Han Youhong was cool.

Lin Songmei found him easy to talk to, and by some sheer miracle, Han Youhong had managed to make even Yan Mingqing open up.

Because they had discovered a shared love of food, Mingqing was now more loquacious than those children who wouldn’t shut up about their grand future destiny as a cultivator.

“… so for the steamed bun store, it’s one which street again? You also mentioned a street stand that sells good lamb skewers? Could you actually just send me the location of both of those?”

“Ahhh, sure, lemme just transfer the info to your terminal. The lamb stand moves though, so it might not be there right now.”

Squish.

Songmei, who was just staying quiet, raised her eyebrows at yet another small lychee jelly disappearing into Han Youhong’s mouth.

It was like a black hole… While talking to her and Mingqing, Han Youhong hands had been supplying a continuous cascade of jelly into his mouth.

Crazy.

Songmei had probably only eaten one of those in her life, and that was during a special event at the orphanage…

Anyhow, Songmei had learned that Han Youhong had grown up in a pretty well-off family, not quite in the same circle as Mingqing, but still up there. To Songmei, it was all the same, they were both just super super rich people.

Coming up to the city though, Mingqing and Songmei bade farewell to Han Youhong, promising to work together sometime.

“Was it fun getting to know Han Youhong?” Songmei asked, holding hands with Mingqing once more, lacing her fingers and giving a squeeze.

“It was… I guess?” Mingqing shrugged, tapping her chin with her other hand while returning the squeeze. “I’ve met him once or twice when we were children, but never talked to him back then. Honestly though, I was more excited for the food information than actually getting to know him…”

Huh.

Songmei didn’t really know what to say to that… Mingqing was a big foodie in the end after all…

Walking through the northside gate of Westeiver, the two continued talking, crossing a bridge back to the floating central district.

“What do we even do now…” Songmei mused, looking around as they walked through the sliding doors to the apartment building.

It was already around 3:00 pm after all. They could go eat a… really late lunch, or they could do something else. Cultivate? Read class materials?

When talking to Liu Xueli last night, other than being worried for her after watching her cough up some more blood, Songmei had asked about what they should do.

The answer?

Really vague…

Xueli had told them to train up and cultivate a lot, but there wasn’t much urgency…

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In the end, growing up in a peaceful era was both a disadvantage and an advantage at the same time.

Beyond training, Xueli had also advised the two of them, Songmei herself and Mingqing, to go on a longer mission. The plateau was massive and the city didn’t take up much space, so even though so many generations of disciples had gone through the area, there were still unexplored parts.

Also, Xueli had just thrown out, at the VERY END of the call, that it seemed like conflict was rising again. That a couple of the demon nobles and their pillars had descended.

One would think… one would think that this sort of thing wouldn’t just be said with total casualness at the end of a call…

Songmei, hearing that, almost wanted to begin coughing up blood like Xueli…

Boop.

“Hello there, Songmei,” Mingqing murmured with a small smile, leaning forward and staring straight at Songmei. “You here? You got stuck in your thoughts again.”

“I-I’m here,” Songmei coughed, her mouth opening and closing a number of times as she backed away from Mingqing in a panic.

Pinching Songmei’s nose with a teasing smile, Mingqing explained, “Well, I was just telling you about how we need to submit this carcass before we can actually do anything else. The assignment hall has a little branch in almost every city, this one included.”

“Ah… okay,” Songmei nodded, following Mingqing as they walked past the receptionist, past the gift shop full of Starlight Lake merch, and into the mini assignment hall outpost.

With a small desk, a receptionist, a couple of hi-tech mission kiosks, and an aged leather couch, the assignment “hall” wasn’t much.

As some older disciples walked out as the two of them entered, giving them a nod as they passed, Songmei and Mingqing wandered in. walking up to the front desk to hand in their mission.

“Lin Songmei.”

“Yan Mingqing.”

Giving their names, the two disciples stood there, an awkward pause descending as the receptionist typed their names into a database, finding which mission they had taken.

“Basic hunting mission: one intrusive species?” The receptionist asked, their eyes still glued to the mission info, “Please present either proof of the kill or the entire body. If it's the entire body, we can process it for you.”

Raising her arm up above the large empty dumping area, an area about the size of a large bed, Mingqing let the land crab’s body fall out of her spatial storage ring, “Is this alright?”

“I-... I-It is!” The receptionist gasped, inspecting it over with a handheld device. “You two... do you realize what you’ve killed? This is a five meridian land crab...”

Silence.

““Oh.””

Really????

Songmei wanted to cry, they had spent so much effort to hunt that thing!! She was under the impression this was the weakest variant...

No wonder that stupid crustacean could plow through trees like it was her master going through koi feed...

Moving away from the crab, the receptionist waved Songmei and Mingqing back over to the main desk, explaining, “The usual reward is a body cleansing pill, with an efficiency of around 30%. However, because you two hunted a monster that was more than two levels above yourselves, you’ll instead both be given a pill with an efficiency of 50%.”

R-... R-Rich!

That’s all Songmei could think...

Every moment where the Starlight Lake could drop tons of money and resources for disciples like her... she felt another pang of motivation.

Songmei swore, she’d never, never slack off and fall back into poverty.

“Additionally,” the receptionist continued, pulling out a small package from under the desk, “In today’s delivery of goods, there was also a package addressed to you two from your master, Liu Xueli. Inside are two more body cleansing pills, one for each of you. So once you go back to your room, take a look.”

R... R...

Deep breaths Songmei...

Rich!!!

Putting a hand to her chest, Songmei shook her head, dispelling her fears about poverty and leaving them to be thought about for late-night Songmei and dying-from-training Songmei.

One thank you to the receptionist later, Mingqing and Songmei made their way back into the glass elevator, leaning back against the walls as it ascended upwards with a smooth glide.