Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

It was just as Father-in-law, holding the limp young woman in his arms, reached the entrance of the Medical Hall.

That’s when we noticed—the entire Medical Hall was dark.

What the...? Is no one inside?

There was indeed a Medical Hall within the clan, but not exactly an emergency ward. I figured maybe the staff had all gone out for dinner.

Just then, the Medical Hall doors opened and out stepped the head physician and several of the attending doctors.

“Well done today, Clan Lord. Shall we finally go eat something?”

“Let’s. You’ve all worked hard. By the way, what’s on the menu tonight?”

“They said Fish-Fragrant Shredded Pork.”

“Fish-Fragrant Shredded Pork! Now that’s a treat. Since we’ve got no serious patients, shall we have a drink too?”

“Sounds good, Clan Lord.”

“I’d love that.”

“Let’s go, then. By the way, Physician Hwang, your daughter—”

It looked like they had just turned out the lights and were heading to dinner.

Father-in-law quickly shouted toward them.

“Medical Hall Chief!”

“Clan Lord? W-wait, is that Lady Hwa-eun!?”

Startled by the blood-soaked woman in his arms, the Medical Hall Chief and the others briefly panicked.

They must’ve mistaken her for Hwa-eun.

But they were seasoned professionals used to emergencies. Their training kicked in, and they sprang into action.

“No, it’s a patient from the Flying Current Sect! She’s in critical condition—get ready!”

“H-her abdomen’s been pierced!? Understood! Quickly, turn the lights back on and boil water! Prepare the herbs for decoction!”

“Yes, Chief!”

“You, bring out the Blood-Replenishing Pellet and the Golden Wound Balm! And don’t forget the sterile gauze!”

“Yes, Chief!”

“She may have internal injuries—should I prepare a Tranquil Mind Pill?”

Warm water and herbs to clean the wound.

The emergency trauma set of the martial world—Blood-Replenishing Pellets and Golden Wound Balm—were ordered immediately, along with a request to use the Tang Clan’s precious Tranquil Mind Pill for internal injuries.

The chief physician asked Father-in-law for permission, as the pill was rare.

“She came here on her way to celebrate Hwa-eun’s wedding. Use whatever you need.”

“Understood! Fetch the Tranquil Mind Pill and call back the assistants who already left for dinner!”

“Yes, Chief!”

As the preparations began, the woman was carefully laid on a bed.

But because something was still embedded in her abdomen, she couldn’t be laid flat.

“We can’t lie her down properly... This is worse than I thought.”

Once the Medical Hall lit up again, we could clearly see her condition—and it was not only severe, but grotesque.

A blackened human arm was sticking out of her abdomen and through her back.

Earlier, in the dark, I’d thought it was a tree root—but no, it was a human arm, horrifyingly lodged in her body.

“Father-in-law, her abdomen—there’s a human arm...”

“Seems to be the ma-in’s arm. They probably didn’t remove it for fear of her bleeding out on the spot.”

He furrowed his brow.

“But it’s strange. Even though it’s been severed from the body, the demonic energy is still leaking from it.”

“D-demonic energy!? From a ma-in’s arm!?”

The term alone made the chief physician recoil.

Just then, the first batch of supplies arrived—gauze, Blood-Replenishing Pellets, and Golden Wound Balm.

Herbal decoctions would take longer, so these easier-to-prepare items were first.

“Son-in-law, come help.”

“M-me?”

“You were taught by the Immortal of Medicine and the Immortal of Herbs, weren’t you?”

“Well, kind of...”

They’d insisted on teaching me, so I did pick up a little... but not enough to treat someone in this condition.

Then again, I had plenty of experience treating pets, and honestly, when it came to infection and sterilization, I might know more than these people.

“Humans are just big, hairy animals anyway, right?”

I nodded and jumped in.

Saving the patient came first.

And from the looks of it, they needed all the hands they could get.

“Understood. What should I do first?”

“Start by cleaning the blood from her wound.”

“Yes, sir!”

Following Father-in-law’s instruction, I tore open the blood-soaked clothing and began wiping the wound clean.

After checking her pulse, Father-in-law began inspecting the injury more closely.

He gently lifted the bloodied cloth around the arm that had pierced through her abdomen—and saw that the skin was blackened.

Fresh blood was still leaking out between the arm and the flesh, even though I had just cleaned it.

“Could it be that the acupressure hasn’t been done? I’ll stop the bleeding first.”

He attempted acupressure to block the blood flow.

But the blood continued to ooze out.

Seeing that, Father-in-law’s expression grew grim.

“The pressure point’s sealed, but the bleeding isn’t stopping. As expected... wounds afflicted by demonic energy resist even acupressure. It’s said demonic energy causes wounds to fester and rot.”

“Demonic energy can do that?”

“Yes. It makes the tissue decay and rot. That’s why sealing the point isn’t enough. And with the ma-in’s arm still lodged inside...”

He gave me a task.

“Mix the Blood-Replenishing Pellet with water and pour it into her mouth. She’s lost too much blood—she won’t last long at this rate.”

“Yes, sir!”

Since sealing the point wasn’t working, he aimed to restore her blood volume first.

While I quickly dissolved the pellet in water and administered it to her, Father-in-law continued his inspection—and soon shook his head with a dark expression.

“Two broken ribs aren’t too bad... But at this location, the intestines must be damaged. It’s going to be difficult...”

He said it in a tone that implied the chances of saving her were low.

A couple of broken ribs was one thing—but with ruptured intestines, survival was unlikely.

“The intestines...?”

“Yes. Even if we manage to treat them, once they burst, the body heats up, and the abdomen decays. Death becomes inevitable.”

That’s when it happened.

As if confirming the death sentence, the door burst open with a loud crash.

Bang!

The doors of the Medical Hall slammed open—and in ran Baek Heo-ja, head of the Flying Current Sect, covered in blood.

He was drenched in sweat, his robes torn at the chest as if clawed by someone.

He looked like he’d been through hell.

“Clan Lord Tang! Our Seoryeon—how is she!?”

“Elder Baek! Are you alright?”

“I’m fine! How is Seoryeon!?”

Father-in-law tried to ask about his condition first, but Elder Baek ignored it, focused solely on the girl.

When Father-in-law couldn’t answer, his face darkening—

The elder dropped to both knees.

“Please... I beg you, Clan Lord Tang! I raised her with my own hands for fifteen years! She is my disciple, my daughter! I can’t let her die before she’s even had a chance to bloom!”

A “direct disciple” meant he had personally trained her from a young age—even before he became sect leader.

She was like a daughter to him in every way.

“Elder Baek...”

Father-in-law surely wanted to save her, no matter what it took.

He’d gone through something similar with Hwa-eun.

But there was no clear solution—so he couldn’t answer.

At that moment, I stepped forward and spoke to the leader of the Flying Current Sect.

If she was going to die anyway, wasn’t it better to try everything?

“I can’t promise anything, but I have a few methods. Let’s try everything we can, Father-in-law.”

“Oh! You have a way?”

“A method? If you can save her, I will never forget this debt!”

The head of the Flying Current Sect grabbed my hands, trembling.

From past life experience, when the intestines rupture, the only way to treat it is to open the abdomen, flush the area, cut away the damaged portion, and suture it back together.

The essential tools for that are surgical suture thread and antibiotics.

You need thread to stitch the wound and antibiotics to fight infection from bacteria that enter through the ruptured gut. But obviously, such things don’t exist in this world—so that’s likely why Father-in-law believed the woman couldn’t be saved.

However, our Tang Clan didn’t need to worry about sutures or antibiotics.

After all, the Tang Clan possessed the finest dissolvable threads and natural antibiotics.

“I’m not confident, but if the intestines aren’t completely severed, I can try stitching the damage. Yo-hwa’s thread dissolves and vanishes inside the body, so I’ll use that.

As for the decay—we’ll stop it with poison.”

“Poison!?”

“You’re going to use poison?”

They nodded at the mention of Yo-hwa’s thread, but both Father-in-law and the sect leader of Cheongseong were shocked at the mention of poison.

I nodded firmly.

“Yes, Father-in-law. It’s risky, of course, but if we manage it well, the Tang Clan’s control over poison should make it safe.”

“What kind of poison?”

“Bee venom.”

“Bee venom?”

“Yes, Father-in-law.”

Bee venom is a natural antibiotic with excellent anti-inflammatory, hypotensive, vasodilating, and hemolytic properties.

Its toxicity means it must be used between 0.01% to 5%, but—

We had the best kind of bee venom: the venom of the Golden-Furred Wasp King.

So there was no need to worry about antibiotics.

As for the toxicity—just test it on a few Tang Clan warriors.

Time was tight, so we had to act quickly.

“Take a half-do of clean water, add three don of salt, cover and boil it, then cool it. After that, dilute the venom of the Golden-Furred Wasp King to a level that won’t be toxic to humans. Can that be done fast enough?”

“I’ll notify the Hall of Ten Thousand Poisons right away. Someone, anyone!”

“Yes, Clan Lord!”

“Send word to the Hall of Ten Thousand Poisons immediately—”

I already knew how to make sterile saline, so I just needed them to dilute the venom and run some tests. As I turned to the patient again, my eyes landed on the arm embedded in her abdomen.

To perform surgery, we had to remove that arm—but we’d need to stop the bleeding first.

So I asked, “But what do we do about the demonic energy in the arm?”

“I can dispel it, but since Hwa-eun has already reached the Flower Realm, it would be better to ask her. She’s more reliable than I am.”

“I’ll contact Hwa-eun. I’ll ask her to bring Yo-hwa too.”

“Yes, do that.”

Anyone with strong internal energy could dispel demonic energy—and since Hwa-eun had reached the Flower Realm, Father-in-law suggested asking her instead.

I took charge of contacting her.

『“Hwa-eun, please come to the Medical Hall right away with Yo-hwa. There’s a patient who’s been infected with demonic energy. I need your help.”』

『“Ah, I heard someone was brought into the Medical Hall... I guess it was serious. I’ll be right there!”』

Shortly after, Hwa-eun entered the Medical Hall, and drove the demonic energy out of the woman’s body and into the severed arm.

“Whew. It’s all sealed inside now.”

As soon as she said that, I wiped down the wound again—and the bleeding had completely stopped.

“Father-in-law, please remove the arm.”

“Understood!”

Father-in-law gripped the embedded arm by the elbow and pulled.

With a squelch, the arm slid out.

As soon as it did, dark energy began pouring from it like smoke.

Father-in-law tossed it into a jar—likely planning to bury it somewhere later.

“Medicine!”

“Yes, Young Master So-ryong!”

Ssshhhhh.

With the arm removed, we poured medicine into the wound to clean it and assess the extent of the damage.

“...What? The intestines... the bones...”

The wound was so melted away, it was just a gaping hole—nothing remained.

You could clearly see the severed cross-sections of bone and intestine.

I looked at Father-in-law, stunned, and he shouted in disbelief.

“N-no... the Blood Jade Hand!?”

“The Blood Jade Hand?”

“A demonic martial technique from the Cult—one that melts flesh and bone...”

To attempt surgery, there had to be something left.

But there was nothing.

“Seoryeon...”

The sect leader of Cheongseong collapsed to his knees on the spot.

Even an immortal wouldn’t be able to save her now.

As he knelt, tears falling—

Black smoke began leaking from the jar holding the severed arm.

Apparently, someone had forgotten to seal the lid.

“Damn!”

Father-in-law reached to cover it—

Flapflapflapflap!

A flutter of wings from the window.

Turning my head, I saw Moji and Soji clinging to the window, pawing to be let in.

The moment I cracked the window open, the demonic energy began being sucked outside.

“Ah! That’s right!”

I ran to the window and flung it wide open.

Moji and Soji flew straight to the jar—and then to the woman’s body.

“So, Young Master... please let Seoryeon pass peacefully...”

The sect leader spoke mournfully.

He must have thought the kids were desecrating her body somehow.

But I gently approached Moji and Soji and stroked their heads.

“I really am a fool. I sealed your abilities so they wouldn’t be misused, and then ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) I forgot about them myself... Can you save her?”

Mew.

Mewmew.

I had once resolved to hide their powers so no one would ever exploit them.

But I had ended up forgetting them myself.

How stupid...

When it came to nurturing Hwa-eun’s heart, I always acted decisively. But now I’d been trying to do everything manually like a fool.

All I needed to do was say click—and let the spirit beasts do their work.

From Moji and Soji’s bodies, a soft light began to radiate.

And within that light—

The gaping hole in the woman’s abdomen began to regenerate.

Bone.

Intestines.

Flesh.

All of it began to return.