Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Four

"Cut the nonsense, I'm not interested," Li Daoran said, speeding up his pace. He hoped to reach the river soon to escape this awkward topic.

"Heh, exactly. What kind of imperial concubine selection is this? Absolute nonsense. No need to choose, I think I'm a pretty good fit myself. What do you think?" Natasha said in a slightly raspy, seductive voice.

The voice felt like a stray hair tickling the inside of his ear. Li Daoran desperately wanted to scratch his ear, but in the powered exoskeleton, that was impossible.

"Alright, Natasha, don't push it too far," Charles's voice broke in, making Li Daoran breathe a sigh of relief.

"Hmph," Natasha let out a cold snort, but fell silent.

"Everything is ready, Li Daoran," Hou Liang said.

Li Daoran replied, "Right, got it. What do I need to do? I haven't reached the river yet."

"You need to find a safe spot, and prepare some water and gauze—never mind, you don't have those conditions over there. You should just head to the river. You'll need to wash the wound if necessary. Boil some water first and let it cool," Hou Liang instructed.

"Understood," Li Daoran replied in a deep voice. By this time, he had already spotted the stream. It was a crystal-clear brook, the current gentle enough to cross in two or three strides. The riverbed was paved with stones; there were no large fish in sight, which made sense since such a small stream could hardly support anything substantial. Li Daoran first rinsed his armor, then took it off and splashed some water on his face.

The river water was icy, making Li Daoran shiver sharply as he patted his face. The water reflected his features—a face both strange and familiar. Two bodies, one visage; which of them was the real him?

"Hey, stop daydreaming. Though you are rather handsome, there's no need to fall in love with yourself. Get the hot water going; we still need to wait for it to cool, and we have plenty to do," Natasha said.

"Right, okay." Li Daoran snapped out of it, smiled, put his armor back on, picked up his kinetic dagger, and carved a wooden pot out of a piece of timber. He gathered the leftover bark and wood into a large pile, arranged them into a makeshift hearth, and activated the kinetic dagger, placing it against the wood. Moments later, the intense heat dried out the slightly damp timber and set it ablaze. He then switched off the kinetic dagger to conserve energy.

Filling the wooden pot with water, he set it over the fire and asked, "What's next?"

"Choose a weapon," Hou Liang said.

"Isn't there a dagger right here? Let's just use that," Li Daoran said casually.

"It's far too sharp, absolutely not. If your hand slips even a fraction, you'll lose a finger. Stop joking around—even without the kinetic field active, you saw how it sliced through that wood like tofu. Using this dagger is way too dangerous," David argued.

"Then I'll carve a wooden toothpick, hold on a second," Li Daoran said, grabbing the dagger and using a leftover scrap to whittle a thin splinter.

In no time, he had fashioned a toothpick-like wooden sliver.

"How's this? I even turned on the kinetic field to polish it. Sharp enough, right? Thin and pointy, the wound won't be big at all. Safe enough, surely? Pricking it will draw just a tiny drop of blood, practically nothing." Li Daoran held up the wooden sliver, well pleased.

"No way. What if the sliver snaps off inside? It would enlarge the wound and be hard to pull out. Most importantly, wood has countless microscopic burrs. Even if you polish it with a kinetic dagger, once it punctures the flesh and is pulled back out, fragments will remain. Especially since yours is so sharp—use too little force and it won't pierce; use too much and it goes too deep, snapping inside. Unacceptable," Natasha vetoed the wooden sliver.

"Use a stone instead. Find a pebble, wash it clean, keep it small, chip an edge, and boil it in the hot water to sterilize it. Conditions are crude over there, so that's your only option," David suggested.

Li Daoran waded into the stream to fish out a stone, washed it thoroughly, and tossed it into the pot to boil.

"Head back now, change your position, we are all set on this end."

Li Daoran returned to Aqua-Blue Star, stood up, and straightened his clothes just as David opened the door. "Let's go, no need to turn off the livestream."

Li Daoran nodded and followed behind David. He walked in the middle while the other five kept different positions, yet maintained roughly the same distance from him.

Walking out of the villa, Li Daoran looked around. He hadn't stepped outside in a long time, and the scenery had completely transformed. The former military base had been entirely rebuilt; dense rows of houses stood neatly and orderly in tight formation. In the distance, several construction sites were active, though he couldn't tell what was being built. Once again located underground, the infirmary had expanded massively, growing from just three rooms into a sprawling medical center occupying over a dozen chambers and two large halls.

Nurses and doctors in medical scrubs bustled back and forth through the infirmary. Li Daoran sighed with emotion, "I haven't been out in ages. There are still so many female nurses."

"You really do have a soft spot for nurse uniforms, don't you? Maybe I should try wearing one someday," Natasha glanced sideways at him.

"It's not that there are still this many, it's that there are even more now. The personnel count in this base has been steadily increasing," David said, winking at Li Daoran.

Li Daoran smiled awkwardly. Great, now he'd never live it down. Because his initial impression of the base was that it had an unusually high number of female nurses, his casual remark had somehow branded him with a uniform fetish.

Despite the bustling crowd, not a single person stopped or even dared to approach their small circle. The five of them smoothly escorted him to a newly established sterile operating laboratory.

Passing through a five-stage disinfection and sterilization process, the other five donned sterile protective suits, while Li Daoran went in as he was.

Once inside, he was greeted by a familiar medical bed, accompanied by over a dozen masked doctors in protective gear and a tray of surgical scalpels.

Li Daoran dutifully lay down on the medical bed.

The dozen or so doctors sprang into action, hooking up instruments all over his body—electrocardiogram monitors, brainwave sensors, oxygen tanks, and more—before flashing a thumbs-up sign.

Li Daoran cast a glance toward the five companions. David spoke up, "We are now commencing the first experiment: determining whether this body can influence the body in Daoran's world. Projected wound dimensions: no more than five millimeters wide and three millimeters deep. Projected blood loss before clotting: two milliliters. Wound location: left forearm. Countdown: five seconds. Begin."

Li Daoran felt a brush of tension, which in turn made the surgeon holding the scalpel even more nervous. While anyone reaching this position deserved the title of surgical master, having performed over a hundred operations on the operating table, Li Daoran was hardly an ordinary subject. The wound specifications had to be exact; exceeding them by even a single millimeter meant accountability. Li Daoran's tension caused his muscles to tense up as well, making the doctor's job rather tricky.

"Don't be nervous, relax. Tense muscles make the wound prone to tearing," the doctor had no choice but to soothe Li Daoran first.