Slumbering Cherry Blossom — II

Few days passed by in an agonising blur, seasons changed, bitter cold winter replaced the scarce autumn. As the curse of snow threatened to fall and the biting chill of winter increased, so did the desperation of their enemies.

The attacks became more erratic, strategies easier to break through, only one goal seemed to be on the mind of those mindless enemies.

Secure more resources, gather more ration. If at the expanse of those of DàHuǒ, then so be it.

Battles were harder to fight, as the resources supposed to be sent by Ministry of Revenue continued to face delay, the morale of soldier fell to an all time low.

They fought, they cried, they wept, bitter and wanting nothing but rest. But they couldn't lay down their weapons, not yet.

Not when their Crown Prince had yet to give up on his own, not when he had yet to lay down his sword.

Li Xinyuan frowned, standing beside Hu Lijing with a pensive look on his face as he stared at nothing in particular. His thoughts were in disarray as the team of doctors prepared to receive fallen soldiers and start their treatment.

Things had been much better since their arrival. Li Xinyuan and his entourage had ensured that for every wounded soldiers, three more would be healed and ready to fight.

Heaven, they were working overtime to achieve this result.

"What are you thinking, Master?" Hu Lijing's voice snapped the surgeon out of his thoughts as he turned his head to look at the amber-haired male.

"What?" Li Xinyuan asked, voice lost. "Ah, yes. I was thinking that with the onset of winter—" he glanced outside once more "—casualities are bound to increase."

"That is only natural, Master." Hu Lijing replied while heating a concoction in his palm, amber flames burning brightly. "Who do I give this to, again?"

Li Xinyuan glanced at the bowl, stamping down his worry to ponder upon later as he pursed his lips, closely examining the colour of the liquid.

"Help him drink it." He gestured at a man lying on a bed at the far left, face pale and legs bandaged. "It should help him reduce the pain until later this evening. We'll conduct the surgery then."

Hu Lijing nodded at the command. "Very well, Master." The amber-haired man simply gave him a glance and turned to walk towards the wounded man.

Behind him, Li Xinyuan murmured using distant whispering technique. 'See to it that his condition doesn't worsen while I'm attending to others.'

Hu Lijing glanced back at him from over his shoulder and nodded without a word as he helped that man sit up and drink the medicine.

…

The curtains of the day fell, the veil of night spread across the sky as the scarlet hue of the setting sun receded slowly. The sun gave way to the moon, sparse clouds fleeting away for the stars to shine upon the miserable echoes of agony in the Northwestern Frontier.

More wounded soldiers came, more doctors busily working to care for them. By the time everyone was taken care of and the tent cleaned up, sun had completely hid behind the mountains and darkness surrounded every nook and cranny, chased away only by the light from the lamps lit around the camp.

In this darkness, a group of doctors clad in pale blue robes, faces covered by masks and hands wrapped in white gloves rushed around a tent.

Inside the tent, surrounding a table the men stood, working with intense focus. One of them operated on the patient lying on the table, blood staining his white garb.

Hovering above the group of men was a floating orb of light, shining bright as time passed by slowly.

Taking in a deep breath, Li Xinyuan blinked, beautiful golden eyes darkened with concentration as he issued silent commands to his assistant — Hu Lijing — who passed him the surgical instruments while other doctors watched in silence.

Sweat gathered on Li Xinyuan's brows as he frowned, blood stained hands sawing away at a leg of the intoxicated soldier.

'We have to amputate his legs,' he whispered, lips pursed. 'All of his nerve-endings are completely damaged. Infection has spread too far,' he explained to the men in a grim voice. 'The tissues are dead and the risk of him losing his life is high, unless we cut off his legs.'

'Can't we resuscitate them using Qi?' One of them asked, a troubled look written all over his face. Li Xinyuan turned to the doctor who asked and shook his head.

'Unfortunately,' he sighed, tightly gripping the saw in his hand while holding the leg down with another. 'It is impossible now. If we want to save his life—' he glanced at the unconscious man '—we must sacrifice his legs.'

The doctor simply shook his head and spoke no more, allowing Li Xinyuan to continue doing his work.

It was a slow process, painfully long and bloody.

Li Xinyuan glanced at the bad blood that flowed out of the man's veins accompanied by pus and other fluids and shook his head before flicking a finger upwards.

In front of all the doctors, all the bad blood and other fluids started floating away from the body part and hovered around, scarlet blood circled around Li Xinyuan and Hu Lijing as they focused on the surgery paying it no mind.

At that moment, all those doctors realised—

—Li Xinyuan was using Void and Blood manipulation techniques to separate the bad blood from good parts of the patient's body.

"..." Most of them gulped visibly as the surgeon asked for another needle which Hu Lijing handed to him after sterilising it with his flames.

The surgery took a total of seven hours of non-stop work from Li Xinyuan alone.

"I'm dead tired," the surgeon whined to Hu Lijing as he plopped on the floor, pitifully leaning against his servant's legs. "So tired."

With a heavy sigh, the surgeon pulled off the cap covering his head and hair and tossed it to the amber-haired man.

Disgruntled, Hu Lijing caught the cap and burned it with his flames without a second thought as he said, "Get up, Master. Let me help you clean up. Don't behave like an old dog."

Li Xinyuan snapped his head to look up at him, with a half-heartedly glare in his eyes, he retorted in a hoarse voice.

"This 'old dog' performed the entire surgery alone, you bastard." He cursed. "Let me rest," he huffed, wanting to hold his forehead only to freeze at the sight of blood in his gloves. "Argh."

"See?" Hu Lijing crossed his arms, looking down at Li Xinyuan with a smug look on his face. "I told you, now get up and let me help you clean yourself."

The surgeon pouted, frowning as he slumped against the amber-haired male's legs even more and groaned in defeat.

"Okay."