Mint sat down on one of the stone wall rings of the future terrace orchard, waiting for Nerine and hopefully a few earth disciples.

As she sat there her thoughts started drifting.

How would one go about building connections? She knew, well, she had talked to the other disciples in the wood group and she had been in a meeting with the other leaders in the captain's cabin. Then she got the garden project assigned to her and spent most of the time after that watching grass grow and kind of failing at being an elder.

She didn’t know anyone here. Sure they all had a common ancestor, but that ancestor, whose island they were on now, had died thousands of years before any of them had been born. The island was literally the only reason they were grouped together, with everything from commoners to, as it turned out, two princesses, all mixed up. That didn’t make them friends.

But if all of her failures had taught her anything it was that she couldn't just depend on herself. She was a 15 year old girl with no experience or skills aside from playing the flute well and a tendency to lose herself in plants' growth cycles. That was certainly beneficial for her cultivation, but not particularly useful in this situation. It was very obvious to her by now that choosing the strongest as the leader might not be the best idea.

She would much rather dig in the mud and play for spirit trees until they grew wooden treasures of her choice than try and lead a group of actual people. Not that she had much of a choice now.

So that left becoming friends with the others in her group so they could just do all of this together.

And how would one go about making friends?

Mint was slightly stumped there. Her friends had been introduced to her by her mother, the main wife or her grandmother and, well, then they had been told to be friends. She could hardly go to the others in her group and order them to be her friends. That would be weird.

Maybe she could invite them to a tea party? She would need tea, pots, cups, tables, chairs, elegant decoration and so much more for a tea party though. She didn’t even have anything to wear to such an occasion!

As she was mulling over how to befriend or at least get to know her group little Nerine returned - by herself, unfortunately.

Mint tilted her head to the side as she wondered what could have prevented the earth group from sending people. It wasn't like the improvement of their caves was urgent at this point, after all.

"Elder! There's going to be a big discussion!" Nerine announced excitedly. "The sect master said to call you."

Mint waited for a moment, but no further information was offered. "Okay...where and when? And why?"

Nerine blinked. "Uhm...something with lots of roots? And the kids that didn't get their introduction at 10."

Mint sighed. Sending a 12 year old, obedient as she was, might not be the best idea. "And when does the sect Master want to talk about that?"

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"Oh, later, when everyone is there."

By now Mint was feeling the sudden urge to invade the little girl's head and see for herself what she had been told, but that was what demonic cultivators did and could hurt the psychological state of mind badly. Not that she would ever seriously consider it, but sometimes she fully understood why some people wanted a technique like that.

"And where is there?" She sighed.

"At the big storage cave!" Nerine grinned proudly.

Mint did her best to smile at the girl. All she had done in her life had likely been some basic lessons, cultivating and playing. It was good enough that she hadn't just run off to hide and look for pretty flowers with her friends. "Thank you for informing me. Do you want to come along to the big cave or would you rather wait for the earth group and watch them mix up the orchard soil?"

Mint recognised that look, surprise and apprehension. Of course Nerine had forgotten about why she had been sent to the earth group in the first place.

"I...um, I'll just wait here, elder!" She announced before running off, back towards where she had just come from.

Mint smirked. Kids could be very obvious.

She, herself, hurried towards the storage cave. Their biggest and currently only at least partially empty cave as far as she knew.

The spirit root problem was really their biggest one at this point. If she had someone with earth, metal and wood roots, even if that person was only at Foundation Building, they could have simply turned the rock at the Orchard into fertile soil. No pure earth or metal cultivator had any hope of ever getting soil right.

But of course in their precious, carefully bred bloodline anything except single and double roots was a rare exception. So much so that they couldn't send even a single, decent, common 3, 4 or 5 root cultivator with her group - no, the few the bloodline had all went with the more precious groups. The irony, for multiples to suddenly become so precious after getting shunned for their inadequate talent all their life!

Mint sighed softly. In truth, making a new sect was hard and none of them had any idea what they were doing.

With many frustrated jumps Mint hopped up the crater, over the peaks and then down the mountain, all the way to the edge of the cliff by the sea. There, she found the big cave, still full of precious jade bed plates, all sorts of stone pots, silver vases and embroidered screens made from more or less precious materials filled with spiritual radiance and other things that were to be expected in a cultivator's private quarters.

It would have been a dazzling treasure trove if it wasn't for the fact that it was all crammed together and sort of messy.

There were many bed plates, Mint noticed. Too many people who just never arrived at the ship.

There were no people waiting for a meeting with the sect master though.

Before she could decide whether Nerine had made a mistake the young woman who had somehow become their sect master showed up carrying a freshly grown wooden table. It was rather simple yet elegant and for a moment Mint wondered which of her team members had grown it. Whoever it was could very well be a good fit for the building team.

As the wood elder or whatever her group would end up being called it should have been her responsibility to know exactly who it was.

With a slightly pained smile she bobbed her head towards the sect master - not particularly good manners, but then again her honourable sect leader was currently carrying a table while jumping down a cliff.

She didn't have any personal subordinates at all to do things like this for her, so Mint couldn't exactly judge her for lack of decorum as a sect master.

"Hi Ember!" Mint waved at her instead and got a good natured grin in return.

"Hey, there. I've got great news, so don't look at me like that! I've got a solution to your problem, even." The girl declared way too smugly to have any dignity as a sect master. "You see, I asked the captain about our little multiple root problem."

Mint stood up straighter unconsciously. The captain usually knew what to do, after all.

The sect master's overly smug expression became even more obnoxious. "I'm going to wait for the others before I tell you though."

For a brief Moment Mint considered starting a vote of mistrust due to their sect master being annoying so they could replace her with the captain. Then, she followed Ember into the cramped cave to wait for the others.