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.