Johns first foray into the Inner sect had been an almost unmitigated disaster. He had spent nearly two months working on missions here with the primary purpose of advancing his qi growth and accumulating enough contribution points to pay for martial arts training. Instead of achieving his goals, he was now deeply in debt and clearly understood the limitation of his cultivation speed. He was up to 15% full thanks to consuming large portions of strong wild Weird qi, not that bad for a mere two months. However, John needed to reach 100% full before beginning the elevation of his flesh in order to maximize his overall speed. If empowering his skin took 30% of his total capacity and he started from 100%, he would have 70% to work with to capture and convert natural qi. If he did the first transformation earlier he would have less to work with, and since his cultivation was exponential to some degree, it was not worth it.
John also didn't know just how much qi it would take to completely transform his body, but it wouldn't be only a little. He needed a way to more efficiently gather qi than just doing missions or just sitting around the sect. John paused at that thought. Did he truly need to rush so much? Cultivation was a long journey, John knew that intellectually, but he couldn't shake the feeling of pursuit that lingered in the back of his mind. Sure John wanted revenge, but that would come in time too, why was he so hurried? John couldn't place exactly where the anxiety was springing from, but he decided to trust his instincts.
In any case, Weird cultivation was a kind of new technology in the world; just because he was limited now doesn't mean he would need to be forever, he simply had to invent new and better techniques. Speaking of new and better techniques, John had some ideas for initiating new Weird cultivators that he wanted to bring to the Sect leader. A part of John loathed to help the sect as it would inevitably mean more misery for them all, but he also couldn't stand to let the sect continue as they had been--torturing and drugging helpless mortals until they broke through into Weird cultivation.
For now, the reluctant part won out and John decided to meet with Kai. Kai's father was the Vice Sect Leader, maybe he could entreat with him instead.
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Walking up to Kai's pagoda, John still found himself impressed. It was a small courtyard but quite refined. Elegant bonsai set in painted porcelain pots, Zen gardens surrounded the square where there were no buildings. Various calligraphy banners and paintings stood on walls. Even compared to the relative opulence of the Inner Sect, Kai had style.
Sitting in front of the main building was Fatty Wang and a couple other lackey-type characters. John had to admit that they did look a little sleazy from a distance, hunched over as they were. John knew looks could be quite deceiving though, even more so for cultivators, but Wang had always treated John with respect and dignity. That was more than he could say for the Sect Leader.
"Good morning Disciple Wang, where's Kai today?"
Wang looked up, seemingly surprised to see him. "Hey John, Kai is nearing his breakthrough so we're guarding his room, he'll be out in a few hours probably." He gestured to the others, "This is Vic, Jim, and Saul." They all gave greasy smiles.
"Who is this? Disciple Wang?" That was Vic.
"This is John, we did a mission together and and he got lumped in with us because of that Ye bastard," Wang said.
"Hey that guy was a jerk to me all on his own, you and Kai were perfectly friendly to me, I didn't get lumped in with you." John retorted.
Jim responded this time, spitting on the ground, "That jerk has been an increasing pain in our sides over the past months... How I'd like to stick a dagger in his side, see how he likes it."
"Jim don't worry, Kai will be in Foundation Establishment soon, then we will have less to worry about." Fatty Wang tried to calm Jim down but the guy already had a dagger in hand, when did he even pull that out?
"Ah, I made it to Foundation Establishment already too, the Inner sect was a bust for me though, that's why I'm here."
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A couple of their eyes went wide at that statement, Wang noticed and said, "You made it? Nice job John," he turned to the others, "I forgot to mention, John is one of those new cultivators."
Silence
"Should we be calling John Young Master too?" Saul spoke, for the first time.
John had no idea what they were talking about though and just gave them all a strange look.
"Is it true that the Sect gifted you tons of cultivation resources for free when you first joined?" Vic asked.
Is that what they think happened? Suddenly all the strange looks in the sect made a lot more sense. Sure John and the others were unusual, but they were also very private. It didn't make sense to have garnered much attention just by their unusual cultivation technique, especially before everything got more and more bizarre.
"Uh no. The sect didn't give me anything good. I was trapped here as a prisoner for months before becoming a cultivator, how did you not know that?" John realized it as he spoke, it was obvious in retrospect. The sect lied about the nature of the Weird cultivators and how they were recruited to the sect.
That put an awkward pause on the conversation, it was obvious they really had no idea what John had gone through. Fatty Wang skillfully pivoted the conversation and John let it slide. Maybe Kai had some knowledge of what really happened, and could assist him more directly.
The group chatted casually for a while as several hours passed. Occasionally they spoke about cultivation or other serious topics, but most of the conversation was quite lighthearted after John cooled his head.
It only took a couple of hours for Kai to come out of his abode. John could sense the Foundational qi coming off of him before he made it to the door.
"""Young Master!""" the group gave a congratulatory chorus all at once, rushing up to him.
"Hey Kai, glad you caught up to me," John grinned.
"John! I didn't realize you had advanced, you should have come around."
"Ah yeah... Its been rather complicated, thats actually why I'm here."
Kai gave him a look of slight confusion, "Well come on everyone, lets celebrate my advancement over dinner, my treat. We can talk about this in detail later, John."
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Kai took them all to a very nice restaurant, John didn't even know this place existied it was so exclusive. He was worried that maybe his execisve debt might prove to be a problem, even with Kai paying, but nothing happened. The spread of food was incredible, better than anything John had ever seen before. Spicy green peppers with fragrant beef, stir fried noodles in a dark sauce, at least three kinds of chicken, prepared with different sauces and vegetables. A whole terrine of fragrant white rice was prepared for them alongside a whole fried duck. The drinks were even more varied: rice wine, plum wine, cherry liquer, jasmine tea, green teas in several varieties, and several flower milk teas.
For a while, John was able to forget his worries and simply enjoy dinner with his friends.
"So John, tell me about the Inner Sect." Kai eventuall asked.
John described some of his experiences, like just how dense the qi in the air was, the unusual housing, the special gardens, and how most of the missions were focused outside the sect.
"Actually thats the main issue right now, the missions. I'm not confident about going outside the sect alone until my strength recovers more, now that you'll be in the Inner sect too we can cooperate. I tried my hand at a number of missions within the Inner sect to get some points, but I encountered some difficulties. I was able to clear an important garden of Weird qi but lost a fruit in the process, the Elder from the mission hall punished me pretty harshly for it, now I'm in serious debt to the sect."
Kai's eyes gleamed during the description of the Inner sect, and he assured John they could work together to complete missions, but he immediately frowned about the debt.
"What did the elder look like?"
John described him, the man was middle aged and unremarkable, John figured he was just doing his duty like the older disciples do for the Outer sect.
"Thats Elder Song, John. Lady Song's older cousin in the sect. Normally his duties only involve the Disciplinary Hall, he shouldn't be in the Mission Hall... Damn, seems like you got targetted."
John's blood boiled at that, "Thats too far! I barely had a disagreement with Ye and Lady Song, are you telling me the debt is just bullshit?"
"No unfortunately not... It is possible to go into debt if you ruin sect resources, assuming they dont just expell or kill you. I'd guess your debt is excessive compared to the damage though. Sorry John this is happening because you are associated with me in their eyes. I can't do anything about it directly but I'll ask my father to help."
John was a bit mollified by Kai's concern. "Thanks man, that would mean a lot to me. I'm basically stuck until I can do something about the debt, or until my cultivation recovers enough to fight, but that will take a while."
The party continued into the night, and John grew closer with Kai, Wang and the others. Fatty Wang was close to Foundation Establishment too, and the others are only weeks or months away, soon they could all work together on missions outside of the sect.
Eventually, John made it back to the Weird compound. He was surprised to see everyone was still up and huddled around talking. When John joined them, he heard some disturbing news. The new batch of Weird cultivators would be released tomorrow.