Several days had passed since the explosive night at the capital auction, and for Ethan, every single hour had been a living hell. The moment they returned to the manor, the Captain hadn't offered congratulations for their successful acquisition; instead, he had thrown Ethan directly into a second round of specialized torture, viciously disguised as "pre-departure conditioning."
They had pushed his body and soul so far past their limits that by the final night, he was a hollow, twitching wreck on the floor. Only then did the Captain feed him a high-grade Recovery Pill, specifically engineered to heal his internal pathways while leaving his outer appearance looking like a battered, desperate peasant. Even if a high-level cultivator scanned his soul right now, all they would see was a deeply exhausted, weak-willed boy. The facade was flawless.
