Jing Shu spoke with a shrug, her voice light and conversational, but Doctor Zhang went rigid. His hand, reaching for a tray of sterile instruments, stopped mid-air as he processed her words.
He heard how simple she made it sound, yet the weight of the implication forced him to lean down, squinting as he checked the wound again and again. His fingers hovered over the torn flesh before he finally looked up. "Just this bone powder? From those monsters? That's it? Can it really work?"
He had expected something far more complicated, a breakthrough involving high-level academics or rare synthetic compounds.
To him, it felt like struggling through a grueling math problem. Normally, a scholar would have to write out every grueling step, showing the reasoning and the formulas that led to the result. But Jing Shu had skipped the entire chalkboard of logic and simply written the final answer at the bottom of the page.
It made no sense to his mind.
She gave a small nod. When she saw the stunned, glassy expression on his face, she didn't wait for him to recover. She reached out and began packing the crushed bone powder into small containers herself, her fingers moving with efficient precision. "How about I come with you?" she asked, her eyes bright with a sudden spark of curiosity. "I have a few things I want to test anyway."
Doctor Zhang didn't dare take her offer lightly. He kept his focus on the patient's arm, his mind racing with clinical possibilities; he even considered drawing blood right there to test the platelet levels. He just couldn't bring himself to believe it. Something that had stumped the greatest medical minds in the vicinity for so long had apparently been solved with such ease by this girl.
The thought gnawed at him. Why hadn't they thought of it?
"Come on," she urged, nudging him toward the door. "We will know if it works once we try. Otherwise those people are going to bleed out while we stand here staring at each other."
The doctor reached up and wiped a smear of blood off his cheek, though it only served to streak the red further across his skin, making him look quite terrifying. "Let's go."
He rushed off as quickly as he had arrived, his boots thudding against the linoleum. He still clutched his heavy electric saw in one hand, the metal glinting under the flickering hallway lights. As he sprinted through the corridors, he naturally sent another group of people scrambling for the walls.
Li Chenglong hadn't barely stepped out of the way before more screams erupted in the doctor's wake.
"What is wrong with that doctor? Always running around with a saw scaring people," someone grumbled, clutching their chest as the man blurred past. "Does he think this is a horror movie?"
Doctor Zhang ignored the whispers and the fearful looks completely. He led Jing Shu and the rest of the group straight back to the third floor, where the air was thick with the copper smell of blood and the muffled cries of the wounded.
They came to a halt in front of a man who sat trembling on a cot, the very patient who had been scheduled to lose half of his lower body to the saw.
The survivors huddled on the third floor immediately started whispering, their eyes darting between the girl and the doctor. Had they actually found a cure?
"I… I don't want to get cut anymore…" the man sobbed. He had completely lost his nerve, his eyes wide and unfocused as he stared at the electric saw in the doctor's hand.
Doctor Zhang ignored the weeping and pointed at the patient's mangled leg. "Try it."
His own face was a mask of conflicting emotions—part desperate anticipation, part deep-seated doubt.
Jing Shu stepped forward, uncapped a small vial, and sprinkled a generous handful of the greyish bone powder directly onto the raw, weeping wound.
The man let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered, a raw, harrowing sound that echoed off the concrete walls. He began writhing on the thin mattress, his body arching in agony. Two other doctors had to rush over, throwing their weight onto his shoulders and legs to hold him down.
Doctor Zhang leaned in, staring at the site of the injury without blinking.
Right before their eyes, the torn, pulsating flesh began to change. The red surface of the wound rippled and hardened, the edges pulling together with unnatural speed as it sealed itself into a new layer of skin.
The new tissue was paler than the surrounding area and significantly harder. It looked less like flesh and more like polished stone.
Aside from a visible stiffness and a lingering numbness in the nearby muscles, there didn't seem to be any other immediate issues.
The doctor reached out and pressed his thumb against the hardened patch for a long moment. Finally, he straightened his back. "Peripheral nerves are damaged, but it's not a big problem."
A moment later, the patient gingerly sat up. He clutched his leg, his face wet with tears as he shouted in disbelief, "I'm fine! I'm really fine! It's not bleeding anymore!"
"It's really healed!"
"So we don't need amputation anymore?"
"That's amazing, we are saved!"
The entire hall erupted into a chaotic cheer. Those who had already lost their limbs sat in the shadows, their expressions bitter as they counted themselves unlucky to have been treated just an hour too soon.
Doctor Zhang was just as swept up in the excitement, his head bobbing as he repeated the word "good" several times under his breath. "No more amputations… that's even better. If we had known earlier… no, this is still good. It's not too late."
He was a man of science, and he knew better than to demand perfection in the middle of an apocalypse. This result, however strange the texture of the skin, was already incredible.
Swallowing his pride, he turned to Jing Shu and asked for more of the bone powder. Once she handed it over, he rushed off toward the more serious cases, his focus entirely on saving the lives that were still hanging by a thread.
Hope reignited throughout the hall like a sudden flame. Even the recurring, pig-like screams of the patients being treated didn't sound so unbearable anymore.
But Jing Shu wasn't idle. While the doctors worked, she moved to a quieter corner; she had her own theories to test.
She approached a group of patients who had already undergone their amputations and scanned them until she picked one with the lightest injury—a man who had only lost a single finger. After she offered a warm meal as an incentive, the patient quickly agreed to cooperate with her.
She carefully sprinkled a pinch of the bone powder onto his bandaged stump.
The man only let out a small grunt, frowning as he endured the sting. It wasn't even close to the soul-tearing screams from earlier. More importantly, the powder didn't react at all. It sat on the surface of the wound like dry sand, failing to merge with the blood or trigger any visible healing.
That confirmed her suspicion.
The bone powder only reacted with wounds caused by the sludge sirens, or more precisely, it reacted with the unique enzymes in their saliva.
Jing Shu pulled back, her brow furrowing with a hint of disappointment. If this powder had worked on any injury, it would have been priceless beyond measure.
It would have been like a supernatural glue. Any wound, no matter how deep, could have been fixed in an instant.
Then her eyes suddenly lit up as a new thought took hold.
Bone powder and saliva…
If those two were the essential components, they could be combined artificially.
If she managed to capture some live sludge sirens and keep them contained, she could have a constant supply. Whenever someone got seriously injured, she could simply apply a smear of their saliva first, then add the bone powder.
It would be fast and efficient. It would save countless resources.
Or, more safely, she could just collect their saliva in advance and keep it in jars.
Either way, it wouldn't delay the process of stopping a life-threatening bleed.
"I'm actually kind of a genius," she muttered to herself, unable to suppress a small, satisfied smile.
In this harsh world, every resource mattered. This discovery meant she had just gained a new form of wealth and personal security.
Her goal for the next few days became very clear.
She signaled for Xiao Liu to fetch several bowls of clean water. Once they were lined up, she began mixing in different ratios of the bone powder. As soon as the grit touched the water, it dissolved instantly, swirling into a milky white broth that gave off a strange but pleasant aroma, reminiscent of toasted grains and marrow.
She found several volunteers among the crowd.
When some hesitated, she gave them a pointed look. Refuse to volunteer? Then there wouldn't be no free treatment or food from her side.
She had them drink the various mixtures while she stood over them, carefully observing their wounds for any change.
Unfortunately, even by the time Doctor Zhang had nearly finished treating every person in the hall, there weren't no noticeable effects from the ingestion.
The only reactions she recorded were verbal:
"This bone soup is delicious!"
"It smells amazing, I can't even describe it. It's better than real meat. I want more!"
She even went as far as having uninjured people drink a small bowl. Aside from their enthusiastic praise for the rich taste, nothing happened.
There was no physical discomfort, but there were also no special effects like those she saw with the Spirit Spring.
There was no sudden boost in strength. No sharpening of the mind or clarity of vision.
It seemed its only function when consumed was simply tasting good.
She also noticed a peculiar detail. Even when she used just a tiny amount of the powder, the people still found the resulting liquid delicious.
That made her frown as she looked down at the remaining powder in her hand.
Could this bone powder actually become a high-end seasoning in the apocalypse?
She didn't dare test it further on these people. She would have to take a sample back and let professionals examine the chemical makeup. If it turned out to be completely harmless to the human body, maybe she could mix it into the red nematode patties to improve the flavor and make them more palatable.
As for the bone powder itself, she had another theory in her mind.
If people who consumed it regularly later got bitten by the sirens, would they still bleed uncontrollably?
If not, then this could even act like a vaccine.