Chapter 3

On the day I met teacher the blue snake died protecting its egg against the group we healed. According to teacher that profound beast's egg was known for being considered a medicine to enhance one's profound strength and is sold at a rather high price, it could make one break bottleneck as long as it was up to the Earth Profound Realm, thus it was really expensive. Those people we helped wanted to take the egg yet but teacher stepped forward and mentioned that if not for out intervention they would all likely be dead, he said that as he saw me already with the egg in hands with not greed but simply pitty. I did not want to let the sacrifice of the blue snake be for nothing, not in the least. It was likely it's mother or father, this egg was showered with familial love even before it was born and I would not have such feelings be discarded just for the greed of those few people.

And I was proven right in doing so as those people still wanted the egg for their greed, even talking of turning violent if needed and ignoring how we saver their lives. Teacher's eyes sharpened and a heavy pressure went to those people who backed out and while sweating profusely left soon after without even thanking us for the help and even cursing us as they left. He sighed seeing this and told me one thing.

"You must understant, Enkidu, that even to those who save lives the need for strength exist as there is no guaranty that those you help are of the good sort." As he said that he relaxed his expression and raised an eyebrow. "So? What do you want to do with the egg and this Bull Python's egg? Either would sell for quite a lot of money if put on an auction, you know?"

I remember the look the snake had when dying, the look it gave at the egg filled with love and the resignation to die, how it probably could have escaped if it had just abandoned the egg but chose to fight and die to protect it instead.

And, comparing such a creature to the humans at that moment, I couldn't help but think that the profound beast was much more 'humane' than any of those humans. How really weird this is, but what I should do and what I had to do was obvious to me.

"We bury the snake, it deserves a proper burial." I said and teacher nodded. "As for the egg, it deserves to live as well. I will take care of it and make sure it stays warm and when it is born I will raise it until it desires to go back to the wild."

Teacher nodded approvingly at that and we did just that. We buried the snake and gave it a proper burial before I accompanied teacher.

The egg I took needed about four more months to hatch. It was a tiny little snake with two curved horns on it's head and blue all over, it had deep blue eyes and we both bounded almost instantly.

This was how I had my first friend, Da Ming.

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"Medical Saint, it truly is a honor seeing you accept our invite. We of the Formation Guild are glad to see such a great person visit us." An elderly and slightly fat man said with a huge smile to his face.

This is nothing new to me, since I became teacher's student we have been traveling all over the continent, Teacher has a Yellow Peng for a ride, which is a far away descendant of the Golden-Winged Peng. It is extremely quick and normally master says he doesn't use it often but as he wants to teach me he decided to take me to many places so as to let me be a part of treatments of all sorts of diseases and wounds, for me to know as much of them as possible.

Whenever we went somewhere I would accompany master during treatment, sometimes even pointing out a few flaws he failed to notice and he would look at me with pride whenever this happens. I think he might have done that in purpose, his 'mistakes' were not fatal and could easily be fixed so he might have been testing me in how much attention I was paying to this.

Beside that, whenever we were on a town or sect we would get some money from the patients that could afford it and many of the richer places (sects, royal palaces, ancient martial families, merchant family or guild) would let me, as Yun Gu's student, browse through their libraries quickly. I would simply look like a curious kid to them but in actual fact, I was collecting all information possible from those places. I would touch each of the books or jades containing information inside and then chose a random book about medicine to 'read' while waiting for the headache to pass. Rinse and repeat until I have touched all the books in there. Sometimes it would take one or two days to do so, thankfully master indulged me and anywhere we went would try and accommodate us the best they can so it was not a problem.

Well, as the first student of Yun Gu I was paid attention to and my costume to always look at libraries and what I did there was spread and now I was widely considered a weirdo by most people. Not that I mind, the opinion of others isn't that important to me anyway.

Of the items, I got when I reincarnated one of them is the Library of Heaven's Path. It is an inner space that looks like an unending library where I can collect information in the form of books. If it is a person I can use it to see the person's flaws and weaknesses but, for me, the most interesting is to use it in a library.

Any of those libraries would have hundreds or even thousands of books on many things, from cultivation, to pill forging, to medical treatments, to formations, anything really. Many of those places exist for hundreds or even a thousand years so it was no surprise that it would be like that.

The Library of Heaven's Path could copy any book I touch and identify what is correct and what is wrong. No matter how advanced or how simple a book or jade slip may be it would have some things it was right about and some things it was wrong about. The only real issue was that it would make me have a headache when I copied too many books at once, thus the fact I couldn't go too fast in the book acquisition. After having enough books on any matter I could then compile the books into the themes, for instance, a perfect book about cultivation sword arts where only correct things about sword arts are there, it would be limited by the level of knowledge I had available but it would all be there very well explained and absolutely perfect on that level.

With teacher by my side, we would hardly have more than one or two days of rest between visits to such places, it was quite an exhausting but rewarding affair, to be honest.

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Today teacher and I decided to camp out as he wanted to take a break from all this running around we did. I was honestly fine with that, we have really been doing a lot these last few days and we just finished saving a town from a plague that would otherwise have decimated it.

"Go and look for some wood for the fire. Also, I want you to collect at least ten different medicinal herbs of different types and bring them while telling me all their possible uses." Teacher said and I nodded.

"Okay, I will do that teacher." I said before leaving him to his thing. I never really found out what he did but I am not worried. I might not have any profound energy but I have a Soul Shaking Bell that teacher gave me, it is a strange spirit artifact that when rang it releases a special soundwave that makes profound beasts flee, thankfully it could be directed so Da Ming could still sleep in my shoulders without any issue.

I moved slowly, I have no real reason to hurry after all and I had to look for the medicinal herbs.

Oh, a sorrowful orchid, that is not a bad medicinal herb at all.

After taking that one I continued my search, this was a considerably weak forest in a place with very thin profound energy so there wasn't much on the way of profound beasts and the trees were not that close together. All and all it was safe enough that even regular people like me could enter without much on the way of need to worry.

I suddenly felt a pull to a direction. I felt it a few times before, I can only guess it is due to this body having for a skill Presence Detection A++, as I would be guided by these sorts of gut feelings to someone who was in need and would actually appreciate what I am doing instead of looking down on me. I could never interact with those I helped during my travels for long as I had to accompany teacher but I helped those people in all I could, even in some cases telling them about good or bad aspects of their bodies that they could work on and how to do it. If they really listened to or not, however, was up to debate.

Humans, such petty little creatures that are quick to forget but faster to greed and aggravate. Really, I have been watching this world for a while now and I can honestly say that most of those in power are terrible, terrible people that would serve the world better dead instead of alive. I still would treat them as it is not my place to put judgment on them, but their reasoning and ways of thinking are just too absurd and petty. Sometimes I can find a few good ones, teacher being a prime example of that, but it really is hard to happen. And most of those who are actually appreciate healing are the common people, those who cultivators don't take a second glance at unless it is a pretty girl in which case it would be better be ugly instead.

Sighing I just continued hurrying, there was someone in need in this direction so this is where I should go.

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I finally arrived at the place I felt a connection to.

It was on a lake, many bird-type profound beasts were there, mostly beautiful peacocks that had beautiful feathers and proud appearances.

I then noticed, in a corner, some peacocks congregated at one point. I watched it intensely and noticed how it was mostly the young peacocks there while the older peacocks and diferent species of bird-type profound beasts were all just looking at it with-

With the eyes the adults casted at me when the other kids beat me up.

Before I could think clearly I had already the Soul Shacking Bell in my hands and was using it to the best of my abilities without a second thought.

The bird-type profound beasts were startled and quickly began to scram away, the sound being terrible to the extreme for them.

As they all left in a hurry I finally managed to see what was it that those peacocks were hitting so much at.

It was a bird, it was green but covered in mud and honestly was not pretty at all. It looked more haggard than anything else, but I didn't care.

It's left wing was crooked the wrong way and it had many lacerations and wounds in it's body. If left as it is then it would surely die, it didn't even have the strength to run when I used the Soul Shacking Bell so it's state must be truly terrible.

I wanted to take it to teacher, but it was too weak to survive the wat, those birds really did a number on it.

Thinking back on the medicines I have had collected before I quickly went and started it's treatment, at least enough for it to survive. Heh, now that look at it closer when I am working at this bird I can see she is actually a girl and her feather's colors are the same as my hair.

When I finished to dress the wounds I turned to the wing.

"Listen, this is gonna hurt quite a bit but it is necessary." I tell it and unsurprisingly it nodded it's head while looking at me in bewilderment as it understood me. It was something I found out a little while ago, I can actually communicate with profound beasts when I want to, or at least make them understand what I mean and somehow understand what they want instinctively. It is not the same as talking, but similar enough.

Having the 'go-ahead' given I move the broken wing to the right position, it cried out in pain but I soothed it a bit while putting a stretched on it to keep it in position. After I finished all that I took it in my arms with all care and began my track back to the camp. I hope teacher won't mind overly much that I failed in his request, but it was for a good cause.