Chapter 549: Impromptu Surgical Theater
[Huh…so this is what it’s like to be inside shark boy’s head…not gonna lie, I can see why Hurricroak had nothing but positives to say about him.]
[See you say that, Miss Razorstella, but I think our young master’s head is the best. Granted I only have him and the rose uncle to draw a comparison, but still.]
[I wouldn’t know, haven’t been in the director’s head yet.]
[Really? Why not?]
[Hesitation and going to be very honest here, not a big fan of the lack of pointy bits. I mean, he has…finger nails, I guess, but they’re not the same as my legs and claws.]
[Ah…]
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“Oh why is there so much blood…,” Zhen Xing said in alarm as he changed the beaten girl’s bandages.
“I think it’s a medical condition, kind of like how Auntie Bibi can’t eat sweets?,” Zhen Feng speculated as he assisted Zhen Xing.
The Zhen Clan scions were just about to apply new bandages to the girl, whilst Gao Ren stood off to the side to give the youngsters room to work, when all of a sudden…
*BAM!*
“Clear the way, surgeons in the house!”
The door to the kitchen flung wide open, catching the attention of everyone in the room and causing all activity to stop.
“Zhen Hai you’re back!”
“And you brought Zhen Liu?”
“Hold up…is it just me or do their auras feel off?”
“Wait…yeah, what the fuck?”
“No fucking way…”
The moment Zhen Liu and Zhen Hai entered the kitchen, the Zhen Clan scions could immediately sense that the two of them had very, very different auras to them.
“Alright, I just got a crash course in surgery and I know what’s wrong with her. Please clear the way so I can operate,” Zhen Hai declared as he held up two fingers like they were a sharp knife. “Xiao Liu, you ready to go?”
Zhen Hai for his part carried the same confidence that was usually baked into his personality, but the way it was portrayed was different.
Normally, the man gave off the same feeling of danger one would feel when staring at a shark swimming in the open water. One wrong move and you’d probably get your limbs bitten off, but surprisingly chill if left alone. However, now it felt like something was added to it.
The best way the Zhen Clan scions could describe this feeling, was as if Zhen Hai had learned to sharpen his aether to a fine point, as if the man had learned the very essence of swordsmanship and had applied its principals to his very being.
An absurd notion, due to Zhen Hai not showing much interests in learning the damn things before, but that was the feeling he gave off nonetheless.
“Yes. just do be careful, the girl is in a very a delicate state right now,” Zhen Liu replied in a tone of voice that sounded way too structured and elegant from his usual speech patterns.
“Oh yeah, something is definitely different,” Zhen Tai stated.
On the other hand, Zhen Liu was the most notable difference between the two.
Due to Zhen Liu’s unusual cultivation path, he didn’t give off a traditional aura that one could pick up, or at least, it wasn’t one that was very well defined.
The best way to put this was that while people could tell he had some level of aether cultivation, they just couldn’t pick up any nuances to it like affinity or formula peculiarities, in the same manner someone could identify something as being a rock, but wouldn’t be able to tell someone what kind of rock it was.
However, now Zhen Liu gave off this strange feeling, almost…evil aura. It felt as if the man was in control of the entire room, knew it and made it known to everyone else in that room that they were simply his puppets. They could still think and speak their minds, but all of their actions would ultimately be for his benefit, and made based on his decision making…at least that’s the feeling he gave off.
Zhen Xing, Zhen Tai, Zhen Feng and Zhen Guo had no idea how the hell their first and fourth cousin managed to undergo such a change, but Zhen Yue had an inkling of an idea…one that she made known by asking aloud.
“Xiao Liu…remember how you mentioned how awhile back you could…temporarily fuse with your aether puppets in order to use aether arts yourself?”
“Yup,” Zhen Liu nodded.
“Are…are you able to do that to…other people as well? Did you just do that to Zhen Hai?”
“…yes,” Zhen Liu nodded again, (completely lying through his teeth).
“Why?”
“Because…he needed sharper blades,” Zhen Liu answered.
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“Wait, he can do that?!,” Zhen Tai asked his cousins with a shocked tone. Zhen Xing and Zhen Feng both shrugged in confusion as they had no idea Zhen Liu was capable of such a feat.
Zhen Guo on the other hand just nodded.
“I remember being present for this conversation…yes, he is apparently able to fuse with his puppets and use them to mimic aether channels.”
“I…why didn’t he tell us?,” Zhen Feng asked.
“If I had to guess,” Zhen Guo began to answer, “because our relationship wasn’t so good with him at the time, he wanted to keep it a secret in case shit ever went sideways, or…he was simply waiting for the right time to do it himself and we have no right to know everything about our cousin and his unusual cultivation.”
“But-”
“Do you guys share everything with each other, me and them?”
“…no.”
“Precisely.”
“…Y’all think we should share each other’s secrets at some point just in case we end up dead and need to pass on our vengeance and resources to each other?,” Zhen Tai morbidly asked.
In response, the other three just gave him a strange stare for a second before turning their attention back to Zhen Hai and Zhen Liu.
“What? It was a legitimate question.”
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“Enough talk,” Zhen Hai interrupted, “Xiao Liu, can you give us a sterile space?”
“Aye.”
“What the-sterile?,” Gao Ren asked with a semi-offended tone. “I’ll have you know that I make sure to clean this kitchen every ni-”
*Thump!*
“Whoa!”
With a wave of his hand, Zhen Liu summoned forth Frosttusk from his accessory form, causing a Gao Ren to jump in fright as a seven foot tall musclebound warrior covered in leather armor suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
He was just about to scream, “intruder”, until he noticed that the warrior in question looked a bit too…artificial to be real.
“Wait a minute…that’s an aether puppet?!,” Gao Ren screamed in realization.
Ignoring the fox bloodliner man’s outburst, the mammoth-man puppet proceeded to sap the heat from the surrounding area, creating a clear dome of ice surrounding the slave girl and the counter she was laying upon.
Gao Ren wanted to yell about having to clean up the mess that would be caused when the ice melted, but didn’t when he noticed that a part of the ice dome was right next to his stove fire and wasn’t even producing the smallest bead of water. It didn’t take a genius to realize that this ice dome wasn’t as simple as it appeared.
“Surgical theater is ready. We can operate whenever you’re ready.”
“Excellent,” Zhen Hai said with a smile, “lets get started.”
“Hold on, operate? What are you guys talking about?,” Zhen Yue asked in alarm.
Evidently, she didn’t expect Zhen Hai to be the one to give her an answer.
“The patient in the theater has a condition known as hemophilia, a disorder where one’s blood doesn’t clot properly.”
“Wait, what?”
“Which means that if she was to ever sustain a cut or bruise, the amount of blood loss could be fatal if untreated and unfortunately in the case of our friend here, its a bit more severe than just simple bruises.”
Before he continued speaking, Zhen Hai turned towards Zhen Xing and pointed a finger at him to ask a question.
“When you rescued this poor girl, you mentioned that the thundering dunderhead known as Lei Zhong used his aether to reinforce the blows from his feet.”
“Y-yeah.”
“I was afraid of that,” Zhen Hai sighed. “The bruising and the fact that she is still bleeding may be an indication that one of his kicks fractured a bone in the poor girl and caused the resulting shards to dig into her flesh. She’s internally bleeding and that is a very, very bad thing. If I don’t remove the shards now and have Zhen Liu stitch the wounds, she…won’t make it to sunrise.”
“Oh…”
“Holy shit.”
“That…bastard.”
“How…how did he know all that?”
“Now if you’ll excuse, we have a girl to save.”
Now understanding the severity of the situation, the Zhen Clan scions and Gao Ren all shared a shocked looks on their faces as Zhen Hai and Zhen Liu entered the ice dome.
As they did, Zhen Liu began swirling his finger in the air, creating silk gloves made of aether for the both of them.
“That surgical knowledge sticking right?”
“Sticking enough to know that I won’t be able to use any of the knives in here to operate. Going to have to be precise with just my aether.”
“Great…”
