To the side, Zhu chortled. Yet, he also maintained a certain distance. His expression made it seem that hearing Neils roaring his lungs out was the best entertainment in the world which he could hope to find.

Looking at Neils trying to tear apart the saffron cloth, Zhu frowned. A stream of Ki travelled down his feet and into the ground, reaching to where Neils struggled with the ball of cloth. With Zhu’s stealthy yet steady infusion of Ki, the cloth’s durability reached its peak and beyond. No matter how Neils struggled, it was in vain.

As time passed, Neils’s struggles grew fiercer by the second. Yet, like a seasoned hunter, Zhu paid him no heed, instead looking further ahead into the tunnel. Raising his hand, a small dagger bearing an insignia of a dragon breathing out fire materialising within from thin air.

Like if it was burning, the insignia slowly turned a shade of red, transitioning back and forth between an amber colour. Waves of heat poured out from the dagger, as if it were on fire. With the flickering, flame-like glow, the insignia appeared to come to life.

Yet, despite the heat, Zhu’s palm remained steady. Pointing the dagger towards the depths of the passageway, Zhu patiently waited.

A sound akin to that of a wall collapsing filled the tunnel all of a sudden, even eclipsing the sounds of Neil’s struggle within the saffron cloth. Hearing the sound, Zhu heaved a relieved breath.

While putting away the dagger, his gaze remained on Neils. A serious look appeared on his face, as if he were pondering over a grave matter. Yet, within half-a-second, he arrived at his decision. His expression eased almost instantly after he grew serious.

Looking straight ahead, he kicked the cloth sack forwards as he walked while carrying Zack on his shoulder like a sack of grain. However, two steps in, he stopped. His brows sank. His lips arched downwards in a frown.

This is annoying. His skin is very thick. My foot’s starting to feel irritated.

Bending downwards, he dragged the cloth ball along like another bag of grain, paying no heed to Neils struggling within.

After a fifteen-minute walk, he arrived in front of a pair of giant doors. His gaze grew solemn as he stared fixated at the doors, not moving a muscle. Recovering from his daze a few moments later, he kicked the sack Neils was in.

“Neils, enough. Shut up. We’re here.” Zhu spoke in a solemn tone.

“….” Despite Zhu’s words, Neils didn’t speak a word. However, the struggle within the cloth sack grew more and more intense, to the point it began getting onto Zhu’s nerves.

Heaving a resigned breath, Zhu grabbed the cloth before pulling it backwards, like forcefully removing a bedsheet from a bed.

The immense force lifted Neils off the ground, who landed a few moments later with a thud. A familiar stench emanated from all over his body. His two snake-like eyes glared at Zhu, as if wanting to skin him alive. He opened his mouth to curse.

However, as soon as he opened his mouth, he gagged. No sound came from him whatsoever. His fork-like tongue convulsed.

Eyes fixated on Zhu pushing against the wooden doors, a bottle and two tubes as big as a finger appeared in Neils’s hand, whose contents the latter mixed within the bottle before pouring it all over his body. Within a matter of moments, wherever the blend pouring out of the bottle touched, the smell emanating from his body eased. Self-consciously sniffing himself a few times, Neils began rubbing the mixture he just spread, removing the smell from all over his body altogether.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Neils stared at Zhu walking into the hall behind the wooden doors. His gaze hardened. He screamed in fury, “When you said that we can do the operation in your monastery’s rumoured sanctuary, I was interested; I wanted to see what it was. But fuck you. The heck was that?”

Without looking back, Zhu began speaking a tale of his own: “Earlier this morning, I had a lot of stuff to prepare. Feeling I wouldn’t make it in time, for which I commend my foresight, I began preparations since last night. After finishing the preparations throughout the night, I went to wake Zack up. But he wasn’t there. When I opened his room, I almost gagged. Some stinky snake bastard had used a medicine to drag out impurities from this brat.”

Zhu patted the unconscious Zack on his shoulder before continuing reciting his tale: “What the snake bastard did was right. The boy today would be having an operation and forcing out the impurities would help the doctor increase his rate of success.

“Then why am I calling that doctor a snake bastard? Because the bastard forgot that the kid knows nothing about the things going around, and the bastard too, being too engrossed playing the high and mighty doctor, he forgot that while expelling impurities, cleaning the body is important. Not only did he leave Zack in the hut with no cleaning arrangement to speak of, he even closed the doors, leaving no ventilation.

“When I opened the door, the stink was horrible. Albeit the weakest, even a sage like me wanted to puke. Pulling out Zack, thinking it was an enemy attack, my robes got stained. After that, I had to spend an hour more to clean this kid and get rid of that mountain load of impurities.

“Cleaning up the mess that snake-bastard made, I got late despite preparing since last night. But you know what, not only did I get scolded for being late, I also got cursed when I returned the favour. Sigh… What an idiotic bastard, wouldn’t you agree?”

Zhu looked at Neils indifferently.

An awkward smile appeared on Neils’s face. He laughed weakly: “Ha… haha… wh-what an idiotic bastard. Right?”

Looking at Zhu’s eyes, Neils realised he successfully infuriated the latter. Although he felt a sense of fear from the knowledge of the former’s strength, he felt more a feeling of accomplishment than reverence or fear. Yet, he couldn’t express his sense of accomplishment. Sighing, he got up before changing the clothes on his body.

Following behind Zhu, Neils walked through a series of corridors before arriving in front of a room. A board on it hung, two words carved into its surface.

“Medical Room?” Neils read out aloud.

Zhu nodded. “This room has all the equipment you’d need. And it also has a rune-formation, which would assist you in recovering at the same time as you work on the surgery. With this, I don’t think you’d need to worry about running out in the middle of the surgery.”

Neils’s expression turned solemn as well as he asked, “I know I asked it a few times, but… Is that William really sure of it? Even I don’t have an estimated chance of over ten percent. And that’s me being generous. As for exact, even I can only tell after checking the exact condition. But still, this can be dangerous to his life. Is he really serious?! Why did he send this kid here to die instead of keeping him at home? I get this kid has nowhere to go, but dying like this…”

Zhu patted Neils’s shoulder. “William said he trusts you. Even in the worst case, you won’t let him die.”

Both men looked at the conflicted expression on each-other’s faces. After a moment, they burst out laughing.

“That fucker. He really has a glib tongue. I swear I’ll cut it off someday.” Neils chortled.

Zhu nodded before continuing to laugh.

Finishing their session of laughter, the atmosphere between the two eased. Smiling faintly, Zhu passed the unconscious Zack and a ring over to Neils. Neils nodded before soundlessly entering the medical room.

Putting Zack down on the table in front of him, Neils washed his hands before putting a single glove on his left hand. His right hand glowed in a dim-silver light. Looking at his hand, Neils controlled his Ki, finely focusing it on the tips of his nails. Moving his hand over the glove on his left hand, Neils nodded in satisfaction.

A clean, thumb-sized cut appeared on the back of the glove.

Neils turned to face Zack. Using a syringe from his left hand, he injected some medicine into Zack’s bloodstream.

All’s ready. Now, time to begin.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Neils walked forwards.