"Remember, for severe injuries, you need to use a high-strength Potential Activation Potion. Don’t be afraid of the pain—the point is to push your bodies into an overloaded state during the healing process. This way, you break down to build back stronger. Once you’ve fully recovered, your strength might even be a cut above what it was before."
"Don’t panic, kid."
Another upperclassman, who was treating the wound on Shi Potian’s severed arm, saw his tightly furrowed brow and offered a gentle word of comfort.
"It’s just an arm. No big deal. Once it’s healed, it won’t stop you from using a blade. Bro, in all my years of training, I’ve broken my arms dozens of times, and look at me. If anything, it helped me master my own signature killing move, the ’Severed Arm Trade.’ On the battlefield, I’ve used it to take out plenty of idiots from the myriad races who never saw it coming."
"..."
These upperclassmen had no idea what a horrific betrayal and profound grief Shi Potian and the others had just endured.
They simply saw it as a typical case of severe injuries from a failed mission.
They used their well-intentioned, if somewhat crude, sense of humor to gently comfort these underclassmen, who still seemed a bit green in their eyes, all while generously sharing their own valuable experience.
Shi Potian and Tiemu said nothing.
They just listened quietly, then gave a silent nod.
Soon, all the emergency treatment was complete.
The big-bearded upperclassman in the lead stood up and spoke solemnly to Shi Potian and Tiemu:
"Alright, your injuries have been stabilized for now. Xiaopang was hurt the worst, but his vitals are stable too. What comes next is a long recovery."
"From now on, we’ll come by every day at a set time to check on your recovery. If there are any emergencies in the meantime, contact us immediately on the emergency channel."
"Okay. Thank you, seniors."
Shi Potian solemnly thanked the upperclassmen.
Qin Feng also stepped forward and gave them a slight nod of thanks.
Once the upperclassmen had packed their things and turned to leave, the entire dorm room instantly fell into a suffocating, deathly silence.
As the alloy door slowly swung shut, Qin Feng finally couldn’t hold back any longer.
He shot forward, rushing to Shi Potian’s bedside. For the first time, blood-red flames ignited in his dead-still eyes!
"What exactly happened?!"
His voice was hoarse and low, yet it carried a terrifying chill capable of freezing a volcano.
"Lei Meng... has fallen?!"
"Hn."
The sound came from Tiemu, who had been silent until now. It was a low, muffled noise from his throat, filled with utter agony.
Shi Potian, however, slowly closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if trying to suppress the towering grief and rage in his heart.
When he opened his eyes again, his gaze had returned to one of absolute calm.
He looked at Qin Feng and, in a voice so heavy he seemed to weigh every single word, slowly recounted the nightmarish experience.
"After the Rookie Cup ended, we... along with Shi Dang, accepted a mission to wipe out the ’Death Worship Sect.’"
"The ’Death Worship Sect’ is a type of primitive cult common to many fringe planetary civilizations. It stems from the fear of death among sentient beings, along with their confused ponderings on the unknown nature of the afterlife. At first, it was supposed to be a very ordinary, low-difficulty extermination mission."
"But we all overlooked one thing. The ’Death Worship Sect’ on this planet... they had completely merged ’death’ with extreme emotions like ’battle,’ ’glory,’ and ’faith.’ They had formed a savage warrior tribe that revered blood sacrifice..."
"And this faith, filled with such extreme emotions, ultimately attracted the attention of an Evil God."
Shi Potian’s voice trembled slightly.
"Our mission was to join forces with the other native powerhouses on that planet and completely annihilate the ’Death Worship Sect.’"
"The mission went relatively smoothly at first. About five months ago—which was about a month after you cleared the hundredth floor of the Canaan Tower and it was broadcast to the whole school—we had pretty much completed the main part of the mission and completely wiped out the ’Death Worship Sect’s’ nest."
"Afterward, the problem arose during the distribution of the spoils."
"Shi Dang got into a dispute with one of the local tribe’s powerhouses we were allied with over the distribution of the spoils. Then, Shi Dang made his move. He killed the native powerhouse on the spot."
"By the time we arrived, it had already happened. We urged him to report the true situation to the school honestly. But he refused. He demanded that we cover for him."
"Naturally, we couldn’t agree to that. And then... he attacked us."
"During that battle, we managed to break through his power armor. Only then did we discover... his body, his very flesh and blood, had long ago... undergone a terrifying mutation that we couldn’t comprehend!"
"By that point, we knew it was already too late for everything. We... had no choice but to force open a Subspace Teleportation portal and escape."
As he spoke of this, the composure Shi Potian had been forcibly maintaining finally shattered, and his face twisted completely in anguish.