Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang Novel - Chapter 460

Chapter 460
Just as Father-in-law, cradling the unconscious young woman, arrived at the Medical Hall’s entrance, we realized the building was completely dark.

What in the world? Is there no one here?
A Medical Hall did exist within the clan, though it wasn’t a dedicated emergency facility. I assumed the staff might have all stepped out for a meal.

At that moment, the doors opened and the head physician emerged with several attending doctors in tow.
“A good day’s work, Clan Lord. Shall we finally get some dinner?”
“Indeed. You have all done well. What is being served tonight?”
“I was told it is Fish-Fragrant Shredded Pork.”
“Fish-Fragrant Shredded Pork! A fine choice. With no critical patients to mind, shall we also share a drink?”
“A splendid idea, Clan Lord.”
“I would enjoy that.”
“Then let us be off. Oh, Physician Hwang, your daughter—”

They had evidently just extinguished the lights and were on their way to the evening meal.
Father-in-law called out to them urgently.
“Medical Hall Chief!”
“Clan Lord? W-wait, is that Lady Hwa-eun!?”

The Medical Hall Chief and the others froze for an instant, shocked by the sight of the blood-drenched figure in his arms.
They had clearly mistaken her for Hwa-eun.
But they were experienced medics, accustomed to crises. Their professional instincts took over and they moved into action immediately.

“No, she is a patient from the Flying Current Sect! Her condition is grave—prepare everything!”
“H-her abdomen is pierced!? Understood! Quickly, relight the lamps and boil water! Prepare the herbal decoctions!”
“Yes, Chief!”
“You, retrieve the Blood-Replenishing Pellets and the Golden Wound Balm! And do not forget the sterile gauze!”
“Yes, Chief!”
“There may be internal damage—should I prepare a Tranquil Mind Pill?”

Warm water and herbs to cleanse the injury.
The standard martial world trauma kit—Blood-Replenishing Pellets and Golden Wound Balm—was requested at once, followed by an inquiry about using the Tang Clan’s invaluable Tranquil Mind Pill for internal bleeding.
The chief physician sought Father-in-law’s approval, as the pill was exceedingly rare.

“She was journeying here to celebrate Hwa-eun’s wedding. Use whatever is necessary.”
“Understood! Retrieve the Tranquil Mind Pill and recall all the assistants who have already left for dinner!”
“Yes, Chief!”

As the preparations got underway, the woman was gently placed on a bed.
However, with an object still impaled in her abdomen, she could not lie flat.
“We cannot position her correctly… This is more severe than I anticipated.”

Once the Medical Hall was illuminated again, her true state became horrifyingly clear.
A blackened human arm was protruding from her abdomen and out through her back.
Earlier, in the darkness, I had mistaken it for a tree root—but it was unmistakably a human arm, gruesomely embedded in her torso.

“Father-in-law, her abdomen… there is a human arm…”
“It appears to be the arm of a ma-in. They likely left it in place for fear she would bleed out instantly.”
He frowned deeply.
“But it is peculiar. Even severed from its owner, demonic energy is still seeping from it.”
“D-demonic energy!? From a ma-in’s arm!?”
The very term caused the chief physician to flinch backward.

Just then, the first supplies arrived—gauze, Blood-Replenishing Pellets, and Golden Wound Balm.
The herbal decoctions would require more time, so these readily available items were brought first.
“Son-in-law, come and assist.”
“M-me?”
“You received instruction from the Immortal of Medicine and the Immortal of Herbs, did you not?”
“Well, to some degree…”

They had been insistent on teaching me, so I had learned a little… though certainly not enough to handle a case this dire.
That said, I had ample experience treating animals, and in matters of infection and sterilization, I might actually know more than those present.
“Humans are essentially just large, hairy animals, aren’t they?”
I nodded and joined the effort.
Saving the patient was the priority.
And from the appearance of things, they needed every available pair of hands.

“Understood. What is my first task?”
“Begin by clearing the blood away from her wound.”
“Yes, sir!”

Acting on Father-in-law’s direction, I ripped open the blood-soaked garments and started to clean the injury.
After checking her pulse, Father-in-law examined the wound more closely.
He carefully lifted the bloodied cloth surrounding the arm piercing her abdomen—and saw the skin had turned black.
Fresh blood was still welling up between the arm and her flesh, despite my just having cleaned it.

“Could the acupressure points be unsealed? I will stem the bleeding first.”
He attempted to use acupressure to block the flow of blood.
Yet the blood continued to seep out.
Witnessing this, Father-in-law’s expression turned severe.
“The point is sealed, but the bleeding does not cease. As I feared… wounds tainted by demonic energy resist even acupressure. It is said demonic energy causes wounds to putrefy and decay.”
“Demonic energy can do that?”
“Yes. It makes the tissue necrotize and rot. That is why sealing the point is insufficient. And with the ma-in’s arm still lodged within…”
He assigned me a new duty.
“Mix a Blood-Replenishing Pellet with water and feed it to her. She has lost too much blood—she will not last much longer like this.”
“Yes, sir!”

Since acupressure had failed, the goal was to restore her blood volume first.
As I swiftly dissolved the pellet in water and administered it, Father-in-law continued his examination—soon shaking his head with a somber look.
“Two broken ribs are manageable… But at this specific location, the intestines are surely damaged. It will be very difficult…”

He said it in a tone that suggested her chances of survival were slim.
A couple of fractured ribs was one thing—but with ruptured intestines, survival was highly improbable.
“The intestines…?”
“Yes. Even if one could treat them, once they burst, the body feverishly decays from within. Death becomes a certainty.”

It was then that it happened.
As if to affirm this death sentence, the door exploded inward with a violent crash.

Bang!
The Medical Hall doors flew open—and in staggered Baek Heo-ja, leader of the Flying Current Sect, himself soaked in blood.
He was dripping with sweat, his robes shredded at the chest as if by claws.
He looked as though he had endured a nightmare.

“Clan Lord Tang! Our Seoryeon—what is her condition!?”
“Elder Baek! Are you injured?”
“I am fine! How is Seoryeon!?”

Father-in-law tried to inquire about his well-being first, but Elder Baek dismissed it, his focus entirely on the girl.
When Father-in-law could not reply, his face shadowed with grimness—
The elder dropped to both knees.
“Please… I implore you, Clan Lord Tang! I have raised her with my own hands for fifteen years! She is my disciple, my daughter! I cannot let her die before she has even had her chance to blossom!”

A “direct disciple” meant he had personally instructed her from childhood—even before he became sect leader.
She was a daughter to him in every sense.
“Elder Baek…”

Father-in-law undoubtedly wished to save her, whatever the cost.
He had endured a similar ordeal with Hwa-eun.
But with no clear method available—he could not offer a promise.

At that moment, I moved forward and addressed the leader of the Flying Current Sect.
If she was to die regardless, was it not worth trying every possibility?
“I cannot make guarantees, but I know of a few techniques. Let us attempt all we can, Father-in-law.”
“Oh! You know of a way?”
“A method? If you can save her, I shall be in your debt forever!”
The head of the Flying Current Sect seized my hands, his own trembling.

From knowledge of a past life, the only treatment for ruptured intestines is to open the abdomen, irrigate the area, excise the damaged section, and suture it closed.
The essential tools for this are surgical thread and antibiotics.
Thread is needed to sew the wound, and antibiotics to combat infection from bacteria entering through the torn gut. Such things, of course, do not exist in this world—which was likely why Father-in-law believed her beyond saving.

However, our Tang Clan had no such concerns regarding sutures or antibiotics.
After all, the Tang Clan possessed the finest dissolvable threads and natural antibiotics.
“My confidence is limited, but if the intestines are not fully severed, I can attempt to stitch the damage. I will use Yo-hwa’s thread, which dissolves and disappears inside the body.
As for the decay—we will halt it with poison.”
“Poison!?”
“You intend to use poison?”
They acknowledged the mention of Yo-hwa’s thread, but both Father-in-law and the Cheongseong sect leader were stunned by the mention of poison.

I nodded with resolve.
“Yes, Father-in-law. It is risky, certainly, but if administered skillfully, the Tang Clan’s mastery over poison should make it safe.”
“What manner of poison?”
“Bee venom.”
“Bee venom?”
“Yes, Father-in-law.”

Bee venom is a natural antibiotic possessing excellent anti-inflammatory, blood pressure-lowering, blood vessel-widening, and clot-dissolving properties.
Its toxicity demands it be used in concentrations between 0.01% to 5%, but—
We had the most potent kind: the venom of the Golden-Furred Wasp King.
Therefore, antibiotics were not a worry.
As for the toxicity—we could simply test it on a few Tang Clan warriors.
Time was critical, so we needed to move fast.

“Take a half-do of clean water, add three don of salt, cover and boil it, then allow it to cool. After that, dilute the venom of the Golden-Furred Wasp King to a concentration safe for humans. Can this be accomplished quickly?”
“I will alert the Hall of Ten Thousand Poisons at once. Someone, anyone!”
“Yes, Clan Lord!”
“Send word to the Hall of Ten Thousand Poisons immediately—”

I already knew the procedure for making sterile saline, so I only required them to dilute the venom and conduct the tests. Turning back to the patient, my gaze fell upon the arm embedded in her abdomen.
To operate, we needed to extract that arm—but first, the bleeding had to be stopped.
Thus I asked, “But what is to be done about the demonic energy within the arm?”
“I can purge it, but as Hwa-eun has already attained the Flower Realm, it would be better to summon her. She is more dependable than I in this.”
“I will contact Hwa-eun. I will request she bring Yo-hwa as well.”
“Yes, do that.”

Anyone possessing powerful internal energy could expel demonic energy—and since Hwa-eun had reached the Flower Realm, Father-in-law proposed asking her.
I took responsibility for reaching out to her.
『“Hwa-eun, please come to the Medical Hall at once with Yo-hwa. A patient here is infected with demonic energy. I require your assistance.”』
『“Ah, I heard someone had been brought to the Medical Hall… I did not realize it was so serious. I am on my way!”』

A short time later, Hwa-eun entered the Medical Hall and channeled the demonic energy out from the woman’s body and back into the severed arm.
“There. It is all contained within the arm now.”
The moment she spoke, I wiped the wound once more—and the bleeding had stopped entirely.
“Father-in-law, please extract the arm.”
“Understood!”

Father-in-law grasped the impaled arm at the elbow and pulled.
With a sickening wet sound, the arm came free.
The instant it was out, dark energy began to plume from it like smoke.
Father-in-law threw it into a large jar—presumably intending to bury it later.
“Medicine!”
“Yes, Young Master So-ryong!”

Ssshhhhh.
With the arm removed, we poured medicine into the cavity to clean it and evaluate the damage.
“…What? The intestines… the bones…”

The wound was so corroded it was merely a vast hole—nothing was left.
The severed ends of bone and intestine were clearly visible.
I stared at Father-in-law, astounded, and he cried out in disbelief.
“N-no… the Blood Jade Hand!?”
“The Blood Jade Hand?”
“A demonic martial art of the Cult—one that dissolves flesh and bone…”

To perform surgery, there must be something remaining to work with.
But there was nothing.
“Seoryeon…”

The Cheongseong sect leader crumpled to his knees on the spot.
Not even an immortal could save her now.
As he knelt, his tears falling—

Black smoke began to leak from the jar containing the severed arm.
Someone had apparently neglected to secure the lid.
“Damn it!”

Father-in-law moved to cover it—

Flapflapflapflap!
A fluttering of wings came from the window.
Turning my head, I saw Moji and Soji clinging to the window frame, scratching to be let inside.
The moment I opened the window a crack, the demonic energy began to be drawn outward.
“Ah! Of course!”

I rushed to the window and threw it wide open.
Moji and Soji flew directly to the jar—and then to the woman’s body.
“Young Master So… please allow Seoryeon to pass in peace…”

The sect leader uttered mournfully.
He must have believed the spirit beasts were defiling her body.
But I approached Moji and Soji gently and stroked their heads.
“I truly am a fool. I suppressed your abilities to prevent their misuse, and in doing so, I forgot them myself… Can you heal her?”

Mew.
Mewmew.

I had once vowed to conceal their powers so no one could ever exploit them.
But I had ended up forgetting them myself.
How idiotic…
When it concerned nurturing Hwa-eun’s heart, I always acted without hesitation. Yet here I was, trying to do everything by hand like a simpleton.
All I needed to do was give the command—and let the spirit beasts perform their function.

A soft light began to emanate from Moji and Soji’s bodies.
And within that radiance—
The gaping void in the woman’s abdomen started to regenerate.
Bone.
Intestines.
Flesh.
All of it began to be restored.