DC 76

Author's Note: I'm going to be going back and editing the story a fair amount. Soon you may see new chapters with lower numbers than 76, as I go back and fill out the prequel arc with all the information I'd planned to address early on. I realized I rushed the journey to the sect, without ever really addressing the cross-country journey itself. Not only that, Feng Jiao's entire childhood was missing, along with all the friends that he may or may not have made, the reason for his competitive streak with his cousin, the mysterious positioning of his mother, and so much more. I'm not going to lie, It's part of the reason my writing dropped off the way it did. I was not happy with the product I'd developed, so I plan on fixing that.

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The terrified squeal that the beast released, more than anything else, snapped Feng Jiao out of his trance-like state. It’s slow trot toward the fading torches rapidly transitioned into a panicked retreat, slowed by thin green vines wrapping around its feet. Even the hazy fog that seemed to coat the creature’s body was slowly dissipating from the presence of the now-invigorated plants.

Feng Jiao stared at the beast’s leathery flesh and tried to connect with the plants the same way he always did, through his spiritual sense, but found them different. Only moments ago, they were weeds with a very weak vitality that he’d dropped to the ground as seeds and grown that night. Now, however, they felt like something more. They gave him the same feeling some hundred-year-old trees would, as if they’d weathered the time and developed some semblance of a will.

At the same time, he didn’t feel that level of rejection that he did with trees. He felt familiar with the plants, whose energy felt much like his purified wood essence he’d been releasing to grow them, with something stronger mixed in it.  They welcomed him home and he could feel that he still had access even without control. Although he wasn’t commanding the weeds to grow as they were, he could easily drain them of their essence and kill them once more, making him feel slightly more comfortable.

Whimpers and cries of the beast were the noises echoing around the once-barren field, accompanied by the noise of tearing grass and illuminated by an ominous moonlight. A noxious scent began to tickle away at the nostrils of the children present as pus-filled warts began to populate the canvas of the rodent’s skin, popping almost as soon as they appeared. It wasn’t long before the cries changed to screams, then cries, then nearly inaudible whimpers.

“Xin Lee, now is the time!” Although he didn’t really understand what was going on, Feng Jiao knew that they weren't going to get a better opportunity than the one currently presented to them. Xin Lee jumped to his feet after producing some sort of wrinkled talisman from his ring. After smacking it against the forehead of the new immobilized beast, he slumped forward and the beast stopped struggling.

With the exception of Feng Jiao, the other children stood up and surrounded the beast with their weapons. Xin Lee had warned them all that there was a chance his talisman would fail and they’d need to be ready to at least kill the beast. Although he did not go into specifics, they knew that he would be unable to move during the activation of the talisman as well as for a period of time afterwards, successful or otherwise.

As Xin Lee’s will waged war with the overpowered stalker of the night, Feng Jiao continued to interface with the surrounding weeds, trying to detect the reason for their change. Eventually, he located a font of vitality located almost directly underfoot, in the clearing of the now fizzled repellent torches. Previously invisible to his spiritual sense, he could now feel what felt like a volcano of life located several feet under the surface, and slowly rising toward them. The only reason he didn’t raise an alarm was that the plant was somehow transmitting a sense of comfort and family to him, sensations he didn’t think plants could understand.

Sure, a tree could feel solidarity and solace within its forest, its roots intertwined with its neighbors. But family? That was a very sapient sensation that he hadn’t perceived from plant-life thus far. Trees grew, they dropped their seeds, and continued. There was no helping the seed once it departed from the branches, no ability to lend them water or allow sunlight through the boughs. Heck, a tree couldn’t even know where its seeds would land or if they’d just be consumed by a squirrel, and they couldn’t care about it either.

For this reason, although Feng Jiao was not alarmed by the plant approaching him, and he had little doubt that it was a plant, he felt very uneasy. Even as he awaited its low arrival, he pondered upon the sensation that he had earlier, the ancient but familiar weeds. Even as both Xin Lee and the monster they’d been battling began profusely sweating and grunting, Feng Jiao stared down at the dirt with his brow furrowed, trying to figure out why the plants felt familiar.

Obviously his essence had been used to expedite their growth, and he’d handled the weeds and grasses in the past as he collected the seeds, but that wasn’t it. They felt intimately familiar, and different from any plant he’d ever felt in the past. Then, just as a bit of green peaked out of the dirt in front of him, he figured it out. He only had to think about when the changes had happened, when he’d finally comprehended the hidden technique and circulated it completely.

In front of him, a small sprout, well, sprouted forth from the dirt, followed by a thick patch of sprouts popping out like weasels. Before he could investigate it, however, his attention was finally snatched away by Xin Lee, who began shouting and shaking. Feng Jiao, knowing the plants weren’t going anywhere anytime soon, rushed over to his fallen friend to see if he could lend aid. Just as he reached down for Xin Lee’s shoulder, however, Lee’s eyes flew open and he stilled.

“Are you okay?”

“Xin Lee!”

“Uk!”

“Watch out for the beast, its eyes opened up!”

“Well? Was it a success?”

A plethora of voices rang across the clearing at the same, everyone’s nerves on edge had them jumping at everything. Although it was the middle of the night, every single one of them was more alert than they could remember having ever been before.

Bai Fu, holding Feng Jiao’s spear that he set down while he was meditating, poked the creature on its nose. Although the creature growled and glared, it made no attempt to bite at the weapon or Bai Fu. Xin Lee, meanwhile, was blinking profusely and stretching his limbs while laying down, as if he’d just woken up from a night of sleep. It was several seconds before he opened his mouth.

“Well, I wouldn’t call it a failure, but I didn’t exactly succeed either.” Xin Lee sat up and began rubbing at his eyes while everyone else waited for him to continue. Realizing that the creature was no longer being aggressive, Feng Jiao bid the vines to release the rat-like creature but to stay nearby on standby.

“My family’s technique was designed for use on creatures at a similar level of cultivation as the user, but this beast was an entire tier stronger than me. In most situations, it would have overpowered and overwritten my will, becoming the dominant force in our relationship. Thankfully, it was low on energy and constrained by one of its biggest weaknesses. I was able to negotiate from a position of strength, as it knew it would die if it overpowered me. Instead of being my slave, however, it managed to force me into a contract of equals. It cannot go against my safety and best interests, nor I, its. That being said, I’ve got a massive headache.”

The dog sized beast let out a grunt of agreeance, likely not pleased by its circumstances either. Rather than calling them both winners of their individual battles, it was likely more apt to call them both losers. It was a little funny, if Feng Jiao was being honest. Often, he’d heard the phrase that pets become like their owners and vise versa, most often in reference to dogs. Looking at Xin Lee and his weird dog-sized beast, they both had the same disgruntled and grumpy look as they trotted off to what was left of the cabin to sleep it off together. They even kind of walked the same, much to Feng Jiao’s ausement.

The group split up, with most of the boys following Xin Lee to the cabin, along with the few new guys left standing, and helping to repair it before anyone went to sleep. Bai Fu left behind some healing salves she’d gotten from their roommate, Tan Sai, before heading off toward the teleport platform to go sleep it off. Somehow, the idea of sleeping in an ill-repaired shack with a bunch of strange boys didn’t appeal to her, go figure.

Feng Jiao, however, went back over toward that patch of grasses that’d appeared under their feet in the center of the field. Looking around, he realized that there was going to be a whole lot of weeding before they could properly start farming the patch of land that now belonged to them. Without the suppressing presence of the beast now bonded to Xin Lee, the field was already once again showing why it was once considered valuable land, with the weeds and grass seeds Feng Jiao had scattered growing at a rate visible to the naked eye even without his manipulation.

As if reacting to his thoughts, Feng Jiao watched all the weeds wither and die, both in front of his eyes and through his spiritual sense he felt through his feet. Panicking temporarily about the land seemingly dying before his eyes, Feng Jiao almost shouted out to Xin Lee to see if his monster was doing something. Then, he realized he could feel all the essence contained within those plants rushing toward him, accumulating beneath his feet. Looking down, he could see several nearly transparently dew-like drops of liquid, collected in the center of six-petaled white flowers.

The scent wafted up to his nose, smelling almost exactly like the sweat Feng Jiao had been producing while practicing the secret technique he discovered embedded in that overly large cultivation technique. Slowly, the implication of what he was looking at set in. He was staring down at a very old and, dare he say it, Qi-rich garlic plant.