Chapter 398: The Right to Lead the Operation, No One Else Should Compete!
Garrett's hands paused during the ultrasound.
What's a ghost infant?
Cultivated to grow? What does that even mean?
He had almost completed the examination, and the conclusions were about to be drawn. Now he's being told it's a ghost infant cultivated by a necromancer?
Garrett wanted to turn around and ask, but he paused, deciding it was better to finish the ultrasound. Getting distracted halfway could affect the accuracy of the examination.
Hmm, the liver is slightly displaced, intrahepatic bile duct dilatation, the gallbladder, spleen, and pancreas are all fine, appendix swollen, no intestinal obstruction...
As for the necromancer, there's always time to ask—Ah, Bernard has already brought in the patient's family, now calm...
"You're the reason my daughter is suffering?—Die!"
A middle-aged man, drenched, lunged forward. If not for Bernard's timely intervention, they would have likely come to blows...
The necromancer stood defiant. Struggling in the grasp of a silver dragon maiden, he proudly raised his chin, adopting an arrogant stance:
"Who harmed her?—Three years ago, when her mother was ill, you begged me to treat her, promising me anything in return. Wasn't it you who agreed to let her assist me in any task?"
"But you never said it was about cultivating a ghost infant!"
"Nonsense. If not for the ghost infant, why would I help you? Besides, it's not like I put it there; she was already pregnant with it!"
Garrett finally finished the examination and joined the conversation:
"Excuse me for interrupting. Sorry, I've been busy and didn't get a chance to introduce myself. My name is Garrett Nordmark. May I know your name?"
"Nordmark, the mage?" The necromancer's eyes lit up. He eagerly responded:
"The treatise on the quarantine and treatment of dysentery outbreaks? The study on the pathogens of several epidemics?"
Someone here has read my papers? Garrett was pleasantly surprised, quickly nodding. Indeed, it's easier to communicate within the same field of research. In just a few words, he learned what the other had done:
Using special methods, he cultivated the ghost infant within the woman to grow, using it as a vessel for his dead souls. The reason for using a ghost infant was that a living infant has its own soul, which would repel the dead souls...
"Finding a woman pregnant with a ghost infant is hard! It took me ten years to find three, and the first two attempts at possession failed. The cultivated ghost infants were just lumps of flesh without bones, completely unusable..."
"So, you're saying she was already pregnant with the ghost infant?"
"Of course! I can't create something from nothing!"
Garrett silently sympathized with him. So it was already there, and he just used magic to accelerate its growth. It matched up; it's a teratoma! Indeed, the incidence rate is not high. Considering the population density of the Black Gate Peninsula, it's quite fortunate for him to find three in ten years...
But, how did you manage to grow the teratoma to such a size? Usually, a diameter of 4-5 cm is already considered large. Clinically, 10 cm is rare!
"You're lying!" The middle-aged man roared from the other side: "You must have harmed my daughter!"
"Why would I seek her out if she wasn't carrying this thing?"
"Couldn't you have used magic to implant it?"
Garrett sighed. Turning to face the girl's father:
"Regardless of the circumstances, we need to address the issue. Your daughter is in pain; may I treat her first?"
"What do you propose?" The middle-aged man looked at him warily. Garrett tried to offer a reassuring smile:
"We mean no harm; we just want to help your daughter. Look, I'm a follower of the God of Nature, and this lady here is an elf. How could we possibly harm your daughter?"
The reputation of a priest of the God of Nature and an elf was evidently much better than that of a necromancer. The man's wariness slightly diminished:
"What do you plan to do?"
Garrett thought for a moment, then formed a healing spell, infusing it into the girl. Lately, he's been preferring to use healing spells over surgery whenever possible. Ah, minimally invasive is the trend, so healing spells are even more so, right?
Guided by the ultrasound, the healing spell smoothly reached the appendix. As the swelling appendix began to shrink, and the girl's pale face color slightly improved, Garrett clapped his hands:
"If it's just the abdominal pain, that has been resolved. But this ghost infant—"
He turned to the necromancer:
remove it once it's fully cultivated?"
The necromancer made a gesture indicating a cesarean section.
Bernard discreetly let go. The middle-aged man lunged forward, bypassing Seraila, who deliberately stepped aside too late, and pummeled the necromancer. After taking several heavy blows, the necromancer finally raised his mage armor, crouching and covering his head:
"Stop, stop!—I brought holy water! More than one bottle! I swear she won't die!"
Garrett stood aside, arms crossed, watching. Not telling the truth upfront and deceiving people, causing the girl to carry such a thing, certainly deserved a beating. If this were his previous life, it would be more than just a beating, reminiscent of the surgeon who carved "SB" on a patient's liver...
With the armor up, letting him take a beating was beneficial for the subsequent conversation. Seeing the man's punches slow and the back of his hands turning red, Garrett intervened perfunctorily:
"Sir, please calm down... We need to resolve this. Your daughter is a beautiful girl; she shouldn't have to endure this. As healers, we hope to help her safely resolve her troubles..."
Seraila hid behind him, blinking and quietly casting a soothing spell.
The man finally calmed down. He stared at his daughter, from her still pale face to her swollen abdomen, then back to her face. Suddenly, he crouched down, cradling his head, and began to sob.
Half an hour later, the man personally carried his daughter onto a floating disc released by Garrett. He stood reluctantly at the doorway, watching as two invisible servants, one leading and the other following, escorted his daughter into a "Refuge Cabin" created by the silver dragon lady. The magical dome shimmered slightly, and then they were no longer visible.
Garrett, Seraila, Bernard, and the necromancer followed in.
"This ghost infant that I've cultivated, should I be the one to deal with it?"
"I'm afraid not." Garrett sighed deeply. If it were an ordinary ovarian teratoma, he might have trusted the necromancer's surgical skills. But this...
"This thing has grown on the liver. I've examined it, and the liver has already been deformed by the pressure, posing a very high surgical risk, with a high possibility of severe bleeding. This time, I'll lead the operation."