Chapter 59: LaChair
Jared LaChair’s clinic was unlike what Yuan had expected from a Flesh Mansion Sect cultivator.
Instead of a chapel of flesh built from the backs and spines of harvested slaves, it was a mere office located in one of Battletown’s poorest districts far away from the slave market. Glowing bars set into the ceiling nearly blinded Yuan with harsh light when he walked inside while rows upon rows of shelves were filled with bottled body parts and harvested organs. The room was cleanly pristine and free of bloodstains, while strange devices boasting arms equipped with saw blades, needles, and other surgical implements sat in a corner. That alone surprised Yuan, as few self-respecting Flesh Mansion Sect cultivators would rely on machinery.
A look at Jared LaChair told him that the man differed quite a bit from the likes of Gayak and Elder Polio. Yuan might have mistaken him for a Metallist at first glance due to his implants. The mutant stood on four legs of flesh near a table and extracted organs from a dead, doglike spirit-beast with six metal arms equipped with various surgical tools. The cultivator’s torso was a smooth mass of red flesh covered in dozens of eyes, with the remains of a bandaged head atop the shoulders. It turned in Yuan’s direction when he heard him enter his clinic, his nose pointing at the Khan’s bracer on his arm.
“I’m not affiliated with the Flesh Mansion Sect’s racers,” Jared said almost immediately with a gargled voice coming from his chest. Others must have visited him before Yuan in search of intel. “I don’t have any information to give you.”
“I’m not here for that,” Yuan replied. “Mordiggian sent me."
“Mordiggian?” The mutant’s head tilted slightly to the side in surprise, though he continued to operate on his subject. “Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. You want your metallic implants gone without losing your core, right? It’s usually why he recommends me.”
“I’m fine.” Yuan didn’t bother correcting him. Gunsouls seemed rare among these parts and the more people mistook him for a Metallist, the better his chances to take his enemies by surprise. “Mordiggian told me you might be able to cure a Human Pillar.”
Jared LaChair’s metallic hands froze inside their ‘patient’s’ guts. He pondered Yuan’s words before pointing at a metal bench near the organ shelves.
“Sit there,” he said. “Gimme a second to finish, then we’ll talk.”