“What happened to going slowly, foolish boy?” I scolded Teng Sheng, holding him up by the scruff of his neck until he was able to grasp hold of the cliff face himself.

  “Sorry,” he replied sheepishly, refusing to meet my gaze.

  I hadn’t meant to be so harsh, but we had almost died when he smashed into me and little Cui, knocking one of my hands from the stone. Luckily for all of us, my cultivation realm of six-star Qi Gathering allowed me to float in the air briefly and I was able to catch him before regaining my balance.

  If not for that, we might have all been decorating the jagged rocks at the base of the cliff. “Well, we only learn by making mistakes. Don’t worry about it. Try to be more careful the rest of the way,” I said, continuing my descent once little Cui was holding on tight.

  It didn’t take us long to reach the narrow cave entrance. Teng Sheng didn’t have any more mishaps after the first fall.

  I was proud of the kid to be honest. He’d been a greenhouse flower his entire life, growing in the shade of the city lord’s palace in Three River City.

  This was his first time venturing out into the world and he was handling himself well, considering the circumstances. I wasn’t sure I’d be so stable if I was ripped from everything I knew and sent across the continent.

  Actually, I wasn’t quite sure that we were still anywhere near the territory of the Cloudy Falls Sect. For all I knew Million Flowers Celestial Peak wasn’t even in the Celestial Jade Empire, though I doubted Grandpa Guan’s myriad property investments stretched that far.

  He had ascended though, so who knew? Once Wang Ren returned from scouting the surrounding area we would know more about our situation.

  I held Xiao Cui up as she crawled into the cave. “Just keep going forward. It widens a lot and you should be able to walk comfortably. I’ll follow after I help little Teng,” I told her.

  The boy was able to get himself in the cave without slipping, but I remained outside just in case he did. Better to be safe than sorry.

  I joined the two in the cave and led them towards the place I discovered the natural treasure and the endless supply of spirit stones. When the golden light began to glow around the bend, they sprinted ahead with cries of excitement.

  “It’s so… gold!” little Cui exclaimed, spinning on the spot as she drank in the view.

  “Woah! I can feel… the energy in here is so dense,” Teng Sheng said, holding a hand in front of his face and then staring at the walls.

  I was surprised he could feel it already, given that he was only a three-star Body Tempering practitioner. It made sense.

  This was the area with the most dense ambient spiritual energy I’d ever been in, so for cultivators at a lower realm to be able to sense the energy wasn’t that farfetched. I walked towards the stalactite in the centre of the cave, noticing the clump of energy within was even denser than the day before.

  It would surely be ready to harvest before the week was over, so I would need to check up on it every day. I didn’t want to miss out on a chance to advance my own cultivation or perhaps Wang Ren’s because I’d grown lazy.

  After leaving them to marvel at the surroundings, I walked to the nearest wall and began to pull the spirit stones out. It was hard work even using my qi freely to empower my muscles.

  My control wasn’t perfect but the amount of strength required to harvest them was incredible. Once I’d pulled just four from the walls, I felt exhausted and had used a third of the qi in my dantian!

  Teng Sheng had appeared by my side without me noticing—I’d been too focused on my task. That was a bad habit of mine. It used to happen during surgeries too—ignoring my colleagues as I worked.

  “You can use them to cultivate, right?” the boy asked.

  I nodded, holding one up for him to see. “These stones contain condensed spiritual energy in solid form. I still haven’t figured out what the golden colour of these particular spirit stones means, but I’m sure the function is the same,” I explained.

  “Cultivators can draw that spiritual energy out into their surroundings and then their bodies, refining it into qi to advance their cultivation once they are in the Qi Gathering Realm or above. I’m not sure you can benefit from them yet, as you’re still in the Body Tempering Realm,” I added, chuckling as his expression morphed into a pout.

  “Don’t worry, I will be personally assisting with your cultivation from now on. As long as you follow my directions you should advance smoothly, though I will be keeping a close watch. There are things I wish to learn about the Body Tempering Realm that I can no longer use my own body for.”

  He perked up at that, a beaming smile on his face as he looked up into my eyes. “Really? Does that mean I’ll become your disciple like Xiao Xiao!?”

  I scoffed, covering my mouth with my hands. Xiao Xiao!? What kind of nickname was that… Then again, I was still new to this world’s culture and customs. Perhaps it was normal.

  Honestly it was quite a cute nickname. Perhaps I’d use it myself one time and see how my little disciple reacted.

  Unfortunately I had to disappoint the boy. “No. You won’t be my disciple,” I replied, watching his excitement turn to crestfallen disappointment. “However, I will be your teacher. The bond between a disciple and master is sacred and not something to be entered into lightly.

  “Let’s see how things go as teacher and student first. I don’t think I am suited to be your master regardless, my techniques are rather… unique,” I sighed despondently.

  I knew that my Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique was not the only physique in the world. Many cultivators had their own unique advantages over others, but I wasn’t sure if my particular physique was common.

  Surely there had to be someone else in this empire or this world who shared my talents? Then again, with the sheer lack of healing legacies perhaps I was truly alone.

  Teng Sheng seemed conflicted. He was clearly excited at the prospect of learning from me but I had taken the wind from his sails. He would figure out his feelings by himself.

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  “Come on you two, let’s head back. There’s much to do in the coming days. We need to turn this place from a gathering of houses to a sect in truth,” I called out.

  Xiao Cui had been staring directly at the stalactite, straining her eyes. I didn’t know what she found so interesting. To me it was a dazzling clump of spiritual energy, but to her it should only be a spire of stone.

  She shook her head and raced to join us as I returned to the tunnel leading to the exit. As we left the cavern, I felt a subtle shift in the spiritual energy, but I assumed it was the treasure approaching maturity.

  ****

  That evening, I decided to have my first lesson with Teng Sheng. Xiao Cui was annoyed I wasn’t spending time with her, but she seemed fine on her own with her herbalism experiments.

  Yu Chun was acclimating slower than the kids, still staying inside her house most of the time. Du Wen was the same, but I spotted him going for walks around the mountain on occasion.

  They would come around soon. They needed purpose, which I had hoped they would find on their own, but I would be happy to provide one if not. There were many things to do, after all.

  We could’ve used the grasping life palace to practice, but I felt that it was better to use my house. There was less chance we would be disturbed there.

  The palace was a community gathering spot of sorts, so anyone could wander in at any moment. Once we were inside, I took out a mat that I’d had inside my storage bag—it had been in a corner of the clinic back in Three River City and was comfortable to sit on while I practiced alchemy, so I brought it with me.

  Laying it out on the wooden floor, I directed Teng Sheng to sit. Once he was comfortable I stood in front of him, thinking about how to begin our lessons.

  I wanted to see what the effect of blood essence was on the body during traditional cultivation, as well as figure out which parts of classical methods were actually doing the work of tempering a cultivator’s physical body.

  “How have you been cultivating until now? Did your father provide you with a manual?” I asked.

  I had the rough copy of the Cloudy Falls Sect’s basic cultivation method, but I wanted to know what the city lord used. I imagined it was worse than the sect’s methods, but comparing the two could be useful.

  “I just followed Captain Kang’s directions,” he replied, taken aback by my frown.

  “You didn’t use a manual? Can you describe the process for me? I am curious to know.”

  “A manual?” he said, looking lost in thought before suddenly slamming his fist against his palm. “Oh! Yes, I think my father had something like that. A really old looking book, right? He never let me read it though, only explained how I should cultivate and then told the captain to look after me.”

  What? What kind of ridiculous method was that? How could he possibly expect his son to cultivate a proper foundation without first reading the method he was supposed to be cultivating?

  I wondered why the city lord would be so shortsighted. I healed his son, then I presumed that when he discovered Teng Sheng could cultivate, he began the process.

  Perhaps taking the manual out would have alerted others and he wanted to keep the knowledge of his son’s recovery a secret, given that he’d been poisoned? Hiding the fact someone had begun to cultivate was impossible in the long term, but maybe he wanted to try and smoke out his enemies.

  Whatever the reason, it left me in a difficult position. I had to hope that whatever the boy relayed to me was accurate enough that I could make suitable comparisons.

  Honestly, I was far from confident in my own ability to guide him given my own lack of experience with traditional cultivation, but I would do my best for his sake. If all else failed, I would give him the Cloudy Falls’ method and let him work through it on his own.

  “So, I had to do these strange exercises while reciting mantras over and over. The captain made sure I did them exactly as he did, harshly correcting me if I made an error,” he told me. “The same went for the mantras. If I even missed a single syllable he’d make me start from the beginning. It was exhausting, but it worked. I’m a cultivator now.”

  “Yes you are,” I replied, patting his head. So, whatever method the city lord had access to involved a series of movements while reciting a mantra, but there was no mention of a breathing technique.

  That stumped me. I’d assumed that the breathing methods alongside those movements were an essential part of cultivation. However, I was clearly mistaken.

  Teng Sheng had reached three-star Body Tempering using only movements and mantras. It seemed the flowery verses held more significance than I first believed…

  Whatever the case, thinking about it would only hurt my head. I needed to see it in action to deduce any real conclusions. Cultivation was magical, but I wanted to approach it the way a doctor would approach an examination.

  Searching for any faults or weaknesses that were causing the greater whole to fail. “Can you demonstrate for me, if you remember how?” I asked.

  Teng Sheng nodded and stood up as I took a step back. He took a few short breaths to centre himself and screwed up his face—I presumed he was attempting to recall the words to his mantras.

  Once he felt able, he began his cultivation. I was content to stand and watch as he went through the motions, not making a sound and only observing.

  He was confident in his movements and he spoke the verses of the mantra with confidence. This continued for around an hour until he finally stopped.

  His brow glistened with sweat and his breathing was heavy. I saw his blood essence was turbulent, rushing to repair and reforge his muscles.

  I’d been observing his blood essence the entire time, noticing where it moved, where it didn’t, and even when. I tried to understand the mantras and the movements and what connected them to cultivation, but it was difficult.

  His blood essence responded most during heavy, fast movements. During the more graceful and elegant sections of the routine it was lethargic and clumped together.

  That only changed when he recited one particular verse of his mantra. I instantly noticed the difference because the rate he chanted sped up to almost double and the words seemed to resonate with the spiritual energy in the room.

  Which was odd, given that Body Tempering was supposed to be a realm separated from qi and spiritual energy. His blood essence had gone wild then, too. It exploded outwards to fill every corner of his body, forming swirling whirls that reminded me of my own healing technique.

  It was too early to draw any solid conclusions, but I at least had some direction and understanding. “How many times would you normally perform the routine in a single session?” I asked.

  “Usually twice, though some days I struggled to finish the second without mistakes. Captain Kang was always harsher during the first routine, ensuring it was perfect,” he answered, wiping his brow.

  “Can you manage a second time now?”

  “I think so. I feel like I have endless energy on this mountain, compared to back in Three River City.”

  Now that was interesting. Another connection to the environment and spiritual energy, where there should be none. He began for the second time and I focused my attention on the areas of interest I’d noticed the previous time.

  This was only the first day of many to come and I was sure we would make great progress. If this helped me to improve my own healing arts and grasp of cultivation then it was worth it.

  Even if it didn’t, I was glad to assist the boy in his cultivation. He was a member of my sect now. A chain was only as strong as its weakest link.

  ****

  Wang Ren returned three days later, looking excited as he skipped up the path to the peak of the mountain. I greeted him outside of the grasping life palace, embracing him with a smile.

  “Senior Brother, how was your journey?” I asked, leading him inside.

  “I told you not to call me that,” he replied, slapping my arm gently and making me laugh. “It was fruitful indeed, though there are many things to take note of in the coming days. The local area is in chaos.”