I punched and kicked at the weird, six eyed beastman. In turn he unleashed dozens of furious blows towards me. With every strike I blocked or deflected, my skin brushed against those odd black hairs that covered every inch of his body.

That in turn made my body react, erupting in itchy hives. However, my refined stomach was working overtime to refine away everything he tried to inflict on me.

I wanted to experiment with the strands of purple qi in my stomach, but they seemed to have little effect. The creature wasn't actually a threat to me, so I could end the battle any time I wished.

Seeing his mad laughter and sinister delight in my apparent suffering, I sighed internally. Clearly rehabilitating such a figure would be impossible.

I struck out, smashing one of his arms to the side. He smirked, seeing that I brushed against many of his hairs. However, my next strike raced towards his face and made the blood drain from his face instantly.

He cursed and threw out three more talismans, activating them with a pulse of his qi. Three web-like barriers of qi appeared between his face and my fist.

I smashed into the first one and it shattered without resistance. The second bent a little before slowly cracking, while the third actually managed to stop my punch entirely.

I began to draw my fist back, but found that it was glued to the barrier. I narrowed my eyes and planted my feet, preparing to use more force, when I noticed a flicker of energy in the corner of my eye.

That lazy poison qi had suddenly burst into action! My opponent spat black blood and staggered backwards. The web-like barrier burst too, freeing my fist.

I stared as the strand of purple qi viciously exploded into a dozen droplets that all flowed towards his dantian and burrowed into it like angry worms. One of those droplets had pierced all the way through, causing the current situation as it went wild, burning through the qi in his dantian.

The dantian was a severe weak point for any cultivator and having it threatened or damaged by an opponent would naturally hurt or even cripple them. However, why had that poison qi done nothing and then suddenly burst into action?

I had struck out, then he used those three talismans to create those weird barriers. Oh! The moment he had used his qi rather than just striking with his body was the moment the poison struck.

I shivered. What a sinister weapon my stomach had created. I wasn't sure how that had happened, given that the original poison used to create it seemed to be some sort of confusion or enchantment poison, but I wouldn't complain.

I rushed forward, preparing to deliver the final blow and end this fight at last. I needed to hurry and find Wang Ren before something disastrous happened.

Even though his strength in combat was likely greater than mine, he didn't have the same advantage I did when it came to resisting poisons. That meant he would be powerless against these kinds of enemies who worked in the shadows.

Right before my fist smashed against the weird creature's face, he suddenly coughed, spraying me with black blood. I grimaced, but the next moment my lungs and stomach both went into overdrive, greedily devouring his blood.

More specifically, it was targeting some kind of sinister qi that was within his blood. I frowned. A closer inspection revealed that it was a poison that gave me the same feeling as the soul controlling worms of the Gao Clan, rather than the purple qi poison I'd used.

The next moment I saw that two of the glowing red eyes on his face suddenly burst, leaving two gaping wounds in his cheek.

"Agh!" he cried out.

I ignored his pleas. I had decided to end the battle, so I would. I raised my fist once more and struck down but before I could kill him he suddenly cried out once more.

"Wait! Lord Cultivator please spare my life! It wasn't my fault," he sobbed, tears falling from his two human eyes. "That damn Zhu bitch and her cur-"

At that moment his body started to convulse and twitch as black veins appeared on his skin. I noticed a burst of black qi that ripped through his body, even tearing apart my purple qi poison in its wake as it rushed right for his head.

I didn't know what was going on, but to me it seemed as though this man needed help. If what he'd shouted was true, then he hadn't attacked me of his own accord.

Maybe… Maybe what I was about to do was foolish, but I was a kind-hearted soul. I couldn't let this happen in front of me and do nothing.

Instead of ending his life, my arm snapped out and grabbed his neck. A storm of medicinal qi gathered in my dantian and then exploded outwards, surging into his body as I activated my healing technique.

The effects were immediate. The medicinal qi began to purge that black energy and close up the wounds I'd dealt him during our battle.

However, halfway through purging the energy I grunted and was forced to use my full focus. The medicinal qi had halted around his stomach and was locked in a struggle against that insidious black qi.

I had never seen this before. Until now my healing technique was able to easily heal anything I encountered, no matter the potency. Even as a Peak Body Tempering practitioner I had been able to heal the qi gathering poison in Teng Sheng's body, albeit with some difficulty.

If all it needed was a little extra effort, that was fine. I clenched my jaw and pushed even more qi into his body, relaxing a little as the technique instantly redoubled in strength and continued purging the black qi.

However, when it reached his dantian, the original source of that insidious black qi it suddenly stopped. The black qi refused to go back any further. With every step I pushed it back it seemed as though it was becoming even more powerful!

In fact, the harder I pushed to heal his body, the more that black qi struggled. It seemed as if it was alive!

"AAAAH!" he suddenly screamed, coughing blood.

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His body began to convulse and at the same moment the black qi exploded outwards, sending lances through my medicinal qi and burning it away. I coughed, feeling the backlash of my technique being interrupted.

What the hell was this? I'd never encountered such a stubborn plague. He had said something about a curse? Is that what this strange black energy was? Curse energy?

I could only watch helplessly as the curse energy began to devour my medicinal qi and reclaim control over the man's body. I had no idea how to deal with this. Infections and wounds were one thing, but curses hadn't even existed in my old world.

I had no knowledge base to figure this out. However, I wouldn't let one of my patients die in front of my eyes without trying.

So if I had no methods to use, I could only rely on brute force. That was a rather ironic situation given that I was trying to heal him, but it was the only option left to me.

Gathering almost half of the qi in my dantian, I controlled it and directed it to flow into his body. Usually, when I used this healing technique I just allowed my qi to flow wildly and heal wherever it wished.

However, when I fought with qi I carefully controlled it to reinforce my hands and feet in order to deliver powerful blows. In fact, I knew that martial techniques often required very specific ways of moving one's qi to activate them.

The same should apply here. My healing technique had been sloppily derived from me seeing the qi healing technique a single time, so there was surely room for improvement.

Sweat beaded on my face and rolled down my cheeks as I worked, the exertion greater than any other healing procedure I'd done before. This time, as my qi flooded into the man's body, I took hold of the entire mass and rather than simply crushing against his dantian, I formed my qi into nine sharp scalpels.

I planned to use the same method I had when opening my meridians. I didn't know much about curse energy but I was sure of one thing. Cutting it out would remove its influence!

Once I formed my scalpels, it was time for the battle to begin anew. The curse energy had rushed forward to reclaim the parts of his body that were left undefended when my spread out medicinal qi suddenly retreated.

However, as those scalpels slashed forth, the curse energy was sliced apart like tofu. Instead of being able to retreat, compress, and become stronger, every sliver of curse energy that was sliced off was separated and quickly devoured by my medicinal qi.

This process continued for another few minutes as I carefully sliced and diced my way through the insidious black qi. My face glistened with sweat and my clothes were soaked due to the exertion, but I had a wide grin on my face. This was what I loved the most in life!

Facing a new problem and finding a way to solve it. Nothing beat the feeling of encountering a rare or strange infection and devising a method to eradicate it.

Within those few minutes I managed to push the curse energy back to his dantian, reducing the amount by more than half. Here I began to slow down. I had to be careful not to damage the man's cultivation, but without cutting into his dantian there was no other way to free him from the curse.

Hmph! This kind of challenge only aroused my passion further.

How many times had I been faced with tumours in deadly locations and had to carefully excise them? Dozens!

How many of those surgeries had I failed in the past? Just one!

And even that single failure was due to the fact the patient's body was exceedingly frail and wracked with other infections on top of that tumour. When it came to surgery, I was an expert who could work with makeshift tools found in a warzone.

Cutting into a dantian to remove a clump of curse energy was nothing. Taking a deep breath I formed those nine scalpels into a single scalpel. This scalpel wasn't any larger than those nine had been, but the energy contained within was far more compressed and the edge of that scalpel was immeasurably sharp.

With yet another breath, I was ready to begin. That cursed energy didn't dare leak out of his dantian even after I had gathered all my qi into a single scalpel.

I plunged it forward. I had to make a rapid incision and eradicate all the energy in a single moment. The blade of the scalpel struck the edge of his dantian. He was a lower realm of cultivation than me and his foundations weren't that stable. My scalpel pierced through with ease.

That was the simplest part of the surgery, however. What came next was much more difficult and I strained my focus to ensure I didn't make a mistake.

I refused to let my patient die.

Without widening the incision I'd made in his dantian, I had to carefully control my qi in order to expunge the cursed energy. It wasn't too difficult since my medicinal qi seemed to eradicate it whenever they touched, but I was worried it might suddenly lash out.

If the cursed energy tried to break free from his dantian, the problem would go from bad to worse in an instant. However, my worries were unfounded.

Once the energy was cornered, it was a simple matter to eradicate it once and for all. Even though it was simple, that didn't make it easy.

My focus had been strained to the limit. I almost slipped as my qi was dissipating and made another wound in his dantian. Sweat coated my body and my breaths were ragged. Unfortunately I still had one step left until the treatment was done.

I needed to seal the cut in his dantian. I remembered the process of forming my own. Even though I'd taken an alternative route, the basic structure of a dantian should be the same whether one had a special physique or not.

Could I use my own qi to seal the gap? I tried to lay a thin film of it over the wound. It was exceptionally difficult, but I eventually managed it.

The throbbing headache threatened to rip my attention out, but I couldn't allow it to. However, the next moment my qi suddenly sprung back into a strand like an elastic band.

I frowned. It seemed as though I wouldn't be able to use my own qi to seal it. Then how could I?

Leaving the guy with a slit in his dantian wouldn't be healthy. It might still work but his cultivation would be hobbled for life. His qi would be leaking out constantly.

A sudden stroke of genius flashed through my mind. Of course! How could I have been so blind. Why would I use my qi to fix someone else's dantian? There was no way it would be compatible.

I needed to use the patient's qi to fix it. But that brought a new problem to the surface. I couldn't manipulate another cultivator's qi, so how would I use it to seal the wound?

With the cursed energy eradicated I wasn't pressed for time, but the pain in my head grew worse every moment, threatening to knock me out if I dallied too long. There was only one method I could think of.

It was crude and liable to fail, but it was the only chance this fellow had. My qi was desperate to return to my body, the technique having long since completed.

Actually that in itself was another oddity. There was still a wound in the man's body. Why was the technique 'finished'? That question could wait.

I controlled my qi and wrapped it around a few drops of the man's qi that remained at the bottom of his dantian. It wasn't viscous at all, a slippery liquid that threatened to spill from my control at any moment.

Somehow I managed to drag it to the wound and pull it through. I pressed down with my qi, flattening those droplets until they filled the gap completely.

I waited a moment, but realised another problem. They were still liquid. A dantian wall was solid and unyielding. The moment I released my control they would splash back through the slit.

At this point my head felt as if it were being crushed in an iron vice by a jacked blacksmith doing his best to burst it like a melon. I couldn't hold on much longer.

Change the state of qi? Cool it down? No, that was stupid. It wasn't regular matter, it was weird magical energy.

I had less than a breath's time to come up with an answer. I might kill myself if I kept forcing it.

My mind worked at lightspeed as I ran through all the knowledge I had about qi and cultivation. Surely reading all those boring books had to count for something!?

I felt something hot and wet trickling across my lips. The tang of iron. Shit. It was now or never. My eyes shot wide open as I had a eureka moment. Knowing there was no time left, I figured it was worth a shot and forced out the last scrap of focus I had.

Hopefully it worked.

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