Doctor Tran finished his notes, began searching the table beside him, a small white needle and a glass vial of some medicine.
"Now I will give the boy an injection, a dose of antibiotics."
Thuong An was held looking at the needle in the old doctor's hand, the boy shifted his body looking at the needle slowly and gradually drawing near.
The round black eyes stared intently not understanding.
Until the needle tip poked into the small arm, from an innocent face, gradually changed color.
Waa.. Waa… Waa…
The crying rang out piercingly in the room.
Before the cry could erupt the doctor had already withdrawn the needle.
Thuong An struggled in the heart of Lam Thanh Moc, the crying voice made her anxious, only knowing to hurriedly hug the small trembling body into her heart to comfort him.
Beside Thuong Sinh also could not stand still, he worriedly watched Thuong An crying violently.
Ring Ring Ring
The clear sound of metal clashing together, steadily rang out cutting through the sobbing. The old doctor at some unknown time had taken out a bronze rattle.
He brought the rattle near Thuong An's line of sight, both shaking gently and narrowing eyes smiling, the wrinkles at the corners of the eyes crinkled with kindness.
"Look at this, a little bird is singing inside this."
The strange sound and the shimmering object before his eyes made Thuong An forget the pain in the arm. The loud wailing gradually lowered into small hiccuping sobs. The tear-rimmed black eyes, still red, looked round following the rhythm of the rattle.
Doctor Tran gave the small rattle to Lam Thanh Moc to hold.
"You keep it; I give this to the boy."
Lam Thanh Moc breathed a sigh of relief, feeling the weight of the child in her hand had stopped tensing up in fear. She slightly nodded thanking the doctor.
A while later, the doctor took off glasses, placed the examination result on the table then looked at the two people, smiling gently:
"Finished."
Lam Thanh Moc picked Thuong An up, gently nuzzling the boy's chubby cheek: "Thank you very much."
"It is nothing. I am only doing my duty." Mr. Tran turned to glance at Thuong Sinh once, his aged eyes still carried a bit of curiosity but he asked nothing more.
Both Thuong Sinh and Lam Thanh Moc holding Thuong An stood up, bowed to the old doctor, then only stepped outside.
After leaving Doctor Tran's clinic, Thuong Sinh led Lam Thanh Moc along the quiet corridor of the military medical ward. The sound of Thuong An's bronze rattle occasionally rang out breaking the air thick with the smell of disinfectant.
Just as they stepped out of the ward, then already heard the frantic sound of footsteps, the noise of stretchers rushing into the lobby.
"Ah… Ah…"
The groans of soldiers were respectively pushed into the lobby; some were severely wounded, some had lost even both arms and legs.
Suddenly in the lobby of this hospital building it became much more crowded and chaotic than before.
The stench of blood began to overwhelm even the smell of antiseptic. Thuong Sinh narrowed eyes watching the stretchers being pushed in one after another, the wheels grinding on the tile floor emitting piercing screeches.
On the stretchers, the soldiers of North Heaven now only were bodies full of wounds, the green uniforms soaked in blood to the level of turning pitch black.
A young nurse moving a stretcher passed by Thuong Sinh and Lam Thanh Moc who had just stepped out of the doctor's door.
He glanced at Thuong Sinh a bit then only pushed the door and stepped inside in a panic.
"Professor Tran! We have an emergency case from the Eastern patrol! This Zombie wave... they have a new mutation!"
The door slammed shut, but the painful groans from the main lobby still did not diminish at all.
Lam Thanh Moc watched the scene before her, a look of horror flickering in her eyes. She was used to death lurking around, but seeing soldiers damaged to this extent, in her heart she uncontrollably felt a sense of unease.
Thuong An in her heart also sensed the tension of mother, the boy suddenly stopped playing with the rattle, round eyes staring intently at a soldier lying on a nearby stretcher.
That soldier was corroded by toxins, flesh rotten and turned a dark thick black.
"Let's go." Thuong Sinh spoke in a low voice, his hand placing on her shoulder, transferring a stream of warmth to reassure her.
He had no intention of meddling in the military affairs here, but the phrase 'new mutation' mentioned by the nurse earlier made him think a bit.
He sensed from the wounds of those injured men a very thin stream of 'foul energy' causing his dantian to vibrate slightly. He felt the internal force in his body reacting to that 'foul energy', this feeling was very familiar.
It was exactly the feeling when he absorbed blood to cultivate, when he circulated the "Vile Blood Heart-Corroding Art".
He felt that he could absorb those streams of 'foul energy'.
Just as they reached the main lobby, they met Tran Tinh Gia standing there commanding the evacuation of the wounded.
Thuong Sinh and Lam Thanh Moc looked at each other, stepped to Tran Tinh Gia together.
"Is something wrong Uncle."
Tran Tinh Gia heard the voice and turned face back, seeing both of them, he then sighed.
"So it is you children."
"The matter is that our troops went out, scouting the surrounding area to expand the territory."
"But we accidentally encountered a very strange entity; the whole team lost nearly half its men."
"Even though we are confident we can take down even mid-level Zombies, but this time we met a very special creature."
Tran Tinh Gia rubbed his forehead in a headache, his voice revealing exhaustion. He looked toward the stretchers that continued to be pushed in; the heartbreaking groans of the soldiers made the atmosphere even heavier.
"Can you describe what it looked like Uncle?" Thuong Sinh asked.
"Although I did not see it clearly, but I heard from the witnesses."
"It is an entity shaped like a giant reptile, but its whole body is covered in a layer of pitch-black slime."
"Bullets fired at it were swallowed by that slime, even melting instantly."
"The Awakened could not kill it, so they let it escape."
Thuong Sinh stood beside, purple-black eyes as calm as the surface of a lake, but deep in his dantian, the dark internal force was surging powerfully. He felt a craving from the very depths of his marrow.
That foul energy ravaging the bodies of those soldiers, to others was a deadly poison, but to a cultivator of the "Vile Blood Heart-Corroding Art" like him, it was a source of pure great nourishment.
He glanced toward the emergency room, where thin black mist was rising from the rotting wounds.
"Uncle, may I go in and take a look?" Thuong Sinh suddenly spoke, his voice low but carrying a weight that could not be refused.
Tran Tinh Gia was startled, he looked at Thuong Sinh with a gaze full of suspicion: "What did you say? It is very dangerous in there; what are you going in for?"
"Uncle, just let Thuong Sinh try; he never does anything abruptly that he is not certain of."
Lam Thanh Moc looked at Tran Tinh Gia, her voice slender but firm.
Tran Tinh Gia looked at Lam Thanh Moc, then looked at Thuong Sinh's rippleless face.
"Alright… but you must be careful. If anything is wrong, withdraw immediately!"
Thuong Sinh nodded, he gently patted Lam Thanh Moc's hand and turned around, following Tran Tinh Gia back inside.
As they stepped through the steel door, a stench so foul it was suffocating hit their noses.
This was not the smell of simple fresh blood, but the scent of rot from within the cells, a type of foulness carrying the breath of death. Throughout the room, threads of "foul energy" black like thin smoke were hazily rising from the stretchers, creating a scene so gloomy it was bone-chilling.
Thuong Sinh stopped before the nearest stretcher. The soldier on it was convulsing violently, his chest covered in that corrosive substance, the flesh had turned pitch black, and the thick slime was continuously eating away into his very marrow.
He slightly raised his hand, palm facing toward that rotting wound. Within his mind, the "Vile Blood Heart-Corroding Art" began to circulate faster than ever, his dantian was like an endless black hole craving nourishment.
Immediately, the pitch-black foul energy clinging to the soldier's wound suddenly trembled, as if encountering its most terrifying natural enemy. They no longer continued to corrode the flesh but began to be pulled back out by an invisible suction force, gathering into a thin black thread flying straight into Thuong Sinh's palm.
A cool sensation mixed with a bit of numbness flowed along his meridians toward his dantian. Thuong Sinh slightly narrowed his eyes, feeling his normally stable cultivation level suddenly tick upward.
In just a few seconds, the pitch-black wound of the soldier regained the bright red color of blood, no longer emitting a foul stench.
Although the soldier had not yet regained consciousness due to excessive blood loss, his breathing had begun to stabilize, no longer appearing to be at death's door as before.
"As I thought..." Thuong Sinh thought to himself, his gaze scanning the emergency lobby which was overflowing with this fine prey.
Tran Tinh Gia stood beside him, his eyes which were originally full of worry now wide with horror. He did not see the dark internal force flickering in Thuong Sinh's palm, but he could see clearly with his naked eyes the scene of the rotting black patches on the soldier's chest gradually disappearing, revealing a layer of bright red flesh like a miracle.
"What... what is this?" Tran Tinh Gia stammered, his voice trailing off because he could not believe his eyes.
He had seen Wood or Light Awakened heal wounds, but they could only stimulate cell regeneration or stop bleeding. Thuong Sinh's method was like directly plucking the poison out of the body.
Thuong Sinh did not have the leisure to explain, he walked to the next stretcher, which was being prepared by a nurse to be moved into a ward, and he stood in the way to stop it.
"Could you stop for a moment?"
Thuong Sinh's voice rang out cold as ice, making the nurse pushing the stretcher startle and stop, looking back.
"Do you have some business?"
Thuong Sinh ignored him, walking to the front of the stretcher where a soldier was writhing in pain from the corrosive substance, and immediately repeated the circulation of the "Vile Blood Heart-Corroding Art".
"Hey, what are you doing…"
The young nurse was angry and about to interfere.
Tran Tinh Gia placed a hand on his shoulder; the heavy pressure of his hand made the young nurse freeze instantly.
The nurse was dazed, but seeing the big boss looking so serious, he could only stand rooted to the spot.
He witnessed with his own eyes Thuong Sinh's hand gliding over the rotting wound; the foulness competed to dive straight into the palm of that strange young man.
In just a blink, the foul stench disappeared, replaced by the gradually stabilizing heavy breathing of the soldier on the stretcher.
Thuong Sinh did not stop, he continued to stride toward other stretchers lying scattered throughout the lobby.
His dantian at this time was like a furnace refining elixir, continuously transforming that filthy energy into violet-black internal force.
But this energy contained quite a lot of impurities, so he had to spend quite a lot of time to purify it, then only refine it.
Clink… Clink…
The sound of Thuong An's rattle rang out from outside the lobby, drawing Thuong Sinh back to reality. He withdrew his hand; his breathing was a bit hurried, but his eyes shone in an eerie way.
"Is that your ability?"
A low majestic voice rang out right beside him. Lâm Tích Khanh had stood behind him at some unknown time; his gaze along with the people around were all pressing toward Thuong Sinh.
"Yes, sir."
Thuong Sinh slightly retracted his internal force and stood up straight. His purple-black eyes gradually regained their usual stillness, but the remnants of the foul energy he had just absorbed still made his aura a bit colder, detached from the crowd.
Lâm Tích Khanh stared intently at Thuong Sinh's hands, then looked at the soldiers who had just been saved. A silence covered the entire hospital lobby. The nurses, doctors, and soldiers around all held their breath, not daring to make a single small sound.
"In any case... thank you." Lâm Tích Khanh broke the silence.
"It is nothing." Thuong Sinh replied briefly, without much expression.
Lâm Tích Khanh looked at Thuong Sinh's black gloves and spoke slowly: "Could you use that ability to treat the remaining soldiers?"
"I will do it."
Just like that, throughout the entire morning, Thuong Sinh repeated the action of purifying the foul energy. For the North Heaven military, this was a miraculous rescue.
Until past noon, everything was temporarily settled. Stepping out of the hospital lobby thick with the smell of blood, Thuong Sinh saw Lam Thanh Moc sitting on a nearby stone bench, her arms tightly hugging Thuong An who was falling asleep.
Lam Thanh Moc heard the footsteps and turned her head to look at Thuong Sinh.
"Is it finished?" She asked softly, her voice as gentle as a cool breeze.
"Yes, it is finished." Thuong Sinh stepped to her side; the dark internal force within him had been suppressed, leaving only his inherent calm.