Chapter 61

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She blurted out, “Yes! I remembered… It seems that this little brat was practicing the magic of fire from the Five Elements while I was away! Is it because of this?”

“What?” Doctor Shen Tu’s strange eyes rolled up as he snapped, “Are you crazy? How dare you let him cultivate with that?!”

“Huh?” Zhu Yan took a step back and stammered, “What… what’s wrong about it?… This little brat wanted to learn it… the Five Elements is just an introductory spell, it’s not harmful.”

“Fool! Sharks are not allowed to practice fire spells! Don’t you know that?” Doctor Shen Tu’s face scrunched up in anger as he pointed at her nose and said sternly, “Sharks are born in the sea and are water by nature. Water and fire cannot be combined, especially for such a young child, how dare you allow him to manipulate the power of fire? That’s what is killing him!”

“…” Zhu Yan blushed from the scolding, but didn’t dare to retort even a single word.

Yes, she had thrown the handwritten book at Sumo and just went about her business, not thinking at all about the consequences of leaving the boy alone to fumble and learn on his own – what an irresponsible master she was… She literally pushed the boy into the fire with her own hands!

She was so disheartened that she dared not reply and timidly asked, “Then… what is the cure for that?”

“Fortunately, you came to me carrying him on your back. In this world, there is no one else except me who can save him.” Doctor Shen Tu lifted up the unconscious child and said between his teeth, “If anything were to happen to this little one, neither you nor I would be able to bear the responsibility.”

“What?” Zhu Yan froze for a moment.

However, Doctor Shen Tu no longer replied, he just took out a cloth bag from his bosom and unfolded it; surprisingly there was a neat row of a dozen silver needles aligned. Then he took out a small flat box and opened it, there were all kinds of pills inside. Zhu Yan couldn’t help but be amazed: this man had actually managed to bring a full set of medical gear with him when he was escaping from the war? It was really something.

“However, with just an introductory level of the Five Elements spell, it wouldn’t be enough to bring the child into such a deadly condition.” Doctor Shen Tu muttered and carefully began to inspect and smell Sumo, “There must be some other reason.”

The ground trembled as another artillery blast came down and the ruined broken wall collapsed. Zhu Yan flipped her hands and wiped out the falling bricks and stones, watching the doctor consulting on the side with fear and trepidation. She was anxious and concerned about the situation of Yuan, but she could not move even one step away.

Doctor Shen Tu stuffed a small pill into Sumo’s mouth, rubbed the medicinal oil into his palm again, and pressed repeatedly on the child’s small abdomen – there was a bulging lump there, which actually moved under his pressure! In the same instant, Sumo jerked back and released a groan of pain. That was almost the first time in the past two days that the child had made a sound.

“What’s wrong?!” Zhu Yan was startled and asked in a heartbeat.

“Oh, so this was the thing that was making the trouble. No wonder…” A cold light suddenly appeared in Doctor Shen Tu’s eyes, rubbing his hands together, surprisingly with a vague hint of excitement, “It appears that there can no longer be any delay – if we don’t get this thing out now, this child will die very soon. Let’s do it now!”

Zhu Yan did not understand what he was saying, but she saw Doctor Shen Tu lifting his head and instructing, “Come, help me hold this child down.”

Zhu Yan bent down in the ruins and helped the doctor to hold Sumo’s hands and feet under control. The child’s limbs were as thin as reed sticks, and seemed as if they would break at the slightest pressure. As soon as Zhu Yan applied a little force, the child on the ground curled up and let out a muffled cry of pain. She panicked and subconsciously let go of her hand.

“Bastard! Who told you to let go? Damn it, push it harder for me!” Doctor Shen Tu, whose face turned pale instantly, cursed, “If you don’t listen to me, you’ll send the boy to his death, do you understand?!”

“…” Almost no one other than her Master had ever dared to scold her in such a head-bashing manner. Zhu Yan wanted to lash out, but she knew that the situation was urgent now and it was completely pointless to confront this person and get angry, so she silently suppressed her anger and lowered her head to re-tighten Sumo’s hands and feet tightly: “Is this alright?!”

“Good, hold him down for me like that, don’t let him move a single muscle!” Pointing at her, Doctor Shen Tu’s tone became stern, “If you make one wrong move, his life will be over! Understand?”

Before Zhu Yan could return to her senses, she only witnessed a flash of cold light in front of her eyes as the ragged old man suddenly burst out with an extremely powerful aura; shouting loudly and flipping his hands, twelve silver needles emerged from his fingertips in unison, instantly sticking into the child’s head at a speed that could not even be perceived!

Sumo released a shrill cry and struggled desperately. In that moment, the dying child surprisingly developed an astounding strength, and with just the slightest distraction from Zhu Yan, the child’s hand broke free from under her wrist!

“It hurts… it hurts!” He cried out garrulously, trying desperately to open his eyes.

A glint of terror seemed to open the child’s eyes and he looked at her with overwhelming fear, his pale lips quivering and his mind appearing somewhat confused as he muttered, “It hurts… help me… big sister…”

Such a sight caused Zhu Yan’s heart to tremble violently, yet she did not dare to release her confinement on him. Doctor Shen Tu exerted his entire body to the fullest, and in just a blink of an eye, silver needles poured out from above like a stream of light, nailing into the child’s twelve major acupuncture points in a flash – shockingly, almost every single one of them pierced a lethal point!

When the last silver needle was pierced into the Ocean of Qi, Sumo’s throbbing suddenly stopped, like a puppet whose strings had been cut instantly, and his whole body went limp, closing his eyes and relapsing into complete immobility.

Everything happened in a split second, Zhu Yan was stunned for a moment before she jumped up and exclaimed out of breath, “What… are you doing? Why are you tapping the mortal points? You want to kill him?”

“Shut up! Of course, I’m healing him!” Doctor Shen Tu became impatient, but his voice sounded extremely tired in that short sentence, as if the moment just now had taken a tremendous amount of strength. He used up the silver needles in his hand, bent down and took out something else from that cloth bag, instructing her unceremoniously, “Don’t shout there. Hold the boy down again for me!”

Zhu Yan was just about to reply something when she suddenly froze at the sight of what he was holding in the firelight – held between the old man’s withered and jagged fingers was a shining boning knife!

Amidst the flames of the battle, there were occasional splashes of arrows and roaring of artillery fire, yet they were all blocked by the invisible barrier set up by Zhu Yan – this small corner of the ruins seemed to be isolated from the fiery, burning asylum of the city.

Zhu Yan watched as Doctor Shen Tu came over with the sharp knife and leaned down to rip the clothes off the child’s body; unable to stop her scalp from numbing, she took hold of the old man’s wrist and said in a stern voice, “Hey! What are you trying to do?”

“Saving this child!” Doctor Shen Tu’s wrist bone was in severe pain, and he couldn’t help but roll his strange eyes as he stared angrily at this ungrateful young girl, “What do you know? If we don’t get rid of this evil scourge, this child will perish!”

“What scourge?” Zhu Yan froze for a moment and followed his gaze to the ground.

The child’s body was thin and bony, but his belly was slightly bulging and appeared oddly abrupt. In the darkness of the fire, it felt as if something was squirming in his belly, and the tip of Doctor Shen Tu’s shiny knife was aimed right at the ocean of Qi beneath the belly button.

Zhu Yan said in a daze, “Are you talking about that… stillborn child?”

“Yes.” Doctor Shen Tu pulled his wrist out of her hand with such force that a dark circle of bruises already marked it, and he glared at her, “Don’t stand there! Go up and hold this little one down for me! It will be extremely painful when we break the abdomen later, and these silver needles alone may not be able to seal him up!”

“Want… want it to be here?” Yet she still had a slight hesitation, looking around at the fiery battle scene, “Can’t we wait a while before we move to another place?”

“I would prefer a more decent place… to do such a big surgery in such a dilapidated place with nothing at hand, you think it’s easy?” Doctor Shen Tu replied in an unpleasant manner, “But saving a person’s life is like putting out a fire, how can we still pick and choose the time? Have a look! What is this?”

He poked Sumo in the tummy with the sharp knife, and in that instant something underneath the skin seemed to wriggle violently, as if dodging the blade and darting and sliding through the body.

Such a bizarre sight caused Zhu Yan to gasp out loud.

“That fellow is taking advantage of the child’s debilitation and is devouring him from the inside out!” Doctor Shen Tu raised his head and snapped at her, “We can’t wait, or the boy will be crippled even if we save him! His little life is in your hands, have you thought about it? Can I perform this surgery now?”

Zhu Yan inhaled a mouthful of cold air, pondered for an instant, and nodded resolutely, “Fine!”

Yes, in that case, it is time to take it off. What if the delay causes this child’s life to be consumed?

She leaned down and resumed the pressure on the child’s hands and feet as Doctor Shen Tu had instructed her to do. She was a woman of great courage, but when she caught sight of the shiny boning knife coming down on the child, she could not help but turn her head away and close her eyes.

The sharp, silvery knife plunged into the ocean of Qi in the abdomen, cutting sharply through the flesh and blood, breaking open the entire belly. Zhu Yan didn’t even dare to look; she only felt the child on the ground shake violently and let out a cry of extreme pain as his sealed body moved and twitched violently.

“Ah-Niang… Big sister!” The unconscious child murmured, his voice hoarse, “Help me!”

“Good baby, bear with it!” She didn’t dare to turn her head to look, but could only grit her teeth and couldn’t stop whispering reassuringly, “It’s okay, it’ll be fine soon!”

The excruciating pain of the open belly made the child struggle desperately and surprisingly he opened his eyes for a moment, and in a trance, he seemed to recognize her shadow and suddenly murmured, “Sister… Sister? Is that you?” The child froze for just a moment, twitching again under the severe pain, struggling incessantly, “It hurts… It hurts! Please let me go… let me go!”

“Don’t move! Don’t be scared… It will get better soon! Don’t be afraid!” She desperately held the child’s arms and legs down to keep him from wriggling to escape. Sumo cried out in great pain, calling her name, begging her to let him go, pleading with her to not kill him. Yet she could only grit her teeth in tears and hold on to him for dear life, not daring to loosen her grip even a little.

She thought that Doctor Shen Tu will end it quickly, however, after an unknown period of time, he actually still didn’t finish his job, and there was not even the sound of the knife operating echoing around.

“Sister… you, are you going to kill me?” Struggling, Sumo’s eyes stared rigidly at her, his azure eyes filled with a mixture of shock and fear, “It hurts… let go… let go of me! Sister! It hurts!”

“Don’t move!” Zhu Yan gritted her teeth and pressed the child’s limbs down, preventing him from moving at all, for fear that it might interfere with the doctor’s surgery, “Bear with it!”

The child twitched and shivered in utter fear and pain, pleading bitterly in a hoarse voice. She caught sight of her own reflection in the child’s eyes as she was viciously gritting her teeth and pressing his limbs, looking surprisingly slightly hideous against the backdrop of flames and rubble. She dared not look any further and turned her head away.

In time, the child’s struggles became increasingly weaker and his voice faded from shrill to feeble as he drifted away to his death – even his skin, which had been burning hot, flushed cold beneath her hands. The coldness, however, was a lifeless cooling, like that of a dead person.

“Why, w-why… are you killing me, sister?” Finally, Sumo’s pupils lost their sparkle, faded and finally closed, “It hurts… so much… sister!”

She finally relented and turned her head to shout, “Why isn’t it over yet?”

In the next moment, she became stunned by the tragic sight in front of her. Doctor Shen Tu was bent down with his knife as he opened the small Sumo’s abdomen, and blood flowed into a river; however, he froze in place and no longer moved – the doctor’s hand was shaking violently as he held the knife, and when he saw Zhu Yan finally turning her head, he looked at her with a deadly stare, and a “coughing” noise escaped from his throat.

In that instant, Zhu Yan gasped in disbelief.

What… the hell is that? In the bright light of the fire, she was astonished to behold a pair of tiny hands, reaching out from Sumo’s bleeding body, with a deadly grip on the doctor’s throat!

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