188 – Ability

“Oh my goodness, Nicholas, did you see Dr. Li on the news?” asked director Xian.

“Dr. Li was on the news?” Nicholas asked curiously in a room of post-production technicians. Nicholas scrolled through the news. It was a few days old, but the news was still trending. Nicholas didn’t think it was odd since the netizens were starting to dig up information regarding the doctor. It also helped that there was a recent live stream of an event at a legitimate cancer center.

Nicholas guessed the biggest reason was because Li Yun happened to be good looking. Being in the entertainment business, he naturally knew how shallow people were.

“Well, with Dr. Li blowing up on the news, what will happen once the Greatest Chef airs?” asked one of the editors.

“Well, there shouldn’t be anything strange. It’s an amateur cooking show, so people will be amused to see Dr. Li in the competition. But do you think people will assume he’s the judge?”

“Do you think it’s that obvious?”

“I mean, it’s also possible that when we air the show, people will forget Dr. Li.”

“How about we make edits to make it look like Dr. Li is a great chef?” asked director Xian. “The audience would never guess that he’s the judge.”

Everyone in the room nodded, it was a good idea to misdirect the viewers. The editors all knew the sous chef was the main source of Li Yun’s success, but it really was Li Yun giving out the commands. They could use the commander narrative to give the audience the impression that Li Yun could be a real chef that commands the entire kitchen.

****

While the magic of editing was working to turn Li Yun into a great chef, Li Yun returned to Yide and focused on completing Wu Xin and his mission.

Li Yun’s surgical ability progressed much faster with his sense of hearing strengthened. By midday, he completed the bulk of the surgery.

“Dr. Li, do you want me to call some patients and see if they want to push their surgery date for next week?” Nurse Yuen suggested. In addition to being quicker, many of the patients recovered in an hour and rarely was there a patient who needed more than 2-hours of post treatment care.

With Li Yun’s approval, Nurse Yuen sent out messages to patients who would like to push up their surgery date. 

After a few weeks, he completed Wu Xing through surgery, mapping out different chemical profiles of plants and helping patients. 

Wu Xing Status:

Fire (Taste): 100

Water (Hearing): 100

Earth (Touch): 100

Metal (Smell): 100

Wood (Sight): 100

Comprehend Feng Shui to Small Perfection.    

Comprehend Meridians to Large Perfection

Gather the following items.

Tool: Cauldron with 1000 qi, jade trigrams with 1000 qi, and wood with 1000 qi.

Items: 9 different items with 1000 qi. 9/9

Medicinal: 9 different medicinal with 1000 qi. 

Inside his dantian, a thin global barrier formed around the Wu Xing. The options to add points disappeared. All that remained was the globe. The action points could be still accumulated. He experimented by selecting an extra action point. Suddenly, the globe spun around once and absorbed the point. Everytime it absorbed the points, the layer thickened. Li Yun was not sure of the purpose or how many points it needed to gather.

“Isn’t this like a spiritual seed?” Li Yun scratched his head, it was the only thing he could equate it to.

A few days later, he was able to manipulate his qi and circulate it once around his body. He had been practicing every night, and was able to command his qi to do one simple step, circulate. After every complete rotation, he gained energy back.

He had never been able to replace sleep before, but with the ability, it was possible for him to replace sleep. An hour of circulating his qi could replace three hours of sleep. Luckily, his sleeping pose could be maintained or else Rouxi would look worried.

Congratulations, Comprehend Meridians to Large Perfection Completed. Qi Visualization to Large Perfection Acquired.

Comprehend Meridians to Peak Perfection.

Li Yun smiled, finally, an updated Qivi. He glanced at Rouxi sleeping by his side.

With Qivi, he looked into her internal anatomy. However, unlike before, Li Yun was able to see the entire human body, including the lymphatic system and nervous system. The lymphatic system wasn’t entirely different from the CV. It was a type of channel for the immune system with many checkpoints to remove intrusive materials in the blood such as bacteria and viruses.

Li Yun looked at the nervous system. He wasn’t able to navigate the inside like the CV and lymphatic system. He could only zoom in and out of the area. It was likely because the nervous system wasn’t a continuous channel, but made of neurons that were separated by a small cleft.

Zoomed into the neuron, Li Yun could see the cell with hairy dendrite sticking out. The axon, a long branch, extended out to other neurons. Although it looked like the neurons were touching, there was a gap known as the synoptic gap. Every neuron communicated information over the gap via electrical or chemical signals at a rate of 5-50 messages or action potentials per second.

It was fascinating to see, but it was unfortunate Li Yun didn’t understand much about the nervous system. He had spent two weeks in the neurology department, and being the most complex system in the human body, there was no way for Li Yun to comprehend everything.

What shocked Li Yun even more was his ability to zoom into the cellular structure and a glimpse of the chromosomes. With some concentration and spending much of his energy, he could see the double helix and ladders that connected molecules together.

Li Yun released his concentration, and looked back at Rouxi. He remembered she was the first person he had used Qivi on. The first time was accidental, but he wondered if he was crossing the line with his ability.

He didn’t use to be a stickler for rules, but the more powerful he became, the more he thought about setting up limitations for himself. In the same way that he was afraid of hurting others with his strength, he was also afraid that his powers would end up corrupting him, somehow.

“Yun?” Rouxi whispered as her eyes flickered open to look at him.

“Did I wake you?” Li Yun had been quiet, but whenever his mood was off, she could sense it.

“Are you worried about something?”

There were some abilities he had not told her about. “Have you ever thought that your ability is intrusive?”

Rouxi briefly thought about it, and then shook her head. “It’s my own ability, even if I can shut it off, I wouldn’t. We all use our own ability to our advantage.” 

“If you can start reading minds, would you?”

Rouxi nodded. “Of course. It would be fun and wouldn’t people develop a mental barrier to block my ability? If I don’t use my ability, how are they going to develop it? They should thank me for helping them gain an ability."

Li Yun smiled, wondering she was joking. She had an odd way of thinking about abilities, but it made sense from an evolutionary standpoint. If people realize that ability exists, the human body will find ways to counteract it.

“What about privacy?” asked Li Yun.

“Privacy is just an illusion. Just look at social media today, if there wasn’t any censorship, there would be popup porn ads and everyday people posting their nudes online. Privacy isn’t what people care about, it’s their ego and dignity.” It came down to how people perceive it. People with mind reading ability will use it to their advantage, but those same people might also be offended if someone else reads their mind. “And besides, it's not like there is a supernatural ethics committee.”

“Should we make one?” he jokingly asked.

“Really?” Rouxi laughed. “Why are you asking? Can you read my mind now?”

“I wish I could.”

“Try to read my mind,” she seductively whispered into his ear.

**following 1000 words censored by you know who...**

chocomug

Let's say they make an ethics committee for mutants, what are the top 5 rules? And who should be on the committee?