It was dark outside.
The sky was clear, the moon was out, and the city had its usual nightlife hum.
Sitting cross-legged on her bed next to a dead-asleep Yan Mingqing, Lin Songmei circulated her Qi, letting it run through her body as she pushed towards opening her third meridian.
Feeling it permeate her body, filling yet circulating while trying to open the meridian up, Songmei’s eyebrows furrowed a touch as she focused.
Even now, she wasn’t sure exactly what to do when cultivating, she just used… feeling. Well, that’s what the general advice towards cultivating was, guide the Qi where your body wants it to go.
That didn’t mean she understood it though.
With the moonlight leaking into the dark room, its silvery beams casting shadows across the room, illuminating Songmei’s silvery-white hair, she sat there, focused on the situation inside her body.
The sound of her slow breaths filling the room, Songmei pressed on, cultivating deep into the night.
She was... so close.
She felt like she had a delicious meal right in front of her, yet every time she went to go eat, it disappeared like a mirage, appearing once more in front of her once she backed off.
Focusing back on cultivating, Songmei kept at it, unaware of the passage of time as she opened her third meridian bit by bit, blocked bit by blocked bit, forcing the Qi through with enough force to open the meridian, but not enough force to damage it.
The perfect balance.
Inhale...
And in that moment, a rush of Qi flooded her body as she felt the Qi circulation through her body smoothen by a drastic amount.
Exhale...
Her eyes fluttering open, Songmei sat there, blinking a few times to reorient herself.
It was... night. Obviously, anyone with eyes could figure that out, but looking at a small digital clock on the wall, Songmei could see that it was... 4 a.m.
Tomorrow was going to be hell.
Other than her upcoming sleep deprivation–filled day though, Songmei had just come back from a longer, two week mission with Mingqing after taking their body cleansing pills. A mission in which they had discovered some suspicious plants, sending them to the assignment hall to let them be examined.
After doing that, Mingqing had broken through and opened her third meridian earlier in the day and was sleeping right now, splayed out like a dead log under the covers while Songmei cultivated beside her.
What... else?
Songmei’s mind was foggy, she had already spent an unreasonable amount of hours awake. Sure, circulating Qi helped mitigate not sleeping a lot, but it was still comfortable and good to sleep a few hours. Even more, she had just spent a few days getting the worst sleep possible.
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How was someone supposed to sleep well when one person had to keep watch, in case a literal CRAB came by and crushed them in their sleep, or a massive vulture came by and plucked them like weeds.
Crustacean looking ass....
Rubbing her eyes, Songmei leaned over to her nightstand, grabbing the tall glass of water that she had put there before, taking slow sips while stretching a little. The stretches, consisting of neck rolling and some weird arm stuff that she had seen other people do before, probably didn’t do much, but it made Songmei feel a little less stiff... so that was a plus.
And since she was already sitting cross-legged on the bed and in her sleepwear, Songmei didn’t bother getting up to stretch her legs. Instead, leaning over to put her now half-full cup on the nightstand, Songmei just collapsed backward, falling onto the soft covers of the bed, worming herself underneath them.
Giving Plum, who was sitting beside her pillow, a few gentle pats, Songmei rolled over, wrapping herself around the nearest warm thing and falling so deep into sleep that it could be compared to a random teenage girl falling in love with their favorite celebrity.
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Sunshine.
Cracking her eyes open just past dawn, Mingqing tried to push herself up, falling back onto the bed once she realized that she had a Songmei-sized attachment wrapped around her.
With Songmei blissfully lost in the dreamland, Mingqing chuckled a bit, pinching Songmei’s nose for a second before peeling her off and sitting up with a yawn. Checking her terminal after yawning, Mingqing scrolled through, rubbing her eyes to wake herself up as she checked the messages she missed over the course of last night.
[Notifications:
The brick production in your castle has increased by 5%! Open the game now to further bolster your brick production!
Limited time offer! Claim your FREE extra bricklayer today by referring a friend to the game!]
Her eyebrows furrowing and her eyes squinting, Mingqing sighed, clearing all the notifications in her inbox related to bricks.
She didn’t need to read that right now, she was already in a good place, her rank was stable in the top 200 worldwide, and she didn’t have an urge to keep grinding to further push her rank up for now.
Scrolling through her other notifications, Mingqing pushed her messy, dark-blue hair out of her face, lamenting the fact that she couldn’t just tie it right after waking up.
“News... news... Sect announcement from sect master...”
Murmuring the titles out loud under her breath, Mingqing left most of the articles for future-Mingqing to take care of, her finger only stopping once she saw a notification in bright red letters that started with “URGENT”.
Opening up the message, Mingqing read through it, her eyes widening once she finished.
She and Songmei had received a direct mission from the assignment hall...
[Dear Direct Disciples Lin Songmei and Yan Mingqing,
Thank you for turning in the suspicious plants you found during the previous mission.
Due to your proactive efforts, we’ve managed to analyze this potentially hazardous plant early in its development cycle.
From our analysis, we’ve gathered that this plant has several harmful effects towards the ecosystem surrounding the city of Westriver. Once fully matured, this plant, in fact, acts like a drug, giving off alluring scents to nearby wildlife, pushing them to eat this flora even if they wouldn’t otherwise.
By eating this flora, the spiritual beasts of the plateau will lose their minds, going on mindless rampages. At the same time however, they will also gain a boost in their spirituality, allowing even those at the peak of the plateau’s ecosystem to ascend further in strength.
Because of this, the assignment hall will be assigning all disciples currently residing in Westriver an emergency mission to investigate the origin of these plants along with a mission to clear out as many of these plants as possible.
Once more of the sect’s experts clear up, higher-ups will be sent to fully eradicate the issue. Therefore, focus on investigating the cause and the original landing point of this plant.
Sincerely,
The Assignment Hall]
It seemed like they had work to do...
Sighing, Mingqing leaned over, beginning to try and nudge Songmei awake. “Sorry... I know you haven't slept much, but we need to get going today actually...”