’Well that’s fucking fantastic, looks like tetanus is a thing in this universe,’ Zhen Liu cursed, ’wait, is aether enhanced bacteria a thing, or not?’
=Naturally occurring? No.=
’...’
’Fucking dammit.’
At this point in ti, Zhen Liu had acclimated to this world’s nature so he knew that there was probably so crazy magic pill or spring water that could definitely cure tetanus, even it was aether enhanced. The only obstacles in relation to that though would either be a price tag or it being located in so bullshit dungeon guarded by an ancient monster with a tragic backstory.
On the plus(?) side, Zhen Liu did have access to giant magic library of infinite(?) knowledge that probably has sothing that could help with this.
Thankfully though, Zhen Liu wouldn’t have to worry about any of that.
[Not to worry, milord! I’d be a terrible secretary if I allowed one of the sons of my employer to die so easily and stupidly!]
’Excellent! Thank you, Archanida, what is the plan?’
[Bloodletting!]
’...’
________________________________________________
*Bing-Bong*
The writer of this work would like to make it known that bloodletting shouldn’t be done unless you’re in a sterile, dical environnt.
...
Actually, not even then.
Bloodletting is a very bad idea, especially if you’re hemophiliac.
...
Unless you’re magic.
...
Or cyborg.
...
Why am I even making this PSA?
I’m pretty sure most of our readers know not to take a scalpel to their wrists in a ham-fisted attempt at amateur surgery.
|There is a non-zero chance soone attempts this for shits and giggles, I ain’t getting sued for it.|
Fair enough...?
*Bing-Bong*
________________________________________________
Back in the cargo hold, Zhen Jin was currently convulsing on the floor as a sharp, deep pain began to rock his body.
’What...the...fuck?!’
Zhen Jin knew he was infected with sothing bad, but he didn’t know what he was infected with exactly.
As a mber of the Zhen Clan, he had been thoroughly schooled on the quirks and oddities of aether beasts, so he knew that multiple types of rat type aether beasts tended to carry so kind of disease to the.
The only problem was that he didn’t know of any associated with rust of all things.
’Gods dammit...have to...stay...awake.’
By virtue of being an Aether Master, and having been envenomated multiple tis before now, he was able to resist the pain to an extent and even destroy the toxins in his body, but it was far more taxing than anything he ever dealt with in the past.
It was as if everyti he flushed out so of the toxins, even more of it would suddenly be produced as if out of nowhere.
However, he would soon learn the origins of this continuous toxin when a familiar voice suddenly chid in.
[Tetanus.]
’What?’
As soon as Zhen Jin heard that voice, he began to notice a presence inside of his mind starting to beco more and more prominent. Oddly enough, this presence felt very familiar to him.
’Wait...I know this presence...the arachne? Why are you in my-?’
[Your body is currently being attacked by bacteria,] the arachne continued while interrupting Zhen Jin’s questioning, [tiny organisms that likes to live in the mouths of rats and warm soil. The bacteria is currently multiplying and releasing a poison that’s causing your muscles contract in an extre manner. Everyti you flush out the toxin, you just encourage the bacteria to reproduce more and release more toxins as a result. You need to get rid of the bacteria first.]
’Bacteria?,’ Zhen Jin repeated in a bewildered tone, ’what’s bacteria?’
Evidently, in a world where magical dicine and people can quite literally beco gods via cultivation, the concept of "germ theory" was lost to the waysides. Well, to be more accurate, germ theory was known but it wasn’t widespread.
Books are expensive.
[Wait, I didn’t transfer that over knowledge? Why didn’t I-wait,right, no unnecessary educational material transference without the right permissions...okay! All you need to know that unless you allow to take over your body right this instance, you’ll probably die a very painful death. So what do you say? Want to let try and save your life?]
The thing about [Possession] is that the kaijin actually have surprisingly little control on how the possessed act once they’re inside, with the exception of their lord, due to the effectiveness of this ability being directly correlated to the target’s "strength of will" in comparison to their own.
Depending on this disparity, the kaijin could flat out control soone’s body and mind due to the person being near dead and having very little strength of will present, or they can’t do a single thing due to the person being the ntal equivalent of an unbreakable fortress.
Evidently, this is why Zhen Liu’s main thod of exercising [Possession] involves a gun. Practically everyone’s strength of will gets shaken up when they get shot at.
Zhen Jin was in too much pain to actually comprehend what the voice in his head ant by take over his body...but this was the sa voice that helped him achieve a breakthrough of sorts literally minutes ago, so...
’I can’t control the universe, but I can control myself...alright, go for it.’
[Excellent.]
With permission given, Zhen Jin’s consciousness began to dial back as Arachnida began to exert more control on his body and even a touch of his aether.
[Alright then, let’s get to work. I’ve never practiced dicine inside of soone’s body before... actually, I’ve never done dicine aside from first-aid. This will be interesting,] Archanida mused. As she did, she began to focus her mind on diffusing her spirit more with Zhen Jin’s body so that she could start controlling specific cells and organs.
[Hmmm. A majority of the bacterium appears to be in the leg still, but it has spread throughout the body because of all the physical activity...,] Archanida pondered, [I can’t rely on the body’s immune system to produce the antibodies I need in ti to end the infection...but maybe I can make it easier to excise the offending cellular organisms?]
Zhen Jin’s fingers began to twitch as tiny threads of aether began to spool out of them and enter into several pores throughout his body.
[Just need to thread the needle...]
As the threads of aether entered the body, passed the skin and flesh and into the bloodstream, Archanida could now detect with significantly more detail the exact locations where the offending bacteria had already spread to as well as they were about spread to.
[ Forty-six percent located in the initial leg wound, thirteen percent in the hip area, seven percent already in the abdon and thirty-four percent in the lower leg and foot...not good but not terrible to deal with...]
Archanida’s plan was simple...sort of.
She was going to make use of her aether threads to stop Zhen Jin’s heart in order to stop the blood flow, create several internal blood clots made of aether silk to contain the bacteria and toxins, force the formation of several postules, and then violently pop them from the inside by jumpstarting his heart and simultaneously cutting open the postules so that the blood was no choice but to exit through the new wounds.
The idea being that the sudden surge of blood flow pushing against one side of the makeshift clot while Archanida holds the other would cause the pressure to be rather intense.
On paper this should work, in practice...that was another matter entirely.
[I can start pumping the blood again via my threads but I’ll have to be incredibly careful not to accidentally crush his heart in the process...alright, let’s do this thi-]
"Father!"
"Fifth Uncle?!"
"Zhen Jin?!"
[Ah fuck sideways with a chancla.]
At the exact mont Archanida was set to put her plan into action, Zhen Jin’s son, his first niece and nephew as well as his brothers all ca into the cargo hold at once like it was a sitcom or a fucking dical drama.
[Y’all couldn’t have waited until after I save his life?]
"Holy shit what happened in here? It’s like a tornado tore through here."
"Judging by the giant rat corpse with plants growing out of it, looks like it was more destructive."
"Father!"
"Xiao Xing, wait!"
[Wait a minute...]
Archanida was initially rather miffed about the intrusion of familial elents, but quickly realized she could use this to her advantage.
[Milord does care about secrecy whilst raising the prestige of his other family mbers, at least sowhat, and Hurricroak did teach that shark boy over there how to perform defibrillation...maybe I can...]
After a few quick calculations, Archanida realized she wouldn’t have to be as careful as she needed to be to perform this internal bloodletting procedure by herself. Instead, she could rely on a certain electric hamrhead boy to do the tricky part for her.
[Looks like all I need to do is prepare the clots and stop the heart...does this an I’m inducing a stroke or a heart attack? Things to muse afterwards,] Archanida concluded.
Her plans now modified, Archanida began to weave her threads as subtley and quickly as possible.
[The heroic beast slayer almost succumbs to their wounds, but is then saved at the last minute by a family mber...that feels poetic sohow, and I swore I read that sowhere once.]
________________________________________________
"Father!"
"Whoa! Xiao Xing, stand back! Sothing’s happening!"
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