Clean, sated and wide awake thanks to her higher realm Mint sat on deck contemplating what to do. Start her cave? She needed an earth cultivator for that and she doubted her cave was their first priority.

A lot of people had run over to the island to find their own place, too. The older ones, at least. The kids got a sleeping pill and went back to bed.

Before she could brood too long the ice beauty waved at her to come over to the captain's cabin. Two of the other core formation cultivators were standing at the door already while the ice beauty went to find the others, Mint assumed. A meeting of the elders... though seeing herself as an elder felt very odd.

Still she followed the others into the captain's cabin. Inside there was a simple table with a few chairs, a whole wall full of storage spaces filled with boxes and a door to another room. The captain and his wife were standing near the back, waiting. Maybe she should have felt insulted that a mortal had called in mighty core formation disciples, but all she felt was relief that someone apparently knew what to do. Or had the willpower and experience to help them find a solution, at least.

It didn't take long for all of the strongest disciples to arrive.

Not just core formation cultivators thoug, but also others.

Mint turned to the ice beauty in confusion. Before she could ask though the captain's wife interrupted her thoughts. "All right, children. I am sure you are wondering why we asked all of you to come here."

All the gathered disciples turned towards her, but nobody spoke.

"The reason is simple. We, mortals, need to sail to another island nearby tomorrow to settle down. We do not have enough resources as it is and we will need all we have to build a new village. We can't leave hundreds of people cooped up in this ship." The captain sounded very calm, but the realisation that they had to leave immediately, or at least the next day, hit hard.

"But, what about the little ones?" One of the weak Foundation Builing disciples that were present for some reason interjected. She was a girl with muscles that made her sleeves strain around her upper arms.

"We'll take the babies in until you have a place for them or they're old enough to become cultivators. A rough cave is no place for a toddler and none of you kids have any idea how to keep a baby alive without accidently letting it starve or freeze. All we would ask is some protection from you when we need it." The captain's wife explained patiently.

It was the oddest case of keeping hostages Mint had ever heard of. Caring for babies to ensure their own protection. It wasn't stupid.

"Before we get to the details you kids will need a command structure. You need to know who is responsible for what, and who gets to make decisions before you start getting arguments." The Captain said sternly.

Again, the teens could only nod. He was right, Mint knew. But...she could hardly tell others what to do... except she was one of the strongest now, so of course she had to.The thought just never crossed her mind since, well, she was just an illetigimate daughter. Most of them were daughters, illetigimate or ordinary if talented disciples. None of them had ever been among those prepared for leadership in a sect - or maybe some did have that sort of education?

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"At this table we have all the Core Formation Cultivators, the strongest Foundation Building Cultivator of the earth and fire element as well as the only Foundation Building Alchemist and Blacksmith. That should be everone you need to create the basic structure of your sect."

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Mint held up the rough plan of their mountain and sighed. There was a big valley in the middle of the mountain they were supposed to turn into a big herbal garden, but once again the line that should have been straight turned out to be crooked.

"Okay, I give up!" Mint decided on the spot, only to be rewarded with several snickers. Being among the youngest of the people she was supposed to lead was not nice. She had exactly no dignity or respect.

Instead of mulling things over any more she turned to the two oldest girls, who had water and earth roots - very important to the department responsible for gardening, among other things, really - and threw the map at them. It wasn't her fault she never learned how to draw a map!

"I bet you guys know exactly where the qi springs are and you know how the streams running through the garden would reach the soil everywhere. So please, just...do it and tell us what you need." Mint felt defeated. Everyone was getting frustrated with her failed attempt at leadership! She was definitely the worst sect elder ever.

Next, she turned to one of the girls who were pretty close to Core Formation. "You and two of the others go with Coral, I'll take the rest to go with Pearl. We will improve the soil while Coral and Pear dig the channels."

"Make a lake in the middle, so we can plant lotus and water lilies." The young man in her team, Bamboo, suggested. "And you guys should mill the rock to soil where we can't plant or the soil is too thin while we're at it."

Mint stared at him for a moment. 5 years really did make a big difference. Maybe trying to be the sole leader really had been a dumb idea.

Coral's frown suddenly turned into a smile. "Good idea. Maybe a forest on the northern edge, a lake in the middle and gardens where we specifically plant certain herbs in the south."

"What about personal gardens? I want my own!" Little Amaranth, who was a year younger than Mint, demanded.

Mint shrugged. "We could put those in the east...then in the west we could have a poisonous forest that's off limits to everyone else."

"And an Orchard going all around the valley, then we can make wine and have fruit whenever we want!" The other guy, Pine, had another nice idea, as it turned out. Mint smiled at him, earning herself a blush. She looked away as she blushed, too. Working with boys was just too awkward.

Everyone nodded. Not that any of the girls had ever had wine, but that didn't mean they didn't want to try.

Pine grabbed the mess of a map, pulled the ink off and started drawing from the beginning. Suddenly, the mess Mint had made earlier seemed even more embarrassing as his picturesque map of what they had imagined literally floud out of his brush.He even had the nerve to look smug about it.

Not that she could say anything, he had every right to be smug, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

"Thank you, that looks nice." Mint tried to appreciate his effort, but...maybe she lacked a bit of enthusiasm. "We can hang up the map in our cave later on, when we get one."

Pine grinned at her, happily, which made her feel kind of bad for being so unhappy with his skill. It wasn't his fault she was terrible at this, either.

With a bit more determination Mint nodded. "Okay, Coral and Pearl dig the lake while we take care of the other preparations. Blossom and Amaranth remove the worst brambles and useless grass, Pine and Bamboo make a map of the soil quality and what we can do with it while I prepare the seeds for planting."

That sounded like a much better plan, Mint thought to herself. Bamboo was the oldest even though he was weak, and Pine had to do the drawing. Removing useless mortal plants was easy enough for the two youngest girls. Coral and Pearl were the only ones capable of making the lake aside from the earth team - and the earth team was busy digging everyone's caves.

The others nodded in agreement, too, so that was good. Maybe she wasn't the worst elder ever after all. Suddenly, she felt much lighter. Ready to do what she loved: play with spirit water while soaking the seeds and then play in the mud - or rather, prepare the seeds for planting.

Hopefully she could move the bed from their hastily dug out storage area to her own cave by the time the sun set.