Rocky took a deep breath. He had urgently tried to stop the hemorrhaging of blood. Then he strung the
high-toughness ligament which was acquired from a granary rat beast onto the bone-made needles.
Once done, he started to close up the ruptured aorta.
Every single procedure required a high-level technique, which meant that every move took a
considerable amount of effort. Rocky had only begun to put in a few stitches and yet he already began
perspiring heavily.
It took two whole hours before Rocky was able to stitch the ruptured aorta together. He then checked
the wound carefully before cautiously restoring the blood supply. He waited another fifteen minutes
before he was sure that there were no leaking points around the suture. With no leakage, he let out a
relieved breath.
Rocky finally began stitching up Verdanim's lower abdomen again. And eventually, the first operation
was completed.
As this went on, Verdanim was visibly improving, particularly with the supplementary blood supply. His
breathing was no longer labored.
With its condition looking better, Rocky took advantage of every moment and began the second
operation. Compared to the first one, this would be even more challenging, but even more delicate.
And the skill level came with higher requirements.
If Rocky were to fail this stage, Verdanim may never stand on his own feet again. But if he did not go
through with the operation, there would be no other way for the dragon to ever stand up again. The
chances of success and failure were fifty-fifty. And it was all up to Rocky now.
Rocky lifted the badly twisted left limb onto a pile of straw with great care, where he studied the injury
with great care. With the help of Stroking Evaluation Skill, he determined that the extent of the fractured
parts took up about 70% of the whole left limb, gathered mostly on the upper extremity.
"It looks like there is only one way to cope with this situation. Two iron plates will be needed to replace
the support function of bones. Then, magical saliva will be used to promote bone regeneration. But we
still don't know whether the bone would ever fully heal afterward." Rocky had no idea what might
happen after this, but there was ultimately no choice.
After he steeled himself for what he was about to do, he made up his mind and began operating its left
limb right away. He carefully slit an opening on the skin and separated the muscles, pulling them aside
until he saw the bone. He found numerous bone fractures that varied in severity. Fortunately, the bone
was not completely broken apart and there were still some connections which greatly helped the
situation.
Rocky very carefully removed each bone fragment and cleaned up incision. After that, he took out the
magical saliva and applied several drops to the limb evenly. Then, he selected two iron plates with
proper sizes and thinned them with the Frozen Wind Dagger. He affixed them on both sides of the
whole limb. Then, he cut some more iron plates into bars and put two of them inside the skin and
muscle to stabilize the two plates to make sure the bone would not move as it healed.
Once completed, Rocky did not sew up the wound. Instead, he simply wrapped the whole limb with
gauze and tied it to the base joint of Verdanim's left wing. Doing this would avoid the possible negative
effects on the bone regeneration caused by unconscious movements.
The sun's lances deepened. It was late in the afternoon by now.
Two operations and the wound debridement were done. Rocky stood up, stretched out, and let out a
relieved breath. It may not have gone as easily or as simply as he initially thought, but the operations
went well. He was glad that he'd had plenty of practice, making the likelihood of his success improve.
Without that time and effort, the operation might have ended up a mess.
As this happened, the toxicity of the Centipede-snake started to wear off. Slowly, Verdanim was
regaining consciousness.
"Do you feel better?" Rocky asked with some concern as he leaned over and felt Verdanim's forehead.
Verdanim made a faint noise as though it understood. Knowing it was Rocky who saved him, he licked
Rocky's hand gently.
"Your master is worried about you, big fellow. So you have to recover as quickly as you can, alright?
Have a rest now. I will stay with you in your master's stead, ok?" Rocky comforted Verdanim with a faint
smile, watching as the dragon slowly closed his eyes and fell back into slumber.
Once Verdanim slept, Rocky started cleaning up, putting all the instruments back to the basket and
straightening up the stable. He was afraid of the possible infection or implant rejection and wanted to
make sure everything was copacetic. So he would need to remain alert for the whole night. Instead of
sleep, he started his cultivation.
The next morning, concerned about Verdanim's injuries and how he was doing, Marin entered the
stable just as Rocky finished and opened his eyes.
But when Marin noticed the severe wound on the dragon's lower abdomen, she was livid. "What have
you done to Verdanim?!"
Rocky merely raised his eyes to Marin and stared without a single word. Then, completely ignoring her,
he went to the Verdanim and checked the dragon's temperature, as well as the status of his surgical
incisions. He wanted to make sure that there were no signs of post-operative infection.
"Hello?!" furious at being ignored, Marin gesticulated to Rocky.
At this moment, Verdanim opened his giant eyes. Once he saw Marin, he let out a small cry.
Immediately drawn by the sound and forgetting all her anger, Marin hurried to Verdanim's side, holding
the enormous head in her arms. Because spirit manipulator and spirit-manipulated beast shared one
bond, she immediately sensed that Verdanim had vastly improved since she last saw it yesterday, and
that though not quite out of the woods, it was out of danger.
That was when Sheridan came into the stable.
"Verdanim seems to be fine now. There's not much left to be done. Everything else will depend on his
healing energies," Rocky told its master as he stood.
"Young man, what on earth did you do to Verdanim?" Sheridan demanded, stunned. He took a look at
Verdanim, who was now mewling in Marin's arms. It was astonishing; just yesterday Verdanim seemed
at the brink of death, and yet it had now regained consciousness and was starting to act more at ease.
Even he could not have achieved such a success.
An odd smile appeared on Rocky's face. Of course, he had no plans on telling anyone the truth.
Marin's voice rose again with a fresh flow of righteous anger. "Rocky, I'll want to know what you did to
Verdanim yesterday or there'll be serious repercussions!"
"You're so annoying!" Rocky glared at her. Here he was having spent so much time and effort kindly
saving Verdanim's life and Marin couldn't even show appreciation. All he got was suspicion and
disrespect. No good deed goes unpunished, apparently.
"Marin, please, just calm down. Look, Verdanim's doing well, and it's fine! The young man is certainly
worthy of being my apprentice. Ha-ha!" Sheridan laughed in response.
"But why is there such a big wound on its abdomen? It wasn't there before! What if it leaves a
permanent scar?!" Rocky gaped at her in utter disbelief, unable to fathom how Marin could be focusing
on operation wounds and scarring right now.
He finally decided to just ignore this ridiculous girl and told Sheridan, "Verdanim's wound can't get wet
no matter what. No one should allow any water to come in. That also means no baths, no scrubbing for
a while. And it can only have grass and water for the next three days." And with that, Rocky pulled the
basket onto his back and strode out of the stable, planning to leave the farm.
"Marin..." With that admonishing tone, Sheridan made a gesture to Marin. Seeing this, Marin hesitated
before she got to her feet. "Wait!" she shouted as she sprinted after Rocky.
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