Chapter 781 Putting their lives to good use
?Entry into the Saint Herb Garden was just as difficult as getting into any top-tier sect, and one could argue it was even harder for the Saint Herb Garden because of the regulations set by the founder which placed emphasis more on comprehension than talent.
Though the regulations for being a member of the sect were hard, other rules were rather lax such as the sect allowing its members to guide cultivators who were not members of the sect that were interested in learning medical techniques. They were free to guide them however they wanted, with the only restriction being forbidden to share the core arts of the sect, which was a given in any sect.
Other than that, anybody from the sect was free to take whoever they wanted under their tutelage. It was encouraged by the sect even, as they distributed merit points for those who guided others well. Countless prominent medical cultivators, alchemists, and herbologists around the continent were born out of that arrangement with countless more pining for the opportunity to learn under a member of the Saint Herb Garden. While they may lack the ability to be a member, learning from one of them was the next best thing.
That tutelage was the route Gao Wei's grandfather used. He arranged for Gao Wei to be under the tutelage of an inner disciple of the sect. With his level of connections and station coupled with the prestige of the Saint Herb Garden, it meant getting anyone above a disciple was next to impossible for him. Even to get an inner disciple to accept Gao Wei, he had to exhaust every favor he had, and even then it wasn't guaranteed as Gao Wei still had to pass an evaluation set by the inner disciple.
Along with the freedom to tutor whom they wanted, they had the freedom to decide the kind of evaluation they wanted to use or not use. Most opted to use an evaluation and while it was not as difficult as the one Saint Herb Garden gave to its prospect, they were still difficult.
Since the performance of their students was a reflection of them and how their peers and seniors would evaluate them, the members of the sect never accepted students lightly. When they did so, it was only after a rigorous test.
Gao Wei had ability, which showed itself in the evaluation and impressed the inner disciple who took him under his wing and guided him for the next twelve years. After she felt Gao Wei had learned enough, the tutelage ended.
Gao Wei returned home as a seasoned medical cultivator. He opened a small clinic in his clan's territory for a season before he finally decided he was well enough to venture out on his own to start somewhere without the backing of his family. He had always admired the founder of the Saint Herb Garden and hoped to go the same route and establish himself from nothing.
It took time, but his dedication and talents shone through, and eventually, he made a name for himself as the founder of the Jade Miracles Cure Manor. Its repute and fame even rivaled that of his branch family when his talents rose to a blue-grade healer and alchemist.
Other than his growing abilities, part of what led to the fame of his manor was he was indiscriminate in those he offered his services to, be it those who had no cultivation, or those in the palace realm, his doors were open to all, and his costs were extremely cheap when compared to most. He was dubbed the jade selfless healer.
From how his manor operated, it did not seem like he was doing it for profit, and considering the types of clientele he got, it did not seem he was doing it to establish connections either.
What connection would a palace realm cultivator who was a blue-grade healer gain from healing a late-stage qi refinement cultivator suffering from delirium caused by hearing the whispers of the whispering torment smoldering acacia or a body refinement cultivator who over-exerted their training and suffered internal injuries?
On paper, there was nothing to be gained from it. Of course, some thought being able to help another was payment enough but this was the cultivation world, it operated on transaction rather than sentiment most of the time, whether it was sects who nurtured their disciples in the hopes that they would carry on the legacy of the sect, and culling out those that did not measure, or clan members showing favoritism to those with promise or even healers deciding on who treat first.
What did you stand to gain from it? It was because of this that many looked favorably at Gao Wei. He was an oddity, he didn't seem like he was gaining much from his manor.
What they did not know was, Gao Wei was indeed gaining something and he wasn't as selfless as they thought. It was always wondered how remained afloat with the prices he charged which never seemed to be enough to sustain the basic operations of his manor, but for some reason, his manor kept going and growing, with the prices remaining as they were which only added more fame to the selfless jade healer.
What the populace didn't know was the reason he wasn't worried about costs such as herbs and other things were one of the main ingredients of his healing recipes was in plentiful supply around the continent. The lifeblood of cultivators.
The potions and pills he concocted, and the healing arts he used, the key ingredient was a cultivator's life essence. The reason he was never worried about cost was finding the ingredient he needed was pretty easy and it was free at that. The Southern Continent despite its warring nature and how many cultivators had died, was still filled with billions of billions because of how rich its environment was.
Of every 100 mortals born, 60 of them had the potential to cultivate. It is not guaranteed they will reach far, but they had the potential in them and that potential was a factor of the environment in the Southern Continent that was suffused with spiritual qi and all sorts of natural phenomena that transformed the bodies of its inhabitants to be able to survive in its environment.
Gao Wei killed cultivators of all backgrounds and cultivation bases and used them as fuel for a cultivation art he stumbled upon, the ouroboros blood river chrysalis of rebirth.
From what Shao An had written about it, ignoring its gory nature, the art itself as truly profound, and unlike most blood-
refinement arts, that art was more complete, one that at its root was in line with the Origin Dao of the world which was how despite it being a blood refinement art, it had terrifying healing abilities from art, techniques, down to alchemy recipes and refining arts.
It was an all-rounded complete cultivation art through and through. It had its meditation technique, circulation technique, defensive and attracting forms, and even innate traits that it gave the user the further they progressed in it, and in terms of grade, Shao An and the rest said it was likely a purple-grade art.
They couldn't decipher its history or even read its contents as it seemed shielded within Gao Wei's memory and forcibly breaking through it risked killing Gao Wei and its contents disappearing, and Gao Wei himself didn't even know how he found it or where he found it, who created or owned it, he knew he just knew it was with him at some point and it was what helped him grow his strength.
As Yang Qing read through its traits, he soon realized why it was considered a purple-grade art. The deeper one's understanding of the art became, once they reached the emergent phase of the art, they would never age. Through the art, they could reverse their aging the cycle of young and old could be switched with a cycle just like the ouroboros, and the conduit of that transformation was a cultivator's life essence.
It was always said a cultivator's journey was written in his or her blood. Within their blood contained the evidence of all that they had achieved and the potential of what they could, it was the same for humans or spirit beasts, and when they died, all they had achieved would be broken down into its individual parts and be absorbed by the world for it to be carried again by another living thing, a cycle that never stops, and the art Gao Wei cultivated, operated under that guideline. It broke down a cultivator's blood similar to how the earth broke down organic materials of all forms into nutrients suitable for the living. The art broke down a cultivator's body and the nutrients were poured into Gao Wei or he could use it to heal others.
The body contained all the spiritual qi he or she had absorbed, the natural treasures he or she had refined,a record of the attainments he or she had made, all of it was stored in the blood, and was broken down by the art to feed Gao Wei or the patients he treated which was how none of them was the wiser on the nature of the medical techniques he used on them as he had already broken down his victims to their raw forms which he then used.
He was only found out when the disciple that guided him came to see him and detected something odd, though she could never quite put her finger on it. She shared her doubts with a colleague who by coincidence was friends with someone from the Medical Valley of the Order. It wasn't long before Gao Wei was investigated and the truth of his techniques brought to light.
He had killed close to 10,000 cultivators over the years, with two of them being palace stage cultivators, with the bulk being core formation experts. The most ironic thing was he had healed ten times the number he had killed which was why he wasn't executed on the spot when he was found.
When he was sentenced, he showed no remorse for his actions, citing cultivators died all the time, and when alive they were likely to murder countless, at least this way he reduced the number of potentially murderous cultivators and put their lives to a good course by using it to save the lives of countless others.
His reasoning explained why he healed mortals the most out of those who walked through the doors of his manor.
At the end of the report, Shao An did mention breaking him by subjecting him to the torture of experiencing what it felt like to be a human pill over and over, and he no longer holds the strong inclinations he had before.
Yang Qing couldn't help but sigh after reading Gao Wei's file. Regardless of whether Gao Wei was truly remorseful or not now, with his spirit broken, Yang Qing knew the fact he was on the list, unlike the rest, Gao Wei's profile as a healer guaranteed him a spot on the list which was likely Shao An's and the Order's intention.
As for Gao Wei's sentence, it was indefinite. Regardless of how well he did, his sentence would never be reduced, he would remain an inmate until his death, and the only reprieve for him would be not spending it all in Requiem or experiencing life as a human pill.
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