Daredevil's Unique Anatomy

"Just as I thought, I couldn't fool you."

"Even while you were running away, your heart rate didn't speed up in the slightest. That showed you'd anticipated this situation long ago.

"And when you said you couldn't bear to see Jessica get hurt, none of your physiological indicators changed.

"In other words, you don't like Jessica at all.

"Only she would be fooled by you."

Matt's tone was utterly calm. Shen Fei raised an eyebrow. "Then why didn't you warn her?"

"There wasn't time."

Only then did Matt's tone carry a trace of helplessness. "We'd only just met. Why did you know my weakness so well?"

That was the key. Shen Fei had prepared a weapon specifically to counter Matt, leaving Matt, who had noticed something was wrong at the time, powerless to warn Jessica about Shen Fei.

When he woke up, he found that someone was already trying to capture him. Matt had just regained consciousness when he realized he was once again surrounded by those devices. There was also a large amount of pepper at the scene, interfering with his sense of smell. He had no way to fight back.

And so he ended up lying here.

"You don't need to know that."

Shen Fei casually replied to Matt, then gestured to his assistant. "Use an otoscope to examine the structure of his ears first."

Just as Matt was about to say something, a sharp object was shoved into his ear. The sound of metal scraping against his ear canal made him frown.

"Are you one of Kingpin's men, or The Hand's? Why are you capturing me?"

That was what Matt couldn't understand. He could tell Shen Fei had captured him for a reason, but aside from his poor eyesight, all his other senses—even his memory—were exceptionally good. Otherwise, how could he have gotten into Columbia University?

Moreover, he needed to construct a map of the city every moment of every day. A poor memory simply wouldn't do.

He was certain he had never met Shen Fei.

"Research. Because you're worth studying!" Shen Fei said as he examined the images sent back by the otoscope. "Your middle ear has undergone an astonishing mutation."

The middle ear contained the eardrum, auditory ossicles, and Eustachian tube, serving to transmit and amplify sound.

Those who could hear sounds from very far away often had more developed middle ears. It functioned much like an amplifier, magnifying sounds received by the outer ear many times over before sending them to the cochlea, where they were processed and transmitted to the auditory center of the nervous system.

But even in highly developed people, the auditory ossicles, tympanic cavity, and eardrum were generally more or less the same.

Yet now, after mutating due to that special chemical agent—

Matt's middle ear had undergone earth-shaking changes.

His eardrum appeared thinner, and small growths had formed within the tympanic cavity. Yet those growths could amplify sound, seemingly adding another amplification structure.

And the structure of his auditory ossicles was extremely complex.

"This is truly something to look forward to..."

"What exactly do you want to do!"

"Find the source of your abilities!"

Next, Shen Fei dissected Matt's ear, comparing the physical specimen with the images previously taken through the otoscope. In the end, he directly cut off the outer ear.

He even inserted a scalpel deep into Matt's head, carefully stripping out the structures of the inner ear.

He needed to carefully dissect the mastoid structures inside the ear. If they remained on Matt's body, they would heal as soon as they were cut open.

Matt's face was covered in cold sweat as intense pain continuously surged into his mind. "Maniac!"

For a moment, he had truly thought he was going to die. He vaguely sensed a blade approaching his brain.

But soon, he felt his ear slowly beginning to grow back.

And his eyes itched terribly. The eyes that had been dormant for so many years seemed to be growing back as well.

A hazy white light appeared in his previously empty field of vision.

"The changes in your eardrums are enormous. Their structure is denser and tougher than normal human eardrums, yet they also produce reverberations easily."

"The mastoid structures inside the tympanic cavity are incredible. They seem somewhat similar to the ultrasound echolocation structures inside a bat's ears.

"No wonder you can construct a map, and even use infrasonic waves..."

The more Shen Fei studied him, the more astonished he became. Matt's alterations were simply too extraordinary. Most importantly, if the potential of these structures could be fully developed, danger would practically never be able to get near Matt.

"The auditory ossicles can receive all kinds of sound information..."

Shen Fei looked at Matt, who had fully recovered. Even his eyes had grown back. In Matt's vision, a Chinese man was smiling at him.

He wore a white coat and held a scalpel in his hand.

"Congratulations on seeing the light again. But I'm curious—just how developed are your auditory nerves, for you to classify such complicated sound information so clearly..."

Under Matt's terrified gaze, Shen Fei's gloved hand explored his forehead and shaved his hair completely clean. Shen Fei calmly said, "Prepare formalin. Begin live-subject research!"

"Inject him with stimulants and keep his mind above a certain threshold! I need to test his ability to receive sound!"

"Yes!"

A while later, Shen Fei looked at the threadlike nerve tissue beneath the microscope. Matt had long since been anesthetized. By the time they started stripping away his nerve tissue, Matt could no longer endure it.

To prevent him from suffering a mental breakdown, Shen Fei still had someone inject him with anesthetic.

"Nerves three times thicker than ordinary people's, overlapping cell counts, and an excessively developed nerve sheath. No wonder they can transmit so much information without becoming overloaded."

Shen Fei had someone take the nerves away to make slices. Looking at the sleeping Matt, he let out a breath. "The structure is certainly unique, but it seems more like a talent.

"It needs someone to draw it out."

Shen Fei waved for the other assistants to leave. They had worked continuously for an entire day, and not everyone had energy as abundant as his. Besides, he needed to go on a date with Jessica tonight.

After reviewing today's materials once more and considering the structures in Matt's body, he thought of Stick!

Shen Fei remembered that Matt had a master named Stick, who was also blind.

But his five senses were also incredibly sharp. He emphasized the power of "the mind," also known as proximity sense.

Matt probably had not reached that level yet, but he was still Stick's most prized disciple because his talent was simply too high.

"There's still his sense of smell and touch to investigate. That can wait until tomorrow. I also need to find out exactly what chemical substance caused his mutation back then.

"And find Stick, The Hand..."

After deciding what he needed to do next, Shen Fei took off his white coat, cleaned himself up, and had Klaw keep a close eye on the two laboratories.

He left Zhuangri, picked up a bouquet of roses, and drove toward Jessica's detective agency.

Jessica had agreed to have dinner with him tonight. The fish was almost on the hook now—there was no way he would throw it back into the pond.