Leaning against Lulu’s arm, Qiang Yu closes her eyes, tunes out her mother’s continued conversation with Lan Jin, and begins focusing on herself.

Thinking back to how her mother decided to go with Lulu’s plan, it rankled her that she was meant to be someone who would fall unconscious with such a small tap. What’s more, she found it vexing that the same person who put her in such a position, a person she knows to be much weaker than herself, is in the exact same boat as her. If not for the fact that it would be worse for people to find out what actually happened, she would never have agreed to go along with this plan.

Though thinking back to what actually transpired, Qiang Yu wants to turn and slap Lan Jin until he resembles Lulu’s name for him. The energy he forced into her body was terrifying; not in the sense that it caused her to feel horror, but in the sense that it forced her to feel a happiness she had only ever known with her family. It was as though her mother was holding her in her arms and rubbing her back, or her father was using his big hands to stroke her hair. She could feel the same, tingling warmth spreading through her body as when she was surrounded by the love of her parents and Lulu.

But at the same time, it wasn’t the presence of her family that caused her body to tingle, or her heart to surge with happiness, it was the invasion of a stranger who wanted nothing to do with her that caused her to feel such an intense sense of elation that she didn’t know what to do with herself. Just like she would have if it were her mother or her father holding her, she wanted to press her face against Lan Jin and hold onto him tightly.

In fact, she did press her face against his chest, and had he not tried to force her off of him, she might not have remembered that he wasn’t someone she could hold like she would her parents. Thankfully, his rejection of her forced her into a momentary state of clarity that she was able to maintain by biting her lip.

But at the same time as she feels a small measure of gratitude toward Lan Jin for jolting her back into lucidity, she despises him for invading the sacred place in her heart that she reserves for her family. She understands that he’s not entirely to blame— her’s and Lulu’s prank had exceeded her expectations and she behaved inappropriately because of it. But even still, she wishes he would have struck her instead of using that strange energy on her.

Even now, nearly an hour after the event occurred, she finds it difficult to control her thoughts and her body is still overly sensitive. Even sitting down in the same carriage as Lan Jin is uncomfortable for her as she wants to bask in the feeling of the purple energy still floating freely within her body, but because of his presence, she constantly feels like she is on pins and needles.

Though, she had already accidentally discovered that it wasn’t as though there was nothing she could do about the purple energy floating around inside of her body. In reality, she feels as though she knows exactly what she’s supposed to do with it, but she wants to wait for her mother’s input before she follows through with her idea.

For that idea, she has to blame her mother because, when she had been grabbed earlier, it was so sudden that she could not tell who had grabbed her. All she could do was struggle against it, but with her emotions and her senses fighting against her, she wasn’t able to gain her bearings. Consequently, she did the only thing she could think of doing at the time and attempted to run her cultivation method and use it to expel all of the purple energy from her body to regain her senses.

In sharp contrast to her intentions, however, just as the purple energy seemed inordinately happy to escape the spirit stone and surge into her body last night, it seemed as though it was just as happy to escape her body and surge into her Dantian today the moment she tried to cultivate. And it happened with such natural ease that she even felt that the purple energy wasn’t meant to be absorbed into the soul at all as nearly half of it entered her Dantian over the course of a few seconds.

Casting her senses into her Dantian, Qiang Yu doesn’t know what she’s meant to think as she notices the difference between her normal Qi and the purple energy. Until today, she thought she knew her condition very well, and she had been very careful to ensure that nothing but the purest Qi entered her body as she didn’t want to hamper her path of cultivation later on. Yet, even with that being the case, the introduction of the purple energy to her Dantian makes her wonder if she’s been cultivating incorrectly the entire time.

She thinks about how it is said that the grade of someone’s spirit root determines their talent in cultivation. From Human to Bronze, from Bronze to Silver, from Silver to Gold, and then from Gold to Earth, and whatever lies beyond that. For two people who have a difference of a single grade in the quality of their spirit roots, the person with a higher grade will find cultivation to be two times easier than the person with a lesser grade spirit root as their ability to sense and connect with Qi will be that much greater.

Until now, her Low-Earth Grade Spirit Root has allowed her to call people four years her senior her peers, and were it not for the fact that many of the people older than her have had more time to grow accustomed to their battle arts, she might even be able to disregard them entirely.

Yet, that Low-Earth Grade Spirit Root that had always filled her with confidence seemed to be useless when it came to this purple energy. Or rather, it was simply unneeded, because its existence is irrelevant when it came to controlling the purple energy. In fact, from the moment it entered her Dantian, she found that the energy obeyed her every whim with a fervent zeal that made her feel as though her control over her normal Qi was severely lacking.

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It goes against common sense, and when she remembers that Lan Jin somehow managed to turn the normal Qi from a spirit stone into purple energy that was then deposited back into the Stone Prophet, and all within a matter of seconds, she can’t help but wonder how it is that some random guy who appeared out of nowhere has an ability that completely circumvents what she considers the normal rules of cultivation.

Opening her eyes, she turns her head slightly and glances at Lan Jin. Even though she still feels embarrassed and angry whenever she remembers how he asked her about her reaction to the purple energy, she still feels smug when she sees how miserable he is listening to her mother. It is something she can fully understand as she has sat through many of her mother’s lectures and felt much the same in the past. And that it was happening to someone other than herself while she could watch made her feel satisfied that, at the very least, she isn’t the only one to lose out because of today’s occurrence.

Closing her eyes again, she leans on Lulu’s shoulder once more only to feel her body shift forward slightly as the carriage comes to a halt. Opening her eyes again, she realizes that they have arrived at a restaurant at the Northern end of the Central District.

She isn’t surprised to see that they are stopping at a restaurant. Her mom thinks that they can be considered neutral gathering points for when you don’t want to deal with people coming to your home but you also have to deal with unpleasant social circumstances. Consequently, whenever her father has to deal with people outside of his official capacity, he always goes to a restaurant, and more often than not, she and her mom go with him.

But what does surprise her is that they’re visiting a One-Star Vicious Beast restaurant. With her family’s standing, they never come to places like this one. If they wanted to eat a light meal where others could see them, they would go to a Two-Star Vicious Beast restaurant. And if they wanted an excellent meal without having to rely on their chefs, they would go to the city’s only Three-Star Vicious Beast restaurant, The Silver Star.

For her mother to choose this particular restaurant, just outside of the Inner City and far from the homes of anyone who might be searching for them, Qiang Yu can’t help but feel a sense of glee filling her heart as she realizes how petty her mom can be when forced to do something she doesn’t enjoy. And with a smile on her face, she turns and hugs her mom tightly while waiting for the driver to come and open her door.

But when she remembers how she’s going to have to look at all of those stupid boys who only want to marry her to strengthen their families and want nothing to do with her, herself, her good mood disappears and she can’t help but hug her mom more tightly.

***

Lan Jin stumbles out of the carriage, his mind reeling from the large amount of information shoved into it by Sun Meirong. He had seen it before, both with how she treated the Great Physician and her own daughter, but only now did he realize that that woman could really talk somebody’s head off.

The worst part about it wasn’t how much she said, or even the short period of time in which she said it. Instead, the worst part about talking to Sun Meirong was that she didn’t say the same thing twice. And because everything seemed equally important, he didn’t know what he was supposed to pay the most attention to.

If he had to briefly describe what she told him, then he could do it in a word, because it felt like she told him everything. But, if he had to name one specific thing she told him, then she would very likely stop being the only person in her family who hadn’t hit him, because though he internalized the general message of her long monologue, what he actually gained from listening to Sun Meirong was just four words: Don’t embarrass my family.

Shaking his head, Lan Jin wonders if this is a norm for this new world or if it’s only Sun Meirong who is so nit-picky. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know who he’s supposed to ask as he thinks the Great Physician is the only person who might be both experienced enough and mellow enough to give him a straightforward, and reliable, answer. Though, he does remember Qiang Yu giving him a quick, smug look while they were still inside the carriage; he’s pretty sure he wasn’t meant to see it, but his mind was already mush from listening to Sun Meirong and, in such an enclosed space, he couldn’t help but notice her movements.

His question unable to be answered, Lan Jin looks around and finds himself in front of a large, terraced building constructed of wood. It has a simple name, ‘Iron Forest Grill’, and he can smell a strong scent coming from inside that reminds him of his dad’s applewood smoked pork.

However, before he can do more than wonder what it is they are cooking inside that smells so good, Sun Meirong begins walking toward the building trailed by Qiang Yu and Lulu who are holding hands and bumping their shoulders together as they walk.

Ignoring them, Lan Jin decides he might as well follow behind quickly as he doubts Sun Meirong suddenly stopped paying attention to him just because they arrived at the restaurant.

A few seconds later, as he walks through an open door leading into the warm, wooden interior of the building, his thoughts are proven correct as Sun Meirong gives him a glance before walking toward a greeter standing at the end of the small, rectangular room he finds himself in.

The greeter, a young man wearing a purple robe with his black hair tied and held in a tall bun on top of his head, widens his eyes as he sees Sun Meirong and Qiang Yu, and he bends over so quickly that Lan Jin half expects to hear a whip crack resounding through the air.

“Lady Sun!” The greeter calls out, his hands cupped together in front of his chest. “Welcome to the Iron Forest Grill! We have never had the opportunity to serve the City Lord’s household before. Would you like our finest room?”

“No.” Sun Meirong says brusquely. “You are not serving the City Lord’s household. You are serving me, my daughters, and that boy. Give us a regular room off to the side somewhere, and you will be the one serving us today.”

Waving her hand, Sun Meirong includes him in her group and the greeter’s eyes seem confused even as he looks at the floor.

Lan Jin doesn’t blame him. Sun Meirong told him the plan and he’s still confused.

Supposedly, they were just going to sit down and order food. Then they were going to wait for it to show up and start eating. In the meantime, there was a good chance that people would begin showing up and ‘coincidentally’ running into them.

Lan Jin finds the entire situation to be annoying. He doesn’t mind that they are at a restaurant as he was already thinking about getting food, but he just wants to sit back, have a nice meal, and go about his day.

But, when the greeter nods his head rapidly and begins escorting their group of four further into the building, there isn’t much he can do other than follow along.