed up your recovery."

  "How did you unblock it? Teach me!" I didn't know spiritual energy had this function, I must learn it well.

  Lu Ke glanced at Su Qi Ruo without responding. The injury Su Qi Ruo had sustained was caused by a spiritual energy impact and didn't require any treatment, only time to recover on her own. Spiritual energy merely served as a pain reliever for the body. Once her body fully recovered under the nourishment of spiritual energy, her control over it should be even stronger than before. A Su Qi Ruo like that would be even harder to control.

  "If you don't want to say it, then just don't, why glare at me?" Su Qi muttered discontentedly.

  As soon as he entered the self-study room, Ye Ruiwen was already sitting in Su Qi's seat. Su Qi looked at Ye Ruiwen's big smile and felt a little dizzy. What was this guy thinking again?

  "Oh dear! They saw that there was still space in the self-study room and came over to study!"

  "Sū Qí Ruò expressed extreme doubt towards Yè Ruì Wén, 'You, a prodigy, still need to study by yourself?'"

  "Alas! Learning is boundless indeed!" replied She Ruiwen with a serious tone.

  Su Qi Ru nodded in agreement with Xi Rui Wen's opinion, "However, since there are so many seats available in the study room, can you not sit in my seat?"

  Shi Ruiwen reluctantly replied, "I'll sit in the front then." Shi Ruiwen unwillingly moved to the position in front of Su Qiuruo, and that scorpion again snatched the spot in front of me! Otherwise, I would be staring at Su Qiuruo every day now! No wonder she's been staring at her without taking her spiritual energy source - it turns out the Water God's spiritual energy source is so terrifying. Luckily, I didn't impulsively make a move beforehand, or else I would have burst my body apart for sure. It seems I should take things slowly. Anyway, constantly staring at her will eventually give me an opportunity to make a move. However, after absorbing that much pure spiritual energy last time, it seems my power has increased significantly again. That scorpion absorbed even more than me, so it's probably not easy to deal with now either. But, has my charm decreased or something? Why is Su Qiuruo treating me and the scorpion completely differently?

  Shi Ruiwen's intentions were not good, and Lu Ke had known his thoughts for a long time, but he couldn't stop him. The two of them had absorbed Su Qi Ruo's pure spiritual energy that day, although their powers were stronger than before, but their bodies also suffered damage. If they were to confront Shi Ruiwen without a guarantee of victory, and since Su Qi Ruo's spiritual source was not something one person could handle alone, it wasn't a bad thing for multiple people to share the burden. They would wait for another opportunity to deal with Shi Ruiwen later.

  Two people each had their own thoughts and got along peacefully, but Su Qi was not particularly comfortable. With the addition of Lu Ke, it was already annoying, and now with the talkative Shi Ruwen, did she want to live? Moreover, rumors were scary. In the past, one Lu Ke was still easy to explain, but now with the addition of Shi Ruwen, what was going on? Su Qi suddenly thought of the strange scene at the class reunion, would Shi Ruwen create another similar disturbance? Looking at Shi Ruwen's abnormal behavior, it was very possible!

  "Relax and read!" Lu Ke saw Su Qi staring at the book for half a day without turning the page and couldn't help but remind her. He then placed his hand on Su Qi's back and used his spiritual power to ease her pain. If Su Qi didn't get into graduate school, he would have to take a leave of absence to follow her, or find a job near her school. In any case, before he could undo the Soul Binding Curse, he had to ensure Su Qi's safety. The effects of the curse were indeed strengthened, and Lu Ke also felt the same abnormal sensations in his body as Su Qi did. How despicable! He would have to tear that guy who taught him the Soul Binding Curse into a million pieces to vent his anger!

  "Ah-choo!" The wooden god tightened his clothes, it's really frustrating that since he absorbed Su Qi Rao's spiritual power, his strength has increased but his body has become much weaker. It's not even winter yet and he's already catching a cold, looks like he needs to wear more layers. Wonder how that kid is doing now, absorbing so much spiritual power might be better if he shared some with him, who knows it might improve his physique, otherwise he'll just be sulking around every day, it's really annoying to see.