Druidic Cultivation | Forty

End of the month boys, if you're hopping off the train cancel now so you don't get charged for July, no hard feelings.

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Back in Sünfeng, Feng Nan stated, for all to hear, that the copper grade inventory ring that he put up as a reward was a single year’s worth of tax revenue for his city. It had to have been at least ten years of revenue, however, by Feng Zhipei’s estimate, it was closer to ten years of profit for the town and its subsidiaries. 

Spacial treasures were split into several different categories, Feng Jiao had been told, and inventory rings were at the bottom of the ring. Inventory rings were, as one would assume, rings worn with a limited space attached to them to store items. The items would not be entirely reduced in weight and the space was severely limited. Most often, one could tell the quality of the ring from the metal used to forge it. 

Jiao’s was a tarnished copper ring with engravings so faint that he couldn’t make them out. For most copper inventory rings, the space would be no larger than a watermelon and weight reduction would be twenty percent, maximum. Imagine Jiao’s surprise when, after sinking his Qi into the ring and branding it, he found that the space accounted for was six feet wide, three feet deep, and eight feet tall. He practically had a closet worth of space at any given time. His father had never heard of a copper ring with such a high weight reduction and large space, it practically rivaled top tier silver rings and low tier spacial rings. 

“Oh, you’re going to throw some stones, are you?” Ma Heise laughed at Jiao’s display, not knowing the difference between a spacial ring and an inventory ring. For all intents and purposes, Jiao had spent the last couple months and every fight so far wearing ‘weighted clothes. Even better, actually, because the ring dispersed the weight over his entire body rather than just his legs and chest. 

“No, I’m just going to show you how far apart we are, Ma.” Jiao cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders, well aware that the round had started the moment the gong rang out. Ma Heise hadn’t made his move yet, so Jiao took the time to acclimate to his weight. If had completely filled his ring, which he hadn’t, it would have been an addition of 12,600 pounds. As it was, he’d tripled his body weight over the course of two months while he trained.

It hadn’t been his intention at first, of course. He’d been collecting rocks he found to be beautiful from the bottom of the river at his favorite bathing area. Smooth rocks, sharp ones, pale blue and dark green rocks as well. His collection had swollen to quite a large degree before he realized the practicality of training that way as well. 

“Alright, let’s go.” Feng Jiao tired of waiting for Ma Heise to make his move. Luckily, it wasn’t too difficult to reacclimate himself due to the weight ratio being the same. Had he been wearing weighted anklets or a vest, he’d have to get used to the shift in his balance. Yet another reason that the ring was an amazing gain. 

Jiao shot off across the area toward the taller boy, knowing that Ma Heise had intentionally been standing his ground in order to try and fend him off with his whips. Inspired by the last fight, Jiao realized he wasn’t going to be able to win the fight by using a staff. The whips countered the weapon too well so his goal was to disarm and destroy. 

‘Crack! Crack!’ the whip sounded out loudly as Jiao dodged it, moving so quickly that he was able to dodge the ends even as they broke the sound barrier. Jiao closed the space and shot a fist out toward Heise’s chest only to be jolted and tossed to the side. A sharp pain in the side revealed to Jiao that he’d been kicked in the ribs as he closed into melee distance. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who’d picked up a new strategy during the Ma vs Bai fight. 

“Why would I fall for the same tricks twice? Do you think that I am stupid, Feng Jiao?” Ma Heise let out a loud laugh and relished his temporary advantage, annoyed that his kick hadn’t ringed Jiao or even knocked him off his feet. The smaller boy managed to get his feet under him as he traveled and pivoted, landing only ten feet away.

“Why wouldn’t I think you stupid, Ma Heise, when your weapon of choice is a cattle whip? As far as I can tell from your appearance, demeanor, and hate of those of a higher station, you’re nothing better than a show pig, raised to a higher station by luck alone.” Ma Heise winced as Jiao’s words hit closer to home than he appreciated. 

Ma Heise was, indeed, elevated from poorer circumstances. In his town, the chieftain was only in the seventh step of mortal awakening. The town of 120 people only had six people who’d gone through an awakening, something that wasn’t commonplace for most towns or villages. Had he not stumbled upon his legacy in the woods while tracking down a missing goat, he’d still be a rural peasant just like his entire family.

Truthfully, Jiao only believed that everybody did an awakening because he came from a town that specialized in growing spiritual medicines. Without Feng supervision, the residents of Crouching Grass Mountain would likely also have been a backwater town with almost no cultivators. 

“I made something of myself, you were given everything you have, Feng Jiao. The whip is an honorable weapon and you’ll regret mocking me.” Now on the offensive, Ma’s whips blurred through the air like cobras snatching birds from overhead. The boy circulated his peak awakening to the maximum to increase his reflexes, speed, strength, and stamina. Line after line, lash after lash, he pushed Jiao as hard as he could.

To his dismay, he didn’t land a single hit. Much like when Ma had tried to battle Bai Fu unarmed, he looked like a child throwing eggs a boulder. Nothing he did made a difference as Jiao weaved through the air like a leaf avoiding an inexperienced blade. With his frustrations rising, Ma pumped as much Qi as he could handle through his telum meridian in order to increase his attack speed, but it made no difference. Even when he overloaded his meridians with more Qi than they could handle, Jiao was able to avoid each swing.

‘So, this is what it’s like to be unencumbered,’ Jiao thought to himself. After removing his dead weight, or stone weight in this case, Jiao was able to react to each swing much faster than before. Although he hadn’t yet connected his conceptium, or mind, meridian back to his dantian, Jiao was able to exploit reflexes far beyond other kids his age. Almost in slow motion, he saw each strike of the whip blur toward him and avoided them without thinking about it. ‘Perhaps,’ he thought, ‘My Qi pool is able to enhance my mind in a similar fashion?’

The crowd surrounding the arena stood to their feet, shouting down at the arena as the two children engaged in combat. Although the two of them were not moving too quickly for eyes to track, the crowd had a difficult time telling if the blows were landing. It wouldn’t be unheard of if at least a third of the crowd had placed money on the outcome of the match, so they were all tracking the battle closely.

After four minutes or so, Jiao decided that he’d given Ma Heise enough time. Wary of his feet shooting toward his ribs again, Jiao ducked under an overextended strike and entered Ma’s personal space. With open palms, Jiao struck at both of Ma’s shoulders, missing his left shoulder but hitting his right as the boy tried to dodge. 

Now off balance, Ma tried to compensate by pivoting his foot and spinning, lowering his center of gravity, but was pushed back even further by a flurry of furious strikes. Each open-palmed strike hit between two joints, shoulders, elbows, and knees, before he was finally kneed in the gut and sent back several feet. Skating to a stop, Ma Heise did his best to catch his breath as he brought his hands up into guard. His knuckles were white and strained as he gripped the pommels of his whips having refused to drop them this time.

“Rah!” With a bestial shout, Ma Heise engaged in his dual whipped storm once more, slashing from both sides and manipulating the trajectory midair. It was one thing to lose to somebody else who was at the peak of awakening and another to lose to someone who, up until that point, didn’t appear to be. After dropping the rocks, Jiao appeared to everybody watching to be within the ninth level of awakening as well. 

Most years, the top of the male bracket would be in step seven or, on rare occasions, step eight of mortal awakenings. They awoke to their powers at a later age, generally, but were still capped fifteen years old for the tourney. This year, there appeared to be three boys who’d all reached the end of awakening stage. Three Geniuses. Even the female bracket who, on average, awoke to their martial spirit two-three years earlier than the males would only field a handful of peak awoken!

Oblivious to the out roar and excitement of the crowd around him, Jiao continued to phase out all of his surroundings and concentrate only on the battle in front of him. With every swing of the whip, Jiao found himself slowly enlightening his path of the soft step and soft strike. Battling beasts in the wilderness and slapping around arrogant young lords couldn’t compare to the intense, sweaty battle he found himself in. 

With Yang Qi circulating through all seven of his meridians and Wood Qi pouring through his Qi channels from his Qi pool surrounding his mind, Jiao dodged each strike and occasionally threw out another palm. He took advantage of the situation to refine his fighting style even more, apathetic to the impotent rage of Ma Heise. 

Satisfied with his learnings, Feng Jiao pushed forward and released an outbreak of palm strikes at Ma Heise’s chest. Bruised and tired from his previous fight as well as the last five minutes, the older boy slowly gave ground under the torrential downpour of strikes. In one last desperate strike, he dropped both of his whips and bulled forward, determined to use his larger size and weight to his advantage. 

Not wanting the boy to land a single strike, Jiao leapt backwards and swung a fist overhead. Mid swing, he manifested his borrowed staff and released it from his hand, sending it whirling like a javelin toward the boy who was still charging forward.

Off balance and caught by surprise, Ma Heise was struck in the chest by a flying projectile and knocked right off of his feet. Fatigued and sore, he was unable to command his body to stop rolling once gravity relocated his body, rolling straight off the edge of the stage.

“Match! Winner, Feng Jiao of Crouching Grass. Congratulations to the second place of the male bracket. Tell us, do you intend to challenge the champion for first place tomorrow morning?”

Dazed and confused, Ma Heise could only look up from the dirt at the young boy, no older than eleven for sure, as he stood where Ma Heise should. He expected a sneer, a disdainful look, or a scoff. Instead, Feng Jiao ignored his existence entirely, which hurt his ego more than anything else could.

“Absolutely. I am here to win.” Jiao descended from the stage and headed toward his family, waiting for him to go back and sleep for the night.