Once the casualties on this side were mostly attended to, people from various sects began to flock around Gongsun Zan, vying for him to treat their sect members first.
Gongsun Zan felt dizzy and overwhelmed by their clamor. If it weren't for the large number of people and the truly dire situations, he would have thrown in the towel.
Pressed in the middle of a crowd, he repeatedly said, "I've told you not to crowd around here. Those with minor injuries can get medicine from Su Muqing and her group. For the severely injured, you can ask Su Muqing to take a look first. Her medical skills are no less than mine. Why make them suffer and wait for this old man?"
However, those people could hardly believe that someone who looked so young could have medical skills comparable to the number one physician in the martial world, the Ghost Hand Divine Doctor. In any case, people from other sects would rather let the injured wait a bit longer than ask Su Muqing for treatment.
Su Muqing didn't care about their condescension, as she found it to be a natural human reaction. So, she and Lu Yuzhi and a few others returned to the iron clad war chariots to check for any overlooked casualties.
The investigation yielded a shocking discovery: many of these slaves were not dead! Some had only sustained minor injuries, yet they had closed their eyes and resigned themselves to death.
They lay there, ashen-faced, amidst the corpses and severed limbs. Even though their wounds ached terribly, they only let out heavy breaths. Their eyes showed no desire for survival.
If it weren't for the accidental touch of their wounds during the process of moving the injured, causing them to cry out in pain, Su Muqing and the others wouldn't have been able to distinguish who was still alive!
Leng Ren helped up a young slave with a minor injury, "Miss, here is someone with a severe injury."
Su Muqing walked over, crouched down, and gently lifted the head of the man lying on top of the young slave. She checked his breathing and found he was still alive. She then flipped open the man's upper eyelids and saw that his pupils had begun to dilate.
She slowly lowered the man and cleared away all the debris pressing on him. Only then did she discover that the man's back was riddled with shrapnel and wood splinters, and his condition looked grim.
It was likely that he was the young slave's elder, who had thrown himself onto the younger man at the critical moment to shield him from most of the impact and damage.
Su Muqing had Old Third and the others carry the man into the wooden house, onto the makeshift operating table. She cut open his already unrecognizable, dirty clothes and then used tweezers to meticulously extract the foreign objects from the wounds.
One of the wounds was particularly severe. A palm-sized piece of iron sheet had been almost entirely embedded in the man's side.
Through the detector, Su Muqing saw that the iron sheet had pierced the man's left kidney, causing severe damage. The kidney was practically split in two. If effective measures were not taken immediately, the man would not survive for long.
Su Muqing looked at the prompt on the detector. It indicated that surgery was possible, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She then instructed Lu Yuzhi to guard the entrance of the wooden house, allowing no one to disturb them. Afterward, she turned and took the man into the space.
Because there were too many patients today, Su Muqing altered the time acceleration in the space for the first time, setting the external to internal ratio at 1:6. One hour outside would be equivalent to six hours inside the space, thus giving her more time.
She dared not make too drastic a change, as 217 had mentioned that the space's time acceleration could only be altered three times, and each alteration had to be moderate. If the change in time flow became too abnormal, it could potentially cause chaos in the space's magnetic field.
After adjusting the time, she proceeded with the surgery according to the detector's prompts: administering anesthesia, cleaning the wound, making the incision, excising the damaged organ, performing internal suturing, and then using the healing technique to accelerate the wound healing within the body. This was followed by suturing, applying medication, and bandaging.
After treating the man's more severe wounds, she discovered he had lost too much blood and his blood coagulation was too slow. Su Muqing fed him a blood-replenishing pill.
However, the surgery was successfully completed without any other issues. The man's vital signs stabilized, and he was essentially out of danger.
When Su Muqing opened the door, only twenty minutes had passed outside. The previously dazed young slave, however, seemed to have snapped back to reality. He was leaning against a rock in front of the wooden house, his own wounds untreated, his eyes fixed blankly on the doorway.
Seeing the door of the wooden house open, the young slave scrambled up on all fours. But then, he saw the plate in Su Muqing's hand, filled with blood-soaked bandages, and even a ruptured internal organ!
The young slave finally couldn't hold back. He squatted on the ground, cradling his head, trembling all over. Whether from fear or grief, his mouth gaped open, but no sound could emerge.
Su Muqing glanced at the young slave. His injuries were all superficial, and he wouldn't die even without immediate treatment. Thus, she paid him no further attention.
Instead, she turned to Leng Ren, who had brought the patient over, and instructed, "This person has been treated. Tell Rongrong that for all patients I have personally attended to, she must observe them closely tonight for any signs of fever. If any arise, she must inform me immediately. I will also be going over later to administer a unified dose of medicine to them."
"Alright, I'll go right away." Leng Ren, having received Su Muqing's instructions, immediately went to notify Lin Rongrong and arrange for another patient.
As soon as Leng Ren left, the young slave rushed forward, "Gu... Gu... Gu... miss, Gu... Niang, is... is my... my... my father... he... he... he... still..."
Seeing his inability to articulate, Su Muqing directly stated the man's condition, "He is still alive, but tonight is critical. If he makes it through the night, there should be no further problems."
Upon hearing Su Muqing's words, the young slave became so excited that he knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, murmuring, "Thank you, benefactor, thank you, benefactor, thank you..."
"Alright, get up quickly!" Hearing Su Muqing's words, the man scrambled to his feet and then tried to rush into the house to see the man inside.
"You cannot see him yet. First, tend to your own wounds. Then, go to Miss Su over there to get a change of clothes, clean yourself up a bit, and then come find me. You will be the one to watch over him tonight." Seeing the man about to rush into the small wooden house, Su Muqing quickly stopped him.
"Yes, yes, yes, thank you, benefactor!" The young slave nodded repeatedly, his eyes filled with excitement, and ran in the direction Su Muqing indicated.
After the young slave left, Lu Yuzhi moved the previously treated man to the area for attended casualties. He then helped carry the patients Leng Ren had just brought into the wooden house and handed them over to Su Muqing for treatment.