Chapter 14: Chapter 14: rude
It took a couple of months of preparation, but the operation was a success, and it had to be the weirdest surgery that I had ever heard of.
But as great a news as it could be for my patient, it meant a lot to me as well. It gave me not only a test subject in the form of Jing Yun, but it also gave me the possibility to cross-reference the vein pathway compared to my own, to the techniques, and to his family's elder.
This whole operation, while extremely complicated, taught me a lot about the resistance of these vein walls, how durable they are, how much energy can go through them without causing any problems, and so much more.
On a less important page, I was currently breaking through to the next realm thingy.
"Oh, this feels nice." I remarked while looking at my arms, feeling the energy getting absorbed frantically inside my body, rapidly turning all of the energy in my body into a darker shade, a dense form of this strange state of matter that, while resembling a gas, was different at the same time.
It traveled like well-defined currents; instead of occupying all the possible areas as other gases do, it tended to concentrate in a singular place and was easy to move around.
Most of all, it obeyed the will of the cultivator, something about which I had no way of understanding how it worked.
Jasmine stood in front of me with a wry smile and said, "You shouldn't think of other things during a breakthrough; you need to savor the moment to gain the most from it."
"I don't think there really is a need to; it's still going according to what I thought would happen, with the veins widening a bit being the only outlier." I replied with a smile of my own, just saying that it was a genuine one rather than an ironic one.
The process stopped a little bit later; it was boring, but it felt good.
I stood up and cracked my back, emitting a satisfying sound: "Oh, that felt good."
"Congratulations! You are now a Nascent Profound level cultivator," Jasmine said, this time with a genuine smile. "You took way less time than I thought you would need; if only you learned how to fight as well, then you would be considered a genius among geniuses."
"A genius? I didn't do anything until now; the runes I made attract and sort the profound energy on their own; I accumulate more just by existing." I chuckled, wondering why it would take a genius to do something this easy. "By the way, do you have any suggestions for taking in a student of my own?"
"A student? Since when do you want a student?" She replied, raising an eyebrow in question.
"Well, this world is big and weird; I might as well explore it since there is nothing keeping me in any place, but if I just leave, then the people here might suffer with the expansive healthcare that seems normal here, so I'll teach an apprentice or two to replicate the things I do so that the clinic can keep going without me." I explained that I had been thinking about this plan for a while and that it might be time to act on it.
Jasmine placed a hand on her chin, seemingly pondering, "Good enough, we might start searching for the evil god's sacred grounds so that you can find the seeds as well; this is a great plan!"
"I know; it's my plan after all," I said, taking the compliment. "So? Any tips?"
"My only disciple came to me through fate, but I think that you should find someone from the common people; if you took someone from an important family, they might turn like all other healers; I don't think that's what you want." I told the girl that it was a great tip and definitely something that I hadn't considered.
I had to find someone that aligned with my own ideals of how a medic should be, which would be difficult to do since the culture of this world seemed to be even more exploitative than the worst countries back on Earth.
"Thank you, but this can still wait; I'm not really in a hurry." I replied that I still had to make a double of all the machinery and glassware in my laboratory; there was no way that I would just leave everything here after setting up the clinic for probably a year.
But I couldn't also take everything away; without the machinery, my heir wouldn't be able to continue the shop as I had been doing.
Probably a few months; after that, I would need to find a disciple; thankfully, teaching them wouldn't take long, thanks to the trick that Jasmine taught me on transferring information.
I even managed to adapt it into a rune, turning it from a one-time thing that required my presence into a drawing in a book that shoved the knowledge directly into the person's head.
"How has your study of the Star God's Broken Shadow been going?" I asked this small master of mine, reminding me that I hadn't really told her my progress in the technique, "I know that fighting is not your way, but I believe you've been neglecting the self-defense aspect of cultivation way too much."
"Fighting is for brutes, but it doesn't seem too difficult to learn; I have reached the second stage." I replied to the girl, turning my attention back to the plan to completely map anyone's profound veins.
But it seemed like my master didn't like my lack of care about her technique, as she grabbed my shoulder and turned me around to face her, asking, "What did you say?"
It didn't sound like a question, but I answered anyway, "I learned up to the second stage, I can move leaving behind two afterimages, nice trick by the way, integrating an illusion in a movement technique to disorient an opponent? That's genius." I remarked.
The technique was truly interesting; it stated that the afterimages were real, but I knew better; I didn't move nearly enough to truly create an afterimage, a blur. Certainly, but an actual afterimage was far beyond what I could create.
It all relied on creating both an explosive movement speed and an illusion to hide where the person was actually moving, stopping the opponent from understanding which image was actually me.
"You learn the second stage in three months." She stated.
Again, the way she said it sounded like a statement, but I still thought it was a question: "Indeed, why was I slow? It wasn't that hard."
"Not that hard, huh?" She said it dryly.
"Yeah," I tried to say, but she disappeared into the green realm in my hand.
"Rude much?" I said to myself, and I went back to work.
Despite being rude, the girl had an incredible insight; the day I took her advice on developing my runic system was the day I took my new machines and my laboratory to the next level, and the things were far more versatile than I ever thought possible.
It took so much focus and intent to create even one of them, but I got used to it. It turns out that threatening to destroy everything if it didn't work did the job most of the time.
'Scan every damned vein, you stupid fuck, or I will turn this entire world into ashes!' Was the basic intent I used to make the basic unit of this new machine I was making.
It also helped me deal with my frustrations, so that was a plus.
Suddenly, I heard the clinic's door being knocked on. I looked at the clock I mounted on the wall, and it was way too late for it to be a usual client.
It had to be an emergency.
I bolted to my feet and rushed at the door, swinging it open and exclaiming, "Where is the patient? What's the emergency?"
But in front of me, there was a girl who seemed anything but in a rush; she just seemed startled at my reaction.
"Oh, is there no emergency?" I asked, calming down slightly.
"No, there is not." The girl regained her composure and continued, "Are you Doctor Paracelsus?"
I nodded, with a playful, "One and only."
She acknowledged my positive reply and continued with her mission: "My lady asks for your presence; follow me."
She turned around and went on her way.
I closed the door and went back to work.
After a few seconds, I heard the door being knocked again, and I groaned.
Why did I have to sit down? It was obvious she would come back, and sometimes I worried for myself and my state of mind.
"What?" I asked after opening the door with a groan; despite my body being more powerful than any human on Earth, I still had mental fatigue, unfortunately.
"Why didn't you follow me?" The girl asked.
I looked at her weirdly and said, "Why would I?"
"Because I told you to!" She replied.
I scratched my neck and said, "Listen, lady, I'm working right now; if your lady has something to tell me, take an appointment; if there is a patient that can't move, I can do home visits; is it a life-and-death emergency? Because you don't seem to have too much urgency."
Her mouth opened, but words seemed to fail her, so I continued, "I can make an opening in my schedule in two days, but if it's just to talk to me, I suggest that your lady, or whoever can talk for her, comes to the clinic during work hours; I can make an opening while helping my clients; if there is nothing else, I bid you farewell."
Some people were really weird, but then again, it was rich people I was talking about; only someone with power could even dream of sending someone to another's house late in the evening and demanding a complete stranger follow them.
As far as I was concerned, it was a kidnapper.
After that weird interaction, I went back to my profound vein mapper, name being a work in progress as I was awful at making up names, and decided that it was too boring to continue.
I took out a box and started doing something else, but Jasmine decided to come back out of her room and ask, "Do you think it is a wise thing to ignore that woman's invitation?" Her cultivation is higher than yours, and just being a couple of years older than you, her lady must be someone very important."
"Is that so?" I mumbled as I put a 'absorb energy, you piece of sh*t" rune on the box.
"Yes, that is so, but it doesn't seem to concern you." She continued with a hint of tension in her voice.
"It doesn't," I replied. "The girl said that her lady asked for me; it's probably not urgent if she didn't use words like 'demand' or something similar; she pissed me off with her attitude; and, you know, I'm too tired to walk right now."
"I know you enough to tell that the latter was your true reason," Jasmine chuckled. "Whatever, I trust you enough to know what you are doing."
That was nice to hear; it didn't matter how we had met anymore—when she sucked my blood like an anemic vampire, or our first actual conversation when she forced me to kneel.
Right now, Jasmine was the only person I was close to, the only one I could talk to however I wanted, and the only person who actually knew who I was and trusted me.
"Jasmine, I don't think I ever told you how much I appreciate you being with me." I said it out of the blue, right after putting a 'when I press you, move the energy to the other runes or I will put you on a homeless dude's ass' rune.
"W-what?! Since when do you know how to appreciate this princess?" She shouted in obvious embarrassment.
"Sometimes you have to tell the people close to you that you appreciate them; you never know when you won't be able to." I replied softly.
If there was anyone who knew that kind of regret, it was me.
No day passed without regret for how I didn't show my love for the people I loved. I always told myself that I would have more time in the future and that it was embarrassing, and while I was too embarrassed to show my emotions, I now didn't have the chance to show them anymore.
All my love turned into sorrow, as there was no way that I could show it anymore.
Great, the depression came back, but I returned my full focus to the box in my hands, applying a combination of highly complicated runes.
The sequence boiled down to a nice sequence or customizable runes that I called the 'Alexa, play [insert song]' sequence.
This particular sequence was 'Alexa, play Lost by Linkin Park."
Maybe I liked being depressed, so I just pressed the button as the song started.
A tear left my right eye; it was perfect.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
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