6 Chapter 6: Pride.

"A treasure, you say." I replied, not knowing in the slightest what she was talking about, but what would I know? She looked young, maybe around thirteen years old, fourteen at most, but maybe since she was a vampire, a floating one at that, maybe her looks didn't reflect her age.

Maybe she was an old grandma who liked looking like a child.

Did she have a weird fetish?

I hoped not; a fetishist vampire was among the last things I wanted to meet.

"Sky Poison Pearl, ranked fifth in the seven Heavenly Profound Treasures, has limitless inner space and can counteract all poisons and refine all ingredients.

It appeared for an instant one thousand and three hundred years ago; the whole world fought to obtain it, then it disappeared without a trace. I would have never expected that it would actually land into a mortal's hands, much less one with forever broken profound veins! And it even fused with your body too!

What ridiculousness.

I don't know whether this Sky Poison Pearl had lost its spirituality or whether its spirit had thoroughly become insane!" She said she seemed really passionate about this pearl.

But I was under the impression that Sky Poison Pearl was the name of the poison she was inflicted with, but I must have misunderstood.

"If it appeared for an instant, how do you know it was the fifth of seven?" I asked, curious about this weird girl's metric.

And what are these profound veins? Some kind of extra circulatory system that belonged to the inhabitants of this world?

That would be monumental—an entire new system to study and understand!

She remained silent at my words, seemingly lacking a real answer herself. "That's not important!" She snapped, "What's important is that you give it to me; it's not something that should stay in a mortal's hands!"

I looked back at the girl, who tried to take a seemingly threatening pose, but what I saw was just a little girl posturing to appear bigger than she really was.

Her eyes had a black sclera, but other than that, she seemed just like any normal girl to me. Vampires were weird.

Her mannerisms reminded me of those of a young person, so her appearance was most probably tied to her actual age, being a very young teenager at most.

I massaged my eyes, just to make sure that this wasn't a hallucination from overwork, but it was real, so I replied with the best way I knew on how to handle children, making them think they were in trouble: "Listen here, young lady, I've rescued you and treated what ailed you to the best of my ability; I even let you stay in my realm this entire time; shouldn't you at least thank me for that?"

"Wha-!" She seemed stunned, then she looked down, seemingly ashamed, then she came back with full pride, even more overbearing than earlier.

"This princess doesn't owe you anything mortal; you should consider yourself lucky to witness my beautiful form!"

When she saw that I just looked at her impassively, she continued with her spiel: "What now? Have your mortal eyes finally recognized my beauty and have grown enamored? Unfortunately for you, a mortal like you will never have a chance with this princess!"

I calmly massaged the bridge of my nose and sighed deeply, then I replied, "That would never happen, kid; I am an adult. I believe you should find someone your age to play with you, but if you don't mind, I do have a few questions for you."

"What do you mean!?" She replied enraged, "How could any mortal possibly not recognize my beauty? I have unending charm and peerless talent; nobody can possibly resist me!"

I looked at the child; she was pretty funny at least. "Yes, yes, oh great princess, can you answer a few questions of mine now?"

She grumbled, seemingly catching my sarcasm, but as she still looked at me weirdly, she replied, "What is it? And will you give me the Sky Poison Pearl?"

"I don't believe so; if what you said about its abilities is true, then it will be an invaluable tool in my research; I will be able to help so many people, but that's beside the point; how can I call you?" I asked, explaining my answer and the reason behind it: this was how I was raised, so this was how I treated other children.

She grumbled for a little, then replied, "You may call this princess Jasmine; are you done with your questions, mortal?"

I looked at her kindly and replied, "Thank you, Jasmine, but I also have a name; I go by Paracelsus right now, not by mortal, and no, my questions have just begun: how did you get on that mountain, and where do you come from? Do you know the way back home? Because if yes, then I will help you go back to them."

She just looked at me, completely confused and uncomprehending, her mouth slightly opened as if questioning my very existence, then she looked down, seemingly dejected, and said, "I can't go back; I was poisoned in an assassination; if I go back, they'll just try to finish the job; I can't go back without getting more powerful to fight back."

I had no idea how to react. "Please, sit down. I'll help you to the best of my abilities if you so desire. Would you like some tea?"

"Yes please."

If there was one thing that the ancient Chinese world had that was better than my modern one, it was tea. The tea here was incredible.

"How about your poison? Are you okay now after your stay in the green world? You said that it can detoxify any poison."

She shook her head. "The poison used on me was the Absolute God Slaying Poison; it will take a really long time before I'll truly be healed. The body you see is just an astral projection; my body is still inside the Sky Poison Pearl."

That sounded like really bad news, but Absolute God Slaying Poison?

Really?

That sounded like a name a child would use.

And this was an astral projection like the ones those crazy people thought they could do back in my world, but real?

This was incredibly weird; I guessed I still had to fully get acclimatized to the weirdness of this world.

But whatever, I had to focus on the important things: "Then you won't be able to leave my side until then, is that right?"

She remained silent, but the silence was all I needed to understand: "I'm truly sorry; you can take your time; don't worry about it."

"Thank you," she replied.

I gave the now-ready tea to the little girl, who seemed to cheer up momentarily. I tried then to change subject: "You talked about broken profound veins earlier; can you tell me more about that?"

"Huh?" She looked at me weirdly and said, "How could you not know? The profound veins are what determine a person's standing in this world; why do you not know about them?"

Why are they so important? I had already been doing pretty well with these so-called broken veins; the people of the neighborhood loved me, even if their culture was weird to me. They did know how to respect their healer.

"I have lost a lot of memories lately; there aren't many things that I know, aside from my medical knowledge, obviously." I replied nonchalantly; it wasn't the first time I used this excuse to explain my apparent lack of common knowledge.

"Is that so?" "Profound veins are what allow a person to cultivate to grow stronger; you do know what cultivation is, right?"

The world seemed familiar; wasn't it that thing they did in Chinese stories?

I was in a seemingly Chinese fantasy world, so it might be that the Xia girl had said that same thing regarding the pendant she had given me to protect me.

"I have heard of the world but know no details; if you could explain, I'd be grateful."

"Well, cultivation is the process of taking in our bodies the power of heaven and earth to grow our vitality and strengthen ourselves, giving us the ability to use profound abilities, but you can't do that since you have broken profound veins, and it doesn't seem like a new injury either; it's more like you were injured as a child, and they grew up distorted; there is no way to correct them now." She explained.

Wow, that sucked. Was that the reason that I was called a cripple?

Because I couldn't grow truly physically powerful while all others could?

That did indeed seem like a very debilitating handicap, I had to admit, being unable to use magical abilities in a completely magical world, especially as the son of a rich and powerful family. The previous owner of this body must have been ridiculed endlessly in this world where people killed each other on the streets.

Fortunately, I wasn't him, so I didn't have those memories.

I was pretty familiar with debilitating injuries that could be healed if treated while new, but if left festering, they could only heal on their own, but in a manner that would be debilitating for the individual.

It seemed like a bad bone recovery, except that it was a magical bone.

It would be incredibly difficult to heal such an injury, even with modern means and modern knowledge and utensils. Forget about the fact that I was the only one with modern knowledge and about the fact that I had no idea how to treat a magical circulatory system.

"Is there no way to have it recovered?" I'm not knowledgeable about this kind of thing."

"There isn't," she replied, finality in her voice making it clear that she really thought that there was no possible way, "but you're lucky that my life is tied to yours; you have saved this princess' life, therefore this princess will indeed repay you, but only if you can promise me to do three things for me, then this princess will immediately let you have a new set of profound veins."

Oh, so they could be transplanted? Or was it a process to entirely remake them from scratch with some magical mumbo-jumbo?

Maybe she was going to completely destroy the old ones and build new ones with the remains.

That sounded incredibly painful; thankfully, the abilities of the green tattoo she had told me gave me ample ideas.

As the thoughts jumped around my head with every possibility, the girl's voice suddenly became softer: "A set of profound veins with the strength of a god!"

"The strength of a God? So gods exist?" I asked back, but the expression that greeted me was that of someone asking themselves if I were stupid.

"Of course Gods exist, but not in this realm; they exist in the Divine Realms, and everyone who achieves beyond a certain level of strength ascends to the Divine Realm."

Oh, that was weird news; I had no idea how to take it.

"But that's not the important part!" She snapped back before I went into another internal brainstorming, "I just said that I'd give you a new set of profound veins!"

"Oh, yes, I heard you the first time; I just thought that the God thing was more interesting." I replied, greatly amused at the way the girl looked concerned with my mental health.

"Whatever, just promise me to do three things for me, and I'll give them to you right now!"

"What are these three things? And if you don't mind, I'd rather do it a bit later; I have to make some preparations before proceeding."

She looked at me weirdly, but she still continued, "The first condition is that you must promise to help this princess find three items... A stalk of Netherworld Udumbara Flower, three Profound Beast Cores no lower than those of the Tyrant Profound Realm, as well as... at least thirty kilos of Purple Veined God Crystal!"

Those things sounded rare, but I'd probably find a way, even though I didn't have the slightest idea what any of that meant.

"Sure," I replied, "just for curiosity, what do you need those for?"

She seemed disconcerted about my reaction, which probably meant that those things were rarer than I had any idea: "The poison has invaded my soul; even with the Sky Poison Pearl, it will take years before it's completely detoxified; after that, I will need to reconstruct my body; not a single one of those is dispensable!"

"Years? Do you have a time reference a bit clearer?" I felt the sweat forming on my forehead.

"Thirty years."

"Thirty years?!" I rebooked; I wasn't ready to have a daughter, much less have to take care of and raise her for thirty whole years; I was just thirty myself!

I would be sixty in thirty years. In basic math, even if my body was just around sixteen, I would still be over forty.

But then I thought about it: whether I accepted or not, she would still stay with me for thirty years; otherwise, she would die, and I was not going to be someone's cause of death; I was a medic, not a butcher.

"Will you agree or not?" She asked eagerly.

"Yeah, sure," Not like I had any real alternatives; I had promised to help her, and there was no way I would go back on my word. "Was that one request or was it all three?"

"Only the first," she replied. "The second is that I want you to reach the sovereign profound realm within thirty years!"

"Okay, I can try." I replied without thinking twice about it; I had no idea what that was anyway.

Why did I feel as if I was accepting the terms of service of some sketchy app without reading them?

Her gaze then became strict and proud. "The third condition is that I want you to kneel down and worship me as your master!"

My eyes widened. She wanted to be worshipped?

I had always felt that vampires had to be all perverts, but she was a child for heaven's sake.

It truly was true that each generation was worse than the last, but then again, I had no clue which generation I was in as this was a different world.

I hope she meant something else, but one thing was for certain: "I'm not going to kneel down to anyone."

That was the one thing that would forever be engrained in my soul, since such a thing existed.

"Reason." She demanded, as if such a thing needed a reason.

"My pride, I come from far; my people have killed and sent in exile our sovereigns; I would sooner break than bend in front of anyone."

She slowly nodded. "Not even to your parents or grandparents?"

"They wouldn't want me to kneel for them in the first place."

"Not even to your benefactor?" She asked, her gaze growing more heated by the second.

"Why would I kneel for a benefactor? Saving my life doesn't earn my loyalty." I replied, "Maybe this was some sort of cultural difference.

Those people from the Far East were always happy with their kowtows, but I am not.

"I see; unfortunately, you don't have a choice." She replied, and then suddenly, I felt the greatest pressure I had ever felt in my life.

As if a mountain were on my shoulders, pressing on me, threatening to squish me into a fine paste.

Only when I found myself on the ground did the pressure lessen, locking me there.

"Unwilling or not, a kowtow is a kowtow; you would rather break than bend; you seem bent enough to me; without strength, you don't even have the ability to refuse to kowtow to me.

What rights do you have to act haughty in front of me? Without strength, your pride and dignity are nothing but a joke in front of the strong!"

I replied nothing, truly understanding for the first time that while this person in front of me was indeed a child, she also possessed the power to kill me, and it pissed me off so incredibly much.

I looked at her but diverted my sight immediately. "You should put some underwear on, kid."

She froze up, then slowly realized, and then she screamed.