I Level Up By Making Enemies

Lin Feng’s head snapped toward the shelter.A woman stood in the entrance. She wasn’t young like the Orchid Veil disciples, and she wasn’t old enough to look fragile either. Probably in her early 50s by human standards, he thought. Her hair was tied back in a practical knot, streaked with a little early gray.

Her robes were plain, patched, and stained with years of swamp living.

”You’ve been stomping around swamp.” she said.

”And now you’re here. Are you going to stand there bracing for an ambush, or will you come closer without doing anything stupid?”

Lin Feng didn’t lower the knife immediately.

”Most things in here try to kill me on sight. So don’t blame me if i seem to be a bit cautious.

”Some do,” she agreed. ”But many don’t. You’re still breathing and i don’t see any life threatening injuries either, so you haven’t met the worst ones yet. ”

She stepped aside from the entrance. ”I already know you’re here. Standing in the open won’t change that. Come inside if you want or leave. Either is fine.”

He studied her for another few seconds, then slowly put the knife away, but not completely relaxed yet. He walked closer, stopping a short distance from the cold fire pit.Up close he could see small animals in the area behaving differently.

A few did not flee. One scaled creature the size of a cat watched him from a root with interest before scratching itself and looking away.

”You live here,” he said. It wasn’t really a question.

”Yes.”She sat on a flat root and gestured vaguely at another. After a moment Lin Feng sat as well.

” Tell me what are you doing this deep?” she asked. ”The outer channels are already more than most outsiders handle. The middle is where the swamp gets too dangerous.”

Lin Feng considered how much to say. She didn’t feel openly hostile and the system hadn’t pinged any strong killing intent either. That was new.

”Sect Master of Flowing Wind sent me,” he said. ”I’ve got a deadline and i have to get stronger or lose the chance he gave me. The chicks—sorry the sect who owns the swamp stuck a token on me and told me not to cross certain lines. So i’m trying not to die while I figure out how this place works.”

She snorted. ”Own the swamp you say? Nobody owns the Orchid Veil Swamp. The sect more or less have an understanding with the swamp and they believe they’re protecting the swamp that’s it.”

She then looked at him with a smile.

”Yue Qingfeng still has an odd sense of training methods,” she said. ”He would.”

Lin Feng’s attention sharpened. ”You know him?”

”I knew of him a long time ago.” She didn’t elaborate. Instead she studied Lin Feng’s face.

”You’re not a normal outer disciple. The way you move, and the way the swamp reacts to you... you’re using something else.”

He went still and she waved a hand. ”I’m not asking for your secrets. Just don’t pretend you’re here for quiet meditation. The swamp already knows you’re not.”

Silence stretched between them for a few breaths. A small creature padded closer to the shelter, sniffed the air, then curled up within arm’s reach of the woman as if he weren’t there.Lin Feng decided to push a little.

”Your turn. How long have you been here? And why hasn’t Orchid Veil Sect dragged you out?”

The hermit looked out at the mist for a while before answering.

”Long enough that the years stopped mattering. I came in when i too was a sect disciple and a future. Long story short, things went wrong but swamp didn’t kill me. Over time we reached an understanding. I don’t leave and i don’t interfere with the zones. And i don’t teach outsiders how to break the borders. In return, it tolerates me, and the Orchid Veil pretends I don’t exist as long as I stay quiet.”

She turned her eyes back to him.”They know someone is back here. They choose not to dig, that’s the arrangement. You’re the first person in a long time who has made it this far. ”

Lin Feng absorbed that. A human who had survived the middle channels for a long time., Accepted, or at least endured, by the swamp itself.

The hermit rested her hands on her knees.”You can stay near this area for a short time if you don’t cause problems,” she said.

”I don’t offer free protection and i don’t offer free answers. But if you’re going to keep pushing deeper, there are things you should know before the middle channels decide to test you properly. ”

She tilted her head slightly.”So. How much do you actually want to hear... and how much are you willing to trade for it?”

The hermit waited, patient and unreadable, while Lin Feng went through everything he was carrying.

Knife, waterskin, exit marker. A few pieces of smoked meat wrapped in leaves. Some fruit that probably wouldn’t impress anyone who had lived in this swamp for years. There was no treasures or rare herbs. No hidden techniques worth trading.

He pulled out the meat and held it forward.

”I don’t have much,” he said. ”But maybe this’ll at least please you.”

She took the packet, untied the leaves, and looked down at the smoked rabbit. For a moment her expression shifted.

”It’s been a long time,” she said. She tore off a small piece, smelled it, then ate it slowly. ”I’ve been living on swamp fruit, bitter roots, and whatever I can catch with my hands. Proper meat... I almost forgot the taste.”

She finished the piece and wrapped the rest again, setting it beside her.

”I appreciate it. But the kind of information that keeps you alive deeper in is worth more than a meal.”

Lin Feng leaned back on his hands and gave her a crooked look. ”What about my companionship? That’s got to be worth something. Rare goods in a place like this.”

The hermit stared at him for a beat. Then she laughed, a short, rough, genuine sound that seemed to surprise even her.

”That was a nice one,” she said, still halfbsmiling. ”I’m too old for you, troublemaker. And even if I weren’t, you’re already more headache than you’re worth.”

Lin Feng grinned. ”You laughed though.”

”I did.”

The stiffness between them eased a fraction. The small scaled creature near her feet shifted, then settled again.

Lin Feng watched her for a moment longer.

”It doesn’t sound like you really chose to stay here,” he said. ”Not forever. What if I told you I might be able to find a way to get you out... if you help me?”

Her gaze sharpened.

He continued before she could shut it down. ”Look, I don’t know your full story. You don’t know all of mine. But I’m not getting through this place and without help. You’re the first person I’ve met in here who hasn’t tried to eat me or throw me out on sight. That has to count for something.”

Silence stretched. The hermit looked past him into the heavier mist of the middle channels, jaw working slightly as she thought.

”You ask for a lot,” she said finally. ”And it’s quite a gamble.”

Lin Feng shrugged. ”I love gambling.”

Another laugh escaped her. She studied him for a long time. The watch token on his wrists, the dried sap still staining his sleeves. The stubborn set of his shoulders.

Then she exhaled and nodded .

”My name is Yu Mei,” she said. ”Not that it means much anymore.”

Yu Mei reached down, picked up a thin stick, and started drawing rough lines in the damp dirt between them.

”Listen then,” she said. ”If we’re doing this, you’re going to hear it straight. The swamp don’t care about your deadline or your sect master. They care about whether you belong here long enough to be useful... or long enough to be discarded. Here’s what you need to know first.”