Saline flush.

Thorough debridement.

Saline flush repeated.

Holy water rinse...

Well, whether it’s aerobic bacteria, anaerobic bacteria, streptococci, staphylococci, marine Vibrio vulnificus, or marine Mycobacterium marinum—

Saline and holy water can replace hydrogen peroxide and iodine complex, killing all the pathogens that shouldn’t exist!

"By the way, teacher, could you do a bacterial culture and microscopic examination to see what bacteria are in the pus, and treat her with a healing spell... or maybe just use ’Remove Disease’?"

Garrett discussed this as he washed, without even looking up. Elder Elwin hummed in agreement, took the pus Garrett had previously set aside, and started working on it:

Using a sterile loop to pick and place it into different types of culture mediums, releasing a spell to stimulate growth...

Once the process was completed, the majority of the culture mediums were sterile, with no bacteria surviving. However, in one dish that had saline added, bacteria were thriving, looking robust and healthy.

Elder Elwin looked through the microscope, examining from left to right, top to bottom, the bacteria looked completely different from any pathogen Garrett had mentioned in his letters.

"Little Garrett, come take a look, which one is the pathogen?"

Unsure, he dared not use the healing spell indiscriminately. Indiscriminate killing had terrible effects! He mustn’t try it without certainty!

Elder Elwin once practiced by focusing his psychic power on a round, flat bacteria, wiping them all out. Then...

Then there was no after, the rabbit used as a test subject kicked its legs, fell over.

In less than a minute, it had stopped breathing entirely, and no healing spell could bring it back.

Later, he wrote to Garrett only to learn that what he had killed wasn’t bacteria, but the red blood cells in the blood, which carry oxygen and nutrients...

Garrett paused his rinsing, held up both hands to the lens, and observed carefully. While looking, he muttered under his breath:

"Not staphylococcus... not Pseudomonas... not streptococcus. This thing doesn’t look like a bacillus, it looks like a Vibrio, let me think about what Vibrios could be in the wound..."

"Cholera Vibrio... no... Parahaemolyticus... the colonies don’t look the same... Vibrio vulnificus... yes, that’s it! Marine Vibrio vulnificus! Teacher, come look at this one!"

"Which one?"

"That one! That short one, a bit curved... slightly to the upper left of the center, the most typical one..."

Garrett continued to explain and gesticulate, sweat beading on his forehead, but Elder Elwin’s expression remained puzzled. Garrett was frustrated:

How to explain it clearly?

How to point it out to him?

If it were staphylococcus, a simple injection of penicillin would do, okay. But marine Vibrio vulnificus is a Gram-negative bacterium, he didn’t have the specific medication, only healing spells could do!

In such a tiny area under the microscope, he couldn’t point with his finger, nor with a stick... It was impossible to take a photo, print it, and circle it...

If only he could dye the bacteria individually... Dyeing... Dyeing...

Right, a mage’s trick!

Garrett’s eyes lit up. He stared through the eyepiece at the Vibrio vulnificus and quietly adjusted his spell model:

[Dyeing]!

Uh, the whole field of view was dyed a striking red, it looked as though the lens had bled...

Forget it, cancel! Dye again! No progress, cancel, dye again!

Back and forth, after seventeen or eighteen attempts, he finally managed to confine the dyeing to a small area. Then he looked helplessly towards Elder Elwin, pointing at the microscope:

"It’s that one in the middle, the rest is up to you..."

"Why don’t you try first?"

Elder Elwin frowned. The microscopic examination was complete, and the bacteria were identified, why wasn’t Garrett taking action?

If back when dysentery swept through Hartland City, Garrett was just a priest apprentice, lacking the strength to learn targeted bactericidal spells, why was he still unable now when he was already a level six priest?

Garrett was also puzzled. He had tried more than once, and every time he failed. Whether it was bacteria isolated from a patient or bacteria he cultured himself, whether it was bacteria seen under the microscope or bacteria picked up with a sterile loop and smeared on his fingertip...

No matter what, his directed bactericidal spell just couldn’t kill the bacteria.

This return, mastering the directed bacteric

idal spell was one of the skills Garrett needed to learn. Unfortunately, now was not the time, the patient was the priority, and Elder Elwin had to roll up his sleeves and do it himself.

The elder took a careful look through the microscope for a while, slowly exhaled, then placed his hand on the patient. A pale green light emanated from his palm, flowing continuously along Rita’s body.

In a short while, the elder took his hand away, nodding at Garrett:

"It’s done."

He then drew blood from the patient for culture, using the same culture medium, repeated several times, but no desired bacteria could be cultured. The marine Vibrio vulnificus had been completely eradicated!

The targeted bactericidal spell was indeed powerful. Garrett silently marveled for a moment, returned to his position, and continued to channel divine magic:

Emerald vines grew from his hands, burrowing into the patient’s wound, deep into the blood vessels. Upwards, upwards, until they touched the fresh blood flow, then retracted a bit.

Injecting holy water, aspirating, re-injecting, re-aspirating... thoroughly cleaning the blood vessels, ensuring no pus or necrotic tissue remained.

The completely cleaned wound base, red and fresh granulation tissue, grew slowly under the healing spell. In the blink of an eye, it grew a bit, and in another blink, grew some more...

Ah, under the healing spell, the growth was rapid, the wound was without exudate, no infection of the wound surface, no need for negative pressure drainage—of course, no need to wait for it to heal slowly. Saved so much trouble, if it were in the past, such a wound would need dressing changes back and forth for at least half a month!

Garrett recalled the days and nights he spent changing dressings for diabetic foot patients, sighed, and contentedly approved of the healing spell. Watching the granulation grow flush with the skin edge, he quickly stopped the healing spell and started promoting skin flap growth:

The removed pale dead skin edge, new skin, climbing up along the fresh red granulation. Covering the back of the hand, covering the palm, covering the fingers...

Bit by bit, the fragmented, visibly boned right hand transformed into a red, peeled-looking right hand, then into a complete right hand. The skin on the hand was smooth and tender, with no signs of calluses or traces of hardship and labor.

One more [Remove Disease] spell, to help the body metabolize the toxins produced by the marine Vibrio vulnificus, protecting the patient from dying of multi-organ failure. After the divine magic, another body temperature check—

Very good, the body temperature returned to normal, basically healed!

Releasing the full anesthesia spell, the woman sat up from the operating table, holding a completely smooth hand, tears streaming down her face. Suddenly, she flipped off the table like a madwoman, rushed out of the operating room, raising her right hand high:

"Old man! Did you see it! My hand is saved! Saved! Saved..."

Garrett stood at the door of the operating room, watching the couple embracing and crying, and smiled softly. Then, he quietly left, re-entering the busy crowd of the free clinic.

"This position for auscultation is not right... needs to go up a bit more..."

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