The elevator door closed.Inside, only Dustin, Caelan, and the rolling bed carrying Sayla.Caelan felt something inside himself, something that had already been there since his hand left Sayla's wrist earlier, something now moving in a different way from before.The yin energy absorbed earlier hadn't simply disappeared. He could feel it now, circulating within his meridians, integrating itself in its own way, adding something to the layer already there.He slowly clenched his fist."Fifth Realm Level Two is almost full. I'm just one step away from reaching Level Three."This was the real reason he had asked Dustin to entrust Sayla's treatment to him alone.Not because he wanted to belittle the other doctors.But because the process of healing Sayla would reveal the extraordinary energy hidden inside her body, and when that became known to the world, it would attract the attention of mysterious sects.That was clearly dangerous.And one name came to his head.Vance.He was the one who

He then took a more upright sitting position, placing his palms above Sayla's wrist—not touching directly, just a few millimeters above it."Now the most important part." His eyes closed.Energy began to flow.Not from outside to inside like what he had done downstairs earlier, this time it was more complex. His meridians channeled something very thin and very focused through the ten points already opened, like someone installing a pump in a channel that already existed but was blocked—not forcing, just helping the direction that should have already been there.And from the opposite direction, the yin energy that had been accumulating for two months began to move.Not a little.Three times more than what had entered earlier, because the meridians were now fully open, ten gates that hadn't existed before were now simultaneously active.Inside Caelan, that energy entered like a current forced through a narrow space. Cold, dense, with an intensity that required full concentration to not

Five minutes after Caelan went out, the room door opened.The five nurses entered with already orderly steps—one carrying a tray with a glass of herbal infusion on top, the other four returning to their respective positions.The one carrying the tray set it down carefully on the side table, then her head moved left, right, looking for someone who should have been in this room.Then her eyes fell on the bed.Sayla lay there, but with eyes open, with cheeks already showing color, with breathing no longer so slow it needed close observation to confirm it was there.The expressions of all the nurses changed at almost the same moment—from professional to something that couldn't fully return to professional in a short time.They had been caring for Sayla for two months.They already knew what her condition was like every morning.And this wasn't the same condition."M—Mr. Mourne." One of them spoke, her eyes still unable to leave Sayla. "What happened? And... where is Doctor Voss?"Dustin d

Meanwhile, at Blake Medical Group, the executive floor.Harrison Blake sat in his work chair with the large window behind him showing Velmont's panorama already heading into evening. On his face, bruises that had once been clearly visible had faded into a yellowish shadow, a remaining trace of an encounter he didn't want to remember but couldn't fully forget either.A few days ago, one of his informants brought news that made him furrow his brow.Caelan Voss had adopted a toddler.That information didn't make sense in his head. Caelan Voss—a doctor newly out of prison, who was now a name discussed in every social circle in Velmont—suddenly adopting a small child? For what? To build an image? For personal reasons Harrison didn't understand?He chose to ignore it.Not because he wasn't curious—his curiosity was considerable—but because he had learned in a very painful way to stop looking for trouble with that name. The two fingers that had caught every bullet from his gun were still in

"You're surprised?" Rex tilted his head. "Curious how a child this small can move like that and talk like this?" One small step forward. "Because I'm not an ordinary child."Vasquez drew a backup knife from the holster at his calf.Rex advanced.Not advancing in the way of running, but advancing in the way of something that had already decided where it was going and nothing could change that decision. Three meters of distance closed in a time that didn't need to be counted in seconds.That small hand grabbed the wrist holding the knife. Not with the strength expected from fingers that size, but with strength that made Vasquez feel the bones in his wrist crack before the knife fell to the floor.This—SLAP.The same palm that had just disarmed him landed on the side of his face. Not an ordinary slap, but a slap that used the momentum of a body's rotation in exactly the same way Rex had seen in the film earlier. His head snapped hard to the right.Before his balance recovered, something