It is clearly becoming night, and typically in these situations, you would set up a watch.
In this case, I let him know at this tree house can seal itself up, while still maintaining airflow. We can still maintain sowhat of a watch, but anything that could or would break through these walls would give us enough warning to run away.
And anything that wouldnt give us enough, we wouldnt be able to fight, anyway.
After I say sothing to that effect, he thinks about it and agrees.
He offers to take the first watch, which is worded as if hes doing a favor to . Of course, I know this is just him being wary. A natural ga played between two parties who are unsure of each other, but still cordial.
In his case, it appears he trusts , but only to a point.
To help gain more of his trust, I quickly agree and let myself fall asleep. Obviously, while maintaining my awareness.
This is where my abilities that Ive been training will shine. It will allow to maintain a baseline idea of whats going on, even while being inside of a dream.
As my eyes finally close and I move to sleep, I discover an interesting synergy between my awareness ability and my new cultivation.
Normally, it would be like a fuzzy picture of the surrounding area, with things that happen, like sudden sounds or vibrations, appearing clearer.
Now, theres an aspect of Qi woven inside of it. Uses of cultivation abilities will catch within the picture, as my scan is also active at the sa ti.
So, when Ive actually fallen asleep, Im still able to see the wisp of spiritual sense moving from him to , probing to see if Im actually sleeping. For all intents and purposes, I am.
He seems to relax at finding this out, retracting his sense. Next, he seems to look at with a weird look of gratefulness and confusion. This quickly turns into a shake of the head and a new look of conviction.
Like the way I had acted earlier, people rarely trust others that easily. And frankly, shouldnt.
Still, I have a great feeling about this guy.
But not just him.
There are so many people out here that one too and can do a lot of good in the world if they have the chance. Whether its the money, ability or their circumstances, think all these people want to be better.
To do better for others.
Almost as if responding to my thoughts, I can see his spiritual sense float outside of the tree to do his job. Over the course of the night, he seems to relax more and more, and keeps throwing grateful glances over at .
It's easy to forget the difference is a safe place at night can do for a person. Considering the injuries I saw on him; it looks like he wasnt able to find or make such a thing when he went deep into the jungle.
Just because a person is strong doesnt an that that theyre a good engineer.
But suddenly he turns alert. Quickly moving to my side, he taps a few tis to wake up silently. I wake up alert and ready.
He motions for to stay silent, and my scan picks up what he had discovered. A large bird, like a woodpecker, floats down onto a branch near the tree.
He motions for to stay silent, and seems to take out a sharp dagger that he keeps ready. He points towards the wall that the woodpecker is on and orients his fighting stance in that direction.
Both of us creep towards the middle of the room, lying in wait in case it cos inside
It is clearly eyeing the treehouse and whether it should peck into it. Not wanting to risk anything, I send an avoidance taming contract to it.
It accepts and flies off.
After a mont of waiting, he relaxes and lets know its safe to relax.
He briefly explains what had happened and what he saw. So, in response, I mix so of the alchemical ingredients that I had stored here to make a paste, to deter any beasts from coming near. I made it from a combination of so poisons from the poisonous part of the jungle, as well as the excrent of a dangerous animal I had found when traveling to the ground of the jungle.
The excrent will make sure that any creatures who would co to this area will avoid the tree, while the poison will ensure that any creature that would be attracted to the excrent will avoid it because of the clear poison.
If we are deeper in the jungle, stronger spirit beasts would just ignore that out of curiosity to find what would do such a thing. Luckily, those types of creatures dont travel near here. With the main exception being the Panther, of course.
On the note of the Panther, it is once again staying just outside the range of my original taming contract distance. It is clearly still interested and looking in this direction. It seems to have guessed that I must be sleeping at this point in ti.
With this crisis past, I head back to sleep and he returns to his watch.
Things cald down a bit and by the middle of the night we switch and he still stays awake while Im on watch, but gets so manner of rest.
The next day is pretty simple.
We go out and collect so ingredients in materials, well he kills and helps take apart any creatures that have beneficial properties to them I can use for ingredients. I use so techniques to store these things in such a way that theyll last for a long ti. Its a good thing he doesnt understand the techniques and strangeness of what Im using to do so, or he would figure out that most of this is outside of the current realm of alchemical knowledge.
Its still plausible, but would likely cause an even bigger change than what I had done during the trials. Being able to store things away without having to use special Qi treasures is invaluable and is the reason alchemy experts are so valued. Ao Jin seems to realize this, as he comnts about how useful it would be to have around for when he goes on journeys.
He even ntions that he cant wait until I reach foundation establishnt, so I can head out with him as he progresses.
He has a bit of a smile on his face as he does so, reinforcing that hes looking forward to working with in the future.
One thing that bothered a little was that his strength and cultivation level seed lower than it should have been, with the healing. But then I realized sothing that is normal in every cultivators life, including my own.
Hes holding hidden cards. So of his likely requires him to store away energy in so manner.
I just cheat through it with a totally different source of energy, mana.
I pivot my mind away from this and back to the absurd amounts of materials hidden within this jungle.
Like the jungles back on earth, there is an enormous amount of flora and fauna diversity in this jungle. Things that are surprisingly hard to find, but easy to if you know what to look for.
Once again, so people know these tricks, but its not widely known and across such a variety of plants
We get so much done in the day that we managed to actually fill half of the space in the treehouse by the end of the day.
With this much in storage, he brings up a thought.
Young Master, I actually have so contacts that would absolutely love to purchase these. It can sotis be hard to sell things quickly and to a discerning buyer, but I procured quite a few things from them that helped on my journeys.
If youd like, I could get you in contact with them and you could sell these to them. I know they pay an above average price for such high-quality goods and in such a large quantity.
He leans in close, despite the fact that no one is around.
They also sell a variety of goods that arent normally available because of certain oppressive guilds. Perhaps these could help you as you attempt to get stronger and progress.
This could be quite the good contact for . Especially with being on the bad side of the Alchemy Guild, Im clear to be blacklisted in quite a few areas. While I may have had so success in other aspects of the business world, in that area, they will put so pressure on.
Ill probably be using i Lins family to sell to, as it will show obvious support but I shouldnt put all my eggs in one basket.
With this in mind, I quickly agree and a huge smile grows on his face. This will probably help his standing grow in the long run, as he will have introduced a good seller.
By the ti we end there for the night and he takes first watch, we seem to have grown a bit more naturally comfortable with each other. He may be extrely grateful and trusted after healing him, but ti and discovering a persons personality through shared experiences is what builds real bonds.
As I sleep for my portion of the night, I can see with my awareness him delicately holding a weathered drawing of a beautiful young girl and woman. His jaw shakes in sorrow, with tears in his eyes.
Even after this ti, it looks like it takes everything for him not to cry out in anguish.
After a while, he puts it away. Returning to his watch, silently.
Im definitely going to help this man.
I think I should ask more about his situation tomorrow.
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