Silver City, Jiangxin Yayuan, Building 3, Room 601.
Zhang Shou dashed out of his bedroom and rushed into the bathroom. Standing before the toilet as the sound of running water echoed, he let out a long breath of relief.
Suddenly, he heard a *plop* and frowned in confusion. He wasn't taking a dump, so where did that splashing sound come from?
He opened his eyes and looked down into the toilet bowl, only to spot a fruit radiating a faint red glow...
A Forbidden Fruit?
Zhang Shou's eyes widened. He quickly gave himself a slap across the cheek.
Ouch!
It hurt, which meant he wasn't dreaming—it was real!
Without the slightest hint of disgust, he bent down and scooped the Forbidden Fruit right out of the bowl.
He looked up at the ceiling, then glanced around the room, swallowing hard. Should he eat it, or should he eat it, or should he eat it?
Anyway, nobody would ever know he fished it out of a toilet. Eating it was the only right choice.
To avoid any second thoughts, he quickly pulled up his pants, carried the fruit over to the sink, and rinsed it lightly under the faucet. Then, in one big gulp, he swallowed it whole.
A faint trace of urine lingered on his tongue—the realism was off the charts.
"Don't make the wish too big. Just give me a system! I want a system!"
Zhang Shou remembered Yu Xian telling him a couple of days ago that Forbidden Fruits weren't omnipotent; the bigger the wish, the heavier the price.
He had no desire to turn into a vegetable, let alone sleep for ten thousand years. His demands were modest—as long as he got a system, Buddha be praised.
*Ding!*
[Super Healer System activated!]
Zhang Shou felt a jolt of excitement upon hearing the *ding* in his mind, but the moment he heard the system's name, he froze in disbelief.
Wait, something was wrong!
He had wanted a Sword Immortal System—how did it turn into a Super Healer System?
A male mom?!
Nooooo!
Zhang Shou's expression wavered between tears and laughter. After waiting a good while with no changes from the system, he could only pull a long face and accept his fate.
"Stats," Zhang Shou uttered mournfully.
A screen of light appeared before his eyes, displaying his attributes:
[Name: Zhang Shou]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 17]
[Class: Super Healer]
[Skills]
[Beginner - Healing Art: Consumes a portion of stamina to condense an orb of light and heal a target.]
[Beginner - Healing Touch: Consumes stamina to summon a tentacle capable of healing, detoxifying, and curing illnesses. Caressing the target removes most abnormal status effects.]
[Passive - Healers Never Die of Injury or Disease: Upon receiving a lethal blow for the first time each day, you die and instantly revive in peak condition. Upon receiving a lethal blow for the second time, you retain one percent of your HP. Upon receiving a lethal blow for the third time, you die and resurrect on the spot after one hour.]
Staring at his attributes, Zhang Shou grew more and more excited. Healers were great! Healers were amazing! Long live the healer!
Three lives a day! Who could touch him now?
Zhang Shou couldn't resist throwing his head back in laughter. Suddenly struck by a thought, he spun around and punched the wall.
His face instantly flushed bright red, then turned green, and finally went stark white. *Holy crap, that hurts!*
It took him quite a while to recover, blowing on his throbbing fist.
"Didn't they say eating a Forbidden Fruit starts you off at Eagle rank?"
"Since when is an Eagle rank this weak?"
Zhang Shou stared at his swollen, reddened fist, his mind filled with question marks.
He bolted back into his bedroom, fished his newly purchased phone from beside his pillow, and dialed Yu Xian's number.
***
Yu Xian's home.
At that moment, Yu Xian stood on the ceiling, exploring further applications for his Blood Energy.
Since he had no way of learning orthodox blood magic, he would simply research it himself. Now that he had Blood Energy at his disposal, was he supposed to be afraid he couldn't invent his own spells?
It was like having an electrical generator—once you had the power, couldn't you build an electric fan, a rice cooker, an electric scooter, or a railgun with your bare hands?
For instance, Yu Xian had already devised several uses for Blood Energy. First, by coating his body with it, he could scale walls and ceilings just like Spider-Man, hanging upside down without falling off.
Second, infusing it into his silver threads enhanced their hardness and could even make them adhesive like spider silk.
Those were the effects of making Blood Energy sticky. In addition, Yu Xian could alter the energy with his intent to make it corrosive; a single drop was enough to burn a gaping hole right through the floor.
*Could magic simply be altering the properties of Blood Energy to produce various miraculous effects? If so, could fire just be Blood Energy acting as fuel?*
Yu Xian channeled his Blood Energy, visualizing flames as he attempted to ignite it.
Suddenly, his ringtone went off.
He glanced down at the Blood Energy in his hand, dropped lightly from the ceiling to the floor, and picked up the phone from the table to answer.
"Yu Xian, I ate a Forbidden Fruit!" Zhang Shou's voice blared through the receiver.
Most of the time, Zhang Shou called him Salty Fish while he called Zhang Shou Old Zhang. Only when Zhang Shou was exceptionally nervous or serious did he address him as Yu Xian.
Yu Xian frowned slightly. "Are you sure it's a Forbidden Fruit? You're not dreaming, are you?"
"I slapped myself hard enough to leave a mark. It's definitely not a dream! I'm a Transcendent now, though something seems to have gone wrong," Zhang Shou said earnestly.
Yu Xian pondered for a moment before instructing, "Stay put at home. I'm coming over."
With that, he hung up.
He didn't really believe Zhang Shou had eaten a Forbidden Fruit. He suspected it was far more likely Zhang Shou had consumed some poisonous wild mushrooms and was hallucinating.
It was like having your best friend call out of the blue to announce he had won first prize in the lottery—it felt completely surreal, without an ounce of plausibility.
Yu Xian changed his clothes and hurried out the door.
Five minutes later, he arrived at Zhang Shou's residential compound, quickly climbed up to the sixth floor, and knocked on Zhang Shou's door.
"Salty Fish, get in here quick!" Zhang Shou furtively opened the door, whispering under his breath.
Once Yu Xian stepped inside, Zhang Shou promptly shut the door and bolted the deadbolt, as if doing so granted him an extra layer of security.
"Alright. You claim you ate a Forbidden Fruit, so what kind of supernatural ability do you have now?" Yu Xian sat down on the sofa and looked at Zhang Shou.
Zhang Shou slightly doctored the location where he had found the fruit, claiming he had discovered it in his bedroom rather than the toilet. Everything else he shared without holding back.
"Try summoning that Healing Touch then. Let me see it," Yu Xian said after listening to the explanation.
Zhang Shou nodded and immediately cast the skill to the side. An ethereal green tentacle manifested in an instant, resembling an octopus tentacle without suction cups, swaying gently back and forth.
"..."
Watching the tentacle appear out of thin air, Yu Xian's eyes widened. He had no choice but to believe that Zhang Shou had struck dumb luck.
He rose and walked over to the tentacle, reaching out to touch it lightly. In an instant, he jerked his hand back, discovering that his skin was actually scalded.
This tentacle possessed an innate counter against vampires.
"Heh-heh, believe me now?" Zhang Shou asked smugly.
Yu Xian nodded. "I believe you. But do you know why your power didn't reach Eagle rank?"
"Yeah, why?" Zhang Shou asked eagerly.
Yu Xian's expression turned stern, and he snapped, "Because you were too greedy! Do you have any idea how close you came not to becoming someone with a system, but to becoming the system itself?"
Earlier, Yu Xian hadn't taken him seriously, merely laughing off whatever Zhang Shou said. But now that he knew every word was true, he felt a chill run down his spine.
Zhang Shou thought his wish had been modest, when in fact it was mind-bogglingly immense.
The system he received came with virtually zero side effects, boasting absurd class skills—especially that passive ability, which was practically cheating fate.
Yu Xian was convinced that Zhang Shou had completely burned through an entire lifetime of good fortune in one go.
Still, to be safe, he decided to contact the captain. Reporting someone who had consumed a Forbidden Fruit was mandatory protocol anyway, and it would also provide a prime opportunity to arrange a comprehensive medical examination for Zhang Shou.
Chapter 17