"Why is Elorie at the Northern Heaven Institute?" Honglian asked, raising her voice. "You know she's an agent of the Dimensional Limit Organization, don't you?"
"Yes, we know. But she was gravely injured and barely breathing. If the Northern Heaven Institute had turned her away, she would have died." You Chi paused. "Besides, someone asked us to help her. Her identity had to come second."
"Who asked?"
"A friend."
In the end, Honglian had too little information to work out what was going on. But as long as she could see Elorie herself, the trip wouldn't be wasted.
The two followed You Chi through the bamboo corridor behind Green Grass Hall and into a medical facility. Unlike the antique buildings out front, this one had a sleek, high-tech interior. Even this late at night, plenty of medical staff were still busy. After passing through two airtight doors, they finally found their long-missing teammate, Elorie.
She wore a surgical gown and floated in a transparent glass tank filled with pale yellow liquid. All manner of tubes and signal wires ran into her arms, forehead, and back. Several machines around her gave the occasional hum, apparently monitoring her vital signs.
"So this is what I saw!" Wang Baihu stepped forward and carefully touched the tank. "Can she... hear me?"
"No. Medically speaking, she still hasn't regained consciousness. Her injuries were so severe that it's a miracle she survived."
"What kind of injuries?" Honglian asked.
You Chi brought up Elorie's examination report on the medical room's large screen. "Multiple gunshot wounds to the torso, a broken arm, an execution-style shot to the head, with the bullet entering her brain..."
The photographs in the report left them staring in shock.
An ordinary person would have died five or six times over from injuries like