With Master Ming laying before me, I examine him, first with my healing cultivation ability and then subtly with my scanning ability.

What is shown is amazingly simple.

He really just had his cultivation base completely destroyed, poisoning all of his meridians and causing (normally) irreparable damage. While simple, it is utterly devastating. From the way it appears, it wasn’t from an external source, but internal.

Maybe a contract failure? Ironic for a contract maker, but I can’t imagine he would do this willingly to himself otherwise.

Either way, this will be simple to fix. Just hard to explain, if asked.

Luckily, I think the unspoken rule for me healing them like this is to not talk about it too much.

Using my cultivation technique and aura, I quickly heal him.

As they were being respectful and not using their spiritual senses, it’s no surprise that everyone around is shocked when I stand up and speak.

“Okay, it’s done. Be careful as you circulate your qi within your middle dantian. Your lower dantian should be safe to use until then, though. As of now, you should be back at peak Core Formation.”

Master Ming’s eyes open with a bright light as he sits up straight.

Everyone’s eyes widen at him and then me, for a multitude of reasons.

First, a first rank Qi Condensation cultivator has completely restored a Core Formation expert’s cultivation base.

The first question crossing their minds will probably be where all the qi is coming from. I have refilled his vast qi reserves.

To put it in perspective, I currently have 3 qi units… he has, at the very least, over 38,500 units.

That’s not even close to an amount that can be hand waved away with efficient healing.

Even more so when it didn’t pull that much qi from the local area. Some have been, of course, but not anything near that quantity.

The next thought would be, if I could repair a cultivation base and refill qi that easily… what would it be like in a battle?

At the beginning of these thoughts of mine, they were already looking sharply at each other. The benefit of being high end cultivators, despite their age and reduction.

Master Ming speaks his mind first.

“We… have much more to discuss than I had assumed.”

He looks at his friends and Sister Nuan before speaking further.

“Before such things, though, I believe this is where my role comes into play…”

His eyes are locked onto Sister Nuan, who is nodding at his words.

Faster than I could perceive, he is already up and working frantically at a small table tucked in the corner of the room.

While I can’t see what he is doing, my scan reveals his remarkable actions instead.

His hands move rapidly around, with a variety of hand motions being done, spanning from hand symbols to grabbing the air itself. All the while he does this, large quantities of qi shine from his hands with a soft light.

Using the qi emanating from his hand, small scatterings of light form together into a small ball before him. After a bit of time and a literal handful of them are made, it condenses into a very tiny corner of a flat plane… like a ripped corner of a piece of paper.

Little by little, he keeps expanding this sheet.

And despite me having retracted my scan and healing technique from him, even I can sense the qi being pulled out of him and into these strips of paper.

It’s clear what is going on.

This is his contract creation technique. Likely one affiliated with the Revolving Heavenly Light Sect.

My best guess is that he is a former elder with the sect. It has to have been at least 80 years since he lost his cultivation, based on what I’ve seen. Within that time, he must have been dropped from the sect.

To quickly pick those skills back up, so quickly too? He truly is a master of his craft.

… though I am seeing some inefficiencies in qi flow with the scan.

Everyone remains silent and watches his work intently. Even for old friends in cultivation, it is rare they trust enough to see the direct techniques of a contract master.

As he continues to work, my scan picks up Senior Tian, looking over at Sister Nuan and muttering to himself.

“Now I see why Gu and Little Song paid such a price to have me setup a concealing formation here. If this were to get out…”

He now speaks louder and to Sister Nuan and Elder Li.

“With all that is happening, I will need help to strengthen this concealing formation. Can you lend your energy to me?”

In the blink of an eye, they flash over to him and face him directly on both sides. Raising their arms, I can feel the flow of energy shift from them to him. An arrangement I recognize as a qi sharing technique.

In addition, I can see more qi being pulled from the surroundings in a funnel shape towards him.

For every person who joins, the efficiency of the qi being given by individuals and taken from the local area increases. That doesn’t even consider the skill of the people involved.

But that’s not what concerns me.

Despite my scan being on and alert for dangers, both active and passive, I only now sense the formation that covers this entire building. The one they are now reinforcing with their power, as Senior Tian performs several hand symbols that form almost words and figures in the area that dive into the ground.

Would my scan have caught a formation that might be harmful to me? I may need to adjust my scan yet again.

… Dang it. This one appears to be much more intensive. Obtrusively so.

It’s like reading into hidden information, if it is not easily discernable.

Looks like I’ll have to put a feather’s worth of scan output into this. Enough to make me feel the slightest bit uncomfortable/aware when there could be a harmful formation. That should give me the opportunity to decide about whether to leave or investigate further.

Better than nothing, though.

The only downside to this is that I won’t be able to tell where it is located. Only that it is nearby.

But I’m not given more time to mull over this, as I feel a wave of energy pass through me from their location. They’ve just finished.

Now that I’m aware of the formation, I can see that it obscures both normal senses and spiritual senses.

When they strengthened it, they were making it even more invisible to a searching eye.

And just in time, too.

My scan picks up a weary sigh from Master Ming as he steps away from the table that he was working at.

Floating in the air before him is a shining piece of paper.

Shimmering with a strange light, it dims down to a barely noticeable glow, all until it looks like a rolled-up scroll.

Before it did so, though, I could catch a few of the major aspects of it.

The biggest one being that breaking its agreements would lead to dispersing your cultivation base and killing you.

A heavy hit indeed.

It is important to note that for Nascent Soul cultivators, this would be a non-permanent hit, since Nascent Soul cultivators have a cultivator soul form that can live outside the life and death of the body. Losing their cultivation base would completely ruin them, of course, but there are ways they could still survive with even that. But recovering from it is a completely different story. Even with help, it would be a high challenge.

With that said, it’s still an absurdly high-level contract, considering its creator is a Core Formation cultivator, even if he’s at the peak.

But there’s still one other aspect of the contract to be considered.

Aren’t the additional conditions a bit much?