Chapter 142: Surgery

As Jiang Hanfeng watched Su Chen carry Pi Yuanhong into the cave, he paused for a moment before gritting his teeth. “Dammit, If I need to do it, then I’ll do it. I don’t believe for a second that I won’t be able to do it!”

Jiang Hanfeng pulled out a large quantity of materials from his Origin Ring and began to set up a formation.

Just like Su Chen, Jiang Hanfeng didn’t bring a complete Origin Formation Disk with him. Instead, he brought ingredients with him to make them. Otherwise, there was no point in bringing along a Formations master.

However, he didn’t make any estimates like Su Chen. Instead, he prepared all of the materials beforehand, attempting to adapt as best as he could for all kinds of circumstances.

Jiang Hanfeng wasn’t that skilled in creating concealment formations, but he had no other choice at this point.

Pi Yuanhong and Su Chen didn’t have a choice either.

Su Chen was not nearly as proficient in medical skill as he was in concocting medicines, but he could not possibly back down just because of this.

He aimed the knife carefully and took a deep breath. However, he couldn’t start the cut.

Pi Yuanhong could sense Su Chen’s thoughts. He said with a smile, “Do it. If I’m unlucky and die here, I will repay those Ferocious Race youths.”

“How will you repay them if you die,” Su Chen replied.

“I’ll just copy the Spirit Race and transform into a physical body.”

“That’s because they have the Spirit Transformation Tool. Who knows, they might not want that attitude of yours, and it might not succeed anyways.”

“Hey, you making fun of me?”

“How am I making fun of you? I’m just telling you the truth. Is it even worth being jealous of those half-human half-ghost creatures?”

“Who said I was jealous of them? It’s enough that you’re dismembering me, but now you want to distort what I’m trying to say as well?”

As they spoke, the surgery began.

There was no anesthetic available. Pi Yuanhong endured solely with the powerful will that an Origin Qi Scholar possessed. Even if the pain was so great that it felt like the sky was about to fall and the earth about to collapse, Pi Yuanhong forced himself to endure by using conversation as a means to distract himself from the pain.

As the knife began to cut deeper, Pi Yuanhong spoke faster and faster, but Su Chen began to grow silent.

His concentration sharpened, and his movements began to slow.

Pi Yuanhong couldn’t help but wonder at some points whether Su Chen was trying to torture him to death or save him.

He felt – just for a moment – that he would rather have died than suffer such agony.

As his pain climaxed, Pi Yuanhong even thought about jumping up and grabbing Su Chen by the neck and then tying his own intestines around Su Chen’s neck and choking him to death with them.

But he resisted it in the end.

Pi Yuanhong remained stalwart and determined, and he endured the most painful part with his extraordinary willpower. When Su Chen told him that the surgery had succeeded and began to suture him back together, Pi Yuanhong, who hadn’t let a single tear fall the entire time, suddenly began to bawl.

“DAMMIT, next time I’d rather die than ask you to save me!” Pi Yuanhong howled.

“Do you think I want to do this? Dammit, if I succeed then it just means that your body and will are exceptionally tough, but if I had failed, then I would have killed you! Fuck!” Su Chen let out a rare curse.

Pi Yuanhong had to endure tremendous physical pain, while Su Chen had to endure the tremendous pressure in his heart. He needed some way to let it all out.

He needed to carefully treat Pi Yuanhong’s injuries while using Origin Energy to control Pi Yuanhong’s blood loss to prevent him from bleeding out. There was simply too much to pay attention to; any one mistake could have resulted in failure.

He thanked Hong Ming!

It was his selfless sacrifice that had given Su Chen a better understanding of the human body.

In this world, medical knowledge like this was never passed down. He had obtained all of his skills by poring over medical books and constantly performing experiments on other humans.

One could argue that Su Chen had used his own ideas and theories to forge a new path in a world where surgery was a rare occurrence.

Su Chen had no forerunners on this path, so he needed to make this journey alone. Thus, he didn’t know what blood transfusions were; all he could do was use his own Origin Energy to control the loss of blood. He didn’t know how necessary anesthetics were, but just based on Pi Yuanhong’s pained, tortured expressions, a formula for a pain-reduction medicine was already forming in the back of his mind.

Too many firsts, too many attempts.

If he could succeed, then that would be a great blessing.

Pi Yuanhong was exhausted after Su Chen closed his wounds. After drinking a vial of recovery medicine, he fell into a deep sleep.

No one had brought blankets with them, so Su Chen pulled out the Wind-Extinguishing Grass he had harvested and arranged a makeshift blanket, covering him in it.

Wind-Extinguishing Grasses would be quickly ruined upon contact with blood, but Su Chen didn’t care.

He measured Pi Yuanhong’s pulse again. After ensuring that everything seemed normal, Su Chen staggered to the edge of the cave.

Outside, Jiang Hanfeng was keeping watch, not daring to blink.

His focus was taut.

Upon seeing him standing completely still on a finished formation, Su Chen couldn’t help but ask him, “What are you doing?”

Jiang Hanfeng replied, “I am standing on the foundation of the formation. I couldn’t get it to work properly, and Origin Energy fluctuations were constantly appearing. There was nothing else I could do, so I stood on it to absorb the fluctuations myself.

“You’re saying that you’ve been standing on this thing, absorbing the Origin Energy fluctuations using your own body, until now?” Su Chen was shocked.

Origin Energy pulses weren’t harmful, but they could cause the Origin Energy in a person’s body to resonate with the pulses at close distances. In light cases, one would feel dizzy from the disruption to smooth Origin Energy flow. In moderate cases, hidden injuries might begin to accumulate, and in serious cases one’s Origin Energy could rebound.

Jiang Hanfeng had stood on the formation foundation for such a long time in order to conceal their location……

In that moment, Su Chen felt moved.

Jiang Hanfeng’s body trembled

Su Chen grabbed hold of Jiang Hanfeng and pulled him aside, quickly inspecting Jiang Hanfeng’s body.

Thankfully, there wasn’t too much damage. He would completely recover with some rest.

Jiang Hanfeng, however, was unwilling to leave. “I can’t go. As soon as I go, the Origin Energy fluctuations will start.”

“You can go now. We won’t need this anymore,” Su Chen said.

“You’re saying that Eighth Senior Brother is fine now?” Jiang Hanfeng was delighted.

“Yes, but he still needs to rest for two days or so. Go and make him some meat porridge, and make it a bit more mushy. At this point, he just needs some nutrients.” Su Chen pulled out a Vicious Beast carcass from his Origin Ring and tossed it to Jiang Hanfeng. Even though Origin Qi Scholars were all superhumans, in a certain sense, it was impossible for them to recover without nutrients.

“Yes!” Jiang Hanfeng excitedly took the Vicious Beast and ran to make food. The nausea from the Origin Energy fluctuations was still present, however, and Jiang Hanfeng fell flat on his butt before springing back to his feet and racing into the cave.

Su Chen couldn’t help but laugh at his silly antics.

He slowly climbed to the top, gazing off into the distance.

Images of Gu Qingluo began to surface in his mind.

Qingluo, where are you right now?

Are you alright?