Chapter 548: Surgical Prep
“Thank the gods this is one of those worlds where indoor plumbing is thing,” Zhen Liu commented to himself as he arrived at the hotel’s lobby bathroom.
Finding out that the Pearl Scale Empire was one of the few places in this world that made use of indoor plumbing was a pleasant surprise to Zhen Liu, especially since Stone Claw city worked off the concept of “outhouse for everybody” and the trip here consisting of digging a lot of holes.
Regardless, Zhen Liu didn’t need this bathroom because he needed to actually use the restroom, he just needed the door that it was attached to.
[Arachnidame, stand by for library exit.]
[Of course, young master.]
From his pockets, Zhen Liu extracted the [Key to Wickedness] and proceeded to convert the public bathroom door into one connected to the Library of Nowhere.
‘Its a good thing this thing can fit into any keyhole otherwise, I’d be too busy running around looking for one that worked,’ Zhen Liu mused as he stuck in the key and opened the door.
[Hello, young master.]
“Hello Archanidame. You’re still in your human form?”
Instead of being greeted by the sight of a rather claustrophobic water closet with its only piece of furniture being a toilet/sink combination, Zhen Liu was greeted by the sight of the Library’s interior and Arachnidame in her “Miss Aranea” form. With all the grace of a learned lady, Arachnidame made her exit from the door.
“I had just finished my nightly lessons with the older children at the estate when I received your call. I sense the urgency in your voice so I immediately made my way here. Would you have preferred it if I was in my kaijin form?”
“Nah, it’s cool, just curious…what were you teaching the kids anyways?”
“Well, they are about the age in which puberty kicks in, so I gave them a crash course in basic sexual education. The birds, the bees, how it all works. Logos gave me a very educational textbook to structure my lesson from.”
“How…how did that pan out?”
“Surprisingly well. Although, I did have to remove the portion of the lesson that focused on the usage of condoms and physical forms of birth control since it doesn’t exist here. I also have to change the medical based birth control lesson abit, since it was a bit redundant given we have [Bachelor’s Leaf] to take care of that sort of thing.”
“Ah…”
For context, [Bachelor”s Leaf] was a low grade aether medicine that one could grow like a weed and has the ability to render anyone who eats its, infertile for about ten to twelve hours. However, it should be noted that eating more than one leaf in the span of those twelve hours run the risk of being permanent, so it is usually only prepared by brothels and alchemists in strict dosages.
A small part of Zhen Liu found it kind of funny how he had called Arahcnidame over for a medical procedure involving anatomy, right after she had done an educational lesson based on “anatomy”, but he quickly shook that thought out of his head.
He had more important things to focus on.
‘Alright, you’re here now, all we need to do now is wait for-‘
[We’re here, director!]
‘Perfect timing!’
Just as Zhen Liu was about to check on the kaijin via his link with them, Razorstella, Spring Brawler, Frosttusk and Hurricroak appeared before him.
To be more precise, they landed on his shoulders in their “mini-modes” after entering through a window that just so happened to be near by. In essence, a happy coincidence.
‘Alright, now that everyone is here, time to go do some impromptu surgery…I really hope this doesn’t go bad.’
[Oh don’t worry about it maestro. You got us here to guide the way,] Hurricroak said in comfort, [what’s the worst that could happen?]
‘This girl ends up dying on the operating table because we nicked something we shouldn’t have.’
[Aside from that.]
‘Right…anyways, Archanidame, I’ll need you to turn into a capsule shaped totem. You too, Razorstella.’
[As you wish, young master.]
[Huh? We didn’t need to do that when you used the Poessesstol before, director. Why the change?]
‘Well…this is the first time someone other than me is going to be staring at this thing, so we might as well make a good first impression…especially since it’s going to be used to shoot someone in the face willingly…’
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“If I’m in charge of the surgical part, then there’s a chance I could-”
“Okay, you’ve come to a decision yet?”
“Huh? Oh, you’re finally-what the fuck are those?”
“These are the things that are going to turn you into a surgeon or suture extraordinaire,” Zhen Liu plainly stated.
Zhen Hai had been busying himself thinking about what role he should take in regards to treating this damaged girl, especially since Zhen Liu was the one telling him that he would be either be taking the lead or providing support.
It was in the middle of this decision making that Zhen Liu finally returned from the bathroom, albeit, with two very strange totems in his presumably washed hands. Granted, whatever these things were, Zhen Hai could feel the power radiating off them like a torch soaked in alcohol.
It wasn’t a massive stretch to assume that these objects were what Zhen Liu had shot him in the face all those weeks ago, but they didn’t radiate the same power as they did last time.
“In my left, it will give you the ability to make blades out of your aether, sharp and precise enough to cut someone without them even noticing,” Zhen Liu said while holding up the totem in his left hand. The totem depicted a stylized monstrous dancer of some sort, decorated with all manner of star-like shapes. Combined with the silvery and gold metal that seemed to compose it, the totem came off flashy but in a good way,
“While in my right,” Zhen Liu said while holding the aforementioned hand, “will help you turn your aether into a sticky threads and hands that are so steady that you’ll be able to hold even a ten gallon jug in your palm without spilling a drop. Even if there was an earthquake.” The totem in Zhen Liu’s right depicted what appeared to a stylized version of a spider engulfed in flames. While it didn’t appear the most decorated, appearing rather plain in comparison to the one on the left, it gave off an intimidating charm that seemed to demand Zhen Hai’s attention.
“So…which one do you want going into your head?”
“Uh…”
Evidently, Zhen Hai thought his decision would be easier once he saw exactly how Zhen Liu was going to bestow upon him the knowledge of surgical medicine…that turned out to not be the case.
Zhen Hai was silent as his eyes flicked between the two totems.
Both of the totems appealed to him in different ways, both of them gave off the feeling that it’ll help him in the current situation and both felt as if, maybe, just maybe, it’ll progress his cultivation again.
He didn’t know why…it was just a feeling that he got.
Regardless of that feeling though, Zhen Hai didn’t have the luxury to wait all day to determine which one to take, time was running out. And Zhen Liu was making sure he knew that.
“Well?,” Zhen Liu asked again. “We don’t have all day and neither does that girl, so pick quickly now.”
“That’s…”
“Or would you rather have fate decide?”
“Huh?”
Before Zhen Hai could ask what the heck his cousin meant, Zhen Liu proceeded to clasp both of his hands to get the totems out of sight and move his arms behind his back. While he wasn’t able to see what he was doing back there, he could at least tell his cousin was just switching the totems back and forth between his hands in order to randomize the chances.
Perhaps he understood that his cousin wasn’t so much a thinker as he was a doer, so by eliminating the need for him to think, Zhen Liu made it easier to move things along.
After doing this for a couple more seconds, Zhen Liu brought his closed fists forward.
“Alright now cousin, choose. Left or right?”
“Oh…yeah, alright.”
With the need to analyze his choices now off the table, Zhen Hai could now rely namely on luck and guts to determine what should happen next.
“I’ll go with…this one.”
Going off of his instincts, Zhen Hai immediately pointed to Zhen Liu’s right hand.
With a smile on his face, Zhen Liu simply said “okay”, moments before he manifested that weird tool from last time and shot Zhen Hai in the face with it.
‘Oh…I remember this feeling now,” Zhen Hai thought to himself as the energy washed over him, making his aether and consciousness feel funny once more.
As this was happening though, Zhen Hai was conscious enough to see Zhen Liu taking that same weird looking tool and point to his face, blasting himself with a different color blast of energy.
‘Wait…it isn’t his innate skill of his?’
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‘So that’s what this feels like…wow, this is weird.’
[Director, you know you didn’t need to do that, right??]
‘I do, but…I was curious.’
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Once Zhen Liu and Zhen Hai got over the weird fuzzy feeling, the two young masters of the Zhen Clan stared into each other’s eyes, noticing how it appeared that neither was exactly how they once were just moments ago.
“Well then…shall we go and operate?”
“Yeah…let’s go.”
