Druidic Cultivation | Nine

“Junior Feng Jiao greets honorable Senior.” The God Tree Grove elder’s eyes had tracked Feng Jiao since he stepped out of the crowd. She was very pleased that he not only chose to find her as soon as possible, the beautiful boy had even come to speak to her before finding his parents. ‘This will be a good seed,’ She thought to herself.

“None of that now, I am only an outer ring elder. Besides, you haven’t even officially sworn into the sect yet. Please, call me by my name, Nufang Mudan. I am very happy that you choose to join our family, would you mind telling me your reasons?” Elder Mudan asked with a smile on her face, less an interrogation and more mild curiosity. 

“It’s like you said, Senior Nufang, it could be said that we are fated. My martial spirit appeared as a domineering tree and the name of the God Tree Grove came to mind. I’ve also always loved working in my family’s herb garden, and I’ve heard that your sect occupies one of the best spiritual medicine mountain ranges in the country.” Feng Jiao told the truth, mostly. There was no need to tell people he’d retained his memories when he reincarnated, at least unless he thought it would bring him any benefits. 

He wasn’t shallow enough to think his soul was the only one powerful enough to slip through the cycle of samsara without being wiped clean but hadn’t heard of anyone else who’d done it before. Either it was a taboo action, or they were all keeping quiet for a reason, there was no reason not to do so as well. There were already several things that the public would want to investigate about him, such as the two martial spirit phenomena as well as his twin pure affinities. There was never going to be any blending into the background considering the way he looked, but there was no reason to draw even more attention. 

“Acceptable answer. Many young children with talents as high as yours would jump to join the largest sect they could. Many would even abandon their mother nation to follow a super power elsewhere, throwing away all face and loyalty,” Her gaze darted over to where the Dark Warrior Sect was communicating with its hopefuls, “I am very pleased with your choice and I am sure your family will be too. The God Tree Grove will not stay a medium sized sect for too much longer, especially with talents such as yours raising our prestige.

“I asked you over afterwards because I had something I wanted to discuss with you. As you can see, several of the attendees returning to the sect today are much younger than fifteen. With talent such as yours it would be a shame if your family didn’t have the resources necessary to cultivate you properly.” Her knowing look clued Feng Jiao into the fact that she fact she’d noticed his position with the commoners. Feng Jiao’s family was not poor by any means, them being the lording family of a small village in a relatively wealth area, but they weren’t rich either. Most of the issue was that his family was new and lacked much heritage. 

“What do you suggest then, Senior?” Feng Jiao knew she was inviting him to the sect early, but he didn’t feel like asking. If she wanted to be coy about it then he would force the question out of her rather than be the first to ask. With his ability to commune with nature, he didn’t see himself lacking many resources regardless of where he was, lucky opportunities could present themselves anywhere after all.

“Six months from now, I personally intend to return to Willow Mountain City for the winter solstice ceremony. At that time, I would be very pleased if you met me at the Crow and Sun, it’s a restaurant near the city’s center. I’d like to take you back to the sect and start your cultivating early, you have much promise. Take these two months to return with your family, the God Tree Mountain Range isn’t very close by.” With that, the Elder gave Feng Jiao several extra pills along with a warning on how to refine them. 

Feng Jiao gave his thanks and walked back toward the caravan area, intending to meet up with his father there rather than deal with finding his father in the crowd. Several pairs of eyes followed him but it was much less than before he’d revealed to the crowd that there was a life root attached to him rather than a peach. Most of the eyes belonged to females, surprisingly Feng Jiao still had a hard time coming to grasp with how lewd the adults of this race could act toward children. Why would you want to mate without the possibility of children, after all. He only rolled his eyes and continued his walk. 

Like minded as he was, Feng Jiao ran into his father sitting on the seat of one of their carriages. The taller man jumped off with a devilish smile and ran over, lifting his son up in a bear hug and spinning him wildly. His loud laughter and freakishly tight hug couldn’t possibly express his excitement at that moment. His first and only sun was peak-eighth grade talent and even had top-tier sects arguing over him!

“Jiao’er, I am so proud of you,” The burly man eventually set his son down before patting off his shoulders and ruffling his hair, “I approve of your choice of sect. The top tier sects might be big and rich, but they’d not treat you as well as the mid-tier would. They’re already chuck full of talents and would feel no need to raise you specially. Oh, my son, just wait until your mother hears about this!” Feng Jiao couldn’t recall the last time he saw his father this happy. It was probably around the time his baby sister, Chu’er, had popped out.

“Thank you, Father. This humble son is glad to have made our family proud. How did the rest of the young generation of Crouching Grass fair? I was a bit distracted after my placement… “Feng Jiao trailed off. Both he and his father knew that Feng Jiao did not pay attention to the other kids at any point in time, but he asked because he knew that his father wouldn’t only be excited for his sake.

“We had outstanding results, Jiao’er. Less than twenty percent of our children had failed results and we even had more grade six talents than previous years. On top of that, half of your generation will be traveling to the God Trees with you.” The God Trees were a way for people to refer to the God Tree Mountain Range, but with much less syllables. Feng Jiao didn’t really care for his fellow clansmen, having not talked to them much while growing up, but he knew what it meant for the clan. Not only was a pill given to each child directly that day, more cultivation resources would likely be sent to the clan in the future.

If they did well, there was even a good chance that the God Tree Grove would sponsor their Feng clan or even their entire Crouching Grass village. The Feng family clan was only a few generations old, lacking both heritage and traditions such as a family sect. Feng Zhipei wanted a shelter for their family clan like the Boulder Crab Sect was for the Huang family. Until this point, the children would attend various sects based on which sect would be willing to accept them. This wouldn’t just be a period of growth for the God Tree Grove, but for the Feng Family clan of Crouching Grass as well.

“That is good to hear, father. I am going to rest inside the carriage, if you don’t mind. Please excuse this unfilial son but I will likely be unable to attend dinner tonight.” Feng Jiao bowed to his father before climbing into the carriage and making his preparations. On the journey over, Feng Jiao collected several herbs that he recognized from his past life and substitutes he’d learned about in the family garden growing up, all leading up to that day.

A lot of his botanical knowledge didn’t translate over to this new world, he’d learned, as it had an entirely different ecosystem. Even those plants that he did recognize had different properties and had a much higher Qi potency. A large portion of the reason he’d helped his mother pick weeds and tend garden while growing up was just so that he could compare and contrast his herbalism with this world, and he’d found many replacements for the herbs he couldn’t locate.

In the corner of the carriage, Feng Jiao sat cross legged and removed a ceramic plate from his bags. A copper brazier would have worked better for the ritual he had planned but was more difficult to procure and transport, so he went with a heat proofed half dome plate instead. In it he placed blue sage flowers, bark of willow and cedar, sweetgrass, juniper, and dried mugwort. Of these, only the sweetgrass was an exact match to his past knowledge and the rest were closely related or the best substitute he could find so he correlated the words in this new language with the plants of his past life’s memories. Feng Jiao found it easier to combine botanical knowledge that way, he was unlikely to ever encounter what he’d originally known as sage again, so this new plant was sage now.

He then removed a flint from his bag which he struck against a camping knife his father had given him on his eighth birthday, casting sparks until the sage started to smolder. He cupped his hands over the burning herb and stoked the flames with his breath until they were healthy and once he was confident the fire would take, he sat back in a meditative pose. With the burning herbs in front of him he voided his mind of all external thoughts and started internalizing the mantra he knew for communicating with one’s spirit animal.

Unlike many of the spells he’d been born knowing as a tree, this one didn’t carry with it the same sense of confidence and comfort. In the past, casting magic had felt like slipping into a well-worn pair of shoes, easy and seamless. This ritual, however, felt like it was second hand knowledge which made Feng Jiao feel strange. If all his magical knowledge had been innately inborn with him upon the sprouting of his first leaf, why did some spells feel more natural than others? It was a question he would likely never answer, but one that bothered him.

The aroma of the herbs blending together began to congregate and mix, eventually converging a thick, colorful cloud of smoke that stayed in one place above the fire. The ritual he was performing was not long, but it was not short either. While he chanted the mantra internally, he had to perform countless minute movements of the Qi he had stored around his brain, pushing it out of his pores and controlling it externally to create runes within circle around him. At the same time, he was casting another spell to draw out the required medicinal effects from the herb fire, forcing the cloud to grow thicker and thicker. When the spell circle was formed, he began the final verse of the mantra and the smoke cloud began to move. It filled in the previously invisible runes and spell circle, giving a physical form to a magical construct. 

Feng Jiao finished internalizing the mantra around the same time that the medicinal potency of the herbs had burned out and the cloud shot straight toward his face, rushing in through his nose, mouth, ears, and even the corners of his eyes. A burning sensation spread throughout his body but he did not feel the pain, instead he focused inward and concentrated on the image of his friend.

Slowly, he awoke in a large vast plane that was void of all color and shapes. He was standing upon nothing staring into an endless abyss, and the abyss was staring back. From the nothing, a spark was borne. Contrary to what one would think would happen to a spark with no fuel to burn, it grew. Brighter and larger, it began to spread like an inferno until the entire landscape was bright and ripe with every color of fire. Just as the fire reached Feng Jiao, it stilled. The flames were all sucked back to the genesis spark, and a shape formed. A clarion cry rang through the void that was now colored ash grey rather than black, and a bird appeared before Feng Jiao, majestic as the day he’d first seen it.

“Hello, old friend. I’ve been waiting for you.” A soft voice that brought one’s ears a feeling of warmth and embrace entered Feng Jiao’s ears. It was a voice he’d never heard in his entire life, but one he was intimately familiar with. A soul haunting voice, beautiful enough to enrapture one and steal away their will. A friend’s voice.

“Hello, my little bird.”