(Book 1&2 Complete!) Dao of Healing [Transmigration Healer Xianxia]

"That's the first thing you do after seeing me for a year? It seems like you haven't grown, Master Dan," Xiao Cui snorted as she washed her hands in a bowl of water. "Let's go outside. I don't want to get in anyone's way while we talk."

I nodded and followed after her as she led the way out of the temporary treatment centre and towards the hallway. Once we were there, out of sight of any other disciples and patients, she suddenly squealed.

Then, like a wild animal she threw herself at me and wrapped me in an inescapable embrace. "I missed you so much, Master!" she exclaimed, before detaching herself and straightening her robe. She then pouted. "I can't believe you didn't tell me about the competition! So mean."

I stood there frozen, somewhat shocked about the sudden shift in personalities. Then I burst out laughing. She had grown, but this was still the same Little Cui I knew.

"For a moment out there I thought you might have truly become an adult. It seems you still have a long path ahead of you, my disciple," I quipped. "Tell me what happened during your year of exile."

Her expression brightened visibly. "Honestly, it was an adventure! I saw so many crazy, awesome, but also awful things around the empire. I learned a lot. It all started in this strange, abandoned village…"

****

Wang Ren leaned over towards Yu Chun. "Did he seriously run off to talk to that little brat Xiao Cui instead of watching this incredible battle?" he asked her with disbelief written across his face.

She giggled, a melodic sound that made a few nearby spectators turn their heads and blush as they saw her elegant visage. "Of course he did. Do you even know him after all those years you spent together?"

Wang Ren rested his chin in his hands for a moment. Then he snorted and turned his attention back to the semi-final unfolding in the arena below. "You're right. He never particularly cared for fighting. Still, he's the Sect Leader. It's his job."

"He'll be back at the perfect moment, no doubt. He has a strange knack for perfecting timing," she replied, taking notes as Pei Kexin and Wen Guanbo clashed once again.

The two disciples seemed evenly matched on the surface, but the truth was far from it. They'd been battling for about fifteen minutes. Wen Guanbo was a ferocious combatant who wielded a heavy saber.

The moment the battle began he'd charged at Pei Kexin, using his great strength to unleash wide, looping swings of his sword that narrowed the space she had to move freely in. He'd slowly boxed her in, while pushing her towards the edge of the arena.

She unleashed a barrage of wind blades in response to each swing, deflecting the saber from striking her thin body. However, it seemed as though it was only a matter of time before she would lose.

Then, right as she was teetering on the edge of the stone stage, she suddenly formed a few hand seals and clapped her hands together. An explosion of ice- and wind-qi burst forth from her body, sending Wen Guanbo flying.

Since that moment, the battle continued in a similar manner. The saber-wielding berserker would rush forth and attempt to crush his foe with brute strength, while she elegantly deflected his charges with her spiritual techniques.

The difference between them was their control over their energy. Only Pei Kexin was a Qi Gathering cultivator, but Wen Guanbo was on the cusp of breaking through which gave him a powerful blood essence—although his control over it wasn't perfect. It leaked out of his body in places, his empowering technique lacking efficiency.

Pei Kexin, on the other hand, had an iron hold on her qi. Every technique was precise and used almost the perfect amount of qi, with barely any waste.

Due to this difference, the current situation was that Wen Guanbo was tiring and his dantian was nearing just a third of his total reserves, while Pei Kexin had plenty left in the tank. If this war of attrition continued, it was clear who the victor would be.

Pei Kexin knew this. She began to increase her attacks. Previously she'd used the same technique as before—a blizzard that swirled around her, keeping her opponent out of striking range. The moment Guanbo tried to enter the blizzard and cut her, blades of ice would bite into his skin and howling winds would push against his movements. Now, she decided to go on the offensive.

Two large spears of ice began to form beside her. She stood still, eyes closed in concentration. A bead of sweat formed on her temple and rolled down her cheek. That she could sweat in the midst of a blizzard was proof of how much concentration was required to maintain both techniques at once.

Despite the level of difficulty she managed it. The two spears, once fully formed, were around two metres in length and ended in sharp, jagged points.

Opening her eyes, she grunted as the two spears suddenly shot towards Wen Guanbo on the other side of the arena. However, he was ready for their sudden launch.

Only a fool wouldn't have been. To the mortals watching, the spears had formed and been fired within three seconds. To a cultivator that amount of time was enough to end a battle.

The spears were aimed at his vitals. One at his head, the other his heart. A lesser warrior might have faltered at the twin strike, but Wen Guanbo had proven himself one of the top four combatants in the entire Grasping Life Sect.

All of a sudden his muscles swelled as blood essence flooded his body. His skin turned slightly red and a subtle crimson glow covered his skin. With a roar of battle that shook the arena and echoed through the skies, he swung his saber.

It cracked the air and carved the two ice spears cleanly in half. He barely paused for a breath before charging towards Pei Kexin.

She remained confident, until he broke through the boundary of the blizzard and continued at blistering speed. Within a moment he appeared before her, the winds barely slowing him.

Her eyes widened in surprise at the change in pace. However, she quickly composed herself. Wen Guanbo's face twisted in glee as he saw his victory before his eyes.

His saber had the same red glow as his skin as it cut through the air towards Pei Kexin's neck. The spectators gasped as the blade pierced right through her throat and out the other side.

Yu Chun leapt to her feet. "Elder Wang, what are you sitting around for!? Get Zhao Dan. She's going to die," she exclaimed, pointing at the scene.

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"Relax, Elder Yu. There's nothing to worry about," he said calmly. "Just watch."

"You-!?" She was about to continue when something shocking occured.

A gasp rippled through the crowd as what they thought was Pei Kexin's body suddenly shattered into a hundred shards of ice that shot in every direction.

Wen Guanbo was peppered with a few dozen. Each shard cut into his skin, drawing blood and forcing him to raise his arms to guard his face.

The next instant, he froze. A razor-sharp icicle was held against the nape of his neck, gripped in a delicate hand.

The hand seemed to float in the air, but within a few seconds the swirling snowflakes gathered around it, forming the figure of Pei Kexin.

"I yield," Wen Guanbo said with a sigh, dropping his saber and raising his hands in surrender. "Your techniques are incredible, Senior Sister Kexin."

"You're not too bad yourself. You almost got me with that berserker charge. You should develop an interference technique to improve your style," she replied with a martial salute.

Then she smiled and waved to the crowd, who began cheering so loudly that the entire arena shook. With that, the two combatants left the arena to make way for the next semi-final.

****

"That was a great ending to the first semi-final. I'm glad we decided to make this competition public," I said, making Wang Ren and Yu Chun leap out of their seats.

"When did you get here, sneaky bastard!?" Wang Ren exclaimed. "Did you learn some sort of stealth technique?"

"I told you," Yu Chun said, straightening her robe as she relaxed in her seat. "Perfect timing, always."

"What's that?" I said, furrowing my brow in confusion.

"Don't worry," she said, hiding a laugh behind her hand.

"So, Pei Kexin is in the final," I remarked. "Not too surprising, but she almost lost at the end there. She reminds me of another ice princess I know," I muttered, smiling to myself as I thought back to meeting that girl outside the Spring and Autumn Palace.

There was a brief break before Yu Jin and his opponent—Shu Luyao—emerged from the tunnel and took their places on opposite sides of the stage. She wielded twin kama—short battle-scythes—while he had nothing but his body and his determination to win.

I took my seat between Wang Ren and Yu Chun in preparation. This was a battle I wanted to watch from the beginning. It was perhaps wrong to have favourite disciples, but I had a soft spot for the Yu twins. They were among the first disciples we recruited and they'd contributed so much to the development of the sect.

Yu Bao hadn't been able to make it this far in the tournament, but his brother had a chance at winning if he made the right decisions. It all came down to this battle.

The moment Wang Ren gave the signal to begin, both disciples raced at one another. I expected it to end quickly, given that they both favoured a fast paced style of battle.

The edges of Luyao's kama took on a shimmering silvery glow as she threw her arms back in preparation for a swing. Meanwhile, Yu Jin's body increased in size slightly as he activated his body reinforcing technique.

Then, he roared and clapped his hands. Spikes of earth erupted from the stone floor of the arena. The first directly under Luyao, which she deftly stepped to the side to avoid.

They continued to burst through the ground, precisely striking towards her each time. However, she displayed a near prescient level of guesswork as she elegantly danced and spun around them. She even used the final spike as a foothold to launch herself through the air towards Yu Jin.

With a high-pitched yell she swung her twin kama inwards, aiming to strike Yu Jin's arms and cripple him from the get go. However, she received a shock when he blocked the sharp blades with his forearms.

There was a metallic clang as the weapons struck his bare skin. They didn't even draw a single drop of blood. Yu Jin capitalised on her shock. A lightning fast kick struck her in the chest.

With a yelp of pain, Luyao flew backwards. Yu Jin clapped his hands together. An earthen spike shot out of the ground behind her. Then he rushed forward.

All this happened within the space of a few seconds, but it seemed as though he might claim victory in a single exchange. However, Luyao was not so easily defeated.

When it seemed as though she was going to fly helplessly into the spike. She twisted her body in the air. One scythe carved the pointed tip off the spike, while the other buried itself in the compacted earth.

She spun around, using the scythe as a grip and landed on the floor of the stage. Yu Jin's charge struck an instant later, but she deftly parried it, using the butt of one kama to push him out of her path.

A whirlwind melee ensued. Yu Jin unleashed a dizzying flurry of punches and kicks, each one aimed at a joint or vital point on her body. Luyao was equally precise and deadly—every swing of her kama had the potential to slice off a limb.

While there was a rule against killing fellow disciples, there was no restriction on wounding them. After all, let alone me, but plenty of the more talented healing disciples could reattach severed limbs using my Body Restoration Technique.

More than that, a battle between cultivators required that determination. Anything less would result in a near instant loss. The crowd watched with rapt attention, unwilling to miss a single moment of the action.

As the two were still Body Tempering or Early stage Qi Gatherers, their movements, while rapid, weren't too fast for mortals to follow. In fact, those watching via the large screens outside the arena probably had it better than those inside, given that the stones captured and transmitted the action perfectly.

This level of action couldn't last forever. Unlike the previous semi-final, where the two disciples measured their exertion of energy, Yu Jin and Shu Luyao were going wild, attempting to win as fast as possible.

This wasn't necessarily the wrong course of action, it was simply the fighting style they favoured. However, it meant that the first one to make a mistake would lose.

Yu Jin's expression was strained. He was unleashed a constant barrage of blows, along with the occasional spike of earth. Luyao seemed to see the future, the way she moved like a willow in the wind to avoid every blow.

Luyao avoided an earth spike, followed by a roundhouse kick. She landed on the spike with both feet, squatting low and then exploding towards Yu Jin. His eyes went wide and he stepped back. His foot landed on a clump of earth left behind from one of his spikes.

He stumbled, beginning to fall onto his backside. Luyao flew through the air like a diving hawk. The twin kama descended onto Yu Jin like the scythe of death.

As she was inches from victory, Yu Jin's body, which had been bent backwards at a near ninety-degree angle, suddenly froze. His muscles went taut and the leg which had flailed in the air rocketed upwards like a loosed spring.

The kick smashed into Luyao's gut. She coughed blood as she flew directly upwards from the force of the kick. Yu Jin didn't let the opportunity go.

He summoned a pillar of earth beneath his feet that carried him after her. As he reached her body, he delivered a flurry of strikes that left her bruised and limp. With a final yell, he unleashed a downwards scythe kick.

The crack of her spine breaking rang through the arena, followed by the boom and cloud of debris that flew into the air as she crashed into the stone stage. The crowd fell silent.

Then, when the girl didn't get up, they erupted into loud yelling and whooping cheers. Yu Jin raised his arms in a victory pose, basking in the applause as he was brought back to the ground level by his pillar of earth.

The healing disciples rushed onto stage to treat Luyao. Yu Jin gave a martial salute to his defeated opponent as they carried her off.

"Not bad. The final should be very interesting," I remarked.

"Indeed. I'm surprised the kid won, to be honest. I placed a bet on Luyao with one of the bookies outside the arena," Wang Ren admitted with a disappointed sigh.

"That doesn't seem ethical," I replied. "Although, you already received your karmic justice. I hope that was your personal coin and not the sect's."

Yu Chun giggled. "It's going to be mine now. I bet on Yu Jin. All the data pointed to this conclusion."

I sighed and shook my head. These two were as bad as each other. With the semi-finals finished, it was time to cement my decisions about the preliminary healing rounds. I needed to announce the disciples who had made it to the finals, before they began.