John awoke that day well before daybreak. Daytime in the Rainy Cloud Sect was a grey affair anyway, with the endless clouds. Some formation controlled the climate in the sect to be nearly identical every day: endless rain with a slight chill. Before the sun was up though, it was incredibly dark. John found that he could still see somewhat, his eyesight elevated beyond pure mortal now, but it was still a bumbling affair lighting a lamp before getting dressed and packing last minute items. Eli had prepared a bracing but thin soup for him last night to eat this morning. He would need the energy to get back home fast.
Outside, and with a cloth rucksack on his back, John found he was a little lonely. No one else was awake to see him off. Did he really expect anything? Mark and Chloe were something like allies, or subordinates, more than they were true friends. John quickly pushed away his melancholy, soon he would see his family again, even if it was only a brief visit. Opening his map, John examined his path one last time by lamplight.
The sect occupied a series of prominent peaks on a long mountain range. His village occupied a miniscule valley along a tiny river that wasn't even significant enough to mark on the map. It was several valleys away. John didn't know how he arrived at the sect from his home--it happened in a literal flash for him, but John was not advanced enough to fly on his own. He was going to have to run.
Sighing loudly, John made his way out to the entrance of the sect at a walk, no sense in rushing to the start of the journey, the vast majority of his travel time lay in his run. It would not hurt to take some breaks here or there. Very little happened in the sect at this hour, and John saw only two people out and about. He couldn't tell if they were disciples or elders in the low light conditions. John supposed the inner and core sect areas might be more active, Cultivators needed less sleep as they got stronger after all.
The entrance to the sect was a grand courtyard, with impressive displays of wealth and diligence: well manicured gardens, gilded gates, life-like statues of previous sect leaders, and various carved steles. John suddenly realized that ordinary disciples probably got accepted here in grand ceremonies. How depressing, he would never get to experience something like that. As much as Cultivators were a threat to mortals and their livelihood, many mortals still held dreams of being chosen. John had been like that once, before he found out his spirit roots would never support standard cultivation. Afterwards, he made peace with it and was prepared to live as a farmer. He liked farming too, there was something peaceful about planting and tending to crops. Oh well.
Passing through the gate, John was quite shocked when the rainfall stopped. Turning around he could only see the illusionary shimmer of the protective formation. The silence was deafening for a long moment before being broken by birdsong. John had really grown accustomed to the rain, it was almost uncomfortable to be out of it. Humans really could adapt to anything.
The second thing John noticed was how low the environmental qi was compared to the inside of the sect. John frowned a little. He didn't absorb qi the way others did but he still needed it in the air to capture, how suffocating. A long series of stone steps awaited him, leading down the foot of the mountain. It was barely light enough to see the steps. John took off in a sprint down the mountain.
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As light returned to the world John was greeted to a gorgeous display of vibrant colors, the trees had begun their annual show. Up on the mountain it was a breathtaking sight as far as the eyes could see. Speaking of breathtaking, John found that his run barely seemed to strain his breathing. Cultivation made him much stronger he knew, but only in this mundane context was he able to feel it so clearly. John increased his pace until he was leaping down tens of steps at a time, superhuman balance and coordination and the downhill trajectory almost felt like flying.
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By the time John made it to the foot of the mountain he was grinning widely, he could hardly help it. Leaving the sect felt like a weight off his back and he felt freer than ever before. The road was still paved this close to the sect and John took off like cheetah at full speed. Going over flatter land and up hills took away some of his momentum but he didn't tire for another hour. John was starting to feel some burn in his legs, but he had made really good time going down the mountain. If he could maintain this break-neck pace constantly he would get home in something like sixteen hours.
John had a lot of energy left but sixteen hours was still quite a long time, and he would need to stop for meals at some point as well. John decided to start experimenting with his qi to empower himself. It was definitely possible, but he hadn't needed such enhancements before. Mostly he used his qi as an external force. Still running, he sent strands of qi down into his legs. It was a little complicated by the fact that his dantian occupied his entire body, but dantians were a semi-spiritual organ, all of his muscles and bones were still in their usual spot. The strands of qi in his legs were quite awkward, they readily followed his mental commands as easily as his legs did, but they did not follow his legs in the same way. John had to manually control their movements, bunching and extending in time with his legs.
Maybe if John had a better understanding of human anatomy this would work, but as in its current form it was not ideal. His second idea was to coat his legs in a layer of qi, acting like artificial muscles still but with a simpler movement. Almost like he was trying to puppeteer is own legs from the outside, he got an explosive burst of speed, but it required a lot of concentration still. Foundation Establishment was the stage where the body was strengthened significantly, but John wasn't ready to breakthrough. He couldn't help but feel that if he only had more legs he cou--
John almost fell over. Why did he think he needed more legs? It was an alien, intrusive though, but it was still there. Some instinct inside him felt hampered by his mere two human limbs. Shaking his head, John tried not to think about it right now, he had more important things to deal with right now, like running as fast as inhumanely possible. Some part of him was tickled though, and a spark of inspiration struck him. Not exactly extra legs, but not trying to enhance his current capabilities. John twisted his silk into strong braids with barbed claws at the end, launching them into the ground in front of him before pulling hard.
The strength of his qi tentacles lurched him forward like a sling shot. He was barely running any more, instead bounding with incredible leaps. His legs were important for balance and trajectory control but almost all the force of his travel was through qi now.
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After hours and hours of travel, John was standing on a large hill looking down at his home village. Wide fields were full of golden wheat, waving peacefully in the late evening breeze. He had stopped twice to eat his travel rations, simple biscuits, fruit, and dried meat served him as well as it did mortals. Higher level cultivators could subsist on qi alone, but John wasn't quite there yet. John had met several travelers on the road as well, small time farmers and merchants--no other cultivators. The mortals had paid him extreme respect, stepping off the road and even bowing to him in some cases. He though he heard some of them address him as 'honored cultivator' but he was running too fast to hear it properly.
The travelers' manners pained him a little bit, John didn't think of himself as a cultivator entirely yet, and while he didn't mind the behavior of strangers, he was worried about his family treating him differently. John breathed deep and let out turbid air. No matter what, he couldn't go back to how he was before, so it didn't bear worrying about it. He would just have to see what laid in store tonight and the following days. At that, John stepped into the valley.