Chapter 18 | Necessary Triage

Calid knelt beside Tao Shen.

The boy was the closest to the edge, consciousness fading in and out

“Don’t speak,” Calid said, pressing his palm flat against the young man’s chest beside the wound. “Don’t circulate or do anything except breathe, and do that gently.”

Tao Shen’s eyes focused on him. His mouth moved, producing a sound that was mostly air, partly gratitude, and entirely insufficient as a response to the instruction don’t speak.

Calid focused and did his best to build a recovery and regenrative array.

He was not a healer.

He wanted to be absolutely clear about this, if only to himself, because the distinction between ‘I can build a matrix that accelerates natural healing processes’ and ‘I am a medical professional’ was the distinction between ‘I own a fire extinguisher’ and ‘I am a firefighter,’ and conflating the two led to overconfidence, house fires, dead victims due to hubris, and malpractice suits.

What he could do was create an environment in which the body’s own repair mechanisms operated at enhanced efficiency while being aided by the help of medical attention. A recovery formation, scaled down to individual application, that gathered mana, ambient Qi in this case, concentrated it around the wound site, and fed it into the damaged tissue in patterns that encouraged cellular regeneration, blood clotting, tissue repair, and the general principle that organs should remain.

The matrix took shape under his palm.

The little Qi he had left flowed from his core through his meridians and into the construct.

The effect was immediate.

Tao Shen’s breathing steadied and the wet hitching smoothed into something more regular. The bubbles at the corner of his mouth stopped forming, but the wound didn’t close, Calid’s matrix couldn’t do that, not at this level or with these reserves, but the bleeding slowed from active haemorrhage to seepage, and the Qi signature stabilised from flickering to dim but steady.

Calid moved to Duan Rong.

Disciples that were healthy enough, surged to take over after Calid moved on from Tao Shen.

The same matrix, adjusted for the wound’s location and the additional complication of the ear. The healing array settled over both injuries and Duan Rong’s colour improved dramatically. Duan Rong gave him a semi-conscious nod of gratitude before he let himself relax and stay propped up on the rock walls.

Calid nodded back and then moved down the line.

Each Foundation Establishment cultivator received a dose of the healing array tuned to their specific injuries. Once Calid had the base of the spell matrix, adjusting it did not require his own Qi any more, the ambient Qi in the air was willing enough to follow after being given an example to do so. The two Foundation Establishment cultivators with Qi-burned eyes received matrices focused on meridian repair in the optic channels. The one with shattered ribs received a stabilisation construct that held the bone fragments in alignment while the recovery Qi did its work. The one with the leg wound received a compression matrix so precise it functioned as a tourniquet and a healing accelerant simultaneously.

All of them had an underlying node for isolating and removing all demonic Qi that might have lingered in their bodies.

Then the Qi Condensation disciples.

“Lin Mei,” Calid said.

She looked away, unable to look at him directly. “No. The others require healing more than I do. I… This was my fault. All of it…”

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Calid frowned and made a mental note to return to this topic.

Her fault?

Calid had noticed there were more members between the disciples, and dead bodies of disciples, than previously. He could make a pretty good educated guess on what might have happened and the subsequent fall out there after.

But later… there were disciples that needed healing urgently.

Feng Jun’s shoulder. Wei Ping’s forehead. Su Lan’s bruised face, which turned out to have a hairline fracture beneath it that the healing array identified and began addressing. Chen Bao’s knees, which received a matrix that was less healing and more structural negotiation, convincing the joints that continued service was in their best interest and that early retirement was not, in fact, an option.

Lin Mei was last mostly because she refused any healing until the others got it first.

He knelt beside her and took her left arm in both hands.

The demonic Qi contamination was worse than it looked, which was saying something, because it looked like someone had drawn a map of her venous system in black ink and then set the ink on fire. The dark energy had penetrated past the skin, into the muscle tissue, and was working its way along the meridian channels toward her core with a patient, methodical progression.

This one felt worse than the ambient demonic Qi that he found in the bodies of the rest.