The newly fixed and improved carriage had become much more stable. Even a cup filled to the brim with water wouldn’t spill a single drop.

Sark lay on a research workbench. When he woke up, he discovered that his body was covered in a layer of white cloth.

Someone was standing right next to him: Su Chen. He was holding a small scalpel in his hand, with all his attention focused on Sark’s midsection as he seemed to be doing something.

Sark wanted to lift his head and see what Su Chen was doing to him, but he soon realized that he couldn’t move at all.

He had no energy left in his body and found it difficult to move even a finger, let alone gather any Origin Energy.

“You’re awake?” Su Chen turned around to glance at him, nonchalantly holding a red strip of meat in his left hand that made a smacking sound as he tossed it onto a nearby silver platter.

“What…… are…… you…… doing to…… me……?”

“What am I doing to you?” Su Chen laughed. “I’m just analyzing the anatomy of your body. Oh, right, you probably can’t see anything right now. Let me help you with that.”

He put down the scalpel in his hand and lifted Sark’s head up.

Sark saw that his midsection was completely opened up, revealing an assortment of vibrantly red organs. One of them was even squirming violently.

Sark was badly stunned. “You……”

He suddenly had trouble breathing.

“Did you get a good look?” Su Chen put him back down. “Don’t be worried. You can’t feel any pain, right? This is an anesthetic that I invented. Pretty good, right? That year during our expedition to the Goldwater Ruins, I had to perform an emergency intervention on my friend. Oh, you can’t even imagine the pain that he felt back then! He would rather have had me give up on treating him and died instead. At that time, I had already thought about creating some kind of medicine that would dull or numb away a person’s sense of pain. I managed to do it in just a few years, but it could only be used on individuals whose strength levels were relatively low — certainly not on anyone in the Light Shaking Realm. I’ve been trying to improve it incessantly. In Kapius’s secret stores, I managed to find a recipe for a substance that can disorient a Light Shaking Realm cultivator. I improved it a bit and then tested it out on you; it seems like it is quite effective.”

Su Chen smiled with satisfaction.

“You…… just kill me!” Sark yelled hoarsely.

“No, no, you won’t die so easily. I would hate to do that to you. The Sand Race are the closest race to humans, and even use a similar method to break into different cultivation realms. This makes you an extremely qualified research subject. If I want to develop a way of reaching the Light Shaking Realm without a bloodline, I will need your help.”

“You’re…… dreaming!” Sark howled with a hoarse voice.

Su Chen sighed. “Yes, it is just a dream. But you know what? The more you do something, the better you get at it. The same goes for dreaming. My Instructor has already completed two of the small goals. To me, cultivating to a higher realm without a bloodline is not something to daydream about without any hope of success. It absolutely can be done…… and that’s the most important part.”

He paused for a moment, then continued, “Pursuing one’s dreams is an incredibly dangerous process. You never know what you will run into along the way. As such, at the very least I must have faith that this is not an impossible dream. Only with this conviction will I have the courage to continue onwards.”

“You bastard…… that has…… bugger all to do with me,” Sark squeezed out from between gritted teeth.

Su Chen shrugged. “You’re my research subject. Doesn’t that mean it does have something to do with you? Also, there are some things that I can’t find anyone else to talk to about, so I can only converse with you about them.”

“You bastard…… I’m going to kill you……!”

Su Chen didn’t grow angry. He continued to write down notes. “The Heartless Medicine’s ability to inhibit pain is extremely potent. The subject’s consciousness is still awake and his organs are in good shape. Any adverse side effects have yet to surface, so this medicine is cleared for use.”

After recording those words down, Su Chen then said somewhat apologetically, “Sorry, I got sidetracked. The most important goal is to research reaching the Light Shaking Realm without a bloodline. However, I can always research a few other things along the way. Don’t worry, we’ll be back on the right path soon again.”

“Like…… hell…… we’re on…… the right…… path……”

Su Chen began to use his blade to slice open Sark’s body once again. This time, it was all the way from his midsection to his chest. “If a Light Shaking Realm cultivator’s skin is cut open and their internal organs aren’t harmed, they can survive for at least three days. However, because I used the Origin Shackles Medicine, your body has no way of using Origin Energy and can only protect itself with physical energy. As such, your survival time is only about three hours. You’d better stimulate your Lotus Platforms as much as you can. That’s the only way you’ll be able to preserve your own life.”

“Just let me die……”

Su Chen sighed. “If you won’t activate them, then I can only forcefully help you do so. It’ll probably be a bit painful though.”

As he spoke, he pushed his finger down firmly.

“AHH!” Sark howled, his body wracked with pain.

He didn’t understand. Hadn’t Su Chen already used the Heartless Medicine on him? How come he could still feel so much pain?

“This is the Soul-Piercing Needle, a kind of attack that targets a person’s soul. The Heartless Medicine’s effect is completely useless against the Soul-Piercing Needle. This is also something I learned from Kapius’s secret stores; it’s pretty useful! However, I’m not that proficient in using it yet, so I’m using you for practice…… killing two birds with one stone, if you will,” Su Chen said all with a smile.

Sark felt as if a demon was laughing at him.

Next, Sark’s soul felt like it was being dragged into hell as it suffered through unceasing waves of torment.

Every time his soul was stabbed, he felt a heart-rending pain reverberate through his consciousness. At the same time, his body instinctively tried to resist, causing his body to start glowing with a white light.

That was the glow from the Lotus Platform’s protective instincts kicking in.

Unfortunately, with Sark restricting it, the Lotus Platform had no way of fully appearing. Even though it fought with all its might, it could only unleash small traces of energy.

Su Chen was waiting for precisely these traces of energy so that he could observe them more closely, come to understand their basic constitution, and eventually find a way to artificially recreate them.

Back then, Su Chen had also experimented on Wei Pei, but the Wei Clan had already surrendered at that point in time, and a few of the bloodier methods wouldn’t have been appropriate to use on Wei Pei. As such, Su Chen’s understanding of the Light Shaking Realm had been far too shallow. Of course, this shallowness only referred to his own expectations.

Now that he had Sark’s help, things were a lot easier. Su Chen had never been polite to his enemies and used any and all kinds of techniques on Sark.

The best part was that Light Shaking Realm cultivators were very powerful and wouldn’t die easily. If he took care of a test subject, he would be able to use it many times and for a long time.

Under Su Chen’s constant stimulations and observations, all of Sark’s Lotus Platform’s secrets were being laid bare before him. One could say that Su Chen knew more about Sark’s secrets than even Sark himself.

If the two of them were to fight again, Su Chen would at the very least be able to fight him one-on-one for a day if not defeat him.

Two hours passed. Sark had yet to die, but Su Chen had already gotten what he was after.

“Very good. Research subjects really are necessary if I want to advance quickly. Unfortunately, I can only continue using him for ten days after using him once.”

Su Chen spoke with great satisfaction and no regret.

He closed up Sark’s wounds and gave him some more medicine, then carefully placed him within an ice cabinet. “Look at how easy you have it! You get to rest now, but I need to continue working.”

He had a total of two ice cabinets in the carriage. The body lying in the other cabinet was the other Light Shaking Realm Sand Race cultivator that Su Chen had just captured earlier today.

“So you’re up next, then……”

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