Shang took a deep breath and walked over to the table.
Then, he pulled down the upper part of his uniform and lay down on the icy table.
From the table, Shang saw the Dean walk over to the thing lying in the room. Shang wasn't entirely sure how the thing had suddenly lost consciousness again, but this had probably been Duke Whirlwind's work.
The Dean put the thing onto the table beside Shang. The table was easily big enough.
"Keep it unconscious," the Dean said.
"No worries," Duke Whirlwind answered from the side.
From now on, Shang couldn't see the Dean anymore since he was lying face-down on the table.
"I will create the cut now. Are you prepared, Shang?" the Dean asked.
"Go ahead," Shang said.
Meanwhile, Shang took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself.
Shang didn't see it, but the Dean took out a shining black knife, which seemed to be made of something like obsidian.
Then, the Dean put the tip of the blade on Shang's neck.
Shang felt the coldness of the blade, and his heart began to beat faster.
And then, the blade went into Shang's body.
The cut was slow and deliberate, careful not to injure the bone.
Shang felt the searing pain of a cut slowly opening above his spine.
Luckily, he could deal with something like that. It wasn't even as bad as his destroyed left arm.
On the side, Mattheo cringed in pain.
He had no idea how Shang could take something like that.
After some seconds, the Dean pulled the knife away.
There was now a cut going all the way from Shang's neck to his behind.
The Dean put his hands into the open wound and pulled it to the side.
Not many people had the luxury of seeing a human essentially being skinned. The skin and the muscles offered a lot of resistance, but the Dean's power was far beyond their ability to resist.
Shang took a deep breath through his gritted teeth.
This was way worse than the cut!
His flesh was being pulled from his very bones!
"Soran," the Dean said.
Shang heard a couple of steps and then felt a slight burning feeling coming from his back.
"Soran is using his Wind Mana to stop your flesh and skin from regenerating," the Dean emotionlessly said. "Anything that regrows will be cut away."
"How is the pain?" the Dean asked.
"Bearable," Shang answered, but his voice sounded strained.
"That's good," the Dean said. "The previous students that agreed to undergo this procedure have done way worse than you up to now. The next two steps will be the most important and most painful ones."
"Go ahead," Shang said with a strained voice.
The Dean put the knife away and took out his spear.
Shang didn't see it.
Then, the Dean put his spear on the highest part of Shang's neck.
"This will be quick but very painful," the Dean said.
Shang took a deep breath and gritted his teeth.
Then, his head nodded.
And then, the Dean's spear began to rotate like a drill.
CRRRRRRK!
In just a single second, the spear had drilled a hole into Shang's neck, and it completely severed all the nerves going from Shang's body to his brain.
At that exact moment, it was like every single nerve in Shang's entire body had been cut.
All the nerves in his body sent the most painful signals of pain they could send.
Shang stopped breathing as his vision swam.
Was this even pain?
It felt so unfamiliar.
It was like this wasn't even pain anymore.
This was a feeling of inescapable doom.
Shang could feel nothing but pain coming from his entire body, even though all his nerves had been cut.
Shang's instincts were to just directly die.
If someone got their neck broken, they very often died instantly.
The brain just became overloaded with everything and shut down.
Shang gritted his teeth and ground them down until he could feel their splinters with his tongue.
Shang's eyes were strained wide open.
Even worse, Shang couldn't breathe anymore!
"You can survive over ten minutes without air. Don't panic," the Dean said evenly. "The procedure will be done by then."
Shang only barely registered the Dean's voice.
"You are still awake. That's good. No one has managed to come this far before. You won't feel what I'm doing back here with your nerves cut," the Dean said.
"You just have to wait and survive."
Shang had difficulties hearing the Dean's voice, but he had understood the last part.
'I just have to wait and survive!'
'Wait and survive!'
'Wait and survive!'
'Every second that passes is one second less I have to wait!'
'Every second I think to myself is another second that passes!'
'Ten minutes are only 600 seconds! Every six seconds is already one percent of the time I have to wait!'
Shang tried every trick to keep himself alive and motivated.
He only had to wait!
Only wait!
As Shang tried to keep himself alive, he heard the most disgusting sound he had ever heard in his life.
It sounded slimy.
It sounded like someone was putting their ear to a tube of toothpaste being squeezed out.
The sound without context wasn't disgusting, but with the context, Shang wanted to hurl.
However, he couldn't even hurl right now.
This was the sound of his viscous bone marrow being squeezed out of his body!
Shang felt the vibrations of the sound going through his entire body, and his vision swam even more.
The sound was almost worse than the pain.
"Bone marrow removed," the Dean said after the sound stopped.
Shang saw the thing on the table vanish from within his range of vision as the Dean took it.
Shang heard several squelching and cracking sounds.
Ten seconds later, the sounds stopped.
"Shang, concentrate on your left arm! Your body is healing too quickly, and it's difficult for me to keep up!" Soran said with a strict voice.
Shang had lost his concentration, and his Mana was rushing towards his back.
Shang continued grinding his teeth as he strained his mind to focus on his left arm.
"Good! Keep it like that," Soran said.
SLAP!
"Wake up!" Shang heard Duke Whirlwind shout with a suppressed voice.
Mattheo had lost his consciousness, and Duke Whirlwind had slapped him awake.
"You have to get used to such things!" Duke Whirlwind reprimanded.
Mattheo didn't answer.
Shang's head was looking away from Duke Whirlwind and Mattheo, which was why he didn't see them right now.
After a short moment, Shang felt a vibration go through his body, and the squelching sound returned.
Shang didn't feel any more or less pain than before.
"Marrow replaced," the Dean said coldly.
"Partial bone replacement is next."
CRACK! CRACK!
Shang felt one powerful force after another vibrate throughout his body.
Clank. Clank.
Then, Shang heard the sound of pieces of bone being flung to the floor.
At this moment, the Dean was cutting off the upper part of each of Shang's vertebrae.
After many cracking sounds, the Dean put parts of the thing's vertebrae on top of Shang's vertebrae.
Then, the Dean took out a crystal filled with Light Mana and held it to these parts to fuse them.
This was the longest part, and it took over three minutes.
After he was done, the Dean looked at how Shang's spine was acting.
The smaller pieces of bone from the thing were slowly changing shape and adapting to Shang's body.
While this was happening, Shang's bones began to change color.
The thing's bones were black, and Shang's spine was also turning black now.
After the Dean saw how Shang's spine acted, he used the crystal filled with Light Mana to close everything from low to high.
A minute later, Shang's entire back looked like nothing had happened, except for the spear poking out of his neck.
The Dean also put the crystal on Shang's left arm to heal it.
Lastly, he put it on Shang's body until he had been refilled with life energy.
"Everything that happens from now is only theoretical," the Dean said as he took hold of his spear.
"Everything seems to have worked perfectly well."
"I've done all I can. The rest is up to you, Shang," the Dean said.
And then, he pulled out his spear.
Shang's skin and flesh closed.
Then, the hole in his back was repaired.
And lastly, Shang's mind came into contact with his new body.
And hell arrived.
