DC 62

As the sun set on his first day in his new home, Feng Jiao found himself sitting on the peak of Tan Sai’s mountain. From base to peak, the mountain was only three or so kilometers tall but the essence was the thickest he’d ever felt. Cultivating here would surely return more results for less effort, Feng Jiao could see why the land was contested so hotly.

That being said, he wasn’t currently cultivating while he meditated. Instead, Feng Jiao reflected upon the day’s events, feeling like it was one of the longest days of his life. They’d arrived at the God Tree Grove and he’d found out he wasn’t being directly admitted into the Inner Sect like he’d been told but somehow still managed to slip through the cracks and end up in the Outer Sect instead of living with the other Nominal Disciples.

He’d been sponsored to receive a higher-grade cultivation method than he’d otherwise have access to and managed to steal over a dozen techniques without getting caught, at least to the best of his knowledge. Then, before he could even digest the information, he was whisked away to a vegetarian dinner, much to his dismay, and walked to his new home, a run-down mountain covered in shit, literally, that came with a load of baggage. 

To top it all off, he was even supposed to share a bed with Bai Fu while he waited for his own. Although Feng Jiao was no stranger to sharing a bed, Bai Fu kind of scared him with her intensity. As a matter a fact, she’d coitishly invited him to bed not too long ago, to which he responded that he’d just get a couple hours of sleep before sunrise and left to meditate, flustered as he’d ever been before. Which is how he found himself there, not cultivating but mulling over the multitude of events from that day. Of course, he didn't see the relieved, yet slightly disappointed look on Bai Fu’s face as he left the room.

Shaking his head, Feng Jiao pushed away all the miscellaneous thoughts and got down to what was really weighing him down. Thinking about girls would only slow down his path to immortality. Although he’d originally began leeching away the cultivation techniques in hope of finding one that was suitable, Feng Jiao instead found that nearly every technique was compatible in some way or another. This left him with a dilemma.

He hadn’t managed to research and comprehend any of the techniques yet but from the brief overview he’d gotten as the information was shoved into his brain, he knew that not a single technique would match his view of what his Wood Qi should be perfectly. He also knew from his awakening ceremony that, even if the species of tree he used to be existed in this world, nobody knew what kind of tree his martial spirit was.

The obvious solution was to create his own cultivation method based on his martial spirit but, if that was as easy as it was said, nobody would ever use a non-exact cultivation method. For now, he could only try comprehending the cultivation techniques that were currently stuffed into his skull and look for information related to creating his own in the morning.  Funny enough, the library was not one of the several buildings Tan Sai had pointed out that day, so he’d just have to start his hunt with her.

He started with Alatus Falling, the highest ranked technique he’d managed to find and his original first choice before he’d started stealing. Although he’d forcefully memorized it with the help of the formation, he’d yet to comprehend it which was something completely different. This particular technique was compatible with both wood and fire type cultivators, which just so happened to coalign with the two different types of Qi within his body, and was ranked high-mid tier, just below peak-mid tier. 

As he meditated on the scripture, the essence resting within his secondary dantian, the wood dantian, began to slowly revolve through his meridians according to the recorded pattern. Of course, the cultivation technique was far more than just refining the Qi according to a certain pattern. He also studied the related mantras, intonations, and breathing techniques. Every little function of the body could influence the way Qi was processed. Some techniques even required one to lower or raise the heart rate or close the eyes a certain percentage. As a general rule of thumb, the more requirements a cultivation technique had, the stronger it was.

After spending hours learning the cultivation, Feng Jiao was convinced that even if he could create his own cultivation method, he’d be able to cultivate Alatus Falling easily enough. It seemed that his comprehension was in no way low, as a highly ranked cultivation technique would require higher levels of comprehension to understand and cultivate, another reason why new disciples didn’t get access to the high tier cultivation techniques right away. The higher-ups didn’t want new disciples forcefully learning techniques that were outside of their realm of capability and failing to progress or, in a worse case scenario, suffering from deviation backlash that could potentially cripple one’s cultivation. 

After opening his eyes, Feng Jiao saw the moons overhead, one pink and the other silver. He realized that it took longer to comprehend the cultivation technique that he’d originally estimated it would and figured it would take almost an entire month to learn every technique if he only did it at night. As such, he figured it was probably better to prioritize which techniques he learned even if he planned on learning them all eventually. Pondering on the issue, he started to categorize the different secondary elements the techniques all had and thought on which ones he’d want to incorporate into his own method if he managed to make it. 

He’d managed to obtain techniques based on poisonous ivy, fruit trees, weeds, vines, bushes, grasses, and all manner of plants. Each technique would refine his raw wood essence into Wood Qi, all with minor differences. At a certain point he started to wonder what exactly made the refining of Qi different. Was it a specific meridian that tainted the Wood Qi to become poisonous or did closing a certain eye make it tainted with metal Qi? 

Even just looking at all the different aspects of wood Qi, Feng Jiao felt like making his own technique was more and more insurmountable. Of course, Jiao figured he’d have an easier job if he managed to learn a multitude of techniques and combine them. Borrowing from another’s work was always easier than starting from scratch, after all.

With that in mind, Feng Jiao decided he’d spend the rest of the night digesting the largest technique he’d obtained as it was likely to have the most solid foundation. With a wisp of thought, Ramsons’ Spread was pulled to the forefront of his mind. Although he’d nearly cursed it earlier when it just about gave him away hile stealing techniques, Feng Jiao was sure that the information would come in use if he could just sift through all the miscellaneous garbage associated with it. 

Looking at the technique properly for the first time, Feng Jiao realized that it was a lot more intensive than he’d originally imagined. This time, he didn’t start circulating his Qi right away and instead began comprehending the massive amounts of information, occasionally losing his concentration and having to start the section over again.

The first thing he realized is that  Ramsons’ Spread wasn’t just a cultivation technique. Although he wasn’t exactly reading through the times, Feng Jiao felt that as he contemplated different masses of information about raising garlic, he could faintly feel hallowed arts hidden in the passages. Excited, Feng Jiao doubled down on his comprehension of what was seemingly incomprehensible garbage. 

An hour later, Feng Jiao had began to comprehend the first hallowed art he came into contact with in his long journey to immortality. Funnily enough, Feng Jiao wasn’t even sure what the hallowed art was even supposed to do and was only able to perceive vague images and notions while meditating on the hidden passages, almost like he was trying to interpret a painting through a thick screen of fog. 

Although most hallowed arts are suggested to be practiced after the condensation of Qi, that was generally acknowledged as an efficiency related suggestion. Just like he was able to aspect his Qi fire before practicing a fire Qi Condensation art, he would also be able to use some weak techniques at the cost of vast amounts of essence. As such, Feng Jiao was able to practice this unnamed, unknown art while still in his awakening stage. 

Despite the fact that Feng Jiao couldn’t tell exactly what the hallowed art was supposed to be doing, he felt that the longer he practiced it the easier it was to comprehend the Ramsons’ Spread in general. Not only that, but his essence felt like it was being purified, with various contaminants being filtered out through his acupoints.

Even though the hallowed art wasn’t a cultivation technique, it shared a lot of similarities with them, namely being required to circulate Qi through particular meridians in a specific order several times. Whatever it was, Feng Jiao felt certain that it was auxiliary nature and not an offensive hallowed art. 

Three rotations of the unnamed hallowed art later, Feng Jiao opened his eyes to see that the moons were well on their way through their retreat. Feeling a bit sticky, Feng Jiao headed toward an external pond he’d seen near the peak of the mountain, intending to rinse off before headed back to the cabin. Even though he knew there was hot water in the house, he felt a bit safer rinsing off outside as it was less likely for Tan Sai to walk in on him. 

Although he’d only managed to decipher less than 5% of the Ramsons’ Spread cultivation technique, Feng Jiao felt a bit better about the gargantuan task of custom tailoring his own cultivation technique afterwards. He found that the five percent he’d understood of the seemingly useless technique was far more informative and helpful than the entire high-mid tier Alatus Falling. Looking at the summary for the technique, Feng Jiao saw that it was labeled as incomplete/mid-tier rather than low-mid-high-peak like the other techniques, which Feng Jiao found very strange considering he felt that the technique was over-completed rather than uncompleted.

As he walked toward the pond, Feng Jiao did not notice the thriving grass where he’d been seated the night before or the slight response of the grass under his feet as he walked. Instead he let his mind wander back to his friends and decided he’d try to check up on them in the morning before the library.