Field Trip
The early morning chill hung in the air, but it did little to dampen the crackling energy of the four figures gathered at the main gate of the Azure Plum Blossom Sect. The sky was beginning to brighten with the first hints of lilac and orange, and mist clung to the branches of the plum trees, promising a new day.
Alex felt a similar excitement he used to feel when he would go on field trips as a kid. He stood beside a now-confident Jay while Elara stretched her arms, her movements fluid and ready. Lily, however, stood before them with the air of a seasoned commander, a rolled-up scroll held firmly in her hand.
"Alright, listen up," she said, her voice sharp and clear in the quiet morning. She unrolled the official sect document with a snap. "I've got the full details on our D-Rank subjugation quest."
She pointed to a crudely drawn but detailed illustration of a reptilian beast. "Our target is a Venom-Spined Marshlurker. They're amphibious ambush predators, slightly bigger than a wolf, known for their camouflage and territorial aggression. The 'venom-spined' part isn't just an exaggeration; they can launch barbed quills from their back that carry a fast-acting paralytic poison."
She then tapped a location marked on the map. "It's been sighted causing trouble for merchant caravans near the Whispering Fen."
Jay's brow furrowed with concern. "The Whispering Fen? Isn't that a ways north of the southern marshlands?"
Elara nodded, her face more serious. "It is. It's quite far outside their usual territory. I've heard rumors circulating among the inner disciples that the southern marshes have been acting strange lately. Something about a surge in malevolent Qi making the local beasts more aggressive and pushing them into new lands."
"Did you just say poison?" Alex was a little more concerned about the more pressing matter at hand.
"It's just a standard low-level neurotoxin," Lily replied, all business, cutting straight to the immediate threat. "It won't kill you, but it'll leave you paralyzed for a few hours. That's why we have these." She patted a pouch filled with antidote vials at her belt. "The real danger is getting swarmed while one of us is disabled."
She rolled the scroll back up. "The journey itself is the first challenge. It's a week of travel on foot. We'll head south for four days, cross the Stone-Fang pass, and then the last few days are through the bog to reach the Fen. We move at dawn, rest at dusk. Understood?"
Alex, who had been absorbing every detail, still nervous about the poison, gave a firm nod. This was his first real test, a chance to test his mettle.
"Good," Lily said, giving them all a final, appraising look. "Let's move out. The adventure doesn't start until we take the first step."
With that, the four friends stepped through the grand gates of the sect, leaving the familiar safety of the plum blossoms behind and setting out on the long road south.
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The first few days of their journey were deceptively peaceful. They stuck to the wide, dusty main roads that snaked through sun-drenched fields and quiet woods. The only signs of life were the occasional merchant caravans they passed or the solitary travelers heading north. Danger felt like a distant rumor.
Their days melted into a comfortable rhythm. They walked from sunrise to sunset, and at night, they would set up a simple camp, sleeping under a brilliant canopy of stars. It was during these quiet moments that Elara continued Alex's education. She would point out the various spirit beasts they spotted from a distance, a fleet-footed Glimmerwing Finch or a lumbering Stone-Shelled Tortoise, and with each, she explained their habits and which of their parts were most valued by alchemists and craftsmen.
Each time Elara mentioned a valuable material, Alex would pull out a small, worn notebook and make a quick sketch, jotting down notes beside it. After watching this for two nights in a row, Jay's curiosity finally got the better of him.
"You're trying to become the sect's top scholar?" Jay teased, nodding toward the book.
Alex flipped the notebook around for Jay to see. The pages were filled with his crude but detailed drawings. "Something like that," Alex said with a wry smile. "I want to get into alchemy, but the ingredients in the sect shop are insanely expensive. The allowance for outer disciples barely covers healing salves." He tapped a drawing of a rare herb. "So, I'm making my own bestiary and herb guide. I've even started a small garden behind my cabin with the leftover plants from gathering quests."
Jay fell silent, his teasing expression fading into one of deep respect. He let out a slow breath. "That's... incredibly smart. Most of us grind out chores for contribution points, always living hand-to-mouth. It took me years to realize just how important self-sufficiency is. You figured it out in a month."
Alex's smile faded slightly. "It's a lesson you learn fast where I'm from," he said, his gaze distant for a moment. "Back in my world, if you couldn't find a way to provide for yourself, you'd die. At one point, I was working nearly twenty hours a day to pay for housing, with barely enough left over to feed myself."
He looked up, meeting Jay's stunned gaze, and a fire burned in his eyes that had nothing to do with cultivation and everything to do with a desperate, hard-won will to survive. "I refuse to let it get to that point ever again."
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On the fourth day, as they rounded a bend, they saw a lone mortal traveler leading a stubborn mule laden with goods. Upon seeing the four of them in their sect robes, the man immediately stopped, pressed his hands together, and gave a deep, respectful bow with his head lowered.
Alex mirrored the gesture, giving a polite bow in return.
The traveler's head snapped up, his eyes wide with surprise. A look of genuine confusion washed over his face. He gave a hurried, almost fearful nod and then quickly tugged his mule along, practically scrambling to get away.
"Don't do that," Lily said, her voice sharp but not unkind.
Alex looked at her, puzzled. "Don't do what? Be polite?"
"That wasn't polite; that was confusing," she corrected him. "In this world, people only bow to their equals or their superiors. The deeper the bow, the greater the respect owed. For a cultivator to bow to a mortal... he probably thought you were mocking him."
"That's wrong," Alex said, a frown creasing his brow. "There should be a mutual level of respect. He's a person, just like us."
A familiar flicker of amusement passed between Elara and Jay. It wasn't a surprise; over the past month, they had grown accustomed to his polarizing ideals.
It was Lily, however, who drove the point home, her expression turning serious. "That's a nice thought, Alex. It's also the kind of thought that will get you killed out here." She fixed him with a hard stare. "Or, at the very least, get you a one-sided beatdown on a sparring platform. Have you already forgotten what happened with Elder Wu? He saw you not bowing as a sign of disrespect, a challenge to his authority. You have to be careful. Your ideals might be noble, but in a world where power is absolute, they make you a target."
Alex fell silent. Lily's words were sharp and echoed in his mind, overlaying the memory of Elder Wu's contempt and Chen's sadistic grin. He hated it. The idea that respect was something to be demanded by the strong, not earned by the worthy, grated against his very soul. But he couldn't deny the cold, hard logic of survival she presented.
A dangerous but logical question began to form. He met her gaze, his expression serious. "So if power is the only rule here... does that mean if I get strong enough, I can do whatever I want?"
A weary sigh escaped Lily's lips, the sound of a veteran explaining a harsh truth to a naive recruit. "Yes," she said, her voice dropping, losing its usual sharp edge. "That's the trap. That's the thought that turns a cultivator into a demon."
She fixed him with an intense stare. "History is filled with geniuses who thought that way. They started breaking rules, then they started breaking people. They turned to forbidden arts to gain power at any cost. And every single time, the result was the same: the entire cultivation world, from the great sects to the smallest clans, united to hunt them down and erase them from existence."
She let the weight of her words hang in the air. "So yes, you can do whatever you want. Right up until the moment everyone decides you're a threat that needs to be eliminated."