One month had passed since John's return to the Rainy Cloud Sect and his many projects and duties were well underway. The most critical plan was the continued elimination and extraction of parasites affecting the Outer disciples. John had thoroughly scouted the Inner Sect and concluded that no parasites existed there at this moment. While he couldn't be sure that there were no parasites in the Core Sect, it seemed safe to assume it was limited to the Outer sect for now.
John continued to be the most effective at forcefully removing them from their hosts. His senses started better than most of the other Weird kids and he had only honed that advantage over time. It was pretty easy for him to detect the location of the worms. Hiding within the hair was a common tactic, but some parasites hid other places that went unseen. Bottom of the foot, the inner thigh, the armpit, John had seen it all. His qi blades were sharper than a doctor's scalpel and easily removed the damned things too.
Unlike a doctor, John had to run around and solicit patients. The Elders still stubbornly refused to assist in the process of treating the infected, even when it was brought up to them bluntly. Without their help, John was forced to corral the zombie-like disciples around just like he had with Sarah. The problem had spread enough that the other disciples were catching on now, while the Weird kids didn't do the treatment in public, they were getting less strange looks. No one interfered quite as dramatically as Ye had the first time, but there were some questionable moments early on. A couple times, ordinary disciples had brought friends with them to get treated, but it was rare.
As much as it sickened him, John was sure the Sect Leader saw this situation as just another experiment, happily sacrificing the autonomy of weak disciples to fuel his war machine. That was the only conclusion to the lack of organization and assistance from Sect leadership. There had been no deaths so far but it was a near thing. A couple of disciples had been found collapsed in their residences, drained of much of their vitality and qi, the parasites were sucking them dry.
John spent as much time as he could helping, but ultimately he could not dedicate his entire focus to the effort. Luckily others were there to pick up the slack. Not everyone could do it, but three Weird kids stood out. The big surprise was Chloe. Chloe who had been stuck in her cultivation basically the entire time she had been in the sect, actually found a way to progress by helping the infected. John didn't understand the details, but she was somehow able to seduce the parasites out of their current host, convincing them to transfer to her. Naturally, they were promptly slaughtered when they left the existing host, but in doing so Chloe gained qi. John figured that it was related to a quirk of her cultivation method, much like how he could consume defeated Weird demons to advance.
Lambert, the star of the new cohort spent all his time treating the infected disciples. John was glad to see it, as it seemed to give the young man a focus that calmed down his instability. John was still wary of him, but he couldn't fault him for reacting badly to the induction process. Hopefully the Sect Leader was making good on his promise to try less traumatizing methods.
Other than those two, another of the new cohort was making great strides. His name was Conrad, and he had a bizarre healing-oriented cultivation within the Butterfly Dream Scripture. John mused that the Scripture was a lot more like a new cultivation path, along the likes of 'spirit', 'body', and 'mental' cultivation methods. 'Weird' was just another way to progress, hence all the unique expressions of cultivation among the Weird kids. Anyway, Conrad's healing ability was really quite effective, the only downside was its... unique, application. All of Conrad's healing abilities worked rather explosively. When working with an infected disciple, the parasite would explode out of their body, and the area would wriggle and tangle itself back together. If John had a weaker stomach, he might have puked seeing it. Also, his healing was limited by the amount of qi he possessed, and healing higher tier cultivators was more difficult. John had tested that himself with a small cut. Furthermore, one had to endure the combined itching and burning sensation of their flesh wriggling like as many ants. It was pretty awful. Luckily the infected were too far gone to complain.
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The real priority over the last month had been John's garden. After getting the go-ahead from Elder Catherine, a space was opened to him in the Inner Sect. A large flat garden area with sufficient material to make any kind of raised or lowered bed, various large pots, piles of different soils, sands, gravels, rocks, really anything you could think of to grow plants in. The first order of business was creating a large space in the center of the garden for John's twisted version of the Morning Dew Peach Tree to grow. While he had spent two weeks out of the sect, the small seedling had sprouted rapidly, almost outgrowing it's pot.
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The sapling wasn't at the point where one could literally see it grow, but it was fast enough to notice differences day over day. John considered keeping it in a larger pot for a while, since it was much like a large bonsai tree now, but he figured it would be a waste of time later when he had to move a much bigger tree into the ground. John took care to dig a deep pit, filling it with larger rocks and slowly transitioning to top soil. The constant rain could rot out roots if he wasn't careful, but the tree would need the nutrients from the soil too. The fruit tree was almost a Golden Core tier plant so he was extra careful with it in this regard, some of his other seeds he didn't need to mind as much. Most of the energy for its rapid growth came from qi of the earth, air, and water in the surroundings, but it was still a living being subject to the demands that entailed.
Surrounding the sapling, John constructed a series of slightly raised beds to plant his bounty of Weird flora collected from the outside world. Eventually, John wanted to make a formation of plants that would support his precious tree, but he didn't have the knowledge to implement it yet. Let alone raw formation knowledge, working with Weird plants would surely be a challenge. It was going to take some trial and error. Given that mindset, John planted square beds with his varying seeds and tubers. John had a lot of Weird food to grow since he had the most experience foraging edibles. But he made sure to plant large sections of qi-gathering grass that Benjamin was sure to love, batches of the snowy white flowers, and even the earth-oriented starchy tubers.
Over the month working in his garden, John observed a lot of interactions between his plots. Some plants were better at converting water qi into Weird qi, some repulsed normal qi, some repulsed Weird qi which was odd, The peach tree happily guzzled qi from all sources, it went on like this. John took detailed notes in a journal he kept in his small spatial ring. Some of these experiments wouldn't pay off right away but that was okay. What did pay off right away was the huge increase in John's absorption rate!
With the plants to act as converters John could siphon qi off of them easily, saving him a lot of time in his cultivation. John didn't miss the irony that cultivating while being a cultivator ended up being one of the best strategies. Nor the fact that John was acting as a farmer again, at least to a degree. Still, John appreciated the peace that the garden offered him. By the end of the month, John was closing in on 90% full. He itched to initiate a cocoon and enhance his body, but he resisted the urge. Even with a garden to do some heavy lifting, John constantly unfurled a huge web in the air to catch and convert water qi into his own silk. Starting over at 20% versus 30% would be a big deal, so he would keep at it until 100, it was only a week away at worst.
Speaking of advancement, access to Weird qi-gathering grass let Benjamin skyrocket his cultivation, finally able to experiment with Weird-specific alchemy. He used some of the other plants readily too, even leaves off the peach tree occasionally, though John didn't let him take too much. Despite his hopes for Mark and Chloe early on, Benjamin was the second person to reach the Inner sect. When he officially advanced, the sect moved the entire Weird compound closer to the barrier between Inner and Outer areas. Once again the changes had been completed in a single night without anyone noticing. The sect also opened a small doorway for the Weird cultivators to go between the two areas, it opened right into John's garden.
They also had their own Weird Cultivation house nearby, but it was essentially empty. Until they found or made their own qi treasures, it was not much. Still, Benjamin used it for his alchemy and John used it for storage and organization. As more cultivators came up, maybe it would prove more useful. The doorway only let Foundation Establishment cultivators through, but John did get the idea to try and drag Mark's petrified body through the door. Surprisingly it worked. Perhaps he was only considered mere stone now? Readily passing through just like the clothes on his back. Either way, John set his meditating form in the garden too. It was a little macabre but John still believed the man was in there and cultivating, just stuck in a bizarre transition state between Qi condensation and Foundation Establishment. If that was true, the pure Weird qi would be better for him than the weak environmental qi in the Outer sect.
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Meanwhile, while John was gardening peacefully, a tense scene was playing out in a secret chamber high up in the Sect Leader's personal pavilion.
The sect leader faced an old cultivator, both were seated around a small table with a clay pot in the center. The old cultivator was high in Golden Core, but stagnant. He was bottlenecked in his cultivation and had been so for more than a hundred years. He had lost hope for advancement long ago, but a new spark was in his eyes now.
"This is it?" He asked.
"Yes."
"How bad are the side effects?"
"We don't know for sure how it will work at a higher cultivation level, but it can't be much worse than you've already seen."
The old man seemed to hesitate for a while. The sect leader spoke up again.
"It's worth a chance."
The man hesitated a few moments longer before resolving himself with a nod. He picked up the clay pot and levitated out a long red worm. The parasite chewed up his qi in delight, eating its way toward the old man. He could have stopped it with a thought and a blast of qi, or even smashed it with his bare hands. Instead, he cooperated with the Weird gu worm and it burrowed through his waist and into his Golden core.
The man doubled over in pain, qi suddenly roiling off of him as he forcibly advanced.