The guard's eyes observe me, clearly expecting pain, but with a slight hint of hope.

I begin by centering myself, taking a deep breath to call my nerves. As the air comes inside, I can feel the Qi enter my body, rising through my lower, middle, and finally my upper dantian.

From there, the Qi moves through my meridians, up the myriad of channels, both natural and created, before reaching the tips of my skin. It is at this point that I can see the slight glow of light that appeared in the dream when I first selected this cultivation method. My scan detects the Qi slowly moving towards his arm, before centering in on his forearm.

It then reveals to me the differences between how the cultivation method heals versus my healing aura.

The cultivation method works like radiation. Pulsing outward like a wave, penetrating the skin, diving deep into the body. Healing it from the outside in.

Natural to the method is a somewhat limited analysis ability.

I say limited, but only compared to the scan. In this situation, it was able to find out exactly what was wrong with this guard’s forearm and how to fix it.

As every strand of Qi touches a different part of his forearm, I’m able to heal it in accordance with what I need for it. Of course, if I had chosen it to be so, I could have just done the analysis and not healed him.

This is in contrast to the healing aura, which is an instantaneous and targeted action. It doesn’t need to radiate in, but can be immediately focused in any chosen area.

Now determining these differences is all well and good, but I have discovered that my hands won’t stop shaking.

Pain is racking my body as the Qi flows through channels of my meridians that were never meant to be used or created. The way it twists and turns in my body through the contours I’ve carved into them causes me both discomfort and a measure of strain on my psyche that I anticipated, but was not prepared for.

Thus, the guards can see the sweat streaming down my forehead, a tense face full of pain, and a shaking hand that is still glowing and visibly healing the forearm.

The guard being healed, shows no discomfort and in fact appears to be feeling some form of pleasure from the experience. A feeling not unlike scratching an itch that you know you shouldn’t mess with, but feels good enough that you just don’t care.

The other two men are excited, seeing this now as an opportunity rather than a punishment. They are all hardened warriors, having experienced many pains in their life. If some of those discomforts can get fixed, it may help them in the future and even take away some of the pain that they’ve gotten used to.

As I get close to finishing up, I have to stop the process to recover my strength. My hands drop to my knees and I can feel myself gasp for air. My body shivers, as if cold. With each breath, I try to intake more Qi to replenish my low reserves.

This was my first time using the cultivation method, so it only makes sense that I’d have trouble and would waste energy trying to make it work. Even with my scan, there is a difference between knowing what you have to do and how to perform it… versus actually doing it.

Not only that, but at this first level, Qi reserves are extremely low. Average cultivators would just be learning to feel out and control their Qi for their method. Replenishing their reserves while using it at the same time would be the realm of geniuses.

The more likely aspect of trying something like this is that someone would fumble their technique and hurt someone.

I have 3 times as much Qi as a normal cultivator. Whereas a genius would have two times as much as a normal one.

Even with that advantage, I’m struggling. A genius could adapt even quicker than I am to make this work, with the same amount.

While I may have cheats that allow me to emulate genius like abilities, even I have limits.

It reminds me of why I went through this pain that adds to my struggles right now. I need to work on stacking my benefits.

It’s not enough. I need to be stronger.

Despite my internal thoughts, the guards to have realized the difficulty of the task I’m attempting and why they initially were worried that I’d harm them in my experiments. That I’m still at the first level if cultivation. That this may be too much for me and could harm me in the long run, if I push myself too far.

This could put them in a worse position if I harm myself trying to heal them.

I can see that the guard who almost had his forearm completely healed, is looking down at his arm almost as if in contemplation.

Just as I regain my energy, he bows his head to thank me loudly for my help.

“Thank you, Young Master, for your exceptional healing! I’m feeling great, as expected from someone as great as you.”

The other two guards also follow in bow as well, having reeled in their excitement and realizing the risks of what is happening.

I blow right past that.

With a shake of my head, I raise my hands again, placing them up on his forearm directly and finish healing it.

As I prepared to move on to the next injuries I saw in his chest, he slightly pulls back.

Since I’ve seen that he’s pulled back, I directly ask him a question.

“Do you have other old injuries that can be healed?”

I asked it in a way that doesn’t really ask for permission, but for confirmation that he has something. This lightly goes against my rule of asking for consent, as I’m pressuring him to be healed, but I think I still kept the spirit of the idea in place.

Just as I had changed my words to fit my goals, he does as well

“Young master, there’s no need for you to waste your energy on one such as I. I may have old injuries, but there’s no need to strain yourself and worry those who may be behind you.”

It’s clearly his subtle way of indicating that it would trouble him if something happened because of healing him.

His words, while slightly provocative, are a good way of protecting himself. Unfortunately for him, I have no such person behind me, so I go ignore the advice.

“There’s no need to worry, as despite my appearance, I should be able to heal all of you.”

I think about something before continuing.

Patient choice.

I can’t just push my wishes onto them.

Even if I may want to heal them, I need to really focus on making sure that this is what they want.

“The better question would be, that if you could have your injuries all healed and it would cause no harm to me, would you want it to be so?”

He hesitates, but he nods.

“Then my responsibility is to provide the best care that I can is someone who’s committed to healing you.”

I pause, but then continue.

“… Will you allow me to do so?”

He gulps, but slowly nods again.

I then resume my healing, spending a few hours healing every part of his body that I can.

I discover this cultivation method reaches just as far as my healing aura does.

Not only does it take care of normal injuries and conditions, but it also touches upon the meridians, the dantians, and any other part that could be injured.

I also discover one part of this that differs from my healing aura. Rather than touching upon just conditions, it also focuses on parts that would normally not be classified as such, such as age.

Little by little, it very slightly returns his youth. What this actually means, I still need to research.

I have plenty of time to go over the surface level of the ability, but there’s still depth and levels that appear to be beyond the healing aura, that I’ll need to discover with my scan as I grow with this cultivation method.

And this is just the first level of this. The secrets of this method are hidden to me because I have not progressed far enough. If this is such an introduction to it… what else is hidden beneath it?

It brings that one scene back to mind… of the old man coming back to life. Of the countless people rising.

How far back could I go? And when can I start?

It is a good reminder for me that the restriction of not being able to harm others with the ability is such a light one compared to the heights that it may go.

Over time, the other guards have returned to their duties, but look over enviously occasionally.

By the time I finish, I’ve managed to get a good pacing for my healing.

It’s very slow.

Very slow, compared to my healing aura. But I’m able to sustain it with my Qi intake and usage.

Once I finish, He is beyond words. The whole time he was continuously thanking me until I had to let them know that was slightly distracting me from working.

By the time I got to taking care of longstanding issues he never even knew he had, he was just silent. Just staring intently at me.

Once I had completed the work on him, I asked the other guard to come over, who basically jumped in front of me.

In this way, I progressed in healing him and the other guard in the matter of a few hours.

The first guard had really helped me get my pacing and healing abilities down using this method. So, he really operated as a training piece so I can get better at this.

I noticed something interesting, though. They were secretly giving glances at each other, but it was easy to see with my scan. In particular, one guard had a very hopeful glance on his face.

It’s the same look I’ve seen on the faces of the demi-human parents that had children who need to be healed.

To my surprise, after I had completed with all three of them, they tried to offer money and gifts.

Since I had used them as practice, it didn’t feel right to take their money and items. Not only that, but I was getting the feeling that it’s not something that I felt comfortable doing even in the future.

It may have been the influence of some people back home and the cultivation method, but I feel strongly that healing people should be something that is just done when able.

If there is a large cost to doing so, obviously that cost has to be paid, but in situations like this, it should be done freely. Of course, there are many exceptions to this rule. But it can be a slippery slope, which I want to avoid, if possible.

They continued to insist, but I shut them down hard, saying it would be disrespectful to the medical tradition of my homeland if I took their gifts in such a way.

That taking care of their patients is the expectation of someone who calls himself a physician.

With this, it appears the guard is reticent to mention his family member, who I’m sure needs help.

I’m reminded of a part of the oath that I remember one of my medical friends saying. Something about how the patients’ lives outside of the medical room is just as important as the one inside.

So, I asked him about it. Opening the door to allow him to speak about them. Just as I had assumed, he had a daughter that required a certain medicine to heal a condition that she had. One which is far outside the range of a guard to afford treatment for.

He wasn’t expecting a cure, but just a treatment.

Of course, I told him I could help him with this. That he could bring her out here within the next week. I could see if I could help her.

And that was it.

He obviously profusely thanked me and offered payment, which I declined. His fellow guards stood watch as he set up for preparations to get her as quickly as possible into this area.

I’ve received some benefits from this interaction.

The guards have a good opinion of me and I will probably have no issue going back through the teleporter.

The healing wasn’t really an attempt to win them over, but ultimately, I won’t push away the goodwill caused by it.

And now I’m heading into the jungle. I’ve spent quite a bit of time doing all of this and need to get moving.

Facing the dense greenery before me, I think about my abilities and how they can help me through this. I analyze all the different threats that could be around and mentally prepared myself accordingly.

After careful thought and hardening my combat scan, I take a single step inside.

Squick.

I try to move my foot.

I can’t lift it out with normal human strength. If I pull harder than that, it’ll rip the sole.

It’s stuck.

Funnily enough, if it was my foot, I could easily pull it out.

It is only just now I realize that relatively harmless nuisances (to me) get through my combat scan.

Sigh.

… there’s always something.