Chapter 42 A Deal With The Hermit

Yu Mei dragged the stick through the damp dirt, drawing a crude map of the swamp.

"Forget the pretty map for a moment," she said. "What matters is what the swamp actually does to people like you."

Lin Feng sat forward, elbows on his knees.

"First," she continued, "the mist in the middle channels isn’t just cover. When it starts moving against the wind in long sheets, something is passing through. You will feel the pressure drop in your ears a second before it happens. When that comes, you should stay low and you stay still. Most of the big ones don’t hunt by sight but by disturbance. You keep running your mouth or cycling qi while they’re near, and they’ll find you"

She made a short mark in the dirt.

"Second. There are root clusters that look dead. Those are the ones that listen. If you cut them or step on them, they’ll scream. Not by sound, it’ll be an unbearable pressure in your skull. And everything hostile within a wide range comes looking. If you see gray roots, you should go around. No exceptions."

Lin Feng nodded. He had almost walked across a patch like that earlier without knowing.

"Third. Your method." Yu Mei looked at him directly. "Feeding on qi works better here than in the outer channels, but it also paints you as a target. Stay too long in one place after a cycling your qi and something will come to check what keeps making noise. You cultivate in the leftover field, then you move. Don’t get greedy and sit until something comes around sniffing."

She tapped the stick against a deeper line.

"There are three kinds of nodes worth using in this range. The first are the quiet pools with dense qi, and low aggression. They’re good for recovery,but bad for your kind of progress. The second are contested platforms. Something already lives there and if you want to use them, you need to clear it. The third..." She paused. "The third are the old sinks. Places where the swamp itself got angry a long time ago and never cared after. Those will feed you faster than anything else you’ve touched so far. They’ll also push back harder. If your foundation isn’t stable enough, they’ll break it. "

"What about the Orchid Veil?" he asked. "How much do they actually know about what’s back here?"

Yu Mei’s mouth twisted slightly.

"They patrol the outer and some of the middle edges. They don’t live here. Most of the current disciples have never come this deep on purpose. As long as I don’t approach the borders, don’t contact their people, and don’t touch the orchid-core zones, they leave it alone. It’s easier than sending a team in to dig me out and risking whatever agreement I have with the swamp itself.

She paused for a moment, then continued.

"For me to leave, the swamp would have to release its hold, and that’s very difficult cause I’m probably the only human alive who probably knows the swamp in and out most now "

Lin Feng was quiet for a few seconds.

"I’m still offering," he said. "Help me survive long enough to hit my deadline and get stronger. In return, I’ll look for a real way to help you . I’m not promising miracles but I’m promising I’ll try."

Yu mei looked at him and nodded.

"There’s a contested platform about half a morning’s walk from here, in that direction. And a single territorial beast lives there . Clear it and use the residual field exactly the way you’ve been doing. Then come back before the light drops too far. If you can do that i’ll give you the location of the nearest old sink and more on how to not die in it."

Lin Feng looked at the direction she indicated, then back at her.

"And if I can’t?"

"Then you were never going to get me out of here anyway," Yu Mei said simply. "And I won’t have wasted better information on a corpse."

He stood and brushed dirt off his hands. The satchel felt lighter than before, but the weight of the new knowledge sat solidly in his head.

"I’ll be back," he said.

Yu Mei picked up the stick and erased most of the lines with one pass of her foot.

"Don’t die on the way," she replied.

He turned and started walking in the direction she had marked, the richer, heavier qi of the middle channels pressing against him with every step. Behind him the shelter and its strange little peace disappeared into the mist.

The middle channels pressed in harder once he was alone again. He kept Yu Mei’s warnings fixed in his mind. Watch the mist for movement against the wind, stay clear of any gray, dry root clusters, and don’t be loud. The walk took most of the morning. Twice the mist shifted and he dropped low, staying still until the pressure in his ears eased. Once he detoured wide around a stretch of dead looking gray roots.

The contested platform sat in a shallow depression where the qi felt thicker and more concentrated. A single beast claimed it, larger than the lizard he fought in the outer swamp. It’s shell were ridged and dark It lifted its head as soon as he stepped into the open.

"Listen, i know you’re just defending your territory but you’re kinda in my way... Let me just cycle the qi here peacefully and I’ll be on my way. "

The beast’s answer was a deep, wet snarl. The hostility spiked rapidly .

"Thought so." Ling Feng said and moved first. Fleet Footed Coward Dash carried him off the direct line of the charge. Claws tore through root and mud where he had been standing. He cut back in with Thick Face Counterstep, driving a qi-backed strike into a seam along the shell. The impact rattled his bones.

The beast swung and a glancing blow caught his shoulder and spun him sideways.The fight stayed ugly. He used the knife when openings appeared and gave short stabs at joints and the softer edges under the ridges. The Dash kept him from getting pinned. The Counterstep let him punish every overcommitted lunge. Still, the creature was denser and stronger than anything he had faced before.

One hard hit landed across his ribs and stole his breath. Another pass left a burning line along his thigh.He kept talking in short, sharp bursts, feeding the anger. The beast’s killing intent only grew thicker.When the opening finally came, he took it without hesitation. A final Counterstep put him inside the beast’s reach. The knife punched up under the jaw angle and twisted. He ripped free and threw himself back as the body thrashed.

It took time for the beast to finally stop moving. Lin Feng stayed ready until the last twitch ended, then dropped to one knee, breathing hard. Blood ran warm down his thigh and his shoulder throbbed. The residual hostility in the air was heavy and that’s exactly what he needed.He sat immediately and pulled the qi in.

His cultivation pushed forward in a clear, solid jump. He kept the cycle going only until the thickest of the hostility began to thin, then forced himself to stop. He could feel that he’s on the verge of a breakthrough by now. Yu Mei’s warning also was a reminder in his head. Cultivate and then move. The system updated as he stood.

[Non-human killing intent confirmed]

[Rage Value +610]

[Current Rage Points : 3563 ]

[Milestone Progress: 3/3]

[Note: Milestone complete. Settlement pending.]

Lin Feng bandaged the thigh wound with a strip of cloth, drank, and started back the way he had come. He moved carefully, using the same rules she had given him. By the time the shelter came back into view, the light had started to drop but had not yet failed. Yu Mei was outside, seated on the same flat root as before.

She looked him over and gave a short nod. "Good enough."

Lin Feng sat without waiting for an invitation and let out a long breath.

"Platform’s clear. You were right. The method works better here. "

Yu Mei studied him for another moment, then reached down and drew a new set of marks in the dirt."There’s an old sink roughly in this direction," she said.

"Half a day further in if you’re careful. It’ll feed you faster than the platform you just cleared. If your foundation feels unstable when you arrive, don’t force it. Break your meridians in a place like that and you won’t make it back here, let alone out of the swamp."

She added two more practical points. Jow the mist behaved differently around the sink, and a simple way to tell if the pressure was about to spike hard enough to do real damage.

Yu Mei sat back. "Come back alive after using it, and we can talk about the next layer. Including what it would actually take for the swamp to loosen its hold on someone like me."