After my bold request to have them bring out everyone to heal at once, the masters and audience just gapes. Shocked at my audacity… and the potential that I’m not bluffing.
Madame Liao takes control, rising and speaking for the masters.
“…such bold words. However, there is an established process for this accreditation. We must ensure that every patient receives proper care and treatment. I hope you understand.”
Even as she says this, she and the other masters are running their scan over the patient. Meticulously documenting every detail of the healing process they can track.
Ah… I see now. It’s not only because of procedure, but because they want to know my secrets. In fact, this is one of the few legal and socially acceptable ways they can analyze my healing technique. I believe they might even create a record for the organization on their findings for future study. Now whether they share that with others outside the organization is another question.
However, I think that for healers such as these, the question of how they could learn from it and do the same is more important to them. Especially since I just did this in front of an entire crowd, as an anonymous applicant.
They spend a bit more time analyzing the previous patient before the next one is brought out.
This patient is a man that is covered in sores, pus, and diseased skin. Falling under the potential epidemic level. Thankfully, they have him in a mobile isolation bed, with a glowing film around him.
I give a nod to the two workers that brought him over, before waiting until they leave the area. Once clear, I open the film. Immediately, a stench fills the contained space I’m in.
Rot. Dust. Death.
Poop. So much poop.
…fuck that. I don’t care if I’m immune, I’m taking care of this now!
I don’t even wave my hand this time, I just heal him. No glow from my hands or his body. Letting my technique flow through him even faster than before. Using more of it to do so, with it only taking a second this time.
The masters watched with their spiritual sense, so they could see my technique penetrate the skin, reaching into their body, and across their meridians/dantians. A full heal and even quicker this time.
The line on Madame Liao’s face only increases, as it seems she’s trying to decipher how the changes are being made. To figure out what qualities my cultivation method must have to do such extensive healing, at such speeds, and at such a low realm.
Of course, I say nothing.
By the end of this, there will be a few things they should be able to figure out… I’m curious to see how much, though.
And this is how they continue, for the next 25 people.
Bringing in person after person, their eyeballs strain to catch even a longer glimpse of my cultivation technique at work. The crowd is silent.
High-level cultivators ejected the one guy that tried to talk during this out. And as he left, other cultivators began streaming in. People who heard about what was occurring. Soon enough, even nobles started streaming in. All to get a better look at the mysterious cultivator, who was only in Qi Condensation. One that is doing things that even Master Healers would have difficulty doing.
3 people after the 25th person mark, I can see Madame Liao rubbing her head before stopping me. Rather than just doing random difficulties, one’s spread out, they were sending them out first and switching out the easy ones for harder ones in the backend. All to tease out my capabilities.
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But it seems like they’ve gotten out as much as they could figure out.
“Okay, pause. Let’s take a break to discuss how to proceed with this exceptional situation.
Without saying anything else, they move into another room, leading the crowd to erupt into whispers.
“What could this mean? I’ve never seen them leave the room during an active evaluation.”
“Do you think they figured out how he’s doing it? I can’t tell anything…”
As always, there’s a person who acts like they know what’s going on.
“You all can’t see? He’s healed people using techniques beyond the grasp of normal healers. Regular cultivators surely couldn’t understand.”
Stating the obvious. Some people listen in wonder, while others realize he’s bullshitting.
However, one person in the crowd ignores all of that.
A man staring intently at me, his eyes bloodshot.
If that were all, one could see that he was shocked or excited about the new developments. However, makes him standout, is the clothes he’s wearing and his aura, all of which points to one thing.
He is a Nascent Soul cultivator.
And he is also the whole reason that I’m here, in this specific city, at this time, and in this place.
It’s one of the major reasons my scan indicated I needed to be so open about my healing abilities, yet also anonymous about my identity.
He’s someone who Gong had once told me about, when she first told me about the Iridescent Worms, the parasites that use human women, both normal and cultivators, as breeders. The very ones that plague the lands of our sect and Monchon City.
And he is the only person to revert the transformation, being a body manipulation cultivator. He succeeded by resetting the person’s mind and body back to before it captured them. All of this only worked, because the victim was his daughter, who he knew inside and out. Even with that, the daughter still has issues. Major ones.
But the main reason that I needed to keep my identity anonymous was so that he wouldn’t immediately dismiss me, because I’m from the Heavenly Light sect.
The same sect that failed him and his daughter.
…
The seed has been planted.
I see him whisper to some attendants who rush out of the audience chamber.
I know what he’s going to do. He’s going to use his influence, to have one patient replaced with another. One that is infested with the iridescent worm. For others that may not be significant, but for him, that will mean his daughter can be fully healed of the major lingering issues she’s going through.
And since it’s something that no healer has solved yet… that will be in the second test.
The one that allows me to solve or provide potential solutions to a problem that one of the Master Healers is having or hasn’t solved.
Unfortunately for him, I need to buy time. Since the iridescent worms have several intersecting issues with it.
One of which, being that the Yellow Sashes and many of the major groups, have been sending people who oppose them or are inconvenient down to underground areas with the iridescent worms. Torturing them in this way.
Before anyone can realize that the iridescent worms parasite can be removed and healed from people, I need my people to save them.
Namely, Gong.
As I consider my path through this, the masters come back out of their brief isolation, with Madame Qian leading the group again. After taking a seat back in their spots, she speaks.
“After discussion, we decided to change the rules for this evaluation. As the applicant has shown great breadth and depth to their healing abilities, we now wish to test their ability to heal multiple people at once, per their request.”
She pauses and looks at me.
“If you wish to revoke your statement and heal one person at a time, then you may at this time. It will not affect your evaluation in any sense. However, if you agree, we will judge you as if you healed them individually. With an expectation of excellent healing.”
I give a nod before speaking.
“I appreciate the consideration, though I wish to follow through on my words. Feel free to bring everyone else out.”
She pauses.
“Just to be clear, are you asking us to have all 75 people brought out to be healed simultaneously?”
I chuckle and nod.
“Yes, Madame Qian. If I hope to show I’m worthy enough to rise to your and the other Masters’ levels, I will need to at least show this capability.”
Whispers abound at my words. Recognition of similar feats performed by the other Masters. Albeit, within their specialties.
Heck, Madame Liao frequently did things like that for standard battlefield injuries, curses, and poisons. Healing thousands at a time with one of her techniques. The only difference is that I will be dealing with more specific varieties of injuries, curses. Ones that would need dedicated attention, usually.
But the normal cultivator wouldn’t know that difference, meaning my words are a way to give the Masters’ face, after my shocking actions.
The air between the masters and I relaxes a bit, after my words.
“…this is true. Then please, proceed.”
Immediately after her words, 75 people are brought in on stretcher after stretcher. Filling the room to the brim.
Which is when I raise my hands like a maestro.
It’s time to perform.