It was early in the morning, and the sun was only barely rising. In the canyon, it was extremely quiet, all the animals only beginning to stir.

By the peaceful water side, Dalian sat, eyes closed and brows furrowed in concentration. Just then, a tiny shimmer of white light began wobbling around his skin. Like a balloon inflating, it grew in size, changing shape to a sphere as it enlarged. Swiftly, it grew to a metre around him. He could’ve made it larger, but there was no point, and he wanted to conserve his energy.

This was a technique called Life Bubble. It provided a zone where evil qi couldn’t enter without great difficulty, as well as providing a space for his qi to be released from his body and gather into another technique, which he had just begun doing.

With his eyes open, he began gathering qi into an extremely thin needle. As the qi grew, he took a moment to condense it before adding more. The process of condensing and gathering repeated a few times before it shook unstably.

Very carefully, he reached over to the wooden box, grasping its clasps in his hands. The needle moved closer. Then, in one motion, he swung the lid open.

Evil qi burst out of the sword, and his bubble immediately crumpled under its strength. He felt the damage, but ignored it. The technique had already fallen apart. But he still had another card to play.

The needle shot forward through the sword’s aura, piercing it without any resistance. Then, it lodged itself into the metal, and with a thought, exploded. The blast barely covered the sword’s tip before being ruthlessly consumed. Like a predator latching onto prey, the evil qi chased towards him. Without any reflection, he slammed the lid shut.

He fell back onto the floor, and breathed raggedly before smacking the ground with his fist.

“Fuck.”

The weight of his failure was heavy on his consciousness. He had thought that it would’ve been a success without a doubt. After spending three days working on the techniques in every waking moment, he was sure of himself. He had even felt ready a day before, but still chose to keep practising to make sure that he left a good impression on Alano.

Yet, that was nothing in front of the cursed sword. He wondered what had happened to the sword to make it so powerful. Certainly, he felt frustrated most of all. With himself. Somehow, he had let it get into his head that he was a supreme talent. Perhaps it was the treatment Elder Alano and the people on his mountain had given him.

He berated himself for his arrogance. Taking an unnecessary risk had resulted in a loss.

As he looked up at the sky, Alano’s face appeared, looking down at him.

“That was foolish.” He said.

Dalian held back a groan, “It was.”

“Nevermind, just practise some more. I’m sure you can recognise the flaws in your techniques from that failure. For now though, we will move on.”

Dalian sat up. “No. I want to keep trying.”

Alano smiled. “That is good, keep that in mind when you come back to purification.”

“But I’ve barely gotten started.” Dalian said.

“Sometimes it is best to get another view of a problem before attacking it again. By moving onto another technique, you will gain a better understanding of life qi.”

“I suppose.” Dalian replied, sensing Alano would not budge. “What’s next anyways?”

Alano smiled, and gestured with his arms for emphasis. “Healing.”

He paused, gauging Dalian’s reaction, but the boy was just concentrating. “There are two types of healing; assisted, and controlled. For most purposes, assisted will do just fine. It is merely a case of supplying life qi to someone, and letting their body do the rest of the work. The best way to think of it is as speeding up the natural recovery process. This is why you were able to even help me. Of course, that was only possible because of your naturally large vital energy reserves.”

“And that was why you could just absorb it from the air?” Dalian asked.

“Exactly. Since it was there, I could use it for myself. It was helpful in that instance, but you can’t do it like that in the future. Imagine if there had been an enemy there. They could have taken everything, healing their own injuries, and leaving us in the mud. You also need to keep in mind that whoever you’re healing might not be awake to absorb your qi for themselves.”

He stopped, waiting to see if Dalian had any more questions. Upon hearing none, he continued.

“As I said, for most injuries, this will do just fine. But there are some where this will be completely ineffective. I’ll give you a few examples. Someone has come to you, missing an entire leg. What will you do then? You can’t speed up a natural recovery process, because there’s nothing to speed up.”

“Transplant?” Dalian replied.

“Perhaps, but no. Who would give up a leg for someone else? And you don’t want to start harvesting body parts from your enemies, because that’s when things start getting messy and begin to border on the ways of the evil cultivators. What you need to do is create a new leg for them.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“How is that possible?” Dalian asked.

Creation. That was the power of a god.

“It’s not true creation. You are merely making the framework, and taking some information from their body to slightly alter it. Of course, I am vastly oversimplifying. Just at a minimum, you need to be knowledgeable about the human body to even decode what you are being told.

Now. You need to make a choice. Will you take the easy path, or the hard path? Most people with life spirit roots don’t have the guts to take the difficult path. And I don’t blame them. Although I’ve never had to do it, I can see that it is a decision that will take many years of hard work before you can become a master.”

There wasn’t a moment of hesitation before Dalian answered. “I will take the path of controlled healing. A few years is nothing in the face of immortality. And I don’t want to choose something that might leave me helpless in a situation where I could’ve had the skills needed.”

Alano smiled. “Very admirable. Then I’ll leave this with you.” In his hand, a large tome appeared. “This is a compendium of human anatomy. However this can only be considered the basics. There is so much knowledge to learn, that it might really take immortality to truly master it all. But that level of proficiency is…” He searched for a word. “Perhaps, unneeded.”

Alano passed the book to Dalian, who held it with attentive hands.

“There will be information in the Nine Life Scripture on the actual techniques.”

“Elder, how should I practise?” Dalian asked, to practise healing needed something to heal.

“Ah, you need test subjects.” He thought for a moment. “How about using animals? It isn’t as good as practising on people, but it’s better than nothing. You can injure them in the exact way you’re studying, then practise on that precise scenario.”

Dalian was hesitant. “Isn’t that quite… cruel. I don’t want to torture innocent creatures.”

“Would you rather remain a healer who only has knowledge, but no training?”

“Of course not, but I would still rather not torment an animal just for personal gain.” Dalian replied, slightly afraid of going against Alano’s will, but not wanting to give up his morals.

“How about this? I will scan the forest and look for animals which are being hunted. When they are injured, I’ll step in and save them, then bring them over for you to heal.”

Dalian was surprised, he hadn’t expected the elder to actually compromise. He was sure that it would take some effort to watch over the whole forest constantly. It made him question whether his character was really as bad as Shelu had made it out to be. So far, he seemed honestly kind.

“Thank you. That would be perfect.” He said.

“Very well. You should get to studying. I will return with a test subject when it becomes available.” Alano replied, the image of tranquillity.

—

Dalian had just been learning about the four chambers of the heart, when he was startled by Alano placing a half dead squirrel on the ground in front of him. Somehow, the man had an uncanny ability to sneak up on him. Placing the book to his side, he picked up the bloody squirrel, which twitched slightly in his hands.

“Should I use assisted, or controlled healing?” he asked.

“Assisted. You need to get a handle on it first, and in this situation, controlled might do more harm than good with your lack of expertise.”

Dalian nodded, and inspected the squirrel. It had bite marks all over its torso. Clearly, whatever had hunted it was just about to finish it off when the elder saved it.

He put the squirrel down lightly and began circulating his vital energy. Over the days, he had become more adept and could now circulate without shutting his eyes, and whilst making very slight movements. As his qi passed around his meridians, he allowed it to gather in his hands.

Soon, a dense life energy thrummed just inside his skin. Had it been a human he was healing, he might’ve needed the large surface area of his entire hands, however since it was only a squirrel, he compressed the energy into his pointer finger.

Very carefully, he opened up the pores on his finger tip, allowing the qi to be vented out. He moved his hand closer to the squirrel, so that his finger was touching the wounds. Life qi shot inside, and began repairing the punctured internal organs rapidly. He moved his finger along each of the bite marks, until after a minute, they had been completely repaired, leaving hairless patches of skin behind.

He continued giving the squirrel life qi, so that its internal injuries were completely healed. He had much more to spare, so it didn’t bother him. Then, he closed his pores and allowed the accumulated qi to return to his neidan.

He took in a deep breath, allowing himself to relax. The squirrel got up and scampered over, nuzzling up to him like an infant, as if to give its thanks. Dalian stroked the still bloody squirrel for a moment, before stopping and letting it run away back into the forest.

“That was an impressive showing for your first time.” Alano said. “Perhaps you are ready for controlled healing after all. Tell me, how much have you learnt so far?”

“I know most of the organs of the body, and have practised transforming my qi into them a few times, but it always leaves me incredibly drained and the products don’t look like how they’re supposed to” Dalian replied.

“That is fine. You still only have the qi of a first gate qi gathering cultivator. As for the bad products, that is also expected. You were never going to become good in only a few days. But to even make something is quite impressive. Keep studying. If I spot another injured creature, then I’ll bring it over, if not, then you can return to purification.”

Dalian was happy to get another go at purification, but there was something he had thought about during his time studying. “If I may, honoured elder, when you told me about the life spirit root, you said there were three main uses. The first two were purification and healing. But you also said something about controlling the life energy of the world, that it was the most deadly of the three.

I know that this world is dangerous, and I want the ability to protect myself should anything happen.” He said.

“Do you not feel safe under my protection?” Alano asked.

“Of course I do. It’s just that you won’t always be there to protect me.” Dalian replied.

Alano nodded. “The truth is that there is no such technique in the Nine Life Scripture. Perhaps the author didn’t want to see any more destruction in the world, but they left no offensive techniques, except for those against evil qi. You are correct however that this world is dangerous. When we return to the sect, I will find a technique for you. I can’t promise that it will be on the same level as the scripture, but it will be a starting point.”

“I offer my gratitude to the honoured elder.” Dalian said.

The Nine Life Scripture felt less impressive to him now that he knew it didn’t contain any attacking techniques. He could’ve found out earlier, but he didn’t know to what extent he was being watched, and he didn’t want to disobey the man’s command of not reading ahead.

“It is the least I could do for my disciple.” Alano replied.