Zheng Mei scowled. What was wrong with this man? He seemed to have eyes but could not see Mt. Tai if he did not acknowledge her beauty!

She was used to the toll keepers letting her pass without her even having to ask for this kind of favor!

In truth, it wasn’t like Tang Ze didn’t acknowledge her beauty. She was quite cute… but the issue was that with like most ‘beauties’ of this world, there was something - for lack of a better word, unreal about her.

He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. If Tang Ze was asked the question, “Is Zhang Mei beautiful?” his answer would no doubt be ‘yes.’ But if asked if she was his type, the answer would be ‘no.’

Standards of beauty varied of course, Tang Ze acknowledged that, and what was considered beautiful in this world was slightly… uncanny for a lack of a better word. Skin like jade, a thin waist, wide eyes, and delicate eyelashes - these features were valued in this world just like on Earth but were exaggerated to the point that Tang Ze thought that many of such girls appeared somewhat alien.

Now, Tang Ze had average to below average looks, he knew that and while he wasn’t in a position to judge others by appearance, a lifetime of consuming media had primed him to expect otherworldly beauties in a different world.

And they were otherworldly alright- in a strange, exotic way.

Compared to this woman, Jin Zhen, although she could be said to be only average in looks at best, at least looked like an actual person.

Or maybe it was just Tang Ze who was wrong? He thought that was a possibility given this could just be his experience from Earth coloring his judgement.

Zheng Mei sighed. “I really don’t have the money - and my family can’t afford to give up some of our goods. Can’t I just go through?” She even brought out a few crocodile tears to try to appeal towards Tang Ze’s sympathy.

Tang Ze sighed. “Lady, if it was up to me, I wouldn’t get a toll from anyone - but this isn’t my bridge, it’s the sect’s and I just can’t let anyone pass.”

“Please?”

“Well,” Tang Ze said, considering things and giving her an odd look. “Maybe you can pay me back… in a different way?”

Zheng Mei recoiled. Could this man really be trying to take advantage of her like that?

Despicable!

All of a sudden, Tang Ze pointed at her and screamed, “Junior, you dare! You are courting death!”

Zheng Mei backed up. Courting death? What had she done to get that kind of reaction from him?

Tang Ze sighed. “I’ve been in this world for so long, and yet, no one has said those words to me. My ears have been starved for them, much like a wandered in the desert thirsts for water. In all the media I’ve consumed, shouldn’t that be a staple in a cultivation world? Is it too much to ask for an arrogant young master to appear and say those words? Last week, I was in the sect mess hall and accidentally bumped into someone, spilling some soup on their clothes. Do you know what they said?”

“What?” Zheng Mei asked, bewildered by this turn of events.

“They said, ‘no issue’ and then walked on with their day without asking me to kowtow ten thousand times or to break my arms for forgiveness! Who does that? Why were they being so reasonable and calm? They even looked somewhat wealthy and powerful!” Tang Ze vented. “If I ran into someone who was like that though, I might be able to make more progress!” After all, that was how these stories went, right?

Zheng Mei was sure that this man had a screw loose somewhere, but if that was all he was asking for…

“Junior, you dare!” Zhang Mei asked. “Asking for a toll from someone like me? Don’t you know who I am? You’re courting death!”

Tang Ze sighed. “It just doesn’t feel real when you say it.” It was clear that Zheng Mei didn’t truly mean those words, which was what he was looking for. “Ah, whatever, at least you tried- go on ahead.”

Zheng Mei crossed the bridge before that man could say anything even weirder.

Tang Ze watched her go and sighed.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Was he really just going crazy being stationed out here?

While it was normal for Initiates to be given individual assignments, he was the only one who had been assigned to a post so far away from the sect.

It was so out of the way that he had to travel two days to get here - or would have, if he didn’t fly the way here. That was easy enough given that he could just swap into his uniform once he got here, though he still kept his cape on.

Although the prefects hadn’t outwardly said this, Tang Ze was sure that this assignment was a form of punishment for his actions up till now.

He was here, in a toll both, away from most civilization. During the day he would just sit there, collecting the necessary toll.

The only people he could talk to was the occasional person who wanted to cross the bridge, and once night would fall he would close it down and fall asleep near a shack near the toll booth.

Because of this, while he was working, there was really little that he could do other than wait for people to come. They came regularly enough for him to be unable to do something like cultivate or work on anything.

On top of that he was not near any major trading hub himself to buy things to either cultivate or make costumes with. Even if that were the case, he couldn’t really buy anything as he didn’t have much in this world’s currency. Much of his ‘wealth’ was in the form of merit points with the sect, which he couldn’t use out here.

He didn’t dare touch the stash of the toll coins that he had gotten - those were to be given to the sect, and he didn’t want to get into more trouble for appropriating funds. He was on thin ice as it was when it came to his reputation in the sect.

Come to think of it, he had probably made a mistake letting that girl go by without paying the toll - but he really had wanted to hear those words.

Why was that?

The truth was that he was quite disappointed with his stay in this world up till now. Part of that could be because his expectations were too high, but there was also the fact that till now, he seemed to have quite a run of rotten luck.

There were quite a few things which contributed to his despondent mood.

The biggest was that he was out here, alone. Although it wasn’t like things with his squad were perfect, at least they were people he could talk to.

Most of the other people in the sect didn’t like him very much- he could tell even if they didn’t openly say it. The women openly gave him looks of disdain because of what had happened with Xu Feng, even if his intentions had been only to help out a friend at that time.

His heart flared up in anger the moment he thought of Xu Feng. That man had taken advantage of Tang Ze’s naivety and sense of doing right by people. When Tang Ze had first come to this world, he had been wary of potentially being taken advantage of by people, but hadn’t run into anyone till that point who was like that. Since Xu Feng was a ghost and Tang Ze had some sympathy for him, Tang Ze had quickly trusted him. After all, he was one of the former members of the squad- just like Zhang Long, Yin Tiang, and Chen Yu, so Xu Feng also had to be trustworthy like them, right?

Tang Ze did not have ‘being tricked by a ghost’ on the list of things he thought might happen if he was ever transported to another world.

In the future, Tang Ze swore to be more mindful of anyone asking for his help. If it was someone he trusted, like his current squad members, it was fine to lend them a hand - but anyone else, he would need to be more wary of.

As for Tang Ru, he harbored great resentment towards her as well, though he had to note that given what Xu Feng had made him say to her, her reaction couldn’t entirely be faulted. If someone had said such things about Tang Ze’s family, he too would’ve likely flown into a rage.

He had tried reaching out once to her via letter, explaining what had happened, and in return all he got was this world’s version of a restraining order telling him that he was no longer allowed to send her letters any longer.

Evidently she did not believe his explanation.

It wasn’t just the women though, the higher-ups on the male side also looked at him with distrustful gazes - if his posting here wasn’t a punishment, it was almost certainly a way to get him out of sight and away from where he could potentially cause them trouble.

If they were feeling particularly vengeful, they might even arrange for some trouble to occur here in this place. Tang Ze didn’t feel like that was very likely, but he had difficulty keeping down the paranoid thoughts.

If only he had had more of a chance to prove himself - Tang Ze felt that he would be thought of more highly. Right now though, on paper all he was known for was for taking down some of the rival Diamond Dust clan members, a feat that didn’t earn him much renown as it occurred before he had joined.

He had lots of strength, potentially more than even a Hinayana cultivator, yet the right opportunity to show it off hadn’t presented itself.

If anything, his strength had been more of a hindrance than anything else as demonstrated with him accidentally destroying part of the dojo.

His lack of cultivation progress was also bringing his mood down. Right here, where he was, out and away from most people - this would technically be one of the better places to try to cultivate by meditating, but if anything, just sitting here brought out more negative thoughts within him than positive. He was still at the Zeroth Realm - and it wasn’t like he could console himself and say that his rate of growth was good so that he’d eventually outdo his peers. It didn’t bother him that much that his cultivation was the lowest in his squad….

…no, that was a lie, it bothered him a lot!

And the fact that during the time he had joined, it looked like his squad members were each going to go up a minor realm, with Zhang Long having even done so with his assistance, while he was still stuck behind even where a child would be - it stung his heart greatly!

Could he compensate for all of this with his cosplaying talent - maybe, but since coming to this world the talent had already been defeated two times.

Once, by Elder He Xuan using a technique that didn’t rely on physical strength. And secondly by Tang Ru; although that was because of the circumstances and him being caught off guard, it was a weakness nonetheless.

It was clear that he couldn’t just coast on his talent in the future as these two losses exposed some glaring weaknesses with it.