Chương 101: CHAPTER 99: THE COLD DISSECTION

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The heavy impacts against the outer iron doors continued to vibrate through the bedrock, rattling the glass reagent bottles on the far stone shelves. The shouts of High Chancellor Drake and the angry noble retainers echoed faintly through the lead-lined hallway, but inside the main laboratory, the air remained freezing and still. The twenty students stood in two distinct groups before the central examination platform.

The fifteen noble heirs, led by Lord Vaelen of House Drake, stood with their chins raised, their silk robes and enchanted barrier amulets catching the blue alchemical lamplight. Near the rear stone pillars, the five commoner scholarship students stood silently in their patched gray tunics, their posture rigid and alert.

"Doctor," Vaelen spoke up, his voice ringing with aristocratic confidence as he ignored the banging outside.

"The Chancellor is at the door, but since we have secured the twenty seats of this Sovereign Chair, we expect the foundational syllabus. We are ready to receive the high-tier magical theories, the secret lineage mana pathways, and the ancient anatomical formulas that earned you this appointment." Several noble students nodded in agreement, pulling out polished leather notebooks and gold-plated ink pens, ready to transcribe grand philosophical doctrines. Shin did not answer.

He stood motionless behind the central dissection slab, his face completely hidden behind the emotionless white porcelain mask. The blue lantern light reflected coldly off the smooth ceramic surface. Beside his shoulder, the chibi system companion hovered quietly, her tiny arms folded over her chest with an amused smirk on her face.

"They want poetry and magical family secrets, Doctor," she whispered into his ear.

"They think a Sovereign lecture is just an afternoon tea party with fancy chalkboards." Abe saale... Rudra thought with a dry shake of his head behind his mask. These kids have spent their entire lives listening to old men recite useless theoretical nonsense from dusty books. They think healing and dissection are clean parlor tricks. Without uttering a single syllable of preamble, Shin tapped the activation ring on his spatial inventory. THUD!

A massive, heavy mass materialized in mid-air and crashed violently down onto the central steel table with a deafening metallic clang. The students jumped back in shock. Several noble heirs gasped in disgust, pressing perfumed silk handkerchiefs against their noses as a wave of freezing, pungent mist rolled off the slab. Resting on the steel table was the frozen carcass of an adolescent Shadow-Spitter Chimera. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The beast was roughly five feet long, a grotesque blend of an obsidian-scaled viper and a four-legged marsh predator. Its jagged fangs were coated in crystallized, dark-purple venom, and its thick belly was covered in interlocking bone plates. A layer of pale frost covered its leathery hide, keeping the highly unstable toxic glands frozen solid.

"Silence," Shin commanded, his flat voice slicing through the sudden murmurs of disgust. The room went instantly quiet.

"Pathology is not learned through recitations or family lineages," Shin said, his voice completely devoid of emotion.

"It is learned through bone, muscle, and steel. If you cannot understand the physical architecture of a monster, your high-tier spells will only rupture its venom glands and kill your entire vanguard." He rested his dark-iron prosthetic hand flat on the chimera's frozen chest.

"Observe." Shin did not wait for them to open their notebooks. With a flick of his right wrist, a slender silver scalpel slid smoothly from his sleeve into his fingers. At the exact same instant, the fingers of his dark-iron prosthetic shifted, emitting a soft, pressurized click as three thin needle-probes extended from the metal knuckles. He drove the iron fingers directly into the chimera's sternum. CRACK.

With surgical leverage and zero wasted effort, the prosthetic hand cracked the frozen breastbone open like dry firewood. Before the frozen marrow could shatter and contaminate the surrounding tissue, Shin's silver scalpel moved in a blinding blur of silver light. Snikt. Snikt. Snikt. The blade sliced through frozen muscle fibers, severed the primary vascular bundles, and peeled back the thick layers of scaled hide with inhuman speed. The students stared in stunned silence. There was no magical incantation.

There was no grand ritual circle. There was only pure, unyielding mechanical precision. Every single cut was executed along the natural biological seams of the beast, bypassing major blood vessels without spilling a single drop of fluid onto the steel slab.

"Ventricular bypass complete," the chibi companion murmured softly, tracking the movement with tiny cyan targeting rings in her eyes.

"Exposing the toxic reservoir now." Shin's iron thumb pressed down firmly on the creature's lower ribcage, forcing the deep internal cavity open. Deep inside the chimera's chest lay the prize—a swollen, pulsing dark-purple venom sac the size of a fist. It was wrapped in hundreds of razor-thin nerve fibers and microscopic fluid tubes that connected directly to the creature's upper fangs.

A single scratch or micro-puncture on the thin membrane would release enough neurotoxin to liquefy the lungs of everyone within twenty yards. The noble students turned pale, taking two involuntary steps backward. Shin's hand did not shake. His silver scalpel danced around the delicate membrane with microscopic accuracy. With four rapid, rhythmic slices, he severed the feeding ducts, clamped the base with a pair of silver forceps, and lifted the completely intact, glowing venom sac free from the chest cavity.

He placed the pristine organ inside a sealed amber glass jar and screwed the iron lid down tight. CLINK. Shin set the jar in the center of the table. The entire procedure had taken exactly one minute and forty-eight seconds. The chimera carcass lay cleanly separated into three distinct anatomical sections—muscular tissue, skeletal framework, and toxic organs—all without a single splash of blood staining Shin's clean charcoal coat. The twenty students stood completely paralyzed, their eyes wide with disbelief.

Even Lord Vaelen's arrogant smirk had vanished, replaced by an expression of pure, uncomprehending shock. The sheer speed and absolute mastery displayed on the slab surpassed anything they had ever witnessed from the Academy's highest-ranking alchemical deans.

"That was the baseline extraction of a Rank-3 venom core," Shin said, setting his scalpel down onto the linen roll.

"Theoretical mages take forty minutes and risk three explosions to achieve the same result. If you wish to remain in this class, you will replicate that extraction before the end of the month." The five commoner students in the back leaned forward, their eyes burning with intense, focused hunger to learn. Before any of the students could ask a question, the heavy iron door of the laboratory let out an ear-splitting groan of tearing metal. KRA BOOOM!

A blinding explosion of concentrated alchemical fire and pressurized air blasted the massive wrought-iron doors completely off their reinforced stone hinges. The heavy iron slabs crashed violently onto the stone floor, skidding several feet into the room and kicking up a dense cloud of dust and acrid sulfur smoke. Through the blazing doorway strode Professor Vane, the Senior Dean of Applied Alchemy, his gold-embroidered robes billowing in the heat.

Flanking him were a dozen heavily armored Academy wardens armed with enchanted suppressive pikes and heavy disruption shields. Vane's eyes swept across the room with burning arrogance before locking onto Shin.

"Insolent hedge-butcher!" Vane roared, raising an enchanted golden scepter surrounded by swirling rings of crimson flame.

"By order of the Academic Disciplinary Board, your fraudulent class is disbanded! Drop your blades and surrender your Sovereign crest, or you will be executed where you stand for treason against the Noble Senate!"