# Chapter 70: Sewing the Heart
The setting sun was like blood, streaming through the window into the treatment room. Su Xiao checked the time — it was already 7 PM, time to end today's consultations.
The dozen or so followers who had been waiting in line hesitated for a moment before leaving. These people had queued for nearly an entire day, finally making it into the treatment room, only to find it was 7 PM.
Su Xiao had already fixed his schedule. Every morning he woke at 6 AM, washed up, ate breakfast, meditated for a short while, then left the apartment to go to the supply station on the first floor of the Grand Cathedral. When no one was around, he would use "Cost Price Purchase" + "Return" to farm reputation.
After finishing these tasks, it was roughly 7 AM. Then he went to the treatment room on the third floor, receiving patients from 7 AM to noon. After lunch and a short rest to recover his mental energy, it was basically 12:40 PM or 1 PM.
Then he received patients from 1 PM to 7 PM. On the way back to his apartment, he would grab dinner. After returning to the apartment, he would prepare the commissioned potions, meditate for a while, and rest around 10 PM, sleeping until 6 AM the next morning.
Su Xiao had to ensure 8 hours of sleep. During treatment, he needed high-precision control of energy threads. Sometimes a deviation of 1 millimeter could cause severe chain reactions, resulting in the patient's death.
Su Xiao's schedule was packed, but his gains during this period were enormous. His current control over energy threads was on an entirely different level from before.
Su Xiao named these energy threads constructed from Cyan Steel Shadow Energy "Spirit Shadow Threads." It wasn't because he had another ability called Spirit Shadow Constitution that he named them this way.
The origin of Spirit Shadow Threads was simple. First, the main body of this energy thread was formed during the transformation of Cyan Steel Shadow Energy into Proud Song state — instead of crystallizing it, it was formed into micron-level threads.
This thread was actually very fragile, completely insufficient for suturing wounds — too thin. So Su Xiao applied the "Soul Thread" effect on top of it. Due to his high soul strength and strong control over soul energy, under the enhancement of "Soul Thread," this micron-level energy thread became not only tough due to Su Xiao's high soul strength but also more controllable.
Threads formed from Cyan Steel Shadow Energy, enhanced and controlled by soul power — abbreviated as Spirit·Shadow·Threads.
Clearly, Su Xiao was somewhat powerless when it came to naming abilities, except for the Blade Dao Sword series of blade techniques.
The several abilities he had developed himself included: Side Kick, Straight Kick, Aura Release, and Spirit Shadow Threads.
Looking at it this way, Spirit Shadow Threads already had considerable prestige, sounding much more aesthetically pleasing than Side Kick and Straight Kick.
Su Xiao was somewhat curious whether, when Spirit Shadow Threads were perfected to a certain degree, they would appear on the skill list.
The Blade Dao Sword series didn't appear on the skill list because it was a branch of blade techniques. Straight Kick was a branch of Melee Grandmaster. Aura Release was on the skill list.
Joining the Sun Church this time and becoming their alchemist was an opportunity for Su Xiao.
For any ability, simple development and self-research were useful in the early stages. After some refinement, practice was needed. Otherwise, the ability would never develop properly — full of flashy ideas in one's head that would instantly fail in actual combat.
Su Xiao indeed got injured frequently, but that was far from enough for training Spirit Shadow Threads.
The Sun Church had many transcendents who were nearly crushed by accumulated hidden injuries — Sun Church followers. In other worlds, finding this many transcendents with severe accumulated injuries would take a year or even several years.
For Su Xiao, who had only recently developed Spirit Shadow Threads, this was a godsend opportunity — a chance to train and practice Spirit Shadow Threads.
The practical experience accumulated from treating followers here for one day was equivalent to a normal year or even several years. Here, one could encounter patients with all kinds of injuries. There was an old brother whose eyeball had been pushed into his brain — not only did he not die, but he could look at his own brain every day. It could only be said that the physique of transcendents was indeed not for show.
Besides this, there were patients whose livers were shattered like pomegranates, patients whose entire left arm's bones were broken into 149 pieces, patients whose various organs were twisted together like a rope.
You could only fail to imagine — you would never fail to see. As Su Xiao treated patients, he felt like he was gaining knowledge.
Every patient he resolved was training for Su Xiao. At the beginning, when he treated a follower, if not anesthetized, it took at least 4-6 people to hold them down.
Now, having 3 people hold the patient down and cover their mouth was enough. Covering the mouth was because the patient kept screaming — too noisy.
Every day, the treatment room echoed with miserable screams. Even so, many followers still queued up. Compared to the living death they were experiencing, brief pain was nothing.
Several faint blue threads formed at Su Xiao's fingertips. After two consecutive days of high-intensity treatment, Spirit Shadow Threads had been greatly improved compared to before.
He had a hypothesis: when Spirit Shadow Threads reached a certain level, if his heart was shattered in battle, and the Spirit Shadow Threads ability was developed strong enough, could he suture his broken heart together in a short time?
This seemed somewhat fantastical, but in principle, as long as Su Xiao's development of Spirit Shadow Threads was high enough, his reaction was fast enough, and his soul strength was sufficient, suturing a broken heart within 3-10 seconds was not impossible.
Of course, Su Xiao couldn't do this yet, but he had a direction to work toward. Coming to the Sun Church this time to "grind" was truly the right place. Treating followers not only allowed him to perfect and practice Spirit Shadow Threads but also earned reputation. Most importantly, there were benefits that made even Su Xiao's heart race — killing three birds with one stone.
Throughout today, Su Xiao had earned 179,900 reputation points through treating followers, over 4,000 more than yesterday, indicating his Spirit Shadow Threads usage had become more proficient.
Leaving the treatment room, Su Xiao went to the fourth-floor restaurant. Dinner was exceptionally sumptuous. The pattern on the chef's headband looked familiar to Su Xiao, as if he had seen it before. He had treated too many followers in the past two days to deliberately remember each person.
After leaving the Grand Cathedral, the sky gradually darkened. Su Xiao walked toward the apartment with Bubu Wang and Baha. As for the supply station Bubu Wang was responsible for, locking up at night was fine. The followers would go out hunting beasts at night, so few people came.
Pushing open the apartment door, Su Xiao turned on the light and entered the room. He surveyed the room's condition — no changes in furnishings, no triggered hidden mechanisms, no one had come to investigate.
In the previous few days, every time Su Xiao left the apartment, someone would sneak in to investigate. No one came today, indicating one thing: the church's high-ranking members had begun to wait and see. They wouldn't relax their vigilance toward Su Xiao, but they also wouldn't rashly come to investigate him, lest they offend him to death.
"Woof."
Bubu Wang disengaged from camouflage, meaning the surrounding covert sentries had all withdrawn. He had just scouted the perimeter and repeatedly confirmed this.
Su Xiao knew very well that his relationship with the Sun Church would eventually become hostile. This was inevitable. If it were any other faction, when inevitably hostile with that faction, Su Xiao would never help treat that faction's people. The Sun Church was different — it was too loose, without a true leader.
What Su Xiao was about to do would face enormous risks. If not properly prepared, a slight mistake would result in him being surrounded and killed by the followers.
How to reasonably reduce the Sun Church's combat power? Poison? Secret assassination? No — these methods had too high risks and too low efficiency.
Rough treatment was the most perfect method at hand. Su Xiao appeared to pursue treatment speed, hence being so rough, but in reality, this wasn't the case. After undergoing rough treatment, these followers needed much longer to recover. Now, some of them couldn't even walk properly, their legs and feet slower than Kingsley's aunt.
Followers in this state — let alone surrounding and killing Su Xiao, they didn't even have the qualification to stand before him.
Those who had roughly recovered and could fight, due to the physical trauma from treatment not yet healed, had combat power that had decreased rather than increased compared to before. More critically, after seeing Su Xiao, they would feel a deep-seated fear from within.
Back when Sha received Su Xiao's treatment, because Su Xiao's Instinct ability was learned from Sha, Su Xiao made the treatment process as gentle as possible. Even so, Sha was left with psychological trauma.
The same went for the demon clan simpleton Mond, who had also received Su Xiao's treatment. They hadn't been in contact for a long time. It was said that after that simpleton returned to the demon clan, his father took him to find a soul healer.
The above two were either Su Xiao's friends or his allies, so his treatment methods were relatively gentle. This time, treating the followers, in Su Xiao's own feeling, even he thought he was somewhat rough.
And indeed it was so. The followers who came for treatment were all beast hunters. With their endurance and tolerance, they couldn't help but scream miserably.
This was the best way to reduce the Sun Church's combat power in the short term. Moreover, Su Xiao did it openly and honestly. The followers queued up voluntarily, undergoing both physical and mental combat power reduction.
By the time these followers fully recovered and their combat power returned to peak, who knew when that would be. Su Xiao wasn't a native of this world. By then, he would have long achieved his goals and left this world.
With a large number of followers in their recovery period, causing the Grand Cathedral's defenses to be weakened, Su Xiao could do many things.
Su Xiao placed a bottle of prepared [Dragon Force (Modified)] potion on the table and glanced at the small clock on the test bench. It was already 10:17 PM. According to his usual habits, he would have been asleep by now.
With a snap, the room's light was extinguished. There was no moon tonight. After the lights went out, the room was pitch black. In the darkness, three pairs of eyes were all watching the window.
Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, and Baha all lay on the floor. Su Xiao grabbed the edge of the bed with one hand, exerted force, and slid himself under the bed.
Lying under the bed, spatial fluctuations came from behind Su Xiao. This was a [Coordinate Resonance Stone] provided by Kaiser, a consumable item. Su Xiao used it as the core of a spatial array, capable of 5-6 medium-distance directional spatial movements. The activation time for this thing was very long, around 20-23 seconds.
Su Xiao's location was Point A. The only place this array could reach was Point B set up by Kaiser.
Kaiser's sudden generosity this time in providing the [Coordinate Resonance Stone] could only mean he had truly made a fortune, or else Kaiser wouldn't suddenly be so generous.
Gentle spatial fluctuations enveloped Su Xiao. Having gotten used to the demon clan's spatial array, using this ordinary spatial array felt weak and powerless to Su Xiao, lacking the reassuring feeling during teleportation — it was missing something.
Initially, the demon clan's spatial array was hard to accept, but the more one used it, the more addictive it became. Although bumpy, the feeling was like being used to driving a thousand-horsepower tank and suddenly switching to an eight-handled Alto — the feeling... uncomfortable all over.
Like riding a little sheep electric scooter, Su Xiao suppressed the discomfort in his heart and finally waited for the teleportation to end. The place he arrived at was pitch black — a secret room.
"Urgh~"
Bubu Wang made a retching sound. The feeling of riding a little sheep electric scooter during teleportation made him so uncomfortable he almost vomited. He really couldn't adapt.
Two auras were located in the darkness. Through perception, Su Xiao discovered that the two people were sitting by a round table. Seeing this, he also stepped forward and took a seat.
"I am Oss Valentine. People more commonly call me Blazing Sun Lord."
The Blazing Sun Lord in the darkness spoke. His voice had a thick magnetism. From his tone, one could tell this was an arrogant person. However, the Blazing Sun Lord indeed had the confidence to be arrogant.
"Meeting in this secluded place, although not befitting our status, is for the sake of safety. In the eyes of outsiders, whether it's you, me, or the Sun Church, we are all villains — the most insane evildoers in this fading world."
After saying this, the Blazing Sun Lord let out a mocking light laugh. Beside him, Kaiser kept a straight face, looking like he was also trying to fit into the villain role, but it seemed somewhat incongruous.
"What you say might be right, but even if we're not good people, at least turn on the lights when talking. If there's no light, light a candle. It's too dark."
Su Xiao's words made the Blazing Sun Lord silent for a moment. Over ten seconds later, dim yellow light lit up.
The Blazing Sun Lord's appearance seemed around thirty years old. He wore a layered hanging armor of gold and deep red, with a crown featuring three upward-pointing diamond spikes on his head. Behind the Blazing Sun Lord, a long weapon combining a scepter and blade spear floated vertically. Embedded in the central ridge of this weapon was a gem like a small sun.
Just sitting there, the Blazing Sun Lord was imposing, possessing the charm and handsomeness of a mature man. In contrast, Kaiser beside him looked like a goblin picking his feet.
Actually, it wasn't "like" — Kaiser was indeed picking his feet. He would occasionally sniff his fingers himself. From the way he rolled his eyes each time, he could go into shock at any moment — too intoxicating.
A smell like a mixture of chemicals spread through the room. Su Xiao's face was cold and stern. Bubu Wang continued his previous retching. Baha held his breath, tears welling up. This wasn't his fault — it was indeed eye-watering.
The Blazing Sun Lord was closest to Kaiser, yet he sat there with an unchanged expression, majestic and composed. It could only be said: worthy of being the Blazing Sun Lord.