"Divine Doctor, how's my father doing?"
No matter how far the world changed or advanced, people still could not escape illness, and a place that could truly cure them would always draw crowds. And so the Miracle Clinic at the eastern edge of Bai Fanxian's territory had patients coming and going in an unbroken stream these days.
Though by now Wu Jia had taken over from her as the one actually doing the treating.
"Fire deviation. The qi in your body is unstable. It's a bit of a nuisance, but you'll be fine now."
Wu Jia, in a white coat, pressed two fingers along the body of the old man, whose face was twisted in suffering. The qi radiating from them was as fine as a small silver needle. It slipped into dozens of pressure points with perfect accuracy, and Wu Jia did not so much as blink.
"...Ugh."
The old man shuddered one last time, and then relief spread through him from head to toe. He opened his eyes and laughed softly, his voice hoarse.
"Guess I've gone and bothered the Divine Doctor again."
"Saying that won't get you a discount, you know."
Wu Jia lit his herbal cigarette with a thread of qi and drew the smoke deep into his lungs. The fragrance drifting through the room refreshed the old man. He roared with laughter and waved his son out to settle the bill.
"Xiaoting, give him three Jade Dew Medicine pills too!"
Wu Jia called out toward the doorway, and a reply came back together with another long round of grumbling. Seeing him turn a deaf ear, the old man could not help laughing.
"Don't laugh. I told you, at your age, if you want to start cultivating, you absolutely can't rush it."
"Can't help it. Old Ji next door is already at fourth-stage Qi Gathering. If I don't hurry, I'll get left even further behind."
The old man clenched his hand lightly and stirred the qi in his body, warming his palm. To a Divine Doctor, one look was enough to see it was third-stage Qi Gathering. Wu Jia sighed wearily. It seemed the elderly villagers here no longer settled for plain hobbies like strolling or sipping tea.
But he could not blame them.
Living in a sacred ground of cultivation like this, even the most ordinary person was bound to be drawn in by its mystery and appeal. In the end, the Tang and Xie clans, pressed by the residents' demands, found several cultivation instructors to hold classes in the central park every morning and evening.
The instructors they selected might not be the strongest or the most advanced, but they had to be experts who knew how to teach, much like professors at a famous university. Before long it became an activity that more than half of the village's residents joined with great interest.
Even housewives who had a little free time after seeing to the house and their husbands had taken up cultivation.
Who could resist youth and good health?
But cultivation was not all good news, either. In just one week, Wu Jia had treated five patients for fire deviation, and this old man was the fifth.
"Go home and rest today. And take the medicine I'm giving you after every meal."
"Oh, are there other patients waiting?"
"No. I've got a little something to take care of today, so I'm closing the clinic early..."
Wu Jia used qi to help the old man out of the examination room, just as the old man's son finished settling the medical bill.
"Thank you so much. I'll be back."
"No need. Someone your age shouldn't be coming to a place like this too often, you know."
"Ho ho ho. I hope so too."
After seeing off the last patient, Wu Jia let out a whistle. The beating of a huge creature's wings sounded overhead, and the black bird swept in a wide arc before landing in front of him. It rubbed its large head gently against his palm in affection.
"Xiaoting, look after the place properly, now."
"Ah! Doctor, hold on a second!?"
Before Lin Xiaoting could run out of the clinic, a great gust from the black bird's wings struck her full in the face. The girl struggled to keep her eyes open, already vowing in her heart to punish her teacher.
"Hmph! It's like this every time..."
A single beat of its wings was enough to carry the black bird into the sky. In a few seconds it was past the coast, heading for Bai Fanxian's private island, which was barely visible in the distance.
It was then that Wu Jia sensed a violent disturbance in the air.
The wind itself had become blades, sharp as razors.
Whoosh!
Behind the island, a colossal sword qi appeared, as if it meant to hack the sky to pieces.
It shot out from the beach and cut through the sea, parting it in two. Even from so far away, Wu Jia felt as though an invisible blade were held to his throat. As the seawater rushed back together, he could see a great many cuts on the seabed.
That slash a moment ago had clearly not been the first.
Someone who could cut like this... would have to be that old man?
Fwoom!
The black bird flapped its wings at Wu Jia's command. It passed through the border with ease, then circled down to land on the beach behind the island instead of at the mansion ahead.
"Oh, you've come too?"
Only two people stood on the beach. One was Sword Master Zheng Renyi, a sword slung across the middle of his back, who turned to greet him with a smile. The other was his granddaughter, Zheng Meiying, who bowed her head in quiet greeting like an old acquaintance, a sword sheathed at her side.
"You've gotten stronger again, haven't you?"
"Ho ho. You think so too, do you?"
It was a little odd for the old man to laugh so happily at being praised. He nodded again and again, as though it were something to be immensely proud of. Then he walked over and gently stroked the black bird's head before sending it off to rest. The three of them walked straight back to the mansion, where a number of people were already sitting and waiting.
"Old man, that power just now was yours, wasn't it? Come on, let's fight a round, how about it?"
It was Ma Fufeng, sitting cross-legged by the veranda railing. He had opened every pore in his body to absorb as much of the life force packed around the island as he could. Every time he had the chance to come here, he did his utmost to gather that energy and carry it back, as though it were a treasure.
"Oh!? So even you think it's cool, huh? So that's how it is, huh?"
The old man's strange behavior left Ma Fufeng at a loss for how to continue. But just then, someone cut in first.
"General Ma, would you mind coming down and sitting in a chair?"
The Eastern King flinched at the sound of that voice, a reaction no one would have expected from a man so rough and burly. He looked toward the elderly butler, who was coming over with a teapot and a smile, and answered haltingly.
"U-understood."
Ma Fufeng's behavior made Liu Yianfei, who was sipping tea in comfort, laugh. In all the years since they had met, he could count on one hand the people who had ever made this man behave like a frightened kitten.
Setting aside Lady Bai, who was not here, there was really only the elderly butler, Huang Zihuan.
Because of Bai Fanxian's earlier order, Huang Zihuan had agreed to cooperate with the military, after Marshal Zhang Xianyuan came to ask him in person.
Demonic beasts had lately been appearing more often and growing stronger, and government officers could no longer deal with them without taking losses. Subject to certain conditions, and after consulting Liu Yianfei, the elderly butler decided he would offer his support only to those he saw fit.
That support began with medicine and with letting them come to train on this island. Of course, the military was billed retroactively, enough to make Zhang Xianyuan nearly cough up blood, but with no way to refuse, he could only lower his head and accept it.
And Zhang Xianyuan became the first to receive that support!
The result was plain to see. Training in an environment better than any heavenly realm, he had reached Sage level in less than a month!
The second person put forward could only be the big man slumped over there, Ma Fufeng.
At first he had been belligerent. His cultivation was weaker, yet he still wanted another fight with Sword Master Zheng Renyi, without a trace of fear. Then Huang Zihuan came, took one look at him, and hauled him off somewhere on the island for about seven days. He crawled back battered and trembling, but with the power of a Sage.
And so every time he saw Huang Zihuan's face, a man like the Eastern King flinched uncontrollably and turned as meek as a little kitten!
"So what's this about?"
Wu Jia sat down in the chair beside them and turned to thank the elderly butler for the cup of tea that floated over to him.
"Trouble, that's what..."
Having already heard some of the news, Liu Yianfei let out a weary sigh.
"You know the demonic beasts aren't only appearing in our country, right."
"Of course..."
Wu Jia sipped his tea. The foreign news lately was hardly ever free of tragedy caused by these demonic beasts. Some countries lacked the strength to hold out against them, and the damage was worse than any natural disaster.
"That's why we're getting so many requests for cooperation from abroad. The government's swamped answering calls, the phone lines practically smoking."
Just then, a man in military uniform floated down from above. Grumbling in annoyance, he dropped into a chair, exhausted.
"And on top of that, some of them actually had the nerve to come in person... The base was in a frenzy of preparations to welcome them when I ran out of there."
Marshal Zhang Xianyuan took the ice-cold soda Huang Zihuan had brought and downed the whole glass with relish. Liu Yianfei, who had slipped away before learning any of this, asked curiously.
"Who came?"
"Troublemakers..."
"...The Western Order."