Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Surgery
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The location had been moved.
Jang Rok, clearly familiar with such matters, secured one of the inn's annexes in the blink of an eye.
To be precise, preparations had already been made by the time the Weird Physician returned from the government office.
The annex was completely empty, save for the surgical bed that the Weird Physician had modified specifically for operations.
The Weird Physician removed his beak mask and blood-red robes, then changed into neat white garments.
Wi Sowol did the same.
Her body was so small that she had to cut off nearly half of the Weird Physician's clothes and tighten the cords, leaving her looking just like a child who had secretly raided her father's wardrobe.
One by one, the surgical instruments the Weird Physician carried with him were laid out on the high-legged table beside the operating bed.
The man who had been quietly watching the scene trembled with tension.
"Come over here and lie down."
"Ah, yes. My lord."
Somehow, his form of address for the Weird Physician had risen from "elder" to "my lord."
As the man lay down, the Weird Physician took out a small vial and applied its contents to the affected area.
Wi Sowol watched quietly, wondering what he was doing, when the Weird Physician explained as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.
"It's alcohol."
"You apply alcohol?"
For Wi Sowol, who had begun studying medical texts, this was utterly incomprehensible.
There was such a thing as medicinal wine, but physicians generally did not view alcohol's medicinal properties in a positive light.
Opinions varied depending on the brew, but the consensus was that alcohol was harmful.
So why apply it?
"It's the principle of fighting poison with poison."
After finishing the application on the affected area, the Weird Physician began proudly expounding on his wondrous discovery to this disciple of astonishing talent.
"In the past, I treated injured members of the Beggars' Sect. One had particularly deep wounds, yet they didn't fester unusually. He was a master of Drunken Gong. At first, I thought it was due to his profound martial attainment. But out of suspicion, I examined other Beggars' Sect masters renowned for Drunken Gong. And I realized one astonishing fact."
Who could comprehend the shock of that day?
"Masters of Drunken Gong had markedly fewer instances of wound infection compared to others."
The Weird Physician was convinced.
This discovery of his would mark a turning point in the advancement of surgical medicine.
"I immediately distilled pure alcohol and tested it in actual surgeries. I drank it myself and circulated it with my internal energy, and had patients drink it to infuse their bodies with its qi. After numerous trials, I confirmed that alcohol possesses the power to shield the body from external evil qi."
When the results were starkly different between cases with and without alcohol, the Weird Physician had shed tears.
Tears of regret and sorrow that he hadn't known this sooner.
Those emotions from that day had now settled deep in his heart, but Wi Sowol—who had inherited his Unforgetting Heart Method—knew.
The tears he shed were not ones of joy, but of grief.
"It can't be ordinary alcohol. At minimum, baijiu. Only alcohol close to pure spirit can block evil qi with its own qi."
"That must be expensive."
"Cheaper than a human life."
Indeed, he was the Weird Physician.
How much money would it take to produce a single bottle of pure alcohol, truly?
The value of that one bottle he was using now was something a commoner couldn't earn in a lifetime.
Yet the Weird Physician declared that a commoner's life was worth more than alcohol.
"Let's get started."
"Shouldn't we apply it too?"
"With the Firm Chastity Heart Method and your internal energy, it's unnecessary. Just lightly coat your hands."
She didn't ask if it was possible.
Of course it was.
And so Wi Sowol wrapped the pure yin qi of the Great White Light True Qi around her hands, even thinner than the Weird Physician's layer.
"Touch it."
The Weird Physician pointed to the affected area.
Wi Sowol placed her hand on it.
"It's rigid."
"The wind has already set in."
The Weird Physician asked,
"What's the frightening thing about wind?"
"That you don't know how far it's spread?"
"Exactly. That's why wind often goes unrecognized as such. People neglect it thinking it's a carbuncle, only to discover too late it's wind—and die. Countless cases."
This man likely would have met the same fate without encountering the Weird Physician.
"Tetanus is still manageable. Stroke strikes like wind itself—if no physician is at hand the instant it hits, eight or nine out of ten perish within a shichen. Even heavenly luck survivors bear lifelong disabilities. But tetanus? Its very name reveals the cause."
Tetanus. Wind arising from a bodily wound.
True to its name, tetanus begins at the wound.
"Yet if the wind infiltrates the five viscera, death is inevitable. Four symptoms reveal it: a dusky bluish complexion, beaded sweat on the forehead and oily perspiration across the body, eyes slightly ajar. From these, you infer the wind's progress."
"I see."
"Most physicians, upon tetanus, induce sweating or diarrhea and prescribe Wind-Expelling Decoction. Utter nonsense."
The Weird Physician snatched up the scalpel, deriding orthodox medicine like so much heresy.
Gripping the blade, he extended it to Wi Sowol.
"Take it."
The dagger—razor-sharp, with an exceedingly short blade—gleamed coldly.
Honed to perfection like any sword, yet unlike those Wi Sowol had wielded before, this blade existed to save lives.
For the first time, its true weight sank in.
A blade swung not to kill, but to save... was far heavier.
In the instant of error,
it wouldn't be her who died, but the patient.
With these hands, she would slay one who must not die.
"Cut it out. The tetanus-ridden wound. Excise it completely."
Gulp—the dry swallow from the man on the bed echoed clearly.
His face twisted in anxiety and terror.
Wi Sowol tried to gauge the patient's fear.
'Yeah. No way.'
It was an emotion she struggled to comprehend.
Death had always lingered close by.
It had grown too familiar for fear.
But rest easy.
Precisely because of that, I need not fear even your death.
The faint tremor in her hand—like that first day in her past life gripping a sword—ceased.
The Weird Physician, who had observed it all from beginning to end, picked up a spare scalpel and continued.
"Fortunately, tetanus pools its wind in the affected area. Its inward spread is markedly slow."
"So excise only the pooled section?"
"No. The moment wind enters, total eradication is impossible. Tetanus is slow only relative to other winds. Once infected, it will eventually advance."
Then what was the point of surgery?
"That's why we'll preemptively sever some muscles."
"Preemptively?"
"If wind reaches the marrow, muscles contract wildly, crushing organs. Pre-cutting them buys time against recurrence. Then, a single cleanse of qi and blood with my Firm Chastity Heart Method."
"Won't excision invite plague?"
No matter that outbreaks had quieted lately—Shanxi Province had trembled in epidemic terror just last year.
With no telling when the next would ravage, was enlarging the wound wise?
"We cover it."
"Suturing alone insufficient post-excision?"
"Peel skin from the thigh and graft it over."
The Weird Physician divided the surgery into four stages.
Affected area excision. Muscle meridian severance. Qi-blood cleansing. Skin graft.
"Speed is life. In every surgery, speed reigns supreme. Acupoint pressure controls bleeding somewhat, but not entirely—nor should it. Finish before hemorrhage proves fatal."
"Understood."
"Before we begin, I'll explain the cuts. Do you know the midline incision technique? Sparing the skin as much as possible speeds things up."
As the Weird Physician prepared to detail the precise locations and extents for Wi Sowol, a third voice interrupted.
"Um, elder. C-couldn't you give me something like paralysis powder instead...?"
The man, having vividly endured the rundown of how his body would be diced and sliced, could hold back no longer.
Even a scolding from the Weird Physician would be preferable to ending this torturous surgery seminar—and it elicited an absurd reply.
"Hm? Didn't I anesthetize you with Dazed Haze Hand?"
"You didn't."
"Oh dear. Got carried away teaching my disciple."
Ah, right.
He had intended to anesthetize him but slipped up, letting the man hear every cut and slice planned.
The man's expression embodied utter deflation as the Weird Physician pressed fingers to his blood and sleep acupoints.
"Don't worry. I'll put you under painlessly. Sleep deep, and it'll be over when you wake."
The Weird Physician's finest anesthetic plunged the man into deep slumber.
Surgery had commenced.
"Follow closely. First: excision of the affected area. Surface looks fine, but inside it's necrotic. Necrotic tissue can't be saved. Remove it all."
Wi Sowol observed the Weird Physician's knife work, her curse-turned-blessing senses fully engaged.
Frankly, his technique was wanting by her standards.
She could have moved faster.
Yet...
'Beautiful.'
An emotion no swordsmanship had ever stirred.
She had dismissed killing arts as equal in baseness.
This was different.
"Excision complete. Now sweep the meridians to expel the wind."
"Shall I assist?"
"The body chills."
Even the Treatise on Cold Damage stresses balancing heat and cold.
Already blood loss meant heat escaping.
Infusing cold qi amid dwindling warmth would only worsen it.
"Sever the muscles. Shallow, clean incisions."
"Yes."
"Then flay thigh skin for the graft."
Their hands synced flawlessly, unbelievable for novices.
No sooner had the Weird Physician swept meridians and vessels with Firm Chastity Heart Method qi than Wi Sowol held the freshly peeled thigh skin.
"Direct body cold is harmful, but cold preservation suits transplant sites like this."
His hands never paused amid explanation.
Sutures from his own processed hair swiftly affixed the graft over the excised wound.
Finally, confirming no bleeding sites, he tossed the needle onto the table and murmured,
"Done."
Surgery complete.
The man would live.
Wind in the nerves was beyond saving, but this much ensured he wouldn't die.
"How was it?"
A patient doomed without surgery, now saved by the knife.
"This is surgery."
And the medicine you will learn henceforth.
Wi Sowol was certain.
'Finding the Weird Physician was the right choice.'
She had selected the true path.
"Precautions are written ahead—show him when he wakes. We head back to..."
"Physician."
Jang Rok, posted outside to bar intruders, rushed in with urgent motions.
Unlike Wi Sowol, the Weird Physician asked as if expecting it.
"Where?"
"Both places."