Chapter 404: Testing the Horse Talisman
Silas reached into his shadow and pulled out a shimmering, sharp blade.
"Let's give this a try~" Silas looked at the blade and swallowed hard. To be honest, he found it a bit difficult to bring himself to actually cut his own flesh.
After a moment of hesitation, he activated the power of the Horse Talisman and gently sliced a small opening on his finger with the blade.
The expected pain never arrived. Then, a miracle occurred: a soft green light emanated from the wound, and the finger instantly returned to its original state. Not even a faint scar remained.
"The Horse can also negate pain; I almost forgot about that." Silas felt a wave of joy. He had overlooked that particular detail.
He rubbed his finger thoroughly, confirming there was no injury, and then moved on to more daring experiments. Inside his room, Silas made several small cuts on various parts of his body.
"I need to test the maximum extent of the Horse Talisman's ability..." Silas rubbed his chin in thought.
While the Horse Talisman was currently showing great results, he needed to know where its limit lay. After all, the Horse Talisman doesn't grant immortality; it only provides restoration. In the original series, the Horse Talisman could even restore a broken ship, which was the most impressive feat.
However, for the next set of experiments, he couldn't use himself. He valued his life far too much for that. Silas vanished from his room and reappeared in the Shadow Kingdom.
"Big Black, where is the Swift Rabbit?" Silas asked as soon as he arrived, seeing Big Black sitting dejectedly by the lab entrance.
Big Black replied gloomily, "Master, the Swift Rabbit's genetic disease flared up. Little Black is treating it now."
"A genetic disease? Leave that to me." Silas had almost forgotten about the little creature that had helped him obtain the Rabbit Talisman.
Silas stepped through the lab doors and saw Little Black injecting the rabbit with a genetic serum.
"Master, why are you here?" Little Black asked respectfully.
"I've come to treat this little guy." Silas extended his right hand, his palm glowing with a vibrant, emerald-green light full of life. He placed his hand on the rabbit's forehead.
The Swift Rabbit, which had been suffering from agonizing genetic pain, felt reborn. Its body grew warm, as if a flower of life was blooming in its heart. The "demon" of pain was swallowed by this vital energy until it vanished completely.
The rabbit snapped its eyes open and leaped up. Seeing Silas, it joyfully nuzzled his arm with its head.
"What a miraculous power," Little Black marveled. He had used countless genetic formulas but couldn't root out the rabbit's congenital defect, yet magic cured it effortlessly.
"The Horse Talisman is even more effective than I thought." Silas smirked and withdrew his hand. It was now proven: even deep-seated genetic issues fell under the Horse's domain.
"Little Black, come with me." Silas led his assistant out.
At the door, he said to Big Black, "The Swift Rabbit is fully cured. Go play with it."
Big Black's face lit up. Without a word, he rushed into the lab. "Swift Rabbit, let's go! We're going to go bully the Big Rhino!"
Ordinary Residential Building
"His physical condition is fine," Little Black said after checking an elderly man with his equipment.
Silas nodded and placed his hand on the man's forehead. He used the Horse Talisman and then pulled back. "Now?"
Little Black checked the data again. "His cells have become active, but he is still aging normally."
"I see," Silas hummed. The Horse Talisman could revitalize cells, but it couldn't stop natural biological aging; it could only delay it by a day or two. They had come here to see if the Horse could halt cellular senescence, but it failed. They had specifically chosen a healthy elderly man, whom Silas had put into a deep dream state using the Sheep Talisman.
Within a minute, they moved to a hospital. Here lay a man surrounded by medical equipment, barely clinging to life via a ventilator and nutrient tubes.
"Lucky you," Silas smiled, unleashing the Horse's restorative power.
Snap!
As Silas worked, the machines attached to the patient were pushed away. Damaged organs were repaired at a speed visible to the naked eye. The dying man's breathing normalized, his hands twitched, and in less than five seconds, he sat up and opened his eyes. Silas and Little Black had already vanished.
On the Rooftop
"How's the data collection?" Silas asked.
Little Black reviewed his tablet. "The patient was hit by a truck and was completely paralyzed. His liver was displaced, and he's been living on nutrient fluids. He wasn't expected to survive the month. The Horse Talisman brought him back in three seconds."
"Good. Let's check another scenario." Silas led him to the home of a disabled person who had lost both legs in an accident.
"I wonder if we can restore missing limbs." Silas looked at the man he had put into a dream. He focused the full power of the Horse on the man's stumps.
A miracle occurred! Fresh flesh began to sprout. The tissue expanded, and a pair of infant-like legs appeared. Then, as if on fast-forward, the legs grew until they perfectly matched the man's frame.
"Limb regeneration~" Silas noted, satisfied, as they left.
Finally, they found a battlefield and tried the Horse on two men who had been shot in the head. Both failed. The Horse could make their heads look brand new, but it couldn't restore their lives. Their souls were gone. Even though the bodies were repaired, the cells continued to die, and the corpses would eventually rot.
"Well, consider yourselves lucky I at least gave you a whole corpse to be buried in," Silas muttered.
The Shadow Kingdom
"Little Black, do you think I'd die if a bullet entered my brain but I used the Horse Talisman the exact millisecond it hit?" Silas had a sudden whim.
"I'm not sure. Based on the data, the probability of success is roughly 68%," Little Black replied.
"Better than 50%... it might work."
"I suggest Master abandons this dangerous thought," Little Black advised.
"Don't worry, I'm not using myself." Silas ordered his ninjas to bring a handgun and a "lab rat"—specifically, a death row inmate who was scheduled for execution the next day.
"Who are you?!" the inmate screamed, finding himself in this strange place.
"We are scientists. We're going to use what little life you have left for a great experiment," Silas said, aiming the gun at the man's head and pulling the trigger.
Bang!
A golden bullet spun through the air, hurtling toward the inmate's skull.
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