‘Smack!’ was how Barbra greeted Leo the moment he arrived to the camp. The sun was already setting and most of the groups were there thus his return was witnessed by everyone. Some people laughed, some shook their heads seeing the boy’s embarrassment. Jack wanted to rush over to greet him, but was held back by Luna.
“From now on you’ll stay put here until we go back!” Barbra barked at him.
“But I …” Leo wanted to share his findings to only get another smack at the back of his head.
“No buts! Your contribution points will be halved as a punishment!” Barbra fumed, “And go get something to wear! Sacred Order is not the Voodoo sect! We dress like civilized people!”
Seeing his effort was not appreciated, Leo sighed in regret. It might’ve been better to not come back at all, but since he was already here he had to turn in his haul.
Under the mocking stares of the fellow disciples he brought the basket to elder Clark who expressionlessly took it, sorted out few regular herbs and under the surprised eyes of onlookers said, “Six hundred twenty seven points. The total of six hundred eighty four will be halved as a penalty and that leaves our Lost Leo with three hundred forty two points. Not bad.”
Hearing the ridiculing tone Leo pulled back his hand with the red bamboo seeds. The crowd did calm down quite a bit after hearing the result and even Barbra was left speechless, but there was no way he would give away the good stuff after receiving insults. His pride was hurt and even Jack’s consoling pat on the shoulder didn’t help.
“You, motherf*cker!” He whispered, “Where the hell did you go? We were worried sick!”
“No, you’re the motherf*cker!” Leo angrily said, “Why did you have to hang around with her all the time? We planned to go together, don’t you remember?”
Actually Jack was the one Leo blamed the most. The supposedly super competent friend suddenly became dumb and instead of taking care of him with a silly smile followed a plain girl like a puppy. Jack also felt a little bit guilty, but the prospects of getting a girlfriend seemed to be more important than a child’s tantrum.
“I have good chances there!” Jack whispered with a wink, “We almost held hands the other day …”
“What chances?! There isn’t even anything to look at!” Leo barked back clearly indicating the girl was underdeveloped in some areas, but the problem was that the bored crowd was still watching him, including Luna and few other girls who took what the boy said as a personal insult.
A split moment later he was chased around the camp and only when he climbed a taller and thicker tree he managed to escape. Left without any choice he was forced to spend the night up there, but even in the morning when he got down, the killing intent coming from the female portion of the group made him slightly suffocated.
“For the next four days we’ll slightly change the rules.” Elder Clark said the next morning after gathering the disciples, “There are over two hundred of you here and now it’s the time to reward the best of you.”
During their stay many already heard that there was a special event planned at the end and now the ones who had gathered most smugly straightened up and had proud smiles plastered across their faces.
Ignoring the reaction, the elder continued, “Disciples with the best results will be rewarded by an opportunity to visit a peculiar place. You’ll gather a special ingredient that will allow you to strengthen your Qi pathways when stepping into the Bone reforging stage and even those of you who are about to start to cultivate for real after reaching the Qi gathering stage will find the sprouts of fire-bamboo beneficial. All of you gathered here have the affinity for the fire element thus the effect of the fire-bamboo will prove to be a considerable boost for your future prospects. Unfortunately this particular plant has the same downside as the rest of the spirit herbs in the world – there is no unlimited amount of it, therefore only those who had reached the threshold of three hundred contribution points will be given this opportunity. Consider this your first reward!”
Faces of over forty people turned sour while the rest loudly cheered, including Jack and Luna who currently had the most contribution points.
Elder Clark ignored the noisy crowd and continued, “The rest will stay here and help me sort everything you gathered so far. I mean, the rest and our Lost Leo, of course.”
While Leo’s countenance darkened, the last remark made the crowd burst in loud laughter, even those who had to stay behind happily laughed. Fortunately what came next made the boy inwardly beam with joy.
“Now listen carefully.” Elder said, “What you are about to gather are sprouts and seeds of the fire-bamboo. It’s an incredibly rare plant that some people consider to be Heaven ranked. In comparison everything you’ve gathered so far is either simple spirit grass or mortal plants at best.”
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Without allowing disciples to start any discussions, elder continued, “Your seniors will show you what the fire-bamboo looks like, but please be careful and do your best to harvest properly – the fire-bamboo grove you’ll be taken to is the only one we’ve found this far in this mortal realm, therefore avoid doing anything that can damage the threes. Now, if you’ll manage find any seeds it’ll count as a contribution for the whole group, but the bonus here are sprouts. We have not found a reliable way to preserve them, therefore you’ll consume those right on the spot and immediately begin to perform the basic breathing exercises you’ve been taught. Fire-bamboo sprouts have an amazing property to strengthen Qi pathways and improve the ability of the cultivator to sense their affinity element – in our case – the fire.”
Elder continued the lecture on fire-bamboo for a while, but Leo was confident that somehow he managed to find exactly the spot everyone was going to visit now. He was slightly upset he didn’t check the place few more times since there might’ve been more sprouts or seeds, but since he was already back in the camp there was no reason to worry about it.
What mattered now was that in his old shirt there were plenty of fire-bamboo seeds and he didn’t intend to share it with anyone, even with the traitor Jack who after giving an apologetic shrug jogged away, trying to catch Luna.
After less than fifty people were left in the camp, it became so silent the place almost felt deserted. During the next four days Leo mostly practiced the breathing exercises while his diet mainly consisted of the fire-bamboo seeds.
There were two unimportant incidents though. First was when the group of underachievers tried to protest that ‘Lost Leo’ didn’t have to join them in sorting and preprocessing the spirit herbs. To that elder Clark replied that Lost Leo’s punishment was to to be stripped of the chance of finding fire-bamboo sprouts and not to work extra – the last part was for those who couldn’t fulfill the basic requirements.
This greatly improved Leo’s opinion of the elder, but despite that the eagle-chicken was not forgiven and sooner or later it would wind itself cooked on Leo’s plate.
The other event was the heavy tropical rainfall that all of the sudden started without any warning. The pleasant atmosphere in the camp plummeted and while Leo continued to practice in a small tent he ‘borrowed’ while most people were absent, the rest had to work faster so that the spirit herbs didn’t start to mold.
Four days later in the evening the overachievers returned. They were completely wet, tired and in a bad mood. The whole group of hundred and fifty people found only a dozen bamboo stalks and no seeds at all thus making the whole endeavor a complete fiasco.
To not make things worse, elder Clark made everyone return to the Sacred Order and report to the alchemy subdivision after a day’s rest.
Unfortunately Leo’s dream of acquiring a good sword had to wait and so the wishes of everyone else who didn’t have the brains to put their actual cultivation needs first. Elder Clark vetoed all protests and to every single outer sect disciple who took part in the gathering expedition and got over three hundred contribution points prescribed special cleansing baths that should propel them through the Body refinement stage. The rest had to return to the outer sect until further notice or until they accumulated enough contribution points thus earning a second chance.
It was planned that for the next two months seniors at the Foundation establishment stage would guide this bunch of beginners and help them with advice regarding the physical practice, but actually stepping in to the bone reforging stage would depend on each of them individually.
“I think I’m done with the alchemy.” Leo said to Jack after the informative lecture was finished and he learned that the senior who will guide him was going to be Barbra once again.
After they returned back to the sect, Luna mostly ignored his older friend thus he had time to hang out again.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” He said, “Do you even understand what you’re saying? Even though we had average luck this far, we’ve done much better compared to the other outer sect’s disciples. Follow me!”
Jack pulled Leo towards the main square where the tall stone slates where and this time the three representing rankings were actually full.
“Look! There’s us!” Jack pointed at the bottom of the Hidden Dragon ranking list.
There was number three hundred forty two next to someone named ‘Lost Leo’ in hundred and ninety fifth place while Jack with three hundred sixty was three spots higher.
“Gathering herbs is an incredibly easy way to gain points and if you didn’t mess up you would’ve been in top three!” Jack excitedly said.
“If you didn’t give all your herbs to that stupid girl, you would’ve been in top three yourself.” Leo snorted.
“Well … she might not be very smart, but she’s pretty …” Jack awkwardly scratched his head.
“Ye, right! She doesn’t even have any boobies! What do you even see in her?” The younger friend was not to be persuaded so easily.
“Last year I saw her mom visiting.” Jack quickly regained confidence, “That woman has boobs in the size of watermelons. I’m sure Luna will also grow properly in every place.”
To Jack’s and most men who met her during the following years big disappointment she didn’t, but the youth would only learn that in future. On the other hand what he learned right now was that they never should discuss such things in the open.
As it turns out Barbra also came to check out the new rankings and was standing not too far away. It was not that she tried to overhear, but the discussion was just too loud and that lead to immediate lesson on manners right there on the main square.
When people form one of the squads from the Enforcement division heard the pitiful cries of the two boys, they rushed to save them, but when they learned what the lesson was about, the two girls in that squad gladly ‘helped’ Barbra to make her point much clearer.
Apparently it was not the first time the three girls gave this sort of lesson since neither of their students got any broken bones, but there was no spot on their bodies that didn’t hurt for at least half a month afterwards.
This time even Jack considered to quit the Alchemy subdivision, but in the end either his greed or the obsession over Luna forced him to stay.
Leo, on the other hand, after lying in the bed for two days, besides creating a new rule – number six – ‘Always stay vigilant around women!’, came to a conclusion that all he had to do was to properly learn about the herbs beforehand and then his results would be good from the start.
While this was just a logical thing to think of, for a young boy who had suffered countless concussions in his life in addition to a fresh one, this might count as a moment of enlightenment. Leo decided that if he was attentive enough he’ll gather enough contribution points to quickly reach the Qi gathering realm, get a sword and then transfer to the Combat division.