John, Mark, and Chloe were up later that night, discussing the fight with Peter--or his possessed form. Mark and Chloe had taken out a thrall each and then assisted the handful of others to dispatch the last thrall. It took some time for everyone's adrenaline and nervous energy to fade, the disciples who stayed in the compound were full of questions, babbling incessantly. Those who had fought were more subdued, but still confused about the situation. Once everyone had settled down the three defacto leaders of the remaining Weird kids began brainstorming. The main issue of discussion was the strange behavior of the sect leading up to and during the attack.
Why had all the other disciples disappeared? Why had Elder Catherine not dealt with Peter before they go to him? Who had healed John at the end of the fight? These were all important questions. Disciples disappearing was surely related to the alarm that went out--sects are quite safe on a day to day basis, but infrequent disaster meant there were likely protocols to shelter in place. No one had told them to stay sheltered however, and such directives couldn't be found on their copies of the sect rules. Elder Catherine had clearly run out before them and was much stronger than any disciple besides. She could have reached the scene of the fight in moments, while it took them nearly two minutes. The healing pill shoved in John's mouth was the most damning piece of evidence in the end. The sect wanted them to fight against Peter after his possession.
It was the only conclusion that made sense. John and them were intentionally allowed to fight against the demon because it benefited the sect in some way. The question remained: why? The demon was frightening in battle, and its transformation was stomach churning in the extreme, however; in the end it was dispatched by a solid stage qi condensation disciple. In other words, it was at most a qi condensation tier threat. John thought back to what Fatty Wang had told him the day before: normal disciples couldn't interact with the Weird qi infesting the herb garden, so one of them had to remove it. John had inferred that to mean no normal qi could interact with Weird qi sufficiently to remove it, but that was only an assumption without much basis.
Most likely, normal disciples really couldn't do much about a Weird qi infestation. But an Elder? Could an Elder really not clear away the infection, or was it simply beneath them, or had they been instructed not to deal with it? The same was probably true for possession. John had torn the beast to shreds with as many silken claws as he could bear to manifest, but it had regenerated effortlessly. Only when John had--and he tried not to think about this, forcefully consumed the demon, had it stopped regenerating and finally died. Ordinary qi condensation disciples can ordinarily deal with qi condensation level threats, that's a fact. In light of their abduction and harsh initiation into the sect, everything pointed to one outcome. The Weird kids were abducted to become soldiers against a very particular kind of threat. In order to train their new soldiers sufficiently, the sect introduced or allowed danger to make them stronger faster.
They all paled at that.
"There's only eight of us left... That's not enough 'soldiers' for the entire sect. More will come." It was Mark who realized it first. More people were likely to get abducted after the current wave of trial and error.
"How awful..." Even Chloe's usual boisterous energy was cowed.
"Bastards, I still haven't forgiven them for what happened in those cells." John fumed.
Mark and Chloe looked at each other.
"What?"
"Apparently most breakthroughs are quite painful..." Mark explained. John wished he would stop drawling out his sentences when he spoke.
"Most breakthroughs are painful huh? So you're saying the way we were treated was somehow a blessing?" John was a little incredulous. Despite the fact that they had helpers, like Eli, no one was teaching them the common sense of the cultivation world directly. Elder Catherine was more of a minder than a Master, even Eli was basically a manservant if not a spy. That being said, mortal understanding of cultivation was myth and rumor at best. Most of it focused on things like flying and immortality, not pain and boredom.
Looking back at his initiation, John's memory was twisted and feverish. He still remembered the awful pain of this body being ripped apart and reconstructed, and the casual cruelty that their handlers delivered, stripping them naked, splashing them with cold water repeatedly, forcing pills down their throat. John had felt it was especially malicious and awful, but what if it wasn't so specific? What if it was the way you treated cannon fodder that you fully intended to throw at a meatgrinder of a problem like Weird qi.
"Bastards!" He repeated. "A couple days ago, Elder Catherine told me I could go back to my village for a visit as long as I had sufficient contribution points. Do you think they would really let that happen if we are just disposable tools? Why give any kindness to trash?"
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"John honey, even if they let you go for a bit, what can you do to stop them from taking you back?" Chloe's voice was excessively sweet.
"It's worth a shot still." Mark commented.
It was getting even later, but John committed to exchanging his contribution points for a leave of absence first thing in the morning. John showed them the door and while Mark filed out obediently, yawning the whole time, Chloe turned around at the last second.
"You know, its such a long walk back to my place, I'll just stay here and--"
"Out!" John closed the door on her face.
Sighing loudly, John got in bed and tried not to think about the chunks of silk-wrapped gristle occupying his soul.
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During the night, John was plagued by nightmares. He was brought back into hell by the Wheel, his undying soul tortured for untold years before being shoved back into Peter's body at the moment of his possession. In the dream he was merely a passenger, feeling what Peter felt and seeing what he was seeing, but also free floating around him like a butterfly. A strange presence overcame them both, terribly vast and completely insane. The world around them fractured into a million pieces, changing into unrecognizable imitations of reality before devolving into chaos. Peter's mental scream garbled into a choir of unholy and inhuman voices.
The perspective of the dream swung around, as John himself ran into the chaos. Their fight played out before him, almost identical. Where John had formed claws of floating qi, they were now attached to long arachnid arms that extended all the way back to the Wheel. His enormous lance was the bite of a gargantuan spider.
When Peter finally died in the dream, John woke up.
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The endless rain felt especially loud this morning. John remembered having a terrible nightmare, but the details escaped him. Something about his fight with Peter. It was John's first taste of real combat so it didn't seem too surprising to be unsettled by it.
To John's great surprise and pleasure, he had absorbed all the chunks that had filled almost his entire dantian-space. Just clenching his fist was sufficient to make a popping sound in the air. John was almost at the peak of the Solid stage now, and would soon need to plumb the depths of Foundation Establishment. Absorbing Weird qi sources directly was many times more efficient than absorbing and converting other qi sources.
After a quick wash and breakfast, John headed to the main square of the outer sect. It was impossible to ignore the many stares he got from other disciples. Actually, every single person that he saw was paying him attention, almost to the point of staring. It was really unsettling.
The contribution board stood in the center of the square, proudly displaying the top ranking disciples and their total contribution to the sect. The top of the board had close to seven hundred points, and several positions after were still well into the hundreds before dropping off. Smaller slates along the bottom of the board could be accessed to display contribution points of the disciple who accessed it, so that's where John headed. Using the board, a number appeared in bold strokes: '47'.
Forty seven it is.
Heading into the Exchange Hall, John was greeted by an old man wearing disciple clothes, he must have been in his early sixties at least. The hall had smooth black tiling and the walls were covered in formation boards similar to the large contribution board outside. Each board was clearly labeled with a category of exchange and had long lists of prices for various goods. Almost everything was related to cultivation: formations, cultivation locales, exposure to rare or different qis, qi treasures, techniques, etc. There was a huge board just for weapons and forging services, set right next to an equally large board for defensive artifacts and armor. More esoteric artifacts got lumped together and had all kinds of effects, investigation and storage were popular, but things like digging artifacts, shelter artifacts, etc, were all there as well. Surprisingly there was an exchange board for mortal materials as well--all extremely cheap naturally.
John didn't see a board for leaving the sect, actually missions were the only time most disciples left the sect, so John tried his luck with the old man.
"Excuse me? I heard from Elder Catherine that I could leave the sect for some time in exchange for contribution points?"
The Old man opened his eyes, John couldn't tell if he had been sleeping or cultivating. "You want to leave the sect young man?"
He had a bit of a bizarre accent that John couldn't place. "Yes?"
"Well do you?"
"Yes."
The man pulled out a jade slip and fiddled with it, John could detect some slight qi fluctuations but had no idea what was going on otherwise.
"It's ten points per day, three points for a map which I recommend you buy. You can get punished for returning late if there are no... exigent circumstances shall we say." Did he mean getting attacked or what? Running away probably isn't going to work, Mark was right.
After a bit of an internal struggle, John decided on only three days away plus the map for a total of thirty three points spent. Fourteen points remaining wasn't much, but John wanted to save some as he would surely be back and need something from the sect again.
John gave thanks to the old man and a slight awkward goodbye. Returning to the compound, John prepared for his journey, he would leave early tomorrow morning. He spent the rest of the day cultivating water qi from the air and talking to the others. He wanted to get to the very peak of solid stage and push for Foundation Establishment when he returned. Only when he was stronger could he have revenge on the Rainy Cloud sect for abducting him. Even if his treatment really was to empower him some way, he would never forgive them.