20 Chapter 20: On the way.

"What the hell are you doing?" I heard Jasmine shout at a barely hearable volume over the music I was using as a soft background to my work.

With a clap, the music got turned off, and very civilly, I replied to the girl's less civil question, "I'm getting a tattoo."

I showed her my left arm, which I was currently working on, and I was drawing a nice little skull with a little scythe, very similar to one I had before getting to this world.

"A what?" She asked, a grimace on her face as she crossed her arms.

"Oh..." I cursed the cultural differences once again, "I'm making a semi-permanent drawing on my body."

"Why?"

"Yes, it's cute, isn't it?" I grinned as I showed her the arm from different angles. "I just make the ink, but I don't know how long it will last; my cultivation might get rid of it, and guess what?"

She sighed, seemingly giving up on understanding, "What?"

"I mixed the ink with some profound energy, and I used it to incorporate some runes into it." I explained that it wasn't hard to do, as all that mattered was the intent put into them rather than the design itself.

The world didn't understand drawings after all, but apparently, it did understand intentions and ideas.

"Oh, that is good then," she replied, her eyes sparkling as I finally caught her attention, "what kind of runes, what do they do?"

"I used the same ones that I used to isolate the walls: vibration and motion absorption and dissipation, some temperature resistance. I can probably create some sort of synergy with some other runes to do something, but it isn't really important." explained that this thing was only useful as a semi-defensive measure; it protected my muscles and bones from external and internal forces, but only around my arm.

"So if I were to punch your arm, the impact would dissipate?" She asked, her eyes shining.

"I guess? Not a lot though, but I did put a ton of them, maybe up to a certain level, only around the arm though; it's not that useful." I replied, and I didn't have to wait for more than a second before my words were put to the test.

She punched me, saying, "Ow, why did you do that?"

"Did it hurt?" She asked back, refusing to answer my very valid question.

"No, but it could have!" I protested.

"So it does work; this is incredible! I knew these runes had incredible potential." She mused, and I did share her enthusiasm to a certain level; I imagined it would be incredibly useful in a battle situation, especially if I covered myself in these runes.

It meant more tattoos, which I didn't mind.

Oh well, I put a shirt on and asked, "Someone came in a few minutes ago; was it you?"

"The girl, Lan Xueruo, has arrived; you do remember that you had to go to a banquet, right?" She asked back, narrowing her eyes.

"Oh, it was today? I-I mean, of course I remember; how couldn't I?" I obviously lied, thinking about which outfit to put on.

The new one should do.

"She's still outside?" I asked.

"You scared her with your noise, for a valid reason, I might add. What kind of song was that?" She replied, her eyes filled with confusion at the masterpiece that was that Slipknot song.

I protested, knowing full well that she didn't like it: "It's a great song; you just don't understand!"

"A very vulgar song, but stop wasting time and leave; it's not polite to leave a lady waiting." She said this, disappearing into my green tattoo.

I sighed, "Nobody gets me in this world."

After five minutes, I was ready, donning a new tuxedo that I had fitted myself when I was out buying the clothes that Jasmine blackmailed me out of, and leaving my clinic.

I looked around, seeing the girl nearby, right outside the building, already looking at me with a weird expression on her face.

"Good morning. Sorry for making you wait; I lost track of time while working." I explained myself.

"Greetings," she replied, her face still holding that same weirded-out expression, "I apologize for entering your office without permission."

"Not a problem; I imagine Jasmine let you in." I replied, since there was no way for her to interrupt me if the small but overpowered girl hadn't allowed her.

"Jasmine? You mean your master?" She asked back.

"Oh, yeah, she likes calling herself that. The girl was injured, so I'm taking care of her until she gets better." I replied offhandedly that the less these strangers knew about me, the better.

As much as this girl seemed nice, I held no doubt that she was here to observe me, exactly like the other people that were constantly looking at the clinic, their gazes now gradually getting clear to my senses as I grew in cultivation.

A truly useful thing it was, that profound energy.

Creating specific circulation patterns to enhance certain parts of my body was an incredibly complicated matter to completely master, but not too complicated to begin to study.

"Is that so?" replied the girl, her voice suddenly lower.

She probably felt something off; maybe she had felt Jasmine's power as well, but it really didn't matter.

"Indeed, so?" I continued, changing the subject, "Would you mind if we get on our way? Or is it still too soon?"

She stopped looking at me weirdly and replied, "It won't be a problem; the banquet has already begun earlier, but nobody would mind if we arrived late."

"Oh, fashionably late then; that's my style." I made a joke, which seemed to be lost in translation.

"What do you mean by that?"

"It just means that the most important people arrive later; don't mind it." I replied.

She raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is that so? Well, we might as well travel leisurely in that case; it won't take long to reach the Profound Palace even if we were to walk there."

"Oh yeah," I said, "I have heard that it was nearby, but I've never actually been around there; how is it? How's life in those big cultivator sects?"

"You mean in the Palace?" She asked rhetorically, "It is nice, a good place; we have many resources to hasten my cultivation."

"Is that so?" I muttered, wondering just what kind of resources could be needed to cultivate them—maybe something rich in energy?

Did liquid energy exist? or even solid?

Maybe it was just some magical anabolic drugs?

That was another path of research right there, but definitely one that I didn't really have the luxury of researching; my schedule was already so filled with other things that I couldn't really take another field.

Maybe in the future.

"I forgot to ask: is there any special occasion for this banquet?" I asked, wondering whether I was rude for not asking this before.

"It's just the appointment of a new Palace Chief, nothing really important; normally only core members of the Profound Department participate, but I have a few privileges." She explained.

I had no clue what a Palace Chief was, but I figured it might be something like a manager of the place, but it didn't really matter to me; I was only going to relax for a day and drink whatever I could find.

"Oh yes, you did say that you work for the Empire's princess." I mentioned, realizing once more just how important the person at my side was. Even if I had no actual clue about just how powerful the imperial family was, it was definitely powerful enough that it didn't matter to a small doctor like me.

"Yes," she said, a little stiffly, "could I ask you a favor?"

"Depends on the favor." I replied offhandedly.

"Thank you," she replied with a sigh. "I would like it if you didn't mention that to anyone. I'm in the Profound Palace on a mission for the Imperial Family; unrelated people shouldn't know my identity."

"How cool," I muttered with a chuckle; she was a real secret agent. "Don't worry about it; my lips are tied."

This was exciting—a secret agent on a secret mission for the non-secret Imperial family—this was the stuff of films.

"But in that case, why did you tell me if it was such a secret?" I asked.

I hope these guys had some good liquor; I needed to get wasted.

And just as she said, amid a cordial conversation, we shortly reached the New Moon Profound Palace.

What a weird naming sense these people had; nobody would give such a name back on Earth; N.M.P.P. didn't exactly roll off the tongue.

"Oh, this place looks nice; I like the style of the buildings." I complimented—the usual empty words for when you get to a friend's house for the first time.

She looked at me and smiled, saying, "Thank you; I wouldn't mind giving you a tour if you want."

"That would be great, but I don't know if I should accept, being an outsider," I replied, and moreover, I wouldn't want to take too much of your time."

"It's not a problem at all; just remember me in case I ever need the help of an expert Doctor." She said it with a smile on her face.

"No problem at all, but I think I have to ask you something." I said, trying to bring up what had been bothering me for a while—well, not really bothering, but it was a pretty peculiar situation.

"Please, go ahead."

I looked around, seeing the people looking at the two of us and then muttering among themselves, "Is that normal?"

"What do you mean?" She replied.

"All those people looking at us—are you famous or something?"

"Oh, yes, I am pretty well known around here; I'm more talented than average in cultivation." She replied humbly, a wry smile on her face as she looked at me.

"Oh yeah," I replied without really understanding; I had no real metrics for this kind of thing. "What's the average, and what makes one above average?"

She looked at me weirdly, which prompted me to explain myself for some reason: "I've never really interacted with other cultivators; I don't know anything about that side of things."

I didn't like not knowing things, much more than I liked being seen as ignorant.

"Well, for someone around twenty years old, reaching the Nascent Profound stage is around average; I reached the seventh stage of Nascent Profound at eighteen." She explained patiently.

That meant that I was way above average; most probably, I didn't actually know how old I was.

But Jasmine had told me that most people started training when young, reaching her same stage in around a year; another year and I would reach the stage after this one, whose name I didn't even remember.

Whenever Jasmine started giving me that kind of info dump about cultivation thingies, I just shut my brain down and thanked the universe that my professors were less boring than that.

"Woah, that's cool; it seems that we're similar in that regard then." I stated that I would keep the conversation going.

She chuckled and asked after a few seconds, seemingly just remembering a question: "Indeed, I've never asked; can I ask how old you are?"

"I'm not actually sure; nobody really told me..."

And it was at that moment that I was interrupted by a voice that I thought I'd never hear again, or more like, I hadn't even thought about it since the last time I heard it.

"Brother in law?"