Ling Cage: Twelve Talismans? I have everything I need.

Chapter 43 Gu Gu Gu Gu

Ulan Aodeng, carrying the incessantly chattering Maiduo, swept across the stone-paved road of Longgu Village like a whirlwind.

His target was "Xia Mengyao" clinic. His frantic shouts still echoed: "Old Xia! Help! My daughter has turned into a bird!!!"

Yang Chen and Bai Yuekui followed closely behind, with two bewildered falcons, Na Risong and Ana Ri, perched steadily on Yang Chen's shoulders.

They seemed intrigued by Meadow's "new language" and chirped along with it.

"Bang!" The door of the clinic was kicked open by Ulan Aodeng. He rushed in and carefully placed Maiduo, who was still crying and could only "chirp" on the examination bed.

Summer was fiddling with something on an old-world instrument when the noise startled him, and he almost dropped the tools in his hands.

He frowned, about to unleash a torrent of curses, but when he saw Mai Duo on the examination bed, her eyes brimming with tears and her face flushed with anxiety, and then saw Yang Chen, Bai Yuekui, and the falcon on Yang Chen's shoulder as they entered, he swallowed the curses that were on the tip of his tongue.

"Ao Deng, you brute! This is a sliding door!" Xia Tianlai cursed, but still quickly walked to the examination bed, his tone softening.

"Maiduo, don't be afraid. Let Grandpa Xia see what's wrong. Why are you suddenly making bird calls?"

When Maiduo saw Xia Tian arrive, she felt even more aggrieved, "Chirp chirp chirp! Chirp chirp chirp!"

She pointed to her throat, then hurriedly pointed to Ulan Aodeng and the two falcons, trying to explain, but all she could make were bird calls.

Ulan Aodeng was so anxious that he scratched his head and said, "He was fine just now! He was on the training ground with Na Risong and the others, and suddenly this happened! Boss Yang tried it with his magical ability, but it didn't work! Boss Bai said it might be due to the awakening of potential, which affected his brain! Old Xia, please take a look!"

"Does the awakening of potential affect the language center?" Xia Tianlai's expression turned serious as he realized the unusual nature of the problem.

Without further ado, he quickly pushed over a modified old-world device that looked like a helmet-mounted brainwave scanner with complex wiring.

"Sweetie, don't move. Grandpa Xia will put a hat on you and see what changes happen in your brain."

Although Maiduo was scared, she trusted Xia Tianlai. With tears in her eyes, she nodded and let Xia Tianlai put the slightly heavy device on her little head.

The indicator light on the device lit up and emitted a slight buzzing sound.

Summer quickly operated a monitor next to her, and complex waveforms and data streams began to scroll on the screen.

He stared intently at the screen, his fingers flying across the keyboard, muttering to himself: "The abnormally elevated activity of the life essence is concentrated in the language center of the frontal lobe, and the disordered neural signals are interfering with the normal language output pathway."

Bai Yuekui walked to the monitor, his cool eyes sweeping over the constantly fluctuating data.

She pointed to an area on the screen: "Here, in the area related to auditory processing and language comprehension, the source material fluctuation pattern is abnormal, as if... there's an extra nerve."

“Yes!” Xia Tian nodded, pointing to a peak value on the screen that fluctuated wildly.

"That should be it, just like when my son Douzi awakened his potential, which led to a mutation in his pineal gland."

"Although Boss Yang's ability can repair damage, he cannot restore this kind of internal mutation of the body itself. After all, the potential ability also relies on these evolved parts."

Ulan Aodeng only half understood what he was hearing, but the words "cannot be restored" made his heart clench: "Then what are we going to do? Will my precious baby only be able to imitate bird calls from now on?!"

"What's the rush!" Xia Tianlai glared at him irritably. "Awakening your potential is a good thing! It means Mai Duo has great talent and is very emotional."

"It's just that the location where this ability awakened is a bit tricky."

It may not be a holistic mutation, but rather the opening of a new 'communication pathway' that temporarily suppresses the original language functions.

“It’s like,” he tried to find a common analogy, “like a new road being built, blocking the old one, but the road itself isn’t damaged.”

Yang Chen looked at Mai Duo, whose face was flushed with anxiety on the examination bed, and felt the two falcons on his shoulders seem to be uneasy because of Mai Duo.
They were also chirping and chatting quietly to each other.

A thought struck him, and he gently lifted the two falcons off his shoulder, walked to the examination bed, and carefully placed them beside Maido's hand.

"Maido, don't be afraid, give it a try." Yang Chen's voice was gentle and encouraging.

"Perhaps you're speaking to them right now?"

Nari Song and Ana Ri immediately huddled close to Mai Duo's hand, nuzzling her palm with their little heads and chirping softly and caringly: "Chirp? Chirp chirp?"

(Maiduo? What's wrong? I asked you for something to eat earlier but you wouldn't give me anything.)
In that instant, it was as if some invisible switch had been flipped.

Maido's attention was completely drawn to the familiar touches and sounds at her side.

She looked into the bright, intelligent eyes of Nari Song and Ana Ri, and listened to their concerned chirping.

Almost instinctively, she opened her mouth towards the two falcons, no longer making the anxious and helpless cries she had before.

Instead, it was a clear, smooth, even slightly aggrieved bird song: "Chirp! Chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp!"

(Na Ri Song! Ana Ri! I can't speak human language anymore! I can only call you like you do! Dad and Brother Yang can't understand me, sob sob)

The moment those clear, coherent, and emotionally charged bird calls rang out, the entire clinic fell silent.

Ulan Aodeng's mouth gaped open, his eyes almost popping out. Xia Tianlai's fingers, which were about to type on the keyboard, froze in mid-air.

A knowing glint flashed in Bai Yuekui's eyes.

What's even more amazing is that the two falcons seemed to understand perfectly.

That day, Song immediately jumped onto Maiduo's lap, tilted his little head back, and gently pecked her fingers with his beak, making a comforting, short "chirp chirp" sound.

(Mydo, you can actually talk now!)
Ana Ri also moved closer, gently flapping her wings against Maido's arm, making a soft "chirping" sound.

(Your dad is so stupid, he hasn't understood what we're saying all these years.)
Maido felt comforted by her companion, and her emotions stabilized considerably.

She reached out her little hands and carefully stroked the feathers of the two falcons, continuing to make chirping sounds.

She seemed to be telling something; the tears on her little face were still wet with anxiety, but her aggrieved expression had softened considerably.

"This...this..." Ulan Aodeng pointed at the incredible scene of humans and birds talking before him, so excited that he was incoherent.

"My darling, she can talk to Nari Song and Ana Ri?! She can really understand them?! Even birds can understand her?!"

Xia Tianlai suddenly slapped her thigh and realized, "I understand! It's not that she lost her language function, it's that her potential awakened and forcibly switched to a new channel in her brain."

"A channel specifically designed to understand and express animal language and even emotions."

“Right now, when her brain processes human and animal language, the priority, or default language, has been overridden by this new potential. So her output of speaking human language is temporarily blocked, but the input should still be there, so she can understand what we're saying, right, Maido?”

When Maiduo heard Xia Tianlai's words, she immediately raised her head and nodded vigorously at him.

Its eyes were filled with eagerness and approval, as if to say, "You finally understand!" but its mouth still uttered, "Chirp chirp!"

Bai Yuekui's cool voice carried a hint of amazement: "Potential comes in many forms, but the ability to communicate with animals is still rare."

She walked to the examination bed and held out her hand to Xia Tianlai: "Tianlai, give me the acupuncture needles."

"Hey, okay."

Xia Tian responded, turned around and took out an acupuncture kit from the drawer, then walked to Bai Yuekui's side and spread out the acupuncture kit.

Bai Yuekui took out acupuncture needles and inserted them into acupoints related to Maiduo's brain.

She looked at Maido and said gently, "Maido, try to concentrate and think about what you want to say to us, just like you usually do. You need to learn to control it and switch between human and animal channels."

After a long while, she looked at Ulan Aodeng, her small mouth opened and closed, and with great difficulty and extreme slowness, she managed to squeeze out two words from her throat:
"Dad."

Although it consists of only two words and the sound is faint, it is indeed human language.

Ulan Aodeng burst into tears instantly. This tough man rushed to the bedside, his huge hands trembling as he grasped Maiduo's little hand, his voice choked with sobs: "Hey! Hey! Daddy's here! Daddy's here!"

"Don't be afraid, sweetie! It's good that you can talk! Take your time!"

Summer came, frowning as she looked at the startled Ulan Aodeng.

"Ao Deng, you can't be serious, can you?"

Ulan Aodeng glared at him, annoyed: "This is my only precious child!"

"Okay, okay, just one, just one."

Summer was not going to argue with this old scoundrel anymore, so she turned around and put the equipment aside.

Bai Yuekui carefully put the acupuncture needles away and returned them to their original positions.

"Alright, since it can be restored, then Xiaodeng, you can bring Maiduo here again tomorrow."

Maido's situation isn't complicated; she gets acupuncture treatments in the summer, so she doesn't need to come in person.

"Let's go, Orange, I'm hungry."

The two of them hadn't had lunch yet, and they must be hungry by now.

Bai Yuekui took Yang Chen's hand, and the two left the clinic and went home.