A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 534

Chapter 104: Parental Heart (5)

Jun-hoo immediately placed his hands on the pregnant woman’s abdomen.

With the situation so urgent, there was no time to consider anything else. It was crucial to administer the necessary treatment immediately.

Woo-woo-woong.

The internal energy drawn from his dantian [energy center] flowed through his palms, into the mother’s abdomen, the amniotic fluid, and towards the fetus.

The internal energy rippled in the form of sound waves before soon taking on a unique shape.

That shape was none other than chains.

A total of four internal energy chains firmly bound the fetus’s wrists and ankles.

Thanks to his intensive training in fetal internal energy examination on pregnant patients, Jun-hoo’s internal energy skill had reached its peak.

He had reached the point of shaping internal energy into any form he desired.

Truly, he had become a Harmony Realm master closest to the Profound Realm [levels of mastery in martial arts].

In the martial world, he would have been considered one of the top five masters.

However, even Jun-hoo was often helpless in the face of emergency patients.

He had felt it for a long time.

Saving a life was dozens of times harder than taking one.

Please, just give in at this point.

I’m doing this all for you.

Jun-hoo pleaded with the fetus as he moved on to the next step.

He picked up the ultrasound probe that Shin Hyun-jung had set down and directly rubbed it on the mother’s belly.

Observing the ultrasound monitor.

The fetus was wriggling, trying to turn its body.

However, it was tightly bound by the chains of internal energy and couldn’t move properly.

The immediate crisis was averted.

The internal energy chains would last for about 20 minutes, enough time to complete the catheter procedure.

‘It’s a bit bothersome, but there’s no helping it.’

A bitter smile appeared on Jun-hoo’s lips.

The reason was…

The outline of the internal energy chains was faintly visible on the ultrasound.

There was nothing he could do in the current situation.

He had no choice but to gloss over it somehow…

Jun-hoo restored everything he had touched to its original state and released his Celestial Art [a powerful technique].

Only then did the frozen staff begin to move.

They regained the lost time.

“Jun-hoo, what are you going to do now?”

Shin Hyun-jung looked at Jun-hoo and asked.

“About what?”

“It’s impossible to continue the surgery. Let’s stop here. Of course, I’m not saying give up, but let’s aim for the next opportunity.”

Shin Hyun-jung saw potential in this surgery. If the baby hadn’t moved, the surgery would have been successful.

And she was confident she could do better in the second round.

“It’s too early to give up after coming this far. Keep monitoring the ultrasound.”

“What’s going to change just by watching if we don’t have a plan?”

“Well, let’s check first.”

At Jun-hoo’s urging, Shin Hyun-jung reluctantly took the ultrasound probe in her hand. The image that appeared made her eyes widen as if they were about to pop out.

The fetus was clearly conscious!

Yet, strangely, it wasn’t moving. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say it couldn’t move.

Upon closer observation of the monitor.

A white band seemed to be firmly holding the fetus’s limbs.

“Can you see this band? Why did something like this suddenly appear?”

“I’m not sure?”

“How does it look to everyone else?”

Shin Hyun-jung asked the staff for their opinions, but they just smiled ambiguously.

They didn’t have the eye to interpret ultrasounds as precisely as Shin Hyun-jung did.

“Amazing. I’ve never seen a case like this before…”

“Looks like the heavens are helping us. Let’s start the coil embolization.”

Jun-hoo quickly took action.

He pushed the catheter into the dura mater [outermost membrane] of the middle cerebral artery.

The place where the long and arduous adventure would end.

He had arrived at his destination.

The metal coil filled the blood vessel that had been swollen like a balloon.

Fetal cerebrovascular surgery.

A surgery that no one had ever attempted before was about to succeed on its very first try.

But that’s when it happened.

The heavens betrayed Jun-hoo once more.

“Jun-hoo, the fetal heart rate is over 180.”

“180? Is that too high?”

“It would be okay if it stayed at this level, but it’s dangerous if it goes any higher.”

The normal fetal heart rate in late pregnancy was 140 bpm. 180 bpm was borderline, but still acceptable.

But what if the heart rate went up from there?

Even Shin Hyun-jung wouldn’t have an answer then.

The sedative she had administered earlier needed to take effect quickly…

The unexpected bad news shook Jun-hoo’s mental state once more.

As his concentration wavered, his movements became slower.

Why had the fetal heart rate suddenly increased?

He had a hunch.

The fetus wanted to move its body, but the internal energy chains were restricting its movement.

Was it frustrated because its body wasn’t doing what it wanted?

But he couldn’t release the internal energy chains now.

As soon as he released them, the fetus would thrash, and the catheter would come out.

Maintaining the status quo would increase the heart rate, and removing the internal energy chains would cause the surgery to fail.

Jun-hoo was in a dilemma.

There was a cliff in front of him and a cliff behind him.

Even the best master of the Harmony Realm was helpless in the face of a rampaging child.

What more could he do?

He had used up all the cards he had.

Despair, darker than darkness and stickier than a swamp, crept in.

Should he really give up like this?

Should he aim for the next opportunity?

Would it be foolish to continue the surgery?

In a fleeting moment, countless thoughts flashed through Jun-hoo’s mind. But Jun-hoo, as always, did not give up hope.

If the surroundings were filled with darkness.

He had to become the light himself.

He would bet everything on ‘that martial art.’ If ‘that martial art’ didn’t work, then there was nothing he could do.

Jun-hoo unleashed a hidden card he had forgotten.

* * *

Three months had passed since the fetal cerebrovascular surgery.

Kim Nam-joon and Seo Bo-young had given birth to a healthy baby. The child, who had been treated for a vein of Galen malformation [rare blood vessel abnormality], was born healthy.

The media highlighted the article, which also included Jun-hoo’s story.

Thanks to Jun-hoo’s world-first successful fetal cerebrovascular procedure, the child was born safely.

Jun-hoo smiled as he checked the article.

He felt rewarded because the results were good after all the hard work.

In the critical moment when the fetal heart rate was rapidly rising.

The martial art that Jun-hoo had recalled was ‘telepathic transmission.’

In modern terms, it was telepathy. Sending a message into the other person’s mind.

Jun-hoo sent a telepathic message to the fetus.

It seemed foolish since there was no way the fetus had learned a language from inside the womb.

But that wasn’t the aim.

Jun-hoo sang a lullaby through telepathic transmission. It was a special trick to calm the excited child.

The fetus gradually responded to the cozy and rhythmic melody.

The violent movements subsided, and the heart rate returned to normal.

The lullaby effect was remarkable!

Thanks to this, Jun-hoo was able to fill the fetus’s malformed vein with coils and remove the catheter without any interference.

The surgery was, of course, a great success.

When he organized the surgery into a paper and published it on an overseas site a month later.

He received protests from all over the world saying it was impossible, but they soon subsided.

It was thanks to Ben, who had witnessed Jun-hoo’s surgery with his own eyes, that the grumbling stopped.

Ben, whom the hospital director had brought to try and mess with Jun-hoo, had instead become Jun-hoo’s reliable ally.

However, after the celebrity couple’s procedure.

Jun-hoo actually grew distant from the hospital director.

The hospital director no longer acted as warmly as before.

He didn’t even look for Jun-hoo.

Even though praise for Jun-hoo poured in from home and abroad after the surgery’s success.

-This guy is going to devour me. It’s better to get rid of him little by little. Otherwise, I’ll be in danger.

The hospital director probably made that judgment.

And if he did, the hospital director’s judgment was very accurate.

As Ah-young became pregnant, Jun-hoo was resetting his career path, and Jun-hoo’s next goal was none other than the hospital director.

Even if he could fly around with martial arts.

His body was only one, so Jun-hoo’s performance had clear limitations.

He became convinced that it would be better to increase the number of skilled neurosurgeons than to struggle alone.

Around that time, Jun-hoo gradually reduced his outpatient care and surgical patients.

As time passed, the end of spring arrived.

Jun-hoo, who was enjoying the weekend, visited a mountain villa with Ah-young.

The area around the villa was green with lush vegetation.

The mountain breeze was refreshing, and the chirping of mountain birds was cheerful. With each breath, the fragrant smell of grass brushed the tip of his nose.

Jun-hoo was walking along the trail, holding hands with Ah-young.

A quick glance showed that Ah-young’s belly was quite swollen.

Ah-young had quit thoracic surgery two months ago.

Even with Jun-hoo’s internal energy infusion, it was too much to handle the strenuous thoracic surgery while pregnant.

“I didn’t know the world was so peaceful while resting.”

“……”

“I feel like I was the only one fighting in a battlefield all this time.”

“Battlefield… that’s a good expression.”

Jun-hoo nodded in agreement.

Every job has its own difficulties, but the difficulty of a surgeon was that they had to watch life and death every day.

The expression ‘battlefield’ was fitting.

“Jun-hoo, you look a lot better too.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. Your skin is better, and your expression is better too.”

“I guess reducing my work is having an effect.”

Jun-hoo chuckled.

It wasn’t easy to reduce his workload.

It felt like he was turning away from suffering patients and guardians.

But his colleague Kyung-soo had once told him this.

“Please, abandon the Messiah complex.”

Remembering those words lessened his guilt.

Even if Jun-hoo reached the realm of Profoundity, no, even if he reached the realm of Transcendence, he wouldn’t be able to heal all of humanity.

“How’s the book writing going?”

“I think it’ll be done in about a month.”

“You’ve already made that much progress?”

“I’m not an ordinary person, you know.”

Jun-hoo pointed to his temple with his index finger.

These days, he was writing a neurosurgery textbook in his spare time.

A textbook containing the essence of surgical operations that Jun-hoo had trained in.

What if he shared his know-how with other surgeons or new surgeons?

Wouldn’t he be able to save more people?

The writing was progressing smoothly.

“Let’s take a break.”

“Okay.”

The two sat on a bench in the middle of the mountain.

Then, Ah-young suddenly patted her knee with her palm.

“Lie down.”

“Huh? Suddenly?”

“Enjoy a nap while feeling the cool mountain breeze. You don’t get opportunities like this often, do you?”

“If you say so.”

Jun-hoo lay down, using Ah-young’s lap as a pillow. Ah-young’s belly was so bulging that he couldn’t see Ah-young’s face.

He couldn’t believe that there was a second generation in that bulging belly.

Jun-hoo, who had been replacing sleep with meditative breathing, closed his eyes for the first time in a while.

He relaxed his body comfortably and used the darkness as a blanket.

His consciousness gradually sank deeper.

-Doctor. Can you save Young Master Seo?

-You’ve been chattering beside me since earlier. Because of you, even a treatment that could have worked won’t. If he’s meant to live, he’ll live, and if he’s meant to die, he’ll die.

-If the descendant of Bian Que [legendary Chinese physician] can’t treat him, who else will treat Young Master Seo?

-Hey, you rascal. Even immortals can’t revive the dead.

-Young Master Seo still has breath, so he’s alive, and if he’s alive, he can be saved, right?

-If you utter another word, I’ll sew up your mouth instead of this kid’s chest.

-I’m sorry. Young Master Seo is such an important figure in the Murim Alliance [martial arts alliance]. The Murim Alliance Leader said that if he overcomes his desire for revenge, he’ll be a talent who can embrace the heavens.

-Why is that great guy in this state?

-He was dealing with a demonic figure named Jeok Il-do, and then…

-Jeok Il-do? I’ve heard the rumors. That bastard has nested near my residence. Anyway, enough chatter. This child has shattered ribs, torn blood vessels, and exposed lungs.

-……

-It will be a difficult treatment.

While listening to the familiar yet unfamiliar conversation, Jun-hoo suddenly opened his eyes. His whole body was already soaked with cold sweat.

What?

The me in the Murim, am I not dead yet?