“What?” Na Sun looked shocked, “Not a magical beast?”

William shook his head, “It’s just a… very large snake. Perhaps magic was involved with its growth, but regardless, if it does not use magic, it cannot have a magic core.” Not all magical beasts would have one of those either, but things like dragons always did. That was their ‘dragon’s heart’. Magic cores were just special gems that some magical beasts formed.

“Then all this…” she looked over at her injured companion. From what William could tell, his arms were broken… and probably a number of ribs. On the other hand, his ribcage was still ribcage shaped, which indicated his organs were probably mostly fine. That spoke something to his fortitude, even though the constrictor had only been crushing him for a few moments.

William shrugged again, but less significantly this time. He had to remember that his disguise was rather fragile with movements. “Its scales still have some value, or perhaps other things.” William was getting back into the right speech patterns for the language of Liaoyang, but he could tell it had changed slightly. Some of the words Na Sun used were just a bit different.

“Umm, do you have any relation to the Yu clan in the eastern territories?”

“No. Or at least, my parents were certainly not part of the clan.” That was true, as long as he used his current parents. Based on what she had said, the Yu clan still existed. William was slightly happy to hear that, but he only had real attachment to a few members of the clan anyway.

“Oh.” She sounded slightly disappointed, “I was hoping you might. The Yu clan is one of the few that practice the magical arts… and I was hoping healing magic could help my friend.”

William shook his head, “Sorry.” He was sorry, too, because he could use healing magic. He’d put in significantly more practice after his father was injured, so he wouldn’t have to do so much improvising if he needed it again. There was still a horrible criss-cross scar on his chest, but he didn’t seem to mind. Even so, William went to look at the injured man. Ki senses were the best here, because he could actually see internal injuries. That said, this man wasn’t too badly off. Broken ribs, broken arms, but very little other problems. He would probably recover given time, and proper treatment. It didn’t even need to be magic. “Though I can’t use magic, it doesn’t seem he needs any. I could help put his bones straight, if you don’t mind…” Getting permission to use ki on someone was very important. Beyond just looking… actually doing anything inside or to someone could be quite dangerous. They nodded, and then William started. There were several popping sounds as the broken ends of bones slid into space, and the man groaned in pain… but it was short. However, after that, his bones were all properly lined up, though still broken. The arms were already splinted, but it was obvious the person who did it didn’t know that the bones should have been set first. Just stopping them from moving around wasn’t enough. However, that was the one area ki was definitely better than magic. It could easily move bones around, while magic had a relatively harder time… especially if they couldn’t use ki senses to guide the internal movements. As for promoting healing, magic was better for activating the right cells, or other details. At least, as far as William had seen.

“Thank you very much, elder.”

“You are welcome. It was not too much trouble. I think he should heal up just fine… but I would still take him to see a doctor.” At the very least, they would be able to help with any further problems caused by moving him out of the forest.

-----

After that, William left the group of warriors behind. They shouldn’t be in significant danger, as there weren’t too many such dangerous creatures… at least not in one area. Perhaps even deeper into the forest, away from the well-travelled roads… and new foresting operations. Among other things, the trees grew taller and stronger in the deep forest… just like everything else seemed to. That was what William had heard anyway, but he had no interest in going somewhere so dangerous for no reason. Even getting combat experience there wasn’t a great plan, because the more probable result was death or serious injury.

What William found the most interesting was that there were people from Liaoyang hunting magical beasts for magic cores. It had been done some in the past, but generally it was not worth the risk. As gems, they were lackluster… and if it needed to be traded to Ostana to get used, it would likely not make much profit. After all, they hunted magical beasts there to provide them for their own wizards. Now, though, apparently there were people who used magic in Liaoyang, even though it had been looked down on before. Perhaps they had realized how practically useful it was.

It wasn’t much of a surprise that the Yu clan was involved. His sister Yu Li had learned magic, and it was entirely possible she had brought that knowledge back to the clan with her. She hadn’t been at the battle with the Demon King… so after the war, it was a good possibility. After that, it wouldn’t be strange for others to try to learn magic, if it proved effective. Though splitting the effort between training magic and ki could be a problem for growth, there was only so much energy one could expend toward ki in a day. Meanwhile, magic used an external source, which mean it could be used when one was out of ki. Besides, they had different effective ranges. William obviously thought they worked together quite well, though he hadn’t actually been in many battles where he could use magic… at least not himself. Chris had always been able to, but that wasn’t just the same. Regardless, magic being at least somewhat accepted in Liaoyang was a large, obvious change. He wondered what small things he might miss.