Trying to move as quickly as possible, I ask Elder Gu to lie down on the medical table.

He seems relieved to just be able to lie down to take a breath and quickly faces the ceiling of the building.

I might as well get this done as quickly as possible.

Immediately, I moved my hands towards his stomach area.

Before I begin, Senior Song whispers something to me.

“I know you’re skilled with your healing techniques, but I’d like to use my spiritual sense to watch how you do it, to better understand your ability.

“If I’m going to help you in the future, I’ll need to know what you can do.”

I assumed she was going to watch with her spiritual sense, regardless of whether or not I wanted her to. Considering her words, her asking in this way shows a level of care.

With this in mind, I quickly nod my head and focus back in on the elder’s body.

Unlike Senior Song’s condition, Elder Gu’s Issue is pretty straightforward. He’s just horribly burned and damaged internally.

At first, I was wondering why he would protect his skin to the extent that he did… But it seems to have been focused on preventing others from seeing how much damage he actually took. As even in this sect, there are those that would take advantage of weaknesses.

He damaged his cultivation base, meridians, and dantians. His organs are a charred mush. If I didn’t know the resilience of cultivators and the efficacy of potions, I’d be wondering how he was still alive.

Likely, those potions he took before would allow him to heal. It would just take decades of cultivating and healing.

From the amount of qi circulating and his cultivation base, his power level was likely middle nascent soul before, with his actual strength after the tribulation now being more around low core formation. Still pretty high from taking such a hit.

My hands hover over his stomach, glowing. Using my healing technique, I slowly probe towards his center, clearing and repairing the organs within. Just like with Senior Song, I also use my healing aura to maintain the body as I do these changes and supplement the healing.

Keeping in mind her request to do the same as I did for her, I heal him to the best of my ability.

Funnily enough, just having an injured body, no matter how injured, is simpler for me to heal. Curses make things more difficult, by several degrees.

The real issue with his body will be the damage to his cultivation.

… I can still heal it. Which will be weird to explain.

‘How did the lost cultivation base return without an elixir or cultivating?’ will be the first question asked. The only good thing about cultivation is how mysterious it is, even to the people practicing it.

‘I’m not sure’ is still a valid answer in this world for such things. But there comes a point where even that won’t work as an excuse.

Subconsciously, I look at Senior Song. Her eyes are locked on me, her spiritual sense lingering within the area and his body.

I don’t have a choice.

I continue the work of repairing his dantians and meridians. While it goes simple enough, I find a few interesting things about the differences between a normal cultivator’s body and a Sword Ki user.

From the contours of the Meridian Walls to the areas that have seen the most usage, the body gives an interesting history that most cultivators wouldn’t tell. And it’s not as if I’m looking for this information, but that it’s part of the healing process.

Every scar tells a story.

Images of Elder Gu using his sword for different slices, infused with sword ki, training for years on end to hone his skills.

An intense battle where he had to use a secret technique that covers his arms in a shining light, burning the surface of his skin. Healed with a medium quality elixir.

And even the pattern that his ki takes within his body, and its regular usage.

… I could totally abuse this for information gathering purposes.

Even now, I’m learning more about how sword Ki is used and more about the sword techniques themselves. If I really pushed it, I could probably learn the techniques just from his body.

But I’m completely sure this would set off alarms for techniques, like what happened with Ao Jin, the demonic cultivator I killed in the forest…

Thank God the healing I’m currently using shouldn’t set off any alarms. But only as long as I don’t actively seek more information.

Of course, I’m not the first person to have discovered this. Even a person without healing abilities could learn such things from a person’s body, if given enough access.

Part of the trust with a healer is that they won’t abuse their position to do so.

Which is part of the reason they have those organizations and Qi artifacts. Because you can’t fully trust anyone in this world without some verification.

But it makes me wonder, when the day comes that I’m strong enough to resist any attempt on my life, would I abuse these abilities?

Will the sect force me to do so, at some point?

Either way, I turned my attention back to healing the elder. Moving onto healing and adding back his cultivation base.

Both my aura and technique meet together in his body, interacting with some unknown aspect of his body to refill his cultivation base.

I understand how the healing aura does it, which is by converting mana into qi at a high efficiency level. But I’m not understanding how the healing technique does it, as it is what’s interacting with that unknown aspect.

As always, I use my scan to figure it out. Probing at the safety of such a question.

Like seems to be the case with so many things, I discover that trying to find this information would be dangerous both in a health aspect, and also for attracting the wrong attention. To the point that I wouldn’t be able to even tell the realm of what’s pursuing me.

A very similar feeling to when I was in the soul space, trying to discover more information.

The real issue is that there are far too many beings so powerful in this world or dimension (or even other ones) that I have to be careful at every step.

But it finally gets finished.

We have optimized him in every way. From his muscles and body being stronger than ever, to the slight imbalances in his qi from his cultivation techniques, and especially within his spirit root, which was 2 Orchid Heaven and now 4 Orchid Heaven, he’s been upgraded.

The moment I finish, he sits up and looks down at his hands and body. I can barely sense him circulating Qi the moment I leave his body with my cultivation technique.

Being able to heal Nascent Soul elders so easily is definitely going to cause me both boons and headaches later. I should prepare myself for that.

Despite my best efforts to hide it, my anxiety towards the future seeps out into my unconscious actions. Something that couldn’t be hidden from cultivators of their level.

Right then, I feel a hand affectionately lay on my shoulder.

Looking over at Senior Song, who’s now behind me, I can see her smiling happily over at Elder Gu. Like when she was healed by me, I’m struck by the radiance of her beauty. Her scent washes over me, shaking me slightly before I refocus.

As I’ve gotten more used to it, while riding beside her on the swords, I’m able to slightly disconnect her scents and the feelings that arise within me because of it.

Mostly.

Still doesn’t change how intensely attracted to her I am.

When she turns that face towards me, I can feel my face warm up a bit. Her smile grows larger, clearly noticing my look and what it means.

She leans in to my ear, pressing her curvaceous body against mine. It becomes a significantly harder to keep focused.

A tantalizing whisper reaches my ear.

“You’ve done well… my dear disciple. You definitely won’t regret doing this. There will be many benefits from doing this.”

I can’t help but lock my eyes onto her cat-like, misty blue eyes.

She smiles, indicating she means it in multiple ways, as her arm motions over to Elder Gu. I reluctantly move my eyes away from her to him.

She pulls away a bit, finishing out her words.

“Trust me. You’ll see what I mean.”

He’s now standing and looking over at us with a conflicted look.

But that’s only for the briefest moment. Likely a much longer one from his perspective.

I see him stand straighter, moving his shoulders back. A resolute expression comes over his face.

“Little brother, thank you for taking such good care of my sister here.”

… sister?