Druidic Cultivation | Twenty-Six

The sun set shortly after Feng Jiao collapsed, then rose again, then set, and rose once more. Throughout this entire time, Jiao lay upon the floor of the crag forest fighting off the venom that was wrecking its way through his system.

The grey-banded mamba’s venom was a yin based poison, cold and deadly. As it ravished Feng Jiao’s bloodstream, he did his best to purify it faster than it could propagate. Within his toxitus meridian, a small black snake could be seen forming. It hissed as the yang Qi slowly dissolved at its edges.

On the morning of the third day since entering the forest, Feng Jiao’s eyes suddenly shot open. Although the sun was already beating down on the reddish plateau and, in turn, Feng Jiao, he found himself shivering like a wet puppy. 

Somehow, the mamba and Jiao managed to go two entire days without being disturbed. This just went to show how dominate the grey-banded mamba had been in this little slice of the forest, that even after death the other creatures and critters feared entering its domain. 

Jiao slowly got to his feet, only to keel over a few feet away and vomit. Out of his mouth poured black-colored blood and solid chunks of who-knows-what. His vomiting continued on and off for nearly half an hour as his body purged the by-product of the venom that had gotten infinitely close to killing him. Without his secondary stock of Qi in his mana pool constantly nourishing his muscles and veins while his toxitus meridien did its best to cleanse his blood, Jiao would have died in the forest that day.

The young boy fished water from his travel sack and washed his mouth out to the best of his ability before chugging the rest of the waterskin. Afterwards, he pulled out several strips of dried jerky and some travel-bread to scarf down. His limbs felt heavy and his head was light, both symptoms of the fact that his body had little-to-no energy to function at that moment, due to his not eating for three days while curing himself.

Considering that he hadn’t been bothered in two days, Feng Jiao deemed it safe enough to lay down and take a nap. Although he had been lying on the ground for days, he hadn’t gotten a single moments rest. On the contrary, he spent the entire time meticulously controlling his Qi while his muscles slowly died and regenerated over and over again. The entire affair was mentally taxing, and Jiao really needed to give his brain a break.

When he woke again, the sun had nearly progressed all the way across the sky. Jiao ate again and then prepared to leave the forest, the end of the competition would be sunset that day. Feng Jiao walked up to the snake’s corpse, which was several times larger than himself. Propping the jaw open with the staff-portion of his spear, Jiao reached his arm into the mamba’s mouth and began fishing around for his spear head, which he’d dropped, careful not to stick himself with any of the fangs again.

After retreating the bladed-portion of the broken spear, Jiao threw his entire weight into overturning the massive snake. He still needed to gather proof that he’d slain the creature in order to win the competition. There was still the chance that one of the other teenagers, with the help of their cheap tricks and retainers, had managed to slay a stronger base than the mamba, but Feng Jiao did not think it likely. Had he not been ambushed, he would never have attempted to fight something so strong as the snake, even with an entire crew of helpers. 

After prying apart a few of the softer scales under the chin of the snake, Feng Jiao was able to insert the blade into the snakes skin and part it like a leaf. His spear ran the length of the snake’s underbelly, splitting it open for organ harvest. Jiao removed the snake’s gallbladder, the portion used for the creation of the Three-Tailed Pill, as well as several more important organs. He wasn’t sure if they’d have a use or value but, at the very least, Feng Jiao figured they could be cooked into a delicacy. 

The process reminded him a lot of cleaning a fish, something he’d done a few times in this life after fishing the river at Crouching Grass with his father. His stomach grumbled once more at the thought of the family fish-roasts of his past, done processing his pre-nap meal and hungry once more.

After wiping his hands ‘clean’ and storing away the snake’s innards, as well as freeing up some jerky for consumption, Jiao sat down to take a break. A phantom image of a red hawk appeared over his shoulder as he began absorbing the energy from the air and refining more Qi. His diantain was uncomfortably low on Qi and it was affecting him physically, making him feel sluggish. The jerky nourished his body while the Qi nourished his spirit. 

Although he wasn’t able to process much Qi in the short amount of time he meditated, Jiao stopped after only ten minutes. He had only a small amount of time to make it back to the clearing on the edge of the forest. He turned to the withered apple tree of sorts before stopping. After a second though, Feng Jiao walked back to the snake’s head and carved out its fangs, tongue and its one good eye. Roasted tongue had a good texture, the fangs could be made into weapons of some sort, and the eye… well it seemed cool enough. 

After the eye was removed, a liquid substance began to dribble out of the snake’s skull. Jiao, taken aback at the substance, did not touch it immediately. He knew it wasn’t brain matter, as he’d seen plenty of brain matter that had leaked into the snake’s mouth from the roof of its mouth. Its color was a bright green, almost like a gemstone, and it seemed too solid.

It finished dripping from the snake’s skull and dripped down onto the dirt below, where it recollected into circle. Curious, Feng Jiao prodded the small collection of liquid with his spear. Contrary to his expectation, there was a bit of resistance when the spearhead attempted to pierce the liquid. Finally, Jiao decided to just scoop it up into his now empty waterskin, careful not to touch it, before moving on. Having harvested most organs short of the venom glands, which he was wary of going near for personal reasons, Feng Jiao walked over to the tree that had gotten him into all that trouble.

He climbed up the withered looking stone-tree and plucked the three rotten fruits before carefully placing those within his sack as well. With his work there done, Feng Jiao turned to leave the forest once and for all. 

As he darted through the trees, Feng Jiao felt a few beasts stirring through his nature sense, crushing grass and pushing branches to the side. Although he was carrying the fruits in his pack, they no longer screamed life in his nature sense, having been removed from their branches. Although they likely contained live seeds, said seeds were dormant and therefore less overpowering in his vision. 

Jiao avoided the beasts and drained the grass behind him of wood Qi, which he funneled into his pulmus meridian in preparation of a breakthrough. Aideen’s image could be seen floating above him as he slowly replenished his drained diatain. If he didn’t run into any more trouble, Jiao would make it back to the clearing with plenty of time to spare.

As he expected, Jiao managed to make it back to the gathering nearly an hour before the sun finished setting. He was able to travel much faster while not worrying about running into danger as the beasts toward the edge of the forest were generally weaker than those behind him. Thus, he made much better time than he had while traveling toward the mamba three days prior.

His diantain was about a quarter full by the time he reached the rest of the children, at which point he stopped his active cultivation and allowed the energy surrounding him to slowly enter his body. In this culture, it was considered rude to cultivate while in the company of another, kind of like eating while nobody else was. Although the passive collection of energy was much slower, Jiao decided it best to behave himself. 

“It’s almost sunset, why can’t we just start the judging already?” one of the children not too far from Feng Jiao seemed to be throwing a fit, with his arms crossed and a sour look on his face while he complained to a friend.

“Because not everybody is back. Just because you showed up an entire day early doesn’t mean everybody else had to rush, not everyone is as much a coward as you.” Disdainfully, the child that Jiao had taken as a friend of the first shot him down. Then again, perhaps they were friends and the second was just grumpy, he had a painful looking bandage on his arm at the moment. 

“So what? If they aren’t back by now they probably pushed themselves too far and died. Not everybody is as cautious and intelligent as I.” The first shot back to the second, nodding his head to the newly bandaged wound his friend sported. The second only snorted and turned his head away, obviously done with the conversation.

All around the gathering, similar conversations were going on. As it turned out, children were not the most patient of humans and all of them were excited to go home. Jiao managed to collect that if a kid came out early, they were not disqualified but were required to remain in the clearing until judgement was over. Not only that, but they were not allowed to return to the forest and their parents were not allowed to bring them food, all precautions to prevent cheating. Like this, many children had been sitting around in the clearing for hours, if not days, waiting for judgement so they could leave.

Off to one side of the clearing, Feng Jiao could see a group of older kids swaggering and bantering with each other, obviously not worried about rushing to judgement. Each of them had a contented look on their faces, like they’d already won and they knew it. Naturally, this bunch was Feng Nian and his helpers. In the middle of their group, a large boar-like creature could be seen with several wounds of various size and shape, leaking a gross colored pus.

So, not only had they obviously ganged up to kill and carry back the boar, but they even used poisoned weapons! They ruined perfectly good boar, an immoral and unforgivable offense. One of the retainers noticed Jiao’s glare and made eye contact before shooting him a shitty grin, obviously mistaking Feng Jiao’s wrath for jealousy. 

‘Very well, we’ll see who is smiling at the end.’ Jiao thought to himself. The sun slowly approached the horizon and torches were lit around the clearing. In the distance, Feng Jiao could see a procession of men wearing robes headed their way, accompanied by servants carrying food and lead up by none other than Feng Nan. Judgement was upon them and, more importantly, it was being accompanied by dinner.