These gatherings had always been a pain in the ass, Xiu Shihong played with a strand of her hair as she looked at all the children in front of her, boys and girls from 8 to 11 trying their best to appear as mature as possible, it was as if a bunch of tiny adults organized a silly party.

She had always found her peers to be undesirable to be around, it just reminded her of herself, the restraint everyone had, nobody showed their true color, everyone was hidden behind a mask of pleasantries.

Even the drinks at this party were silly, of course, nobody would drink wine - so they had wine-colored juice... There was some fancy music playing and children stood together in groups chatting while drinking the juice.

She wondered how they could afford to hold a party like this when each spirit stone had worth, but it was probably sad some of them had stashes of spirit stones hidden away - the influence of large houses would even matter here in the supposedly "Neutral" sect.

Be that as it may - these gatherings were for people that wanted to get connections - and of course she was a connection everyone wanted, so she usually declined such invites, but this party sadly has been arranged by someone she could not so easily decline.

That's why she sat here, hidden away in a somewhat dark corner while observing the silly party, to be honest, she had more than enough of these pretending games, many "factions" had tried to invite her and even her friends into their ranks, these factions were founded by cowards that wanted to withstand the upcoming storm in numbers.

Well, that and their silly political games...Oh, there he was ...

A young boy neared, bright blue eyes like the deep ocean looked at her, making her tense up immediately, it was rare for someone her age to actually be intimidating to her. He was tall - almost a head over her, he appeared to 10 to 12 years old, while Xiu Shihong knew he was only 9, he wore a black and red robe, quite a simple one at that, no gold or anything, he did not need to - the Phoenix on his chest already demanded all respect and prestige he could ever ask for after all.

This was Ning Yu, the 13th Imperial prince, a young boy of impeccable talent, that even surpassed her own, as Xiu Shihong was just a half-step into the mid-range of the second realm - but he had already stepped into it a while ago.

It was also said that his blood-line was rather thick, which explained his Imperial Aura. People from the Ning clan which had been the imperial clan of this empire for a long time their might had suppressed any uprisings and lead the empire into a stable period.

Most of this came from their mythical blood-line, people said Xiu Shihong and her Xiu clan were powerful and on par with the imperial clan but that was only true in a few things if they matched up against them in a 1 on 1 fight they would be destroyed in a blink of an eye.

"Miss Xiu, it is as always pleasing to see you, I've noticed that you do not attend these kinds of gatherings so I took special care to make sure you would come today, as we have not seen each other for a while." There was a mischievous glint in his eyes, he was clearly aware of how much she disliked all of this. He knew and still put her in this situation!

He did not even have a specific reason to invite her - it was clearly just to get her worked up, she knew he loved to dig past the facade she had built up for the outside world and drive her to the edge, it was infuriating that she could not do anything about him.

"It is an honor to see you once more, Prince - I usually keep myself busy in cultivation and study and therefore have not much time to attend these social meetings." Her voice was polite and her posture seemed submissive - but if someone looked closely they could see the girls left eye-brow twitch slightly if this was not between a bunch of money-pants and pampered nobles she would go all out against this guy!

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"Oh, well how diligent you are, I've heard you got yourself a pet too, a little fox from what I've been told seems to be a sneaky one too as I had yet to have the opportunity to actually meet her in person." Why would he need to meet her, this Prince was just here because of the emperor wanting it so - he did not attend any lessons and lived in a special area further up the mountain.

Xiu Shihong made a small step forward, from the outside it might seem like she was shyly stepping up to the prince to speak in a more private manner.

"I don't know what kind of thing you are planning this time, but stop involving me or my friends - play your silly games with others and not me, I've made plenty sure to show clearly that I'm not interested." With that Xiu Shihong made a step back.. curtsied to keep up appearances and quickly left, this was good enough for her and should be good enough for him.

Ning Yu grinned slightly "But you not being interested just makes the game that much more fun, little Shi." the boy grinned to himself, Xiu Shihong would find herself with some rather... "Happy" news in the near future and he was absolutely thrilled to see her reaction " Breaking that will of yours, might just be the most enjoyable thing in my time here."

The boy turned around to his other guests for now, while his goal this party had been fulfilled, he would still enjoy everything.

Kou had been with Shi Shi for a while now, it was not really closed door cultivation, while Kou spends most of her time cultivating in silence - she also spends some time with Shi Shi, mostly because the old woman would coax her with food.

Kou felt deep inside her that.. she actually enjoyed this very much - even if Shi Shi was not around every day as she had to check on trials here and there working on her own, just being here was calming for her, she had to begrudgingly admit that she really liked it her and Shi Shi even more.

Of course, she had not put it in words, but she was clear that the old woman did know how she felt.

For others sitting cross-legged with their eyes closed just quietly cultivating might've been boring as nothing did much happen, but for Kou it was fun - she tried to enter the state she had entered days before a few times but never got to that point.

"Even if you have done it once, doing it twice might not necessarily possible, just cultivate earnestly - do not try to force anything you have no control over and it might just happen again." That were Shi Shi's wise words for her.

She made great progress with Spiritual Weapon - with the Meridian in her head open and attuned it felt thousands of times easier to call up and channel the mental image, she stuck to staff, for now, trying to perfect the weapon first before she went on to harder things.

Technically she had mastered the first step - Summoning - in the manual but she did not try to advance too quickly to the next stage "Strengthening" As she wanted to perfectly be able to use the weapon and summon it quickly before she advanced to more complicated things.

"A strong foundation can be built upon, a weak one will brittle quickly." She nodded slightly, as little as Shi Shi seemed to think of her elders, they still had wise words one should remember if they wanted to make it to anything in this world.

Kou's eyes were full of determination, she would soon step into the next realm, work on her two techniques and catch up to everyone else, the peace period was almost over, and she had a feud or two of herself, there were Jie Ciao and his cronies - sie would pay them back for what they did, she might've avoided them - not seeking them out for revenge, but Kou was not a girl of words, why should she curse them... She much rather does something against them.

Then there was that boy and his twin bodyguards, she did not have a problem with him but clearly, he had one with her, it still had not dawned to her that the boy might be the one she stole from before! But whatever his reasons might be she would be ready for his shenanigans.

Across the outer sect people started to prepare, doing the last effort in cultivation further up... They were all children but in no to long they all would have to stay their ground in some way or the other as many rules would be gone soon.

Stealing? As long as nobody saw you, are fine to do so.

Fighting? The only thing forbidden was crippling the other person.

Suppressing others with status and money? Those that found their self on that end of the chain were simply unlucky.

In the Cultivation world, the law of the jungle prevailed, those that had Strenght would come out on top.