A week passed. Ying Lin studied, and Hui desperately ran around his compound, as patient after patient came into his compound infected with Immortal energy, in greater or lesser states of deterioration.

For the fiftieth time, Gui Yutong charged in. “Healer Xie Hao! We found—”

“Another patient?” Hui asked, frazzled.

Wu Fanyun followed her in, a mildly irritated expression on his face as he carried yet another patient into Hui’s compound. He lifted his hand and tossed the man at Hui, not bothering to see if the man landed before he whirled and stomped off.

Hui ran forward, snatchign the man out of the air. “Wu Fanyun!”

The man didn’t look back, directly charging out of the compound.

Hui sighed. Well, I understand. I’d be upset too, if I was forced to play third wheel…

The doors at the far end of the complex flew off their hinges. Bai Jingwen stomped in, glaring at Hui.

“Elder Sister, what have the doors done to you?” Hui asked, no longer intimidated by her in the least bit. “If you must continue flirting here, at least be kind to the architecture! Do you think I have time to fix the hinges and heal all these patients?”

Bai Jingwen had the face to look embarrassed for half a moment before she laid eyes on Gui Yutong. She raised her finger and gestured.

Gui Yutong threw her hand out. “I’ll handle her!”

“I bet you will,” Hui muttered under his breath.

“Huh?” Gui Yutong asked, looking at him.

Hui gave her an ingratiating smile and bowed. “Elder Sister, the ascension trial to enter All-Heavens—”

“Oh, of course. Yes. But first, I’ll take care of the threat to your business!” Gui Yutong declared, charging at Bai Jingwen.

The two women collided. They rushed out of the building and into the back garden.

Hui stared after her and sighed. I can’t complain. I have a great quantity of Immortal liquor, after all… almost all the liquor I gained has been converted. Immortal liquor continues to have the same absorptive powers as the liquor without qi, but it has a stronger effect with Immortal qi in it… and I suspect I could remove the Immortal qi from the liquor and use it, if I could figure out how to process or harness it without injuring myself in the process.

After a second, he narrowed his eyes. “Ying Lin!”

Ying Lin reluctantly emerged from the garden. “Master, disciple was studying plant arts alongside the lotus beasts. I was being studious and upright, a perfect disciple. Besides, won’t watching two fourth-realm… ah, a fourth and a fifth realm cultivator battle, improve my own battle prowess?”

Hui rolled his eyes. That’s not a kind of battle prowess you need to improve, unless you’re cultivating the Bai Clan’s arts! He waved his hand, gesturing her inside. “You can study plant arts with the lotus beasts in the front gardens just as easily.”

Ying Lin pouted. She shook her head at Hui and marched through the building into the front garden. “Master’s a virgin who doesn’t understand the first thing about love!”

“Elder Sister,” Hui chided her, shaking his head.

“What?” Ying Lin demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

Is this… is this the rumored adolescent phase? That legendary era in which children fight back against their parents? Hui sighed. He shook his head at Ying Lin. “There’s no shame in being a virgin. There are entire cultivation methods that require one to maintain their purity for their entire lives, even into Immortality.”

“Is Master cultivating one of those?” Ying Lin asked cheekily.

“No,” Hui replied.

“Then why are you still a virgin?” Ying Lin replied, tapping her chin.

“Disciples shouldn’t make assumptions about their masters,” Hui said.

Ying Lin’s eyes widened. She grabbed his arm. “Master! When? With who? Li Xiang? Bai Xue?”

Hui shook her off. “This is why you need to train your mind and your heart! I should find some sutras for you to chant…”

“No, no. Disciple will go study plant techniques in the front garden,” Ying Lin replied quickly. She bowed and hurried off, vanishing out of sight.

Hui looked down at the unconscious man in his arms and sighed yet again. He flew off toward the largest treatment room and opened the door.

A huge bottle sat in the room, full almost to the brim with cultivators and liquor. A gold needle sat in each cultivator, with a long gold thread stretching from it. All the gold threads were bound into a bundle and dangled off the top of the bottle, hanging down from its lip to his head height. Hui pressed his hand against the tangle of gold threads, then grabbed one and pulled. One of the cultivators burst through the surface of the liquor and landed in Hui’s left arm. Deftly, Hui removed the needle from the healed cultivator and inserted it into the new one, then sent the new cultivator into the bottle.

The healed cultivator gasped and sat upright, spitting out a mouthful of liquor.

Hui waved his hand, catching the spat-up liquor. He glanced at it, then sent it back into the vial. Eh, whatever. The alcohol will purify it, and it’s not like I’m drinking it. I’m going to use it to attack or refine items, not for drinking.

As for Senior Chen Wuya… what he doesn’t know can’t hurt him!

“I… I…” the cultivator stuttered, sitting up. She looked around, then locked eyes with Hui. “Where am I? Last I remember, a wave of energy…”

Hui smiled and knelt down, taking her hand. Moving with great precision and an infinite amount of professional energy, he quickly checked on her body’s state, then nodded. “Wonderful. It seems you’ve fully healed. Elder Sister, I am the small healer known as Xie Hao. A friend found you and brought you here, to the only place that can remove Immortal qi from your body. If you weren’t brought here so quickly… forget losing your cultivation, you might have lost your life as well.”

“I’m grate—”

Hui interrupted her before she could continue. “Elder Sister, this small healer doesn’t need any repayment. I healed you out of the goodness of my heart, and out of my own goals of pursuing the Dao of healing.”

“Oh, then—” She went to stand.

“Elder Sister, please. There’s no need to pay me back,” Hui insisted, pushing her hand away.

“Yes, I…”

“No, no. I can’t. I just couldn’t,” Hui said, continuing to smile while he shook his head.

“If that’s the case, then let me—”

Hui caught her hand as she walked away. “Not a single piece of repayment, Elder Sister. The virtue is enough.”

Speechless, the female cultivator looked at Hui, then reached into her spatial pouch. “Xie Hao, I couldn’t leave without giving you something, as a thanks for the great debt I owe you for saving my life. Have this spiritual knife. I recently found it in a mausoleum, and even I don’t know its properties and mysteries yet.”

Hui took it. “No, no, Elder Sister, that’s far too much. Far too much.” He continued to smile expectantly.

She took a step toward the door. Hui moved casually to block her, clutching his hands together.

She grit her teeth and reached into her bag. “Ah, that’s not enough at all. This is a life-debt, after all. You should take these pills. They’re suitable for cultivators up to the fifth stage, and can increase your absorption of spiritual energy.”

Good! I’ll take some, and give some to Ying Lin! Hui looked up at the female cultivator again, still smiling.

The female cultivator stared at him. What more do you want? She dug through her bag. “Er, no, no, what a pitiful gift to give the healer who saved my life. Here, have these spirit stones as well.”

“Elder Sister is most kind!” Hui said, taking the stones. He kept smiling at her.

The female cultivator glanced at him, glanced at the door, glanced at him, then sprinted for the door at full speed. “This cultivator has nothing else with which to show her gratitude! I’ll forever remain in your debt!”

“Ah! Naturally, Elder Sister!” Hui called joyfully after her. The wonderful, wonderful feeling of accumulating debts on other people! It’s so wonderful to be on the right side of things. Truly, I understand the loan sharks’ feelings now!

He turned and looked at the bottle stuffed with healing cultivators. One, two, three… ten, twenty… All my beautiful treasures and spirit stones. Yes, yes. Come to me!

Ying Lin coughed from the door.

Hui turned, quickly clasping his hands behind him and putting on a scholarly atmosphere. “Ying Lin! My disciple. Have you sensed the lotus beast from across the front garden?”

“Yes, I…” She glanced at the cultivators in the bottle with a troubled expression on her face.

Hui coughed. “Although it has a strange appearance, I’m healing them. Simply healing them. That Elder Sister who just ran out was healed as well! It’s a completely above-board and ordinary healing method.”

“It looks like you’re—” Ying Lin started.

Hui shook his head. “Brewing some strange alcohol? No, no, not this small cultivator! I would never. It’s an unintended byproduct of—”

Ying Lin looked at him funny. Hui fell silent and coughed. “That is, go on, Elder Sister?”

Nodding, Ying Lin continued. “Like you’re pickling cultivators.”

“Oh! Oh, it does. Ha! Pickled cultivators,” Hui muttered to himself, still not fully recovered. Phew. I thought she was about to accuse me of being a total eccentric and alcoholic like Zui Jiu!

“Should I fetch some onions and spring onions? Maybe a few peppers?” Ying Lin murmured, looking at the bottle.

“No, no, no, we should let them preserve some of their dignity,” Hui said, nodding. After all, they’re my very important money bags… that is, customers! No, no… patients! Patients. They’re the all-important patients!

One of the cultivators near the bottom twitched. Hui jolted and ran over to the bottle, pressing his hand to the bundle of gold wires again. He untwisted one gold wire from the bundle and gave a yank. The cultivator jolted, then flew up, bumping against the other bodies on the way up. He half-caught in the mouth of the bottle, bending over backward.

Hui frowned. He released the tautness of the cord and jiggled it a bit, wiggling the cultivator around, then yanked again. The cultivator popped out of the bottle in a spritz of alcohol and flew to the ground.

Hui ran to his side and held out the vial, waiting to catch any liquor the man spat out. The man coughed, then gasped, and he leaned in expectantly, holding the vial close.

The man gave him a questioning look.

Smiling, Hui nodded at him. “Welcome back, Elder Brother. Fortunately, you were brought to me in time for me to heal your wounds and remove the Immortal qi from your body before it irreversibly tainted you. There’s no need to thank me, no need at all.” He waited expectantly, continuing to smile.

The man spluttered, off-balance, and backed away, but Hui followed him, unwilling to let him escape a single step.

Ying Lin shook her head. How is this “letting them maintain their dignity,” Master?