DC 60

Tan Sai led her two new friends toward a semi-crowded area not too far from the Mess Hall. Feng Jiao could see several groups of disciples wearing outer-sect clothing milling about in various lines. The area they’d arrived was a very large marble platform designed like a town center. The lines of disciples were slowly shuffling forward, five or so at a time, onto raised platforms which would then glow slightly then the disciples would vanish into thin air. After five minutes or so, the now-dimmed platform would start to slightly glow again and five more disciples would step on.

‘Teleportation!’ It was Feng Jiao’s first time witnessing teleportation in any of his various lives, or at least the ones he could remember. Were it not for the serious strain on his body caused by his Fire and Wood Qi mingling and bursting open his remaining meridians, he and the other disciples from his year group would have taken a much larger teleportation array five months previously. 

Although the array wouldn’t have brought them directly to the sect, it would have saved them nearly three months of walking. Unfortunately, the array was allocated to be taken by several different sects and the God Tree Grove was not so large or powerful that it could make them wait for him to recover before taking it. The reason they ended up walking was because  the overly large formation took nearly four months to recharge, otherwise it required a very large amount of spirit stones to forcefully recharge it ahead of time. 

Tan Sai led Feng Jiao and Bai Fu away to a remote corner of the Transport Hub. With the area less crowded, one would assume it was a higher-calibre of teleportation or, at the very least, led to a higher-class area. Indeed, Feng Jiao could see that several of the teleportation arrays that they passed seemed more impressive, be it slightly gilded or surrounded by beautiful flowers. It wasn’t until Tan Sai stopped in front of a run-down looking raised platform and bit her lower lip did Feng Jiao realize something was wrong.

“I’ve got a lot I need to tell you two now that you’re staying with me, but it will have to wait until we get back to my house. Take these and eat them,” Tan Sai handed Feng Jiao and Bai Fu two clumps of herbs. Giving it a sniff, Feng Jiao decided that although it smelled smokey, it was probably nothing bad, and wolfed it down. Bai Fu hesitated and only consumed hers after watching Feng Jiao eat it.

Tan Sai walked forward and pulled a jade ornament out of her sleeve and waved it over the teleportation array. It began slightly glowing and the three of them stepped forward and waited for it to activate. Standing there, Feng Jiao could feel the thin hairs on the back of his neck stand up and got progressively more uncomfortable until the formation activated.

The next moment, Feng Jiao was standing on a much more well-kept version of the teleportation platform and his surroundings had changed entirely. In front of him was a staircase that led up to a mountain path and in the distance he could see a wooden cabin-like house not too far from the peak. Behind him, Feng Jiao saw several mountains, some taller than the one he was standing on and some that were shorter. Each of them was covered in caves and houses, or fields and forests. 

Then the scent hit him, the smell of waste and decay. Below the platform he was standing on and extending all the way to the base of the mountain as well as the surrounding valleys were piles of waste and rotting trash. Feng Jiao looked at Tan Sai’s glum face with a scowl on his face, finally knowing why she said that they must have offended someone to get sent there with her.

“Let’s go. The smell gets better the closer you get to the house. I’ll explain it all there. Sorry.” For the first time since he saw her, Tan Sai’s tone matched her perpetually-tired looking eyes and sorrow could be heard in every inch of her voice. Bai Fu covered her nose with her sleeve and followed after Tan Sai while Feng Jiao just took in the sight. The Qi in the air was thicker on this mountain than anywhere else he’d been in the sect so far and were it not for the scent and surroundings, it would be an amazing place to cultivate. 

Feng Jiao could tell that it was manufactured and could even see a couple broken down carts sticking out from the piles of shit, abandoned after delivering their putrid loads. Piecing together the sight here and the degraded and graffitied teleportation formation back at the transport hub, Feng Jiao could tell that Tan Sai had somehow offended a large group of people. What he didn’t understand was why, at a certain point, the vandalism stopped. The trash and excrement didn’t near this side of the teleportation array nor did it proceed up the mountain to the peak. He turned and jogged to catch up to Tan Sai.

After walking for ten or so minutes, they arrived at Tan Sai’s cabin. It was neither large nor small and was the only standing structure, alone in a flat-area of the mountain with space for several other buildings. In front of the cabin were a couple of gardens that had everything from flowers to vegetables to low-leveled herbs. A trickling noise alerted Feng Jiao to the fact that there was a nearby source of water and he hoped that it originated at the top of the mountain. Streams that flowed up mountains were not all that common but in a world with humans who could pursue immortality, Feng Jiao wouldn’t put it past them to design something so seemingly pointless.  

Tan Sai allowed the two of them inside and told them to take a seat in the living area. The inside of the cabin was the same size as one would assume from the outside appearance, which made Feng Jiao feel slightly relieved as he was beginning to think that spacial enchantments were a dime a dozen. The rafters were covered in strings of dried herbs and plants and the entire place smelled strongly of herbs and flowers, as if there were candles burning in every corner of the house, not that Feng Jiao would blame her.

Before too long passed, Tan Sai returned from what must have been the kitchen area with a tea tray. She poured everybody a cup before sitting down and letting out a heavy sigh.

“I want to apologise for the living situation and explain a  few things and then I will answer any questions you two have. I’m sure that both of you noticed the situation on the lower mountain and I’m sure you are both curious as to why my cabin is the only one here, so I’m going to do my best to explain.

“My name is Tan Sai, as both of you should have realized by now, and I am seventeen years old. I came to the God Tree four years ago and within my first year, I managed to condense my Qi and entered the outer sect. After entering the outer sect, I made several friends and I was actually pretty popular amongst the other outer-sect disciples, at least the ones in my year group. Although I am not an alchemist, I do have some skills as an herbal doctor of sorts and that made me popular.

“Due to my Smoke Affinity, I’d always been pursuing ways to increase cultivation outside of pills. Everybody knows that Wood and Fire affinities had it best as they could pursue alchemy and have countless resources. My Smoke Affinity is actually a mixture of the Fire and Wind affinities and, unfortunately, Wind affinity is notoriously bad for alchemy. I came from a family of alchemists and Fire Cultivators, so I had a strong knowledge base of various herbs and the way they interacted. If I’d gotten any other fire-affinity mutation, I would have still made an excellent alchemist. Anyways, throughout the first two years of my time here I managed to find a way to create herbal incense that could passively boost cultivation bases.

“It isn’t groundbreaking knowledge, by any means, but I was really good at it. Due to my inherit smoke affinity and knowledge, I was able to make incense that was more potent and cheaper than alchemist-created incense. Often times it was even better than pills made with the same herbs due to the lack of pill toxins. I quickly racked up several enemies, low-leveled alchemists that started earning less money and resources due to me. 

“It wasn’t really a big deal until last year when I won a competition meant for alliances to compete in, winning myself one of the ten-best outer sect mountains for my ‘alliance’. Several alchemists organizations and a couple combat oriented ones approached me, intent on forcing me to give up my mountain. As you two can tell, I did not consent to being bullied. 

“Every morning, several disciples would come and smash whatever I’d build the day before, be it my house, my gardens, the stream, or the mountain path up. They destroyed everything and offered to ‘fix it’ in exchange for building rights on the mountain. They intended to get a foothold and slowly push me out, I denied them and began to do what I do best, experiment.

“After a couple of weeks, I managed to come up with a repellant. One that was far more effective than it needed to be without actually harming anyone, which would have gone against sect-regulations. I gave the two of you the antidote before we took the teleportation formation, You’ll have to take it daily for a couple weeks until your body builds up a natural tolerance.”

“What was the repellant?” Bai Fu, as curious as she was, wanted to know exactly what would happen to her if she missed the antidote for a day.

“I crafted a new incense, one that I burn all day every day in the various torches you saw around the teleportation array and outside of the house. It is a mixture of insect repellent and herbs that, when combined and burned, cause an… uncomfortable reaction. The first person to actually experience the repellant is the reason my mountain is shat upon daily. One of the Outer Sect Belles who is also the head of the number one Alchemist organization in the outer sect, the Radiant Gardens, teleported in and started walking toward my house, ignoring the building feeling of discomfort.

“She and her four attendents got half-way to my house before they lost control of their functions and they had to deal with it their entire rush back to the teleportation formation. Well, all the way back and the three days that the effects of the incense lingered in her system. Needless to say, a very large number of disciples noticed when she teleported back to the transport hub. Since then, she’s mobilized her lackeys and purchased all of the excitement form the stables and had it transported here as pay back for her lost-face. As if it was my fault that she ignored the no-trespassing signs.”

Bai Fu was still confused. Although she had a vague idea what Tan Sai was hinting at, she didn’t quite get it and Tan Sai didn’t want to elaborate. It wasn’t until Feng Jiao leaned over and whispered in Bai Fu’s ear did she burst out laughing. 

“You made one of the most beautiful girls in the outer sect shit herself all the way down your mountain and through the most populated area of the outer sect? Bah ha ha!” Bai Fu laughed her lungs out while Tan Sai just had a tired looking smile on her face. She gave the two of them a weeks worth of the antidote and told them to keep it in their room lest her enemies get their hands on it.