Bai Jingshen was getting more and more confused about the world he found himself in. Just now, when their self-flying vehicle flew past one of those high buildings, he was sure he recognized one of the shown symbols. In fact, he couldn't be more familiar with it, as it represented one of the strongest sects in his world, the Vermillion Flame Sect. Could there be such a coincidence as a sect with the same symbol existing in this world? It seemed unlikely.
The best explanation that came to his mind would be, if his array opened a connection between their two worlds. But then how could the Vermillion Flame Sect establish themselves this fast. As more and more doubts started to appear in Bai Jingshen' mind, he noted their arrival at the building Kayleen showed him before.
Their vehicle slowly descended in front of St. Igula Hospital. Kayleen briefly held her bracelet against the display in the car's front to commence her payment, before stepping outside. Bai Jingshen followed her without her signaling. By now he was sure that Kayleen actually meant to help him, but he was still uncomfortable in this novel environment he found himself in.
As Kayleen and Bai Jingshen made their way towards St. Igula Hospital, with their car silently flying off, they quickly spotted a middle-aged man waving at them from the buildings entrance. Kayleen quickly led Bai Jingshen over towards this man.
"Morning Kayleen. I got your message. Is this young man the refugee you found?", asked the middle-aged man, critically eyeing Bai Jingshen through his glasses.
"Glad to see you, Uncle Richard. Yes, Fluffy found him during our morning run.", answered Kayleen. Bai Jingshen could visibly see Kayleen's tense nerves relaxing. It seemed he thought too much, this girl didn't look like someone with a strong background right now. Her acquaintance in his pure white, clinic robes though mustered Bai Jingshen with a much sharper gaze.
"Kayleen, are you sure what you're saying? I think you got flustered while trying to help this man. His robes don't look like something a refugee would wear. Although they aren't especially decorated, they still look rather high-class. As a refugee those would have been stolen a thousand times by now."
Richard Lemmiz threw a questioning look at Kayleen. He knew this young woman for two years now and understood how she got flustered in stressful situations sometimes. He always saw a little bit of himself in her, so over time he started to see himself as a kind of mentor for Kayleen.
When Richard was young, he was already interested in medicine. But his dream was not only to heal normal people, but also those brave cultivators exploring the new world. Between those two a big hurdle existed though, as normal colleges didn't offer the knowledge he sought. So he first had to start cultivating too, in order to join New Haven Academy and get into contact with the cultivation world. Although he was decently talented, his cultivation only ever reached the Foundation Establishment Realm, because his love for medicine took priority.
The ambitious man became a good doctor over time, and was even stationed in the New World for a long time. Only after he met the love of his life and settled down, did he promise her, not to take on unnecessarily dangerous assignments anymore. That's why he even began to work in a normal hospital again. At first he was surprised by the difference in problems he had to solve. While he had to heal broke meridians and missing limbs before, now he had to deal with someone catching a cold or at worst breaking a bone. His new work started to grow on him though, as he saw the genuine gratefulness on his patients faces.
As Richard got to know the volunteering Kayleen, he easily saw their similarities early on. Kayleen had a very strong interest in psychology. Just like him her dream is though, to help cultivators. Be it developing mental demons or just feeling lost on their path, there were a lot of traps on the path of cultivation. From Richard's experience, in the Great Cultivation World a master or elder would help their disciple with this kind of problem. They would refer to it as mental cultivation and it was considered as important as the cultivation of their bodies. Especially from the Nascent Soul Realm onwards.
Sadly, a master-disciple system wasn't very common in their Mhalor's Light Republic. It was pretty much considered a privilege for the rich, often only used to form connections. At the same time Mhalor's priests could also take over a guiding role, but you would be slowly brainwashed into following the light. Surprisingly this worked pretty well though, strengthening Mhalor's church's forces a lot. There where even signs of them wanting to take on a more important role in the republic again. After all, the church was never happy about losing so much influence prior to the new world's arrival.
For now it was to be seen which path Kayleen would take, but Richard was determined to help her as good as possible. This led to the situation at hand, where he had to think about how to deal with the sketchy person Kayleen brought to him. Although this young man seemed to be at the 9th stage of body refinement, but Richard's senses still seemed to caution him. Looking at the concerned Kayleen though, he sighed inwardly and decided to help the young man for now.
"Alright. Let's get into my office first."
Noticing Kayleen's slightly confused look, he tried to tell her with his eyes to just follow him. For now it was better the fewer people came into contact with the stranger.
Richard thus turned around and walked into St. Igula Hospital. If Richard's sense told him to be cautious about Bai Jingshen, then the letters senses told him, that he had no chance of winning against Richard. Therefore, he decided to be cooperative for now and followed the middle-aged healer into the building. The two man were already a few steps ahead while Kayleen asked herself if she should try to have less contact with this "refugee". Feeling really safe with her Uncle Richard around though, her curiosity quickly got the best of her and she hurried after the men. Fluffy already knew he wasn't allowed into the hospital, but luckily Kayleen was well liked by everyone, so Fluffy even got his own resting place in the staff room.
The trio quickly found their first obstacle though, as Bai Jingshen came to a standstill before the elevator Richard just stepped into. Obviously he was still on guard and didn't want to follow Richard into this weird little room. The doctor eyed Bai Jingshen weirdly and let out a loud sigh, before turning around and taking the stairs. He eyed Kayleen as he could have sworn to have heard her snicker silently, before leading the two young people a couple of floors upwards and through a hallway towards a door with his name on it.
Together they entered Richard's office. It didn't look like anything special. Bai Jingshen could see a desk, a table, a small glass stand with medals in it and a window, showing a small garden which seemed to lay at the hospital's backside. Sadly, it was almost covered in shade completely, so it wasn't really something to feast your eyes on. Drawing Bai Jingshen's attention however was a wall opposite the window. Or rather the bookshelf in front of this said wall. Bai Jingshen was sure, that he could learn the basics of this world's language if he had one day with these books.
"So. You really can't talk to us?", began Richard, interrupting Bai Jingshen's train of thoughts. The young man could only throw him a questioning look, so Richard tried something else.
"Richard.", he slowly pronounced, pointing at himself. Kayleen understood and told her own name in the same way.
Bai Jingshen at least got their meaning this time, and, while pointing at himself he said: "Bai Jingshen." Although he felt like a barbarian doing so, at least they made progress. Richard and Kayleen nodded and repeated this foreign sounding name a few times. Well, maybe only Kayleen did. Finding this to be a good start, she started pointing at things while calling out their names: "Desk, chair, window, medal, bookshelf, book."
With Bai Jingshen strong soul remembering these things came easy to him, so when Kayleen reached the bookshelf, he stopped her and told them: "Bookshelf."
The observant Richard got his meaning and made an inviting gesture, so Bai Jingshen grabbed the first book and directly sat cross-legged on the ground. Learning the local language now seemed to be the most important, in order to finally communicate with Richard and Kayleen.