The next morning, in a hospital room.
The sunlight was bright, and a gentle breeze wafted through the white curtains. The air in the room was fresh, without that unique hospital sll of disinfectant.
Su Xiao leaned against the hospital bed, his right arm wrapped in bandages, even his five fingers.
Bubu Wang lay on the bed beside him, sound asleep. Last night, Bubu Wang guarded the door all night to prevent enemies from attacking while Su Xiao was weak.
Su Xiao moved his right arm. Previously, it had been severed at the upper arm, but after last night’s surgery, it was perfectly reattached without any abnormalities.
The surgery was perford by a middle-aged doctor Su Xiao recognized from the original story. Known as Mingtu Zhuihun, his dical skills were unbelievably advanced, capable of performing heart surgery with local anesthesia. Reattaching a severed arm seed like a minor operation to him.
Not only was his right arm healed, but the wound on Su Xiao’s chest was also stitched up. Mingtu Zhuihun’s dical skill, combined with Su Xiao’s recovery ability, ant that his chest injury had mostly healed, with only the superficial stitches needing removal.
"Mingtu Zhuihun’s dical skills are even more advanced than I imagined, but he’s also more dangerous than I thought."
That’s right, after interacting with Mingtu Zhuihun, Su Xiao vaguely sensed so danger from him. Although he looked like just a middle-aged doctor on the surface, in reality, he was not.
Many years ago, Aleister had been severely injured and buried alive by people from the Magic Side. The doctor who saved him was none other than Mingtu Zhuihun.
Mingtu Zhuihun not only saved Aleister but was also a key figure in the establishnt of Academy City.
In the original story, there weren’t many people who dared to directly interfere and obstruct Aleister’s plans, Mingtu Zhuihun being one of them. Afterward, Aleister rely ntioned having a ’kind-hearted enemy,’ and nothing more was said.
From Aleister’s attitude, one could see Mingtu Zhuihun’s special status in Academy City. He didn’t participate in the city’s managent, but whenever he spoke, even Aleister couldn’t ignore him.
While Su Xiao was pondering, the door opened, and he turned to see a bald, middle-aged doctor in a white coat.
The rest of the doctor’s hair was slightly grayed, his body sowhat plump, round-faced, with an overall honest and gentle appearance.
However, no matter how Su Xiao looked at him, he felt that the doctor’s physique, face shape, and hairstyle combined made him look like a frog.
The frog-like doctor was Mingtu Zhuihun. He entered the room, followed by a young nurse.
The nurse approached, checking the IV bag hanging by the bed and pulled out a thermoter.
"My temperature is normal."
Su Xiao waved his hand, pulling out the IV needle from the back of his hand. To him, as long as his arm and chest injuries were okay, he could basically be discharged. However, he didn’t know much about the surgical process or how long until discharge.
"How soon can I be discharged?"
Upon hearing Su Xiao’s words, the young nurse hesitated for a mont: "If there are no discomforts, you can be discharged today."
In any other hospital, the nurse’s words might seem absurd, but this was a hospital overseen by Mingtu Zhuihun, so discharging this quickly wasn’t surprising.
"You may leave."
Mingtu Zhuihun spoke, and the nurse walked out of the room.
"You can be discharged now, but if you wish to ’work,’ you’ll have to wait until tomorrow or the day after. If the nerves at your arm’s reattachnt point sever again, I can’t guarantee you’ll be able to use weapons."
Mingtu Zhuihun seed to know sothing.
"Can’t it be quicker? The nature of my ’work’ is a bit special. If my ’business rivals’ recover first, I won’t have another chance to be hospitalized."
Su Xiao took out a cigarette, and Mingtu Zhuihun did not stop him.
As the smoke rose, it was dissipated by the breeze from the window, leaving a faint tobacco scent in the room.
"Certainly... not. If you recover too quickly, it would be unfortunate for others in a certain sense."
While Mingtu Zhuihun’s attitude wasn’t bad, it wasn’t overly pleasant either.
"Doctor, hearing that from you is quite piercing. As one of the creators of this large test field, you actually care whether others are unfortunate?"
Su Xiao sought to test Mingtu Zhuihun’s stance, as his dical skills could make future tasks smoother.
"It seems you know quite a bit. Did Aleister tell you? Rest assured, there are no Airopathic Circuits here."
Mingtu Zhuihun sat on the bed Bubu Wang was on; it seed his visit wasn’t just to check on a patient.
As soon as Mingtu Zhuihun entered the room, both parties had begun probing each other.
"No, do I look like the kind who knows nothing about this place and barges in unprepared?"
Mingtu Zhuihun being one of the creators of Academy City wasn’t much of a secret.
"True, soone in your profession knowing so secrets about this place isn’t strange, but you referred to this place as a large test field? You seem to have misunderstood the aning behind Academy City’s existence."
Mingtu Zhuihun sighed deeply, gazing out the window.
"So many have been sacrificed here, vibrant young lives. In contrast, this place has also birthed many technologies that benefit humanity. Perhaps to Aleister, this is a large test field, a cornerstone for one of his mad plans. But to , this is a pioneer in scientific developnt, with superpowers being just a small, flawed part."
After Mingtu Zhuihun finished speaking, the room fell silent.
"You wouldn’t be thinking... of killing that person, would you?"
Su Xiao looked intently at Mingtu Zhuihun.
"No, if he dies, this place would quickly beco a battlefield. If I wanted, I would’ve done so decades ago. Why wait until today, when Aleister has grown so powerful?"
Mingtu Zhuihun stood up, and as he reached the door, he suddenly spoke: "There’s a temple in the Twelfth School District. The scenery there is nice; once you’re healed, you should visit. Perhaps you’ll have unexpected gains."
Mingtu Zhuihun left the room. Su Xiao extinguished his cigarette and realized that the powers within Academy City weren’t solely dominated by Aleister.
Always lurking in the shadows, Mingtu Zhuihun was not to be underestimated.
Mingtu Zhuihun’s cryptic words before leaving offered Su Xiao a choice: to side with Aleister or Mingtu Zhuihun. Both belonged to the Scientific Side Forces, just different branches.
"So that’s how it is. I was wondering how Contractors could complete tasks in Academy City. It turns out there’s also the relatively mild force of Mingtu Zhuihun."
Su Xiao got out of bed, deducing from known clues that Contractors with strong intelligence capabilities wouldn’t flee Academy City imdiately. After all, Academy City is the main plot point of the Forbidden World of Magic. Leaving ans losing nurous opportunities to trigger side quests.
However, Su Xiao didn’t plan to join Mingtu Zhuihun’s forces. If the other wanted to collaborate, he would gladly agree, but joining was out of the question. Their ways of handling matters were too different. Compared to Mingtu Zhuihun, Su Xiao preferred working with Aleister. As for why Mingtu Zhuihun wanted to recruit him, the reason was simple: his combat strength was strong enough.
If Mingtu Zhuihun represented the good camp in Academy City, then Aleister was the evil camp. Both were enemies yet also friends, sharing technology while not interfering with each other’s managent. Indeed, two tigers can’t share one mountain, but Mingtu Zhuihun and Aleister were neither ’tigers.’ They were more like the difference between warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals.
Given Su Xiao’s ’kindness’ aura and his touching 6 points of Charm Attributes, joining the good camp was definitely not wise. Only evil n and evil n speak the sa language.
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