"Ellie, drop down there," Yang Qing said as he pointed towards a spot at the bottom of some mountain.
Ellie gently glided downward as she restrained her aura. She wasn't the only one exhibiting caution, as Yang Qing restricted his palace sense within a half a kilometer radius of them.
He wanted to avoid alerting other spirit beasts or triggering something if he could.
"Deer mountain kingdom is a really interesting place," Yang Qing muttered as his gaze landed on a few of the mountains spread about.
Some were covered in mist, while others seemed almost inhabited. The ones his eyes fell on, were the ones that gave him a threatening and unnerving feeling.
"If you detect anything off, immediately rush to my side, though at this distance, I should be able to detect anything off, but one can't be too careful in this place," Yang Qing said as he leaped off Ellie's back.
In front of him was a rundown gate that seemed to be hanging on by a thread. There was an illegible faded sign with the name Clear sword river sect on it.
Yang Qing sighed when he saw this as he made his way in since there wasn't even someone at the gate. He had lost count of the number of times he had sighed on the way over.
The inside was just as bad as the gate. There were overgrown weeds all over, the buildings were few and far in between and at the state they were, calling them buildings was polite. As some of them had holes in their roofs or lacked doors, there were even some which seemed like their floors had been forcibly torn off.
"I can't believe it fell this far down," Yang Qing muttered as he took in the dilapidated scene. The area would have been confused for a ghost town if it wasn't for the absence of dense yin qi and the few human presences Yang Qing detected.
"Only about 12 people are left," thought Yang Qing as he made his way to the building that seemed better off compared to the rest. Though from the numerous patchwork it had, its future wasn't all that promising and would soon join the rest.
Yang Qing had chosen this building since it was the location where the person with the highest cultivation was. That person had a fourth stage foundation establishment realm. But from the weak undulating fluctuations Yang Qing detected, he knew that person didn't have long to live.
Yang Qing sighed as he gently pushed open the cracked door. He had to use a bit of his qi to hold it in place so it didn't creek.
Inside the building at the center of the room, was an elderly man who was nothing but skin and bones donned in an old faded grey robe which Yang Qing deduced must have been black at some point.
He was seated in a lotus position on a cultivation mat that had stopped being a mat at some point and was just loose threads tied together.
The room seemed to double as a cultivation chamber and an office, as there were scrolls and parchments of paper spread about in one of the few pieces of standing furniture in the room, with a dusty painting of a person fishing in the river, hanging at the wall in his back.
The room had amber-colored lighting that mostly came from the sunshine penetrating through the gaps and the cracks around the building.
Yang Qing took everything in as he sat down with a heavy heart. The elderly man before him didn't even seem to have noticed his presence as his eyes were still closed.
Because of his atrophied state, one would even easily mistake him for a corpse if it wasn't for the faint qi fluctuations he was emitting.
A frown appeared on his weathered wrinkled face which only grew deeper and deeper by the second. Seconds later his face constricted and started coughing out blood.
Yang Qing flashed to his back and poured some of his qi into him.
The elderly man didn't even have time to react as a gentle, cool soothing qi pervaded throughout all his body.
"Senior are you trying to kill yourself?"
Yang Qing had a serious expression as he noticed the elderly man's internal state was a complete mess. Some of his meridians were jumbled up together, some had ruptured, his foundation pillars seemed to be on the verge of collapsing, and his qi flow was in an erratic state which damaged his internal organs.
It was only thanks to the vitality of a foundation establishment cultivator that he was even awake or alive for that matter, with all those injuries wreaking havoc in his body. But even his vitality seemed lacking just like his body. It was dwindling like a dried river.
This was the least of the problems that afflicted the elderly man. When Yang Qing was pouring his qi into him, he detected the elderly man seemed to have overdrafted his soul's essence since it was about the size of a weak candlelight flame that could be snuffed out at any moment.
"It seemed it didn't work this time either. The clear river sword sect will be buried with me. Forgive me master, grandmaster, ancestors, I couldn't save it in the end," the elderly man weakly spoke then immediately passed out.
"You won't be dying that easy, senior," Yang Qing softly muttered as he fished out three acupuncture needles with a greenish hue.
He concurrently stabbed them at the elderly man's glabella, heart, and navel.
Yang Qing rapidly formed seals in his hands as a green river formed in his hands which he then dropped on the acupuncture needle in the elderly man's glabella.
The acupuncture needle immediately started vibrating the moment the green river touched it. The vibration stopped after a few seconds.
A meandering green river started forming from the glabella as the river made its way downwards to the acupuncture needle at the heart. After it reached the heart, the same vibration occurred after which it proceeded downwards to the navel.
The moment the green river connected to the three places a dim pulsing green light was produced from the river and the three acupuncture needles.
"Nature's convalescence," Yang Qing softly muttered as his eyes and hair turned greener to the point that vines formed in his hair.
A green gentle glow was produced from his body which filled the room with so much vitality that vines and grass started growing from where he was seated as it rapidly spread throughout the whole room with the range increasing by the second.
By the time half a minute passed even the plants that were originally within the vicinity of the building experienced a drastic growth spurt. There were a few young trees that were about four meters tall that grew to about twenty-five meters with thick leafy branches sprouting about.
After a few minutes, the area had turned into a mini forest thoroughly alarming the remaining sect members who were shocked at a small forest suddenly appearing within their sect grounds.
On the elderly man's body, the single green river line had branched off into millions of veins that covered his entire body. With every pulse of the green light, the elderly man's state seemed to be improving.
His skin had turned rosy within a few minutes erasing the deathly pale look he had a few minutes ago. Even though his skin was still hugging his bones, his outward appearance seemed vastly better compared to a few minutes ago. Even a few strands of his hair had turned from snow white to grey.
"I'm still not joining the Medical valley but their techniques are amazing."
Yang Qing smiled as he admired the internal and external changes happening within the elderly man's body.
He waved his hand and the three acupuncture needles dislodged themselves from the elderly man's body into his hands as he stored them away.
The needles weren't the only thing that disappeared, as along with the needles, the various undergrowth within the room and building all disappeared. But the overgrown trees still remained where they were.
Yang Qing purposely left them like that because he liked the ambiance they added to the place and they had a bit of his qi in them which with time may transform them into spiritual trees.
"Huh, I'm not dead?" the elderly man muttered in confusion as he slowly opened his eyes.
