''Phew...''

Kierra breathed out lightly. Letting qi enter her body was easy enough, but making room for it by further organizing her over-the-top tidy mana flows was certainly a task. She succeeded anyway.

Now, she guessed that she needed to refine the energy further and make her body more comfortable with it before doing anything else—the same with cultivating mana.

She wanted to experiment with this newfound strength as soon as possible.

At this moment, Kierra was happy. The same could not be said for the other person, though.

''...Congratulations, Kierra.'' Yu Chen bit her lips lightly and pulled away. ''You have broken through to the Foundation Establishment stage.''

Yu Chen was happy for Kierra, of course, but she didn't want this to end in just fifteen minutes...!

''Good job. I appreciate it.'' Kierra's face relaxed a little bit as she stood up. ''Do you still have the energy to show me some moves?''

''...Yes, of course.'' Yu Chen stared blankly at Kierra, who had walked to the bed and was putting on her clothes.

Ծ‸Ծ

'Wait, I need to get dressed too.'

A few minutes later, they were ready to practice again.

''Based on my observation over my short life, combat in this realm heavily relies on martial arts mixed with magical abilities, usually in the form of special moves that are unique to the caster.'' Yu Chen began.

''Hm. There is a problem. '' Kierra replied. ''I don't know martial arts.''

''Martial arts is not a requirement. It is merely popular.''

''I see. Continue.''

''As of right now, I can only show you some examples of what I usually use. For a cultivator to learn such special moves, they will have to reach a certain threshold of qi control, qi volume, qi refinement, and so on.''

''Fair enough.''

This was not true for wizards, Kierra thought. Even novice wizards could do serious moves if they were smart enough.

Another possibility was that these cultivators were just too dumb to consider strategizing.

'Well, let's observe for now.'

Kierra and Yu Chen only came out of the room an hour after that.

The martial master of Qinling Peak ordered someone to watch Tian Yun closely and report to her immediately if she ever woke up.

The two then quickly headed back to Qinling Peak via flying, where they met Bai Qing at the front of the house.

''Welcome back, master, Kierra.'' She bowed. ''If I may ask, how did it go...?''

''The sect leader will wake up after a day.'' Yu Chen happily replied.

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''What good news...!''

Bai Qing hurriedly excused herself to go in and tell her junior martial sisters this piece of information. The two looked at Bai Qing's back warmly.

''It just occurred to me.'' Yu Chen suddenly spoke up. ''Where do you live, Kierra?''

''Another universe.'' Kierra replied.

She looked up at the sky, reminiscing about her old world. A sentimental hue fell on her face.

'Oh, well. I can probably go back after I recover my mana anyway.'

She decided that it was, in fact, not a big deal after three seconds.

Yu Chen, on the other hand, was confused. ''...Excuse me?''

''...Just know that I currently don't have a place to live in this world.'' Kierra cleared her throat. ''But I will have you know, I still have my own realm.''

''That is indeed incredible.'' Yu Chen was genuinely impressed.

Not many people in this world had the ability to create realms for themselves, but still... Yu Chen wanted Kierra to have a 'home.' She didn't want anyone to live on the streets as she and her parents did eight hundred years ago.

So Yu Chen spoke up again. ''For your effort, I still want to offer you a room in our mansion.''

Seeing Yu Chen's earnest eyes, Kierra couldn't help but nod. She didn't particularly need a room as she had made her own paradise, a pocket dimension with space magic back in the old world. It was one of the numerous dimensions that she'd made in proud collaboration with her partner... wait.

Realization.

Kierra hurriedly closed her eyes and tried to reach out to her pocket dimensions, where all of her magic tools, scrolls, weapons, elixirs, etc., were. And...

'...I can't reach most of them.'

Because the majority of the pocket dimensions were heavily linked to her partner, and as of right now, Kierra couldn't get in contact with it, the things inside the dimensions were as good as gone.

'Tch.'

Kierra cursed in her heart.

She only had access to the 'My Room' dimension and the junk dimension right now. The latter one contained mostly defective items, low-grade potions, and such.

One of the reasons why Kierra remained so confident until now was that she had a mountain of overpowered items she'd collected over the years that included thousands of mana potions, which she could instantly consume and regain some of her strength.

'I need to get in touch with it soon.'

The mana potions weren't a big deal; they could only recover a fraction of her mana reserve anyway, but the items were a certain problem.

It seemed like she had to do some stargazing tonight.

At this point, it was already sunset, so she just needed to wait for a few more hours.

''Yu Chen.''

''Yes?''

''Mind showing me around this sect of yours?''

If Kierra wanted to convert these people into proud members of the brand-new Crimson Tower, she needed to know what they were like first.

Yu Chen quickly agreed.

She led Kierra around Qinlin Peak first—from the mansion, the medicine garden, and the hot spring to the isolated training area.

Kierra liked this place. She couldn't properly describe the feeling, but she wanted to at least try living here for a while.

Next, Yu Chen guided Kierra around the sects. They went to greet the people of the remaining peaks, the elders, the deacons. Through the halls, the arenas, the small town below the mountains. They went to every single place that they could.

Now standing on the tallest mountain that enabled them to overlook the entire sect, Yu Chen had a warm expression on her face.

''...It's a humble place.'' She said softly.

''It is.'' Kierra replied.

It had turned night. The people of the White Lotus Sect naturally had their street and house lights on, revealing a beautiful sight of a lotus burning in the dark background.

''I see what you guys did with the buildings,'' Kierra commented.

She liked the idea of shaping the town like this. It was cheesy, but she could feel the love they put into it.

''It was master's idea.'' Yu Chen smiled, her purple eyes sparkling as they reflected the light coming from below. ''...Kierra, I really can't thank you enough for saving her life.''

Yu Chen was always the top candidate for inheriting the sect leader position. She was the current sect leader's disciple; she was strong, beautiful, and had a good personality. She took pride in it—until thirty years ago.

When Tian Yun caught the disease, people pushed her even more. They were so sure that Tian Yun would die, so they flooded to Yu Chen. This made her uncomfortable. She wanted to live and receive her master's teachings for thousands of years to come, yet...

But that ended now.

Yu Chen, holding her utmost gratitude, bowed deeply toward Kierra. She was fighting not to cry at this moment for fear that it might seem unsightly.

''...Yu Chen.''

Kierra looked at the woman in front of her calmly.

''Won’t you stargaze with me?''