Twenty minutes later, operating room number four.
Dressed in surgical scrubs, Lu Yuan stood next to the operating table and stared at the man lying on it for a long time.
In the end, the willow leaf knife in his hand did not fall.
"Change to operating room number six."
Lin Youyou pushed the trolley with the man on it out of the operating room in confusion and moved him to operating room number six instead.
Operating room number six was originally prepared by Lu Yuan for his own surgery.
Later it was used to dissect Little Cao.
Now this man had become the third patient in operating room number six.
Under the shadowless lamp, Lu Yuan was fully dressed in surgical garb with only his eyes exposed.
He simply drew a line on the man's chest and abdomen with a marker.
Then he held scalpel number four and attached blade number twenty-three. With a light cut, he made an incision on the sedated man's chest and abdomen.
The skin split open revealing a crimson wound.
Before Lu Yuan, this man no longer had any secrets.
Because it was a live dissection, it took a bit longer. The operating room lights didn't go off until forty minutes later.
Lin Youyou, who was waiting in the adjacent duty room, was about to come in and wheel the patient away. But Lu Yuan waved his hand and said, "No need. Get me a syringe for drawing blood."
Lin Youyou hurriedly nodded, "Oh, okay!"
After the syringe was delivered, Lu Yuan drew a tube of the man's blood and clipped some of his hair before letting Lin Youyou take him back to the isolation room he was originally held in.
That night, the lights in operating room number two, which also served as Lu Yuan's research lab, stayed on through the night again.
In the dead of night, on the outskirts of Yun City, Sun Ying's group gradually awoke from their unconscious state.
It was pitch black all around them, the car windows were shattered, and the few of them only felt cold all over.
Long scanned their surroundings vigilantly. He could sense the presence of many revived corpses wandering about.
But it seemed those corpses did not harbor much hostility towards them.
After the others had woken up as well, Long took the initiative to say, "Now, we can only leave this place on foot."
With the wheels gone, the car was obviously beyond repair.
Not even an attempt at fixing it, because no one would be willing to come to this place to fix a car.
Although extremely reluctant, the other three still shakily got out of the car.
As soon as Wu Xiong opened the car door, he turned his head and saw a line of words written on the armor — Come back and find me - Lu Yuan.
And...
Below this line of words, there was a rock.
As soon as Wu Xiong saw that rock, he nearly collapsed limply to the ground.
That rock that Lu Yuan had casually picked up was a broken tombstone.
Given the circumstances and the whooshing cold night wind, Wu Xiong felt that this place, Yun City, was somewhere he would never forget in his lifetime.
If not for his current weakened state, Wu Xiong would probably have wet his pants again by now...
...
At daybreak, several horses arrived from the outskirts of Yun City.
Sitting atop the horses were several trembling people - the unfortunate Starlight Group members.
Looking at the cavalrymen leading horses for them, Sun Ying and Wu Xiong were ashen-faced. Wei was shivering away on horseback. As for Long, he felt this was the highlight of his life.
The cavalrymen led the horses all the way to the gates of the Medical Academy before taking their leave.
Returning to this place again, the four were filled with complex emotions.
Long casually took off his sunglasses and lit himself a cigarette.
Later that morning, after the clinic opened its doors.
Today, Lu Yuan was going to do reconstructive surgery for Jiang Yingying. Before the surgery, he gave Long's group an injection each.
It was pure life essence hormone, quite a common thing during this period.
But even common things have grades.
After Lu Yuan's injection of life essence, the aged looks of the few immediately began to revert.
This left Wu Xiong gaping in astonishment. The efficiency of Lu Yuan's life essence hormone was at least three times that of Starlight Group's!
Right then and there, he placed another 2 million order with Lu Yuan.
2 million was not a large sum for a Starlight Group executive like Wu Xiong. He immediately transferred the amount to Lu Yuan.
And so, Lu Yuan let these people stay in Yun City for a few more days.
Because he did not have enough life essence reserves on hand.
After dealing with Wu Xiong's group, Lu Yuan had Liu Yuan wheel Jiang Yingying into the operating room. He started the final phase of reconstructive surgery for this transgender patient.
M to F reconstruction was far simpler than F to M.
The former only required liposuction and reduction of masculine features, while the latter had the additional step of constructing the *****.
In less than an hour, Jiang Yingying's procedure was done.
After lunch, Lu Yuan returned to the isolation room on the second floor.
The man whom Lu Yuan had dissected overnight had awakened.
Seeing Lu Yuan again, the man felt uncomfortable all over.
"What did you do to me last night?"
Lu Yuan shrugged and smiled. "I didn't do anything."
The man across him looked visibly disappointed.
Lu Yuan pulled over a chair and sat down. Looking into the man's eyes, he asked, "Is life interesting as a human?"
The man recoiled in shock, backing against the wall behind him. "What do you mean?"
Lu Yuan pointed at the man's chest and abdomen.
Glancing down, he saw a barely visible suture line.
In an instant, the man's voice started trembling, "Just what did you do to me?! Huh?!"
Leaning back in his chair, Lu Yuan maintained a very gentle smile.
"Really didn't do much, just took a look."
"You saw everything?!"
"Saw everything."
"Then what are you going to do?"
"I sincerely invite you to stay here with me for some time, maximum two months. After two months, I will let you go."
"O-Okay..."
"Show me your abilities."
After a brief moment of hesitation, the man's body began obvious transformations.
He shifted from the previously oily-haired mercenary into...
Lu Yuan.
Then he transformed into Liu Yuan, Lin Youyou, Sun Ying, Wu Xiong...
Lu Yuan watched impassively and asked, "The night you encountered the clown, you took advantage of the chaos to kill that mercenary and disguised yourself as him?"
"No, I didn't kill him. He ran off himself. I thought it'd be fun to turn into him."
"So, are you male or female originally?"
"I... I was born without a gender. I'm very curious about the things you humans like to do, but... but no one was willing to try it with me..."
The corner of Lu Yuan's mouth twitched. "You approached men in the form of a man?"
"Mm, I've also approached women in the form of a man... Never succeeded before."
"Then why not approach men in the form of a woman? The chances may be higher..."
"Before you, I hadn't met a man who moved my heart."
"..."
Lu Yuan fell silent for a while before continuing his questioning. "For your kind of spiritual lifeform, do you all possess two abilities?"
Maintaining Wu Xiong's appearance, the man shook his head. "No, I have three abilities."
"Aside from shapeshifting and time manipulation, there's also spiritual conception."
Lu Yuan was confused. "Spiritual conception? What ability is that?"
"Um... simply put, it means... reproduction."
"Reproduction without a certain act."
"..."
Lu Yuan did not say much more after that. He had Liu Yuan move this person to a different patient room.
Room 94 welcomed its new resident.
Watching the person's back view, Lu Yuan's expression gradually turned grave.
Last night, he had thoroughly analyzed this person's genetic composition.
Because he had obtained the knowledge of "Preliminary Glimpse into the Genetic Code of Super Intelligent Lifeforms", he knew -
Three abilities, hermaphroditic, asexual reproduction...
This person belongs to the category of "super intelligent beings".