Recovering from that earlier mishap, I wait for our team to get back on the move.

Before we actually move on, I crouch next to the guy that I gave the water to, who is also one of the shining people. I automatically activate my conversation scan to assist.

It lets me know to be direct, but in a way that will be a trade. Someone of my abilities reaching out to a guy like him would generally engender more distrust.

“Hey.”

He looks up at me, his teeth clenched. It’s clear he doesn’t want any pity, but doesn’t want to offend me at the same time.

So, he holds his tongue.

“I need loyal men. If you serve me, I’ll make sure that you get taken care of.”

He looks up at me, looks back down, contemplating what he wants to do.

He actually takes a full 8 minutes just doing this.

While that’s easy to say, it’s literally just me standing there and staring at him as he keeps his head down. In fact, after about a minute or two, the others whisper to me if we can just go.

It is extremely awkward.

My scan tells me that in order to get this guy on our side, I will need to display patience at this moment and a commitment that I actually want him.

He may not know the value that he holds, but he cares about himself enough not to be the plaything of someone.

After this long pause, I can finally see a tiny nod from him as he decides.

“I’ll join you.”

His voice startles the others, as it is deep.

He climbs to his feet somewhat slowly, which reveals he’s extremely tall. in fact, he stands taller than me by a third of my height. And I’m already taller than most people in this world, at just under 1.9 meters.

With this, I can actually see why he would have trouble with this trial.

Contrary to popular belief, being that large is pretty horrible. It puts an enormous strain on a person’s body. Having to move around all that weight hurts your heart and can tire you out quickly.

I can also see why the scan had me be direct on what I’m looking for. Most would come to him because of his height. I came to him for someone I can trust. Giving him something first also seemed to have helped.

Funnily enough, he actually has a good spirit root and will be in the outer courts. So, if he can make it, he’ll make it into the sect.

Since it would be bad if I could just know someone’s exact spirit root with my scan, as my Lin and Ai often noted, I’m actually using an adjusted version that takes historical clues about aspects of a person’s body, that would show the general span of spirit root that they would fall into.

Taking this guy as an example, there are thousands of different factors that combine to reveal this information, from the natural pallor of his skin to the spacing of nearly imperceptible hairs on this long arm. Without exceptional eyes, knowledge of what to look for, and an ability to understand how each of those combines to change the result, you would have no other way outside of Qi methods to know their spirit root.

How would I know this? Once a person becomes a cultivator, their spirit root is widely known. With the right type of genius and enough examples, you could get a ‘feeling’ for what indicates such things.

There have been a few examples in the past of people with such a skill, such as the Eternal Eye Emperor, who is said to have been able to determine a person’s spirit root within 3 levels at the age of 10. It is said that he still exists, but in closed door cultivation.

There are also tools that get a larger range from a distance, but even those are pretty expensive. Normally, only large groups would have access to such things.

Moving back to this situation and my new ally, I ask him a pretty important question.

“What’s your name?”

He tells me his name is Ming, and he doesn’t have a last name.

My scan lets me know too much, but just to let him get used to my presence in the type of person I am.

And so, I continue on with the group. To help Ming, I take one tree nearby to create a sort of cane to help him get up the stairs. Dana also assists him by providing someone he can lean on to support his weight.

Despite her small form right now, she actually has a lot of mass, at around 3 tons. She actually has her body in different locations, forming different functions. The one here is around half a ton in mass.

Not only that, but she can ‘harden’ parts of her body by redistributing her mass in different ways. This allows her to act as a support for him by shifting it to compensate better. it also gives her much better load carrying capabilities. With her help, he should be fine for the rest of the trip up to the area where I plan on giving everyone the concoction.

As we move up the stairs, there continue to be people lying on the ground and not able to make it any further based on their current strength.

While I felt pity for these people and want to help them, I can tell that most of them do not have the spirit roots to actually make it into the sect. And if they don’t have the physical prowess to make it up the Stairs or any skills outside of that, it’s very unlikely for them to be accepted as sect servants. It would be a waste of time for them to go out there.

There’s always the possibility of a group being taken on as dedicated servants for inner court members, or even outer court members.

However, it is the responsibility of that member to take care of them. This includes housing, food, as well as other responsibilities. Which can be expensive.

Most people who could help people like this won’t. when I take someone as a servant, if you neither know them nor do they have skills you can use? It’s usually only used for people you truly trust, or looking to leverage later.

There are ways to make it work and be much cheaper that people haven’t tried yet, but would be quite conspicuous.

Obviously, I’m not in the position to go that route at this point.

So, I move on past them. At least, until one of them begs for help.

I can just barely hear it as I pass one of them.

“I can’t let it end here… I’ll do anything. Please, just help me.”

Before I even consciously knew it, I had stopped in place. The group around me had kept walking up the stairs, but then stopped as they realized I wasn’t moving.

Even on earth, if someone begged like that on the street, whether it’s for money or something else, I would have stopped and done the same thing. Can I really find it in myself to just leave someone who is truly begging for help like this? Someone who has thrown away their pride and dignity, to make it another step?

No.

I already knew the answer to that at the start of this journey.

It’s the reason I keep making seemingly naïve choices. Things that clearly aren’t the best way to approach something for someone of this world or even my own.

I wasn’t a better person in my world.

I have to the power to be it in this one, despite the overwhelming difficulties of it here. There’ are plenty of excuses, but none that will set my heart at rest.

I slowly turn to the person on the ground. It’s clear they are a woman, with a deep, but pleasant voice. They appear to be covered in dark, heavy clothing and are quite large.

What gives me pause is that as I stopped, they shone brighter, showing that they would be much more devoted to me if I help them.

Just in case, I use my scan to make sure that they don’t have any weapons on them, which lets me know they have nothing that would harm me or the intent to. Since all my other scans are still going, I’m only able to use this for specific inquiries, but this is enough for most of my purposes.

Leaning down over to her side, I Activate my conversation scan and look for the best way to get her on my side.

Word has already spread on my words to Ming, so it shows I should use the same words.

“I need loyal men. If you serve me, I’ll make sure that you get taken care of.”

Unlike Ming, she answers quickly.

“I’ll do it!”

She does pause right after, though, before saying something else.

“I’m not a man, though, if that’s alright.”

I pause.

My scan shows I should say something else… something I really, really don’t want to say.

“Even better.”

…

Why scan? Why are you doing this to me? Give me something better. Something else. Anything else.

“That’s okay.”

Okay, this is better.

“… I’ll just use you in different ways.”

Why do I try?

Sigh.

The shining goes down at my extended pause, so I’m forced to say something.

I end up going for the second option, because it has multiple connotations that I can at least defend.

“That’s okay, I’ll just use you in different ways than I would a man.”

I can hear her breath go in for a moment and the shine goes down. I can practically feel her resolve harden, as it shoots back up even brighter than before. She says just one word.

“OK.”

It is only now that I see why the scan has me do these vague statements.

By saying the agreement in such a way, it establishes an expectation which I have no intention of following through on. Because of this, it causes the person's estimation of me to go higher, making them much more devoted.

To give an example, it is as if you agreed to work 12 hours a day, but only had to work 8 hours, while still being paid the same as 12. It would only be natural to feel grateful to your boss for this.

For something like this, which is several leagues more affecting, it goes even further.

It feels totally unethical.

I get it and why it's effective, but it still feels wrong.

At least for this, if it actually gets us and them to a better place, I'll continue to do it.

My mind turns back to the situation at hand. I can see that she is attempting to get up, but can’t seem to do so. She gave an enormous amount of effort to get to where she is now. Her body is exhausted.

However, I don't need to scan her to know that she's overheating and not in shape for this.

I suggest she take off the top layer what she's wearing to cool down and then I'll be able to help carry her for a bit until we get to the next resting point. Since she can't really do it herself because of her current strength, I move to help her get it off.

I didn’t really think about it, since she seemed pretty helpless and needing the help. I’ve also worked with countless women at the Yellow Sashes prostitute area and have gotten used to switching to ‘work’ mode.

I soon realize my grave misunderstanding that snaps me out of that mode.

It's not that she's large, but curvy. Absurdly so.

I found that out as soon as I started lifting the bottom portion of her heavy shirt.

Her waist is small, and she has anime proportions everywhere else. The size of her curves in a bulky shirt made it seem as if she had a large belly instead.

… I don’t even want to imagine the back pain.

This is the issue with using my scan in so many areas… my danger scan for people only determines whether they have bad intent or the weapons/ability to hurt me. My very low-level normal scan just sees if they have any issues with their body. It doesn’t actually show me their body shape, like my medical scan.

Normally, it would. But I’m already spread in so many directions.

If only I was stronger with my scan… I could run deeper ones, along with the others, so this wouldn’t happen.

… But there has to be a pattern or something in this world, as there are far too many women with these types of proportions.

Our eyes meet as my hands pause at her stomach.

She seemed to have realized I didn’t know. Her head almost imperceptibly nods to me to continue.

She knows I still have to get this off of her or she will still overheat. I continue, and all that is left is this world’s version of an undershirt. Soaked and now tightly clinging to her body. It still makes it look like she is a big girl.

The sweaty clothing was a little off-putting to feel.

I can already hear the murmurs of the crowd following us that have been watching many of our actions.

This has gotten the rumor mill going.

Instead of carrying her myself, to avoid awkwardness, I have Tai Ye carry her on her back.

Just before we continue, though, I hear a woman in the crowd, who was walking normally just earlier, dramatically fall to the ground and cry out.

“Please! I’ll do ANYTHING. Help me.”

Her eyes look over at me shamelessly.

Murmurs intensify.