Chapter 1067 — The Dragon's Shadow Returns
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 5
The Solin region.
The warmth brought by the Month of Revival had already spread across the whole of the Holy Spirit Plain. Grasses and trees that had lain dormant through the cold winter were recovering their vitality at an astonishing rate; beyond the Solin region, the once-bare plain was now covered in green, and the spreading vegetation had at last joined with that land of eternal spring called "Solin," so that the once sharply drawn boundary at the edge of the giant tree gradually blurred.
It was a day fit for healing wounds.
Inside the giant tree, in Beira's private laboratory, luminous plants lit a chamber formed of wooden structures, vines, and leaves. At its center, slender twining vines and wooden stakes formed a platform about two meters across, and a great many conduits and nerve fibers used to transport biomass and transmit neural signals hung down from the ceiling, connecting to one end of the platform. Anluo Wendell, her long gray-white hair loose, lay quietly at the center of that platform, not yet awake from her sleep.
With a faint sound of friction, several biomass conduits and nerve fibers withdrew from around Anluo's head and moved toward the edge of the platform.
Bard Wendell, in a white researcher's uniform, stood beside the platform, watching his daughter lying there with some unease. From time to time he rubbed his hands together, cautiously observing every subtle change of expression in Anluo's sleeping face, or looked up at Beira, who stood to one side in charge of the whole procedure.
"What stage are we at now?" Bard asked, unable to hold back for the umpteenth time. "How much longer until she wakes?"
"Patience, Bard," Beira said, glancing up at him. Behind her extended many nerve fibers like slender vines, their ends connected to several important neural nodes in the room—they looked like some kind of glowing fungal nodules, growing seamlessly from the wooden surfaces of the walls and ceiling. "Her eyes have finished regenerating, but reconnecting the complex optic nerves to the brain is delicate work. I am guiding that meticulous process of growth... this is not some simple flesh-and-blood regeneration technique like mending a bone or healing a muscle."
"I understand, I understand," Bard said, touching the tip of his nose awkwardly. He was a druid himself, and he did know how important these necessary procedures were; but as a father, he could hardly control his state of mind at this moment—especially since he had been absent from Anluo's side for more than twenty years. "Will she have any aftereffects? Will she need to rest quietly for a while after waking?"
"If you were the one handling it, she would most likely have to lie there a few more days after waking. But since I am doing it myself, she will only feel as though she had a dream. Relax, Mr. Bard—I will give you back a daughter full of life... well, considering Anluo's temperament, perhaps not so full of life after all."
Beira had made a joke, a rare thing. Bard realized she was trying to soothe his nerves, and while he was grateful, he could not help but remark, "I never thought... you would comfort anyone."
"I have always been good at comforting," Beira said, giving Bard a flat look. "Do you have some doubt about that?"
"Well... you are indeed good at comforting. It is just that your methods were never so gentle," Bard said with a strange expression, shaking his head. "After all, knocking a person out with poison vines and then injecting neurotoxin into their veins counts as part of the 'comforting'..."
Beira looked at Bard silently. Had it been the Beira of the past, she might in that instant have already prepared a lethal dose of neurotoxin; but now she only shook her head, then turned her gaze back to the sleeping Anluo. "I can see that you care about this child a great deal."