There was a dozen or so infected plants within the entire garden. John was staring at the first, a simple qi gathering grass. The lush bed was full of long straight blades, curly scapes, little white flowers, and hundreds of seed-filled heads. Really quite gorgeous, especially as a farmer, John thought it was nice to see such vivid crops. Not so gorgeous or vivid, was the pulsating tumor growing near one corner.

It was a pestilent looking thing, all bruise-purple and blood-red. Thick veins pulsed like a real heart, and the grass was bloated. Worst of all was the horribly wrong feeling it gave off to his qi senses, revolting waves of energy constantly brushed against him.

"There's more of this stuff?" He asked Disciple Wang.

"Yes, they've been popping up for the last several months. Similar transformations are happening all over the region, not just here." Wang responded. He was crouched quite close, examining it.

"You cant feel that? Its reeks like dead things!" Smell wasn't really what it felt like but it was close enough to by synesthetic.

"Uh, no. No one can effect it, cutting it out just causes it to shift to a nearby plant as well as ruining nearby plants, it's been a disaster."

Huh. Eager to be rid of the disgusting sensation currently assaulting his face, John decided to stop examining and start acting. First he would reach out with some tendrils of qi and--as soon as he touched the tumor, it latched on to his qi strands and leapt toward him, chewing its way through the thread of silk toward his core. When it was inside him, John was overcome with a revolting sensation. His skin crawled and his stomach turned violently, collapsing forward John directly threw up but barely had time to notice.

An intense fight was going on inside his dantian-space, the vile Weird qi was able to convert John's own qi rapidly to grow in size and strength. John was fighting back with sharp ribbon claws, tearing it to pieces even as it repaired itself. The fight teetered on the edge of stalemate, it was only by sharpening the last inch of his willpower that John was able to break the tie and defeat the thing. When it finally died, it's shredded pieces fell the bottom of his space and slowly decomposed into John's own qi.

"--ohn. John! What's going on?" Disciple Wang had a panicked tone.

"Its alright. I'm alright." John was laying on his back catching his breath. After a while recovering, he explained what happened.

"Damn. It probably tried to infect you like it's been targeting the plants. We'll have to report it. None of the regular disciples have been attacked like this."

Wang reached out to offer John a pill, but reluctance bled through on his face. Most pills he had taken so far had been extremely painful.

"It's a spirit recovery pill, it will help. We still need to try and finish the mission." Wang explained.

John took the pill and was pleasantly surprised at the soothing sensation that spread inside him. After meditating for several minutes, he was ready to give it another try.

The next plant was one of the iron skin gourds, a thick vine with pale red flowers and a handful of greyish, shiny gourds. One gourd had taken a blacker tone with splashes of red, it gave off a similar sickening pressure. John looked at Wang, who gave him a nod. John wasn't willing to let the thing inside to try and kill it again, it was too risky that he might lose and be changed instead. This time he brought all his spare qi to bear in a number of sharp ribbon knives, surrounding the offending gourd. In an instant they plunged inside, the gourd was instantly destroyed as well as the Weird qi inhabiting it. Unfortunately, the rest of the plant died as well, blackening and rotting visibly. Also, John didn't get much more than a thimbleful of spare qi out of the process, only what had touched his blades at the moment it dissipated, everything else evaporated into raw spiritual essence.

"Well, you didn't collapse this time!" Wang said.

"Thanks, real encouraging."

They made their way to a third plant, a tall flower that had mangrove-like roots digging into the ground and visibly exposed. John tried using his qi like clawed fists once more, ripping and tearing the Weird qi to bits and scooping the remaining into himself to fuel his own growth.

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After several variations in strategy, and a couple more close calls, John had perfected the technique. Strand by strand, he wove a net of his qi, mere centimeters from the offending tumor. Several ribbons were poised to cut the growth away from it's host plant. When fully prepared, the ribbons slashed it away as the net tightened, and then swarmed the net itself, reinforcing and choking out the hostile qi. John could then draw it into himself to smother in his dantian, stealing all the strength of the wild qi without risking himself. It required immense focus in preparation, but the reward was sweeter for it. Eventually, he had finished, all told there were thirteen instances that required his attention in this garden alone, John suspected similar phenomena were happening elsewhere too. If he didn't want to work himself to the bone he would need to get the other Weird kids up to speed fast.

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Disciple Wang, or Fatty Wang, kept his promise and brought John to meet his Young Master after their work was completed. Their obligation to the sect had finished but there was still the commotion with Disciple Ye and Lady Song to deal with. John was led to the disciple housing area of the outer sect, far from his own isolated pavilion he noted, and admired as the humble rooms changed to larger and increasingly extravagant mansions. Is this what they call wealth?

Close to the peak, a terribly fine complex greeted Wang and John. Well groomed mortal servants bowed low to Wang and led them inside. The primary room was enormous, and dedicated solely to cultivation. Despite the extravagant façade, most of the interior felt utilitarian, richly utilitarian anyway. Fine incense wafted through the air. Several dieses held qi-rich objects, all water aligned but with slightly different flavor to the abundant rain; an icy crystal, a smooth dark blue jade, brilliant cyan coral, just to name a few. The floor was inlaid with a broad runed formation, in solid gold.

In the center, on a plush pillow, sat an extraordinarily handsome young man. He had combed blond hair and wore a standard disciple robe, his eyes were closed. John estimated he was roughly the same age as him, maybe a year or two older. After a few moments, he began to speak.

"You're back, Fatty Wang."

"Sure am, bro. I brought John with me, we had some trouble with Miss Song and the annoying one." Wang took a more relaxed tone in private. His 'bro' opened one eye to confirm John was here.

"What were they after this time, then?"

"He accused us of stealing his regular time in the garden, and then tried to extort us over it," Wang grinned, "John told him off in the end."

Yeah that was pretty obnoxious, John had hardly met anyone as rude in his life. The young master wound down his cultivation technique and got up to shake John's hand.

"Sorry you had to deal with those two, they've been trying to cause problems for me for the last few months, I'm Kai." They shook.

"It was no problem really but... What's their issue?" John couldn't help but ask.

After a sigh, Kai waved his hand and a servant brought in tea and dim sum.

"Miss Song is my fiancee, but she does not wish to be, as she doesn't love me. Of course, I don't love her either. Our marriage was decided when we were mere toddlers, its a political arrangement."

This guy really ought to be called Frank, John thought.

Kai continued, "It would benefit both our families considerably if we did get married though, too bad."

"And she loves disciple Ye?"

"That's what she claims. Apparently they were put into a dangerous situation and he bravely stood up for her, or something of that nature. It could be a ploy to be rid of me, not that the decision is in my hands. Consorting with other disciples isn't against the rules even if it makes her look disloyal."

Fatty Wang spoke up for the first time in a while, "They're going to bring it to the disciplinary hall to implicate John and I. It was a sanctioned mission but they will still try it surely."

"What a bother. I'll bring it up with my father."

At John's look of confusion, they explained: Lady Song had a relative in the disciplinary hall that she could use to try and bully them about this altercation and make further demands of compensation. It wouldn't get far since Elder Catherine would get dragged in, but they would still try it. Kai's Father however, is an Elder in the Core of the sect, right hand to the Sect leader himself.

"Is that the reason for all this wealth?" John gestured at everything.

Kai let out a genuine laugh and said, "I appreciate your candor, John. No, my wealth is a result of my Grandfather and Patriarch of my clan. This--", he gestured broadly, "is a result of my genuine talent and hard work."

After that, they chatted freely for some time and grew a bit closer. Kai was every bit affable as he was polite. Wang offered to file the official mission report to the office, and told John he should check his contribution points later in the week to spend, which John was glad for, it was getting late. Elder Catherine informed him he would need to debrief her personally in the morning.

Tired from socializing and the intense work in the garden, John made the last stretch to his now shabby-seeming abode. Eli had made him a simple dinner, but he didn't want it. He was full of much better food from his new friend's place. He would have to see if better accommodations could be had, or if he could move to the general population areas and progress his way into a better living situation.

There was going to be a lot of work to get the other Weird kids into shape, John didn't want to be this tired every night.