Early the next morning, Jeanne, who had just woken up, was called away by Kal'tsit to help out. Walking along the road, she didn't quite understand what matter could possibly require her intervention. However, when Jeanne arrived at the medical camp and saw the Sanguinarch with his gloomy, overcast expression on one side, she understood perfectly well what Kal'tsit intended to do.
As for why this Sanguinarch hadn't taken the chance to escape? The reason was that Patriot was standing right beside him to keep watch, holding a great halberd in one hand and a bottle of Holy Water in the other. If he dared to move even an inch, that bottle of Holy Water would be smashed over his head, "transcending" this vampire right then and there. Because of this, for the sake of survival, the Sanguinarch kept a stiff, iron-blue face and barely dared to breathe.
Jeanne recalled that Kal'tsit had mentioned to them yesterday that she wanted to use the Sanguinarch as a teaching tool for orthopedic surgery to demonstrate a lesson to the doctors. She hadn't expected that by this morning, Kal'tsit would have already brought the Sanguinarch out. But the barrier was still being maintained! How did she do it? Jeanne could sense that the barrier filled with sacred power outside the village had not been canceled today, and those guards couldn't possibly have deactivated it.
In other words... they had forcibly hauled this Sanguinarch out? That was the only handling method Jeanne could think of at the moment. Crude and simple, but effective. Though the fact that this Sanguinarch wasn't dead yet truly exceeded Jeanne's imagination. Was this guy really a Blood Demon? With such tenacious vitality, how was he a bat? He was clearly a cockroach that had achieved enlightenment.
"Is the vitality of a Sanguinarch really this powerful? He was beaten by you until he couldn't even take care of himself, yet he's still this resilient against being tossed around?"
Since the crowd hadn't fully gathered yet, Jeanne walked to Patriot's side. She was currently curious about the vitality of creatures like Sanguinarchs, so she questioned Patriot in a low voice. When the Sanguinarch nearby saw her arrive, he subconsciously shrunk his head back. Finding that even moving his body was a struggle, he simply closed his eyes—out of sight, out of mind.
He was truly terrified of this young girl. Ever since that strange liquid of hers had been splashed onto him, the recovery power he was so proud of had weakened to the level of a child's. Although the smell of this little girl's blood was indeed fragrant, she was poisonous! If he could go back to the past, he would definitely give his past self—the one who agreed to Theresis's request—a severe thrashing.
Was the blood at home not fresh enough, or had his coffin been gnawed by rats? Why did he have nothing better to do than come to Ursus? Especially to pick a fight with this little girl wearing special armor on her forehead. Now look at what happened—you've toyed yourself into a wreck, are you happy now?
In his eyes, Jeanne was currently a poisonous pufferfish! Although she looked delicious, trying to take a sip of her blood would cost him his life. And the current Sanguinarch had no intention of throwing his life away for a single bite. He had lived a long time, but he wasn't tired of living; what kind of madness would drive him to gamble his life for nothing? This Sanguinarch swore in his heart that from now on, let alone causing them trouble, he wouldn't even set foot in Ursus for the rest of his life. He would stay as far away from this little girl as possible.
This time he was lucky and found some unlucky souls to drink from. If there had been no one around next time, he would have become just another stone statue in this snowfield.
Hearing Jeanne's question, Patriot glanced at the Sanguinarch feigning death on the ground, then shook his head and said to Jeanne: "Not all possess such powerful vitality. Although Sanguinarchs have very tenacious lives, there are likely not many who reach this level."
Patriot had some understanding of the Blood Demons; in his knowledge, Blood Demons with this kind of vitality would not number more than five in total. As for why the survival ability of the one before them was this strong, it was likely just an extremely rare exception.
But even so, in Jeanne's eyes, a creature like a Sanguinarch was still remarkably formidable! Thinking about it carefully, if she didn't have Holy Water, the only way to kill a Sanguinarch would be to wait until his self-healing exceeded its limit and lost its effect. That was very difficult! Even if she did nothing else but pin this vampire to the ground and beat him all day and night, it would still take quite some effort.
Why else would vampires be the race humans once most hoped to become? Long-lived, powerful, and very hard to kill; if not for a few well-known weaknesses, they would be equivalent to perfect lifeforms. While the Blood Demons of the Sarkaz were not quite that powerful, as a race, they already stood above many others in Terra. Those who could be compared to them were perhaps only those who inherited the power of mythical beasts—the so-called Elder races. And there were once at least ten such tribes in the former Kazdel! One could only imagine how powerful the Sarkaz nation used to be.
"Since everyone has arrived, we should begin today's surgery. First, let me introduce: this is today's patient, with multiple comminuted fractures throughout his body."
The group didn't wait long before all the doctors arrived one after another. Kal'tsit began her teaching for the day. The Sanguinarch, being used as today's teaching material, looked at the people surrounding him and felt his self-respect being insulted. If this were a short while ago, the way these people were acting would have been enough for him to drain their blood or simply let them die in agony.
But the situation had changed now. The Sanguinarch took a secret peek at Jeanne, who was standing beside him with an unreadable expression, and then closed his eyes once more. Fine, if I have to endure some insults, then I'll endure them! At least it's better than being drenched in that unknown liquid by this child and turned into a stone statue.
He had seen with his own eyes a few snow-white fellows carrying the stone statues of his subordinates, preparing to place them in their camp as street lamps. However, before they could realize that idea, they were stopped by a white Cautus, and in the end, they only took one statue as a trophy.
And so, Kal'tsit led the doctors in performing surgery on this Sanguinarch, marking the beginning of another period of hell for him. One could imagine—would the people of this village give an enemy any special treatment? Although there was no active abuse, they didn't want to use anything precious on him either. For example, anesthetic drugs; such things were more precious than gold here, so how could they bear to use them on an enemy?
It was only because they saw how wretched his condition was, and the fact that performing surgery without any anesthesia was a bit too anti-human, that they gave him some. It was just the simplest anesthetic herbs, combined with the physical anesthesia Jeanne performed for him on the side, that finally made this guy quiet down completely.
Under these circumstances, and before Jeanne's very eyes, Kal'tsit completed a surgery that could be called a miracle. Jeanne found it inconvenient to describe the process, as the surgery truly exceeded her imagination; it was essentially like playing a game of "Spot the Difference" and "Jigsaw Puzzle" inside a living body, with a bit of "Match-Three" thrown in.
Even the usually bold Jeanne felt a bit uncomfortable seeing such a scene. It wasn't the same as flesh and blood flying on a battlefield; seeing it for the first time was truly hard to get used to. But for the safety of these doctors, she had to stay and keep an eye on the Sanguinarch. She could only force herself to look at the mangled body, occasionally performing another "physical anesthetic".
When the surgery finally ended, every doctor who had watched or assisted was filled with heartfelt admiration for this skilled physician. If they had performed this surgery, the outcome would likely have been the guy being carried out and buried somewhere with a good view. Furthermore, while Kal'tsit was operating, she explained medical techniques they could use.
Just as Jeanne sent this guy back to that area again, she suddenly heard news brought by Talulah, who had come looking for her: the Emperor's Blade they were waiting for had already arrived at the snowfield.