Plague Doctor

Chapter 519: Dissecting the Black Billy Goat

The basic structure of the Black Billy Goat made it impossible to tell whether this goat's leg was the front leg or hind leg. There was a possibility that the creature did not even have that distinction, just like how the tentacles, mouths formed a meatball. The centre of the meatball was the giant eye that could not be determined as left or right eye. Therefore, the leg was temporarily defined as lower limbs, maybe the 4 lower limbs were distinct but for now they wouldn't know. Its surface structure was similar to a common goat's leg. Gu Jun categorized them into thigh, knee, calf and foot. The biggest difference between human and goat was that the latter did not have the buttocks region. Human thigh anatomically speaking included the buttocks.

Based on the previous videos, it showed that the Black Billy Goat did not possess buttocks. To put it simply, it only had the body and 4 legs. It had no head, no tail. The tentacles, mouths and eyes were part of its body. The lower limb that they had was blown apart with part of the meatball still stuck to it. How to differentiate them in terms of anatomy would have to be done after a whole Black Billy Goat was captured. However, the lower leg was complete enough to prove that Black Billy Goat did not have a butt. To borrow an analogy, it was more like a meatball standing on 4 sticks. Therefore, Gu Jun named the part above the knee and below the meatball as the thigh part. The noun was like a needle that pierced into Xiao Huiwen's thigh, it made his face twitch… it did not feel good. Why? They were both graduates from Eastern State Medical University, how come the taste of one was so amateurish?

Not only Xiao Huiwen, for the other experts, if they had to choose between the thigh and buttocks, they would choose the latter. It was more professional and had already confirmed concepts like anterior buttocks and posterior buttocks. Furthermore, upon closer inspection, the thigh meat was slightly rounder than the rest, perhaps that was the conventional ass…

Regardless, it was the person holding the knife that had the naming rights. Thigh part was easy to understand anyway. After initial categorization, before the official autopsy, Gu Jun wondered how to start the incision. Uncle Dan, Zhang Huohuo took out some rulers to measure the lower limb. It was 206 cm long and the thickest part at the thigh was 198 cm in diameter, the thinnest was 163 cm; the thickest part at the calf was 141 cm in diameter and the thinnest 95 cm. The foot was shaped like hooves. It was the part the Black Billy Goat used to trample against the ground. It was 102 cm large, the size of a normal child. If a person was stomped by this thing, undeniably they'd be dead.

"We should start with the most injured thigh part." Gu Jun said. The decision was agreed by everyone inside the car and the experts watching. Xiao Huiwen sighed in relief. He was afraid that Gu Jun would go for the prime cuts. The limb was more damaged at the thigh followed by the calf. The foot was almost unscathed. This might be a weakness they could use against the Black Billy Goat. Why would the explosions cause the biggest damage to the Black Billy Goat's thigh? Was it related to its body structure? These questions needed more evidence to answer but at least now they knew that should they run into the same creature, they should focus on the lower limbs' thighs first.

The thigh part was ruined. The surface was charred and there was not much fur. Gu Jun planned to cut out a piece of its skin and checked under the microscope to see if it had pores. Then he'd dig under the skin to see if the epidermal structure was similar to earth's organism or normal goat. He held the Carlot Scalpel in his right hand and edged the tip along the charred wound. He sawed with twice his usual strength. Even through the protective suit, everyone could see the set of Gu Jun's jaw. Uncle Dan sighed, "This thing's skin sure is thick."

"Yea." Gu Jun hissed through his teeth and applied more force. "The skin layer is very tough… I'm afraid autopsy tools won't come in useful…" After much pushing and sawing, Gu Jun finally cut open a surface skin that was 8cm times 6 cm in size. When the cut was complete, the scalpel almost flew out from his hand. Thankfully it was caught by his hands of dexterity. The Zoogs at the corner shivered, they were afraid that they might die from a flying knife…

At that moment, Gu Jun noticed that the quest completion rate in his mind had moved from 0 to 0.01 percent.

"This is it, it's working!" He told everyone the great news but he did not elaborate. In the past autopsy mission, Gu Jun would have greater quest progress at the start of the dissection and the progress gain would gradually slow down. If that was still the same, then he might really spend the next 289 hours working non-stop since he only got a 0.01 percent increase from his first cut.

However, 289 hours were almost 12 days and a normal person could not work 12 days without rest. The toll would be too much on the mind and body. That worried Gu Jun, he might not have enough time to complete the mission.

"Gu Jun, let me try with normal tools." Wang Ruoxiang suggested, "I'm the weakest here physically, if I can cut through it, then everyone else can." Uncle Dan and Zhang Huohou were males, they had naturally greater strength. Gu Jun nodded. Wang Ruoxiang grabbed a normal scalpel and cut at the thigh's skin. It was not a technical cut. She was merely making slashes. Her face was red but the knife barely made a nick in the skin, this thing had thicker skin than a crocodile. Uncle Dan and the rest should be able to saw through it with some applied pressure but this presented a new problem. Just to deskin the leg would exhaust a lot more time than anticipated.

"It is probably because of this skin that…" Gu Jun speculated, "The leg can still be so well-preserved after that constant bombardment." Staring at the skin, he was reminded of the cuticle inside the cave as well as the epidermis of Necroskins… Gu Jun's mind agitated, some visions swam before him.

Skin, its importance was often ignored by humans and its tensile strength underestimated. This is because human skin scars and breaks easily. They can break out in rashes. But the skin is always exposed to the air and comes into contact with various bacteria, it is the first layer of the human immune system's defence. The skin is important and very tough.

Gu Jun noticed that Black Billy Goat and the Necroskins that were suspected worshippers of Shub-Niggurath had extremely tough skin. They were not scales, they were better than scales. It was also a way to differentiate them from R'yleh followers.

"Carry on." Gu Jun refocused. "We should clean around these cuts first." The thigh part that lost its skin started to leak out with green liquid. It blurred the sight under the skin, it made it hard to tell whether there was fascia superficialis, vena superficialis, cutaneous nerve and the like. The green liquid kept on pouring out. It was hard to clean it up while preserving the sub-cutaneal tissue. Using cotton balls was not helping the problem. Once Wang Ruoxiang cleaned the leakage, the liquid kept on pouring. Gu Jun could not make the cut at all. The experts provided a solution. A catheter could be inputted into the subdermal area to use it to suck away the liquid inside the skin. Eventually the leakage would stop.

"It'll stop." Xiao Huiwen was confident. "The mass conserves after all."

Indeed, there was the law of conservation of mass. But as Gu Jun stared at the goat's leg, he felt uneasy.

With a sudden pop, a large area of the thigh area suddenly deflated and sunk.

"Huh?" Uncle Dan gasped. "This thing is transmuting!" Wang Ruoxiang's heart squeezed. The goat's leg inner tissues appeared to be liquifying, which was why the green liquid leakage wouldn't stop. On the screen, Xiao Huiwen's face was stunned. The other experts argued frantically.

Inside Gu Jun's heart, another timer began. And it was ticking by rapidly. It numbed his skin. There was plenty of tissue and flesh under the skin. There were blood veins, lymph nodes, nerves, muscles… if all of them melted into liquid… Then how were they going to continue the autopsy?

Wu Siyu who was squatting at the corner suddenly stood up and said urgently, "My synaesthesia tells me that it is trying to run away, the goat's leg is still alive!"