1660 Diagnosis

Alex stepped back from his sister, taking his space to think of what was happening. 

Is everything alright? Hannah asked, worried.

"Tell her it is nothing. I'm thinking," Alex said and stopped thinking about his sister as his sister for now, but as a patient.

If he wanted to cure her, he would have to first understand what the problem was exactly.

"Do you know what poison your father used on her?" Alex asked. A part of him wondered why a poison was even used on her, but he put away the thought. That wasn't important for his deduction of her situation.

"No," the Crown Prince said. "He just… used it and… and that was how she was after that."

"What sort of poison was it?" Alex asked. "Did he feed it to her, or made her smell it or…"

"He splashed a small vial of liquid," the 2nd prince answered. "I didn't see how much. I didn't have the time to focus on her at the time. I was busy defending myself."

"From your father and the Legions? How did you guys sur— no, that's not important right now. I'll get the answers later," Alex said. "I need to know more about the poison. Tell me everything you know."

"Only that it is extremely potent, and 3 men that tried to fight her when she was poisoned simply died when they were near. She survived, but I don't know why," the 2nd prince said.

Alex frowned even more. A poison that could kill others second hand wasn't good enough to kill her? Why? Was it some artifact? Talisman? Pills? Or…

She was Hannah, a blood kin of his family. Hers was a body constitution of the Celestial grade.

"The Nine Revolutions Celestial Body," Alex said softly. "That must be it."'

Senior Yang had explained to him bits of what her body constitution entailed. She had a frighteningly strong body constitution which pretty much made her Heaven's chosen.

The main attribute of an individual with the Nine Revolutions Celestial body was that the person would never need a cultivation technique and never suffer from a bottleneck or Qi deviation. Qi would flow into their body on its own, and after the person revolved their Qi throughout their body 9 times, they would break through right then and there.

It was a frighteningly strong body constitution. And Hannah had it. The body also provided some small benefits such as making one's spirit and body stronger, as well as protecting them against poison.

It was nowhere near as good as what Alex had, but surely that was why she hadn't immediately died and instead had fallen into the position she was right now.

'But why does she not have a Spiritual Sea?' Alex asked himself. As far as he knew, that was not a property of the Nine Revolutions Celestial Body. It had to be a side effect of the poison.

'A poison that damages one's Spiritual sea?' Alex thought. He had to come back to this. He started noting down the other things he currently knew about her.

She couldn't see, hear, or smell. 

"Can she taste?" Alex asked the 2nd prince.

"No," Long Huan answered.

"Her sense of touch isn't as good either, I presume," Alex said. 

"She used to say she felt numb during the first few years," the 2nd prince replied. "She had gotten used to those sensations by now."

Alex nodded and felt anger brewing inside him that he had to quell. His sister was blind, deaf, and mute. And she couldn't— 

Alex paused. Mute?

"Wait, can she not speak?" Alex asked the 2nd prince. "I didn't sense any problems with her vocal cords."

"She can make a sound, but not speak," the 2nd prince said. "Here, let me show you."

He wrote something into Hannah's hands and Hannah softly nodded. Then, she spoke.

Alex only heard garbled words, as if someone had been tongue-tied. "I see," he said. "I had sensed her facial muscles straining to move. I didn't realize her tongue was doing the same as well."

That was another problem to add to the list.

"How well can she move?" Alex asked.

"Pretty well," the 2nd Prince said. "Her body itself is fine. It's just her head and her Qi for some reason."

Alex nodded. He had indeed sensed the Dantian closing off, leaving out only a trickle of Qi. But he hadn't sensed the poison on the dantian, so he had forgotten about it.

He thought some more and realized he had all the information he needed, and now he only needed an answer.

"First of all, let's try an antidote pill," Alex said, bringing out a normal antidote pill that couldn't harm her in the slightest. He brought it next to her.

"We've tried all sorts of pills," the 2nd prince said. "I don't know if that pill—" He paused when he saw the pill veins on the pill. His eyes went wide and he no longer said anything, letting Alex feed the pill to his sister.

Hannah ate the pill and everyone waited.

A wave of energy coursed through Hannah's body, but nothing happened. Alex sensed the energy going through everyone, even her mind, but nothing was removed. He wondered if there was no poison.

Maybe he should have tried the healing pill first.

He fed her another pill and this time there were changes.

The wrinkles on her face disappeared immediately, the hair on her head growing black unnaturally. Her eyes which were grayed out and hollow now had color and moved around.

A gasp leaked from Hannah's mouth, and her hands moved instinctively to touch her face.

"I…" she was surprised to hear her own voice. She looked up and saw Alex. "Alex!" she shouted.

Alex smiled happily. "Sister!" he said. He couldn't hide his joy.

Hannah quickly hugged him. "I can see. I can finally see again," she said. "I can finally cry again."

She was crying.

"Honey?" the 2nd prince called.

Hannah froze and turned around. Her teary eyes looked at her husband. "Honey… you… you look so tired. I'm sorry you had to take care of me all this time," she said, quickly hugging the 2nd prince as well. "You had to suffer because of me all this time."

"That's my duty," the 2nd Prince said. "Don't cry. It's alright now." He was crying himself.

Alex felt teary eyes himself. He should have just healed her from the start. His pills were good enough after a— 

"N-no!" Hannah suddenly shouted. "N-n-n—"

Her words croaked in her throat, never leaving.

"Honey?"

"Sister?" Alex rushed to her.

The 2nd prince pulled her away from him to see what was wrong. "No no no no no no…" he slowly spoke. "No, you were healed. What is happening?"

Hannah's wrinkles had returned, her eyes graying again, and her hair turning white. Her face became impassive, the tear stains on her cheek no longer fitting where they were.

"Honey?" the 2nd prince cried out, but even as he did, he understood. She could no longer hear him.

Words floated out from Hannah's hands.

What is happening? I thought I was healed. Alex, Help me!

Alex steeled his face as he realized what was happening. These were the effects of the poison in Hannah's body.

It appeared he had yet to deal with the poison itself.