“Elder Song, Disciple Delinion, my apologies for being late with the request! Getting all the people together here and safely took more time than I realized it would.”

Long Chao feverishly bows down toward Elder Song. His calm demeanor from when we last met him has all but disappeared.

“My branch and I are extremely ashamed at the state of the people my son had… imprisoned. I have already disciplined my son to prevent such things in the future.”

What a curious way to say enslaved. Another one of the loopholes used by the nobility to have slaves.

From the little I can tell, there is remorse building in this Long Chao. It means nothing in the face of what these people have gone through, but at least that means the healing I did for his psychopathy had an effect.

But now, it’s time to handle this.

I give a glance at Sister Nuan, as she said that she’ll handle things on this side. With her nod of approval, I say my piece to the clearly nervous man in front of me.

“As discussed, with this, my grudge with your family has been moved aside.”

His eyes shiver a bit before he speaks up.

“Does that mean you will be open to treat members of the family in an emergency?

“Not exactly. Just because my grudge has ‘disappeared’ doesn’t mean that I won’t be following my standard model. Taking things on a case-by-case basis.”

Here’s where I’ll be using this society’s way of doing things, despite my distaste for such things.

I continue, keeping my voice impassive.

“You have shown to be trustworthy and worth my time. So, if you need healing or other services, I would be open to doing it. For a price, of course.

“Others will have to be evaluated. In you doing this, you have at least opened the door to having those services provided to your family. It’ll then depend on the individual if that happens or not. Certain individuals will probably not be worth evaluating.”

I can see his lip tighten, but nod.

Against someone in Sister Nuan’s realm, there’s not much one can say. And she’s been staring him down this whole time.

“I understand. Thank you for your graciousness. Please accept these carriages and spirit stones as an additional gift.”

He walks over and offers a superior spirit stone to me, which I place into my space bracelet.

Despite how often I’ve been getting them recently, superior stones still have a large amount of value. Just one is equal to a big gold coin, or 10 cultivator friendly homes.

With just this, I could get an exceptional piece of land with a lot of ambient qi. For him to have spent three of these, including this, means that he’s really drained his savings to cover this up.

“Thank you. You know the channels to contact us through, if there is a need. We’ll take these people from here.”

I turn my attention away from him and back to the people in the carriages. As I do so, Sister Nuan also looks away from him, giving him the sign to leave, which he does so gratefully.

From what I can tell, everyone in the carriages is stable, especially since I’ve been healing them from afar with my healing aura. After witnessing them in that state, I absolutely refused to abandon them.

However, unlike the many other times I’ve healed people, I actually limited my healing to their current body shapes. Keeping them immobile, but without pain.

Normally I wouldn’t do this, but almost every single one of them are broken mentally. While most would be catatonic, even if I fully healed them, some of the others would be reacting in a much different way.

Sigh.

“Okay, I’ll head back to the towers to heal these people. I’ll remain with them for the next week or so, before heading back over to Monchon City, like we discussed.”

She gives a quick nod, hopping on her sword to head off.

“Make sure to teach the others, okay?”

Once I give my affirmation, she flies off into the distance.

With her handling the other stuff here, that’ll let me get these people back and start the hardest aspect of healing them.

Hopping on the lead carriage seat, it’s clear to see there are no animals pulling any of these forwards. Only a bar connected to the frame in front of the seat.

Placing my hands on it, I push my qi into it, gaining control of the entire caravan.

He seriously wasted no money on getting these people here with the least number of additional eyes. Even going to the point of automating these carriages.

I guess this is actually quite the gift, since I can use these for several travels for my group.

If I can make the talismans effect permanent on it, there’s quite a few things I can do with them. Despite the huge number of carriages, they all will work for at least a month’s time. And that’s usage time, not total.

I lead the line of carriages around, away from the hospital and towards the main road, having completed my business here. But I notice something, or rather someone, that I recognize from when I was in the outer city.

Wei, the Probing Air Master.

A late Qi Condensation realm, outer court disciple with the exceptional ability to use an extraordinarily subtle spiritual sense at the qi condensation realm.

An ability that is extremely precious, since using spiritual sense shouldn’t be possible until a cultivator reaches Foundation Establishment.

But that’s not the most memorable thing about her for me.

Even from here, I can see her fidgeting and giving awkward looks all around. Despite nothing happening, she looks like an anxious mess.

If I’m not wrong, she was taking suspicious jobs with her ability in the Outer City to progress to Foundation Establishment. After meeting me, she said something about ‘returning to the righteous path’ or whatever that means.

I slow the carriages as I consider whether she might be a good choice to bring into the group. If only because I can easily tell she has a decent personality.

Considering what I’ve seen today… I think I’d like to bring more people like that into my group. If it’ll be beneficial to us both.

However, before I can make my decision, her eyes lock onto me and stick there.

There’s no way she would be able to recognize me. I definitely had my entire body covered, at that time.

… ah. If she used her spiritual sense previously, then she would know my actual body shape.

Just as I think that, I feel that subtle spiritual sense again. With the anxiety and nervousness washing away, I can see an ecstatic look crossing hers.

She practically sprints over to the carriage, before splaying out on the ground in deference.

“BENEFACTOR, I knew you would come!”

Benefactor?

“…

“… how did you know it was me?”

The brightness of her proud grin practically blinds me.

“How could I not?”

I stare at her for a bit, hoping for more information.

She beams proudly at me with a tinge of confusion.

Yep. I forgot this person gave me a slight headache when I met them, from her self-interpretations of my words.

I extensively double check that she’s a safe person to add to the group, before making a decision.

Luckily for them, that’s not enough to stop me from including them in the group. This just means I’ll need to train her for a bit, to communicate better.

I can’t help but give an outward sigh.

“I assume you’ve already heard about my group. If you agree to this contract, then you can join me at my tower.”

As I wave a hand, I pour qi into my connection for the contract, causing it to appear in front of her.

She nods furiously and without even looking at it, I sense her agreement.

…

…

I don’t know whether I should be worried or happy about this.

At least the contract passes over the core concepts of what can and can’t be done. So, there shouldn’t be any issue of a breach.

Contrary to my thoughts, I maintain a neutral expression as she hops onto the seat next to me.

My scan has shown she was safe to add and would be a benefit to the group, both as a cultivator and as a source of information.

With her skill set, she’s just as, if not more so informed of the secret dealings around the sect as the information runners on the main road. If I want to be abreast of the current situation in the sect, while I head back, she’s my best option.

While the carriages work their way through to the main road, I can gather some more information from her.

Her next words blow that out the water.

“Mmm. I knew when Long Chao’s slaves were being moved out to the hospital that it had to be your actions.”

How does she know about that? And how could that connect to me?

… unless she has a network of her own.

She opens her mouth again to speak and I listen with a different mindset.