Druidic Cultivation | Twenty-Seven

In the front of the group were three older looking men, led by a middle-aged man whom Feng Jiao already knew, Feng Nan. Of the three, it was impossible to tell what their true age was as it could be very deceptive. Any one of them could be a mortal of the age of 70, or a cultivator that made a breakthrough late in life and was nearly 140 years old. They could have ten years left alive, or sixty, or two weeks. Unless a cultivator made significant advancement on their path at a young age, or consumed extremely expensive medicines, they would age much like a mortal and it would be hard to tell them apart.

Of course, maintaining the youth only applied to a certain point. The aging process caused by puberty would not slow because of cultivation, which was probably a good thing. Otherwise, there would be a multitude of prodigy-children who tore down countries and single handedly slain great beasts all while looking like they were twelve years old. That wouldn’t be bad in and of itself but preventing the aging in a young body would stunt growth and prevent them from siring children.

Behind the old men were what appeared to be a large number of assistants, ranging in ages from teenagers to men who appeared to be in their thirties. The robes they adorned were not as embroidered as the alchemical masters, the old men, but still had branches and leaves sewn onto the sleeves, likely denoting their accomplishments as an alchemical apprentice thus far. For the most part, there was a correlation between age and the apparent rank on the sleeves. The assistants were carrying tables, tools, and food, much to Feng Jiao’s excitement.

Behind the assistant was a crowd of people as well. A collection of parents, retainers, and lookie-loos who were here to verify the safety of the children they hadn’t seen in days, as well as observe the judgement. Although he couldn’t manage to spot Old Granny Xiaoke or Uncle Kiya, Jiao was able to spot his father walking alongside Uncle Yaobei, both of whom were laughing and having a good time. Although they were locked in a silent power struggle for control of the Crouching Grass Village, the brotherly love between the two of them had not waned in the slightest. 

It wasn’t long before the entourage arrived at the edge of the forest and began setting up the tables and tools. Fires were lit and food began to cook as tables were set up around the platform stage that was already present. Feng Nan ascended the stage and waited for all eyes to rest on him and for conversation to stop, needing not to say anything and letting only his presence silence the crowd.

“Good evening, young Fengs. As I look out on this crowd of children, I can’t help but feel pride and hope for the future generation of our great Feng family. 

“This year’s challenge was not a gentle one, but it was necessary. From where I stand, I can tell that most of you made it back safely and successfully,” his eyes lingered on his son’s entourage before squinting slightly and moving back to the rest of the crowd, “but many of you did not. Before I begin my speech in earnest,” Feng Nan stopped speaking and nodded his head toward the forest. Several men from the crowd behind the apprentices rushed off into the trees, likely a pre-arranged search and rescue party.

“Right, well I do not need to repeat the rewards for the competition, I should hope. All of you here who have slain a beast and taken an organ in order for evaluation, step forward. I have invited three Feng family alchemists here to judge the strength of the beasts slain. Before anyone calls foul play, the alchemists hail from the three other cardinal cities of Banded Plateau. Esteemed Alchemist, Chi Zhurou, please take over from here.” Feng Nan stepped down and allowed the oldest looking man to take control. 

Currently, Chi Zhurou was busy handling the setup of their tools. More specifically, he was swatting the young assistants over the head with a thin stick and fixing their shortcomings, adjusting a tool here or moving a table there. Before too long, the old man started selecting children one at a time, as did the six other alchemists there. 

The first kid was called forward to Chi Zhurou and turned over what appeared to be an encouraged heart. The heart was placed onto a scale-like artifact and the Zhurou assistant channeled his Qi into the formation engraved onto the side. Small droplets of an unknown liquid began to form on the other side of the scale, slowly accumulating until the scale was even on either side.

The wizened old man took a look at the dense liquid on one side before picking up the bestial organ. Closing his eyes, the man seemed to murmur an incantation to himself as he inspected the heart. After a few breathes, his eyes opened, and he set down the heart with a smile.

“Heart of a mossen deer. Not bad, not bad. According to the Qi density, the mossen deer appears to have been in the high parts of the low beast realm, probably somewhere close to a rank 5 mortal awakened equivalent. Generally, a passive beast but they can gut someone with their antlers if they aren’t careful, all in all it’s a good find. I don’t suppose you harvested its antlers or moss pelt, did you?” The old man gave his judgement and had his assistant record the name as well as the beast’s tier. 

Feng Jiao watched on as the man haggled prices for any other beast parts that had been harvested and understood how Feng Nan had been able to convince so many alchemists to assist with judgement. Anywhere he looked, the alchemists were judging the characteristics of the beasts and offering to purchase the any parts that had alchemical value. As he listened in, Feng Jiao learned much more about the way beasts were rated in this world.

From what he heard, animals who didn’t cultivate the ether were called just that, animals. Any that would be equivalent to a mortal realm hallowed cultivator were deemed beasts and split between low, medium, and high tier for the three different stages that humans took. The beasts themselves did not follow the same cultivation route that humans did, but alchemists and other humans had graded them like that to make it easier for humans to understand the quality of meats and products produced from them.

Above those were savage beasts, beasts who had formed a core, were born with a monster core, or would be extremely likely to form on in their lifetime. None of the children had slain one of those so far, Jiao had only overheard one of the alchemists talking about what a shame it was that the forests did not contain too many of them. 

The alchemists continued to call children forward one at a time, judging the kids on their appearances and how likely they were to have slain a good-quality beast in order for them to purchase. There was a competition of sort going on between them, each trying to purchase the better-quality ingredients for themselves. The crowd quickly dwindled down as there were not too many children to start with. 

“You! Boy! Get over here and present your organ, if you would.” Taken aback for a moment, Jiao looked around and realized that there were no kids near him, and he was the one being shouted at. He made eye contact with Chi Zhurou and confirmed that it was him being beckoned over.

“Me?” He asked, genuinely confused. He’d been misgendered by strangers so often that it was a foreign concept for somebody to get it right.

“Unless there is a very, very short man hiding behind you, who else could I mean? Come on then, I’m sure you’re as hungry as I am, and the rabbits are almost done.” Jiao’s stomach let out a sympathetic groan as he smelt the roasting beasts. He couldn’t help but think that rabbit was the wrong word for such large creatures as, in his mind, a rabbit shouldn’t be the size of a dog. Still, he was hungry, and the old man had a point. Sooner in, sooner out.

Jiao walked forward to his table and surrendered the gallbladder he’d sliced out of the mamba’s abdomen. After placing it on the scale, the apprentice began pumping his Qi into the diagram to produce liquid. A few breaths later there was a small puddle of liquid Qi, but the scales had not budged. A sweat broke out on the apprentice's forehead even as a strange gleam appeared in the old man’s eye.

“Move aside, student. Don’t strain yourself, I’ll handle this one.” As the young man removed his hands from the diagram the liquid Qi instantly dissipated, only to rapidly accumulate when the old man started. This time the liquid wasn’t clear but tinted a light blue color. A breath later, the scale started to even out even though the Qi that had accumulated seemed much less, a testament to the density and purity of Old Man Chi’s Qi. 

A grin broke out on the man’s face and he picked up the fist-sized gallbladder, holding it closely to his face as he inspected it. A few thoughtful hums and tuts escaped from the man’s lips as his colleague slowly noticed what was going on. Each of the two older men squinted over at Chi Zhurou, waiting for the games to stop and for him to make his declaration. 

“Good! Good! Good! I was wondered what wicked beast managed to leave such large holes in your blouse. Puncture marks, makes sense. Gallbladder of a Grey-Banded Mamba. I’d have to count the bands to be sure, but the snake appears to have been extremely close to breaking through to the savage beast marker. Given another year or two, it would likely have formed its very own beastcore. A shame, but still a really good find. 

“I wonder how it is you survived its venom. Hmm, no matter, it’s a good thing you did, or we would have lost such wonderful samples. Oh, and a shining star of the younger generation. Hunting near-core beasts at such a young age, good boy! Say, you wouldn’t have happened to have gathered any other org-”

“Hah! Only a near-core beast? I’m sure that doesn’t even match up close to what we’ve found. Come on boys, bring it over.” Feng Nian shouted loudly from where he’d been standing and waiting to be judged. He understood the concept of saving the best for last, but he was tired of hearing the old man fluff up the little boy’s ego. As absorbed as he was in his boasting, Feng Nan missed Chi Zhurou’s cringe as well as the smirk of his colleagues.

“Young Lord, I couldn’t possibly-”

“Don’t worry about it, old man. I’ll not take any liberties with you because of my status, you’ll get a fair price on this magnificent beast. We found this boar after two days of hunting and it lasted nearly an entire hour while we fought it. It’s hide was so strong it turned blades and its skull so thick that we couldn’t split it. I’m sure it's got a massive beast core, come on.” Looking in on the massive beast, Jiao couldn’t help but admit that it was at least four times larger than any he’d seen before. His first thought? Good breeding stock. 

Chi Zhurou could only sigh and signal his assistant to go forward and collect a sample. The boy gutted the boar and sliced out a portion of its intestine. From what Feng Jiao could tell, the cut or organ of the animal did not seem to matter for the tool. It appeared to measure the density of Qi within the flesh. 

Before even a second passed of channeling his Qi, the assistant managed to draw the intestine level with the other side. Qi was not even visibly pooled on the opposite scale, not even a single drop. The silence within the clearing was nearly palpable. Chi Zhurou, not attempting to spare the young lord’s feelings any longer, scooped up the intestine and began speaking.

“This boar did not cultivate the ether, the energy of heaven and earth. Its substantial girth seems to have been caused by its diet. At least two different patches of spiritual weeds, probably drank from a Qi-rich spring as well.” The old man tossed the intestine to the ground and walked over to the boar, continuing in his speech even as the color drained from Feng Nian’s face, “You can see from its cataracted eyes that the boar was very old and nearly blind. Muscle content to fat ratio is nearly idea, this boar could have fed a village. Would have won at least one award in a fair, fed a village for a week. 

“This would have made a much better meal than a rabbit. Aiya! What a shame that nobody can ever enjoy the boar’s succulent flesh. Not only has its flesh been ripped to shreds by an army of weapons, but one of them even used poison!” Zhurou sniffed at a particularly festered wound before continuing, showing off his knowledge of the trade before his peers, “What a high-quality poison.

“A locally concocted poison, from the smell of it, venom concentrate of an emerald  bushmaster snake. The bushmaster was slightly weaker than the grey-banded mamba that this young Feng Jiao presented to me. Top marks for the choice of poison. The pig, however,” The old man tucked his frizzled greying hair behind his ears and shook his head slowly, “Sometimes a pig is just a pig.”

The old man went on to gauge the beasts that the Feng Nian’s attendants had slain and claimed as their own, each and every one of them graded as stronger than the boar. One had even taken down a squirrel with a throwing knife which was gauged as equivalent to a stage-four tempering, the stage beyond awakening, mortal!

With each proclamation of inferiority, Feng Nian’s face grew red and contorted. By the end of his ten-strong possy, Nian was practically fuming from the ears and nostrils like some sort of ancient dragon. He glared over at Feng Jiao, insanely upset because of how frequently he’d slapped his own face at the expense of the little boy. His hand shook in anger, as if remembering when he’d mistaken Jiao for a girl and slapped his face the first time.