I woke up a bit later on my bed, with the mother of all headaches deciding to pay me a friendly visit.
My head felt like it was a half-boiled egg, and whenever I moved my head or even rotate my eyes I'd feel racking pain.
I sat down with great difficulty and found elder Wei sitting on the stool next to my bed.
"Had me scared there for a second," he said.
"What happened," I said as I was holding the bridge of my nose with my thumb and index finger trying to massage it.
"You suddenly fell, I didn't know what to do, nor did anyone after all the only doctor we had…" the elder didn't finish his words, of course, he didn't need to, I was the cause of that man's death.
I sent a divine sense to scan myself and found the problem immediately.
"I seem to have over-tapped on my personal Qi reserves without realizing it," I said.
"That's… not possible, I mean, I never saw or felt you using Qi at all," he said.
I pointed at my head with my finger, "Here, I was using a cultivation method that increases my concentration level at the expense of my Qi, and after treating all those elders and carefully managing the blood flow of every blood vessel of that girl, I was bound to burnout," I said.
But that wasn't' the whole truth, there was something else, I knew for a fact that I've used more focus and used my Mind's Eye for far longer and more exhausting times in other ventures than today.
I think the fact that I overtaxed my mind was not the only factor, especially since the old tingling sensation I used to feel at the back of my head transformed today to sledgehammer blows that went right into my mushy brain.
I should slow down on using mentally exhausting tasks lest I end up dead not from being killed but outright frying my brain.
I stood up from my bed and had a few pills to help with the headache then I walked out of the palace only to find it already dark.
"Damn…" I cursed as I saw many cultivators waiting in line.
No one understood why I was cursing right now.
"Is he dead?" I asked and immediately received a reply from Elder Wei who walked out of the door.
"Yes, he died a few hours ago, one of his sons brought him here for treatment but you weren't available," Elder Wei said.
"Damn, I wanted to bring him down a peg, I didn't expect to collapse, I should talk to his son," I said.
"No need," spoke someone from in front of the crowd, looking at him he had blood covering all of his sleeves and had red eyes from crying probably.
"He brought it up on himself, it is the way of cultivators…" he said, and he clearly didn't believe those words, it's not easy to see one's parents die especially in front of you.
"It wasn't my intention to leave him to the wolves, I wanted to make him at least feel threatened and acknowledge my existence, his death was the last thing I wanted," I said.
"I understand that, I'll be leaving…" he said.
"Come back tomorrow, I'll take care of your own treatment, free of charge…" I said.
The man stood nodded then continued walking forward.
"You can't save everyone Ling Cao," Elder Wei said.
"I can't, but I shouldn't have overtaxed myself to fall unconscious…" I spoke.
"Stop blaming yourself, you wouldn't have anticipated that, in a sense, it's the Medical Doctor's own fault for causing the girls to suffer so, thus making you overdraw on your Qi to help them and ended up unconscious, just let it go, deaths happen far too often in cultivation worlds, there is o point beating yourself up about it," Elder Wei added.
I nodded and asked the rest of the people in front of the palace to disperse, I wasn't able to help anyone in my current condition anyway.
"I'll open up shop tomorrow, I'll see you then," I said then went back in to meditate.
Treating the entire sect took more than a month worth of trouble, not to mention that several of the people I treated I had to treat again because they kept getting bitten.
"This can't keep going on like this I'll be spent before the year ends," I cursed as I threw away a random wine bottle from my table.
"The Sect Master had personally searched the entire sect and didn't find anything, we don't know where the nest is," he said.
"That's not an excuse, if we can't find the nest, we might as well reallocate…" I grumbled back.
"Yeah, I don't think the sect master or anyone will ever agree to that," Elder Wei replied as he drank from his own mug.
"At this point in time, I'm actually considering it," someone spoke and it was the Sect Master who seemed to have arrived at the entrance of the palace.
"Sect Master," Elder Wei clasped his hands to the man in charge.
I clasped my hands as well but my eyes were too exhausted to even care and give proper etiquettes.
"You look exhausted…" the sect master said.
"Yeah, try and overdraw on your own mental reserves for one month straight without rest. And this damn constant headache is killing me…"
The Sect Master looked at me funny, but Elder Wei spoke up, "Don't mind him, Sect Master, he became easily irritable after a couple of weeks of headaches and inability to meditate away, treating an entire task by one single person is no easy task, especially when he is studying cultivation at night and cultivate his spiritual herb garden whenever he has a small window of free time," Elder Wei said.
"I could understand that," the Sect Master said then turned giving us his back, "I don't know however how to solve this, we can't find the Grizzly Spider, it's not even that dangerous of a monster, but it ability to hid under the eyes of everyone is limiting our options," he said.
"It's because you're not trying hard enough," I spoke.
"What do you want us to do, Ling Cao, I turned every stone in every house, I even found a few Devil Cultivators that hid well just by accident as I was looking for that damn spider, I'm really not trying to say this, but are you really sure there is a nest here, and they're not just wandering from outside," he said.
"Not from outside that's impossible, there is a nest here, I'm sure of it… I can force them out, but it'll create a commotion, a very big one…" I said as I rubbed on my temples.
"Wait, you had a way to pull them out and didn't tell us?" the sect master said.
"Yes, I didn't tell you because it's a very dangerous way," I said.
"What is this way?" asked the sect master.
I sighed before I said, "Well… the Queen is currently feeding, she is using her brood to feast upon your cultivators, and they're taking the Qi to her, once she grows she'll personally come out, and then she'll be a very dangerous opponent, I personally don't want to be next to a Saint Class monster when it comes out," I said.
"Wait, but Grizzly Spiders aren't even Ascendant Level creatures…" the Sect Master said.
"Yes, that's because they're still Grizzly Spiders, but once she evolves she'll become A Grizzly Brood Mother and that's a different beast altogether. Can you take on one of them?" I asked.
"One-on-one, yes, but it'll be annoying, not difficult…" the Sect Master looked around, "There will be a lot of destruction though…" he said.
I sighed and said, "I can bring her out, probably at half the power of a Saint Cultivator, with a bit of coordination the elders can help you limit the damage, the problem is I don't know where she is approximately is hiding, otherwise I could have taken care of it all by myself. We'll have to pull her out then improvise…" I said.
"Wait, you can take on a Grizzly Brood Mother?" Elder Wei said.
"With enough preparation, yes, but as I said, I need to know her general location… Elder Wei, can you survive against a brood mother for at least an hour?" I asked.
"With a bit of difficulty yes, I can probably survive enough for an hour," he said.
"How about the other elders, how many can replicate your feat?" I asked.
"Elder Lou, elder Feng, and elder Fu-Tian," these three only are on par with my own power level but Elder Lou is dead…you killed his son and him…" Elder Wei said.
"Oh… well two is good enough for me. Sect Master," I said as I addressed the head of the sect.
"Yes," he said.
"I'll need three days, of rest, and preparation, after that I'll devise a plan that will probably cause a few casualties in the process, and since you're the one who is capable of fighting toe to toe with the Grizzly Brood Mother you'll have a very important task," I said.
"It's the first time I've seen a disciple giving a sect master orders," elder Wei mumbled.
"Hey, don't say it like that, it'll give people ideas, anyway this is the only plan I can think up and that can work to pull out the Grizzly Brood Mother, and it goes like this…" I began explaining.
Soon after my explanation finished both Elder Wei and the Sect Master were scratching their heads.
"If I didn't know any better…I'd say you're trying to get me killed Junior Ling Cao," Elder Wei said.
"That's the only way, what do you say?" I asked.
Elder Wei sighed and said, "Yeah, I'll do my best."
"Just don't die," I said.
"I feel like a babysitter…" the sect master said.
"That's because there is no one better than you for the job," I said.
"It's okay, when do we start then," he asked.
"In three days, I really need the rest once three days are over, we'll start," I said.
The three of us agreed on the date, and thus the plan began.
