บท 57: Chapter 55: Surgery and Recklessness.
I laid the Emperor down on the newly made bedding, it was just the right size, resizable height, and wheels that I could stop wherever I wanted, it could roll! It was amazing, I loved it so much.
I looked at the man's face, he was still conscious, if barely, but I could still see understanding in his eyes, "I'm first going to explain the procedure I'm about to do and the possible dangers you'll go through, are you okay with that?"
It was feeble, but the man managed to produce a yes, he didn't have much time left without this operation. I could already see some of his organs showing the first signs of failure. "Firstly, I'll put you to sleep, I don't want you to have any jerk reactions that could cause any problems."
The sleeping rune Array was perfect for that purpose, it was a great deal of effort to figure out a way to make it, and too many critters as test subjects. It didn't properly send the person to sleep, but it halted the action potential in the brain, and the electric signals, and only allowed them to restart after I sent the signal or the failsafe activated.
It was way harder to make than it sounded.
I began inscribing the complex sleeping rune Array on the side of the man's head, right behind his ear. "After that, since I can't directly take out the worm from your body, as it has integrated itself with your Profound Veins, but I have found a way to safely remove it, you're in safe hands, I promise."
I nodded at the man to reassure him, and he nodded back, and I took it as a sign to begin the procedure.
I activated the sleep Array, causing the Emperor to seemingly fall asleep on the spot, allowing the muscles to relax instead of freezing up was more complicated than I would have liked, but I managed.
I laid the man on the bed and started to tie his limbs, both with regular belts and with rune strings that emulated myosin muscle fibers in how they constricted, fixing him tightly to the bed.
The most difficult part of programming the procedure was making a way to let him survive while I was operating, blocking his brain signals blocked his lungs as well. To solve the issue, I put an enchanted mask on the man's mouth, it was connected to an oxygen tank. It automatically inspired the carbon dioxide from the patient's lungs and allowed the right concentration of oxygen back in, allowing me to work without the lungs moving, as it was all automated to mimic natural respiration.
As the patient was fully set up, I could finally get into the hard part, and by the hard part, I meant every part after the first cut.
I took a very thin metal scalpel, I would have liked an obsidian scalpel far more, but I had to manage with what I could find, enchanting the blade with molecular separation runes, the upgraded versions of cutting runes. Allowing me to have the sharpest scalpel possible at a negligible energy cost.
Right on the man's chest, there was a scar, the same scar I had already examined twice, it was deep and wide, and it was clear that whoever treated it wasn't good at their job. Or was intentionally neglectful? The second option was far more likely, as I could still see some traces of the worm's… excrement. Where there should be healed tissue, right between the newly made cells.
That meant that the worm passed through that during the wound's healing phase, and could likely cause an infection, so that whole segment was the first to be cleaned with cleaning and bactericide runes. Removing every debris while making sure I didn't break any blood vessels.
After having opened the chest, I could almost see the worm with my naked eyes, but I couldn't have that thing there while I worked, so I produced a very tiny flame and placed it close to the heart. I made sure that it wasn't warm enough to cause any cell damage, but close enough to keep the worm away.
I had to admit, seeing a golden worm slithering through the man's blood vessels and profound veins at the same time was a pretty wacky experience.
But seeing it move confirmed my most important hypothesis, it didn't move through the blood vessels, it just looked like it did since it stayed close to them to feed, it used the patient's profound veins to move. Very interesting.
That meant that if I could succeed in what I was about to do, then the surgery would be a success.
An essential part would be making sure that I didn't contaminate the Emperor's body in any way while doing the greatest sin a surgeon could ever make, something that too many people died for.
I took off my gloves—the ones on my left hand specifically.
My hand was completely constellated with cleaning, bactericide, antivirus, and containment runes, coupled with Glove runes just to be sure, they just made a layer of energy around the hand, but it was better than nothing. No matter what, nothing could leave my hand and contaminate my patient.
Who knew if I had some weird magical disease that would instantly kill him?
Then, I opened a very small cut on the tip of my index finger, no blood came out, no intracellular fluid either. It was a deep cut, so veins and arteries had been cut, but I immediately proceeded to create runic patches to block the blood, like the ones I hastily tried to make on the Dragon.
Only this time I succeeded.
I might have been able to save him, if back then it was myself at this moment. Dwelling on the past wouldn't help to save the patient currently under my care.
The most delicate and foolish thing I might have ever done was the next step of the operation, I activated the second set of runes on the scalpel. These runes were very special, the same way that even now that my finger was cut, the profound veins were still intact, this blade could only cut profound veins.
So I made a very small opening in the profound vein on my finger, I had to consciously control every single iota of energy in my body to prevent it from leaving that opening like a popped balloon.
Then, I did the same thing for the thick profound vein near the Emperor's heart, the vein that the worm nestled itself into. Then, without wasting a second, with a lasso of microscopic runes I started moving my profound vein from my finger and placed it near the Emperor's open vein.
I immediately removed the Phoenix flame from near the man's heart, causing the worm to take a sprint back to its favorite place.
But what it found was an opening to the outside world, and from that opening, it smelled something far more delicious than the decayed body of the aged and weakened Emperor.
It found my waiting open Profound Vein, filled with the highest quality Profound Energy from my Evil God Profound Veins, reinforced with the Phoenix's blood essence.
The bait runes had a lot to do with how delicious I seemed as well, I smelled like the best divine being in the world to the worm right now.
It was the best meal it could ask for, so it took the jump.
And right as it entered into my open profound vein, I closed its way out, as well as the Emperor's vein, to prevent any spillage of Profound Energy from his body.
All that remained was close up the man's chest, and he was now as good as new. So I did exactly that.
All in all, the surgery lasted slightly less than one hour, less than I expected, but my enhanced cultivation and highly sped-up brain allowed for a lot of time-saving.
I caught my breath and allowed my brain to return to normal speeds, putting my gloves back on I finally got out of the operating room. That immediately received the attention of a concerned daughter, a concerned guard, and a less concerned young man.
As well as a seemingly very angry Jasmine, but that seemed like a problem for later as she seemed to be waiting for an explanation, rather than blowing up in rage.
Wondered what I'd done this time to make her that angry, she was practically fuming! I could almost see an aura of blood around her.
But firstly, I addressed the patient's family and friends with a smile on my face, "The surgery was a success, His Highness will awaken in ten minutes and be filled with the energy of a young man again!"
The princess jumped up and, with a radiant smile on her pretty face, she jumped at me with a hug, "Thank you, Doctor, for saving my Royal Father!"
"There, there…" I lightly patted the woman's back with a happy smile as well, "Now stop hugging me or your boyfriend over there will get jealous."
"My what?" she jumped back, so I nodded in the direction of the young man that accompanied her and her father, and she blushed, "What! No, Big Brother Yun is just a friend, we grew up in a similar environment!"
She seemed very intent on denying any relationship with that fellow, maybe too intent… She must not like him, huh?
He seems like a decent fellow as well. I half-wondered what he did.
Then I completely forgot about it and turned to the fuming little girl, who almost managed to look menacing.
"Now, If you may wait a minute while I wait with my Master, then I will bring you to your father, is that alright with you?" I asked.
She seemed confused at first, then she shivered and started nodding profusely, "O-of course Doctor, take all the time you two need!" before eagerly going back to her seat, close to the two similarly stiff men.
I wonder what that is about, I then make my way to a more private room, followed closely by Jasmine, who seems on the verge of exploding with the rage of a thousand Suns.
"Ok, what is this about?" I asked.
"What's this about, he asks…" she seems to almost be shaking from rage, but now that I took a closer look it might not have been rage at all, but something more along the lines of… "What in the Heavens were you thinking about?! Taking that worm into your Profound Veins? Huh?!"
Oh, it was concern.
With a lot of anger, but also concern.
"Because of course! You see a dangerous, Life-threatening, Unknown parasite coming from Heavens know where, and your first thought is 'What if I put it inside me?', you fool!" She screamed loud enough to make me wonder if the room was soundproof enough to keep the sound inside.
"Did you calm down?" I asked with a calm smile on my face, I understood her worry, I did, there was just nothing to worry about.
"No!" she shouted back and kept cursing me, at times even in languages unknown to me, taking out all the worries and concerns she's had about me ever since we first met.
This conversation seemed long overdue from the amount of grievances she had about me.
I was called everything, from a fool, to a moron, to words that I didn't know the meaning of, but was pretty sure were just different flavors of 'naïve.'
And to be fair, she was right about most of it, I was aiming to change the very world around me, to transform it into a place more to my liking after all. That was the epitome of naivety, after all.
"Are you done now?" I asked again. She sighed and then nodded. "Good, because I have answers if you care to listen to them."
"Firstly, the worm is not free at all, haven't I been filling up my Profound Veins with different runes since the day I became a cultivator?" she nodded again, her eyes suddenly shining from the revelation, "I see you've realized, I trapped it where it can't do anything, into an unbreakable cage."
"Nothing is unbreakable, given enough time and will!" she protested. But it was a dumb protest, "It's unbreakable because it's inside my veins under surveillance every single moment, if it tries to break out I just need to repair the cage, and it's back to the start."
"If you have everything under control, then why don't you just kill it?" she asked in irritation from having her intelligence insulted.
I immediately replied firmly, "And lose such a good test subject? Never. This is the most fascinating thing I've seen since the Fire Dragon, I won't let it die."
She groaned, but I could see that her anger was mostly gone, my reasoning annoyed her, especially since I was certain that she could feel there was something foreign inside my body. But this was the least she could expect from me.
"Now, now," I patted her head, being painfully slapped away immediately, but I ignored it, "Let's go and help a father and a daughter reunite, okay?"
My young and short friend rolled her eyes.
Hello~~ It's me once again asking for all of your stones!
Love you all!
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