Starting to Gain Experience from Push-Ups Chapter 1382 - 667_2
Previously on Starting to Gain Experience from Push-Ups...
Most importantly, in Zhao Gang’s current condition, he absolutely couldn’t withstand a second round of torment during transport.
On the other side of the stretcher, Master Sun and Lin Yue were just as at a loss.
Both of them were wearing white coats, clearly called over in a rush to help.
The scarred man turned his head and glared at Master Sun:
"Old man, the doctor just said you’re the best at Bone Setting in the physiotherapy department. Think of something!"
Master Sun pushed up the reading glasses on his nose; his thin, bony hand hovered over Zhao Gang’s lower back for a long time without coming down.
His brows knitted into the character "川", and he muttered under his breath nonstop:
"This is bad, this is bad... a burst fracture, bone fragments have entered the spinal canal. If the manual reduction is off by even a hair, we’re basically pushing him into a wheelchair..."
Lin Yue stood to the side, gripping the CT film in his hand, face pale:
"Master Sun, these fragments are displaced at least five or six millimeters, right up against the spinal cord. Who dares to touch it? If something..."
He didn’t finish, but everyone understood what he meant.
"Fuck!"
The scarred strongman slammed a fist into the wall, making the glass doors and windows rattle twice:
"Did I call you here just to stand around and watch? If you don’t dare do anything, then don’t wear those white coats!"
Master Sun was so startled by the roar that he took a step back; his mouth opened and closed, but no words came out.
The hand Lin Yue used to hold the film was trembling slightly, his face full of bitterness.
It wasn’t that they didn’t want to save him; they really were out of their depth.
Performing a closed manual reduction on bone fragments that had penetrated into the spinal canal—across the entire orthopedics field, only top-tier experts would even dare to attempt such a high‑difficulty maneuver.
Even the slightest deviation, and the consequences would be unimaginable.
For a moment, the corridor fell into a suffocating stalemate.
"Let me take a look."
A calm voice came from the back of the crowd.
Everyone’s gaze turned in unison, filled with doubt and also a trace of expectation.
Fang Cheng stepped around a few nurses on the outer edge and walked up to the side of the stretcher.
Lin Yue was the first to recognize him; his expression froze for a moment, then he hurriedly spoke:
"Fang Cheng? What are you doing here?"
Then he realized something and quickly turned to explain to the others:
"This is our new colleague in the rehabilitation physiotherapy department—he just reported in today."
The moment he said that, it had about the same effect as dumping a bucket of cold water on a fire.
"Just started today?"
The attending physician frowned, looked Fang Cheng up and down, and spoke in a tone full of displeasure:
"This is not somewhere you can intervene. Don’t delay the patient’s proper treatment."
He seemed to think the guy was deliberately here to upstage him.
The scarred strongman saw how young Fang Cheng was, his brow furrowed tight. He was about to bark at him, but holding on to a sliver of hope, he forced himself to keep quiet.
Master Sun stood by, rubbing his hands awkwardly:
"Xiao Fang, this injury really is too complicated. It’s not something regular massage and Bone Setting can fix. It’s your first day here—just watch from the side for now..."
Fang Cheng didn’t respond, nor did he step back.
His gaze passed over everyone and landed on Zhao Gang’s face on the stretcher.
Zhao Gang felt that gaze and, with effort, shifted the corner of his eye toward Fang Cheng.
Their eyes met briefly for an instant.
Zhao Gang’s pupils contracted slightly.
He couldn’t explain where this feeling came from.
But this young man in front of him, who looked barely over twenty, had something about him that was hard to put into words.
It was like facing a powerful opponent on the battlefield, when your instincts tell you—this person in front of you is not simple.
"Let... let him try."
Zhao Gang’s voice was hoarse and weak; he had to use all his strength just to force the words out through his teeth.
"Zhao Gang?"
The scarred strongman
"Let him try... it’s not like it’ll kill me."
Zhao Gang let out a bitter laugh, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down:
"Anyway... if we drag this out any longer, the outcome won’t be much better."
The scarred strongman opened his mouth, then finally sighed and didn’t try to talk him out of it anymore.
The attending physician still looked at Fang Cheng with deep suspicion, but he stepped back half a pace, making room at the side of the stretcher:
"Whatever you’re going to do, you’d better think it through. If something goes wrong, you bear the consequences. It has nothing to do with me."
Fang Cheng nodded, without any extra nonsense.
He moved to the side of the stretcher and first glanced at the CT film in Lin Yue’s hand.
The film clearly showed a burst fracture of the L1 vertebral body in the lumbar spine: the vertebral body had shattered into three pieces, with the largest fragment displaced posteriorly, wedged into the spinal canal, almost pressing right up against the dural sac of the spinal cord.
Fang Cheng handed the film back to Lin Yue and turned to the attending physician:
"I need to undo the straps on the spinal board now."
The attending physician was full of doubts, but still nodded at the nurse.
Two nurses stepped forward respectively and carefully did as they were told.
Watching them unfasten the straps on Zhao Gang’s body, Fang Cheng then bent his knees into a half squat and placed his right palm flat against the exposed skin of Zhao Gang’s lower back.
In others’ eyes, this movement was nothing more than the most ordinary attempt at palpation.
But the moment his palm touched the skin, his will had already driven the True Qi in his Dantian to pour out along the meridians of his right arm.
An extremely fine current of True Qi seeped through Zhao Gang’s skin, muscles, and fascia like a tide, going straight to the deep bones.
Fang Cheng slightly lowered his eyelids.
Under the perception of True Qi, the injuries to Zhao Gang’s waist and spine were presented in his "field of vision" with extreme clarity.
The L1 vertebral body had shattered into three main fragments and several tiny bone splinters.
The largest fragment, about the size of a thumbnail, had shifted backward nearly seven millimeters, its sharp edge almost pressing against the dural sac of the spinal cord.
The dural sac had already been compressed and deformed, and the surrounding nerve roots were swollen and congested.
Probing further down, there was a large amount of accumulated blood in the spleen region; the situation there was equally grim.
Relying on his powerful Spirit Attribute, a three-dimensional "image" far more detailed than a CT scan appeared in his mind, every detail clearly visible.
The corner of Fang Cheng’s brow twitched slightly.
The injuries were even trickier than he had estimated.
The bone fragments were not only severely displaced, but also interlocked and wedged into each other.
Ordinary manual Bone Setting techniques simply could not apply precise force to the deep vertebral fragments through such a thick layer of muscle.
A surgical operation would be necessary, using instruments to traction and reduce the fracture.
But at this moment, an image suddenly flashed through Fang Cheng’s mind—this morning, when he was practicing his palm technique in the woods.
"Silk Wrapping Strength!"
That extremely precise mode of Qi Force control which could transform into hundreds of fine threads, wrapping around a venomous snake and slicing it into segments.
What if... he reversed the principle and used it the other way around?
Not to cut, but to wrap; not to destroy, but to guide.
Transform the True Qi into supple threads, seeping into the gaps between the vertebral fragments, wrapping each piece separately, then, like manipulating a marionette, pull them back into place one by one.
Fang Cheng opened his eyes, his gaze steady.
This method had never been attempted before.
He was long since adept at using True Qi Emission for lethal combat.
But using it for Medical Skill and healing was an entirely new Domain.
Bear in mind, he had to tune an inherently offensive Qi Force to a level of precision fine enough to manipulate displaced bone fragments inside the human body, while not injuring the fragile spinal cord and nerves nearby.
The difficulty was several times greater than going all out in a fight.
Fang Cheng took a deep breath, a trace of golden light flashing in his eyes.
With his level of spiritual Cultivation and his foundation in Qi Force control, even if there were slight deviations midway, he would never cause irreversible severe injury.
Therefore, it was entirely worth a try.
Having made up his mind, Fang Cheng gave a quiet instruction:
"I’m going to start now; try your best to bear the pain."
Lying on the bed, Zhao Gang blinked hard, which counted as tacit consent.
Fang Cheng rubbed his hands and flexed his finger joints.
Then both hands covered Zhao Gang’s lower back, ten fingers spread, his palms tightly pressed against the skin.
True Qi poured out.
This time, he suppressed the usual sharpness of his Silk Wrapping Strength used in palm technique to an extreme gentleness.
The True Qi turned into dozens of threads finer than hair, penetrating the skin and seeping deeper along the gaps between muscle fibers.
Each thread moved with precise control under his will, winding around blood vessels, avoiding nerve bundles, and finally reaching the shattered L1 vertebral body.
Fang Cheng’s breathing became extremely slow, and his expression grew exceptionally serious.
This method of operation demanded an extremely high level of precision in True Qi and an intense concentration of mind.
If his focus wavered even slightly, and a thread deviated by even a fraction of a millimeter, it could touch the already compressed and deformed dural sac.
He first wrapped the largest fragment in layers of Qi threads.
At the moment the threads wound around it, he could clearly sense the rough fracture surface of the fragment and its sharp edges.
Next, Fang Cheng’s will stirred ever so slightly.
The threads began to tighten slowly, applying a uniform and precisely directed traction force on the fragment.
The bone fragment moved extremely slowly by one millimeter through the surrounding tissues.
"Ka."
A very faint sound of bone shifting came from deep within Zhao Gang’s waist.
Everyone present held their breath.
Master Sun’s reading glasses almost slipped off his nose; he quickly grabbed them and stared wide-eyed.
