Chapter 74 — No One Will Ever Hurt Her Again
?
Gloomy Late Autumn · Academy Infirmary
The heater hummed softly—
a low, patient warmth battling the bleak autumn chill pressing against the windows.
Outside, the sky hung low and heavy,
a blanket of cotton-gray clouds stretching across the horizon.
Elena lay curled on the infirmary bed.
The fever reducer and painkillers had carried her through the day in fragments—
half-dreams, half-consciousness.
Even when her parents visited that morning,
she barely stirred.
They left quietly after seeing she was safe,
placed a small wrapped birthday gift on the bedside table,
and let her rest.
A residue of fever still clung to her skin—
like pins beneath flesh.
Even breathing too deeply hurt.
A few classmates had tried to visit,
but Nurse Smov turned them away to protect her sleep.
Only a neat pile of cards and tiny gifts remained.
When Elena finally woke in the late afternoon,
Smov appeared with a steaming bowl of porridge and a knowing smile.
“You’re the Academy’s little hero now, dear.”
Elena pushed herself up—slow, stiff.
Her unfocused gaze drifted to the cards on the table—
messages of gratitude, admiration…
…even a few unmistakable love letters.
She picked one up.
Neat handwriting.
Earnest tone.
Obviously sincere.
A reluctant smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
As if I could ever like anyone… other than YiChen.
The thought surfaced so naturally
she didn’t even catch it at first.
Then—
Her entire body froze.
Wait.
Wait.
“YiChen… carried me?
And I—
I fell asleep in his arms?!”
“—oh my god—”
Her whole face ignited, hotter than her fever ever was.
She yanked the blanket over her head and curled into a mortified ball.
Why am I like this?!
Why didn’t I faint from embarrassment on the spot?!
How had she gotten back?
Did he—
did YiChen carry her all the way to the Academy?
The mere possibility made her heart slam painfully against her ribs.
?
“Elena? Why is your face so red?”
The door creaked open.
Nurse Smov walked in, thermometer in hand.
Her gaze narrowed at the small blanket cocoon trembling on the bed.
“Elena,” she said dryly, “is your fever coming back?”
A muffled squeak emerged from the blanket.
Smov sighed.
“Captain Caelestis called this morning to check on you, you know.”
Captain Caelestis.
YiChen.
Boom.
Heat flooded her cheeks, neck, ears—
every inch of exposed skin.
She curled smaller, burying her head deeper.
“I—I’m fine! The heater’s just… really hot!”
Smov arched a brow, unconvinced.
“I see…”
As she closed the door, Elena heard her muttering:
“Young people.”
?
7:00 a.m. · YiChen’s Bedroom
YiChen jolted upright—
fists knotted in the sheets,
breath tight,
veins stark beneath pale skin.
His eyes were bloodshot.
Another night without sleep.
Faith power still surged violently through his meridians—
millions of invisible needles scraping along every Spirit Channel.
“Enough… stop…”
He hissed the words through clenched teeth.
Did these people ever stop praying?
Even with Shadowfang absorbing most of the backlash,
what remained still tore him open like barbed wire.
And worse—
he couldn’t risk another episode in the bathroom.
His family might hear.
Might see.
He had to move out.
Now.
YiChen grabbed his phone.
[Leo, arrange a private residence.
I need to visit Radiance Preparatory Academy today.
Requirement: privacy partition in the car’s backseat.]
Leo replied almost instantly:
[Prepared. Car arrives at 8:30. Keys included.]
Of course.
City Hall had been expecting this.
?
Bathroom
YiChen braced both hands on the sink.
Cold water splashed against his face—
but the exhaustion staring back from the mirror
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
didn’t wash away.
He could not let his family see the cost of last night’s “miracle.”
?
Breakfast Table
“Brother… you’re going out again today?”
ChengYu’s small voice was hesitant—
too perceptive for his age.
YiChen forced a soft smile, brushing his hand lightly through the boy’s hair.
“Mm.
Something I need to take care of.”
He kept the touch feather-light—
afraid even a single tremor in his fingers might betray him.
Zhang Han placed a plate of fried eggs on the table, watching him closely.
“You look a little…”
“Stayed up late reviewing reports.”
He lifted his fork, chewed mechanically.
Everything tasted like ash.
Across the table, Mark slowly lowered his newspaper.
His gaze sharpened—quietly assessing.
But he said nothing.
————-
A Silent Black Car
The black sedan glided into the quiet neighborhood without a sound.
The moment YiChen sank into the back seat, the privacy partition rose with a soft mechanical hum—
sealing him off from the driver, sealing him into darkness.
Only then did his posture collapse.
He leaned forward, one trembling palm braced hard against his temple.
The intercom crackled.
“Straight to the Academy, Captain?”
“Mm.”
As the car accelerated, something slid against his thigh.
A brown envelope.
Inside:
A house key.
A simple note.
[No. 112 Azure Radiance Street · Rosehill Villa.
A gift from Hermann Rein.]
Shadowfang materialized beside him—
obsidian coils drifting like smoke, eyes narrowing into molten gold.
“Your endurance is fracturing.”
“I know.”
YiChen shut his eyes, swallowing the pain tearing through him.
“But I have to see her.”
The tires cut through shallow puddles, sending ripples across the cold morning.
The car sped toward Radiance Preparatory Academy.
?
Academy Infirmary · 7:30 a.m.
Elena surfaced from a fever-heavy dream, eyelids leaden.
Some birthday…
Memory fragments drifted up—
YiChen’s arms around her,
his heartbeat beneath her ear,
the humiliating truth that she’d fallen asleep in his arms.
She’d tossed until 2 a.m.,
mortification and adrenaline doing battle
until exhaustion finally won.
“…mm?”
A sound.
Soft. Broken.
She rubbed her eyes.
The infirmary was too quiet.
Her private recovery room was empty except for her—
No nurse.
No footsteps.
No morning check.
“Nurse Smov?”
Silence.
Fog pressed against the window.
Students lined up on the distant field for morning drills.
“…mmm…”
There it was again.
Someone crying.
?
Elena gripped the bedframe and pushed herself upright—
a wave of pins-and-needles racing through her legs.
She followed the sound.
At the end of the hallway,
a girl was collapsed against the wall—
red-brown hair tangled, shoulders shaking violently.
“Hey… are you okay?”
Elena knelt beside her, voice soft.
“What hap—”
CRACK.
Something struck the back of Elena’s skull.
The world collapsed inward—
a burst of white, then a suffocating black.
And then—
nothing.
?
Academy Field · Morning
When the black car rolled to a stop, YiChen’s brows tightened.
Students stood in immaculate formation.
Faculty lined the walkway as if receiving a foreign dignitary.
Damn it.
He’d never told Leo why he came.
City Hall must have assumed this was a formal inspection.
“Captain Caelestis!”
Principal Lin Wei’an hurried toward him, adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses.
“Welcome! I’m Principal Lin—this is Vice Principal Mitchell—our staff has prepared—”
YiChen shook hands mechanically.
Every voice stabbed his skull like needles.
Faith power writhed inside him, spiraling violently.
In his Consciousness Sea, Shadowfang roared:
“Why are you entertaining them?!
Find the girl. Now.”
?
Principal Lin was still babbling about the Academy’s achievements when YiChen abruptly lifted a hand.
Silence rippled across the field.
His voice—hoarse, raw-edged—
“The girl I brought back two nights ago.
Elena Lin.
Take me to her.”
Startled, the principal nodded repeatedly.
“Y-Yes! Of course! She’s our hero student—this way—”
?
The Sealed Room
A crowd of staff escorted YiChen toward the infirmary wing.
As they passed the teachers’ lounge—
BANG. BANG.
Fists pounded the inside of the door.
“Help! Please—someone open the door!”
A thick wooden board had been jammed under the handle.
YiChen’s eyes darkened—
iris contracting to a glacial point.
Shadowfang ripped into physical form,
its claws solidifying from star-mist.
SHRRAK—!!
The board shattered.
The door burst open.
Nurse Smov stumbled out, breathless, shaking.
“I—I came to bring Elena breakfast and then two loud bangs—!
The door was blocked—there’s no phone—I couldn’t—”
“Elena.”
YiChen’s voice sliced clean through her panic.
“Where is she?”
“In her room—down the hall—”
?
Empty
YiChen slammed the infirmary door open.
The bed was unmade.
Empty.
He pressed his palm to the blanket—
Cold.
Too cold.
In his Consciousness Sea, Shixi spiraled into panic, tails flaring:
“Her aura’s gone!
YiChen—her aura’s GONE—!!
I can’t find her—I can’t find her!!”
Shadowfang’s dragon head erupted from the Pact Mark—
and with it, a tidal wave of divine pressure.
CRACK—!!!
Glass shattered down the corridor.
Frost spiderwebbed across the floor.
A teacher collapsed, gasping.
The principal staggered, clutching the wall.
YiChen’s voice was no longer human.
It carried divinity—
ancient, merciless, absolute.
A god’s wrath.
“Find her.”
A breath.
A verdict.
“Now.”
———-
Elena’s drifting consciousness snapped back
with a jolt of stabbing, marrow-deep cold.
“Isn’t she the school’s precious little flower?
Look at her now—just a drenched stray.”
“Oh please. Captain Caelestis carried her once and she thinks she’s somebody?
Pathetic.”
“Hurry up! We’ll miss roll call!”
Shrill laughter ricocheted down the tiled corridor,
then tapered into empty silence.
Elena forced her eyes open.
A hot, throbbing burn flared at the back of her skull.
Her fingers brushed the spot—
came away warm.
Red.
Cold.
Her breath hitched.
Shards of ice littered the floor, glittering like glass under gray bathroom light.
Her infirmary gown clung to her skin, drenched and rigid—
a sheet of frozen paper.
She shivered violently.
She was inside a bathroom stall.
Locked.
From the outside.
?
“Is anyone there?!”
“Mrs. Smov?! Anyone?!”
Her fists struck the metal door.
Too soft.
Too weak.
The fireproof insulation swallowed every sound,
and beyond it—
the empty hallway.
Everyone was outside at morning drills.
No one could hear her.
Elena climbed onto the toilet seat, reaching for the top of the divider—
but her fingers slid helplessly across the slick, icy tile.
She slipped.
Her knee slammed into the floor with a sharp crack.
“Ah—!”
Pain burned white.
Immediate.
Blinding.
She folded into herself, fighting to summon Spirit Force for warmth—
But the moment she tried, her meridians spasmed,
as if threaded with twisted, burning wire.
The air tasted of mold and old disinfectant.
Every breath scraped her throat like glass dust.
Her fever was coming back.
?
“Why…”
Hot tears hit the frozen puddle beneath her,
shattering into tiny crystal splinters.
“I didn’t hurt anyone…”
Her arms circled her shivering body.
Her voice cracked—thin, small, pleading:
Mrs. Smov…
A teacher…
Mom… Dad…
Only her echo came back.
She curled tighter.
Minutes bled into hours.
Time stretched thin and icy.
“So cold…”
“…Today is my birthday…”
Her hands clasped beneath her chin—
trembling, desperate.
With what felt like her last fragment of strength,
she made a wish—
Please… YiChen…
come save me.
?
Time thinned.
Sound warped.
Her awareness flickered at the edge of collapse.
Then—
BOOM—!!!
The world detonated.
The stall door tore off its hinges
in an explosion of steel, tile, and pulverized concrete.
Elena jolted awake—
vision swimming.
A silhouette stood where the door had been,
flooded in blinding backlight.
Tall.
Broad-shouldered.
Unmistakable.
YiChen…?
She tried to lift her hand.
It didn’t move.
?
The Breaking Point
YiChen’s pupils constricted to pinpoints.
There she was—
Curled in the corner,
soaked and shivering,
hair stiff with frost,
skin nearly translucent,
eyes swollen from crying,
fresh tears still slipping silently down.
Her breathing—
a thin, flickering thread,
like a candle guttering in the wind.
Alive.
Barely.
Something in him snapped—
a brutal, sickening tear straight through his chest.
All the pain shredding his own meridians—
every needle, every rupture—
evaporated as if it had never existed.
He knelt and gathered her into his arms.
Warm Spirit Force unfurled around her,
wrapping her like silk.
Then—
his fingers brushed the blood
at the back of her head.
?
Godfall
The world went still.
Sound died.
Air froze.
Even time recoiled.
Then—
BOOM—!!!!
A tidal wave of divine pressure exploded outward.
Glass atomized into glittering dust.
Steel beams groaned and warped.
Concrete cracked in spiderweb webs that spread like lightning.
Everyone nearby collapsed—
teachers, staff, guards—
knees slamming into the floor,
lungs crushed under invisible weight,
hearts stuttering on the edge of stopping.
And at the center stood YiChen,
holding her against his chest,
eyes cold enough to freeze blood.
When he spoke,
his voice was quiet.
Which made it infinitely more terrifying.
“Find out who did this.”
He didn’t look back.
He simply carried Elena out of the ruins—
every step leaving the world trembling behind him.
?
The Pact Erupts
“Uu… uuu…”
Shixi sobbed in the Consciousness Sea,
tails curled tight with fear.
Shadowfang roared—
a sound that shook the inner world:
“I’ll kill them.
Every last one of them!”
YiChen didn’t answer.
He didn’t suppress the killing intent.
Not anymore.
Shadowfang was right.
Elena ending up like this…
was his fault.
And from this moment forward—
no one would ever hurt her again.
