The Duo Who Toyed with Death

"See that?" Rick arrogantly turned to the medical staff, holding up the test tube in his hand, and said, "This is fresh Yinglong blood. What you've drawn is no different from blood from a dead corpse!"

"Alright, alright," Xiao He interrupted him with a frown of disdain. "Proceed to the next step."

Rick's personality is quite annoying, but his Superpower are undeniably impressive. The blood obtained through this live sampling contained approximately two milligrams of Miracle Factor, which is one-third more than conventional medical methods.

But the real challenge is yet to come: treating the two ALS patients.

Xiao He pushed open the door and his heart sank. The two people lying on the hospital bed, a man and a woman, had suffered severe muscle atrophy. The girl, in particular, could not even breathe without a ventilator.

"This girl's name is Xiang Chen. She's twenty-nine years old and has had ALS for sixteen years," Cui Man explained softly. "She can still move her arms and fingers with difficulty, but everything else... she can't even breathe on her own. But this child is still very strong. She makes handicrafts and cross-stitch on her own, and has lived bravely and optimistically until now without accepting any help from others."

Xiao He observed Xiang Chen. The girl had delicate features, but after years of suffering from illness, her skin and complexion were very poor. Only her eyes still shone with hope as she looked at him with a slight smile.

Xiao He was drawn to her smile and came to her side, saying with a smile, "I'll be able to cure you today. What are your plans after you recover?"

"I want to travel, go all over the country, eat delicious food, and help people like me..." Xiang Chen said with a smile. Because of muscular atrophy, she could only speak in short segments.

"Then you'd better start preparing your route now," Xiao He teased, "Because you'll be able to stand up tomorrow."

"Actually, that won't work," Rick whispered to Xiao He. "After her motor neuron disease is cured, she'll need a period of rehabilitation to restore her muscles to normal through exercise..."

"Then what are you good for?!" Xiao He grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up in an annoyed tone.

Rick struggled to say, "I'm just a doctor... not a god! If you can build her muscles, I can heal her..."

"I..." Xiao He frowned and pondered for a moment, "Shall we give it a try?"

His Stone-to-Gold allowed him to freely transform matter; if that were the case, could he transform it into organic matter? Xiao He pondered this, placing his hand on his arm, feeling the pulsation of his muscles, but...

"No." Xiao He shook his head. "Stone-to-Gold cannot create organic matter; it can only transform inorganic matter."

This result left Xiao He somewhat disappointed: if he could create organic matter, he could have directly converted air into Miracle Factor.

"Yinglong isn't a god after all," Rick smiled slightly, then took a deep breath and suddenly burst into wild laughter. "Hahaha! Good heavens! I'm going to use Yinglong's cells to heal other people! Am I dreaming!? I..."

Before he could finish speaking, Xiao He slapped Rick across the face, and Rick's words came to an abrupt halt.

"Hmm, not a dream..." Rick muttered, rubbing the spot on his face where he'd been hit. He then grabbed the bottle of Miracle Factor solution extracted from blood plasma and went to Xiang Chen's side, clearing his throat. "Alright, let's begin the treatment. Try it out, one microgram of Miracle Factor should be enough, right?"

Rick reached out and pressed on Xiang Chen's head for a while before raising his hands. "Microscopic Surgery, Motor Neuron Repair!"

After saying that, Rick began to move his hands around the girl's head.

"Cough cough!" Rick stopped the surgery as the girl coughed.

The girl's cough worsened, and she turned over, lunged at the bedside, and spat out a large amount of phlegm.

Xiao He immediately lifted Rick into the air. "What are you doing? Are you trying to pull some kind of trick?"

"That's not how it is, Your Yinglong!" A medical staff member quickly pulled him aside and explained, "You may not know this, but when ALS leads to respiratory failure, it can indeed cause a lot of phlegm. Usually, a suction device is used to treat it. The fact that she can cough up phlegm means her respiratory function has recovered!"

"Is that so?" Xiao He raised an eyebrow and put Rick down. "Yes, you did a good job..."

The medical experts present couldn't help but exclaim in amazement, whispering among themselves, "This is simply incredible! It's a pity it's Superpower." "Exactly, if only we could Replication this surgical procedure using actual scientific methods..."

The various symptoms caused by ALS are due to damage to motor neurons, which leads to a loss of control over muscles in various parts of the body. As muscles become unusable, they gradually atrophy. However, once the neurons recover, control over these muscles is regained, and the functions of various parts of the body will slowly recover.

After coughing for a while, Xiang Chen raised her hands and looked at her trembling arms. Suddenly, she covered her face and burst into tears. After sobbing for a while, she struggled to crawl towards Xiao He and Rick, but because she was not strong enough, she fell off the bed.

Xiao He quickly stepped forward to support her. Xiang Chen cried out hoarsely, "Thank you, thank you all... thank you so much. Over the years, I've thought about dying more than once. I don't know how many times I've been critically ill in the hospital. Finally... finally, today has come. From now on, I can finally live like a normal person! All the pain and endurance over the years have been worth it..."

"There's always good things to come from living, right?" Xiao He said with a smile, helping her lie down on the hospital bed again. "You should rest for a bit. Your parents are outside and will be able to come in to see you soon."

After the first patient was cured, Xiao He and Rick went to the second bedside.

Xiao He gazed at the man before him, his eyes calm. Although he had witnessed the girl's recovery, he showed no great anticipation or excitement, as if he had already accepted his fate.

Cui Man explained, "This man is named He Yongcheng, 43 years old, a well-known entrepreneur. He is the fourth person in his family to be diagnosed with ALS. His maternal grandfather, uncle, and younger brother all have ALS, but his condition has deteriorated the fastest. He has been dedicated to researching treatments for ALS since he was 26, but..."

Cui Man didn't continue, but Xiao He knew: clearly, the research had not been successful.

He Yongcheng's condition is even more serious than Xiang Chen's. Although he has not been ill for long, he can no longer speak and only two fingers on his body can still move.

"I just used one microgram..." Rick muttered to himself, resting his chin on his hand. "But maybe less than one microgram will be enough to cure it? Nerves are tiny things, we can't waste these Miracle Factor ... Anyway, let's try 0.1 microgram first."

There are already successful precedents, so the surgery is not in doubt; it's just a matter of testing the dosage.

After several attempts, Rick's final test results showed that 0.5 micrograms of the Miracle Factor was basically enough to repair damaged motor neurons.

In other words, the Miracle Factor contained in 100 milliliters of Xiao He's blood could cure 4,000 ALS patients.

The good news is that although ALS is the leading cause of death, it is a rare disease, with only about 200,000 patients worldwide. Even without a cure for ALS, if Xiao He continues to donate 100 milliliters of blood every month, all ALS patients in the world could be ALS within five years.

This is undoubtedly good news.

Of course, it's impossible to use all donated blood to treat ALS patients. However, not every ALS patient has such severe symptoms; some ALS patients will only become paralyzed decades later. We only need to treat the more severe cases. Those with milder symptoms can wait.

"I must remind you two," Rick said calmly to Xiang Chen and He Yongcheng after the surgery, "Although your motor neurons have been repaired, your muscles have atrophied severely. I suggest you spend at least a year on rehabilitation training before considering going out. Otherwise, if anything goes wrong, it won't be my responsibility as the 'doctor'."

"Thank... thank you." He Yongcheng said with difficulty, sitting on the edge of the bed. When he was first cured, he couldn't even speak. Because he hadn't spoken for so many years, he didn't know how to make a sound. He had only just caught his breath.

"What are your thoughts on your new life?" Cui Man stepped forward, shook hands with He Yongcheng, and asked with a smile.

He Yongcheng sat on the edge of the bed, laughing and crying at the same time, "All I want now is to set up a security team to protect Yinglong and this doctor 24/7..."

At this point, Rick asked Cui Man, "So, have I proven my worth?"

"Not bad, right?" Cui Man nodded in satisfaction. "I will allow you to join our medical research department, but there are some conditions that need to be agreed upon first. I will contact you later regarding the specifics."

Cui Man remained expressionless until she pulled Xiao He and Ye Wanqing aside.

"My God, this ability is absolutely terrifying..." Cui Man said in horror, clutching her cheek. "You two are practically playing with death in the palm of your hands! In your presence, the concept of a terminal illness simply doesn't exist!"

"That's not entirely true. Some diseases or injuries will still cause death if there's no replacement organ," Xiao He replied.

"But it's already terrifying!" Cui Man said, covering her forehead. "When you were performing the surgery just now, I was a little worried that we had crossed the line. If there's a god watching over us, what would he think if he knew what we did?"

"I think," Xiao He patted Ye Wanqing's head and laughed, "he'll think, 'Thank goodness my name isn't Lin Tiannan.'"

"I don't know if it's possible to change a god's name..." Ye Wanqing muttered, turning her face away.

"Alright, that's enough for today." Cui Man breathed a sigh of relief, calming herself down. "There are still about two weeks of vacation left. In two weeks, the semifinals will be coming up... You'll be facing much fiercer opponents than before, so be prepared."