67 Brutal Medicine

"Doctor Li!"

Hearing his name suddenly being called, Li Mo Shang turned around while holding the tray of medicinal implements. There, rushing from a distance, was a man in his thirties. Dressed in a spotless lab coat, with round-rimmed glasses, the man stopped before Li Mo Shang, breathing deeply to calm himself.

"Doctor Feng. Do you require something?"

Li Mo Shang questioned, inspecting the man before him in silence. Feng Zhi, a medicinal genius from the western regions of Blue Flame World, having received his Imperial Doctor nomination at the age of twenty. He was reputed for being able to reconnect any set of tendons, having saved numerous lives and careers since his debut.

Although he would act foolish at times, Li Mo Shang couldn't help but maintain the impression that the man before him was extremely sharp-witted.

"Doctor Li, you need to come check this out! Senior Doctors Tai and Tian are in the final processes of developing a new experimental drug, and they're calling for you to come."

Feng Zhi couldn't help but feel agitated as he relayed the information to Li Mo Shang, his mind transfixed on the occurrence he had spectated just a moment ago. From something so simple in composition, yet it possessed a devastating, effect!

"…Alright."

Passing the tray to the practitioner to his left, Li Mo Shang departed with Feng Zhi towards the temporary camp. Navigating through the numerous green tents pitched all around the clearing of the abandoned city, Li Mo Shang found himself standing before a rather large and overbearing tent, with several maddened old men screaming within.

"Dear god, old Tian, will you quit poking that thing!?" Tai Zi Hua's anxious voice burst from within the tent, accompanied by slight sounds of thrashing and colliding metal pots and pans. "It's going to burst at this rate if you stab it any more!"

"Hush, my old friend. Look, it's just swelled to about three times the original size. A few more infusions and rounds of stimulation won't break it, at least not according to my theory."

"There's a limit to theory, Doctor Tian. That's why it's not a law-"

Pop!

Bang!

A sudden explosion rocked the tent amidst the doctors' arguing, some of the supporting nails bursting from their settled positions from the sheer force of the shockwave. For a moment, Li Mo Shang couldn't hear anything within the tent.

As he stood closer to knock to see if they were alright, Tai Zi Hua's explosive roar resounded throughout the clearing.

"You fool! I told you, the Purple Leaf Lotus stem and Ink Python Blood absolutely should not be in the same medicinal compound. Only after three rounds of individual distillation can they be mixed, and even that requires utmost care! Three rounds, you old fool! Did you even dilute them a single time!?!?"

"Doctor Tai!"

"Doctor Tai, please do relax! It isn't good for your body!"

Lightly coughing, Li Mo Shang drew back one of the tent folds to enter the tent. Stepping forward, he was greeted by a sight of Tai Zi Hua shaking Tian Yu by the beard, with several doctors attempting to calm the furious old man.

Additionally, all of the doctor's pristine white coats were stained with a mottle of scarlet and violet liquids, with a slightly foul odor permeating the interior of the tent. In the center of the tent as a massive circular, layered table, with dozens of medicinal implements and vials placed upon its surface. On the highest layer was a rather large and noticeable violet stain.

Immediately noticing the intruder, Tian Yu seized upon Li Mo Shang's entry, urgently turning to Li Mo Shang with a pleading gaze.

"Young Doctor Li," Tian Yu spoke, his voice carrying an pleading lint. "You must seek justice for me from this old monster, ah! All I did was a reanimation test with several medicinal herbs, yet this old Tai keeps on lowering the critical proportions that would catalyze a reaction! Tell him, that completely undermines the purpose of this experiment!"

"You blasted idiot!" Tai Zi Hua scoffed. "What re-animation test!? You're infusing multiple medicinal herbs, each with a severe volatile attribute. How is that supposed to reanimate anything? You should have stated that you wanted to create a living bomb!"

"…Why don't you just run through the experiment again?" Li Mo Shang ventured, immediately quelling the volcanic Tai Zi Hua. "How am I supposed to give an input if all I know are two ingredients?"

"…Fine. Little Feng, go get another tissue sample from the mutant. Make sure that it's from the midsection of the connecting joints. Scrape together a neural block, if you can as well!"

With a sigh, Tai Zi Hua instructed for the Feng Zhi, who was trembling at the fringe of the tent flap, to procure the necessary materials for another experiment. The rest of the tent's occupants, Li Mo Shang included, all began to clean the tent, ventilating the now putrid air to restore a decent workspace.

After two hours, they had restored the workspace, the table having been properly cleaned. On the lower racks, Li Mo Shang carefully placed numerous vial stands, whereas the other doctors procured conditioned samples of medicinal herbs.

Tai Zi Hua tinkered with porcelain containers, a faint sulfuric scent piquing Li Mo Shang's bafflement. Although the various layers of the table were stocked on medicinal herbs and chemical substances, the second layer was left empty.

Just as Li Mo Shang was about to open his mouth to ask, Feng Zhi burst through the tent flaps, carrying a rather large aluminum tray supported by both hands.

"Great, let's start…Little Feng, what about the neural block?" Tian Yu suddenly spoke, his wizened eyes roaming through the tray's contents, carefully examining each one.

"Senior Doctor Tian, some other group was running tests on the subject's neurological pathways…I figured it would cause unexpected results if the experiment was attempted on a faulty sample."

"The whole collection of pathways?" Tai Zi Hua interjected, amazement displayed on his aged face. "To dare attempt such a feat, must be old Bu. He's the only one to have that courage."

Feng Zhi vigorously nodded, his glasses slightly slipping from the bridge of his nose in his excitement. With a light smile, one of the elderly doctors took the tray from Feng Zhi's hands, carefully placing them on the various layers of the circular table.

"Alright," Tian Yu spoke, gently clapping his hands to gather everyone's attention. "Let's begin."

Gazing at the uppermost layer of the table, Li Mo Shang could see a carefully cut segment of flesh, of which he identified as the flesh covering the joints that connected the mutant's wings to the rest of his body. Infusing his vision with spiritual qi, Li Mo Shang could perceive the neatly severed tendons underneath the layer of muscle, emitting a gentle yet feeble vitality.

"Begin. Old Bai, we're relying on you to start."

Tian Yu's voice lost its slight frivolity, adopting a serious tone. An old doctor next to Li Mo Shang nodded, his hands gently grasping a scalpel and three vials of liquid, their contents of a pale blue, deep scarlet, and a clear substance. Inserting the vials into a modified vial rack on the bottommost layer of the circular table, he began to introduce his actions.

"Three hundred milliliters of Snow Jade extract, ground fifty revolutions then melted. Four hundred milliliters of Scarlet Moon Fox Blood, extracted five hours following capture and preserved for four months. Two hundred milliliters of Three Blossoms Flower extract, ground forty revolutions prior to dissolution."

As he spoke, Bai Hu carefully combined the Snow Jade extract and Scarlet Moon Fox Blood, heating flask while pouring in the Three Blossoms Flower extract. As the three types of liquid merged, Bai Hu then used a glass stirrer to ensure the completion of the mixture, a light purple liquid remaining in the flask.

Checking the flask once more, Bai Hu placed it down onto the second layer of the table, slowly rotating the panel until the flask was before Tian Yu.

"Frontal mandibles of a Shadow Spider aged five months," he spoke, selecting a few ingredients among the hundreds strewn all over the multilayered table.

"The carapace of a Snow Beetle, thirty milligrams of a Desert Sandworm's skin, ground twenty revolutions and heated once over a temperature of a hundred degrees for thirty minutes. The mandibles will be dissolved in thirty milliliters of carborane, and the resultant will be combined with the powdered skin."

Procuring a small, vial of a black material, Tian Yu poured its contents into a bowl of azure jade, then dropping the mandibles in after the liquid had settled. Within an instant, the ebony mandibles were dissolved without a single sound or smell, and the liquid transformed into a transparent yellow.

Pouring in the powdered skin, Tian Yu used a stirrer of azure jade to safely mix the contents, causing the yellow substance to transform once more into a faint scarlet. With a light sigh, he placed the bowl onto the second layer of the table next to the flask, before carefully sealing it.

"Always the hardest part," he complained while rotating the layer to Tai Zi Hua. "If I dare lose concentration, I'll get splashed, and instantly die."

"Hehe," chuckled Tai Zi Hua. "If you do die from carborane, all of those Death Vines you've conquered would cough blood if they could!"

Gazing at the square of flesh and muscle at the top layer of the table, Tai Zi Hua released a sigh before rummaging around through the various layers.

"Fifty milligrams of Purple Leaf Stem, ground thirty revolutions, no distillations. Five drops of Silver Fox Blood. Three hundred milliliters of Angel's Tear extract, purity of seventy percent. Old Tian, I keep on telling you, this isn't going to work, ah!"

Amidst his grumbling, Tai Zi Hua opened a sachet to pour a purple powder onto a silver flask, followed by five drops of scarlet blood, and a clear, odorless liquid. Shaking his head, he capped the flask before gently swirling it, not daring to stir the contents himself.

Among the other doctors, Li Mo Shang had his eyes riveted on the revolving flask, tracking its every movement. Unlike the others however, Li Mo Shang could view the merging of the substances within the flask in extreme clarity.

The scarlet blood and clear Angel's Tear extract had already merged the moment Tai Zi Hua poured the liquid into the flask. As both contained milder attributes compared to other medicinal products, Angel's Tear extract and Silver Fox Blood were often implemented as amplifying modifiers for other, more volatile medicines.

When Tai Zi Hua swirled the flask, the contents had divided into distinctive regions, the powdered Purple Leaf Stem not even getting wet or reacting.

Lightly sighing as he wiped off a bead of sweat, Tai Zi Hua reached for the stopper of the flask with his free hand, intending to inspect the contents whether they were finished. As none of the medicinal practitioners in the tent or even the clearing had attempted to utilize a sample of Purple Leaf Stem without multiple rounds of heavy distillation, he had not the smallest inkling on how long it took for a successful mixture.

Purple Leaf Stem was famed among the medicinal community as a panacea for most medicinal compounds, serving as an amplifier to all other medicinal herbs' attributes. A single gram of Purple Leaf Stem could allow a nearly expired ointment to restore its medicinal effect to the original capability, and with fifty milligrams, although Tian Yu had assured the doctors that the resultant would still be safe, none of them could believe…

As soon as his fingers touched the rubber stopper, Tai Zi Hua discovered his wrist clamped in an iron grip. Looking up, the old man found Li Mo Shang's glare facing directly at him.

"That's rather a brutal medicine you're making," Li Mo Shang calmly stated, prying Tai Zi Hua's fingers from the silver flask as he held it within his grip. "Opening the flask while the Purple Leaf Stem has yet to dissolve, are you trying to create another explosion?"