The medical facility was just a stone's throw away. It catered to any medical operation on any type of life form except Lil Pea. She was too tiny. There was no pocket-sized chamber for her. So, they had to use whatever they had at hand and improvise.
Hao Ren rushed his fish-daughter to the medical facility as the hiccup flung Lil Pea away each time. The four ascetics followed, but they were clueless about what Hao Ren and the rest were doing. However, they could see that the little girl, who looked like a foot-long fish was affected by the Sacred Relic. Hence, they wanted to find out more. The medical facility was not a restricted zone and they were not prevented from entering.
Before the physical examination started, they first figured out the pattern of her involuntary teleportation. Firstly, it had something to do with the hiccups, as a hiccup would cause an involuntary teleportation; secondly, the direction and distance of each involuntary teleportation was dependent on her line of sight, but how far she would go was still unknown; lastly and most importantly, Lil Pea could not penetrate solid surfaces. If something was in her way, she would hit right into it with a bam. Any obstables could stop her, such as walls and Y'zaks' head. But in this case, it could be a blessing in disguise; the fear of every first-timer was to get stuck in something during teleportation. Every year in The Plane of Dreams, there were dozens of deaths, because novice sorcerers would get themselves stuck in various objects. But, there was no such fear for Lil Pea; she derived her ability from the Sacred Relic of Origins and it must have given her a "safety lock" when it blessed her with the ability.
The MDT switched one of the medical pods on and Hao Ren carefully placed Lil Pea inside. She had no idea what was happening. She looked around curiously, but also nervously. She cried quietly and flapped her tail. She appeared reluctant when Hao Ren set her down. He comforted her, "Don't worry, it's just a photo shoot. You can lie down here, take a nap if you want. Daddy is by your side..."
Lil Pea could already understand human language, so she quited down, staring at the shiny crystal panel in amazement. She moved around the pod, exploring. Nangong Wuyue could not help muttering, "Don't you think the medical pod is a little too big for her?"
Just barely a foot long, the little mermaid could run freely inside the medical pod. Relatively speaking, it was as big as a hall to a human. The MDT started to fiddle with the control panels and said, "No worries, it will still work like a charm even if you throw a mosquito in there."
The medical pod slowly closed. Hao Ren was worried that Lil Pea would be flung out of the pod when she hiccupped. But before he knew it, Lil Pea had fallen into deep sleep. Barely a few seconds later, the scan returned the results on the medical pod's display unit. The MDT used Lil Pea's existing medical records and compared them to the results. It then made an extrapolation, simulating what was going to happen in her body if her condition persisted. Except the MDT, eveyone at the scene knew nuts about medical stuff. They could only wait.
Nangong Wuyue looked at Lil Pea's MRI scan. The little mermaid was sleeping soundly in the "casket", curling herself up in a posture similar to a question mark. But, the image of her bones caught the siren's eyes. She took a closer look and scratched her chin in thought. "Hmm, there really is a fish bone. Do I haved it too?"
Glancing at Nangong Wuyue, Hao Ren had cold sweat trickling down his forehead. He wondered when the maiden would stop worrying about bones.
"Everything looks fine. She is in perfect health." The MDT broke the good news after a long examination. "She's as fit as a fiddle with no tissue deterioration. Anyway it seems that her body has had some positive changes. She's a lot healthier than before. Her body is producing some new but harmless hormones, probably an adaptive reaction to the earlier incident."
Nangong Wuyue remembered Raven 12345 once said: Lil Pea came from a harsh planet where its sun was unstable, the cosmic ray was too strong; the volatile environment had given the mermaid race super vitality and adapbility.
So Lil Pea had inherited the best gene of her ancestors. The reactant might be harmful to other races, but Lil Pea wasn't affected at all—instead, she grew even stronger.
But Hao Ren wasn't so sure. He asked, "What causes the involuntary teleportation when she hiccups?"
"Some kind magic marker," the MDT said as it fluttered a bit. "Perhaps demon hunters had got their talent this way—direct injection. Mermaid race, like Lil Pea, has a high level of magic affinity. We don't know how to teach her. She was just directly injected with a supernatural power. We need time to analyse how it works; as mysterious as the Sacred Relic of Origins is, there must be a set of law that's behind all these. The injection process might be related to Lil Pea's brain structure, or maybe something of higher realm, like soul. The previous civilisation in The Plane of Dreams must have possessed the ability to study the secret of the soul."
As mommy of Lil Pea, Nangong Wuyue only cared about the girl's health. Knowing Lil Pea was fine, she breathed a sigh of relief and said, "No matter what, she is safe at least. But we would like to know why hiccup causes the involuntary teleportation."
The MDT played a funny background music and said, "Some people would turn into a husky by eating spicy stick; so what does husky have to do with spicy stick?"
Lily was all ear. "Say all you want, but don't drag me into it. Some people could even experience super evolution by eating spinach..."
Vivian slid Lily a glance, said, "Do you really think turning into a husky is called super-evolution? Have you ever heard people could transform into superhero by just eating spicy stick?"
The two of them went arguing; the bone of contention was why spicy stick could and couldn't turn anyone into superhero, and why large tail was and wasn't a result of super-evolution—though no one knew why the argument had gone sideway about the tail. Argument about spicy stick wasn't going to help in explaining what happened to Lil Pea. Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue had spent scratching their heads for a long while but non the wiser. They decided it was just a conditioned reflex from the hiccup.
"She just acquired the teleporting ability of demon hunter. If I'm not mistaken, Lil Pea would be slowly 'demon-hunterised' and started to have exorcism power in her blood, the ability to sniff out otherworldlings, and read Letta Runes and stuff like that." the MDT opined. "Just watch out."
Suddenly something bothered Hao Ren. "Wait a second! If that happens, how is she going to control all these abilities? None of us knows how to train a demon hunter!"
Y'zaks slid Nangong Wuyue a glance. Then he said, "Maybe it's time to get a teacher. Do you think you could contact your brother?"
Nangong Wuyue shook her head. "He's going from place to place all the time. He only contact me once he put up at some place."
Hao Ren was baffled. He said, "It's not in stone age. Couldn't he just get a mobile phone?"
Nangong Wuyue spread out her hand. "But you still gotta wait. You know, when demon hunter goes hunting, you're hiding in some castle or places infested with monsters. Imagine what would happen if your phone rings in moments like that?"
Hao Ren pouted. It seemed Nangong Sanba was out of the question. So what should he do then?
The MDT thought for a long while before coming up with a wild idea. "I'm going to play a music to scare the hell out of her when she gets out."
Curious, Hao Ren asked, "So that she won't get teleported involuntarily again?"
"No. She would stop hiccup again."
Hao Ren: "....."
A lousy idea is better than no idea. Everyone so agreed.
When the medical pod opened, Lil Pea stepped out. The MDT blasted The Imperial March right in her face. She was stunned and her hiccup stopped. She was a happy bunny now. Hao Ren wished her other abilities wouldn't surface before he could find a way to train her. She must master self-control. So he held and said, "Remember this: try not to hiccup. If you have to, try do it in a safe place..."
It had been a helluva moment but Lil Pea was fine. Hao Ren could now depart to The Plane of Dreams.
The medical facility was just a stone's throw away. It catered to any medical operation on any type of life form except Lil Pea. She was too tiny. There was no pocket-sized chamber for her. So, they had to use whatever they had at hand and improvise.
Hao Ren rushed his fish-daughter to the medical facility as the hiccup flung Lil Pea away each time. The four ascetics followed, but they were clueless about what Hao Ren and the rest were doing. However, they could see that the little girl, who looked like a foot-long fish was affected by the Sacred Relic. Hence, they wanted to find out more. The medical facility was not a restricted zone and they were not prevented from entering.
Before the physical examination started, they first figured out the pattern of her involuntary teleportation. Firstly, it had something to do with the hiccups, as a hiccup would cause an involuntary teleportation; secondly, the direction and distance of each involuntary teleportation was dependent on her line of sight, but how far she would go was still unknown; lastly and most importantly, Lil Pea could not penetrate solid surfaces. If something was in her way, she would hit right into it with a bam. Any obstables could stop her, such as walls and Y'zaks' head. But in this case, it could be a blessing in disguise; the fear of every first-timer was to get stuck in something during teleportation. Every year in The Plane of Dreams, there were dozens of deaths, because novice sorcerers would get themselves stuck in various objects. But, there was no such fear for Lil Pea; she derived her ability from the Sacred Relic of Origins and it must have given her a "safety lock" when it blessed her with the ability.
The MDT switched one of the medical pods on and Hao Ren carefully placed Lil Pea inside. She had no idea what was happening. She looked around curiously, but also nervously. She cried quietly and flapped her tail. She appeared reluctant when Hao Ren set her down. He comforted her, "Don't worry, it's just a photo shoot. You can lie down here, take a nap if you want. Daddy is by your side..."
Lil Pea could already understand human language, so she quited down, staring at the shiny crystal panel in amazement. She moved around the pod, exploring. Nangong Wuyue could not help muttering, "Don't you think the medical pod is a little too big for her?"
Just barely a foot long, the little mermaid could run freely inside the medical pod. Relatively speaking, it was as big as a hall to a human. The MDT started to fiddle with the control panels and said, "No worries, it will still work like a charm even if you throw a mosquito in there."
The medical pod slowly closed. Hao Ren was worried that Lil Pea would be flung out of the pod when she hiccupped. But before he knew it, Lil Pea had fallen into deep sleep. Barely a few seconds later, the scan returned the results on the medical pod's display unit. The MDT used Lil Pea's existing medical records and compared them to the results. It then made an extrapolation, simulating what was going to happen in her body if her condition persisted. Except the MDT, eveyone at the scene knew nuts about medical stuff. They could only wait.
Nangong Wuyue looked at Lil Pea's MRI scan. The little mermaid was sleeping soundly in the "casket", curling herself up in a posture similar to a question mark. But, the image of her bones caught the siren's eyes. She took a closer look and scratched her chin in thought. "Hmm, there really is a fish bone. Do I haved it too?"
Glancing at Nangong Wuyue, Hao Ren had cold sweat trickling down his forehead. He wondered when the maiden would stop worrying about bones.
"Everything looks fine. She is in perfect health." The MDT broke the good news after a long examination. "She's as fit as a fiddle with no tissue deterioration. Anyway it seems that her body has had some positive changes. She's a lot healthier than before. Her body is producing some new but harmless hormones, probably an adaptive reaction to the earlier incident."
Nangong Wuyue remembered Raven 12345 once said: Lil Pea came from a harsh planet where its sun was unstable, the cosmic ray was too strong; the volatile environment had given the mermaid race super vitality and adapbility.
So Lil Pea had inherited the best gene of her ancestors. The reactant might be harmful to other races, but Lil Pea wasn't affected at all—instead, she grew even stronger.
But Hao Ren wasn't so sure. He asked, "What causes the involuntary teleportation when she hiccups?"
"Some kind magic marker," the MDT said as it fluttered a bit. "Perhaps demon hunters had got their talent this way—direct injection. Mermaid race, like Lil Pea, has a high level of magic affinity. We don't know how to teach her. She was just directly injected with a supernatural power. We need time to analyse how it works; as mysterious as the Sacred Relic of Origins is, there must be a set of law that's behind all these. The injection process might be related to Lil Pea's brain structure, or maybe something of higher realm, like soul. The previous civilisation in The Plane of Dreams must have possessed the ability to study the secret of the soul."
As mommy of Lil Pea, Nangong Wuyue only cared about the girl's health. Knowing Lil Pea was fine, she breathed a sigh of relief and said, "No matter what, she is safe at least. But we would like to know why hiccup causes the involuntary teleportation."
The MDT played a funny background music and said, "Some people would turn into a husky by eating spicy stick; so what does husky have to do with spicy stick?"
Lily was all ear. "Say all you want, but don't drag me into it. Some people could even experience super evolution by eating spinach..."
Vivian slid Lily a glance, said, "Do you really think turning into a husky is called super-evolution? Have you ever heard people could transform into superhero by just eating spicy stick?"
The two of them went arguing; the bone of contention was why spicy stick could and couldn't turn anyone into superhero, and why large tail was and wasn't a result of super-evolution—though no one knew why the argument had gone sideway about the tail. Argument about spicy stick wasn't going to help in explaining what happened to Lil Pea. Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue had spent scratching their heads for a long while but non the wiser. They decided it was just a conditioned reflex from the hiccup.
"She just acquired the teleporting ability of demon hunter. If I'm not mistaken, Lil Pea would be slowly 'demon-hunterised' and started to have exorcism power in her blood, the ability to sniff out otherworldlings, and read Letta Runes and stuff like that." the MDT opined. "Just watch out."
Suddenly something bothered Hao Ren. "Wait a second! If that happens, how is she going to control all these abilities? None of us knows how to train a demon hunter!"
Y'zaks slid Nangong Wuyue a glance. Then he said, "Maybe it's time to get a teacher. Do you think you could contact your brother?"
Nangong Wuyue shook her head. "He's going from place to place all the time. He only contact me once he put up at some place."
Hao Ren was baffled. He said, "It's not in stone age. Couldn't he just get a mobile phone?"
Nangong Wuyue spread out her hand. "But you still gotta wait. You know, when demon hunter goes hunting, you're hiding in some castle or places infested with monsters. Imagine what would happen if your phone rings in moments like that?"
Hao Ren pouted. It seemed Nangong Sanba was out of the question. So what should he do then?
The MDT thought for a long while before coming up with a wild idea. "I'm going to play a music to scare the hell out of her when she gets out."
Curious, Hao Ren asked, "So that she won't get teleported involuntarily again?"
"No. She would stop hiccup again."
Hao Ren: "....."
A lousy idea is better than no idea. Everyone so agreed.
When the medical pod opened, Lil Pea stepped out. The MDT blasted The Imperial March right in her face. She was stunned and her hiccup stopped. She was a happy bunny now. Hao Ren wished her other abilities wouldn't surface before he could find a way to train her. She must master self-control. So he held and said, "Remember this: try not to hiccup. If you have to, try do it in a safe place..."
It had been a helluva moment but Lil Pea was fine. Hao Ren could now depart to The Plane of Dreams.
