The art of war values speed above all; delay breeds trouble.
Under Jill Young's command, the three sprang into action. Lu Yide went off to gather intel from the cats and dogs, while Jill led Jasper Xiao straight to the hospital. This time, Jill didn't need her mom to guide her—she strode right into the Intensive Care Unit like she owned the place. Two rookie cops stood guard at the door, unsure whether they should stop and question her. But Jill, not in the mood for chit-chat, shot them a look so intimidating that the pair recoiled as if struck by lightning, stumbling back two steps and clearing the way.
Once the two of them were inside, the rookie cops finally let out a shaky breath. They glanced at each other and realized their foreheads were drenched in cold sweat.
"Whoa, that pressure! Way scarier than the chief or even the mayor!" Cop A exclaimed in awe.
"The mayor? Sure, he acts all high and mighty in the boardroom, but off the stage he's just a fat slob with zero presence. But that woman just now..." Cop B shuddered, clearly spooked. "That was the first time I've ever seen someone with that kind of, uh, conqueror's aura! She must be a big shot."
"Oh, by the way, that young guy who came in after her... he looked kinda familiar," Cop A said, rubbing his temples. "Where have I seen him before...?"
Whatever the two rookie cops were thinking, Jill and Jasper Xiao were already inside the ICU—and, thankfully, no one else was there.
"That's her," Jill said, pointing at the pregnant woman inside the isolation chamber. "She's carrying a child, and her condition is... tricky. I've got a remedy, but it's pretty potent. Can you keep her life force stable while she takes it?"
Jasper leaned in for a closer look and nodded confidently. "With my current abilities, curing her completely would be tough. But if it's just protecting her so she can absorb the medicine, no problem."
"Great! Just when things looked hopeless, you show up at the perfect time!" Jill grinned. "Let's not waste a second—I'll go make arrangements, you get ready."
Jill stepped out, then returned—with Susan Morrow in tow. Susan gave Jasper Xiao a thorough once-over, nodded in approval (who knows what she was approving of), and then got serious: "Can you really do it? We're talking about two lives here. No room for mistakes."
Standing side by side, Susan and Jill were unmistakably mother and daughter. Jasper straightened up, looking every bit the knight, and tapped his right fist to his left chest in a crisp salute—a gesture so precise it seemed ritualistic. "Don't worry, Auntie. I would never gamble with someone's life."
Jasper's steady vibe was reassuring, so Susan's expression softened a bit. "Alright, let's begin. No one will come in and interrupt. Just do your best—the injuries are pretty grim."
Jasper didn't say a word, just nodded. He removed the isolation shield and approached the pregnant woman, focusing all his energy. He raised his right hand, and suddenly, a soft white light shimmered between his fingers—a glow as gentle and warm as the morning sun.
Susan was stunned. She knew Jasper was special, but her idea of 'skilled' was still stuck in the kung fu master zone—movies, games, novels, all that stuff was outside her wheelhouse. She never expected Jasper to just whip up a mini sun with one hand.
Jill raised an eyebrow too. "No wonder you said you could fight, tank, and support. Is this, like, Paladin Holy Light from World of Warcraft?"
No need to explain Paladins in World of Warcraft. If you're lost, just ask Google. In the game, you just make a character and boom—you're a Paladin. But in a real alternate world, you'd need skills, guts, and the right mindset.
"It is Holy Light, but I've never played World of Warcraft," Jasper chuckled. "If a little shrimp like me went there, I'd have a 99% chance of dying. Actually, I visited a similar world—way less dangerous, totally manageable for me. But this Holy Light is the real deal. Sure, it's way weaker than the Silver Hand's, but it's fundamentally the same thing."
As he spoke, Jasper bathed the injured woman in Holy Light. The wounds didn't visibly heal, but she trembled slightly. Even Susan could tell—she looked much livelier, nowhere near as close to the edge as before.
"My Holy Light isn't specialized for healing, so this is as far as I can go."
"No worries, I'll handle the rest," Jill said, flipping her hand to reveal a big clear bucket that looked like it belonged in a water cooler—filled to the brim with some kind of transparent liquid. She popped the lid and drew out a milliliter with a syringe.
As soon as she opened the lid, Jasper sniffed the air, eyes wide in surprise. "What is that stuff?" He could tell it was no ordinary liquid.
"This is Purified Liquid, a specialty I picked up from another world. Lacking life force? Just add some of this—it's the perfect fix." Jill actually brought this whole bucket as emergency rations, just in case something unexpected happened. It could be used like a super potion if things got dire.
Jill sealed the bucket and put it away, grabbed a measuring cup, and filled it with saline. Then, she carefully added a single drop of Purified Liquid. After swirling it around and sensing it, she nodded. "Diluted a thousand times—should be safe now."
Jill pulled out all the tubes from the woman's mouth and gave her a sip of water. Even though the woman was unconscious, Jill pressed and pinched her neck just right, and she swallowed it down smoothly.
Susan watched, clueless about the magic at play. But both Jill and Jasper relaxed a bit—it was working. "At this rate, if we feed her the whole milliliter of Purified Liquid, it should do the trick," Jill said. She knew her way around medical gear, so there was no need to do it all by hand. "Mom, set up a feeding tube and give her a sip every five minutes. The mix is one drop per cup—add sugar or salt, whatever. Jasper, you stand guard with your Holy Light."
This woman's just a regular person—a milliliter of Purified Liquid is more than enough. Jill had checked her records: no cancer, no tumors, so the stuff would only help her. If there were any side effects, well, maybe the baby would be born a bit stronger than average.
"What about you?"
"I'm going to find my dad. He's all alone—I can't just leave him like that." With that, Jill strode off again, purposeful as ever.
John Yang is a schoolteacher, and early August is summer break. But like most middle school teachers, he still had to attend 'group lesson planning'—a few days during vacation when all the teachers gather to prep for the next semester.
Since Jill couldn't explain her identity, she naturally couldn't show up in front of her dad's coworkers. Not that it mattered—she easily dodged the security patrol and slipped onto the empty campus. She listened near the office building and heard the teachers meeting inside; her dad was just fine.
As long as you got past the security at the gate, nobody cared what you did on campus. Jill wandered around, using her Rain Whisper Technique to keep tabs on her dad while brainstorming how to catch that mysterious creature.
"There are three possibilities: One, a native Earth creature. Two, an otherworldly creature that snuck in via parasitism. Three, a mutated Chosen One—but that's pretty unlikely, so let's skip it for now."
Jill sat cross-legged on the steps in front of the school building, gazing up at the big sycamore tree overhead. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, a gentle breeze blew, and cicadas buzzed—peaceful as could be. But who'd guess that lurking beneath this calm was something terrifying.
"Wait," Jill thought, inspired by a pair of sparrows fighting over food. "I'm trying to catch an animal, right? And animals are all about food and mating. Let's skip the second one—if it's food, then bait should do the trick. Yeah, that's the plan!"
Her dad was safe—dozens of teachers packed in one office. Jill dashed out, hit up every market, and bought every kind of trap: for mice, for beasts, for anything. She also picked up all sorts of meats and sliced them into prime bait. Even though it was just regular meat, for most animals it was irresistible—the perfect lure.
Jill set up traps in all the hidden, rarely visited corners and waited. "Any stray dog or cat that gets caught—well, tough luck for them."
The afternoon flew by with no big breakthroughs. Jill got two calls: one from Lu Yide, who said he had a lead and would be in touch once he had solid info; and one from her mom, reporting that the Purified Liquid and Holy Light had worked—the pregnant woman's vitals were stable, and she should wake up soon.
Evening came, the sky ablaze with red clouds, and the teachers clocked out. Jill, moving like a secret agent, rendezvoused with John Yang and headed home. Meanwhile, Lu Yide was making his way toward the edge of the city.
"Whew, it's true—powers get stronger the more you use them." Lu Yide wiped sweat from his brow and kept going. He was near the outskirts, people thinning out, but stray cats and dogs were everywhere. He kept asking around, and from the cats' reactions, he could tell something out here was scaring them.
Two stray cats passed by together, and Lu Yide said something that would sound totally nonsensical to a regular person. It wasn't cat language, but the cats stopped and came right up to him. The technique he learned from a low-magic world let him communicate with animals, but it still drained something between stamina and magic—use it too much and it wore him out.
Lu Yide and the cats didn't say much, but after a while, he nodded and tossed them two pieces of dried fish as a reward. Wiping sweat from his brow, he looked further south. "Over there, huh?" From talking to the cats, he learned there was something in the southern outskirts that scared them—and there was more than one.
"Should I call the other two?" If there were lots of dangerous creatures, teaming up would be safer. But Lu Yide hesitated, then shook his head. "Nah, I'll wait till I have a clear target."
His powers were still weak, so he couldn't get precise info from the animals. Ask a dog where the treasure is, and odds are it'll lead you to a pile of poop. Same with cats—the things they fear aren't always what you're looking for. If he called the others to help and it turned out to be just a hedgehog that had bullied the cat crowd, he'd never live it down.
"Can't let them look down on me—I'm a Chosen One, after all." Lu Yide felt a stubborn pride. At today's meeting, he realized he was the weakest of the three, and by a long shot. It bummed him out, but he refused to accept it. "Everyone's got their specialty. I'll prove I'm useful—I'm not a loser!"
Feeling a little down, Lu Yide kept moving, crossing Binhu Road and heading south. The sun was setting, darkness creeping in.