My eyes look down from hers, focusing on her lips. I can hear her gulp as her breath quickens even more. She seems frozen in place, seeing what I’m planning on doing.

Closer and closer I move.

All until my lips meet hers.

A soft savoring of the lips, before I pull back and continue with the practice tea ceremony.

She remains in place, not moving and seeming to have lost her mind for a moment.

My voice shakes her out of this, as I ask a question.

“Now, did you say I was supposed to bow while I pour the tea?”

I keep my voice casual and act like what just happened hasn’t happened.

After blinking a few times, she takes a breath and the answers in the affirmative. For the next few minutes, we finished out the practice and it was time for me to actually do it.

Just as I was readying myself to pour the still hot tea, her voice softly came out.

“Don’t do that again… ok?”

My conversation scan gives me the sign to pause, as if hesitating before nodding slowly.

She seems a little disappointed, but then her face changes to a half smile.

I can just see her mouth move a bit, revealing her true thoughts.

“… There’ll be a lot more time for that later.”

…

…

The rest of the ceremony goes smoothly, as it’s primarily a sequence of ritualistic actions of bowing, offering tea, and repeating my reasons for choosing them and that I swear oath not to betray her.

Following the ritual, I state my reasons.

“When I realized I could become a core disciple, there was no doubt in my mind that you were the only one that was suitable for me.

“I swear that I’ll never betray you. That your interests become my interests.”

By this time, she seems to have calmed down.

Also following the ritual, she states her lines.

As your master, I swear to protect you as my own and help you grow beyond the extent that you could do alone. To grow together alongside you, in all ways.”

Just as she finishes her words, I can feel a change in the air. My scan picks up something subtle, a connection between me and her.

This must be the mysterious contract that is formed between disciple and master.

As it is likely that she can feel this change more cleanly than I can, even with my scan, I can see a happy smile on her face

It’s official. She’s now someone I can trust and rely on in this world.

While I can’t completely trust her, as she still has her own interest and responsibility to the sect, I can give her more information about myself and other things.

One thing I definitely need to keep to myself though, and that’s the scan. Out of all my abilities, that is 1 that could lead anyone to temptation.

Before I can think further on this, she grabs my hand and pulls me towards another room within this sealed off series of rooms.

As we move, she speaks quickly.

“Now that that’s out of the way, let’s hurry so you can start the treatment!”

She actually is moving so quickly and forcefully that it strains my arm a bit. Luckily, my healing eases anything that might happen to it. A fact I wonder if she has considered.

Probably not.

Within it is a bed similar to the one you could find in any doctor’s office.

My scan lets me know that this is pretty typical for all the things that cultivators have to do for themselves to progress. And in case of a medical emergency from such things.

She quickly sits on it and looks expectantly at me.

From this point, it is up to me to take over.

One thing I’ve learned since I’ve started to treat people is that you have to bring a certain air to your work, because it helps to put people at ease.

Using my scan, I’m able to quickly get into that mode and give off the air of an expert at work.

“Okay, I’ll need you to lie back and let your Qi flow freely within you. Once you do so and I start working, you’ll begin feeling a warmth go throughout your body. That’ll just be me working.”

“O-oh, okay.”

She seems a bit surprised by my sudden change, but quickly follows my directions. The image of a lost doe appears in my mind, despite her elderly looks.

Since I’ve realized her true age, I notice the small ways that much of the sage/elder front she tries to put off is just that, a facade.

In terms of actual age, she’s really not that much older than I.

Though, it is worth considering that the main activity for cultivators is to sit in a room and chew pills, with the occasional battle to the death.

However, there are many stresses that this world has that many in mine couldn’t even comprehend. Like having your soul stolen and body puppeteer’d. And having to deal with practically everyone trying to screw you over.

It’s the reason that master and disciple are sacred here, in some ways, more than family relationships. A safe and chosen relationship..

But in this situation, the likely reason for her daze, is that she’s probably still trying to grasp the concept that her issue that she’s been dealing with might get solved soon.

And in such a simple way.

She lays back and begins circulating qi easily.

Just like other things with age, getting too old has effects on your cultivation as it does the body. With that said, I see no such things with her, and it appears to be because of her own hard work. Which is also similar to my world in normal aging. With consistent training and a good diet, even in elderly person could have a fantastic body with limited issues.

Funnily enough, I don’t actually need her to circulate anything.

I found that if you give someone something to do when you’re working on that; it makes the process go a lot easier and helps you feel better about the situation.

Raising my hand over her body, I began using my cultivation method to pierce into her.

Almost immediately, as I do so, I can feel the resistance of the curse on the surface of her body.

…

This curse is powerful.

I’d hazard to say, but even an extremely skilled healer and alchemist team wouldn’t be able to beat it. Which is likely the reason that she’s still dealing with it. With me being at the first step of this hyper specialized cultivation, I can only barely treat this curse and get rid of it.

“o-ooh…”

But it would still take me a year or more, especially with my low cultivation base. Compared to other healers who wouldn’t be able to even get that far, it still shows the immense power of this ability.

But I quickly began seeing why having this cultivation method is so important. Because it really gives me a cover to use my healing aura.

Just the healing aura itself could get rid of this curse. It’s truly an overpowered ability.

But it has its limits. Such as a limited mana amount and the fact that it can’t change aging or bring people back from the dead.

“Haah…”

Two things that the cultivation method will easily surpass, later on.

For now, though, mana is a non-issue, because of the sheer amount that I have in store from continuously using my taming ability and the aura of myself and others.

Adding to that is the efficiency of the ability. As long as it’s one person in their problems, I’m generally able to handle it, but the residual amounts I leave open for such activities.

Moving back to the issue at hand, I activate my aura deep within her body, planning on having it reinforce her insides so they can handle the changes on the outside.

“… Uugh…”

All the while, it should help in eradicating the curse from her body, giving it no place to take hold.

While the healing technique radiates into her skin, like sun on sand, my healing aura springs up in targeted locations and spreads without stopping.

“Hah….”

I continuously do this in certain areas of the body to make sure that regardless of what happens with the curse, she should be able to survive the procedure.

“Aaah… so deep…”

It might be easier to assume that with my abilities that nothing should go wrong and that I should be able to heal her to full at any time. However, interruptions and emergencies happen.

“...d-don’t sto…”

Making sure that she’s in the best position to get up and go is the best way to make them feel secure, as even now she is internally watching what I do.

While I was healing the yellow sash members, there are situations where they have to run off in the middle of a procedure. I’ve learned from those lessons.

In fact, once I wa….

“w-wait…. let me rest …”

A breathy objection makes my hands and ability immediately stop in place.

…

…

… Did I do something wrong? I should check.

“Are you OK? Did you want me to stop?”

Her eyes shoot open like lightning, as they had closed during the procedure. A normal action, as I’ve seen.

She grabs my hands and practically thrust them towards her body again.

“What are you doing?! Don’t stop!”

“Huh? Are you sure? But you just asked me to…”

A terrifying glare freezes me in place, and makes me automatically stutter out in affirmative response.

“O-ooh, okay.”

As I do so, things are quiet again, but she seems to have a twisted smile on her face. I have to pull my eyes away from it, as it is entrancing in its own way. She’s close to halfway healed and already has a far more youthful look to her.

But I force myself to focus back on the issue at hand.

Previously, I was just relying on my cultivation abilities to get a look into her body to see what’s wrong.

Just like before, using my scan on a cultivator at this level is a very risky situation.

But I believe this situation warrants it.

Cautiously, I use my scan to see what might have gone wrong.

Only focusing on the medical side of things, and nothing else, to avoid any issues that may pop up. With this, even if it was discovered, it should only hit on that aspect, which would be expected for someone treating you.

It doesn’t even take a thorough analysis into her, before I find the answer of what had been happening.

The answer should have been obvious.

…

…She’s really been getting off to the healing.

I’ve typically tuned out the sounds of pleasure from people, as it’s usually not good for me to focus on.

It just gets me horny, and to be frank, in a city full of prostitutes, it wasn’t the best idea to think that way. I’d be taken advantage of faster than I could say ‘let’s do this’.

The pleasure is just a side effect of the healing, not something that either I or them could affect. Much better than the alternative, at least.

After healing so many people in a row with the variety of issues, I’ve got into a flow where I no longer allow myself to focus on it.

Admittedly, it was a little tough in the first batches, with people not having that many issues. After thousands of people, it’s a lot better.

But it shouldn’t be to where they orgasm.

It should just feel like a really fantastic massage. Which also can get people horny, but shouldn’t overtake their mind.

… But this might be the exception.

I forgot about this special case. That I’m healing age-related issues with Senior Song’s body, besides the curse itself.

This is like getting a deep tissue massage to the power of 100. Not only is the normal pleasurable effect being applied, but one related to having literally years of her life being added back to her.

Add in the sensation of having your insides and outside being treated like that and it literally can cause your body to orgasm multiple times from the pleasure.

Even for a cultivator, it makes sense that they’d lose their minds a little.

I’m honestly surprised that she stayed so silent for so long.

I can’t rely on the amount of pleasure a person feels from this to stay constant and that people have the same resistance threshold.

I will have to work my treatment plans around that idea.

… If I don’t want there to be any long-term addiction effects that could be troublesome to get rid of, I might want to finish this up as quickly as possible.

This will take a lot more mana than I’m used to using, but it should be worth it in the long run.

I’m really concerned about the short-run, though.

My scan assures me that this is the best way, though. For my sanity and future.

I do not feel assured.

Changing my priorities, I reduce the amount I’m spending on other mana abilities, as well as the one for Senior Song. I also dropped my other Qi related abilities, as I will do this all in a single action.

Concentrating all my energy for one final push.

“… Huh?”

Her eyes flutter open hazily, just before they slowly fixate on me in wanting confusion.

And that’s when I pour an enormous amount of mana and Ki into both my healing abilities.

“Ahh! O.. Oh!… Ahh! AAAH!”

…

…

It’s raining.