Three days later, Gilbert returned to the mansion.
After he came back, he didn't have time to rest. Instead, he called for the steward Peter to ask if Rocky
had been sent to the Rejuvenation Hall like he had ordered.
Peter didn't care too much about Rocky before. He knew that Rocky had been sent to Esteban's palace
in the Ghost Palace, but he didn't know what happened next. So, when Gilbert asked him, he hesitated
for a long time. Then, he replied, "That man never returned from the Ghost Palace."
"What? Didn't you tell Esteban that the man was very important and that he must be very careful?"
Gilbert looked more solemn than angry as he stared at Peter.
"Well..." Peter hesitated for a moment because he had not been the person that sent Rocky to the
Ghost Palace.
"What is his current condition?" Gilbert asked in a raised voice.
"Sir, I don't know!" Peter's face had turned pale.
As Gilbert glared at him, the entire hall was shrouded in a heavy tension.
"Go to the Ghost Palace right now and find out what's happening!" Gilbert ordered, pointing towards
the door.
Not daring to delay, Peter scrambled from the hall and ran to the Ghost Palace.
The moment he arrived, he was met with a tightly closed gate. He knocked rather hard on it several
times, but there was no response. So he immediately garnered all his power and prepared to open it
using force. However, the gate was blocked, and as soon as he used his power, it rebounded.
"What the hell is going on here? Why is the gate blocked?" Something was clearly not right so he
headed straight back to report his findings to Gilbert.
When Gilbert heard that the Ghost Palace was blocked, he was also confused, so he set off to
investigate it himself.
Peter hurried to gather some servants and guards to go with him, just in case.
When Gilbert arrived at the palace, he didn't try to break in. Instead, he shouted, "Master Esteban, is
the man that was sent to you still alive?"
"He is dead," a faint voice answered a moment later.
"Dead?" Gilbert paused. "Master Esteban, I'd like to see his corpse to confirm," Gilbert persisted,
frowning.
"I have dissected it in order to conduct an experiment," Esteban replied plainly.
"An experiment?" Gilbert narrowed his eyes.
"If you don't trust me, you can come in and see for yourself," Esteban added in an accusing tone.
"I don't have doubts. I just... Fine. Since you have dissected his body, I won't worry about it." Although
Gilbert still wanted to know who Rocky was, now that Rocky was dead, it was not a prudent matter.
In the end, Gilbert chose to turn around and leave.
Meanwhile, deep in the Ghost Palace, Rocky was lying on an ice bed big enough to accommodate two
people. His face was ghostly white and his whole body was covered in long, black needles. His chest
rattled with each breath he took and the movements were very shallow. It looked like he really was
dead.
However, Rocky was alive. His body and consciousness had completely collapsed after withstanding
the impact of the strong force, so now he had slipped into a vegetative state.
Currently, Esteban was hovering over Rocky, infusing his power into him in search of something.
"It's strange. Although his physical function is failing, his heart is protected by an unusual force. If he
can regain consciousness, he could come back to life, but this chance is very slim! Nevertheless, it's a
perfect opportunity for me to try the Skill of Magic Needle..." Esteban murmured to himself. In his eyes,
Rocky was a willing test subject, not an alive human being.
Smiling giddily, he turned around and left.
The next two days flew by, but Rocky still didn't show any signs of awakening.
"It's the fifth day. If he doesn't wake up within a week, I might have to dissect his body to find the
solution." As Esteban stared at Rocky on the ice bed, his eyes were bright and eager. He rubbed his
hands together.
Before long, the seven-day deadline arrived.
"Well... it looks like I have to give up. He isn't showing any signs of improvement." For seven days and
seven nights, Rocky had laid perfectly still. Esteban had tried everything he could but none of it
seemed to help.
One by one, he pulled out all the black needles in Rocky's body, intending to transfer Rocky to another
place for dissection.
Suddenly, Rocky opened his eyes, as if he were being roused from sleep.
"It seems like my magic needles work," Esteban murmured excitedly.
However, as he looked closer, only Rocky's eyes were moving. The rest of his body was paralyzed. He
couldn't speak either. He was like a man trapped inside his own body.
However, his mind was extremely active after he woke up. He just couldn't feel any part of his body, as
if it had been stolen from him.
Soon after he awoke, he saw Esteban in front of him and knew that he was being healed. Immediately,
he wondered about Esteban's identity.
Over the next few days, Rocky began to experience the most unforgettable healing process in his life.
Esteban applied all kinds of black salves with pungent odors on his body. Rocky was almost immersed
in a medicine jar. And every day, Esteban would pierce through his skin with black needles. But Rocky
still couldn't feel any of it. He just let Esteban work.
Half a month passed, and Rocky still didn't get better. That made Esteban, who was very confident in
his medical skills, very high-strung. As a result, Esteban tried to use more aggressive ways to cure him.
For example, Rocky was once soaked in a large bucket of blood water.
At first, Rocky was disgusted, but he had no choice.
Not long after, he discovered that his skin was absorbing the blood. At the same time, black blood,
which was caused from the damage to his body, constantly flowed out of him.
Slowly, Rocky could feel his nerves coming back to life. His muscles twitched. However, because he
had lost consciousness for so long, it would take him some time to learn how to control his body again.
Two days later, Rocky, who had been unable to speak, uttered his first words.
"Thank you for helping me..." The first sentence was spent thanking Esteban for saving his life.
As soon as Esteban heard those words, his face suddenly darkened. "I thought you were a mute. It
turns out that you can speak! Damn! In my Ghost Palace, I'm the only one who is allowed to speak. If
you understand, just shut up and don't disturb me while I'm studying medicine!" While speaking, he
stuck two more needles into Rocky's skin.
Rocky thought to himself, 'This elder seems very strange. I guess that's understandable. How else
would he be so good at medical skills?'
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda