Live The Balance (Original cultivation)

1.6 - Bottlenecks and Botany

By the start of the third week, Zhi Gao is starting to feel like he has grown more used to the sect. The silence, ever-present and unnatural, no longer has him quite as on edge. The lack of spirits throughout the vessel is made up for by his visits to the gardens, where he gets almost his fill of them.

He's still not really comfortable. The others in the room he shares are fine enough, but he still finds it difficult to get to sleep without the familiar snores of his parents, without one of his little brothers or sisters climbing into his bed halfway through the night.

The room alone is bigger than most of the homes in his village, which doesn't help. It's too crowded and too empty all at once, filled with unfamiliar smells and sounds and yet it echoes too loud.

He's slept in larger places. Under the open sky, you have all the space you could ever want. He's never slept alone, either. Even in the fields, in the forests, there were spirits around him, clinging and chatting and napping at his side.

It throws him off at the strangest moments. He'll be walking to the eating hall, and turn to comment to his father. Jia's quick footsteps behind him have him ready to grab and lift, like he would one of the village children, only to abort the motion just after he begins. She makes a point of tricking him into it, after that, though he's never actually picked her up, thankfully. He's pretty sure she'd use the opportunity to yank out a handful of his hair, or stick something unpleasant up his nose.

It shows in his cultivation, too. He tries to focus on breaking through into the First Step of the mental path, but finds himself stymied at every turn. The first time he tries, it feels like he makes progress. He pushes against the barrier, which they've been taught to visualise as a pane of ice. It cracks, fractures, and he thinks he has it for a moment, but then he's distracted by a memory of the east pasture meadow, and it re-solidifies and pushes him back.

It's not quite painful, failing a breakthrough, but it's certainly uncomfortable. He spends the next few minutes sat where he is, slumped, as he tries to think straight again. His mind is thrown into disarray, and his memories come up splintered and piecemeal. He tastes black and smells his clothes rustling. It doesn't last long, but it is incredibly disturbing while it does. He's left half-doubting if any of his memories are real for an hour after, re-sorting his recollections of home against the jumble he experienced.

He's not the only one to be having trouble. Liao He has been trying to break through in both realms, and has failed multiple times. Leng Jin, too, has been struggling, while Zhang Shui seems to have overcome whatever it was that was limiting her, and has smashed through to the Fourth Step in the body path, but is still stuck in the mental path. Jia, on the other hand, has forged ahead on the mental path and is suck on the body path.

The movements of qi in their room are becoming strange and disordered, more so with every breakthrough, until whatever force is laid upon the sect pushes them back into their rigid alignment once more. It doesn't help Zhi Gao with his cultivation, regardless. He makes no progress in the mental path, despite two attempts at breakthrough. It's frustrating, especially after how easy it was to break through in the body path, but he knows that he's not the only one struggling, so it's not as bad as it could have been. If he'd been stuck with seven nobles, all of them able to do what Lady Zhu and Ma Gang did, he would have felt worthless.

He channels that frustration into his work in the gardens. Shan Hong joins him there, sometimes. He's told her about them, in their free moments, and she too has been missing grass beneath her feet and dirt under her fingernails. They spend a pleasant few hours together weeding some of the less dangerous herbs.

"I get it," Shan Hong says, scowling at a particularly tenacious weed. "I mean, I know how it's supposed to work. It just doesn't work for me, though."

Zhi Gao nods, and applies just the right amount of force on his trowel, avoiding cutting the root of the weed, but lifting it enough for her to pull it free. "It's annoying," he says. "Especially with Jia dancing around and rubbing our faces in her achievements. She's a child, and she's nearly Fourth Step already."

"She's still not broken through into the body path, though," Shan Hong says. "Seems like that's the pattern for most of us. You get one or the other. Ugh, let's stop thinking about it for a bit. Tell me about these gardens. I've only seen a couple."

Zhi Gao nods, honestly thankful for the change of subject. "We're in the mid-east section at the moment, which is why all the plants should look familiar," he says, gesturing to the greenery all around them. "I know we grew some of these back home."

"Yeah," she says. "Colddew grass and everspring flowers, I recognise."

"Yes. The rooms around this one are similar, but laid out so that they mimic the world. Head north-wards, and you start to get stuff that's more wood-aligned, lively and poisonous," he says. "Like the rose bush I had to fight last week."

"Not worth the trouble," Shan Hong says, with a roll of her fierce eyes. "Iceblossom looks better, anyway."

"Thank goodness you have some sense," he says, grinning. "The other disciples love the things. I think they just like the challenge."

"I can see the fun," she says. "But not doing it every day or week."

"Mhm. Anyway, if you head south-wards-" he gestures in the right direction; it's not actually south, from where they are, but it is in the orientation of the gardens. "-they start to grow metal-aligned things. The outer rooms of those are apparently heavily reinforced with firesteel, so that the plants don't cut the ship in half. Even the middle rooms are pretty nasty - they've got a pasture of bladegrass that looks very inviting, but it'll cut you to ribbons if you walk through it without protection."

"We were more north-wards," she says, looking distant. "I think? Plenty of good plants, lots of fruit, but we never grew anything like bladegrass or steel lotus."

"We didn't either," he says. "But we were more central. Coldroot and winter barley, mostly."

"At least we weren't stuck in the actual middle," she says. "I hear that the earth-aligned plants are really boring to work with. You just water them and leave them alone."

"I think that's right," he says. "Comes from being the element of stability, I suppose. At least they're easy to harvest, with the way they improve wood. You can go right through a decent sized earth tree with a single axe swing, and the tools are cheap to make and maintain. I guess it's good for building, though."

"I can see it. It's not as simple to work with as wood-aligned stuff, but that doesn't even really need you to try, if you've got a metal tool. I could fell a whole grove in a day," she says. "And it'd be back in a month."

"We had to work with stone tools, mostly," he says. "Which was irritating. They dealt with the crops well enough, but keeping a decent edge on them was a nightmare, and they needed replacing every harvest. You just needed to clip a rock with one and you'd lose the whole blade."

"Could be worse," she says. "We could have been over west. Can't use metal tools to harvest fire-aligned crops, can you?"

"Not for long," he says, laughing. "Not unless you want them to melt out of your hands. That'd be a mess and a half to clean up, wouldn't it?"

They both break down into fits of giggles at the idea, of some poor peasant swinging a scythe and bringing a stick back up. It's a welcome respite from long hours of meditation and exercise, a few hours spent with a friend under a false sun.

He runs into Leng Jin on another day. The other man is stood in one of the fields with a sheaf of papers on a board in one hand, and an inked brush in the other. He's doing something, and making notes as he does so, but Zhi Gao can't tell what exactly it is that he's up to.

"Hello, Leng Jin," he says. "I can't say I expected to see you up here."

"Oh!" Leng Jin says, looking up from his work and smiling. "Hello, Zhi Gao. I'm taking notes on how many plants we have, and how long it will be until they are ready to harvest. Simple work, but necessary."

"You need a hand? I've been working this room for the past couple of days," Zhi Gao says. "I can tell you what's what, if you need it?"

"It would be appreciated," Leng Jin says. "I know what you can do with most of these, and what they look like processed for sale, but I'm afraid I'm not much of a gardener. I can give estimates, but a professional opinion will let me be more precise."

"I suppose it's basic merchant work, doing all these numbers?" Zhi Gao says. "We kept track of stuff, but only old man Bai knew how to write, so he was in charge of the records."

"Mm. Of course, normally one would be in a warehouse, and everything would be prepared for sale already," Leng Jin says. "But the sect handles everything from growth to processing to manufacturing, so they need good records, and they aren't going to let an aspirant into their stores. Half a pocket of some of the things they have would set a mortal up for life."

"Anything worth that much is probably pretty dangerous just to be near, though," Zhi Gao says. "Even coldroot can be risky, if you store it wrong. Dread to think of what something like an eternal ice persimmon would do. They've got a tree in the outer east rooms, and you have to be Inner Inhuman Realm just to be allowed in. Elder Fang is the only one who can actually harvest it."

"Oh, there are ways to store and transport even the most concentrated extracts of that sort of thing safely," Leng Jin says. They pause for a moment so they can count the plants in the next field, and Zhi Gao gives his assessment of the crop. "Of course, the containers are often as dangerous as the contents, when separated. It gets awfully complicated very quickly, when dealing with high-grade ingredients. I know my family never deals with anything outside the Human Realm. It's too risky, and you need to hire cultivators to do most of the work. It's not really worth it, honestly."

"I guess it's worth it if you're a cultivator," Zhi Gao says. "What do they even use most of this for? Pills? Everything we grew was for food or drink."

"Yes, most of these will be for cultivation aids or medicine," Leng Jin says. "Even raw, something like these iceblossoms can act as a mild cultivation aid, for those not yet broken through. They're one of the main ingredients in the Abyssal Deeps pill the sect offers."

Zhi Gao pauses, and considers something. "Do you know if there are any dangers to using what the sect offers? I know Lady Zhu used pills and potions, but she might have been going for the Sect Head's reward and thought it was worth the risk."

"I'm not aware of any significant risks for the basic pills," Leng Jin says, looking thoughtful. "I am saving up to purchase a few myself. Once one gets to higher Realms, cultivation aids are a necessity to progress at a reasonable rate, after all, so a lot of effort has been invested to make sure they're mostly safe. The elixirs that forcefully break you through to the Outer Human Realm are not particularly dangerous, either, but if you cannot make the Step yourself, I understand that they do you more harm than good."

"Suppose if you can't make it," Zhi Gao says. "You're going to be stuck at the First Step anyway. Might be worth it to avoid being sent off, if you can't get there in three months, though."

"My thoughts exactly. I intend to reserve enough points to purchase them the last week of the third month, but I hope it won't prove necessary," Leng Jin says. "I doubt you need to worry about it, though. You would need the worst luck in the world to fail to progress to the First Step in the mental realm in the time you have remaining. Save some pity for myself and Liao He, hm?"

"I'm sure you'll both make it," Zhi Gao says. "If I can do it, you can too."

"Indeed. And if that little gremlin Jia can progress the way she has," Leng Jin says. "I should be able to make at least the First Step."

Zhi Gao nods his agreement. He wouldn't describe the girl as bluntly, but she could be a nuisance if you weren't used to children. They spend the rest of the day carefully examining the fields, and thanks to Zhi Gao's ability to talk to the spirits of the plants, they get a far better estimate of the time it will take to harvest than they might have otherwise.

It has been a disappointing week for him on the cultivation front, but he has made strides in his work, and the sect points are their own reward. He's sharply aware that lessons will end after next week, and that he will have two months left. He intends to be ready.

What is the week plan?

You may choose 2 people to spend time with this week:

[ ] Lady Zhu.
[ ] Ma Gang.
[ ] Jia.
[ ] Zhang Shui.
[ ] Leng Jin.
[ ] Liao He.
[ ] Shan Hong.
[ ] Other (you will go wandering and try to find someone interesting).

You have four (4) four-hour blocks to spend per day. Cultivation lessons take 1 block, reading and writing lessons take 1 block, and cultivation takes 1 block. Jobs take 1 block, but are unavailable until you can read and write or until you can convince a friend to do so for you.

Reading and writing lessons grant +1% to Bureaucracy skill, +2% if you pass a skill check against that skill, up to a total of 25% skill. You need at least 10% to read and write.

Cultivation is a roll against your cultivation skill, and you need 10 total degrees of success to reach the first Step. Please say which cultivation skill you are rolling against.

Breakthroughs cost no time blocks, but failure resets cultivation back to 0 Degrees of Success for that Step.

Sect point costs are available in the Informational Threadmarks. Ask me if you think there should be something available which isn't.

An example plan would be:
[ ] Jia.
[ ] Liao He.
[ ] 1 block a day on mental cultivation lessons.
[ ] 1 block a day on physical cultivation lessons.
[ ] 1 block a day on reading and writing lessons, until 10% bureaucracy is reached.
- [ ] after 10% bureaucracy is reached, use this block on either mental or physical cultivation, whichever is lagging.
[ ] 1 block a day on cultivation, alternating mental and physical and starting on mental.

AN: Voting will be open until 1800 BST Wednesday. Chapter will be up Thursday.