Chapter 11: Ability degradation?

The dark blue poisonous fog deep in the mine became thicker and thicker, almost solidifying into substance.

Old K's armored bear walked in front, its paws making dull sounds as they stepped on the slippery mine tunnel, and every step crushed the bone-eating worms that drilled out of the cracks in the rock wall.

"There are still three hundred meters to the core control room."

Aji's fox spirit darted to a rusted sign, its tail sweeping across the moss-covered metal surface. "But there's an 'energy quicksand zone' ahead. If you fall into it, you'll be eaten by a swarm of insects."

As soon as he finished speaking, the ground beneath his feet suddenly collapsed.

Lei Shi reacted the fastest and leaped to the left, but almost hit the worm's mouthparts that popped out of the quicksand.

According to the plan, Shasha's aerial roots should have been woven into a springboard at this time, but this time it was half a beat late. By the time the vines spread out, Lei Shi's hind legs had already brushed the edge of the quicksand, and his lavender hair was instantly corroded and charred.

"Thunder Fang!" Lin Yao's heart tightened, and he quickly let Shasha's air roots wrap around Lei Shi's waist and forcibly pulled it back to the safe zone.

The scarlet lines on the silver-white vines appeared again. This time Lin Yao saw it clearly. It was not an illusion, but the killing energy interfering with the basic reaction of killing.

"It's okay, it's okay." Lei Ya grimaced in pain, but he was still smiling. "This little injury is nothing. Back then, when I was in Lightning Canyon..."

"Shut up and concentrate." Su Ling's falcon suddenly swooped down, grabbed a worm that was trying to attack Aji with its sharp claws, and swept Lin Yao's shoulders with its wings.

"Your vines just slowed down by 0.3 seconds. In quicksand, that's enough time to die three times."

Lin Yao didn't say anything, cold sweat oozing from his fingertips.

He deliberately let the aerial roots of Shasha move close to the ground, and under the cover of the poisonous fog, he quietly checked the reaction of the vines. Sure enough, every time he approached the worm, the aerial roots would inexplicably tense up, like a beast stimulated by the smell of blood, and even the most basic defense commands would be delayed for a moment.

As they crossed the quicksand, the Iron Bear's energy shield suddenly sounded an alarm. Old K cursed, "Damn it! The Queen is coming!"

A giant creature, much larger than an ordinary worm, fell from the top of the mine tunnel. The moment its mouth opened, countless tiny worms shot towards the team like a rain of arrows.

Su Ling's falcon soared into the sky, and the energy arrows penetrated most of the insect swarm, but there were still some that slipped through the net and pounced on Aji who was cracking the control console.

"Kill, kill, intercept!" Lin Yao shouted urgently.

The silver-white aerial vines popped out like lightning, but paused in mid-air. That moment of hesitation allowed two worms to brush past the fox's tail. Aji groaned and his face turned pale.

Shasha seemed to be enraged by his own mistake. The remaining air roots suddenly expanded and strangled the armored bear madly with star-like serrations, but almost hit the armored bear's hind legs.

"Hold on!" Old K roared, slapping the queen with his bear paw. The loud clatter of energy shield and armor colliding made the mine tunnel buzz. "How long will it take, Aji?"

"Ten seconds!" Aji's fingertips flew on the console, and the fox spirit used its body to block the flying debris, and its tail was already translucent.

The queen insect let out a deafening roar, and the entire mine began to collapse.

A rock as big as a millstone smashed towards the control console. Lin Yao's pupils suddenly shrank. This time he didn't dare to rely on Sha Sha anymore. Instead, he rushed over and pushed Aji away.

"Boom—"

The rock hit the place where Aji had just stood. Amidst the flying debris, Lin Yao felt a sharp pain in his back. The killing air root finally arrived, but it was too late to completely block the falling rock. The sharp stone pieces scratched his virtual uniform, and blood oozed out.

"Cracked!" Aji shouted and pressed the last button. The roar of machinery whirred from deep within the mine. "Core data in hand, retreat!"

The Iron Bear was at the rear, the Falcon led the way, and the Thunder Lion carried the injured Aji, and the five of them scrambled out of the mine.

When the teleportation light came on, Lin Yao looked back at Shasha. The silver-white vines drooped wilted, and the star-like serrations at the tip had lost their luster. Only the circle of scarlet lines was still faintly visible in the poisonous fog.

The moment he left the training ground, Lei Ya covered his arm and gasped: "Damn, the queen's acid is really strong. Lei Shi's front legs were almost gone."

He looked at Lin Yao's back and was suddenly stunned. "Mumu, are you injured?"

Lin Yao shook his head and called up the task settlement interface on the computer: "It's okay, just a virtual injury."

He stared at the score of "Cooperation 56%" on the screen, but his heart was heavy. Those mistakes were all caused by Shasha.

Old K walked over with a cigarette in his mouth and patted Lin Yao on the shoulder: "Your vines are a little out of shape today. Are they affected by the poisonous fog?"

"Sorry, my operation was not good enough!" Lin Yao couldn't give an answer and could only apologize first.

His gaze fell on Shasha's spiritual body data. The energy fluctuation curve was like a lake disturbed by a strong wind, completely losing its usual stability.

Aji pushed up his glasses. "I've recorded the combat data. When the worms appear, your vines' energy conversion rate drops by 45%, and their reaction speed is delayed by 0.5 seconds."

He pulled up a chart and pointed to a wildly fluctuating curve. "Here, it almost attacked the Iron Bear. Did you forcibly interrupt the command?"

Lin Yao's heart sank. Just as he was about to explain, Lei Ya smoothed things over: "It must be the poisonous fog! Mumu's vines are usually very reliable!"

Then he said goodbye to the three people with a smile. The three people were not the kind of people who would care about trivial matters. After looking at each other, they went their separate ways.

Lei Ya dragged Lin Yao towards the exit, "Let's go, let's go. I promised to treat you to Star Dew Drink. I know there's a new virtual drink shop..."

"Leiya," Lin Yao suddenly stopped and looked at him seriously, "I may not be able to form a team in the next period of time."

Lei Ya was stunned: "What's wrong? Are you still angry with me?"

"No." Lin Yao shook his head, his fingertips swiping across the Shasha icon on the computer. "There's something wrong with Shasha's status. I need to adjust it. Once it stabilizes, we can do the mission together again."

He had to figure out what was interfering with Shasha. Today he had gotten away with it, but if he made a mistake in a more dangerous mission next time, he might have to pay a heavy price.

Lei Ya looked at his serious expression and finally realized that it was not a joke. He scratched his head and said, "Then you should adjust well and don't get too tired. If you need help, feel free to call me, even if it means being a target in the healing area."

Lin Yao smiled and said, "Thank you."

Looking at Lei Ya's back as he ran away, Lin Yao quickly left the training ground.

-

After coming out of the star cabin, Lin Yao's consciousness couldn't wait to sink into the sea of ​​​​consciousness. He had to go and see what happened to Shasha.

As it sank, Lin Yao noticed something was wrong. The circle of bright green energy patterns on the Shasha trunk, which had appeared and disappeared from time to time, was now completely dim.

He channeled his mental energy to activate it, but it took a long time for it to light up. "Has the healing power degraded?" Lin Yao's heart skipped a beat.

He quickly directed his mental power towards the two-colored energy pattern at the bottom. That was the core energy that supported defense and basic healing. At this moment, it was like a thin layer of ice, flowing extremely sluggishly.

He tried to mobilize a trace of ice-blue energy, hoping to make Shasha's aerial roots take a defensive stance. However, the energy dissipated as soon as it reached the end of the aerial roots. The silver-white vines hung limply, unable to even weave the most basic protective net.

"What's going on?" Lin Yao's voice was filled with anxiety. He gathered more mental power at his fingertips, this time directly acting on the bright green energy pattern.

The circle of lines struggled to light up, but it also caused the surrounding ice-blue energy to become agitated. The two energies that were supposed to be gentle were like stirred mud, colliding in Shasha's trunk, causing Shasha to tremble slightly.

Lin Yao suddenly withdrew his mental power, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

It's not a simple degeneration, it's an energy disorder. The ice blue and bright green energy fields seem to have been confused by something.

"Could it be that the killing energy has seeped in?" Lin Yao's heart skipped a beat.

He remembered that in the mine, every time Shasha had killing intentions towards the worms, the healing energy would inexplicably stagnate.

At that time, I thought it was just a temporary loss of control, but now it seems that two energies are probably in conflict in the sea of ​​​​mind.

He had to verify this guess.

Lin Yao logged into the national training ground again and was directly teleported to the secluded garden in the healing area.

Although it is called a garden, it is not the kind of training where many people gather together. Instead, training is conducted in a single-person simulation room. It is named so because the training room simulates the appearance of a garden.

The virtual creatures here are all the most fragile moonlight butterflies, with wings as thin as cicada wings, which are most suitable for testing delicate healing abilities.

The moment he released the killing weapon, Lin Yao frowned.

As soon as the silver-white aerial roots emerged, they carried a sense of hostility that kept strangers away. Ice-blue energy flickered intermittently in the vines, like a light bulb with poor contact.

"Try to repair the wings of this butterfly." Lin Yao pointed at the Moonlight Butterfly resting on the pistil.

There was a tiny crack on its left wing, which in the past could be repaired by a sweep of Shasha's ice-blue energy.

Shasha's aerial roots stretched out hesitantly, and as soon as the ice-blue energy touched the crack, a small shock wave suddenly exploded. The Moonlight Butterfly was startled and flew away, and the crack on its left wing actually widened by half an inch.

“…” Lin Yao’s fingertips felt cold.

He did not give up and channeled the bright green energy again.

This time it was even worse. The energy pattern flickered violently as soon as it lit up, and turned light gray when it flowed to the end of the aerial root. It fell on the wings of another butterfly, and that wing instantly lost its luster, as if its vitality had been sucked away.

"Stop!" Lin Yao shouted, his heart pounding. The healing energy had not only degraded, but also become destructive?

The training room system detected an abnormal fluctuation, and the virtual robot sparring partner appeared and asked the player Mumu:

Is your spirit body alright? Why is the energy flow so chaotic? Please cooperate with the inspection!

"It's okay, I'm doing special training." Lin Yao replied to the virtual robot's question and immediately used his mental power to activate the ice-blue energy to cover up Shasha's abnormality.

Fortunately, I managed to get away with it.

Lin Yao didn't dare to continue and could only leave the training ground.

In the mental picture, Shasha's trunk trembled slightly, as if expressing uneasiness.

The bright green energy pattern completely dimmed, only the scarlet pattern was still arrogantly lit, as if declaring its victory, and the ice blue color was also suppressed by the gold color and faded a lot.

Lin Yao sat on a chair beside the star cabin, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the light computer.

He finally understood the root cause of the mistakes in the mine. It was not because he and Shasha did not cooperate well or were deliberately slow.

Its healing and defensive energies were being eroded by the killing energy, like a frog in boiling water. By the time he realized it, it was almost out of control.

"We have to make these two energies evenly matched." Lin Yao muttered to himself, his eyes gradually becoming firm.

Now in his mind, it is because the healing and defense capabilities are too weak that one side is suppressing the other. If the two are evenly matched, will there be a balance?

Well, it seems that I will have to stay in the healing auxiliary area recently.

Otherwise, if the killing is allowed to continue like this, the empire will probably have a guide who only knows how to fight and kill. The empire has many capable sentinels, but it does not lack a capable guide like him.

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. If he only had the ability to kill, he might have been sliced ​​into pieces.

But if he maxed out both killing and healing, wouldn't he be more valuable? The Empire would be reluctant to slice him.

Lin Yao couldn't help but give himself a thumbs up in his heart: I am really smart, this plan is simply perfect.

-

Ideals are full, but reality is very skinny. In the healing auxiliary area, Shasha gave Lin Yao a critical hit.

The training process is really tiring.

Lin Yao logged into the training ground with great interest and went straight to the individual training room in the healing support area (animals).

Pale golden healing particles rushed towards him. He took a deep breath and encouraged Shasha in his heart: "It's just starting over. Stay steady first! Take it slow!"

Lin Yao chose a virtual carrier pigeon with injured wings, wanting to see the extent of the impact of the killing energy.

He mobilized his mental strength and whispered an order: "Use ice blue as the base, and bright green to follow. Be gentle."

Shasha's aerial roots carefully wrapped around the pigeon's wings, and the ice-blue energy pattern lit up first, and a soft halo wrapped around the wound.

Then, the circle of bright green lines flickered and lit up, and then, nothing happened.

The expected gradual healing energy did not appear. Instead, the ice-blue energy suddenly became violent, like a clear spring that was injected with impurities and instantly became turbid.

With a "sizzle", the feathers on the pigeon's wings were curled up due to the heat, and the wound that was originally half healed expanded a little bit.

“…” Lin Yao was stunned.

-

"Mumu! Did you give the pigeon a perm?"

Lei Ya's voice sounded from the side. He was holding a bulging virtual shopping bag in his hand. When he saw the pigeon with its feathers standing on end, he couldn't help but be amazed.

This Zhizhi is also a Tony!

"This design is quite unique, but the pigeon doesn't seem to be very happy with it."

Lin Yao turned around suddenly and saw Lei Ya standing not far away with a mischievous smile on his face. He felt even more embarrassed. "Why are you here?"

Just after Shasha failed, Lin Yao received a holographic projection communication from Lei Ya. In order to change his mood, Lin Yao picked up the call, but he didn't expect that this would expose Shasha's potential to be Tony.

Lei Ya shook the bag in his hand, revealing several bottles of exquisitely packaged energy supplements.

"I've got the 'Iron Armor Potion' that Old K loves to drink, the 'Eagle Eye Calibration Fluid' that Su Ling has been talking about for a long time, and Aji's 'Spirit Fox Data Card'. I've prepared them all for you."

Lin Yao understood. After he left the training ground yesterday, he thought about it and still felt sorry for his mistake, but he didn't know what the three people liked or disliked, so he could only ask Lei Ya to help him choose an apology.

Originally Lei Ya also had one, but people said it was compensation for standing up Lin Yao that day!

He lowered his voice a little: "Besides, I'm worried about you. When the mine mission was over yesterday, you looked like you'd swallowed ten pounds of bitter gall."

Lin Yao looked at the carrier pigeon that was still flapping its wings, then glanced at Shasha who was curled up in a ball behind him, and sighed.

Lei Ya put away his joking expression and pointed at Sha Sha from a distance:

"It was acting strangely in the mine yesterday, and today it can't even be cured..." He didn't say anything else, but the worry in his eyes could not be hidden.

Shasha seemed to understand, and its aerial vines shrank tighter behind Lin Yao. The ice-blue energy patterns flickered, as if it was blaming itself.

"It's okay, it's normal for spirits to lose their temper occasionally." Lei Ya felt bad seeing it like this, and comforted the man and the spirit in a cheerful tone.

"I remember when my Thunder Lion first evolved, it even bent the energy column in the training ground! Then it healed after three days of rest."

He raised the shopping bag and said, "As an apology, I'll put it in your temporary locker in the training room. You can figure it out slowly. If you really can't figure it out, go to the White Tower and ask a professional guide. Don't try to do it yourself."

Lin Yao clenched his hands: "I know, thank you."

"Why are you being so polite to me?" Lei Ya grinned and pointed at the carrier pigeon that had finally calmed down.

"Hurry up and return this 'ion perm' to the bird's nest. If you're slow, she'll probably get angry. Then just focus on talking to Zhizhi, maybe she'll be able to resolve it."

Lin Yao was amused by him, and his tense nerves relaxed a little: "Okay, I'll send it back immediately; you should hurry up and do your work, don't delay the important things."

"Okay, I'll leave first." Lei Ya hesitated for a moment before hanging up and added, "Mumu, don't put too much pressure on yourself. If you really can't handle it, just call me!"

Looking at the disappearing holographic image of Lei Ya, Lin Yao felt warm in his heart. It was not in vain that he made friends with this person.

He looked down at Shasha, and the aerial vines were rubbing the back of his hand cautiously, as if acting coquettishly.

He poked Shasha's trunk and said, "Let's take a break. Instead of practicing repair, let's think about how to make your two energies get along well."

Shasha's aerial roots shook, but this time he didn't resist.

Lin Yao found a virtual ancient tree to sit down, spread the vines on his legs, and gently combed them like he was combing the fur of a pet.

The sunlight shone through the leaves onto the silver vines, and the restless scarlet energy seemed to calm down a little.

"Look at you," Lin Yao sighed, looking at the mixed energy, his tone filled with helplessness, "you were so majestic when killing insects, but you became an idiot when trimming a leaf."

Lin Yao thought, why not use his healing ability to suppress the killing energy, then would it be smoother?

Just do it if you want to do it, Lin Yao mustered up the courage again, it’s okay, it’s okay!

It’s just a matter of starting over slowly! If animals don’t work, then start with plants, and work your way up from small to large.

Just like Lin Yao's plan, he tried to suppress the killing energy for two days, but to no avail!

Even Mumu's healing ability ranking was directly affected, dropping to over a thousandth place.

-

After another failed attempt to repair the virtual clover.

Looking at the trefoil field that had become a mess, Lin Yao's cheeks couldn't help but feel hot.

His embarrassing memory went back to yesterday. It was just like that. After Shasha had messed up the clover here, Lin Yao felt that practice was hopeless and directly left the single training room.

Unexpectedly, just as he quit, a player rushed in as if someone was competing with him for the door. The door closed for a second and then opened again. He caught the man before he left.

"Is there something wrong with the clover?" the man asked Lin Yao this question.

Lin Yao was confused by the question, but he still shook his head mechanically, indicating that the clover was fine and there was no problem.

The player didn't believe it at all and said:

"I saw you before in the individual training room in the healing support area (animals). Your training results were written as excellent on the virtual board. How come you couldn't even get a clover today? Your results were poor and there was a minus sign?"

Lin Yao didn't expect that he had met this player before. He couldn't tell a stranger that there was something wrong with his mental body, so he just politely asked him to change rooms.

"Oi, there really is something wrong with this clover, right?" The player turned around and looked at the clover in the training room, then began to point fingers at the innocent clover.

"Look at how green it is. Maybe it carries hidden corrosive energy that specifically counters healing spirits."

"It's very possible! I encountered similar plants in the swamp last time. They looked harmless on the surface, but they could actually disrupt the flow of energy..."

The player's words became more and more outrageous. He even started to accuse the clover of being a killer plant disguised as a healing plant and wrote a complaint.

Lin Yao looked awkwardly at the clover whose leaves were trembling slightly after being scolded by this person, and suddenly felt that he was really guilty!

The clover was just growing there quietly, neither spraying venom nor tripping people, but now it is being regarded as the culprit that ruined the guide's practice.

"I'm sorry." Lin Yao couldn't help but apologize to poor Clover in his heart, "I made you take the blame."

Shasha seemed to sense his master's guilt, and stretched out his hand listlessly, trying to apologize to Clover in a staggering manner through the air. However, the murderous energy he brought out scared Clover so much that she fell backwards.

"Look, look! There's indeed a problem! The clover can raise its head!" The player screamed and went to change training rooms.

Lin Yao put on the virtual jumpsuit hood, pressed it down hard, and fled in a hurry with Shasha.

Recalling this, Lin Yao sighed. The failures today and yesterday were really copy and paste!

In order to prevent himself from encountering the player who talked about the "Shamrock Curse" again, Lin Yao decided to kill some time here.

He walked past the clover that was blamed for the crime and went to a secluded place.

Lin Yaocai stopped and looked at the aerial root vine of Shasha that was still trembling slightly. He thought of the bad luck he had experienced in the past few days and couldn't help but sigh.

Shasha's aerial roots wrapped around his wrist aggrievedly, and the ice-blue energy pattern lit up weakly, as if apologizing.

Lin Yao patted Shasha and his eyes became firm again. He must solve the problem of energy disorder as soon as possible.

Otherwise, let alone the clover, I guess next time even the dandelion will be accused of being the mastermind behind disturbing the spiritual body.

-

Lin Yao sat down on the lawn he had chosen. He pulled the aerial roots of Shasha, and the silvery-white vines wilted like sun-dried kelp, with their star-shaped serrations drooping.

Lin Yao poked the circle of faint scarlet lines. In fact, the forced suppression in the past few days almost knocked his consciousness out of the mental picture.

"It's really impossible to block it." Lin Yao sighed and pulled a blade of grass and put it in his mouth.

He thought of the failed experiment half an hour ago: guiding the scarlet energy out through the ends of the aerial roots, like turning on a rusty faucet.

It did work at first, the ice-blue energy immediately stabilized and even managed to repair half of the clover.

But before he could be happy, he discovered that the healing energy had become weak, as if its bones and muscles had been drained away, and even the most basic defensive membrane had become as thin as a cicada's wing.

The subsequent weakness directly led to the failure of the clover!

Lin Yao was a little irritable, which made Sha Sha irritable as well.

The irritated Shasha suddenly slapped the ground, and the tip of the blade rubbed against the water droplets splashed from the simulated irrigation system, and a thin smoke came out with a "sizzling" sound. The killing energy could not even accommodate water vapor.

Lin Yao stared at the wisp of white smoke in a daze. He watched as the water sprayed from the irrigation system formed a rainbow in the sunlight. The water was divided into countless streams, winding along the preset grooves.

Some watered the rose bushes, some moistened the lawns, and some even just nourished the inconspicuous moss on the roadside. Each one performed its own function and did not interfere with each other.

"It's better to unblock than to block... But unblocking in the wrong direction is like cutting off one's own arm." Lin Yao sat up suddenly, and grass leaves fell out of his mouth.

"It's like mixing hot water and cold water in a pot and pouring out half of it. The remaining water is neither hot nor cold enough."

He suddenly grasped the key point. The problem was not the energy itself, but the container that carried the energy.

Kill the ten existing aerial roots, which are responsible for the original two-color defense, bright green healing, and scarlet killing.

It's like asking a chef to stew bird's nest, fry steak, and cook poison in the same pot at the same time. It would be strange if the flavors didn't mix.

"If..." Lin Yao's fingertips hung in the air.

The Shasha in the mental image seemed to have sensed his thoughts and suddenly twisted excitedly, the scarlet lines on its trunk glowing brightly.

"What if we open a separate channel for the killing energy?"

This idea was like a seed, taking root and sprouting in my mind in an instant.

He thought of the dormant energy nodes on the branches of the killing tree. They were like seeds buried in the soil. As long as they were given some nutrients, they might be able to give birth to new fighting energy roots and vines.

Let the new aerial vines specifically carry the killing energy, and completely separate them from the old aerial vines responsible for healing and defense.

It's like the diversion pipes in an irrigation system, one for hot water and one for cold water. You can use whichever one you want without interfering with each other.

"Kill, kill," Lin Yao's voice trembled uncontrollably, not out of fear, but out of excitement.

"Let's take a gamble? This time we won't block or loosen up, we'll give you a share of this skill."

The killing aerial vines suddenly lifted up, and the scarlet lines on the silver-white vines suddenly became dazzlingly bright.

The ten aerial roots stretched straight at the same time, and the star-like serrations flashed coldly in the sunlight, as if they were howling, "I've been waiting for these words for a long time."

Lin Yao could even feel the joy coming from its spiritual core, probably because it felt that it finally didn't have to jump back and forth between healing and killing.

He stood up and brushed the grass clippings off his pants, his palms slightly sweating from excitement.

Although it is unknown how much mental energy will be consumed to give birth to new energy roots, and it may even hurt the origin of Shasha, this is the only way to break the deadlock at present.

You can't just watch your healing ability being squeezed out by the killing energy and become weaker and weaker, and finally turn into a monster that only knows how to fight and kill.

"Let's go out." Lin Yao retracted his Shasha and turned to walk towards the exit of the training ground. The virtual sunlight sprinkled on his back, giving him a sense of desperate determination.