Chapter 44: Chapter 43 – Healthy Choices

 

I feel my eyes slowly refocus after quite a bit of time. I see the bones of the man being pulled underground, still being eaten and gnawed on by the beetle like creatures.

The knife is the only evidence that this man was here. I neither pick it up nor go near it.

 

…

This is a cultivation world.

 I have to assume that things like this could be tracked.

How do I handle this? Since it already is a messed up situation…

I immediately send out a high-powered scan, the first in a long while. I query whether anyone else saw me and the man or would track him. I also check whether that cultivator would be able to remember me and would track me down.

All information points to no.

While I want to be more cautious on these, it could potentially cause more issues. I’ll leave this here.

Surprisingly, I receive no backlash from this high-powered scan.

Likely, it is because of how far I’ve been pushing my brain lately.

Not that I want to repeat that, but in situations like this, there’s not really a choice in what you can do. I needed to know what the ramifications of my actions are with this.

 

Lowering my scan to a consistently far distance, I quickly begin moving away from this area, leaving the insects to act on their own. The only instruction I give them is to not eat demi humans or humans, but to otherwise live normally.

Once I get to a comfortable distance away, I practically drop to the ground.

Shit.

That was a clusterfuck. And I’m not even talking about the attack.

I panicked and ran away, with the only thing I used to get away, was the scanning and pathfinding ability. I didn’t use the insects, at least until I had already gotten my face beat in. I didn’t use the scan fighting technique, though that may not have had the best effect honestly.

Hell, I didn’t even use the instant healing, which might have kept me in the fight longer, mentally. Enough time to summon the insects for an attack.

I’m… not ready for combat.

Not even a little.

Even that ‘fight’ with the man, was because I was mentally prepared at that point. And I still feel sick to my stomach about what I’ve done. Even when I fought, the punches and adrenaline made me forget all of my plans.

Brushing away these thoughts, I decide to think about this later.

I can’t sit here in the open after that… I need a place to actually think. Wait. I should check on Gong. Just because there was a gian… yep, she’s totally fine.

A quick look using my scan reveals a large amount of dead bodies around her, as she picks through them for stuff. Spiders defend the area and grab things she tosses to them. Others collect the bloody webs from the area and fill holes.

 

Her body, literally coated in blood, appears a dark red.

Spiders crawl across her body, slurping the excess blood. Cleaning her.

Why does she seem so casual about this…? Doesn’t she think they’ll get revenge, after so many of their people died?

The only things I can think of is that she knows that they wouldn’t dare attack her again after that… or that there is another element that I’m not aware of.

With her safety confirmed, I decide to tame a nearby spider and transfer its allegiance to Gong, as well.

I then ‘convey’ the idea to it for her ears, that I’m safe and that I’ll be coming soon. From the scan, I can see her look up and nod. The spiders begin webbing up the bodies and devouring them.

Wow, she has no mercy on these guys. Though… am I one to speak, after what I’ve just done?

My mind begins drifting back to the scene, before I can hear a noise from Gong’s direction. I orient my scan towards her.

Distracting my thinking, one guy on the ground near one of the spider groups is screaming. He was apparently playing dead. They swarm over him and it is quickly over. I cut the feed almost immediately, with my own version of doing that to a man flashing in my eyes.

 

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My heart beats fast, I can feel my breath quickening.

I can tell that this has messed with me.

Healing Aura.

As the aura washes over me, I can feel myself mentally stabilize. Think more rationally, even with that image still there.

I might have to do this from time to time, to just get through this. That’s something for another time though, it definitely isn’t the time for this.

I’ll head back to Gong and we’ll figure out what to do from here together.

Sending another message to Gong through the spider, that I’m heading to her location, I begin trekking my way back to her. From this point, I am still just using the low tier version of the scan to make sure there are no hostiles in the area.

I’m still relying on the scan’s information, which had that the cultivator wouldn’t track me down. He honestly may even be dead, if he ran back into that… battle.

I continue moving, while still mulling over the events that I had experienced. How I had reacted. What I could do. Recognizing the clear signs of trauma in myself and how some of it seems to have been healed. And what enough insects could become, if used on a large scale. And what would happen if they all became spirit beasts.

 

Countless, countless thoughts.

 

I begin to notice that there is almost no one around in this area.

Well, honestly that just makes sense.

Who in their right mind would stay even slightly close to this area, if they saw what could only be perceived as an eldritch monster?

Especially, since anyone out here is likely to not be cultivator. There’s probably no context on how to comprehend such a sight. Other than, ‘I need to immediately leave this area and not come back’.

Reinforcing this thought, is that the only people that I see around as I move, are those who are truly sick. The ones who couldn’t run away when the fighting started. The ones who are so injured or in pain, that they couldn’t even move.

The ones who are so out of their minds, that they don’t understand the threat.

Some people don’t even appear to have noticed anything has happened, though their eyes are glazed in the direction of where the battle happened. I’m not sure if it is shock or something else.

The sad part about it, is that this is still way too many people. Comparatively, when I’ve gone through other parts of this slum, with Gong, there were three times as many people. Obviously, the majority of the people in this slum are demi-humans.

I need to get my mind off things. What I’ve done. At least until I can sit down and sort out my thoughts properly.

I… need to do something good.

I think healing these people discretely could help. Anything. Anything other than thinking.

I begin using the healing aura in the same way I was testing when I traveled with Gong. Something I like to call remote healing.

This way of using it, doesn’t require me to be looking at a person, but combining my low tier scan and the ability, lets me still heal people on a deeper level. Just in case someone could recognize me, I pull up the hood of my coat.

Walking past people, pausing to stretch or slowing down to heal a little deeper. I never do the full heal, but always try to take care of the most serious wounds (that wouldn’t be obvious.

For example, I passed by a young demi-human, with festering legs. He has extremely tight dirty cloth on his legs, potentially to slow spread of whatever is causing his issues.

The way I heal it, is to heal everything up to the surface, but leave the surface tissue alone. In fact, I even regenerate a skin layer underneath. So, that way that it is only the appearance of skin. Of course, I have some concerns about what will happen if a layer remains on top, but based off the amount of healing, I think it would be the same as if a wet, dirty piece of cloth was on your skin for a long time. It’ll be bad… but not as bad as it could be.

Probably…

I always heal people that I’ve already passed. That way, they don’t actually have time to look closely at their surroundings by the time they’ve been healed. What ends up happening, is that I hear exclamations of excitement behind me.

 

This definitely helps.

This is what I want to do. Not fight.

I will do… that, again if I have to. Though, I’d much rather protect and help people.

 

I let my thought trail off as I head into the next alleyway.

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