While Claude slept, Lu Xiao went to the instrument to check on his physical data. After she performed the Spiritual Soothing, the data showed that the indicator for Claude's Spirit Sea level had changed from the solid red of the Early Intermediate stage to red-green.
It was no longer the pure red it had shown before. In addition, the adjacent progress bar had dropped from 56% to 50%—a decrease of six points.
That was why the color had changed from red to red-green.
'If this is how it works,' Lu Xiao couldn't help but wonder, 'does this mean that if I continue treating him my way, Claude could regress from the Intermediate stage back to the Early Stage? He might even drop below S-Class and eventually be completely cured. None of that seems impossible now. It's just that I have too few cases right now to make any comparisons.'
Just as Lu Xiao was thinking this, Claude woke up.
Lu Xiao glanced at the time. It had been about twenty minutes.
In other words, half an hour of Spiritual Soothing allowed Claude to sleep for twenty minutes.
The duration was short, but if it was deep sleep, twenty minutes would be enough to restore some of his energy.
The man seemed a bit dazed upon waking. Lu Xiao walked over to him, smiling. "How do you feel? Does your body feel a lot lighter?"
"I... Did I just fall asleep?" He recalled the young female touching his forehead. Afterward, his entire body felt like it was soaking in warm water. A refreshing coolness permeated his perpetually heavy Spirit Sea. The feeling was so pleasant that he involuntarily relaxed, and then... everything went blank.
"Yes. You were asleep for about twenty minutes."
Claude looked incredulous. "I actually fell asleep." But he quickly composed himself. "Thank you. I know this is all..."
"There's no need. It's my job. How often can you typically apply for treatment?"
"We can usually apply once a week." As Claude replied, he couldn't suppress the hope welling up inside him.
"In that case, I'll see you next week. Remember to put in a request. My name is Lu Xiao, and I'm the new therapist here. You're free to go now." After Lu Xiao finished, she gave him a small smile, then turned and walked to the door. She signaled for the escorting officer to enter, then returned to the instrument to back up Claude's data. "Teacher Sherry," she said, "I want to start seeing patients on my own. Who do I need to talk to about that?"
Teacher Sherry's expression was incredibly conflicted. "My dear, I don't think you're ready to see patients on your own. Everything you just did was insane! If Teacher Ai Li knew about it, she would never agree."
But Lu Xiao latched onto the key part of her sentence. "So all I need to do is get approval from Teacher Ai Li?"
"That's not what I meant! No! Even if you apply, I won't approve it. I'm going to tell Teacher Ai Li everything you just did!" Shirley was clearly angry. She spun around and left the room.
Meanwhile, the escorting officer had already led Claude back to the vehicle.
The two companions who had come with him saw him return and immediately spoke up. "What did they do to you in there? You were gone so long, I thought you'd died, 3355."
Claude may have left the examination room, but his mind was still elsewhere. He seemed to be in a complete daze.
"Hah. Looks like 3355 has lost his mind. Did his condition get even worse?"
"Hey, 3355, are you okay? You're not about to be destroyed when we get back, are you?"
The clamor of their voices finally snapped Claude back to his senses. "No, I'm great. I feel like... I feel like there's hope for me to live. I... I saw an angel today!"
Claude's words left the two burly men across from him stunned for a moment. Then, their eyes filled with concern as they looked at him. "3355, are you hallucinating again?"
"No, I'm completely lucid right now. I know you probably won't believe this, but just trust me this one time. Next week, let's all request an appointment with Doctor Lu Xiao. She can definitely cure us!"
*
"Absolutely not. I do not approve. Ai Li, do you have any idea how reckless Lu Xiao was in the clinic just now? She took off the patient's helmet with her own hands, fed him juice, and even touched his forehead to perform Spiritual Soothing! My god, you would have been terrified if you'd been there! She has no sense of self-preservation. I can't trust her to see patients alone!"
Teacher Sherry's face was a mask of disapproval.
Ai Li and the other two teachers also frowned. "Lu Xiao, is what Teacher Sherry said true?"
Lu Xiao nodded, not denying it. "It's true. That's exactly what I did. And as it turns out, I wasn't harmed. S-Class males don't just go berserk for no reason. Deep down, you all know that, don't you?"
She refused to believe that the four of them, having worked here for so long, couldn't see that.
"It's true that none of the S-Class males I've treated have ever gone berserk during a session," Ai Li said. "But that's no excuse for you to be so careless. Lu Xiao, Teacher Sherry means well. She's just worried about you."
"I know, and I appreciate Teacher Sherry's concern. But I stand by my methods. I believe it's necessary to relax protocols for potential risks that are highly unlikely to occur. Besides, my treatment today yielded significant results. Please, take a look." Lu Xiao knew that words were no substitute for hard evidence.
She opened her terminal and projected a light screen in front of them. It displayed the backup of Claude's physical data.
She didn't need to say anything more. The data was self-explanatory, and she was confident the four of them would understand as soon as they saw it.
Just as she expected, Teacher Ai Li was the first to react. "3355's Spirit Sea level dropped?"
"That's impossible!" Teacher Sherry immediately countered. "Nothing like this has ever happened before!"
'Could it be? Could Lu Xiao's reckless actions actually be effective in treating the Spirit Seas of S-Class males?'
After all, the Fifth Research Institute's primary goal, from the day of its founding, had been to cure the Spirit Seas of S-Class males—a goal they had never once achieved.
Teacher Ai Li suppressed her excitement. "Can you walk us through the treatment process in detail?"
Lu Xiao patiently described the session, but she intentionally left out the part about purifying his Spirit Sea.
'She wasn't sure if the spiritual power the females here possessed was the same as her purification power.'
"So you're saying that after the Spiritual Soothing, 3355 slept for twenty minutes?"
"Yes."
"I can attest to that," Teacher Sherry and Lu Xiao said in unison.
Ai Li nodded. "A major reason the condition of S-Class males never improves is their inability to sleep or rest, which only causes their state to deteriorate further. If physical contact allows them to rest, then it is indeed a valid method of treatment."
"But touching an S-Class male is still too dangerous," Teacher Sherry said again, though her voice was much softer this time. Her resolve was clearly wavering.
"We don't have enough case studies yet. I'd like to request permission to perform Spiritual Soothing on three S-Class patients a day." Lu Xiao didn't let them continue debating, cutting straight to her request.