Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy-Chapter 2803: Root Grafting

The old man, while very enthusiastic about the whole thing, was also very wary of it. To have someone cut into you and then add something into your body that shouldn’t exist was enough to scare just about anyone.

"Are you sure it will work?" the old man asked as Alex began searching through his Soul Space for the perfect Fire spiritual root.

Alex paused for a moment and turned toward the old man. "I’ll be honest, I’m not 100% sure it will work. I have successfully performed operations on the spiritual roots of multiple individuals in the past, but those had been for existing ones. This is the first time I’m actually trying to add something."

The old man gulped a little. "What are the chances then?"

"About 80%," Alex said with some degree of hesitation. "I don’t doubt my ability to operate on your body... but there can always be complications I cannot predict. And more importantly, there is a chance that your body will reject the spiritual root that I will give you, which could be a problem."

Alex’s explanation caused the old man to worry a little about what he had agreed to do. "Maybe I should rethink this," the old man said.

"Don’t worry," Alex said. "In the case that your body does reject it, I can operate on it and take it out. That should work."

It took the old man some more time to think through what he was going to do, but he accepted his situation. "Alright, whatever. I’ll do it. As they say, there’s no reward without any risk."

Alex smiled and continued his search.

It didn’t take him long to find a pair of Fire spiritual roots that would go on either side of the dantian. They were completely frozen inside a storage bag in his Soul Space, so Alex pulled them out of the bag and brought them outside.

The frozen lumps of flesh appeared on Alex’s hand, and he waited for them to naturally thaw, but with a gentle push from his True Fire dao to speed it up.

At the same time, the old man prepared himself to be operated on. After some time, they were both ready.

The old man lay on a bed without pillows, his eyes staring directly up at the ceiling of the hut in this village they were staying in. The doors were shut, with Whisker keeping watch just in case.

Alex stood before the old man, holding a dagger in his hand for the operation. There weren’t many medical tools with him that could work on someone with such a strong body, so this Divine-rank dagger would have to do.

Alex prepared a few pills, one of which was to numb all the pain the old man would soon feel. He had also prepared a pill to completely knock out the old man, but the old man had refused.

If something went wrong, he wanted to be conscious to tell Alex that something had gone wrong.

Alex handed the other pills to the old man and asked him to eat the first one. He waited until the old man stopped feeling anything but numbness in his body, and then started operating on him.

Alex made a horizontal cut through the old man’s navel area, cutting deep enough to reveal the dantian. The blood pouring out attempted to hide the dantian from him, but Alex easily found it with his spiritual sense.

Three spiritual roots were available on either side of the old man’s dantian: Metal, Earth, and Neutral. Alex searched for the location where the Fire spiritual root would have to go.

Once he noticed the free area, he was ready.

"I’m going to make an incision on your dantian. That means all the Qi in your body is likely going to escape, and you’ll feel as if you’re dying. Don’t worry because it will be fine afterward."

The old man paused for a moment and then nodded. "Alright, I’m prepared. Do it."

Alex nodded and made the cut. He cut off the tiniest amount of flesh from the side of the dantian to make a hole where the spiritual root would have to attach.

The old man gasped suddenly, and Alex held him down. The Qi inside the old man began escaping through the hole.

Alex didn’t waste too much time and immediately placed the Fire spiritual root along the incision. He pressed the two together with his Qi, keeping them in place.

Then, he made another incision on the other side and placed the other root there as well. He pushed on both spiritual roots at the same time, waiting for a moment as the Qi escaping from the old man was blocked by them.

"Eat one of the pills," Alex said and waited.

The old man nodded and ate the pill. As the pill made its way through the old man’s body, it healed his wounds, which included not just the incisions along the dantian but also the full original cut on the navel area to get access to the dantian.

As the old man’s body healed, Alex’s Qi and senses were pushed back by the old man’s body. It was always difficult to use Qi and spiritual sense in another person’s body to start with.

Alex still pressed however he could and waited. When he finally felt he no longer needed to press and that the root and dantian had firmly been grafted into one another, he relaxed.

Alex stayed next to the old man for a while, keeping his eyes on him just in case there were any changes. The old man couldn’t just yet feel the changes in his body that would be the greatest indicator of whether things were going well or badly.

Minutes passed, and the old man remained on the bed, still. There was no change in him at all.

"I... I think we can conclude it here," Alex said. "Your body didn’t reject the spiritual root."

"Seems so," the old man said with a stunned look.

"Congrats," Alex said. "You now have a Fire spiritual root."