Lin Songmei found it… easier than expected. After Liu Xueli stopped her flow of Qi, Songmei could still see the haze, albeit it was much more… hazy.

Concentrating though, she felt she could see the blurry haze with more and more clarity as time went by. That was good, she wasn’t a fraud, worries assuaged.

As time passed, the inside of the small room was quiet, Songmei and Yan Mingqing concentrated by themselves. However, sometime through the process, their hands, empty after Xueli had left, clasped each other.

Sending a small squeeze to Mingqing, Songmei felt that it was comforting to have someone else going through the same process, reassuring to have someone else in the room.

Boring.

As more time passed, Songmei felt that the haze was getting more clear, but it was just a really long and tedious process. Couldn’t the sect let them listen to some music?

And so… time passed.

The snow stopped falling as the sun dipped in the sky.

Xueli left around dinner time, returning with three trays of food, one for herself and two for her disciples if they finished before breakfast the next day. Xueli was pretty sure they would, and so, she continued to wait outside in her courtyard, turning on some lamps and lights.

A fair amount of time after the sun had set, around about 9 pm, Mingqing let out a slow exhale as she felt a rush of clearness ripple through her body.

Mingqing stayed dead quiet, taking a moment to inspect the changes in her body while deciding to wait for Songmei.

Squeeze.

Mingqing used her free-hand to take off the blindfold, sitting there in silence to not disturb Songmei.

A few minutes later, or maybe longer, Mingqing wasn’t checking the clock hung on the wall, she heard Songmei make a similar long, slow exhale.

Songmei sent a squeeze back to Mingqing. Everything felt... different. It wasn’t as if her senses got a lot sharper or anything, or that she was thinking a lot faster, it was just that... it felt different. ‘Wow, Songmei, brilliant thinking.’

Taking off the blindfold with her free hand, Songmei opened her eyes, blinking to adjust to the light in the room that had been left on by Xueli. Taking a look around, Songmei was greeted by Mingqing’s golden eyes that were gazing at her with a happy light twinkling in them.

“Congratulations!” Mingqing grinned, shifting and breaking the silence before Songmei could say anything, leaning forward and giving Songmei a congratulatory hug.

Songmei returned the embrace, coughing a few times as she tried to speak, her throat was so dry...

Mingqing pointed to the cup of water that had been left in front of Songmei, Songmei downed it, noticing that Mingqing’s was already empty. “How long before me did you finish? You didn’t need to wait for me...”

“It’s fine, it’s really fine,” Mingqing reassured, laying back onto the ground, stretching out after being still for so long. “I only finished a few minutes before you.”

Laying down and stretching out next to Mingqing, Songmei opened her mouth a few times before coming up with, “Well.. congratulations to you too! It feels different doesn’t it?”

“It does,” Mingqing murmured, raising her hand above her and staring at it. “It’s a weird feeling, and... it feels weird to finally understand the feeling my family described to me. Also, look out the window, it’s completely dark outside.”

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“That’s good... I honestly don’t think I could describe this feeling to anyone.” Songmei craned her neck, looking towards one of the small windows that were on the outer wall of this room. It was... dark. There was warm light from the lights outside, but no sunlight. “Oh... woah, you’re right. Did we completely miss dinner?”

Propping herself up while offering a hand to Songmei, Mingqing pulled Songmei up as they cracked open the door.

“I checked the clock, it’s about 9:15 ish...” Mingqing murmured to Songmei as they walked out, eliciting a thankful nod from Songmei.

“Were you two successful?” Xueli called out from her rocking chair in the courtyard, tossing some more koi feed into the pool. “Food for the two of you are on the trays by the column over there.”

Giving their thanks, both Mingqing and Songmei nodded and let their master know that they had indeed managed to take that first step that she had talked about.

Songmei thought it would be much harder...

Maybe something with dancing on bamboo while jumping through flaming rings...

Songmei never read that much about cultivation growing up, she went through a phase when she was younger but never got too deep, the cultivation world seemed so far, she never thought it’d be of any use to her.

Especially with how cultivation was... loosely based on genetics. Cultivators would almost always have cultivator children, and non-cultivators would almost always have non-cultivator children.

Songmei didn’t know her background... her background was just... poor.

Sitting down on the wooden walkway across from Mingqing, Songmei began to scarf down the food that had been left there by Xueli, she and Mingqing didn’t care if it was cold, they were starving! They hadn’t eaten since lunch...

“How is Xueli so old sometimes...” Mingqing murmured while staring at Xueli who was rocking in her rocking chair while smiling at her koi. “Isn’t she like... one of the upper elders?”

“I have no clue...” answered Songmei, just as baffled as Mingqing was. Maybe this was one of the wonders of the world.

Songmei ignored her master’s... interesting antics and habits, choosing to continue eating the food that was on her tray.

There was a small bowl of now-cold soup, a bowl of rice, some chopsticks, a napkin, and a bowl of an entree. It seemed to be some of the beef and vegetables that Mingqing had eaten during lunch...

“Is this the beef and vegetable entree that you had during lunch?” Songmei asked the current starving beast that was Mingqing, deciding she might as well instead of thinking about it. “It seems familiar...”

Pausing for what barely felt like a second, Mingqing gave a rare short answer, “different vegetables” before going back to shoveling down her food.

Songmei nodded, enlightened, continuing to eat her food at her own pace. After devouring some of the rice and entree that had been provided at first, she now slowed down, taking her time while eating.

How did Mingqing’s chopsticks even move that fast...

Maybe she’d start a fire in her bowl?

If anyone could do it, it’d be Mingqing...

Meanwhile, over at the koi pond, there were a few ripples as some more koi food fell onto the surface of the pond. Xueli had some... spiritual koi, as she liked to put it, so she could feed them all day! She considered these koi one of her life’s greatest finds...

It was kinda sad in all honesty... she had found plenty of treasure, some even could be described as heaven shaking, but these koi? They were special... but not that special...

Maybe Xueli was just old...

Feeding her koi though, Xueli also gazed up into the clear night sky while sinking into her thoughts.

She was... shocked, to say the least.

She had expected her disciples would finish around maybe 1 am at the earliest... that’d be 12 hours! Already very fast! Yet... they had finished at 9 pm...

Xueli no longer remembered how long it had taken her, but she knew that these two girls of hers were... very talented, and that they had definitely taken less time than her.

In the end, of course, it didn’t matter much, the difference in how long someone took to recognize their three dantians and become one with the concept and realization was reliant on a lot of different things. A few might be what mental state they were in, what food they had eaten, and what purity of Qi had been provided to give some exposure first.

Still, they were both talented, and Xueli was excited to push... no... guide them along the path of cultivation.

Smiling, Xueli pushed herself out of her rocking chair, walking over towards Songmei and Mingqing as the wind picked up, blowing her short hair along behind her.