Druidic Cultivation | Thirty-One

The week long trek back to Willow Mountain City passed quickly. The snow continued to fall from the sky and collect on the trees and road. Most days, Feng Jiao and his two friends could be found sitting atop the carriage as they meditated and cultivated. The children who had newly awakened to their Qi senses would chatter away as they animatedly discussed what they thought their martial spirits would be, or how large the city was going to appear. Their carriages, compared to those going to compete in the tourney, were much livelier. 

A couple of times during the journey, Jiao managed to spot his cousin, Feng Lou, as he walked and talked with his collection of followers. Every time they made eye contact, Lou would look elsewhere or speed up a bit to get out of sight, obviously shaken by his experiences at the Banded Plateau. As children, they’d fought frequently and he’d often lost, but none of that compared to the thrashing and embarrassment Lou had received by Jiao’s hand this time.

During the week long travel, Feng Jiao finally made his first attempt at connecting his seventh meridian, the pulmus meridian that ran through both his neck and lungs before reconnecting to his spine and dantian. With months of stockpiled and refined Qi, Feng Jiao made short work of the membrane and connected his pulmus meridian back to the network of Qi pathways in his body. Although it didn’t take long, it used almost every single bit of Qi he’d managed to collect in the area since opening his last meridians. Without sufficient luck and resources, Feng Jiao could tell he would have trouble with the last two steps of Mortal Awakening, each meridian was becoming exponentially more difficult to reconnect.

When the caravan finally pulled up to the gates of Willow Mountain City, Jiao was able to observe a similar scene as last time, although far more muted this time than the last. The walls seemed to repel the snow and, apart from the colors seeming a little more dim due to the clouds in the sky, the city seemed much the same as it had last time. The seasons seemed to have less of a grasp on human life in the big city, Jiao noticed.

Jiao grabbed Cao’s hand and leapt from where he was seated on top of the carriage as they entered the gate. Wang Jing followed them as they left the caravan to seek out the restaurant he’d been to find. The streets were lined with carts filled with food and trinkets as well as peddlers shouting their wares to passerbys, ignoring the chilling cold in pursuit of a profit. It seemed that the city came to life whenever there was an awakening ceremony.

Twice, Feng Jiao slowed to ask directions from the local residents, but eventually he managed to locate the Crow and Sun, the restaurant that Elder Nufang dictated she’d be waiting at. It was located where she’d said, almost smack-dab in the middle of the city, but the winding roads had given the three children no end of hassle during their navigation of the unfamiliar city.

He didn’t see the God Tree Scout sitting anywhere, nor did he have any idea how to contact her, so he simply requested a table for three. He led both girls to a booth and they ordered a few dishes as he brainstormed how he’d get in contact with the woman. Usually, it wouldn’t be too much of an issue and he could just find her after the awakening ceremony, but he didn’t want to drop the surprise of him trying to bring two more people with him to the sect early, it was a conversation were permission would be better than forgiveness. 

Their dinner arrived, plates of seasoned, steaming poultry of various origins. Feng Jiao had a roasted raven beast in front of him, a specialty of the restaurant, that was spiced with several different peppers and ground herbs, whereas the girls, who were both seated across from him, both ordered some sort of pheasant that seemed sweeter than spicy. His mouth watered as he prepared to dig into city food once more, hungry after a weeks travel on the road.

Just as he reached forward to dig into his meal, a figure made their way into his booth. One second, Feng Jiao was staring down his meal with saliva beginning to pool in his mouth and the next, he was pushed deeper into the booth and away from his plate. He looked to his left and saw the woman he’d been looking for, Nufang Mudan, sitting in front of his meal and picking at the raven’s leg. As he started her down, she turned to Jiao and smiled.

“Hello there, little red bird. I’ve been waiting for you.” The woman ripped a leg off of Jiao’s dinner and, after sniffing it, used it to push the roasted vegetables on his plate around. She wasn’t eating his meal, luckily for both of them, but she was teasing him to an extreme. 

“How’d you know I was here, Senior Nufang? We’ve only just arrived.” Jiao stared at his food being played with, not making eye contact in the slightest. He was slightly curious, but he was more concerned with his dinner than her detection skills. 

“I’m staying in a room upstairs from the restaurant. I had the servers on the lookout for any young girls who showed up asking after me.” she set the raven leg down on the plate and pushed it toward Feng Jiao. He got ready to dig into his food, only for Elder Nufang to put her hand on his, ”Imagine my surprise when there were three of you. Should we step outside for a moment?” Without waiting for a reply, the scout scooted out of the booth and led the way toward a balcony on the second floor.

Feng Jiao’s first reaction, naturally, was to ignore her for the time being and eat his food while it was warm. As tempting as the prospect was, Jiao swallowed down his saliva and, with one last look at is ever-cooling dinner, pushed himself out of the booth to follow. He had a favor to ask of the elder so it was only fair for him to inconvenience himself as well. 

The elder was leaning against a railing and looking down at the hustle and bustle below. Jiao found himself wondering if the term elder could really be applied to the woman in front of him. Elder Nufang looked like she was only a few years older than Jiao, maybe in her twenties, and had a figure that screamed anything but elder. As if she could sense his gaze, the sect scout turned around and made eye contact with Jiao. Well, she made eye contact as soon as his eyes wandered back up.

“It’s good to see you again, Senior Nufang. I spent a lot of time over the past few months thinking about you, you know.” Jiao opened with one of his time-proven friend-making lines, courtesy of Aideen. Nufang Mudan seemed less than amused, unfortunately, seemingly uninterested in being one of Jiao’s new friends.

“I am happy you decided to take me up on my offer to come to the Sect early. I’m sure it was a hard decision to leave your family so young, but the sect will have a much easier time making use of your natural latent talents while you’re younger. Tell me, though, why you brought those two girls with you? I can’t imagine it was as simple as wanting to take your, ahem, friends out for lunch.” 

“I intended to request that you allow the two of them to come to the sect with me. Both of them were accepted as God Tree hopefuls along side me, and they are both really talented.”

“Did they also awaken grade-eight martial spirits, little bird? Seven?” Nufang Mudan had been acting as an awakening scout for the last three years as part of her five year duty to the sect, which all outer court elders had to do. Countless times she’d been implored by city lords and minor nobles to take their children back to the sect early.

In theory, it sounded better to take children while they were younger, but most often it was not. More than three quarters of the children who pledged a sect at their awakening would never actually join said sect. A large portion of them would find that they had no talent for cultivation or would fear leaving home. Some would pick up a craft at home, others would stay to take care of their families, or make up some other excuse. Even more often, the sect scouts would turn them down due to poor performance at the awakening ceremony marital tourney.

Regardless, sect policy was to only take children early if they were outstanding talents or if their parents made sizable contributions to the sect. Other exceptions included taking in war orphans for charity, or children who were born in the sect from elders or families. None of those applied to Feng Jiao’s little friends. 

“No, Senior Nufang. Both they both have natural aptitude! Each of them has already reached the second step of Awakening, even with their measly mid-grade five spirits!” Although his friends might not be as naturally blessed as he was, Jiao was not going to give up easily. Truthfully, six months to reach the second step of mortal awakening was a pace that a grade seven martial spirit might have issue matching.

The older woman let out a heavy sigh and turned again to look out on the street. She hadn’t instantly said no, but Jiao could tell she was having a hard time justifying it to herself. He was well aware that sects didn’t deal in daycare and did not enjoy taking young children from the breasts of their parents, but he didn’t want to leave his friends behind. Part of him knew that they would not be able to keep up with his cultivation but until then, he did not want to be alone again. 

“Feng Jiao. It’s not that I cannot take them with me, but I need to justify it when I get back to the sect. Most of the reason I’m taking you back early isn’t because you’re a grade eight talent, of that we aren’t even sure, but because of the curious scene your awakening caused. Your friends are cultivating quickly, yes, but for all I know its because they experienced some sort of luck or consumed a medicine. You see my issues, right?”

“You don’t want to take more risks because you’re already taking a risk on me, Elder Nufang?” The woman winced slightly at the lack of emotion in Feng Jiao’s voice, as well as him referring to her as elder once more. In truth, Feng Jiao was getting tired of the conversation. Yes, it was a risk, but in his mind she should take the risk because he asked her to. He, the boy whose willpower was so strong that it survived reincarnation, would not be a bad investment. 

“What if I win the martial tourney? Would that qualify me as enough of a non-risk that you could take my friends as well?” 

“You’re far too young to compete in the martial tourney. You’ve been cultivating for six months now, those children have been doing it for three to six years. They are larger than you, they have more experience than you, and they have a higher cultivation. I’m not saying this to demean you, I just want you to have realistic expectations.”
“What. If. I. Win?” Feng Jiao slowed each word into its own breath, tired of being talked to like he was a child. A somewhat meaningless gesture considering his stature and pose, with his arms crossed in front of him. An adult might look and sound menacing doing so, but he seemed like a child throwing a fit.

“Feng Jiao, if you won at the age of ten and a half, I’d allow you to bring twenty people with you.” She laughed before continuing, turning to look at Feng Jiao. Imagine her surprise when, after she’d turned, Feng Jiao was already gone.

Feng Jiao returned to his booth to see both girls had waited for him before eating. He smiled to them and dug into his food almost right away, lowering their worry and allowing them to eat peacefully as well. The girls asked how the conversation went and Jiao affirmed to them that they didn’t have to worry about anything. ‘She said she was more than happy to take you two with us back to the sect, eat up.’ They finished eating and Feng Jiao paid the tab with some of the money he’d gotten for the snake parts. Halfway back, Feng Jiao sent the girls ahead of him and turned off to another road.

“Jiao, where are you going?” Cao called out when Jiao released her hand and turned, worried about him wandering the city by himself. He’d seemed a little out of it since his conversation with the God Tree Grove elder. 

“I’m going to go sign up for the martial tourney, I’ll see you guys back at the caravan grounds.” Feng Jiao spend his step up a bit, hyped for a good fight. Duan Cao and Wang Jing simply watched hsi silhouette fade away into the distance before turning to go back to the carriage.