The very act of trying to impose order on the inherently chaotic blood essence seemed to cause a devastating domino effect. Not only had my own essence—my self-created technique—refused to follow my commands, but it had also begun to do the opposite in an infuriating act of defiance.

I knew blood essence was not sentient—thousands of years of rich cultivation history proved that—but right now I couldn’t help but think the frustrating little sparks were doing this to spite me. When I’d tried to direct them towards the worst affected areas, they instead exploded away from my very touch.

While I was annoyed, I refused to let a single failure stop me. I’d decided to treat the old granny and improve my control, so I would do it no matter how long it took.

Even though the sparks weren’t obeying my commands, they were still doing their job. A few had already exploded into a mist of tiny red droplets. Since the slight improvement in my cultivation I could see the microscopic motes without straining too much.

To be honest, I wasn’t worried that my treatment would fail. It worked perfectly on the cat. It was only my lack of understanding that had caused me to worry when the sparks behaved differently to before.

In fact, the only thing that could possibly go wrong was the old woman’s body being unable to keep up with the fierce treatment and giving out before it could heal. However, with me on hand that wasn’t going to happen.

Along with my new magic cultivation powers, I was armed with decades worth of mortal medical knowledge. I knew almost everything that could go wrong during this kind of treatment and how to counter it.

The technique worked much faster this time. There were many reasons why that could be: the fever had more time to multiply giving the essence more targets; I’d used more essence this time around; pure chance.

I didn’t discount the last one, knowing how strong a grip the workings of fate and destiny had in a world like this. I’d only felt the touch of the heavens once, when they chained me with this oath, but that brief moment was enough to know they were alive.

Perhaps not in a way I understood, but I knew the world itself functioned like a living entity with a purpose beyond my understanding. It was governed by rigid laws, but ones I had yet to discover.

That thought excited me more than any other, because if there was one love I had lost in my years of working side by side with death and destruction, it was the sheer thrill of research and discovery.

All these thoughts raced through my mind as I continued to observe the chaotic clouds of essence raging in the old woman’s body. If the other treatments I’d performed were like focused blasts, this one was like a tsunami.

The essence had clumped up, the smaller sparks joining together into larger ones and then forming a wider cloud with the others, creating a lattice of chaos through the granny’s entire body.

Only a few had burst into a shower of mist, emulating the process that had occurred inside the cat. I wanted to know why, so I strained myself to keep watch.

There were just a few sparks left unconnected to the grand tapestry, but they were soon dragged in. The instant the final spark joined the web, dozens of them exploded.

That began a chain reaction that caused all of the accumulated blood essence to burst in a torrential rain of vitality. And then I felt her heart stop.

****

I chugged the remainder of the water from the jug, not bothering to wipe away the sweat that rolled down my temple—my whole body was soaked anyway. I wasn’t worried about the fever contaminating the jug, since my cultivation would prevent most mortal illnesses taking hold.

When the old bat’s heart had given out I was consumed by guilt, thinking I’d inadvertently hastened her death through my unwanted treatment. But, a cloud of essence had rushed to fill the withered heart and after what looked like a medicinal cluster bombing, it began to beat anew with even more vigour.

After that, the treatment had proceeded in a similar fashion to how the cat had recovered. I could see the pain it caused the old woman, having her body be the site of a fierce battle between the insidious fever and violent medicine, but it was a necessary sacrifice.

When the final whirling torrent of essence—formed from my own and the scraps that remained in the granny’s withered body—faded, her breathing was steadier and her face which had twisted and grimaced during the treatment was the picture of serenity.

After watching over the cat and the granny for another hour to make sure there were no complications, I left the run-down hut. I didn’t want to stick around to see how furious she was to still be alive when she woke up.

My cultivation had skyrocketed once again. In fact, the overwhelming torrent of blood essence that had flown into me after the fever had been vanquished almost knocked me out.

It hadn’t been quite enough to push me over the edge of the seventh star, but I felt like the tiniest push would do the trick. While that would be cause for celebration for most cultivators, it worried me.

There wasn’t a single recollection of a cultivator advancing this fast in Zhao Dan’s memories. And the disciple who came closest—a girl called Guo Chun—was discovered to be using a forbidden demonic technique that caused her flesh to rot and eventually drove her insane.

That story had ended with an Elder of the Cloudy Falls Sect putting her down like a rabid dog. Of course, fast progression didn’t spell certain doom, but I was acutely aware of the importance of laying a sturdy foundation.

Cultivation was a marathon, not a sprint. The necessity of taking one’s time to acclimate each time they advanced to a new star was emphasised many times in the sect’s beginner cultivation method which I’d memorised.

Even without spirit roots I was still able to progress my cultivation, so keeping those lessons in mind was important.

Ultimately, there wasn’t much use in worrying about it. I wasn’t going to stop healing those who needed my help, even if it caused a few imperfections in my cultivation.

At its core, cultivation was a rebellion against the will of the heavens. If I had been afraid of taking risks to expand my horizons, I never would have left the safety of my country to become a doctor on the front lines.

My walk through the village had brought me back to Xiao Cui’s house. Her mother lay sick within and now that I knew my method was effective it was time to treat the next patient.

As I entered I saw Xiao Cui at the stove, tossing herbs into a boiling pot. I recognised a few, but there were some that eluded my knowledge. “Brewing medicine?” I asked with a smile, making her drop the knife and rush over.

“Saviour Zhao! You’re back,” she cried, hugging my legs and beginning to sob. “I just want to make the pain go away. Mother keeps coughing and growing weaker by the hour. She used to make this tea for me when I was sick, so I wanted to do the same…”

Tousling her hair, I pried the girl from my legs and strode towards the bedroom. “Don’t worry, little Cui. Now that I’m here everything will be okay,” I assured her with a thumbs up.

“Really? Are you going to cure her?” she said, sniffling and wiping away a mix of tears and snot.

Despite how gross I found it, I couldn’t fault her. I would’ve felt the same if I had to watch one of my parents slowly dying. “Of course. Did you ever doubt me?” I quipped, making her huff. However, when I entered the bedroom and greeted her father she rushed after me.

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Sitting beside the stoic man, I saw the pain hidden behind his stern expression. I looked at him expectantly with a hand held in the air over his wife and he nodded. It was time to get to work.

****

Over the course of the week I went around the village, treating everyone who had caught the mysterious fever. I slowly gained a reputation as a miracle healer, with every villager who met me in the streets rushing to strike up a conversation and shower me in thanks.

The gratitude warmed my heart, but I felt awkward. I’d never been a social fellow and having to constantly engage in gossip about which man’s wife was having an affair or which baker cut their loaves with sawdust was exhausting.

You’d think a village suffering from an epidemic wouldn’t have time for such idle nonsense, but if anything the rivalries grew more heated during that time. And that wasn’t the only thing that intensified.

My cultivation had finally shattered the bottleneck, carrying me to seven-star Body Tempering. It had happened between treatments and the village head had almost bitten my head off with anger when I suddenly left his sick daughter lying on the bed to find a secluded spot to break through.

He’d forgiven me and apologised profusely when I returned and nursed her to health, an act that shored up my newly advanced cultivation. With the fever seemingly defeated, I was left with little to do but explore the surroundings, chatting with Xiao Cui whenever she ambushed me and occasionally playing with the cat now that it had returned to its mischievous, agile self.

I had yet to visit the old granny since treating her, though the fact the cat wasn’t starving led me to believe she had recovered. I wasn’t scared of her, but I was a little guilty about ignoring her request.

If anything, I wasn’t so worried about the short term impact of my cultivation advancing so quickly. I just feared that this momentum wouldn’t last—that there was a heavy price I would end up paying down the line.

I wouldn’t find the answer by overthinking. I barely knew the questions to ask. Instead, I ran through Zhao Dan’s memories, trying to find any clues about my strange blood essence and mysterious ability to see qi and blood.

Discovering why my abilities worked the way they did would surely give me more insight into using them to the fullest. Of my twin goals—improving my control and learning more about my healing technique—I’d made more progress with the latter.

My control was still poor, though I had refined it a little as I treated the countless villagers who fell sick. Now, I was able to somewhat direct the erratic sparks even after they’d left my body.

However, I noticed that when I tried to control the process, it often ended up being less effective than when my blood essence was left to its own devices. I would change that, but only through relentless practice.

When it came to learning about my technique I’d made great strides. Discovering that it not only worked on physical injuries but also infections was vital knowledge. It was my hope that it might also work on more insidious afflictions like poison and perhaps even more ephemeral ones like mental trauma.

That last one was just a fleeting idea, but it would be groundbreaking if I could figure it out. Though I was rather hesitant to start messing with people’s minds. That was the realm of mad scientists and far more talented surgeons.

I’d never had the skill to even consider the path of a brain surgeon, but perhaps now I might have the opportunity. With how often cultivators seemed to come to blows, I was sure plenty of them suffered concussions and perhaps even permanent brain damage.

It wouldn’t surprise me, given how ridiculously short their fuses were and how often they ended up in large scale wars over the most minor disagreements. That last thought brought a smile to my face.

I had been exploring a nearby forest, observing the behaviour of the local wildlife as winter took hold. The first layer of snow had already fallen and many had begun to hibernate. I worried for the villagers.

They were already weakened after the strange illness and now they would need to survive the harsh cold. However, I knew they’d done it for hundreds of years before I arrived and would continue to do so long after my death. Humans were tough bastards.

As I walked through the outskirts, I noticed there was almost no one outside. Usually the farmers would be watching over the paddies, but I couldn’t see a single soul.

I rushed to Xiao Cui’s house, but found it empty. However, I soon realised everyone was gathered in the village centre, listening to a rather well-dressed man reading from a bamboo slip.

Curious, I slipped into the crowd and made my way towards the front to listen to what he was saying. I wasn’t sure who he was but the way everyone watched with strained faces made me nervous.

“And so, according to the decree of the Three River City Lord Teng Shi, the tax rate this year will be increased by five percent. The ferocity of the beasts grows every year and maintaining the defences of the surrounding lands is an expensive endeavour. Any village who fails to meet this increase will be left to fend for themselves,” he declared, closing the slip with a thunderous clap.

****

After the arrival of the City Lord’s messenger, the village was in an uproar. However, none of them dared make a move on a man with such backing.

To defy Teng Shi was to defy the heavens, at least for the mortals who lived under the protection of Three River City. While they couldn’t complain, I was under no such obligation.

Even as an expelled disciple, I was still a cultivator. The City Lord was far above me, but at the very least my status would warrant me a better explanation than the one given to the villagers.

I’d pulled him aside once the crowd dispersed, grumbling and moaning about how they would survive the winter. At first he’d been offended by my familiar manner, but once I told him who I was he warmed up a little.

However, even after I was able to loosen his lips the man couldn’t tell me much more than he’d told the villagers. He explained the real reason for the increased tax was that the City Lord needed to pay a tithe to the Cloudy Falls Sect—a fact he was surprised I didn’t already know.

I did know, once I found a vague memory of Zhao Dan overhearing two Elders gossiping, but it hadn’t been something I’d cared to discover while trawling through the countless memories I’d inherited from my predecessor. It seemed this world was much the same as Earth.

There was always a bigger dog. The villages paid the City Lord to protect them from the wild beasts and bandits that roamed the wilderness and the City Lord paid the sect to guard him from greater threats—or perhaps just for the mere act of existing in their shadow.

Cultivators were an arrogant lot and thought of mortals like ants beneath their feet. I wouldn’t be surprised if they only demanded the tax so they didn’t forget who their masters were.

In any case, there was nothing I could do. I thanked the man for his help and resumed my idle pacing around the village. One thing was clear—I was outgrowing this place.

The sudden onset of the illness had given me a goal and a way to progress my technique. Now that I had defeated my elusive foe there were few reasons to stay in a backwater village like this.

Xiao Cui was one of those reasons, but despite my fondness for the girl I’d saved, I wasn't going to stay just to gossip with her every few days. I still had a burning desire to explore this majestic world and discover the limits of my technique; to stretch the boundaries of medicine in a world that seemed to shun it.

I decided to remain in Nine Paddy Village until the end of the winter and then make my way onwards. My original destination had been Three River City but I was content to just start walking and see where my journey took me.

****

Fierce winds whipped shards of ice at me and even with my cultivator’s constitution I could feel the bite of winter. According to the villagers, this year’s winter was the harshest in a decade.

Food stores were dwindling and some of the elderly and weak had perished to the cold. Thanks to my presence, illness wasn’t as much of a threat this year, but there was only so much I could do. I didn’t want them to grow reliant on me when I was planning to leave the village behind.

I did accompany the village chief and a few of the stronger men on a hunt. With my help and their local knowledge we were able to secure quite a few fresh beasts to feed the hungry villagers. It would be enough to last the rest of winter with proper rationing.

My days were spent mostly with the old granny. She still hadn’t forgiven me for healing her, but treated me like a lost son all the same. I preferred to avoid the main streets of the village.

The way the villagers treated me now was reverent, almost like a deity. It made me uncomfortable and almost pushed me to cut my stay even shorter than planned.

However, I wanted to make sure Xiao Cui was settled and not liable to make another stupid decision like running away from home before I left. While I couldn’t change her personality, I could see the tension between her and her parents was mostly gone.

While walking near the forest, a sprawling mass of empty trunks with the occasional hardy evergreen dotted about, I found a solitary rose. The blood red petals that stood in defiance of the harsh cold touched my heart—I was inspired by its strength.

I bent down to admire it, considering plucking it and bringing it back for the granny. At least I could leave her with a gift she didn’t hate, I mused with a smile.

The shadows flickered, three sharp spikes breaking through the icy winter sun. Without hesitation I threw my body to the side right as a paw bearing razor-sharp claws tore through the air.

Turning, I came face to face with the silent assassin. A hulking bear with shaggy brown fur, bloody and matted in places with a green hue, towered over me. One look was all I needed to tell this monstrosity far outclassed me, an eight-star spirit beast at the very least.