Fighting to be Kind in a Cultivation World

Chapter 324: Patience

As if in response to her question of the existence of her fellow victims, I look over to the door, leading her to look over at it as well. Without me saying anything else, she springs to her feet. Still staring at it, she looks to be in a daze.

To get her out of it, I say some key words.

Would you like to go see them?

Her attention snaps back at me and then down to her hands. She doesnt give a sign of affirming my words. Instead, it appears she is fully realizing that she has a body again.

I suppose mentioning wanting to see them brought to mind how she's changed too. It might be helpful to give her a mirror.

Reaching into my space bracelet, I pull out a normal mirror that I keep for myself. I hold it out to her.

Once the mirror gets into her personal space, she seems to catch sight of it and me again. After looking at it for a moment, she nods and looks into it. Staring and touching her hair and face, dumbfounded.  

Since it's crucial for someone to regain a positive self-image after such a situation, I don't hurry her. This takes a while.

To head off any potential issues, I turn toward the one-way mirror for a moment and mouth a keyword to the people watching inside.

Patience.

From there, I continue waiting another 10 minutes before she snaps out of her daze. When giving it back to me, she tenderly grabs my hand for a moment. Her mouth opens a bit, as if she wants to say something, but she holds it back and utters something different.

I Im ready to see the others.

Walking over to the door, I open it for her and allow her to walk out first. Behind her, I motion the rest of the group behind the one-way mirror to wait for a bit.

She takes some shaky steps towards it, glancing back at me with every other one. A change seems to come through her, when she crosses the threshold of the door, with me not stopping her. A little more confident, but also a little more unsure.

That Long Heng absolutely played games with her mind. Making her think she had the chance to be free at some point, and then dashed all her hopes away again.

I cant wait until Sister Nuan deals with him.

You dont have to worry I know what you went through. This time its real.

She turns back and gives me another hard look, stopping in the middle of the hallway. She continues on a short while later.

Since the ward is close by, it only takes a bit to lead her there.

And when she opens the door, I can sense her go through a variety of emotions. Her hand clenches tighter.

Seeing everyone still alive and back in their normal bodies after knowing their previous state is emotional, even for me.

This is what finally breaks the strength in her legs. She collapses to the ground and starts crying.

I can tell that I should give her some space for a bit. Letting her cry alone for a bit.

After a while, I then reach over to give her a side-arm hug, which she accepts without issues.

When she gets back up, wiping the tears from her eyes, I finally get to see a hint of the woman she used to be: a proud warrior, taking command of the situation.

Walking from bed to bed, she checks the status of each person. Some people she looks affectionately at, while some others I can see the vestiges of hatred.

For those she had hate for, it seems to dim a bit after spending some time at their side. I notice that many of the ones she was angry at had traits that would predispose them to psychopathy, extreme narcissism, or other negative qualities. Which likely meant they betrayed the group or her in some way.

One woman she even gave a hard slap that I had to heal after. But it seems after she moved past each one, she was forgiving them. The staff I had in the room to watch all the patients stay back at my sign.

Dang I wish I could let this continue, as this is part of the healing process, but unfortunately, Im on a timeline for getting heading out to see Big Sis Crane.

The Patriarch told me she was expecting me, with a loose timeline. But a loose timeline is still one, nonetheless.

And I can tell that for me, would be around two weeks from this point.

To heal these 300 or so people, Ill need over a week of work. Not including the time that I need to spend with everyone else.

I softly speak up, to not disturb her mind too much.

Jin Chin? Ill need to heal them soon, as well. Well have time for you all to meet again in a safe environment afterward. Will that be okay?

She looks up in shock before realizing what I mean. She gives a nod as she steps back.

From here, I lead her into an adjacent, equally large ward, that I have open for healed patients. As before, I leave one of the staff with them.

Before I start on the next patient, I go back to the healing team, still in the one-way window room and give a debrief, before moving onto the next patient.

Pulling the next patient into the mirror room, I continue through this mental healing process, repeatedly.

Some patients require more adjustment, while others much less. To my pleasant surprise, it appears that my mental apparition, which arises when I heal their mental aspects, is carrying more of the weight in helping them navigate the journey.

In some ways, its taking the place of a dissociative personality that would be or was formed from their trauma. Helping them to deal with the replay of their traumas and other situations.

The time displacement between their mental space and real life is quite large, as well. So, even I have trouble telling how much time they spent going through those replays, talking about it with the apparition.

Heck, I wouldnt be surprised if they beat it up at some point.

Which gives rise to a panicked new thought in me. After a few checks, Im relieved that it wont be a permanent mental aspect in their mind, but it was just a transition piece during the healing process.

All of this would definitely explain why they aren't attacking or running away from me while I help them. In some ways, just having someone with them through the entire process helps to get through it. To talk through the situation while building some trust.

I suspect they know that its not really me, based on how it works. But the positive feelings it generates dont seem to disappear afterwards.  

I just need to make sure not to betray their feelings. Especially after what they went through.

Overall, Im surprised that, on average, it only takes around 30 minutes from the time I heal a person to the time that I bring them into the healed victims ward.

While Im off healing, it seems like there are some arguments, but the staff can handle it, mostly.

For those with psychopathy, extreme narcissism, or other negative traits caused by their bodies, I helped to adjust it so they can experience life in a better way, while not causing harm to others. Something, from the arguments I can overhear, was clearly happening before the healing.

All while I do this, I can see the sun dip outside and rise again. And repeats.

Ai, Lin, and the others head to bed on the first night and come back every day for a period of time. Each time, they convince me to take a break from healing to talk with them and spend a little time away from the situation.

Im realizing a bit what the doctors of my world were going through. It is so rough knowing that you can help someone, seeing them in front of you, but stepping away instead to rest.

But my friends are right. Even if my body can handle staying up night after night Im still dealing with the patients mental struggles, which affects me as well, because I care.

So, in the time off, I spend time: creating a jade slip of the Omnibus Cultivation System and entrusting it to them, with any needed information; meditating and cultivating, to continue my growth in Rank 3 of Qi Condensation; conveying my thoughts to Sister Nuan on who we should be inviting to the servant and elder contracts; and meeting with/advising the others in my group, as per my previous promises.

In this way, 6 days pass and I find myself on the 7^th, almost done.

By this time, the construction teams have finished their updates and all who are left at my towers are the contract holders and some people and elders added to the elder contract.

Ai, Lin, and Shi are also preparing something for when Ive completed this.

I have a guess what it might be.

But all those thoughts fall to the side, as Ive finally reached the last person to heal. It feels anticlimactic, as they are like many others who were victims of Long Heng another beautiful woman that he broke.

Once shes healed and brought into the healed ward, I finish things out with batches of group therapy. To provide them a way to discuss their pain with each other and reform healthy connections with each other.

With my limited time, I was worried that I may not be able to provide the continuing care some of them might need, but I was thrilled to see two people in my healer group excel in the mental health area.

Ming and Mei Lin.

Mei Lin, of course, had a leg up with her ability to read emotions and other things with her ability.

Ming, however, seems to have an endless well of empathy and kindness in him. Despite not having a formal ability with it, he just seems to connect with people on a deep level, letting them know he cares and will listen to them. His immense size seems to provide a form of mental discrepancy with the people he talks with, putting them at ease.

Adding to that, both of them have also read through and understood all the coursework I had prepared.

Simply stating it may seem easy, but it equates to the amount of reading and experience a medical student goes through from undergrad to becoming a doctor. Included in it were the mental health trainings.

All in a week.

Cultivators are absurd.

And of course, while I was doing all of this, everyone on the contracts were practicing either the OCS cultivation method or their own methods. Generally, reaching Rank 1 of Qi Condensation across the board.

Ming went for the first cultivation rank and stop to get back to studying.

Having tested Ming and made sure that he could work with them in group therapy and individual sessions. I also add in other readings and made a jade slip for the healing skill set, so that he and others could better understand the concepts.

Of course, the empty jade slips cost quite a bit, but considering I have a whole healing team, I viewed the skill set as worth it to put on a jade slip.

The only requirement to being able to read and use the medical skills/knowledge jade slip is to read and understand all the items on the required reading list.

They cant get used to the easy way of me giving them everything. Before they get my side, they need to learn to research for themselves first.

And thus, Ive finally come to this point. At the beginning of the second week.

All 300 or so victims stand before me. Healed and (mostly) mentally sound. All women, because of Long Hengs taste.

Everyone here looks at each other, before three people step forward out of the group.

The first is Jin Chin, being the first that I healed in the group.

The other two were more in the middle of the healing batches.

But what I find curious is the looks of distaste between Jin Chin and one of the women.

what are they planning?