Chapter 58: What Two Hearts and Three Lungs?

10 minutes later, inside a temporary concealment point.

Chen Jian opened a medical kit while rapidly issuing orders:

"He Shuo, patch me through to Shen Yue."

"Zeng Yi, use tourniquets on the proximal ends of the limbs."

"Xie Liu, help me open the wound. Prioritize the main artery."

"Your bodies have too much pumping pressure, we have to stop the bleeding first, or he'll die immediately!"

"Understood!"

At the command, everyone sprang into action.

Chen Jian injected two doses of powerful morphine. Xie Liu pried open the wounds on the inner and outer sides of Li Shi's thigh. The muscle tissue, already torn by the bullet, fractured further. Li Shi let out a muffled groan but didn't budge an inch.

Chen Jian had no time to check his expression. After quickly rinsing his hands with alcohol and shaking them dry, he thrust his fingers directly into the wound, groping around while shouting loudly:

"Shen Yue! Thigh shot, severed main artery, can't feel the vessel, what should I do?!"

"Cut the muscle 10 centimeters higher and create a new stoma!"

Shen Yue's voice came through the radio.

"A severed main artery will retract toward the abdominal cavity, severely right into the belly. You won't find it from the bullet entry point, you have to go higher!"

"Understood!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Chen Jian picked up a surgical scalpel from the medical kit, targeted the right position, avoided the muscle tissue, and sliced open the skin on Li Shi's thigh. He then instructed Xie Liu to hold the muscle open, thrusting his fingers into the newly opened wound to carefully feel for the blood vessel.

The sight made Xie Liu's scalp tingle. As the team's medic, she had indeed treated wounds before.

Yet she had never imagined that when someone was suffering from excessive blood loss, an injury could be handled this way.

Leaving the original wound alone and cutting yet another one?

Was this really not some form of torture practiced by the Blood Skulls?

Her fingers trembled slightly. Chen Jian frowned, muttered "steady," and pushed his fingers deeper.

This time, he finally touched the location of the retracted artery.

Crossing and bending his index and ring fingers, Chen Jian clamped down on the blood vessel and applied gradual pressure, finally dragging the main artery out from the thick muscle tissue.

After briefly using a vascular closure device about 5 centimeters above the rupture to stop the bleeding, Chen Jian pulled out the distal artery and performed a simple suture using the standard ProGlide vascular closure system.

One minute later, the femoral artery bleeding was successfully stopped and blood flow was restored.

The resulting wound was massive, but at least half his life was saved.

Chen Jian breathed a slight sigh of relief, motioned for He Shuo—who had put down the radio—to take over the stitching, and continued to inspect Li Shi's other wounds.

It was only upon closer inspection that he realized the wounds on Li Shi's upper body were far more severe than those on his lower body.

Shot in the chest!

And a direct hit to the front!

Veins bulged on his forehead as his movements grew even faster.

One slash tore the clothing for Xie Liu to rip apart; a second slash opened the chest cavity.

Shattered shrapnel was embedded deep within the muscle tissue—there was even a piece of shrapnel jammed directly into the beating heart!

Chen Jian drew a sharp breath and asked into the radio again:

"Shen Yue! Shrapnel hit the heart, located to the left of the pulmonary artery, probably around the left atrial appendage, depth is about... 5 millimeters, what do I do?"

"Clamp it out and stitch it directly, I have no other choice!"

"The myocardium there is very thin, it's damn well pierced straight through. Leave it to fate!"

"......Got it!"

Chen Jian gritted his teeth, picked up the surgical forceps, and carefully pulled out the shrapnel. Fresh blood gushed out instantly.

His field of vision instantly blurred. Lacking any X-ray vision, he could only rely on touch to suture.

After all, he was not a professional medical worker, let alone an experienced surgeon. The process was agonizingly slow, taking a full two minutes before the wound was barely stitched and the bleeding finally stopped.

By this time, Li Shi had gone completely still, and his heart had stopped beating.

Chen Jian braced himself for the worst possible outcome, but when he looked up, he found Li Shi staring right at him with a pair of innocent, wide eyes, curiously lowering his head to examine his own slashed-open chest.

"......Don't you die?"

Chen Jian asked, dumbfounded.

"He's not like us. He has two hearts and three lungs."

Xie Liu quickly chimed in from the side.

At that, Chen Jian was truly shocked.

Two hearts and three lungs?!

Damn it, what kind of low-spec Astartes is this?!

"So he's actually not in any mortal danger at all??"

"He is. If we hadn't treated it in time, he would have bled to death. The wound on his leg was very dangerous. I originally planned to use medicine to stop the bleeding..."

"......Let's just forget about your snake venom coagulant."

Chen Jian let out a long breath, his tense emotions finally relaxing after several minutes.

Only then did he have time to check Li Shi's remaining injuries.

Aside from the two fatal wounds on his chest and thigh, there was a through-and-through wound in his abdomen. The entry point was barely larger than a thumb, while the exit wound on his back was larger than a fist.

Fortunately, the bullet had neatly avoided major organs, shattering only skin and a small amount of muscle tissue. To a powerful Holy Blooder like him, it was practically no different from a mere scratch.

As for the other injuries, they were genuine superficial scrapes. Chen Jian figured they didn't even need stitches.

He simply put down his surgical instruments, picked up disinfectant, and began sterilizing Li Shi.

He Shuo had just finished stitching up the thigh wound. Snipping the thread, he clicked his tongue in wonder:

"This body durability... I have no idea how you guys were even born."

At those words, Xie Liu's expression darkened noticeably for a fraction of a second.

Yet she quickly readjusted her mood and said:

"If you want to know, I can..."

"We'll talk about it later."

Chen Jian interrupted Xie Liu, his eyes fixed on the streaming high-altitude footage on his smart eyepiece, before giving the order:

"It's not safe here. We need to head back."

"Zeng Yi, load Li Shi into the vehicle first, then take the wheel. We'll head back at a slow pace."

"He Shuo, leave the drone, go ahead on your own, and bring Lei Jie and the others back."

"Remember to swap out the automatic grenade launcher for a 301 heavy machine gun."

"Suppressing firepower is too weak; automatic grenades aren't as effective as a heavy machine gun."

"Understood!"

Without the slightest hesitation, He Shuo wiped his hands casually, climbed into the cat-car, and sped off into the distance.

On the other side, Zeng Yi hoisted Li Shi onto his shoulder and dumped him into the remaining vehicle.

"What about us? Are we heading out immediately too?"

Zeng Yi asked.

"Of course. Or do you want to charge back in?"

"We don't even know the exact situation right now. I just noticed before the fight broke out, they mentioned something about 'mimetic heretics'. What does that mean?"

Zeng Yi and Xie Liu frowned simultaneously, then shook their heads.

"Don't know."

"We've never heard that term before."

After a brief pause, Zeng Yi continued:

"But it's obvious they came specifically for us."

"Maybe Xu Hunter wants to silence us, or perhaps the Council misinterpreted his intention... Or could it be that they're simply trying to cover up the truth?"

"They don't want the civilians of Hanshui City to know the monster is dead—though I can't figure out what the point of that would be."

"Their rule isn't built on the monster. The Holy Blood Hall relies on source blood and Holy Blooders, while the Machine Cult relies on machinery and gunpowder."

"There's no reason for them to deliberately amplify the threat of the monster... I really don't understand."

"It's fine, your head is clear enough."

Chen Jian patted Zeng Yi's shoulder comfortingly.

"Drive first."

"Xie Liu, open your radio and try calling Xu Hunter."

"If we don't know... we'll just go ask them ourselves!"