Ragnar examined Thane once more.The injuries had sealed up. His energy had recovered, and his internal organs had been thoroughly cleansed and purified. The herbal treatment had worked better than expected.Only one problem remained.The blood clot in Thane's brain.Removing it wasn't particularly difficult. To an ordinary physician, however, the procedure could be precarious. One wrong move, and the patient might never regain consciousness. Some practitioners wouldn't even possess the skill required to guarantee the patient's survival.Ragnar was different.Thanks to the enormous library within the Void Ice Archive, his mind was practically a treasure trove of medical knowledge. He had access to countless ancient techniques, including methods that had long since disappeared from the outside world.There were several ways to remove a blood clot, but the most sophisticated and foolproof method was the Nine Revolutions Soul-Cleansing Needles.It wouldn't merely extract the clot. The te

“Unhand me,” Ragnar said after a while as the soldiers continued dragging him along. “I can walk.”The soldiers appeared not to hear him.They maintained their grip on his arms, marching him down the corridor without so much as acknowledging his complaint. Ragnar's expression darkened, but he held his tongue. There was little point wasting his breath on people who had apparently been instructed to treat him like a prisoner.They eventually stopped before a door on the same floor.Only then did the soldiers release him.Ragnar straightened his collar and brushed down his clothes, restoring some semblance of order to his appearance. He shot the men a brief, displeased glance before one of them opened the door and motioned towards the entrance with the tip of his jaw.“Go on in.”Ragnar stepped inside.The door clicked shut behind him.His gaze swept across the room, his senses immediately going on high alert.At first glance, it was unmistakably the office of a military man.Several sop

Ragnar didn't say anything for a few seconds. Then, as though he had suddenly thought of something interesting, a bright smile spread across his face. “Who knows? Probably one of my friends added my name to their family's tender.” Varric Rothmere stared at him in silence for a whole minute. His expression remained serious, his eyes fixed on Ragnar as though he were trying to determine whether the young man was being evasive or simply making a fool of him. Then he snickered. “You seem to have an awful lot of friends, huh?” Ragnar grinned, carefully keeping his expression under control. “What can I say? Man is a social animal.” “Ah-ah?” Varric cocked his head to the side, examining him with slightly narrowed eyes. “Stop pushing words around with me, boy! I'm not your classmate.” Ragnar smiled beautifully. “I know, sir. That's why I've been doing my best to answer your questions as honestly as I possibly could. If you were my classmate…” He chuckled but didn't complete the

Thane was still asleep when Ragnar returned to the room. Apart from the blankets, which were slightly more dishevelled than he remembered leaving them, everything appeared spotless.It was as though those people had never been there.Ragnar sat on the edge of the bed and reached for Thane’s wrist, checking his pulse.It was stronger now. His breathing had also improved, no longer the laboured struggle it had been earlier. His energy had been replenished considerably. As for the blood he had lost, that would have to wait until he regained consciousness.Herbal baths and acupuncture could only do so much in that regard.Ragnar sighed. “At least he's alive and well.”He pulled the blankets over Thane, making sure he was properly covered, before heading towards the spot where he had been told the internal network transmitter was located.Taking out his phone, he scanned the code displayed on the device.A message appeared almost immediately.[Connect to base 3 network?]He tapped the Conf

When Ragnar finally opened his eyes, it was already past eleven at night.The water in the bathtub had long since lost the thick herbal mist that once covered its surface. Every trace of the medicinal essence had been absorbed into his body.What remained was water tinged with blood, carrying a distinct metallic smell. His skin had burst open countless times during the hellish ordeal, leaving behind evidence of the torture he had endured.He clenched his fist and examined his arm.Power.Raw, overwhelming power.The transformation was drastic. His mana had become noticeably denser, with golden streaks running through it. Even his blood seemed to carry a faint trace of divinity.His core was twice as strong as before, while his meridians had expanded slightly, their walls considerably reinforced.But the most astonishing change was in his skeleton.After the body-forging process in the Sea God's Hall bunker, his bones had already undergone a significant transformation. Yet compared to