192. A Death For Healing, I (Patreon)

The approach to the Diancang Sect felt weird. Wu Hao spent most of it trying to ignore the looks that Master Shu was throwing his way, which he decided fell into several categories. A few of those looks were worried - about why he'd reacted like that out of seeming nowhere, about his physical and mental health. Other looks seemed more like they were appraising him and the level of talent he'd shown, and why he knew about the burial.

At least Master Shu had done as he'd asked. Now, unlike before, Wu Hao could feel the weight of the man's attention on him - a sort of warm feeling, wrapping around him like a cloak. It didn't quite slot into his new understanding of weight neatly. It wasn't a weight meant to shatter, although it was possible that someone still might when the expectations became too much too bear.

Not him, though. Not if he distributed the weight of the man's regard properly.

Although he had raised the bar earlier. And he was going to have to raise it even further.

Maybe he was going to have to find ways to get killed by Sovereigns more often. It did make him feel a little odd, though. The first time that he'd connected to a larger whole, it had cost him days of being repeatedly killed, immersed in rain to even get a glimpse of the storm. He'd needed the outside to make the inside clear to him.

By comparison - if you disregarded the painful death by being impaled by ice - this connection had been much less arduous. Hadn't Master Shu said that a second Heaven-grade technique was supposed to be harder to obtain?

Wu Hao thought about that. Technically the master had said that in his last lifetime, not in this one. That didn't make it untrue, but it would make it harder to throw the words back at the old man.

But, really, all that didn't matter.

He needed a new plan. Looking back, his last plan hadn't been much more than trying to take the same steps as Master Shu but just... more. Taking them further. For all that he'd said that it was time to take the reins himself, what had he actually achieved?

Before he really managed to think through any specifics of a plan of action, they'd arrived at the Sect itself.

"Sovereign," Ke Shuang said. Wu Hao really hated the sight of this man's face, if he hadn't hated it before. He wanted to step forward and provoke him into another duel, but Master Shu held him back with a firm hand on the shoulder.

"Young friend of the Diancang," Master Shu said. "Greetings. I would like to request your attention to something, however."

Ke Shuang frowned. "Yes?"

"My young apprentice suffered an injury earlier," Master Shu said, lying smoothly. "He remains reticent on the subject. I would ask that you take him to a physician, if possible. I don't want lingering injuries to occur."

Wu Hao could feel Ke Shuang's eyes on him, trying to judge if this was some sort of trick.

"I see," he finally said. "One of you, take him along."

In the end, who else but Lu Bowin stepped forward? It seemed he might have been the one who was tapped for every unfortunate task. It was a miracle that the man had made it to the first-grade at all.

"Go with him," Master Shu instructed, and gave Wu Hao a little push. "I'll take the tour, boy. I would imagine you're not interested in history, anyway."

There were two taps from his qi. According to the system they'd established earlier, that meant that Master Shu considered it an order, not just an offer that he could refuse.

Wu Hao sighed. "Fine."

"Go," Ke Shuang said. He waved Lu Bowin away. "You're familiar with the location of the physician's quarters. Take him there."

"Yes, sir," Lu Bowin said. "Apologies. If you will follow me, young master?"

Watching carefully to see that Wu Hao was following, Lu Bowin took a few steps away from the rest of the group, not even using a movement art. Wu Hao felt a little silly plodding after the man, so instead he activated one of the forms from the Dragon Gate Ascending Art and appeared next to Lu Bowin.

"Go on," Wu Hao said. "Don't worry about me. I'll follow, no matter what movement technique you're using."

Lu Bowin gave a sort of shaky smile. "We of the Flowing Cloud are famous for the quickness of our movement art, sir. I'm not sure that if you are wounded -"

"Shut up and just bring him there," Ke Shuang snapped.

"Right, sir," Lu Bowin said. "Of course, sir. My apologies."

This time when he flashed away he didn't stop, and Wu Hao bounded after him. Despite everything that he'd thought about Lu Bowin, the older man did seem capable of excellent footwork techniques. It was clear that he was moving slower so that Wu Hao could catch up, but even so there was a natural grace to every step that he took. Whatever he'd said about the quickness of his movement arts, he hadn't been boasting but telling the truth.

That didn't mean that Wu Hao couldn't catch up, though not without putting in some effort. The Dragon Gate Ascending Art that he'd gotten from Old Qin was still holding up through his own realizations and improvements, but he'd have to get something newer and better eventually.

That thought was... a little sad. Ten years of Old Qin's life, traded for a cultivation art and a movement art. He'd passed one along to Wu Hao and another to a nephew, leaving himself with nothing, and now Wu Hao was going to have to replace the technique that he'd received.

Would it make Old Qin happy, to see that he'd progressed so quickly, or would it make him sad to see that he'd been so completely surpassed?

The question put him in a surprisingly melancholy mood. To his credit Lu Bowin seemed to pick up on it and said nothing, instead slowing down just a little.

The hospital was a broad building, with the entrance guarded by two men who looked bored, but not inattentive. Both were wielding swords and both were from branches of the main clan - one had a qi like a pine tree, another like a twisting river. Both were in the second-grade.

After a quick, whispered conversation with Lu Bowin, they let in him and Wu Hao.

"Young master," Lu Bowin said, and Wu Hao felt a shiver run up his spine. "Do you require anything else?"

"Don't call me young master," Wu Hao muttered, and was hit with a small surge of nostalgia. So - this was how that felt, huh? Annoying. "No, I don't need anything."

"Good," Lu Bowin said. "Er. I'll have someone sent for, to accompany you until the banquet tonight."

With a bow, Lu Bowin left.

Wu Hao nodded, less interested in all of that - he already knew where the banquet hall was, anyway - than in the rest of the people around. He could sense people in a few of the rooms, some of them laying down and not moving while their qi moved in slow, sluggish patterns. Others were reading, cultivating, even practicing as much simple martial arts as they felt comfortable with.

"Sir?" an assistant called. She was a small woman, sitting at a small cubicle, desks and several kinds of medicine stacked in neat little rows behind them. Not a martial artist, although she did seem in good physical condition.

"I'm the disciple of the Absent Sovereign," Wu Hao said. "He sent me to get checked out for any lingering issues."

"I... see," the assistant said, and forced a smile. "Of course. One moment, please, while I ask the head assistant over to escort you."

"Is that necessary?" Wu Hao asked, but apparently it was.

This turned out to be a tall, severe-looking man, a martial artist of the third grade. His qi smelled faintly of bittersweet medicine. Wu Hao was taken to a small room, passing by other assistants. Most of them were unremarkable, though.

"The head physician will be with you soon," the head assistant said, and bowed. "If you'll excuse me."

Wu Hao looked around the room. There was another of these brewing stations and a small collection of plants nearby, each bearing no tag or explanation of what they were or what medicinal effect they were supposed to have. Books lined another side of the wall, but Wu Hao had had enough reading lately. He wasn't going to actively look for more.

A bit later - just as Wu Hao was getting bored enough that he figured he could do some exploring - the head physician bustled in, dabbing at his forehead and leaving the lingering echo of a reprimand that he hadn't been fetched sooner behind him in the hallway.

He was a small man, balding but attempting to hide it by combing his hair over his large bald spot. He was a martial artist in the sense that he had qi, but he didn't move with the certainty that knowing martial arts could give someone. His clothes were a good-quality green robe, free of any stains whatsoever. His qi looked like it ought to have been fairly calm - Wu Hao smelled the faint scent of candles - but now that qi was twisted up with stress.

Wu Hao had seen him before, actually, though he'd never taken much note of the man. That was for the same reason as he didn't think much of the physician now: the look on his face was, to put it in one simple word, fawning, and he was currently deep into a bow.

What had his name been, again? He'd been told, at some point.

"Good afternoon," the physician said, and bowed. "Sir Absent Sovereign, it is a pleasure to have made your acquaintance -"

"Master isn't here," Wu Hao interrupted.

"- a greater pleasure still to have gathered enough notice that you would come see me, Chen Mengbao, sir... Hm?"

Chen Mengbao. That was it.

"Oh," Chen Mengbao said. "Well, still, well met, sir!"

Wu Hao fought not to sigh.

"Where is the Absent Sovereign?" Chen Mengbao asked, dabbing at his forehead again. He frowned at his handkerchief, before disappearing it up a sleeve.

"Taking a tour," Wu Hao said. "I don't expect him back in the next half an hour or so."

"I see," Chen Mengbao said, and gathered himself just a little bit. "Well. If you'll excuse me, sir - I can start the examination?"

What followed was a parade of random checks, each lasting longer than the next. Pages full of questions were asked and answered, Wu Hao's pulse was measured, his breath was listened to, and Chen Mengbao even went so far as to pull out a thin sheet of paper from a locked cabinet, which he requested Wu Hao to put some qi into.

"What kind of qi?" Wu Hao asked.

"Er," Chen Mengbao said, blinking. "Yours, sir."

That wasn't really an answer to the question he'd been asking, but whatever. Wu Hao spun the jewel randomly, letting some deep earthy qi rumble through his meridians. He felt more solid immediately, though it was a sensation that he'd have been hard pressed to explain in words.

The paper colored a more or less even brown.

"Your qi is fine," Chen Mengbao said, studying the little piece of paper before putting it down again. "Your bone structure is fine, as well. Allow me to check something else, please, sir..."

He placed his hand against Wu Hao's forehead and concentrated, his eyebrows knitting.

"Your attention is a little overdrawn," Chen Mengbao concluded. "Perhaps as a result of whatever occurred. You must have spent too much time studying - it is the kind of thing that often afflicts young scholars."

Wu Hao tried to hide his grin behind his hand. He might have been a lot of things, but a scholar he was not and a scholar he would never be.

"With the banquet tonight there are several items that I can recommend," Chen Mengbao concluded. "Oily fish, vegetables, walnuts and other nuts as well. Give them a sample, but don't overeat - everything is best in moderation, if you remember what the sages said."

"Cooking can be medicine?"

"Oh, yes, sir," Chen Mengbao said. He nodded vigorously.

"Can food be poison, too?" Wu Hao asked, more out of curiosity than anything else.

Would the poisons that he had work against Ke Shuang, maybe? Probably, but there was something that was just... unsatisfying about not facing the other man in open combat. He wouldn't use poison. He'd look into Ke Shuang's eyes while he died and let the world know what he'd done.

"Yes, sir," Chen Mengbao said, a little archly. "Although that - that is not something I contemplate. As a physician, I try to heal people, not to hurt them."

Hmm. That was probably fair, and yet even Wu Hao realized it sounded more than a little naïve.

"Does poison work on Sovereigns?" Wu Hao pressed.

"These are questions sir would be better off presenting to the Tang clan," Chen Mengbao muttered, and then blanched. "I mean -"

"Excuse me," a voice called from outside the room, and after rattling off an introduction, he continued: "The Patriarch sent me to ask if Wu Hao would be able to make it to tonight's banquet?"

It was another guard - a man that Wu Hao didn't recognize, one bearing the scent of pine wafting around him. He looked surprisingly rough-and-tumble, but it wasn't like there was aggression in his qi or anything.

"He's in good physical health," Chen Mengbao said, relieved. Though he cast an uncertain glance at Wu Hao afterwards. "I haven't been able to find anything that is wrong, really. There's no need to keep him here."

"That is good to hear," the guard said, and bowed. "I'll take you to the guest house, should you need to change, or to the banquet room otherwise."

"I'm fine," Wu Hao said, and stood up from the chair he'd been made to recline in.

"Take me to the banquet."

It was time to see what Master Shu had gotten up to, during his little absence.