Chapter 32- Pain, Past, Present and Future

Tian wasn’t a doctor. He was studying medicine and working alongside doctors, but he was always very clear in his own mind that he was an orderly. He was there to assist, not provide treatment for anything but the most basic of injuries. His work as a field medic was to keep people alive long enough for a real doctor to work on them, not cure what ails them. Get it confused, and people would die.

Hong was very nearly dead as it was. There was no one else who could help, and at the speed Heavenly People cultivators could move, they should have been here by now if they were coming at all. They weren’t here. So it was up to him. He knelt over the shallow basin and tried to tackle the most immediate and pressing problem- the thorns digging into Liren, rooting, spreading and growing in her. Consuming her.

He only had one tool to control the infestation- Thunderous Palms. But Thunderous Palms was never intended to be anything other than a killing art. The little vibrating tendrils of vital energy penetrated flesh and destroyed the organs underneath. Weakening it to target thorns that had gone barely a quarter inch deeper than the skin didn’t make it less damaging. It just confined the damage to the surface, the skin, blood vessels, and muscles.

The little vibrating threads did destroy the thorns, one small palm sized area at a time. He dug in as carefully as he could, trying to make sure he cleared out all the hair-sized roots that had shot out and spread inside of her. It had become a race- how fast could he go without missing something? Between the blood loss, infection, the poison left behind when the thorns were destroyed, and the remnant evil qi of the heavenly person cultivator, how much time could he afford to take? Because destroying the thorns didn’t do anything to manage the other problems.

Liren had flipped them over in the air, letting the thorns bury themselves into her back. It was a minor miracle none had penetrated her skull past the scalp. It was a very minor miracle. There were five thorns buried in her neck, two nestled in the gap between vertebrae. There were more lodged in her spine, her ribs, the soft unprotected stretch of lower back between the ribs and the hips… she had been stabbed from head to foot. Hundreds of needles.

He would have to flay her alive. She was already in shock, poisoned, infected…

Tian ripped away the remains of her robe, splashing the water around the tub as he did his best to see what he was contending with. Maybe he had missed something, maybe there was something under there…

There wasn’t. It was as bad as it looked. His ‘soup’ was probably helping, but it wasn’t nearly enough. She wasn’t soup-ing the way he had. His treatment had only bought him a few minutes. Liren was going to finish dying in just a minute or two more, and something awful would rise up in her body.

Tian would be too physically and mentally broken to do anything about it. He was already scrabbling around on the ground like a crippled insect, not even able to crawl, working on his belly and trying to ignore the pain and damage that was making him want to puke and cry and pass out. They were both going to die.

Or… not. He could leave the parasite nothing. He had enough vital energy to destroy Liren’s brain. She wasn’t conscious. She wouldn’t feel anything. Just… darkness, then Hell, then a bowl of Granny Meng’s soup to relieve her of any lingering ties to her past life. To forget her family, her pain, the brother she died for. She had earned merit. That should count for something. Her next life would be better.

He could destroy her body afterward, just in case. He had steel burning powder. He would be lavish with it, for his sister.

He could do that.

She would tell him to.

Time was ticking away. Each second saw the thorns spread their roots and the poison seeped deeper into her and the sickness spread and attacked her brain and heart and lungs and… everything. Everything was eating away at her.

He could be paralyzed and let it kill her. Just… wait. Just sit helplessly and wait. He would probably be strong enough to destroy her body after it collapsed. He already had his hands on her. Wouldn’t take much to destroy her with Thunderous Palms. He’d burn out his meridians in one brilliant burst, but he didn’t have the heart to care.

Her body was destroyed. Why wasn’t it pulling in the water? Why didn’t she cycle the elements and consume the thorns? Why couldn’t he do it for her? This should work. It should work!

And it wasn’t. He could feel the cold boring into his bones. Memories blinded him, trying to drag him away from the present crisis.

“I would have gone insane in the junkyard, Grandpa, if it wasn’t for your hugs. Everything hurt. Being alone hurt. I’d hug myself and bury myself under whatever soft things I could find, just to feel warm and touched and safe.”

I know. I remember. I remember every second of every minute of it.

“And people threw rocks at me. Just for living. Just for wanting, for one minute, to not be all alone. It got to the point where I never wanted anything to do with people. I hated humans.”

I remember that too.

“Liren… never actually threw rocks at me. She has been good to me. Better than good. The best kind of sister, I think.”

I think so too.

“She isn’t strong enough to beat this. If it was me, I have the right physique and the right arts. But she doesn’t.

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No, she does not. And is not. I am so sorry.