I wasn't sure what Outer Disciple Tel expected from me, but he seemed serious when he told me not to worry about tokens anymore. Immediately after I woke up, Miss Farhana, another of the custodians under him, was waiting for me with a sack full of tokens in tow.
"Kon?"
"Yes?"
She looked around before lowering her voice.
"Outer Disciple Tel told me to give these to you."
She dropped the sack into my arms.
I opened it quickly, checking inside to see it completely full of tokens! More than I'd ever seen at one time. Sure, the tokens can only be used for food and aren't valuable outside of the sect, so there wasn't much, but up until now, for the few months I'd been here, I was dining on rice and porridge with maybe a few greens if I had a really good week, thanks to a lot of my time and tokens going towards Outer Disciple Tel. And now he was essentially buying me a year's worth of whatever food I wanted! Beef, pork, fish, fruits—I'd be able to get it all.
"Hey, do you know why Tel is giving you all these?"
"Huh?" I turned around to see that Miss Farhana had taken a seat in my dorm while I was spaced out thinking of all the meat I'd be able to get now.
"Uh... no. He just told me yesterday that I don't have to worry about tokens anymore."
"Really? I've never seen or heard of him giving anyone any tokens before."
"Me neither..." I think for a minute. "Actually, I do have an idea why he's giving me these. Recently, I may have found a way to cultivate. I think he might want to copy it."
She stared at me.
"You found a way to cultivate!? How?"
"I might have found a way to cultivate. I still don't know if it works yet... and I don't think I can go into the details even if I was sure. But I think Outer Disciple Tel is covering all my eating needs so that I can focus on doing it, and I don't think he wants any of the other outer disciples to find out about it before he knows it's working."
"If Tel wants you to keep it a secret, why tell me?"
Oh yeah, why did I tell her? Yeah, Tel didn't forbid telling other custodians, but if he himself didn't even want to hear about it, I doubt he wants it to be common knowledge. I could have just kept this to myself and told her I didn't know.
"I, ah, actually didn't realize I could just not tell you until just now... Please keep this a secret."
A smile crept across Miss Farhana's face as she stood up and placed a hand on my head.
"You're a good kid, don't worry. I won't tell anyone, but after you've found out if this mysterious cultivation method actually works, make sure to tell me. Having already started cultivating before the end-of-year test would be a huge advantage, and all of us custodians working under Tel should work together."
I nod back to her.
Yeah, I guess it would make sense to share it with all the other custodians. It's not like there's a limit to how many people can enter the sect, and if all of us can pass, that would mean I get to cultivate with people I already vaguely know. We could even get a cool name like the Advanced Custodians, or the Thousand-Year Talents, or Kon's Crew. I might even get an epithet as the person who made such a thing possible.
"Okay."
The rest of my day was mostly spent eating and walking around. It had been months since I had a solid meal, so I wasn't gonna let a little thing like being full stop me from tasting new foods. I ate my fill of fish, then walked around until my legs were tired and I was hungry again. Then I would eat beef and chicken until I was full and do push-ups until my arms were too tired to lift a bowl. Then I would give another custodian in the hall tokens just to feed me some pork buns. It was bliss.
But eventually, it was time to head back down to the prison and do guard duty, and so I filled 2 buckets with water and 1 with porridge and went down to the prison to start the only chore I'd have from now on.
The first floor smelled exactly as terrible as usual. The prisoners seemed livelier, though. Maybe it was because they could smell the food, but they all seemed more alert today. Less vacant-eyed. I went to each cell, giving them a mouthful of porridge and another mouthful of water, but by the time I reached the last cell, there was pretty much nothing left, and I was basically feeding him just water.
I'll have to bring a bigger bucket next time.
Finally, after everyone was fed, I set the last bucket of water next to Foreigner and waited for him to wake up and drink.
Some of the other prisoners kept there eyes keep there eyes on me as I stood there watching like sad little dogs.
It felt weird to see adults like tang or Miss Farhana so helpless and depedent on strangers but there still wasnt anything I could do for them. The food was gone and the water that was left was all for the statue.
GLURP GLURP GLURP
turning my head i see the water from the bucket drained and the forginer standing upright on his broken torso
"whew that hit the spot" He starts steaming as heated filth starts spreading through the prison again I steel myself waiting for the smell to hit but it never does....actually it smells almost pleasant this time? Now that I think of it its not just the smell either my skin feels like its being covered in a soft sheet of hey and a slight soft hum seems to rest in my ears.
I look around at the other prisoners confused they all seem to be reacting about the same only with stronger stomachs as only a few of them throw up
"what happened to the smell?"
"The previous sessions absorption of the physical form of ki has given you sensitivity to it, simply put now that you can somewhat sense the ki in the air the feeling of it overpowers the other sensations you should be feeling"
my body loosens up as I sit now and start to relax
"Is that what this pleasantness is? the feeling of ki?"
"If pleasantness is the primary sensation your feeling currently then yes it is."