59: Chapter 59 Extraordinary!

Su Ye stood by the operating table, his heart filled with complex emotions. The shadowless lamp shone down, making the cluster of golden mist blades in the old man's chest appear even more piercing.

Its sharp edge roamed.

Like a blade, yet like mist.

Yet this old man just lay there peacefully. When Su Ye's Mental Energy had swept over earlier, he had already seen too much.

The old man's body was riddled with old injuries.

The scars left by shrapnel in his lungs were only the most conspicuous; besides those, there were old rib fractures, lingering shoulder injuries, and various gunshot wounds of all sizes, all hidden within this aging body.

He truly had dedicated his entire life.

To the country, to war, and to the era.

And now, with the old man's chest opened and his flesh aged, there was a brilliant golden sharpness deep within the pulmonary hilum. It occasionally extended, standing tall and high-pitched, like the old man's own unyielding bones.

Su Ye now had the ability to save this old man.

Having practiced Cultivation until now.

Having come into contact with the Transcendent.

Su Ye had been cautious and prudent, but if he saved this old man now, perhaps the things hidden in the city's shadows and the official attention would all come pressing down on him at once.

Su Ye never felt like he was some kind of savior.

He hadn't even figured out his own path yet.

“Young man.”

The old man suddenly smiled, a smile carrying a sense of relief and gratification.

Su Ye looked up.

The old man looked at him without any urgency in his gaze. He was excessively calm, as if the person lying there wasn't an old man whose life was counting down.

“Actually, you don't need to overthink it. I've lived long enough.”

His chest rose and fell slightly, and the cluster of Gold Breath trembled along with it. The old man's brow furrowed slightly but quickly smoothed out again.

“As I said just now, I've had my fill in this life. I've fought the battles I needed to fight, met the people I needed to meet. I've felt the winds of the old days and glimpsed the tides of the new era. It's enough. Those who want me to live are nothing more than my children; they don't want this big tree of mine to fall.”

“Continuing to live might not necessarily bring anything new to this country or this society.”

“I should have returned to the dust long ago. Child, in these final moments, stay and chat with me.”

Su Ye was stunned for a moment.

He was shocked by the old man's sense of peace.

At this moment, only the two of them were awake in this operating room. Su Ye remained silent for a while, pulled over a nearby chair, and sat down beside the old man.

“The changes in my own body are quite miraculous, but you don't seem particularly panicked. You seem to have an explanation for all this. Can you tell me about it?”

Su Ye was silent for a while.

He hesitated.

But in the end, he was frank.

“The Great Mist from some time ago should be an important turning point. After that, everything began to mutate—animals, plants, people. The mutations occurring in humans are more like a path leading to the ‘Transcendent’.”

“The bullet fragments in your lungs are the Anchors.”

Hearing the word “Anchors,” the old man's expression finally showed a clear change. Su Ye didn't look at him, only at the cluster of Gold Breath.

“That thing has stayed in your body for too many years. Scars, old injuries, metal fragments, and the complex vascular and bronchial structures near the pulmonary hilum are all tangled together.”

“After Spirit Qi poured in, using the bullet fragments as Anchors, a Metal-type Evolution began to occur.”

Su Ye recalled his understanding of the ‘Transcendent’ from his recent experiences and didn't hold much back from the old man.

“Lungs belong to Metal; the lungs store Gold Breath. Your situation confirms my suspicion—it belongs to a rare Orthodox Path.”

The old man smiled. “In other words, my talent is actually quite decent.”

Facing life and death, the old man remained optimistic. Conversely, Su Ye felt a bit heavy-hearted because he noticed the old man's aura was growing increasingly weak. The Metal-type energy within the lungs was still raging wildly, destroying the old man's vitality.

“Combining medicine and traditional theory, the five internal organs and six hollow organs all have their respective elements.”

“The kidneys govern Water, the heart belongs to Fire, the lungs belong to Metal, the spleen belongs to Earth, and the liver belongs to Wood.”

“Your case is Lung Metal.”

Su Ye did not introduce the Golden Core system to the old man.

The old man fell silent, his mind suddenly clearing. So, what was about to kill him was not a disease.

But the evolution within his body.

He was already old.

He could not withstand this ‘evolution’.

And now, this ‘evolution’ was destroying him!

The old man was silent for a long time, and a trace of pain, unwillingness, and sadness gradually appeared on his face. He thought of the sealed records, the abnormal deaths that had appeared one after another after the Great Mist, and the people and things that had suddenly stopped being normal.

Sure enough, from that moment on, the world was already different.

Everything was germinating in the darkness.

Old relics like them were still trying to use the order of the old era to press everything back into its original shape.

Blades, guns, cannons, discipline, armies, systems—these things were, of course, still important. But what if heaven and earth themselves began to change? Just how much power did this Gold Breath in his chest possess? Just how many existences like this young man had already appeared on this land?

The old man suddenly groaned.

The Gold Breath deep in the pulmonary hilum seemed to sense his emotional fluctuations; it suddenly trembled, and the golden light instantly became sharp.

Su Ye reached out and pressed down.

Water Intent spread silently. It wasn't actual water, yet it was clearer and calmer than water. An extremely faint, cool aura sank into the old man's chest through his palm, gently covering the depths of the pulmonary hilum like a thin water membrane, pressing back the cluster of Gold Breath that was about to erupt.

Buzz.

The Gold Breath trembled slightly, its sharpness smoothed over for an instant.

The old man's eyes snapped open, and his gaze toward Su Ye changed. He took a soft breath, his voice much lower: “It seems the future world will indeed be wonderful. The changes in you are even more miraculous; compared to you, what I have is nothing.”

Su Ye did not deny it.

The old man looked at him and suddenly asked, “Child, tell me, will ‘Transcendent’ truly be a good thing? Do the future changes also hide surging crises?”

Su Ye was silent for a moment before finally saying softly, “Senior, eras must always progress.”

The old man was stunned, then suddenly laughed after a moment. He laughed tiredly, yet with relief.

“Yes, eras must always progress. Now it's the turn of us old relics to be unable to understand the future.”

As he spoke, he looked at the shadowless lamp above, his gaze somewhat dazed.

“A pity, I won't be able to see it.”

After these words, the operating room suddenly fell silent.

Su Ye looked at the old man's aged face, his body full of old wounds, and the cluster of sharp, aggressive Gold Breath deep in his pulmonary hilum that was nearly tearing him apart. His eyes flickered; he seemed to have understood something.

The Xuanjing Society had already appeared, mutated creatures had begun to hunt, and Su Chen had also stepped into this invisible undercurrent. The so-called peace was, in the end, just self-deception.

Not to mention, he was a doctor.

For a doctor to save people has always been their sacred duty.

Su Ye chuckled softly.

“It turns out I was being narrow-minded.”

The old man turned his head to look at him.

Su Ye stood up and walked back to the operating table. All the hesitation, internal conflict, and weighing of pros and cons from before were suppressed at this moment, replaced by an extremely pure focus.

“You...”

The old man seemed to realize something.

Su Ye didn't explain. He simply lowered his head, put on his gloves, and picked up the instruments again.

The Water-element Golden Core vibrated slightly within his body, and his Mental Energy spread out like a tide. The pulmonary hilum, blood vessels, bronchi, scars, and Gold Breath—everything became clear in his perception.

Su Ye looked at the old man, his voice not loud but very steady.

“Senior, as for the future, go see it for yourself.”

The old man was stunned.

In the next moment, Water Intent silently surged into his chest.

That cluster of originally sharp Gold Breath was, for the first time, suddenly gripped by some terrifying power. The rampant and violent Gold Breath was now being held firmly by an invisible giant hand!