Chapter 5: Awaking Dante's Mother

Words : 1959 Updated : Nov 20th, 2025

It was like a dead tree coming back to life. As Dante placed the needles, the pale complexion on his mother's face slowly faded, color returning right before the crowd's eyes. The doctors and nurses in the room stared, stunned into silence. Dante moved with the assurance of a veteran physician, his fingers deft on the silver needles. In a way none of them could perceive, spiritual energy drifted in and gathered around Pamela, the needles guiding it into her. He rebalanced her energy and kick-started her vitality. With the power he had fought for in the Cultivation Realm, he seized the very spark of life and poured it into his mother's failing body. "Dr. Everett, you..." A nurse noticed Everett's composure slipping and hurried to steady him, sympathy in her eyes. Losing this bet was more than a humiliating forfeit. It dealt a blow to his pride in his own skill. Everett stood dazed, refusing to believe what he was seeing. Yet Rodrigo's loss of composure and fierce excitement made it plain it was real. "D-Dante..." On the bed, Pamela's eyelids fluttered open after three long years. Her clouded gaze found her son instantly. Tears brimmed in her eyes and slid down her cheeks. She tried to lift a hand to touch his face, but her arm was stiff and weak, refusing to move. "Mom!" Dante gathered her hand and pressed it to his face, his eyes welling up. "She... she really woke up!" The staff were floored. A patient, the brain specialist Everett had declared a lost cause, had come back from death's door. It was nothing short of a miracle. "Holy crap, this guy's the real deal! He dragged her right back from the gates of hell!" "So this is the power of Ancient Acupuncture! An art so powerful it would impress even the legendary doctors. Unreal!" "If the patient woke up, that means Dr. Everett lost the bet. Is he really going to kneel?" Everett was their colleague, someone many admired or even idolized. Kneeling to a loser who drank and gambled while neglecting his own mother would destroy his dignity. How could he ever show his face in the medical world again? The crowd marveled at Dante's skill, but pitied Everett's pride even more. The scene between mother and son played on, while Everett's composure crumbled. A full ten minutes passed before Everett could accept the truth. He had lost and misjudged. He shook off the hands holding him and raised his head. He looked at Dante, still locked in reunion with his mother, then forced his heavy legs to carry him forward, step by step. The hospital staff fell silent, watching his every move, ready to catch him if he stumbled. At last, Everett reached Dante without incident. Thud! He dropped to his knees. "He really knelt?" Mouths fell open across the ward. Everett was the esteemed expert who toured the country while universities clamored to invite him to a seminar. No one expected him to kneel before Dante so decisively. The towering figure the hospital staff held in their hearts collapsed in an instant. Their idol had fallen from his pedestal. "Dr. Everett, please get up!" "Don't kneel to him. You're the elder. How can you bow to a junior? Please, stand!" "Dr. Everett is a giant in our field. This kid just got lucky. He's not worthy of Dr. Everett's kneel. Please get up!" Even with Pamela awake, some told themselves it was a fluke, a coincidence. No matter how they tugged, Everett wouldn't get up. He might as well have been welded to the floor. "Fluke or not, a loss is a loss. I don't go back on my word," Everett said through clenched teeth, shaking off the hands trying to lift him. "I owe you an apology. I was blind and arrogant. I'm sorry. I was a quack." A buzz rippled through the room. Kneeling was humiliation enough, but to apologize and call himself a quack on top of it could wipe out decades of hard-won reputation. If word got out, Everett's authority would take a massive hit, and his standing would plummet. Dante, still speaking with his mother, paid no mind to the kneeling man behind him. After a millennium of slaughter in the Cultivation Realm and rising to the pinnacle as Medicine Lord, people like Everett were beneath his notice. None of it mattered to him. The only thing he cared about was his mother's condition. "Mom, I'm sorry. I let you suffer." At that moment, a trembling plea rang out from the doorway, thick with sobs. "Help, doctor! Please save my father..." Every head turned. Faces paled. The staff hurried to the door. "Ms. Mendes, what happened?" a young doctor asked, his voice tight with concern. It was Denise Mendes, beloved daughter of the Mendes family, one of Junbert's three great beauties. She usually carried herself like royalty and rarely asked anyone for anything. Now she was a mess, begging. Seven days earlier, her father had suffered a heart attack and been rushed in. The hospital had stabilized him for the time being, but he hadn't woken since. Denise had kept vigil by his side day and night, caring for him herself. Now she had rushed over and dropped to her knees, begging for help. Everyone's heart leapt into their throats. If something happened to Denise's father, the Mendes family's fury could destroy the hospital. "My dad... my dad is convulsing! Please go see him..." Denise pressed her palms together, voice trembling. "I'm begging you. Save my father. Name your price." The doctors rushed out. Denise promised that whoever could save her father would enjoy a lifetime of wealth and privilege under the Mendes family's protection and would become a permanent honored guest of the family. The Mendes family was a top-tier family in Junbert. To become their honored guest meant you could throw your weight around anywhere in the city. And Denise had said it outright. The doctors' eyes lit up with greed. Everyone wanted the credit. Even Everett stood up and went. While Rodrigo, still reeling from Dante's feat, tore his eyes from the mother-son reunion and followed. In Denise's father, Asher Mendes's, room, the doctors had already clustered around the bed. After checking the monitors and Asher's condition, their faces fell. One by one, they lowered their heads and shook them. Even Everett could only shrug. "Ms. Mendes, we're truly powerless. You should prepare for the worst," Everett said with a weary sigh, a shadow of grief in his eyes. Denise broke down in tears. She seized his shoulders and shook him. "Dr. Everett, aren't you one of the best in the country? Aren't you a leader in medicine? How can you have no way?" "I'm begging you, all of you. Save my dad. I'll do whatever you want. I'll even marry you, and I'll put our ten-billion-dollar conglomerate on the table as payment." The offer was staggering. To marry Denise, one of Junbert's three great beauties, and take the helm of the Mendes family's ten-billion-dollar empire was a vast reward. Who wouldn't dream of it? But dreams couldn't change reality. The doctors' skills couldn't reach that far. After his own examination, Rodrigo shook his head as well. "Congestive heart failure. His major organs are on the brink of shutting down. I'm helpless. Wait!" A spark lit his eyes. He glanced sideways at Everett. "Pamela's son... Right now, Ancient Acupuncture is the only sliver of hope."

Chapter 5: Awaking Dante's Mother

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