Druidic Cultivation | Forty-Nine

“You’ve got to be kidding me, Feng Jiao. You seriously used an earth-grade medicine to attack the bottleneck for peak Awakening?” Elder Nufang was suddenly far less interested in talking than she had been before. Instead, her face was getting colored red, and not the good shade of red either, as her hands slowly started shaking.

“I- uh. No! I didn’t realize it was so valuable and I used it when I was opening my fourth meridian. But! But! I managed to open up three entire meridians at once with the pill!” After hearing that Feng Jiao used it for a measly fourth step of awakening, Nufang Mudan had to mentally restrain herself to prevent her from strangling Feng Jiao.

She hadn’t been exaggerating a single bit when she said she only received two of the pills per year. She’d even left off the part where she’d only received such valuable pills due to her current station as a recruiter, of which this was her last recruitment spree before she swapped to a different assignment. She’d given her second-to-last Five Season pellet to Feng Jiao, and he’d wasted it during Mortal Awakening. She’d specifically left him a note not to do that!

“Out. Get out, I am not in the mood to provide you any more guidance.” With her nose between her hands, Elder Nufang dismissed Feng Jiao. Thankful to have gotten off so lightly, Feng Jiao bowed low and fled before the elder could change her mind. As he left the tent, it rapidly shrank down to the size of an apple, appearing above Elder Nufang’s outstretched hand before folding itself like a neckerchief and getting tucked away. 

Feng Jiao practically sprinted back to his own group as everybody finished eating, having received the signal that their march would begin again soon. Jiao recieved a queer look from Bai Fu after returning so quickly from what should have been a day and a half long lecture according to her own experience with the elder.

The days marched by slowly, with Bai Fu now a part of their little faction in the back of the group. With her around, Feng Jiao finally felt what it was to be the one getting teased and, whereas he did not hate it, he could understand why his friends were so frequently colored red in the face. After the first couple days, the ones standing guard at night finally realized why they were unable to locate Feng Jiao on the male side of camp, so his nights of uninterrupted sleep came to an end.  

While standing watch, Feng Jiao would practice spreading out his ‘nature sense’, which he’d come to know was actually just his own twist on a spiritual sense according to Bai Fu, and cultivate. With Aideen still slumbering away in his dantian, his cultivation speed decreased drastically. If it weren’t for him able to see her sleeping in bird form when he meditated, he’d think she’d somehow escaped his body or died. 

Within his upper dantian, where his Wood Qi pooled, he could see the seed left behind after his Wood spirit had burned away. Although there was no growth there either, he could feel the strength in both spirits slowly building as the days passed. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anybody he could ask for guidance as he was in a very unique situation, nearest he could tell.

As far as practicing his spiritual sense at night, Feng Jiao got a lot more practice in that he’d really hoped to. Although there were many children, as well as guards from some of the wealthier disciple families, Feng Jiao found himself standing watch nearly every night. ‘Elder’s Orders, Jiao. Nothing personal.’ The new hopeful in charge of the watchbill would inform him every night. Even though Jiao never bothered to learn the kid’s name, he still cursed him every night that he sat awake staring at the skies.

“It’s not fair. If Elder Nufang didn’t want me to use the pill then she should not have given it to me. So what if I didn’t read a stupid note, this is just childish.” Feng Jiao found himself grumbling out loud again as he stared at the night sky. For the last week, Jiao had stood watch at least once a night, every night. 

“Don’t blame the Elder. She is required to pass out the pill every six months or they wont award her a new one. It’s like spending your annual budget, if you get to the end of the year with money left over, they would just lower your budget since you didn’t need as much as they gave you. On top of that, the pill always comes with the requirement that the clan head, or village leader, or whoever runs the faction where the recruit comes from needs to announce the award in front of everyone. It’s just one of the ways that the God Tree flaunts its wealth to attract talented children.” Bai Fu was sitting off to his left, ever the voice of reason. After the goof up with the Five Seasons Pine Pellet, it became increasingly obvious that she was the Elder’s new favorite.

“You really should have read the note. I mean, if it said the same thing mine doese, it’s pretty obvious you were supposed to wait. Even if you only glanced over it, there is no way you would have missed the fact that you weren’t allowed to actually consume the pellet yet. Honestly, you’re lucky that the overly dense Qi in your meridians didn’t outright kill you or ruin your cultivation forever. Knowing you, you were probably just distracted by a pretty face.”

Grumbling to himself, Feng Jiao couldn’t refute her statement.  The feast where he’d been awarded the pill was his first night back home. He really had been high off the excitement of being the belle of the ball, so to speak, as well as finally making some friends of his own. He’d spent the night chatting with Cao and Jing, as well as a few of their friends, as well as celebrating his breakthrough to the second step that morning. He’d been in no mood to read the note and had only given it a cursory glance. 

Still, Elder Nufang was only giving him the cold shoulder on the surface. In her infinite wisdom, there was no way that the Elder hadn’t noticed Bai Fu spending time with Feng Jiao and relaying her lessons to him. In fact, the Elder would frequently stress certain things and insist that Bai Fu commit them to memory. It was apparent that those were bits of knowledge that Elder Nufang wanted disseminated. Still, Feng Jiao did not enjoy missing out on his sleep.

The only thing that made it somewhat bearable was that Bai Fu volunteered to stand several of the watches with him and teach him. It was a nice break from the constant practice with his spiritual sense. Without anyone else around, Bai Fu wouldn’t tease Jiao and would just talk to him like a normal person. It was good to know that she didn’t actually hold a grudge for the way their fight had turned out.

Speaking of spiritual sense, Feng Jiao was finally able to piece together why his Qi pool had been dislocated to his chest. Within the spiritual body, which wasn’t fully consolidated until after all the meridians were opened, the spiritual energy would gather around the mind. Everybody was born with at least a bit of spiritual energy as it was the output of the soul. To be born without spiritual energy meant one was born without a soul, something that should not be possible. 

There were only a few ways to increase the quantity or quality of one’s spiritual energy. The first, and most common, was simply to advance one’s hallowed cultivation. Every time one’s cultivation advanced, their spiritual energy would likewise grow alongside them. The running theory was that cultivation strengthened the spiritual body which was intrinsically linked with the soul, therefore strengthening the soul and the power of one’s spiritual energy. 

Secondary was to use one’s spiritual energy frequently and savagely. By draining the energy to zero and letting it build itself back up, the amount of spiritual energy stored would increase and, depending on the method of draining the energy, the quality would also improve. That was where the spiritual occupations came in, they were spiritual energy intensive and would refine the quality as well as quantity. It was also the safest way to exhaust spiritual energy when one wanted to increase the quantity.

Finally, Jiao was told that various treasures and medicines could also increase the strength of the soul or refine a cultivator’s spiritual energy. Each of these treasures were more rare than a Kirin’s antler or a Dragon’s tooth. Feng Jiao didn’t even know where he would start if he wanted to refine a pill capable of increasing spiritual strength. Although he’d memorized most plants and potions of his previous world, the knowledge didn’t directly apply to this world and even if it did, the mages of his first life didn’t cultivate the body the same way cultivators did.

There wasn’t any spiritual energy or spirit bodies in his first life, or if there were he’d never heard or learned of them. Although, thinking back on his first conversation with Aideen as well as the technique for cultivating she’d given him, it seemed like the magical beasts of his first world may have cultivated similarly. 

Either way, the offset of his Qi Pool had been because of his advancement to peak Awakening as well as the formation of his spiritual body. His spiritual energy had rushed toward his brain when the body was formed, pushing the Wood Qi there downward where it eventually settled in his chest, between his two lungs. Every night on watch, Feng Jiao would practice using his spiritual sense to feel things other than plants while, at the same time, draining the plants at the periphery of his spiritual sense.

He found that his ability to drain the plants of their energy and absorb it was directly linked to his spiritual energy. This was why, as he advanced in cultivation and the energy became more vigorous, he found it easier to collect energy from the surrounding vegetation. It was a good exercise for his spiritual energy as well as his Wood dantian.

Although he was filling the space up with Wood Qi, it wasn’t truly his own. He knew that, at some point, he’d need to pick up a cultivation technique for Wood Qi alongside his current technique if for no other reason than to purify and refine it. Otherwise, it wasn’t likely to ever condense.  

When ever he exhausted himself absorbing Qi, as it was extremely taxing to do so from the farthest distance possible, he would switch over to absorbing the energy from the air through his acupoints and circulating it into Yang Qi. His speed was greatly reduced while Aideen slumbered as she was not there to help attract the Qi and Ether in the air to him. Naturally, nobody noticed this as only someone of a much higher cultivation level would be able to see a martial spirit without being expressly shown it.

This was how Feng Jiao spent his nights on watch, constantly training while occasionally talking and listening to Bai Fu. Although it wasn’t the most fun he’d had in all of his lives, Feng Jiao had to admit that it was showing great results. He steadily increased his power as well as consolidated his cultivation. Night after night, they got closer and closer to the God Tree’s territory and Aideen showed more signs of waking up soon.