Chapter 18: Precision Under Pressure

Each person received a live White Mouse.

“Surgery time is two hours. Begin,” the Examiner commanded.

At his signal, fifty candidates immediately began anesthetizing their White Mouse.

They then secured it onto a wax tray.

Once all the required instruments were arranged according to personal habits, they started the thoracotomy on the White Mouse.

After securing his White Mouse, Zhou Can gripped his scalpel, selected the optimal incision point, and slowly began the cut.

Every step of the procedure had to be completed alone—there were no assistants.

This undoubtedly increased the difficulty of the operation.

Performing a third-level incision technique was satisfying—it perfectly avoided the major vessels. The depth of the cut was just right, sparing any organs.

“Wow, why is the bleeding so severe?”

Zhou Can almost thought he had severed a major artery as bright red blood gushed out forcefully.

It startled him greatly.

He quickly used electrocautery to stop the bleeding.

One bleeding point, two, three…

In less than eleven seconds, he had sealed all thirteen bleeding points.

The efficiency of the third-level hemostasis technique was truly exhilarating.

Every move was spot on.

Of course, there were many ways to control bleeding—using hemostatic forceps to clamp the vessel, or ligating or anastomosing a severed vessel would work as well.

The White Mouse’s vessels were very small.

Capable of electrocautery, Zhou Can certainly wasn’t about to complicate things just to show off his skills.

“This bleeding is brutal. It must be another trap set by the Examiner.”

Zhou Can glanced up at the Examiner, who indeed wore a sly smile.

“Pitfall,” he muttered under his breath.

He then turned his attention to check on the other 49 candidates.

Many were scrambling and fumbling with their procedures.

Some even had blood spattered on their faces, too busy to bother wiping it off.

It seemed every White Mouse had been tampered with—the bleeding was ten times faster than normal.

If one’s hemostasis skill wasn’t up to par, the White Mouse might have bled out right after the incision.

Zhou Can felt a wave of relief.

Fortunately, his hemostasis technique was already at the level of a resident physician.

This allowed him to stay composed.

Once the chest cavity was opened, the liver, lungs, heart, and other organs were fully exposed in his surgical view.

He first located the major vessel at the root of the left lung and ligated it near the heart.

This was to prevent massive bleeding when the left lung was removed.

Then he carefully and gradually separated the left lung from the surrounding tissue.

【Congratulations! You have acquired the Separation Technique. Current level: Third-level, 0.2/1000. This skill is used to separate adhesions between body tissues.】

The Separation Technique is an advanced surgical method built upon anatomical knowledge.

Its applications are very broad.

For instance, during tumor resection, it is used to detach the tumor from the surrounding healthy tissue. Or in certain specialized surgeries, an organ must be shifted aside, which also requires the Separation Technique.

Separating necrotic tissue from the patient also relies heavily on it.

The sudden acquisition of another advanced technique both surprised and delighted Zhou Can.

“It’s third-level as soon as I get it?”

Didn’t other medical skills start at first level?

After a brief reflection, Zhou Can quickly understood the reason.

The Separation Technique is derived from the Incision Technique.

Since his Incision Technique was already at third-level, the Separation Technique naturally started at third-level as well.

With each practice on a live specimen, every surgical skill gained 0.2 experience points.

Thus, his current experience stood at third-level: 0.2/1000.

At last, he understood.

The left lung, now completely separated from the surrounding tissue, was decisively removed.

It was fortunate that he had ligated the major vessels beforehand.

Otherwise, given the White Mouse’s tiny blood volume, all the blood would have been expelled in less than ten seconds.

This step was significantly simpler.

He only needed to use electrocautery on the minor vessels.

The overall blood loss was very minimal.

He then cleaned the wound, and after confirming everything was in order, sutured the subdermal tissue and closed the chest cavity.

The entire left lung resection was executed smoothly and efficiently.

After closing the chest, he began his second surgery.

First, he used an elastic band to secure the base of the tail, then severed the mouse’s tail, and, under a microscope, began the vascular anastomosis.

There were four major vessels that needed to be anastomosed.

It was an extremely meticulous procedure.

The sutures were finer than a strand of hair.

The difficulty level was exceptionally high.

Even though his Suturing and Ligature skills were both at third-level, he had to exert tremendous effort to finally complete the anastomosis of the first vessel.

【Congratulations! You have acquired the Vascular Anastomosis Technique. Current level: Third-level, 0.2/1000. This skill is used for anastomosing vessels, nerves, intestines, and other organs.】

Wow, the surprises kept coming one after another.

He had just gained another advanced surgical skill.

And it was also third-level.

Vascular Anastomosis is derived from the Incision and Suturing techniques, and is frequently used in surgical procedures.

Zhou Can gradually realized that once he mastered the four fundamental surgical skills—Incision, Suturing, Ligature, and Hemostasis—any advanced skill he acquired would be on the same level as its corresponding base skill.

For example, if the base skill was at level five, then the advanced skill would also be level five.

This was a great advantage.

It was essentially a shortcut to accelerate his growth.

There were four major vessels in the White Mouse’s tail; he meticulously completed the anastomosis on the remaining three vessels one by one.

After a thorough check,

he released the elastic band that had bound the tail’s root. After bleeding, the anastomosed vessels showed no leakage or blockage.

The end closer to the tail that had resumed blood flow regained its color.

Not bad at all—all four vessels were patent.

Zhou Can breathed a long, relieved sigh.

Normally, the operation should have been completely finished by this stage.

Seeing that the entire procedure had taken less than an hour and now waiting for the examiner, he decided not to waste any time and attempted a nerve anastomosis on the tail.

Because nerves are far finer than vessels and are composed of countless nerve fibers,

this anastomosis was at least ten times more challenging than vascular anastomosis.

A complete nerve bundle is like a tube containing hundreds or even thousands of tiny nerve fibers.

Nerve signals are transmitted along these fibers.

Once the nerve is severed, to fully restore its function, every single nanometer-thin nerve fiber must be exactly realigned.

It goes without saying just how difficult that was.

Zhou Can knew he simply wasn’t at that level.

As long as he could roughly align the broken nerve ends, it would be considered a success.

How much nerve function would ultimately be restored remained uncertain.

All he could do was perform as precise an anastomosis as possible.

Under the microscope, he painstakingly worked on the nerve anastomosis.

He strained every effort to reconnect the severed nerve.

Nerve cells do not regenerate—neurons are permanent.

The partially restored function after anastomosis was due to normal cells generating numerous synapses at the damaged site; these connections helped compensate for the loss.

Once Zhou Can had completed the nerve repair, he proceeded to suture the muscle and dermal layers at the severed tail region.

The tail’s skin was lined with tiny, transverse scales, adding to the complexity of the suturing, but it posed no challenge to him.

After finishing the sutures, he carefully inspected the area.

The White Mouse’s heartbeat was stable and the wound was neatly closed, ready for submission.

Zhou Can checked the time—totaling 80 minutes.

The speed of his surgery was nothing short of miraculous.

Ordinarily, someone with subpar suturing skills might barely manage to anastomose the tail vessels in 80 minutes.

“Examiner, I’m done,”

Zhou Can raised his hand to submit his work.

The Examiner glanced over and remarked, “Oh, here he goes again—being the first to submit.”