John was running back to the sect, literally. On his way out to the village he had utilized his qi to launch himself forward in great leaps, but it turns out humans really are just built to be runners. John corrupted his leg muscles into a stronger state in order to run at an extreme sprint, qi fueling his movement more than his physical body. The corruption quickly spread to his bones and much of his core to support the increased strain on his physique and balance.
Despite his mood, the sun was shining brightly, the air was crisp, and the trees were just as beautiful as his trip out of the sect. John couldn't help but feel melancholy. It had been a huge relief to visit family after his traumatic experiences. His mom's food was practically a healing experience just by itself. On the other hand, John distinctly felt the missing time. Almost half a year had passed, and though it was clear his family missed him dearly, they were also moving on in their own way. Another child on the way. Violet growing into the roles he had played before. It stung to realize things would never be the same, it was just as they saying goes: you cant go home again.
John didn't hate life in the sect, though he hated what the sect had done to him against his will. He was beginning to feel the separation between mortals and cultivators. Their worlds were connected obviously, mortals became cultivators, and however tenuously, cultivators protected mortals from the threats of the cultivation world. That's not to say that many cultivators didn't have a general disregard for mortal life, because they absolutely did, but cultivators were still protectors and governors given their position on top of the world.
Sighing, John tried to shake off his philosophizing mood. At the very core, John was embarrassed and ashamed to have brought a threat like the demon wolf into proximity of his family. A few more wrong moves and John would have been possessed. A few wrong moves and his family would have died. Luckily that hadn't happened, but as a cultivator he would often be around and bring about danger, especially to mortals. It may be a long time yet before he was able to return to his family safely.
All he could do was get stronger.
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Returning to the sect had been even easier than leaving. Running was cheap qi wise, no mortal dared stop a cultivator, no cultivators or demons interrupted his trip back. John had been gone for little more than a day and a half, well within the time limit. Stepping through the threshold of the protective formation was a relief. Rain thundered down around him, the air was again the comfortable damp humidity he was used to.
It was only mid afternoon, plenty of time left in the day. First things first, John reported to the Exchange Hall that he had returned. He didn't get a refund on his contribution even though he had returned slightly early, not that he really expected anything. John considered spending his remaining fourteen points on something, but decided to wait. If he was honesty he was just looking for a reason to procrastinate returning to the Weird compound and facing Mark and Chloe. He knew the group would fawn over his advancement, which he wasn't in the mood for. He didn't want to explain the circumstances surrounding his advancement. He knew Mark and Chloe would have questions about how his visit home had worked out too, but that was an even worse subject right now.
John decided to cultivate for now. The gardens would be nice and peaceful but apparently there was much politicking in who got to cultivate there and when, so John settled for one of the many gazebos that dotted the sect and took a good look at his cultivation.
Foundation establishment qi was slightly stronger than Qi condensation level qi, but it wasn't a huge margin. The most important upgrade to his qi abilities were his finer control. The ascension in stage had burned away most of his qi in the process. Normal cultivators also experienced this effect, John's process was only more predatory in nature. From the chock-full levels he had left the sect with, John was down to about ten percent. John unfurled all of it into a web in the air to drain the natural water qi into his dantian. Before, John had largely been bottlenecked by how quickly he could convert qi into his own silken variety, but now he couldn't absorb it quick enough due to lack of material.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
'That was a pretty big drawback,' John thought. He would be weaker at the beginning of every stage, especially in combat. Enhancing his body for sprinting hadn't taken much, but John usually fought by weaving most of his qi into weapon constructs which took a much larger share of his overall reserves. Also, his cultivation speed would start quite slow before ramping up to the bottleneck of his conversion speed. Even further than that, John could tell that the water qi he took in was converting to even less qi than before. Without a dense qi environment he would be stuck in Foundation Establishment for some time. The fastest he could advance would be to absorb outside Weird qi sources like he had before. Missions would be important. John didn't want to jump into more fights just yet though, with his weaker fighting skills.
John decided to investigate the Sect Library and see what techniques were on offer. If he could learn some martial arts techniques, his lower qi bandwidth would be less of a problem. Enhancing his body to fight with would be a reliable method until he advanced further along. He would need to check out the library anyway to learn more about Foundation Establishment in general. John had the vague understanding that this tier of cultivation was important to prepare your body to support the formation and demands of a golden core, but with his special dantian he might need to adapt a lot in order to advance.
John pondered all these things as the hours passed. It was apparent why cultivation took so long. Even the second stage took a lot of preparation, strategy, learning, and most of all resources in order to advance. Night was falling, and John couldn't justify procrastinating over sleeping in a real bed, so he finally returned. Elder Catherine was waiting for him.
"Congratulations for your advancement, young man."
"... Thanks." John was hesitant around the Elder. John was being used as a guinea pig by the sect, Elder Catherine was a part of that.
"Ordinarily, a disciple who reaches Foundation Establishment is eligible to move into the Inner sect. That isn't convenient for various reasons, so we'll have to think of a way to properly reward you."
John had just spent hours contemplating his various needs, but the most clarion issue was his slow cultivation progress. The only problem was he needed to hunt the wild qi directly, having a tame gathering formation didn't work as well. John didn't know exactly how much the sect understood about his cultivation technique and its limitations though, and he wasn't eager to give that information away.
"Let me think about it. Can I visit the Inner sect still?" The Inner sect would have better facilities and missions, even if they might insist he stayed stashed away with the other Weird kids most of the time.
Elder Catherine pondered for a moment or two. "Very well, I will discuss it with the Sect Leader as well."
Damn if he didn't want the attention. Probably the sect leader had his eyes on John anyway. After their short conversation the Elder left him alone and John returned to the pavilion. Almost everyone was waiting for him with expectant faces. How annoying.
Mark was the first one to notice that John was not exactly thrilled.
"How did everything go...?" he slurred.
John was curt, "It was not great. I ran into a really strong demon beast and nearly died. I did advance though."
The excitement died visibly around him and John realized a beat too late that many if not all of them wanted to visit their own families.
"Errr.... It was nice to see my family. But a demon followed me to the village, seriously it was really dangerous."
"Right. Will you tell us about how you advanced?" Chloe was quick to change the subject.
John couldn't help but facepalm. His brief moment of enlightenment had been pretty personal, and he didn't want to get into it in this situation.
"I'll tell you guys in the morning, It's late."
John quickly retreated to his building. How awkward could it get? That was just as bad as he'd envisioned. Being the defacto leader of the group and the fastest to advance meant he really did need to guide the others when he could. John didn't think anyone was close to peak Qi Condensation yet anyway, so he could still delay until that happened. Either way, there was a lot of things to do around the sect in the coming weeks to keep him sufficiently busy. Tomorrow he would start his exploration of the inner sect, depending on what he found there his plans could vary greatly. For now, John went to bed.