Cultivation System: Elder Edition

Chapter 309

Secrets of the Lake (VI)

Seeing Long Tao like that, and seeing Lao Shun having to part with such a precious pill to save him, made him realize that I've been relying on the existence of pills entirely as a means of healing wounds. But... that's not particularly smart, I don't think.

Even healing pills, ultimately, have some remnant toxins--consuming too many of them would likely have extremely adverse effects, and that is even if they could heal the wounds in the first place. In the end, they were external means--not something that can be utilized at will.

... But then there was also the question: how come I haven't encountered any other healing art in this world? If I could think it up, pretty much everyone else thought it up at one point, too. And yet, it looks like everyone relies almost entirely on Alchemists and pills for all healing things.

Is it the case similar to the face-changing art I made? That it somehow goes against the Heavenly Laws to try and create an art meant to heal? Or is it simply that the efficiency of pills is so far beyond even the best healing art that it's simply not worth even pursuing that path?

Then again, it's possible that there are healing arts out there, they are just deeply hidden or treasured. I've only seen an ounce of the world, after all, and would be pretty stupid if I started making sweeping statements about anything of note.

Regardless, I got up and left after a little while longer; the kids were all waiting just outside the room, some worried, some merely curious. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"Is Senior Brother Tao going to be alright?" Dai Xiu asked.

"Hm, he'll be just fine. He just needs to rest," I said. "As do all of you. Don't you have a big day tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"You rest too, Master."

"Rayce, stay back for a moment." The boy paused and spun back around, looking at me curiously. I whipped out the art and handed it to him.

"I happened to find it in an old coffer," I said. "Do you think it will be helpful?"

"..." he stayed silent for a moment as he perused the first few pages, his expression shifting rapidly with each new one. "Y-yes... it, it will be helpful. Master..."

"Hm?"

"You really... you really found this in a coffer?"

"I did."

"Are you sure?"

"You don't sound convinced."

"N-no, it's not that," he said, shifting in place and hesitating. "I, I noticed it with the other art you found, too. They are... relics."

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"Relics?"

"Hm. Shamans don't actually have that many arts internally, as we don't need them--we get taught Words and, at most, an art that allows us to guide mana into those Words. The few arts that do exist outside of that frame are called 'relics' because they all predate today's philosophy of Shamanism. They are complex, inflexible, and fundamentally impossible to master as they espouse machinations that sound entirely made up. While your arts are the same, they also offer a clear path to mastery, even if it is difficult."

"..." Based on his description, shouldn't just finding it in some coffer be a perfectly reasonable explanation?

"Every relic art--every one of them--was found in a tomb." Oh, right. He thinks I'm a tomb raider, which, as cool of a title as it is, is something I've yet to do, actually, despite having expected to do it ever since I took Long Tao in as a disciple. "And not just any tomb--but tombs from the first war between the Shamans and cultivators."

"Oh. Do you think I went around tombs of shamans and stole them? Or my ancestors did, at least?" he smiled bitterly for a moment before putting away the tome.

"I was probably mistaken," he said. "Relic arts are so rare that maybe I just really wanted to see one." Hm?

"You--"

"--indeed, so rare. Master's ancestors probably just found some random scribbles on the side of the street that just about anyone can learn. Hm."

"Rayce--"

"Master's arts are not relics. Hm. Never were, never will be."

"..." Is that kid brainwashing himself?!

... I mean, do what works for you. I'm pretty sure all kids by now have realized I can create arts, but it's sort of like the relationship between Long Tao and me: truth remains unsaid, but thoughts spiral.

Sighing, I went back to my room and started perusing ways of creating the healing art.

For all my shortcomings--and boy, were there many--I did actually have a decent understanding of body machinations and anatomy. That also included how the body heals.

The core of it, as far as I remember at least, are DAMPs--the moment cells in the body are damaged, they release these 'danger molecules', which is how the immune system is alerted. Sort of like a fire alarm.

Inflammation happens right after--starts with vasodilation, where blood vessels widen to allow for more blood flow, followed up with some vascular permeability where plasma leaks out and swelling begins. Neutro-somethings, I think, are the 'vanguard' that kill microbes and clean random debris while macro-somethings 'arrive' a bit later to clean up dead cells and start repairing the area.

That's mostly just containment at the very start; the so-called 'proliferation phase' starts after, which is the reconstruction of the damaged area as well as the place I think I can base my healing art off of. Fibroblast, angiogenesis, epithelial cells, transfer of collagen from soft to strong... It's a lengthy process that takes anywhere from days to weeks to months, or even years, depending on the injury.

From what I've observed in this world, the machinations are exactly the same--it's just that cultivators' bodies are far quicker at basic healing than ordinary ones. However, the processes are exactly the same as are the bottlenecks.

The first one is oxygen delivery--practically every part of healing is attached to it, and most of the time the biggest bottleneck, especially immediately after the injury, is the fact that the wounded area can't receive nowhere near as much oxygen as it needs. Finding ways to increase blood flow and microvasculature would be huge, especially for immediate recovery.

The second bottleneck is the rebuilding of tissues, which is where fibroblast and collagen synthesis rates come into play; they divide slowly, and collagen synthesis is extremely enzyme-limited. Shortening the time it would take to jump from soft to strong collagen type would be massive.

Lastly, there's inflammation. As impossibly important as it is, it's also a bottleneck in and of itself; it's a containment, but it's sort of like sending an armada of firetrucks for every fire. Sure, sometimes there's an entire block ablaze, but what about the time it's just one trash can? It, in and of itself, damages the local area which then requires more and longer healing.

Limiting the inflammation to the bare minimum--which art itself would identify--would also mean that the containment phase would last for a much shorter period of time, causing the proliferation phase to begin that much earlier.

All that's to say, if I can somehow find ways for the art to identify those three particulates and enhance them in some way... there's a good chance I can create something that will serve us for a long, long time.