Zhuo Fan's next words fell like a headsman's axe:

  "Cripple yourselves now!"

  Silence.

  The Flood dragon Venerable was baffled with shock, he was the one who recovered his meridians before by teaching him how to do so while in the Body tempering realm, now he wants to undo it? His face drooped down. The girls were too excited to understand.

  "...What?" the Venerable choked.

  "Sir...... What?", asked the girls.

  "You should cripple yourselves now, you too Sir Venerable."

  Zhuo Fan selected a shard of the dragon's broken scale from the tray—its edge still shimmering with residual divinity. The makeshift scalpel hummed in his grip as he made the first incision along the golden cultivator's sternum. Flesh parted like parchment beneath celestial steel.

  "Flood Dragon Venerable," he said, peeling back the pleural membrane with his off-hand, "When I requested a water-attribute Venerable, I anticipated your arrival." Black ichor bubbled where the scale-blade touched immortal flesh. "Condense your three empty attribute layers inbetween the lungs' and arms' interfaces........ They will actually as a temporary mediator between these energies."

  The Venerable's jaw tightened as he watched Zhuo Fan carve through cartilage with dragon-scale precision. "You ask me to unravel more than half my cultivation for this one surgery?"

  "Yes. That's right", said Zhuo Fan with a hint of sadness. He couldn't stop though, he swapped tools—another scale-shard, this one serrated—to resect the dragon's left lungs' lower lobe. "Once Deep Black, White Jade, and Golden Black establish his dual-attribute foundation using their expertise, you may take back whatever is remaining, but it'll definitely not recover even a single layer."

  "He is going to keep calling us with our colours, isn't he?", whispered Deep Black to the fortunate others.

  White Jade was shocked- "Shhh. Why do you say such things?"

  "There is nothing we can do to save them anyway! And the Supreme Strategist is our Supreme Strategist for a reason, not to mention how even Head Zhu is personally here allowing him to do this— near blasphemy!"

  Golden Black agreed, "My thoughts exactly!"

  They both shared a silent dap, pleased—enjoying the crazy situation.

  Gloomy Gray's fingers twitched toward her inner sleeve—where a jade talisman lay sewn into the lining. Her metal qi faltered as she fed power into the surgical array. "Why must I be sacrificed? The Black and White couple are weaker! Is this how the Supreme Strategist does things— bullying those who disrespect him even a little bit? I am the first daughter of the High Venerable! I am not one you can simply bull—"

  Zhuo Fan didn't pause as his scale-scalpel traced the bronchial tree. "Absolutely not. I ideally do not want to sacrifice anyone, yet I have to. I planned on sacrificing three or more disciples while I and the others did the surgery, but since the other three have specialities perfect for this, your Qi Refining 3rd stage is disposable

  The talisman beneath Gloomy Gray's sleeve burned to ash, its activation masked by the acrid stench of cauterized divine flesh.

  "A single early Nascent Soul realm cultivator," Zhuo Fan continued, using a hooked scale-fragment to stitch the rest of the lobes

  [I am pretty sure none of the lungs will remain usable after this surgery, but still I guess we can have a feast on it afterwards. Perhaps giving the old foggies and Venerables of the Alliance a taste of dragon's lungs' and meat will make them overlook the near exhaustion of the treasury once again—Ha-ha-ha-ha......]

  "outmatches our combined strength a hundredfold. A peak Nascent Soul?" The suture pulled out with a snap of qi. "A hundred times our Alliance's total power.", His hand was soaked in black, yet with a flick of his hands he washed it away.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  [Body temperering may seem like a waste of time when you can just skip that first major realm entirely—but it sure is right that Body temperors look cool!]

  He traded the hook for a flat scale-shard, using it to tamp down rebellious tissue. "This one fought him to mutual ruin. Calculate the opportunity cost yourself."

  The Flood dragon Venerable stepped forward, his shadow falling across the operative field. "If I sacrifice my remaining two layers—"

  "—you'd fall to Qi Refining," Zhuo Fan interrupted, now drilling through the sternum of the half-dragon cultivator with a scale-tipped awl.

  "—I could at least restore Bright Blue to peak Qi Refining with my water and air layers." The Venerable's eyes locked onto the innocent girl's trembling form.

  Head Zhu silently observed his calculated righteousness and calm mindedness.

  [Anyway his cultivation will fall, so he chose to maintain someone else's now that it's possible instead of childishly holding onto his own.]

  The *drip-drip* of bright red blood into the catch basin sounded.

  "Now, I'll focus on the physical—biological aspects, the actual surgery. Deep Black will try to associate his Cultivation foundation with the black dragon's organs and White Jade will associate her Cultivation foundation with the fallen Nascent soul. Golden Black will use his Cultivation arts to blend them together and then the other two will perform their Combination art. This will establish a connection with black and golden dragon Qi."

  "But we haven't tried it anywhere before! Not to mention how my Qi isn't nowhere as pure as an actual demonized expert. Same with 'White Jade'—as you call her", Deep Black talks for White Jade who also had a worries expression on her face.

  Zhuo Fan confidentally replied- "That's why we are trying with the lungs first. They may be important, but their Qi amount is less."

  Zhuo Fan sliced clean off two most damaged lung lobes of the cultivator, for one small lobe of the dragon was already bigger than two his.............

  Bright Blue, who also wanted to object before(Though a bit more respectfully), now flatly sacrificed her cultivation, empowering the couple to Qi Refining 2nd stage.

  "One layer! Do it!"

  The Venerable's dantian screamed as three foundation layers imploded—

  One empty attribute layer interfacing the energies and the other two re-empowering Bright Blue's cultivation while the young ones clumsily hurried to do their thing.

  Zhuo Fan who was moving earlier rather in style and finesse, now hurried and tool out a second lobe to graft to the right lung, "Brace! Second one incoming!"

  Boom!

  

  A bag full of black scale fragments spread all over. Zhuo Fan just caught some that came in his way and the others used their power to create clumsy shields that were powerful but not even.

  [Well anyway a scalpel is just a knife! No need for a different one for each purpose.]

  Bright Blue ascended to Peak Qi Refining! She was approaching the group but was stopped by the Flood dragon Venerable,

  "Stop! Assimilate your cultivation first! You have to also adjust to the air—not just water."

  The young ones were struggling when Zhuo Fan signed to the Flood dragon Venerable. He slid through swiftly, forced a hand made up of white-translucent energy through and pulled out a ball of silver grey energy out of Gloomy Gray and smashed it.

  Golden Black recieved a complete breakthrough. He made a few hand signs and bright Qi closed through them, each hand containing Golden and Black qi originating from the couple.

  The boys were in enthusiasm- "Ha-ha-ha! We've done the impossible! We shall be forever remembered by the Alliance for securing a quality Nascent soul!", even White Jade started laughing out loud a bit but Gloomy Gray lay in a corner depressed.

  Golden Black worried- "I can't seperate this clot in the energies! It is too entangled to make any progress on organising them correctly!"

  Zhuo Fan slid behind Golden Black silently- "Don't try to put pressure and align them, try instead pulling them from a common point inbetween."

  "I know about your depth of knowledge somewhat, but how do you know more about Qi than a Qi Refining realm?"

  Zhuo Fan ignored the question and continued- "Though using the empty attribute foundation layer may yield faster results".

  [So now you know about Foundation Establishment realm as well?]

  "We cannot hold it on anymore!", The other two screamed in unison, even Bright Blue came to help but affected nearly nothing. "It's the opposite now! Too much potent Golden Qi!"

  [I thought there was 0% chance this would happen but thankfully I still prepared for it!]

  Zhuo Fan yanked out a giant cleaver, the to-be sharp edge laced with black scales.

  A middle aged bearded man barged into the theatre- "What the Hell do you think you are doing to my daughter!". He was wearing a rather expensive dress, just like 2nd Venerable's but in deep black with silver outlines and a golden collar.

  He sees the situation, his daughter cowering in the corner and a man, covered in black blood and a hospital gown holding a meat cleaver coincidentally moving towards her.

  They exchange awkward glances, then Zhuo Fan hurriedly rips off his mask—"Hey! It's me—Zhuo Yi-Fan, the Supreme Strategist! I come in peace High Venerable!"

  The High Venerable sends an attack towards him, not to injure but sieze him.

  Head Zhu smashes his stick into the ground revealing a freshly built, bright array. It instantly stops his attack in its tracks. His staff though, crumbles to pieces.

  Head Zhu causally yanks out a slightly bigger staff from behind- "How dare you! You may be the strongest in this Mortal Alliance, but remember the Supreme Strategist is always second in command as long as I continue breathin—coff coff"

  Zhuo Fan hurriedly but cleanly cuts through the dragon's beast hands and squishes them together with the body inbetween like its a crude sandwich. He starts to stitch one of its veins and arteries up precisely though horrifyingly quick. Flood dragon Venerable cripples his foundation layers completely and assists the group.

  "I am ruined! I am now crippled for life!", screamed Gloomy Gray in pleasant surprise.

  Deep Black screamed inbetween- "No father! Be calm and listen, that's not what exactly happened!"

  [They're siblings? Why does she hate White Jade so much the— No...... That may actually be the reason she hates White Jade]

  "Then tell me the reason for her saying such wor—"

  *Catch*

  

  Zhuo Fan throws a bag of scales at the uninvited guest. "That's a hundred black dragon scales! Though they're heavily damaged, they're each 6th grade—Soul Formation realm materials! A single one of them is worth 2x both of yours cultivation."

  "I am not gonna sacrifice my daughter's entire future cultivation path for a measly su— Wait! 6th grade??!?!?!!?? A hundred of them!!!!!!"

  "And I have two dozen bags.......... That too ignoring the scales currently on this Money Beast, which would amount to another additional 5 dozens."

  [Wow!]

  "Bu—"

  Zhuo Fan interrupted- "Before you say anything, I am reminding you that I have a technique to mend her meridians. I will gladly teach her that, though only when you admit I made the right choice by saving a Nascent soul!"

  Suddenly, another explosion occurs, blowing away the entire compound. High Venerable and Flood dragon Venerable barely held on. The Qi Refiners flew back but quickly ran forward back to their positions.

  Golden Black jumped first- "I can't know what is going inside there! The energies are too covered!"

  "Only the cultivator himself can rectify this! In the worst case scenario we'll have to withdraw Deep Black and White Jade so you'll get clearer view—thoigh the stress will be impossible to maintain alone even for a Foundation Establishment rea—"

  *Deafening Screech*

  The cultivator, the Nascent soul now stands upright—floating in mid-air. Eyes fully awake. The previous turmoil now completely subsided.