DC 61

So if this is your mountain, why did we get assigned here?” Feng Jiao asked a question that had been bothering him since the start of Tan Sai’s explanation. If she’d won the mountain, fair and square, then why did he and Bai Fu get assigned to live there?

“Mostly because I’ve been kind of lonely. Every outer-sect disciple who is the ‘land-owner’ of a mountain is allowed to sign up to accept new disciples. It is how the alliances manage to bring in new blood and they usually compete for new disciples and can select qualities they want. For example, the Radiant Gardens alliance has first dibs on all disciples with either Fire or Wood affinity. The only thing I requested was for female disciples that are new to the sect.

“Usually my request would be at the bottom of the queue but I guess that the two of you really annoyed the indoctrination disciple. Really, after you are formally accepted into the Outer Sect you can still request to move elsewhere and will be able to pick between all the various alliances that are recruiting and can probably get nice benefits. You’re only assigned here because you aren’t officially outer-sect disciples and the baldy is taking advantage of a program that is usually used to reward disciples with ‘potential’.”

“Makes sense, the baldy wasn’t super happy with us. What about my friends? Are they going to be okay?” Feng Jiao was concerned for Wang Jin and Duan Cao; neither of them were particularly advanced in their cultivation, unless you factored in their age of course, and he worried they’d be lost on their own.

“If they’re girls, they’ll be fine. The God Tree Grove was originally founded by females for females and only started accepting male disciples within the last 100 years. Some of their favoritism still shows. For example, you won’t find a girl being allocated to the stables, they leave the pig feed for the men. Girls will be given easier jobs so they have more time for cultivation.” Tan Sai explained as if there were nothing wrong with the casual sexism. 

Her explanation was enough for Feng Jiao, however, because only one of the boys hadn’t reached the end of Awakening and Jiao had no doubt that Jixiang Yun would be fine. Jixiang Yun had even told Feng Jiao that his martial spirit was fire aligned. That, along with his good speed of advancement, meant that he’d likely get scooped up by some alchemists alliance or a blacksmith. 

From what Feng Jiao had learned so far, there were many occupations for disciples to take up to earn contribution points and experience. Fire disciples would be allowed to start out doing blacksmithing or alchemy, with alchemy being harder to start due to the heavy investments required at the start. Earth would be allowed to do blacksmithing, farming or mining. Metal would get blacksmithing or beast rearing, also known as the stables which people saw as the least glorious occupation. Water got farming, cooking, or, depending on their techniques, they were allowed to work as an herbal doctor. Herbal doctors were similar to alchemists but they concentrated more on tinctures and potions. They were less expensive but also less effective ways for treating injuries.

Wood affinity disciples, like Feng Jiao had identified as, were allocated the greatest range of choices. Along with being established for women, the God Tree GRove had also originally been almost exclusively wood cultivators. When Tan Sai explained this, Feng Jiao finally understood why there were so many more wood techniques then there were ice. It wasn’t just because ice was a rare element but because the God Tree Grove had been stocking up on Wood Techniques at least five times longer than any other technique. 

Their conversation about techniques progressed into an impromptu lesson about the next stage of cultivation, Qi Condensation. In order to become a First Condenser, or Mortal Condensation Step One, disciples were required to open all of their primary meridians, also known as reaching the peak of Awakening, and refine their Qi through the meridians with guidance from a cultivation technique. Most techniques also required internalized mantras, breathing patterns, and occasionally specific resources to be consumed as well.

On average, a disciple could condense their first drop of Qi between a month and three months after starting their technique. Throughout that time, their Qi would be refined and impurities would be expelled back into the environment. As it purified, it would start to aggregate and eventually congeal. As a general rule of thumb, the more essence required to congeal a drop of Qi, the more powerful the technique was. 

“Anyways, I expect you two to break through after a month or two at max. There is no way you could get to your cultivations at your age without being amazing talents. Honestly, fellow apprentice Pye made a really good investment in you two. That's enough talking shop for now though, come on let me show you your room.” Feng Jiao heard Tan Sai and started to get a bad feeling and, sure enough, he was right.

“You two can share this room for now. There used to be more buildings on the mountain until they all got smashed… Anyways, you can build your own house as soon as you save up enough contribution points to trade for supplies. There's only one bed, I wasn’t expecting to get two disciples at once, but I’m sure you two wouldn’t mind sharing. You seem very close after all.”

Tan Sai escorted Bai Fu and Feng Jiao to the back of her house and showed them a fairly small room with a single bed and a dresser. The bed was slightly larger than a single but not quite a double. Tan Sai’s house originally had two rooms, one of which she converted to a workshop. This ‘bedroom’ was just a converted storage room and it showed. Feng Jiao found himself wondering if he had more space inside his ring than he did his room. While he was dozing off, his eyes happened to wander across Bai Fu and he couldn’t help but notice her blushing.

“It shouldn’t be a problem at all. Little Jiao is used to sharing their bed with girls every night. If anything, Jiao’er will be uncomfortable with just one girl.” Bai Fu decided to tease Jiao in an attempt to make herself feel more comfortable. 

“Ha, I’m small but I’m not that small or I’d probably crash you. That bed looks like it's barely big enough for the two of you. You could come join me for a bath though, if you want. I pumped up hot water from the springs on the mountain, don’t worry it's clean water and the tub is large enough to fit the three of us easily.” Seeing Bai Fu blush deeper while she looked at Feng Jiao, Tan Sai assumed that the two girls were indeed too shy to bath together with her. “Okay, be shy then. I’m off to bathe, I’ll let you know when I’m done so you can.”

After Tan Sai left, Feng Jiao and Bai Fu stood there for a while staring at the bed, each lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Bai Fu walked over the bed and sat down, patting beside her. 

“If we’re going to be sharing a bed for the time being, you may as well come sit next to me. We aren’t strangers after all.” Bai Fu was biting her lower lip, whether she was afraid of Feng Jiao accepting her offer or rejecting it, only she could know. Feng Jiao stood for a breath longer before coming over and sitting down. 

“Why didn’t you sell me out? You obviously know that I am not a girl, but you have been playing around with everyone all day and making it seem like I am.” Feng Jiao furrowed his brows.

“You heard Tan Sai. Women here get preferential treatment. It isn’t just better jobs, either. The best elders in the sect are all women and they only sponsor women. They keep certain techniques out of circulation and only pass them down to their disciples. I know that you don’t like being treated like a woman but you should take advantage of your beautiful skin and long hair as long as you can. You’ll be growing up real soon and nobody will make the mistake again.”

“That wasn’t my question, I want to know why you’re trying so hard to help me. Why have you been so nice to me since the tournament? Shouldn’t you be angry with me for exposing you? Not like that, I meant exposing that you were pretending to be a boy.” 

“What is done is done. Besides, if I told everyone you were a boy you wouldn’t be here with me. As nice as Tan Sai is, I like having someone around that I know and you seem alright. At least, Wang Jin and Duan Cao trust you.” Bai Fu had been avoiding eye contact during the entire conversation. Both she and Jiao were acutely aware of their thighs touching but neither of them made a move to seperate.

Although the two of them had traveled across the country, they hadn’t had much time with just the two of them. Feng Jiao was fairly popular in the group of disciples and had always had someone by his side which made it hard for Bai Fu to get to know him. While sitting on the bed together, Feng Jiao began to tell her about his background. His parents, his family situation, where he was from, what he did back home. When it was her turn to share, she clammed up a bit.

“I ran away from home a couple years ago. After my awakening, my family found out that I had an ice spirit. I come from a family of water spirits and they weren’t equipped to raise an ice spirit. They wanted to marry me off to a family that collected ice aligned women. Apparently that's what my family had done for years, every time they had a woman awaken with an Ice spirit. I didn’t want to marry a man I didn’t know so I ran away.” Although she didn’t say where she was from and hadn’t talked as much as Feng Jiao, he still felt he knew her a lot better than he had before.

“I forgot to tell you two that I’ve got spare soaps, made them myself. What’s your favorite scents?” As the conversation was beginning to lull, Tan Sai walked back into the room carrying a couple different bars of soap. After realizing that nobody had responded to her question she looked up from the bars of soap and was confused.

Bai Fu was as red as possible, desperately trying to cover Feng Jiao’s eyes while closing her own. Feng Jiao was staring absentmindedly at Tan Sai, the tired looking girl who took them in and was standing there wearing nothing but a towel over her hair and exposing all the spring scenery to Feng Jiao. 

“Mm. Mm. Papayas.” Feng Jiao nodded his head and exclaimed, eliciting a grunt from Bai Fu and confusion from Tan Sai. 

“Uhh, I mostly have herbal scents. I can try a papaya one later I guess…” She didn’t know why, but the longer Feng Jiao stared the more self-conscious she felt. With her face getting warm, she dropped the soaps and moved the towel to coverself before leaving the room.