John spent the next week in relative isolation--tending to his garden and cultivating alone. Partly, he wanted to recover from his decreased total qi reserves. 13% was pretty low, as expected for his necessary all-at-once advancement requirement, but with the Weird qi garden up and running, he was able to recover to 25% pretty quickly.
But no, the real reason he needed time to himself was to decide if cultivating was even worth pursuing like this. The strange visions and trances John experienced so far had been deeply disturbing, but over the months their intensity had faded like nightmares. Scary, but well past. His latest experience made the rest look like a walk in the park. John was not ready for inhuman torture at the hands of an alien intelligence.
John had expected a little pain; there was no getting away from the realities of enhancing and cleaning one's bones with qi, but John was prepared for fractures dulled by adrenaline, not shattered bones melted in hot magma. This was the first time that John really felt maybe cultivation just wasn't worth it. Even his attack by and narrow escape from the demon in his village, even his adventure with Kai out into the near wilds. All those risks and hurts and dangers felt more like an adventure to John, risky to some degree but not insurmountable. Getting abducted by the sect was both annoying and depressing, but that's how cultivators are to mortals--an unavoidable natural disaster..
How John wished he could treat cultivation like a big party the way Kai and his other friends could. For Kai, cultivating was a lot like farming for a mortal. Hard work, but necessary. There would be plenty of things along the way to enjoy and bring happiness or meaning to his life, but cultivating was his job. John knew that if he kept going, it was only going to be more of the same. Perhaps things would get even worse. John would be lucky to get away with his sanity, assuming he kept his life, if he went forward like this. Weird qi twisted everything, just because he had it under control now doesn't mean he will escape its influence forever, even if he does not demonize.
The sect wouldn't let him leave, of course, but John could shirk if he wanted to. Simply advance slower and slower, maybe stop completely around 50% full and claim he couldn't complete the rest of his foundation. Then, he would fade into the background as more cohorts advanced, John would live alone and tend to this very garden. His advancements were enough that he would live to 150, but probably not much longer than that. Maybe there would be a complete Weird qi apocalypse in that time, but John figured that was unlikely. It was possible the sect could figure out, but what could they do? Kill him? A quick death was preferable to the subjective eternity of spiritual torture in his view.
John needed more time to meditate on his life, right now he could see no way forward.
----------------------------------------
Often times, man must submit to circumstances. John spent days resolving himself to give up on cultivation when something happened that gave him enough reason to keep going, despite the trials he knew were coming. On that day, Lambert advanced to Foundation Establishment.
John was meditating in his pavilion when it happened, not cultivating, simply meditating. He was trying out life as a mortal again, simply a very strong mortal. Suddenly there was a huge rush of energy from all over the Outer sect pouring into the Weird compound, specifically into Lambert's pavilion.
The rush of energy was soon replaced by a massive energy shockwave coming from Lambert, exploding outwards and smashing his building to pieces. John rushed out to see what was happening. Pieces of stone and wood rained down around him, shreds of paper still floated high in the air. Several other disciples were out to investigate as well; Chloe and half a dozen of the newbies. All the survivors from the first cohort either remained inside or ran away and John had a sinking feeling he would see more death today. Benjamin and Mark were still in the Inner sect, John didn't know if they could hear the commotion or not, but they weren't in the equation.
Lambert himself was practically boiling in energy even as more of it flooded into him. His flesh seemed to twist and bubble, reshaping constantly as it forcibly pushed through Foundation Establishment. He wasn't demonizing but his eyes were lost in pain and rage. Every feral whisper that made John wary of Lambert before was now bursting out in vicious flares.
'ROAAAR!!' Lambert let out an inhuman howl, undergirded with a deep thumping and screeching overtones.
Lambert looked around hungrily and dashed toward a nameless disciple, stabbing through their waist with his hands and ripping their dantian out the other side. The energy literally drained from the poor kid as they deflated into a husk, all the qi and vitality sucked into Lambert before John could even act.
"Ah!" John gasped out, everything was moving too fast. He grabbed his spear with a yank of qi strands and leapt forward. Lambert made it to another disciple and sucked out all their life and energy before John could stop him, but he arrived a second afterward, spear points forward in a deadly lunge.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Lambert dodged the strike on simple animal instinct, twisting at the last second and moving the husk of the dead disciple in the way. 25% full was not ideal fighting shape for John, most of his qi was hastily thrust into his muscles already for his initial lunge, he pulled about half out and lashed it toward Lambert. Several tendrils tried to pierce through Lambert's limbs to disable his movement, some wove into makeshift shields, some tried to grip him in place.
John was not prepared for the sheer strength difference between the two of them. Lambert pushed through his offense and tried to stab John like he had the others. John's piercing attacks made little progress in the dense layers of reformed muscles and tough skin. If not for his forward shields catching Lambert's body and pushing him back, he might not have survived the attack.
John redoubled his efforts in his shielding, pulling back his useless qi claws and strengthening his body in a more orderly fashion. The increased bandwidth let him corrupt his spear into a a significantly more wicked form. The two points lengthened from the fangs of a viper into the lethal bite of an enormous spider, curving slightly. John's training took over and he started working his movement technique. John leapt to and from various angles, lunging forward and extending his spear to pierce at Lambert when an opportunity presented itself.
Lambert seemed disoriented for a while and John managed to connect a few attacks, piercing high on one thigh, through the left side of his midback, and through one forearm. Unfortunately the forearm strike also marked the moment Lambert was able to catch up to John's movements and counterattack. Lambert swatted away one of John's shield, He shouldn't have been able to see it so easily, and hit him hard with a roundhouse kick to his forward leg.
John felt the muscles in his leg get crushed in the hit, but his bones stayed strong. In a panic he reached out with his qi to push off Lambert and pull on the stones behind him, throwing himself backwards before he was finished off on the ground, righting himself along the way. Lambert didn't bother to pursue and killed another panicking disciple, the absorbed vitality quickly closed the puncture wounds on his body.
John grit his teeth, if only he hadn't moped around the past week, he might have trained his new strength, or had more qi to work with, or had any number of other improvements that would make this situation better. He didn't have time to think, wildly increasing the strength of his body enhancing corruptions, trusting his bones to take the force. His injured leg hurt enormously doing so, and he couldn't put all his weight on that leg for a full leap. John used his other one to launch forward again, even faster.
"RUN YOU IDIOTS!" was all he could shout at the remaining Weird disciples still around, hopefully those hiding kids would get the message too and evacuate. Then he made contact with Lambert, slamming home a lunge to his back, right over his heart. Tons of blood poured out of the wound and John was hopeful that he made a lethal injury with that attack, but suddenly Lambert threw up a torrent of black ichor along with a dozen or so squirming red worms.
John made the connection. The parasites were a Weird infection spread by Lambert's cultivation method, presumably stealing qi from other disciples and fueling his own growth. Now that he advanced a tier above his victims, the drain was all the more dramatic. John grimaced at the thought of the disciples out in the sect getting drained to lifeless husks even now. If John couldn't stop him in time, many would die. They had never managed to push back the infection completely, probably because Lambert kept up the supply. It was possible hundreds of cultivators would be dead.
Lambert stopped throwing up and bleeding at the same time as his organs finished their enhancement. He raised an arm and brought it down hard on the shaft of John's spear. The weapon ripped out of his hands, haft shattered with the points still deep in Lambert's back. Lambert leapt forward and tried to swipe through John's midsection again. He got a block up in time but Lambert still pulled flesh from bone in the attack, rendering John's left arm useless in addition to his right leg. The momentum of the attack pushed him backwards.
Lambert dashed forward eager to kill this delectable prey, John barely fending him off by blasting all his qi into his remaining good leg and kicking hard. The bones stayed in tact but the force of the kick snapped John's tendons, launching Lambert back one last time. Idly, John saw the usual grey sky was replaced by a swirling mass of black clouds. He enhanced his other leg and remaining good arm to fend Lambert off, if possible. The battle sent his blood coursing and dulled the pain, but it was still intense. Maybe not as intense as his bones being remade, but enough to interfere with his ability to fight and survive.
Lambert was midair now, ready to destroy and consume him. Suddenly, the air ionized and a bar of lightning as thick as a tree shot down and fried Lambert, who landed awkwardly. Another bolt was building in the air when suddenly, the Sect leader was standing overtop of Lambert's twitching body. It was so fast John would have missed it if he blinked, and not a trace of a breeze could be felt in his passing.
"None of that." The sect leader said casually, waving his arm toward the sky. The clouds exploded and dissipated as a hole was punched through them so massive that John was able to see blue sky for the first time within the sect. The sect leader glanced at John and then casually picked up Lambert by the back of the neck and disappeared just as quickly as he arrived.
Once again John found himself bleeding on the ground in the wake of a disastrous fight where multiple of his fellow Weird kids died thanks to a cultivation incident. John didn't dare imagine how bad things could have been if Lambert had fully demonized rather than simply being consumed by bloodlust and hunger.
Once again a pill was mysteriously pushed into his mouth, starting to heal his wounds. John didn't have the energy to heal and remain conscious at the same time.
He passed out.