Rejuvenation

“Lady Wu Yao will be staying with us for a few days,” Benita said, brushing a few stray hairs from her daughter's forehead.

“She wants to learn some things from me. Will you help me host Lady Wu Yao properly?”

“Hooray!” Phelin puffed out her chest, her voice loud and confident. “I'll definitely be the best host for Lady Wu Yao!”

Thinking of their living conditions, Benita looked at Wu Yao with an apologetic expression. “We don't have any spare rooms in the house, so I wonder if...”

Wu Yao waved her hand dismissively. “Don't worry about my food or lodging.”

Phelin had already skipped out the door. The picket gate creaked loudly as she pushed it open, swinging back and forth several times before settling.

She couldn't wait to share the good news with Granny Sima.

Listening to her daughter's footsteps fade into the distance, the warmth in Benita's eyes gradually faded into a complex, dark shadow.

She looked at Wu Yao, her eyes filled with entreaty. “My Lady, if I... could I ask you to look after Phelin a bit? She is very sensible and won't cause you too much trouble.”

Wu Yao nodded. She quite liked Phelin, and once the Territory Residents system unlocked, she planned to recruit both mother and daughter.

Benita forced a smile, which quickly triggered another fit of coughing. Wu Yao frowned. This NPC is so gravely ill. She won't die on me, will she?

She stood up, making the tiny room feel even more cramped.

NPCs had health bars too and could use healing potions. She still had one healing potion on her, which she could give to this NPC.

But she wanted to figure out a healing spell of her own. Relying solely on chugging potions was far too expensive.

Her element of choice would definitely be the wood element, which was closely linked to vitality.

Anyway, she could reload her save. If she accidentally killed the NPC while experimenting with spells, she could just reload. Zero risk, completely safe!

“I'll treat your illness,” Wu Yao told Benita, her face completely devoid of any guilt over using her as a guinea pig.

Benita wanted to say that she was terminally ill and beyond cure, but when she met Wu Yao's gaze, she swallowed the words.

This was a sorceress; she was bound to have her ways.

Wu Yao stretched out her hand, her palm hovering a few inches above Benita's chest.

Her Mental Strength carefully guided the surrounding wood elements into Benita's body.

As soon as the wood elements entered Benita's body, they showed intense resistance. They did not like such a weak, sickly human vessel, and after only a few seconds, they began to escape.

Wu Yao quickly tightened her control, dragging them back with force. However, she used too much power, pressing those particles directly into Benita's lung tissues.

Benita instinctively clutched her chest. A highly bizarre sensation had just occurred there, as if something were squirming beneath her flesh.

Without changing her expression, Wu Yao chose to reload her save.

After a few tries, she finally found the correct path of entry and could guide the wood elements to release their power.

Benita was suddenly overcome by a numb, itchy sensation. She coughed violently, spitting out a few tender green leaves. She stared blankly at Wu Yao, who looked equally shocked.

Wu Yao reloaded again.

After dozens of reloads and adjustments, Wu Yao finally found the perfect balance, guiding them to nourish the withered tissues and cover the necrotic areas.

Benita only felt the years-long oppression in her chest easing up, like a parched land welcoming its first spring rain, every dry crack blooming with renewed life.

The wheezing, leaky sounds grew fainter with every breath she took, until finally, only steady breathing remained.

【Spell structure constructed successfully】

【Spell: Rejuvenation】

【Effect: Continuously restores the target's health, recovering (Mana * 0.1) health points per second. Clears abnormal statuses.】

【Mana Cost: 15/second】

Wu Yao withdrew her hand in satisfaction. A mana consumption of 15 points per second was not low. With her current mana pool, using this spell to heal herself was rather impractical.

But this was only limited by her current Mental Strength. Once her level was higher in the future, she would be able to restore much more health.

Benita touched her chest in a daze. The dull ache was gone.

She took a deep breath. For the first time in four years, she could breathe freely without coughing.

She looked down at her hands. They were no longer trembling, and a long-lost strength surged through them.

She tried to stand up. Her knees felt weak for a brief moment as she straightened, but her legs no longer felt heavy and floating like lead. Even her left leg, which had previously been unable to support any weight, had actually recovered.

A single tear splashed onto the dirt floor, blossoming into a dark circle, followed by a second drop, and then a third.

She raised her tear-blurred gaze and saw Wu Yao's focused, calm expression.

The moment she met those clear eyes, she looked down in shame.

She had wanted to use this sorceress for revenge.

She had calculated everything so clearly.

Using the remaining value of a dying person to trade for a revenge she could never hope to achieve on her own in this lifetime.

She had thought it was a transaction, a quid pro quo.

Yet, the sorceress had just casually saved her life.

Casually.

Benita was almost stung by the word. It felt as though Hilna had taken a part of her when she left—the soft, joyful parts—leaving every single day of her existence, even every breath, a torment.

She had been counting down the days to her death, entrusting Phelin to Granny Sima, having already resigned herself to that future.

But this suddenly appearing sorceress had pulled her out of the abyss with a casual wave of her hand.

And yet, was she really going to push this young, powerful, kind, and worldly-ignorant sorceress into another abyss?

“My Lady...” Her voice was raspy. “Regarding the Mage Association...”

“I have my own pace,” Wu Yao said. Thinking the NPC was about to rush her to start the quest, she immediately raised a hand in a warning gesture. “We agreed you'd teach me the skills first. No backing out!”

Benita felt as if cotton were stuffed in her throat. She wanted to tell her how unreasonable the Mage Association was, what a colossal monster they were, and how much people feared and avoided sorceresses. In the end, all of it dissolved into a single sigh.

Meanwhile, Phelin was dragging Granny Sima back home, eager to introduce her to her super cool new friend.

The moment she walked through the door, she saw her mother, who hadn't stepped out of the house in ages, smiling warmly at her.

“Phelin, your new friend cured my illness,” Benita said, opening her arms wide.

Phelin blinked hard, still trying to confirm if this wasn't a hallucination. But her legs moved before her mind could, and she threw herself into that embrace.

Benita took a half-step back to steady herself as she caught her. Feeling the warmth in her arms and the growing dampness on her collar, she hugged her daughter even tighter.

Phelin tightly gripped the back of her mother's clothes, her shoulders trembling violently. For years, she had been woken up countless times in the dead of night by her mother's desperately muffled coughing, only to pretend to be fast asleep out of worry.

She thought she had gotten used to it—used to being a sensible child, used to swallowing her fears and putting on a smile. But...