19 Chapter 19: The Girl.

"Doctor Paracelsus?" The girl said as she knocked, then she waited.

Nobody opened the door.

"Doctor Paracelsus, are you in there?" She asked once again, this time raising her voice more than before.

"Oh, hey young lady," the girl heard an aged voice from behind her; she turned to it, seeing not far from her the old lady she had met last time she had been to the clinic, Yang, who was named, "you're the doctor's girlfriend, right?"

The girl raised an eyebrow in confusion, but the old woman just took it as a sign of consent, even if the girl was just confused at how she could be mistaken for the doctor's girlfriend.

They had just been in the same room when the old woman last met them, and that was a business meeting.

"Just go inside; the door is open, but the doctor is probably working on his weird creations." The old woman explained with a smile, motioning for the girl to go in.

But the girl, Lan Xueruo, ignored it and asked back, "Could I ask you some questions? About the doctor."

"Oh, sure, what do you wish to know? But I'm afraid nobody knows much; he is a very reserved man." The woman said this with a chuckle, thinking that the girl wanted to find out more about her crush.

"What do you think of him as a person and as a doctor?" She asked, scouting some more personal information on who was probably the most talented doctor she had ever met.

She wanted him on her team; his help would be invaluable.

"He's the perfect man, the smartest person I've ever met, with a heart of gold. We all know that his work could go for a lot of money, but most of the time he just waves off the fees. He's also probably the most hardworking person I can think of." She chuckled. "I'm pretty sure he lost more than a single night of sleep trying to make some of his weird inventions."

"What kinds of inventions?" Asked the girl.

"Oh, you've probably seen them already," the woman started explaining, "those weird lights in the clinic, all those weird machines, as he calls them, they weren't there at the start; he made them himself, I bet."

"Oh!" The girl murmured, thinking back to her recent visit to the clinic.

'So everything, from the light to the machines, was made by him? Could he be an old monster after all?' She thought to herself, her conjectures on the young-looking man's identity forming without any actual proof.

The more she thought about his achievements, the more she thought he might have been far older than he seemed, but then she remembered the look in his eyes.

Those weren't the eyes of an old monster.

The doctor was youthful in both looks and mannerisms, but that could be part of his cover too.

Considering everything, Lan Xueruo didn't gain anything new except a newfound understanding of the man's resources.

Someone who can create all of those things—the pure white lights, the floating chairs, and those machines—gives her a completely new understanding of her own cultivation.

After thinking for a few seconds, the old woman continued, "He is a bit weird, though."

"Weird?" Xueruo asked back, searching for clarifications, "What kind of weird?"

"Oh well, I don't really know, but he says it himself, and he probably knows more about himself than I do."

"Is that so...?" The girl pondered, the answers she had received not satisfying her in the least. "Thank you; I'll go to meet the doctor now."

Goodbye, young girl; have fun; the young man needs to relax sometimes."

The girl didn't mind the older woman's words; her misunderstanding had nothing to do with Xueruo, and none of the people that held any power would listen to what an old mortal lady believed, so she just moved on and entered the clinic, the door unlocked.

Inside the clinic, there was not a single speck of dust anywhere to be seen. The girl had never seen such a perfectly cleaned place; the owner had to have gone to great lengths to clean it so thoroughly.

She analyzed every detail she could take in, trying to glean anything more about the doctor's personality. His behavior with his work was too unusual; he evidently didn't heal people for profit; it had to be for something else.

But what?

What is this part of his cultivation?

His cultivation was incredibly high, at the upper end of the Nascent Profound realm, and from his looks, he seemed to be either younger than her or her same age at most. Someone at that level had to be the disciple of someone formidable.

Maybe he was the scion of some powerful family or sect, out in the world to gain experience, but that wouldn't be in line with his behavior, as the man seemed to not care about any of the people in power but rather went out of his way to help mortal people.

As she looked over the empty room, there was one thing that caught her eye. She mumbled, "Is that door vibrating?"

In front of her, a door vibrated in short intervals, a sight that was most unusual to her, but she figured that on the other side of it must be where the doctor was.

In measured steps, she neared the door, but just as she was about to open it, her wrist was grabbed by someone else, somebody whose presence she hadn't even detected until it was too late.

In shock, she turned her head to stare at the short person that had taken her by surprise. Lan Xueruo made no movement beyond that, as she knew that if this person wanted to harm her, she'd already be dead; this was someone beyond her.

This person was almost entirely hidden by a long cloak, their face hidden by a deep hood.

"I wouldn't open that door if I were you, Lan Xueruo." The person spoke lightly, her voice distinctly feminine with an innate dignity that would be normally found in someone from a royal family.

"Why not?" I asked the girl back, knowing better than to ask a hooded person about their identity.

"That man is doing something that I still fail to understand the purpose of," the woman, or girl, as the voice seemed younger, said, "but that is beside the point; if you enter, your ears might explode; if you truly wish to enter, I suggest you shield them with profound energy."

"My ears? What is the doctor doing? Will it disturb him if I enter?" The girl asked in confusion. She could have understood if the doctor had been cultivating, but why would that have anything to do with her ears exploding?

Interrupting someone's cultivation was taboo; none did it, as none wished it done to themselves; most would kill for such an act.

"He's playing his music again, and somehow it keeps getting worse." The girl sighed deeply, not hesitating for an instant to throw her disciple under the bus, but she knew that he didn't care either. "No, you need to shield them more; use more of your cultivation to shield them; he created a technique to protect himself from harmful effects, only to listen to the music louder; I swear that I will never understand him."

The girl did a double take at the shorter girl's words; she had already shielded them more than any time before. Was the doctor weaponizing music?

If so, that would demonstrate an incredible understanding of sound, something incredibly rare even among higher-level cultivators. Sound techniques were rarer than most simply because it was an extremely complicated subject, much more complicated than simple things such as fire or water.

"Yes, that should be enough, but only enter at your peril." The girl continued, clearly nodding in acceptance at the older girl's technique.

"May I ask who you are, Senior?" Lan Xueruo asked, her voice hesitant, clearly ready for a rejection.

But the reply came, and it was very different from what she imagined: "I'm that guy's master."

The guest bowed slightly, replying with a tone that was clearly unbothered by the other person's lack of any kind of formal speech: "It is my pleasure to meet you, esteemed Doctor; this one is called Lan Xueruo; I am here for an appointment I had with Doctor Paracelsus."

"Heh, Paracelsus… I'm no doctor; I taught him about cultivation only," the senior chuckled, clearly amused by something Xueruo couldn't understand. "I know who you are, but spare me the fake name; if you wish to hide your name, then do so openly, just like my disciple does; hiding your true cultivation won't be able to do much in my eyes either."

Lan Xueruo's eyes widened in shock at being seen through so easily by the complete stranger. It seemed that she had completely underestimated the background of the doctor she desired to recruit if his master could see through her preparations at a single glance.

"May I ask Senior to not tell my secret to anyone? I have my reasons to hide my true identity." Explained the girl with a wry smile on her beautiful face.

There wasn't anything she could do to the Doctor's master even if she wanted to; she was unsure if anyone in the profound palace, maybe even in the entire empire, could compare to the being in front of her, her natural aura of self-confidence and power beyond that of anyone she had met.

"If I may ask..." the guest hesitated, "What is the doctor doing that even one such as yourself doesn't understand?"

"Oh, I do understand it in itself; I merely fail to understand the purpose, the same as many things he does." The master replied, before turning her head around and disappearing, "But enough about this; he should be done shortly anyway, but you may enter if you desire so."

Lan Xueruo bowed in respect once more to the disappearing senior, saying, "Thank you for your permission, Senior."

The senior had disappeared, and only Lan Xueruo remained. Only one last hurdle remained between her and the man she so dearly wished to recruit, but for some reason, the more she learned about him, the less sure she was of her choice.

But however weird he may be, his abilities as a doctor outweighed anything and everything that he may do, especially since everything pointed to him being a selfless and caring person.

His cultivation talent was only a plus in her books; there was no way that such a person wouldn't become someone big, at least as long as he wasn't killed before achieving his potential.

She may be able to witness the birth of a new legendary cultivator, but she salivated at the mere memory of what the man had given her so offhandedly.

With perfect knowledge about her own cultivation, she had been able to learn more from that single image than from any interminably long ancient scripture, but at the same time, that same gift had terrified her beyond comprehension.

She knew that with that alone, she wouldn't have any issue learning any technique, and her own cultivation wouldn't stall for a very long time.

The most important thing to a cultivator is understanding, and he had given her the perfect understanding of her own powers; the sheer fact that he could do such a thing was what terrified her.

What if he publicized such a method, and if that was something he was willing to share, what kind of secrets could he be keeping for himself, something so precious as to overshadow what he had already shown her?

No matter what, she wanted him on her side.

So she opened the door, leaving the ear-shattering, noise-free reins to leave the highly insulated and noise-cancelling room.

"…FUCK/FUCK/FUCK ME UP; CUT/CUT/CUT ME UP AND FUCK/FUCK/FUCK ME UP; CUT/CUT/CUT ME UP AND FUCK/FUCK/FUCK ME UP; CUT/CUT/CUT ME UP AND FUCK/FUCK/FUCK ME UP..."

She closed the door and left the clinic.