Ming wouldn't stop nagging her about getting some rest, but she finally convinced him it was too early for her to sleep and they were just wasting time.

"Why don't you tell me exactly what these heavenly moon pills do?" Jie asked, holding up the bottle she'd taken from The Crimson Vault.

Ming coiled up like a snake as he often did before lecturing her. "They contain a dense amount of Essence. When you take one, you need to focus every fiber of your being on absorbing and cultivating all you can without sacrificing the quality of your qi," he said.

Jie opened the bottle of pills. A sweet, tantalizing scent filled the air, and it gave off waves of Essence.

She took one of the bright white pills and placed it on her tongue. It melted and poured down her throat like ice-cold water, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

It rushed down her body, through her meridians, and into her dantian.

She gasped. So much Essence!

She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth as she set to refining it as fast as she could while not letting her quality slip. Sweat ran down her face, and bright white Essence steamed off her skin.

A black ooze bubbled out of her pores as her body shifted, removing impurities.

Jie kept her focus on greedily absorbing the pill. Explosions rippled through her dantian as she refined one strand of dragon lightning qi after another.

Her bones ached, and her teeth rattled from the raging storm within her dantian, but her cultivation base soared faster than it had since arriving in this world.

She sat still and absorbed the pill like a greedy sponge for hours and the lightning qi inside her dantian swelled up until it was half again as big as it was when she started.

She felt her strength skyrocket as she broke through beyond the ninth star of the Disciple rank and into the first star of the Adept rank. She finally began to understand what Ming had meant about the gap between the ranks being far larger than the gap between stars, even when the difference between them was a single star.

Finally, she absorbed the last shred of Essence and let out a heavy sigh. She felt as though she were bursting with strength despite the pain of her cultivation technique.

"Wow! That was amazing! I want another one!" Jie said with a bright smile on her face.

Ming smiled. "You're a natural, kiddo, but now you need to stabilize your cultivation by sparring and practicing your martial skills. If you don't, you could injure yourself. Cultivation resources are excellent, but overusing them can destabilize your cultivation," he said, "Now, wash that muck off yourself, and let's see what their Training Hall is like."

Jie nodded. "I'll go do that then!" she said.

She leaped to her feet, scrubbed the muck off her skin, and dashed out of her home in a flash.

Ming shook his head. "To absorb so much of her very first pill... most Elementalists can't even do that... what kind of monster did I bring to this world?" he muttered.

Jie rushed off through the night and went into The Training Hall.

Even at this time of night, it was filled with other students battling each other or facing humanoid constructs made of stone and earth with glowing green eyes and energy suffusing their bodies in one of the many arenas. Some of the sparring arenas were raised above floor level, and others were more like pits that sank into the earth.

In them, youths sparred against each other or against the earthen constructs.

Some merely chatted among themselves, others watched the other students spar, and a few sat in quiet cultivation.

Who or what should she fight? She was practically bursting with energy, but almost everyone on this floor was only at the sixth star of the Disciple rank! Not nearly strong enough to challenge her. Even before she broke through into the first star of the Adept rank.

She hated how the people of this world were so savage to another, but Ming insisted that she needed to push herself. And, she had to admit she felt the need to exert herself. A good, friendly sparring session might even be fun!

Several youths stopped their training and stared at her. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Why were they all looking at her? Was she doing something wrong already?

Ming chuckled. "Relax. You're the first place winner of that pitiful trial, and besides... you look odd for a human," he said.

She nodded. Blue hair would attract attention even in her own world... though she didn't quite understand why it was unusual here when half the students weren't even human.

An arrogant boy about thirteen years old with purple skin strolled toward her with his chest stuck out and four other youths at his sides. She sensed their cultivation was at the peak of the first star of the Adept rank while the young boy who led them had a cultivation of the second star of the Adept rank.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"You're Jie, right?" said their leader.

Jie folded her arms. "Who's asking?" she said.

The boy's face went red. "How dare you? Don't you know who I am? That was my brother you sneaked up on in the first trial! Now he can't get into the academy thanks to you!" he said.

Jie shook her head. "He's the one who attacked me. I merely defended myself. If he can't get into the academy, then maybe it'll teach him not to go around trying to steal from people," she said.

His face reddened even more. "I'll make you eat those words," he said.

Jie sighed. "You can try," she said.

The other youths stopped their battles and watched the drama unfolding before them.

"Is she going to fight Chen Wei? Is she mad?"

"I can't wait to see this... she was so arrogant in the trial... now she'll get what she deserves..."

Jie ignored them.

What did it matter what they thought? She'd never give in to bullies. No matter what their cultivation was.

Besides, she was itching to use some martial skills and let out some of her power. Maybe with a second star Adept, she wouldn't have to be so damn careful.

She leaped into one of the empty sparring arenas with feline grace. "Well? I don't have all night," she said.

Her voice was cold. She hated how violent these people were. All she wanted was a nice, friendly sparring match to help her grow, but it seemed like fate was against her.

Chen Wei gritted his teeth and jumped up into the ring with her. "You'll learn not to mess with my family!" he said.

Jie rotated her qi within her dantian. It swirled and crackled inside her. So much power! It was utterly exhilarating! All those years of being trapped in her own body... and now power pulsed inside her. Oh, this was too good!

She smiled despite herself. Who cared if she was fighting a bully? She could let out some of the energy that was threatening to burst out of her! He was nearly at the third star of the Adept rank from what she could feel, surely she could finally go all out!

Chen Wei smirked sadistically as he glared at her and cycled a technique. Strange ghostly white qi enveloped his body, forming a kind of semi-translucent white armor of bones made out of qi.

Ribs of bone qi flowed into a thick bony chest plate and spread up his neck, covering his head and even his jaw. With the armor even going so far as to grow out terrifying-looking teeth over his mouth.

The sight could be rather intimidating, Jie supposed, but as it was she just thought it looked interesting and somewhat cool more than anything. Like an elaborate Halloween costume.

Her lack of a reaction seemed to take Chen Wei aback slightly, but he quickly recovered, his eyes glaring at her even as they smoldered with the same ghostly white glow as his bone armor.

He closed his hands into tight fists at his sides as curved glowing bone grew out of his forearms, curving over his fists and growing out until he had quite an impressive pair of blades made out of what felt like some kind of bone qi.

"Let's see how arrogant you are after this," he said.

He ran toward her, rearing his arms up to attack... but to Jie, he may as well have been taking a casual stroll.

She pouted. She wasn't even using her movement technique...

He slashed at her, his eyes burning with fury. Jie sidestepped with casual ease and his bone blades swept through empty air.

Chen Wei's eyes went wide. And it took him a moment before he saw where she'd moved to. "How?" he said.

"If you're taking it easy, please don't. I need to exert myself to stabilize my cultivation," Jie said.

"Don't take it easy? Did she just ask him not to take it easy?" someone in the audience muttered.

"Ha! It takes guts to taunt Chen Wei like that," said someone else.

What little of Chen Wei's face Jie could see through his strange armor turned so red she thought he might burst a blood vessel as he swung at her again and again. Each attack seemed to grow in speed, yet no matter how much he attacked, he couldn't even touch her sleeves.

Jie sighed. She'd hoped for enough of a challenge to push herself a little, but perhaps she should've known better. Hopefully, there'd be stronger opponents around...

Jie's qi flowed through her meridians in the pattern she knew so well by now and blue orbs formed around her fists.

He attacked her again and she stepped inside the swing with perfect timing, slipping past his guard like it wasn't even there and punching him in the gut.

His bone armor shattered like glass, fragments of glowing white qi spraying everywhere as he folded over her fist. All the breath in his body left him in a whoosh. An instant later, the force of her blow sent him flying across the ring like a ragdoll.

He smacked against the stone wall of the ring that surrounded them and collapsed to the ground, his body spasming as dragon lightning qi arced over him.

The audience drew in a collective breath as he lay there twitching. It took a long moment before he finally began to move, letting out a cough that stirred the sand at his lips as he struggled to rise on shaky arms.

"How... how could you...?" he said before coughing up blood and collapsing again.

Jie looked at him, and her eyes went soft. "I'm sorry for hurting you so much. I guess I don't know my own strength yet," she said.

"You... how dare... you!" Chen Wei said as he choked out the words in an angry snarl.

Jie frowned. "What did I say?" she asked.

"You basically just said that he was far too weak to be your opponent despite the fact he's a full star above you. I think you were trying to be nice, but you may as well have slapped him in the face," Ming said.

Jie shook her head. "How silly," she said, "Whatever... do you think I should try the next floor? Do you think they'll have stronger cultivators for me to spar with?"

"They do. From what I can sense, each floor is devoted to a higher star," Ming said, "You may need quite a few floors."

Jie jumped out of the arena and went up the stairs without a second glance at anyone else.

As she stepped out onto the second floor, a few of the youths looked her over. She reached out with her spirit sense and found they were all around the seventh star of the Disciple rank.

"They're too weak, but they're stronger than the first floor. I guess I'll keep climbing?" Jie said.

Ming just floated along beside her with a massive grin on his face.

She strode straight and headed up the stairs higher and higher up to the sixth floor.

The second she stepped out onto the sixth floor everyone there looked at her with smirks on their lips. "Getting a little ahead of yourself don't you think?" asked a girl several years older than Jie.

She was beautiful with a crowd of other girls around her that giggled at her remark.

Jie paused for a moment and sensed those on the entire floor.

"Hmm... just one star above me? Not high enough," she muttered without thinking.

The girl's gorgeous face twisted in anger and Jie walked right past her and up the stairs.

"Go ahead and die you arrogant brat!" snarled the girl behind her. Several others laughed.

Jie didn't even look back. She climbed to the seventh floor.

"Everyone here is at least at the third star of the Adept rank. Two stars ahead of me. This should be a good place to start right?" Jie asked.

"I don't think even those at the third star of the Adept rank are your match from what I've seen, but you also haven't fought any tough battles yet. I agree it should help you gauge your strength better, but let's not linger here too long. Remember, you must be challenged, or you're just wasting time," Ming said.