Chapter 198: Mental Link

Even Superman could use his acting skills to maintain the identity of a reporter named Clark Kent without most people noticing. For the Phoenix Force, which can influence reality, living low-profile is even simpler, not harder.

But just as Henry couldn't control Tony Stark's actions, Jean Grey wouldn't do whatever Henry told her to do.

She spoke coldly: "My affairs are none of your concern; I can handle them myself. You just need to lead the way."

Henry muttered in dissatisfaction: "Was I worried about you? I was worried about the trouble you'd bring to others. Is this how all superheroes are? As long as their vanity is satisfied, they don't care about anyone else's life or death."

"You!" Jean Grey glared fiercely, her eyes flashing with strange light.

Unfazed by the threatening gaze, Henry pretended not to know or look at her, muttering complaints: "If you want to do whatever you please, go back to the sky. If you want to live among humans, act like a human."

"Ah!" She gasped, drawing in a sharp breath. Jean Grey, her teeth clenched tight, seemed ready to bite through the bones of the man before her.

Finally, she patted her own cheeks to calm herself down. Jean Grey said: "I'm ready, let's go."

"Where have you changed? I can't tell." Henry looked at her and asked in surprise.

"Influencing cognition, including what surveillance camera lenses capture, will make you appear as a different person. Your brain is abnormal; I don't wish to interfere too much and follow in Professor X's footsteps."

For a typical telepath, such large-scale mental influence is a heavy burden. But for Jean Grey, the host of the Phoenix, it is easier than suppressing all that energy within her body.

Although Jean Grey does not yet have a deep understanding of this energy within her, 'it' seems to have consciousness, unwilling to approach Henry, which is why it shows no effect.

At this moment, Henry approached with a sneaky expression and asked: "Then in other people's eyes right now, are you male or female?"

Receiving another death glare, Henry shrugged and said: "I have to know if you're male or female. Otherwise, if we go in and I introduce you to the wrong gender, what then? Do you want to undergo a sex change to match?"

"Why can't it be you admitting your mistake?"

"Oh, that works too. Anyway, just play it by ear; whoever speaks first wins." Henry said shamelessly.

"My gender hasn't changed." Jean Grey gritted her teeth, regretting this trip.

"Understood, let's go." Henry then led the person into the hospital.

The VIP ward was on a higher floor, but there was no access control; only the nurses at the station asked a few questions. The two smoothly returned to the ward.

The atmosphere in the ward was slightly better than the confrontation before Henry left; now it was like a wake...

Is this considered better? A certain Kryptonian doubted.

And Jean Grey, who also entered, saw the person on the hospital bed. As Raven had guessed, it was indeed Ms. Audrey He Ben.

If it weren't for this big star's matter, Jean wouldn't have wanted to come.

But from the moment she entered, she became the focus of everyone. The unfriendly glances made Jean feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Henry introduced: "This is Phoenix Woman, a reserve member of the X-Men in America, possessing telepathic abilities. My suggestion is for her to communicate with the comatose Ms. He Ben."

In this world, Jean Grey, unlike other mutants, did not have distinct features and rarely stood on the front lines of X-Men battles.

So she did not have special mutant titles like Raven, Ororo, and Scott—Mystique, Storm, and Cyclops.

The title Phoenix Woman could be said to be making its first appearance. To Jean's ears, it sounded like something Henry had casually made up, since she didn't yet know the energy within her was called the Phoenix Force.

Although no one had heard the name Phoenix Woman, they had heard of the X-Men. The American superhero team had a good cooperative relationship with the government.

This slightly eased everyone's expressions. But Xiao En still questioned: "How can we trust what you say is my mother's intention?"

Henry introduced from the side: "This is Xiao En Farrel, Ms. He Ben's eldest son. The one beside him is Luca Dotti, the lady's second son." He introduced them together.

Knowing who the questioner was, Jean did not feel offended. After all, they were family and indeed had the right to question.

Jean Grey then said: "Then I can use another form to connect your consciousness with Ms. He Ben's, allowing you to communicate with the lady yourselves. But whether you believe the conclusions drawn this way is not my problem."

The two brothers looked at each other and nodded, agreeing to this method.

But Jean added: "I have never entered a patient's consciousness world, let alone connected with a normal person's consciousness. So I am not entirely sure what will happen. However, I can guarantee there will be no danger."

Seeing that everyone had no objections, Jean said again: "Then if you are ready, let us begin. May I hold Ms. He Ben's hand?"

Robert moved aside on one side of the hospital bed and helped lift Audrey He Ben's hand from under the blanket so she could hold hands with this Phoenix Woman.

Holding that bony, emaciated hand, even Jean was momentarily dazed. Unlike a child's small hand, it had an adult's size; upon grasping it, one felt only knuckles and a dry, rough texture, as if foreshadowing the final moment of life.

Jean Grey dared only to hold it lightly, afraid to grip it firmly. She feared that if she exerted too much force, she might crush this hand.

She extended her other hand toward the lady's two children and said: "You two brothers, place your hands here."

Xiao En and Luca didn't think much of it and placed their hands on Phoenix Woman's hand. The instant their three hands overlapped, their consciousness was pulled into a unique space.

There was no up, down, left, or right here; there was no ground to stand on, and even their own images were blurry.

Jean did not deliberately appear to guide the two ordinary people who had never experienced this; she simply pulled their consciousness to stand before another person.

It was a girl of six or seven, curled up, hugging her legs, just like an infant in the womb. Perhaps she had always been this girl who needed a family and parents the most.

"Mother." It was unknown which brother's voice woke the sleeping girl.

As her eyes slowly opened, time passed continuously over her.

It transformed her from a girl into a young woman, then matured, then aged. Like a night-blooming cereus, from the moment the bud first opened to withering, it happened in a mere instant.

When she fully opened her eyes, she was already Audrey He Ben lying on the hospital bed.

She embraced the two sobbing little boys but looked toward another empty place, revealing a kind smile.

There stood Jean Grey, and also the Phoenix.

(End of this chapter)