One at a time, Hui healed the cultivators of the Clouded Pavilion. For the most part, removing the death qi infections from their bodies was enough for Hui to heal their wounds. A few had lost limbs or had more serious afflictions, but none were as injured as Fan Hulian.

Healer nodded to himself as he focused on healing yet another cultivator. I suppose they couldn’t be. She was only alive because Liu Guang kept her in stasis. It would be difficult to come across someone as badly injured as Fan Hulian, except in the middle of a battle.

For most of them… if I was a pure life qi cultivator, and couldn’t remove the death qi… the death qi is so ingrained in their bodies that it’s self-perpetuating. Life qi can combat death qi, but I’d have to use so much of it to cure a single one of these cultivators that… I’m not even sure I would have that much life qi, if I wasn’t a lotus beast. You’d have to totally override the death qi and kill the self-perpetuating cycle. The death qi would be able to regenerate, while I’d just be throwing life qi away.

I can see how the ordinary healers would give up, and declare these cultivators un-healable. After all, they have many other cultivators to heal, and a limited amount of life qi. Healing one of these cultivators by using only life qi would mean they would have to give up on healing another dozen… perhaps even a hundred cultivators with ordinary wounds. It’s a cold calculus to give up on them, but it’s one I understand. And that’s only considering the strongest life qi cultivators with the most life qi. Small-time healers would simply fail to heal these cultivators… and it seems like that’s all who was coming here to try.

Meanwhile, by directly ripping out the death qi, I can immediately halt that negative cycle of death qi and then heal whatever injury they have. Thus, by manipulating death qi, I overcome the difficulty all those life qi cultivators failed to overcome. And to think, they consider death qi demonic!

To be fair… you usually have to be dead to cultivate death qi. It’s only because… er, because I… have a unique constitution, that I can cultivate it while alive. Yes. That’s the reason. Nothing else.

“Next,” Healer called, sitting up.

No one stepped forward. He looked around.

Healed cultivators stood all around him, stretching their limbs or quietly circulating their qi with their backs against the wall. The silence of Clouded Pavilion vanished, instead replaced by quiet conversation and excited whispers.

Healer wiped his forehead, exhausted. “Is that it? Is that everyone?”

Sectgoer nudged him. Healer turned.

The old man stood by the door, his twisted arm still wrapped up in his robes. He regarded the Huis with distant suspicion, brows furrowed and lips pursed.

Healer gestured him over. “Come on. I’ll heal you, too.”

The old man hesitated. “I don’t agree to work with you. I won’t.”

Healer sighed. “Senior, it’s fine. I… my friend here has gained many workers today. If you insist you won’t be a worker, I’m sure he won’t mind.”

The old man’s eyes sparkled. He walked over and offered his arm. “If you insist.”

Healer narrowed his eyes. Why do I feel like I got scammed?

Oh, well. If he didn’t want to work, he’d never work. I’d rather get scammed once than have a troublesome underling. Besides, he’s retirement age. It’s fine to let gramps retire in peace.

The old man waggled his eyebrows at Healer. “But I wonder… will you be able to fix this? I’ve seen through your tricks, boy. What ails me is not that darkness you’ve been extracting.”

Healer drew back the old man’s arm. It withered up, exuding a stench of rot. Ah, rot qi? Well, easy. Ignoring the man’s continued monologue, he lifted his hand over the man’s and tapped a few of his meridians, opening them up in preparation to draw out the rot.

The old man nodded. “Stumped you, hasn’t it? This energy is rare, far rarer than that darkness. Since I was afflicted by it years ago, no one has—”

Hui gestured, and the rot qi swirled out of the man’s arm. He spun his finger around, twisting it into a ball. The ducks flew out of him and darted at the ball. Though less enthusiastic than usual, stuffed full of death qi as they were, they still gobbled the ball down.

The old man blinked.

“Ah, rot qi? I suppose it is rare, yes. What was Senior saying?” Healer asked, tilting his head.

The old man looked at his no-longer-withered hand, then at Healer, then back at his hand. “Eh?”

“Yes? You’re healed, no?” Healer asked.

“I… you…” the man frowned at Healer, completely lost.

“You’re welcome,” Healer said, standing. He let out an exhausted sigh and looked at Sectgoer. “So? Enough for you?”

Beaming, Sectgoer nodded. “You’ve exceeded expectations. Many thanks!”

Healer patted his back. “Glad to help. I’m going home to take a nap.” Man, it feels like every time I leave the peak, I come back exhausted and ready to pass out. Maybe I should just stop leaving the peak.

As he left, the healed cultivators reached out to him. Some murmured thanks, while others just stared in wide-eyed worship. One or two slipped him small fragments of spirit stones, likely with nothing else to offer after years on the pavilion.

Healer waved his hand, too exhausted to deal with any of it. The second he stepped out of the pavilion, he took off on his sword. Where’s Gu Tian when you need him? Damn, I’m tired.

Ying Lin jumped up from where she’d squatted just outside the door, quickly putting away a book of some sort. Mounting her sword, she chased after Healer for a moment, until she realized it wasn’t Sectgoer. Nodding, she waved him goodbye. “I’m sure you’ll become a famous miracle healer from here!”

“Small cultivator wouldn’t dream of it,” Healer murmured exhaustedly. After what I did here? I’d better, dammit! I’m not putting in all this effort for nothing! I’m going to have to laze about my palace and bathe in the sun for days to recover this life qi! And what did I get out of it? I mean, aside from growing my legend, which… yes, is a goal in its own. And helping Sectgoer, who’s me. So… okay, I got a lot out of it.

But the point is, I’m tired! I’m headed back to my peak, and no one better disturb me for a good long while!

Left behind, Sectgoer cleared his throat. “Everyone who Heale… Xie Hao healed, come to me! If you know forging or artifact creation techniques, come to the front. Otherwise, line up! We’re taking a trip to the library!”

“The library?” one of the cultivators asked.

Sectgoer nodded. “Yes, yes. Everyone can find their own forging techniques there.”

Another cultivator raised their hand. “Peak Lord, you’re not going to hand down your forging technique?”

Sectgoer coughed abruptly. “Ah, that is, er, the, those who prove to have true talent with forging can learn my forging techniques! But first, I want to watch you as you forge, to determine who has the potential and proper karma to succeed my technique.” Yes, yes. It’s not because I have no idea how to actually forge items.

Hmm, okay. ‘No idea’ is a bit of an exaggeration by now. But it’s no exaggeration to claim I’m a total novice who desperately needs to practice!

Hand down my technique? What technique! You people are being ridiculous, too ridiculous. If I knew how to forge, would I come and recruit all of you, huh?

Across the room, the old man chuckled under his breath.

Letting out a deep sigh, Sectgoer shook his head, then looked up. “So?”

The cultivators glanced among themselves. One woman stepped forward, after a long moment, lifting her hand. “This cultivator has some experience with creating jade tablets and trinkets. It isn’t precisely forging, but…”

“You can start from there. It’s good to have a diversity of talents,” Sectgoer said, nodding. Any abilities we gain are a bonus! I’m starting from zero, after all. And it’s not like we don’t need jadeworking. All kinds of useful things can be built from jade, whether they’re tablets, accessories, bottles, ornaments, even armor… well, that last one only works because it’s a cultivation world. Stepping outside, he threw his arm out and summoned an immortal boat he’d gained from cultivators Healer had healed before All-Heavens Sect, gesturing for everyone to join him atop it.

The cultivators stepped on. Underfoot, the boards creaked. The sails hung limply from the masts, discolored with blood and other mysterious substances, and the mast stood crookedly, not quite upright. A few of the cultivators began to mutter to themselves, suddenly uncertain.

Sectgoer cleared his throat. “Ah, it’s too bad I haven’t had time to clean the ship after that fierce battle! Hmm, why don’t you three,” he chose three cultivators at random, “clean it up for me when we reach the peak? It’ll be good practice and a learning opportunity, to see how an artifact is built!”

The three he’d singled out cupped their hands to him.

Disciples are the best! I love disciples! Disciples forever! I have all this free labor now, and they can’t even complain. As long as I turn it into a learning experience of some sort, I can pretty much get away with anything! As the ship flew off, Sectgoer reached into his node and drew out another few damaged artifacts, handing them around at random. “I sense you have karma with this fan. See if you can’t fix it up. Ah, you there, Elder Brother, why don’t you test your skill with the hammer? This platform only needs a bit of carpentry. It’s a trivial task. Elder Sister! Here, here. This sword is a bit bent. You look like you have great karma with the sword… that is, sword forging techniques! I’m sure you can shape it back into place with the greatest of ease.”

He smiled at the whole group. “Remember, it’s all for the learning. The experience, the experience!”

After all, Healer shook down—ahem, kindly asked for payment from injured cultivators. They often gave us damaged artifacts in return. Naturally, an injured cultivator likely escaped from a great battle. Their artifacts would be damaged in the same battle that damaged their bodies! And that’s putting aside them deliberately giving us their trash.

We didn’t mind, because damaged artifacts are still worth money, but now… now that I have a great many unpaid interns—ahem, disciples, I can fix the artifacts, use the fixed artifacts, and get more money when I sell the fixed artifacts! Disciples are basically a money tree!

And once they start forging artifacts… Ah, I suppose their great and generous Master might allow them to keep a hefty ten percent… no, five percent!

Humming to himself, Sectgoer moved to the bow of the ship and tucked his hands behind him, letting the wind whip his robes and hair into a flurry. My wonderful plan… it’s all coming together! We’ll swing by the library on the way home, and then we can really get started!