I spent the night trying out the Ancient Step as taught by the book. However, trying to cheat my way into mimicking it caused me to fall on my face several times.
This reminded me of the time I was trying to replicate old man Gin's own movement step.
So, I decided against trying any further and went to do something I didn't want to.
I grabbed a couple of metallic cuffs I found laying around in this palace. They were plenty of them to cuff the young girls here, which was a bit disgusting.
I then began inscribing the metallic cuffs with gravitational laws. This gave them a simple function. I could increase their weight as much as I would like and this can serve as training.
I strapped two in each arm, one above each of my wrists and one on each of my biceps.
Then I grabbed two more cuffs and collars, the collars I strapped to my thighs and the cuffs right above my feet.
I looked like a criminal, but when I donned my robes everything looked normal again.
Then, I activated the formation on the cuffs and almost regretted it. The Weight was slightly too much for me to bear and I had to tone it down. Seeing that the rigidity of this method would hinder my work, I decided to apply a new function to the cuffs.
A function that will ever so slowly increase the total weights of the cuffs. In a matter my body wouldn't 'sense' but the weights should increase over time and my body should get used to it.
This idea is not bad actually and I could honestly use it back in the real world, so I decided to apply this once I'm back out.
With the weights applied and their function updated I decided that it was time for me to rest for the day. And that was a whole session of meditation to get through the night and up fully refreshed in the morning from the day's work.
But what woke me from my meditation wasn't the sound of chirping birds or your occasional rooster. No, it was the sound of hasty banging on the palace door.
I got up from my meditative trance and headed to the door.
Just a I opened the door.
"Open up god damn it, what the hell do you think you're doing keeping me waiting here!" an elder spoke.
However, just as he saw me.
"Oh, it's junior Ling Cao, why are you opening the door? Where are the servants?"
"I should be the one asking questions, why are you banging on my door, and who do you think you are to have me personally open the door for you," I replied. Heck I'm enjoying playing the evil guy, because I know exactly why he is here.
"I'll have to apologize for this I thought one of your servants was being lazy, they should be punished," he said.
"I have no servants here, and that means that I'm lazy and I should be punished for not opening the door, right?" I said.
"… Oh, no god forbid, no, if you have no servants I can send a few outer disciples your way,"
"No need, I fired them all, they were a nuisance, anyway why are you here?" I asked.
"Its… it's elder Hong, he is sick," he said.
"Oh, let me guess, black blood and fever, coupled with some hair loss, right?" I said.
"Y-yes, how did you know," he said.
"Well, you were there yesterday when I warned him that that will happen, so you tell me how did I know," I smirked at the old man. "However, I already told him to dig his own grave, he'll be dead by tomorrow, I got nothing to do with that," I said as I was about to close the door.
"Wait, please," he said, "I heard you needed a few herbs, I came with a few," he added.
I tried my best not to show a smile or a reaction, "What kind of herbs do you have?" I asked.
"These," he said and began showing me a few pretty damn interesting herbs. Morning Blood Blossom, Innards' Crimson Fire Lotus, Blight Beckoning Tulip, and a few other highly poisonous herbs that I only read about in the Poison God's book and never personally handled.
"Interesting haul, so you want to use this as payment for me to help Elder Hong?" I asked.
"Euh, no, these are for me, I'm also sick I got bitten and I'd like to be treated," he said.
"Good, that's the kind of cultivators I like, those who look after themselves," I said "Come on inside," I added.
The elder entered the palace and sat inside waiting for me to help him out.
"Before we start please put this on," I said as I handed him a blindfold.
The elder frowned, "Why so?" he asked.
"Well, I can guess who you are from the delicacy of your hands, the type of herbs you provided me and the smell on your robes, you're a person who is usually surrounded by medicinal herbs, and not to mention you have a small blood stain on your sleeve. That could easily mean that you're either an alchemist or a medicinal doctor, either of the two would probably understand immediately after seeing how I treat patients and would be able to replicate my own feats and outsell my offer to the other elders, I'm not a person who'll easily share his secrets, so are you going to wear this blindfold or not?" I smiled at the elder.
The elder looked at me, frowned then said, "You're pretty smart for a person so young. Dangerously so," he said.
"It's both a blessing and a curse," I smiled back at the elder.
He the placed the blindfold around his eyes and sat down.
Since I know a mere blindfold isn't enough to trick a cultivator especially a medicinal cultivator, I had more tricks up my sleeves.
"This is going to hurt slightly," I said.
"Wait, but Elder Wei said that you didn't cause him any pain," he said.
"Oh, everyone's body is different, you're slightly weaker physically than Elder Wei, so it'll hurt," that was a lie.
"Right then," he said.
I then began placing the acupuncture needles, and even added a few more useless needles just to throw away his judgment, then pointed at the mark and twisted my finger causing it to spread a bit.
This elicited a sudden painful outburst that was immediately muffled, as the elder tried to calm himself down and have a 'feel' on how I would treat him.
"We're done,' I said.
"Huh?" he muttered, then he removed his blindfold only to see the acupuncture needles seeping the black slime out of his body and into the ground while he was completely confused.
I kept a smiling face as I was looking at the bewildered elder.
He tried to understand how I treated patients so he could do the same and steal away my soon-to-be fortune, only to realize he had been treated so fast he never understood how. The trick is misdirection, and if I did that to Elder Wei with sour candy, I did it to the medical cultivator with pain.
Classic.
The elder had a defeated look on his face when he handed over his herb pouch and left the palace with hunched shoulders.
