It was my turn to take a "shower" after Xie Wen got out of the bathroom.

"What shower?" I asked while looking at a small bucket and a single torn rag in the corner.

The bathroom blew my expectations out of the water and proceeded to beat it up while it was still flopping about. Because it wasn't just a small "room" hidden by two walls, no, it was worse. I expected it to at least be decent, with enough water for two people and at least some sort of soap but no, it doesn't even have ventilation!

I picked up the rag and started wetting it, "the toilet doesn't even exist," I said with a frown.

The "toilet" in this place is a hole in the ground and looking down on it let me see a canal full of- "Ugh." I gagged and placed the lid back. "What the fuck?!"

No wonder Xie Wen looks like shit, the living conditions here fucking suck! It's like if you lived in a poor village except it's somehow worse!

"Seriously, African children live better than this," and somehow, whoever put me here expects me to live like this for god knows how long? "Yeah, no," I said while squeezing the water out of the rag. After that I wet the rag again and continued wiping my body, "the question is though, how the hell am I gonna live better than this?"

I mean, it's not like all I had to do is make money, no, money isn't enough. And unless I want to be some random merchant that the typical Xianxia mc "bribes" with force for his precious items, I'll have to cultivate and become stronger than I am right now. I paused, Wait, I'm not becoming a Xianxia mc am I? Am I gonna start murdering people soon?

Probably not, since I feel like me but it'll probably change, right?

I tossed the rag away and stared at one of the bathroom "walls", the leaf it's made out of looks very familiar to me for some reason. Power huh? - I wonder how it feels like to be a god among men?

I can probably cultivate with my spirit stone and reach that stage or somewhere near but I don't know... how strong are spirit stones again?

"Yu Song?" Xie Wen's voice broke me out of my thoughts, "We're at the fifth bell now, you should get out before you get punished by Gang Gong."

I frowned and started wiping myself dry, "what's up with him anyway?" I asked while putting on my rag of a shirt, I had muscles, which is nice, I guess. Yay for silver linings.

Xie Wen hummed, "What do you mean?" she had a quiver in her voice that made me feel a bit of pity for her but I shook those thoughts out of my head, "Gang Gong likes me remember?" she answered with a soft tone, "and he wants to take me from you,"

"From me?" I asked while I put on my pants, I didn't have underwear and I feel weird because of it. I should do something about it.

With a shiver, I tightened the rope of my pants. God I feel vulnerable.

"Xie Wen?" I asked, "Did we have a relationship or something?"

"N-not really?" she replied quizzically, "you just protected me from him back then but now..."

"Oh." I said and stepped out of the bathroom, "what happened that I lost?" I asked.

"You were stronger than him before but he's gotten better lately," she said, "I- I don't know anymore."

"Right, and how was I stronger than him?" I asked, listening for the bell. I noticed that I had better hearing than most people when I listened in to those two cultivators earlier so I guess that's enough proof that I do have some sort of foundation, "Xie Wen?"

Xie Wen flinched, "I-I don't know I swear!" she said, raising both hands.

"What?" I'm confused.

"Yo-you always got angry whenever I asked about how you're stronger than most of the outer disciples." she explained, "and- everyone here knows that you can get stronger really quickly you know? When you first came here you didn't even have a single stage beneath your foot!"

"Uhuh," I started walking around the room, I stared at the walls, cupping them with my palms. This guy didn't have more than the spirit stones did he?

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"Well, you only really stopped getting stronger after I moved in with you." Xie Wen finished.

I stared at Xie Wen, "Wow really?" so even the old Yu Song is suspicious of her? "That's pretty sad, you're pretty much bad luck then right?" I said while continuing to cup the walls, I tried to feel for anything suspicious and ring-shaped but got nothing. "I should just give you to Gang Gong."

"Please don't!" I turned back to see Xie Wen pressing her against the stone floor. "Please!"

"Huh," she's actually crying? "Fine, you can stick with me until Gang Gong forces me to give you to him or something."

Xie Wen hugged me, "Thank you,"

DING!

"Is that the sixth toll?" I asked.

Xie Wen nodded, "Yes, we should get going before we're forced out of this place."

"So that's the place we live in?" I asked Xie Wen, she's been answering fine for a while now so one more question wouldn't hurt, "how long have we been living here?" two questions wouldn't hurt.

"Well..." Xie Wen put her finger on her lower lip, "I... I don't know?" she said eventually.

"You don't know?" I repeated, "How?"

She smiled wryly, "keeping tabs on the seasons feels pretty useless to me so I don't usually do it," Xie Wen shrugged.

"Right..." I replied.

I looked back at our "house"- me saying it isn't much would be an understatement because the house isn't anything. It's just a simple shack, a mound actually, one that's made of trash and other useless shit. I wanted to say that it looked like a porta potty but at least those were made of wood and not dirt. The house obviously didn't look like it's made of dirt because the one who built it - bless him, - put in the effort to place a bunch of leaves on the walls.

"Okay, so everyone lives in what? Hobbit holes?" Hills? Hobbit Hills?

"Hobbit Holes?" Xie Wen asked, "What is that?"

"Nothing," I waved her off while staring at the other outer disciples. Just like us, they wore rags, have dirty looking faces, and looked like shit. "So, what do we usually do here?" I asked eventually.

I know that we're supposed to be the "Alchemist Pavillion" of the sect but I don't see why knowing what kind of hellhole we're in explains what kind of shit we do here, "Xie Wen?" I called out again.

"Oh,- uhm-" she stuttered, "we usually plant and gather herbs?"

"Okay?" that sounds easy, "do the plants bite?"

"No?"

"Okay, okay, I can work with this," farming didn't sound that bad.

And as it turns out, it actually isn't!

We were led to a large plot of land filled with plants. Then the other outer disciples started forming a line in front of some clean looking people. Wie Xen and I stood on one of the shorter ones, after that, the line moved until it's our turn and the inner disciple handed us a hoe and a basket, then Wie Xen explained that the basket needs to be strapped to our backs which-

"uh, yeah, I get that." I said to her while staring at the straps. "Thanks though,"

She nodded with a smile and after that, we all started working alongside the other outer disciples, we struck the ground, pulled out some sort of root crop, tossed it on the basket, and then repeated the process.

I heard a snap and stared and saw that some old dude killed some random guy, "is- is that normal?" I asked in fear, "Xie Wen?"

"Yes," the girl replied with a tone of defeat, "Yu Song, you must be strong," she said, " both in mind and body."

"O-okay?" I replied.

Just like Xie Wen, everyone else just considered the act of murder normal because they continued working with a neutral expression on their face.

I followed their example and got back to work.

"Huh, I thought that this would be harder?" I asked Xie Wen, who's unsurprisingly sticking close to me because she's scared of Gang Gong. "Xie Wen?"

"Ha? HA..." hearing her heavy breathing actually got me to face her in concern and I saw that she's already sweating. She smiled, "I-I'm fine. I just need to rest okay Yu Song?"

I looked at the thin old guy watching over the entire field and remembered that he snapped someone's neck earlier because they asked him to rest, "yeah, I don't think that's allowed," I replied, "also, pretty sure that-" I stopped and eyed the old man, "-these plants need to be harvested quickly or else it will be bad." I quickly corrected.

I held back a sigh when I saw the man faintly nod before staring someplace else. Fucking knew it, he can hear me!

It was obvious because if I have good hearing then stronger cultivators definitely also do but that's something that won't cross my mind unless it's important. Which it is, so remember it!

I continued working even as I mentally chastised myself. And so did Xie Wen, "you know Yu Song," she started. "You should probably- Ugh," I heard a wet splash, "disgusting," Xie Wen said.

"What's that?" something blue and slimy is all over the girl's body, I wanted to say that it looked like slime but after walking over and touching her, I noticed that it's actually a lot less viscous than I thought it was, "it's more watery than I thought," I muttered.

"Yep," Xie Wen said with a wince, "Qi Springs are like that, they look hard but are super soft,"

"Then why does it stick to our body?" I asked.

"Because they're attracted to life energy," Xie Wen explained.

"Huh, cool." I raised the hoe I'm holding and struck the ground. Nothing. "How'd you end up finding it?" I asked.

"That usually happens," Xie Wen explained, "it's because the spring rises from time to time. I don't know why it does that though."

"Okay," I struck the ground again and again until something bright orange popped out, I bent down and dug it out, it was a two-armed ginger, "neat." I said before tossing the root crop at the nearest basket.

We worked like that until lunch which afterward, the inner disciples started giving us food, "thank you," I said to the girl serving my line, she had a bored expression while giving everyone bread and hot, red water. "It looks delicious," I gave her a smile full of teeth.

"Move," she said coldly.

"Yep, got it." I replied, quickly scuttling away.