"So this is just soup?" I asked Xie Wen while raising the bowl of red water, "And it's not some special brew made from the Qi Spring?" I asked again while dripping my bed on the water and then chowing it down. It doesn't taste like anything, so I guess Xie Wen does have a point.

I swallowed, "this feels pretty stupid," I said while finishing the rest of my bread, "is this even food? Why are they feeding us so little?"

"It's because they want us to cultivate our Qi," Xie Wen said distantly. I don't know when she started acting like this, but at some point, she just started acting cold for no discernible reason, "cultivating can sustain our bodies and that's why they don't give us that much food, they expect us to substitute it with Qi."

"So no dinner later then." I drank the rest of the soup. "Damn."

Xie Wen did the same and quickly stood up, she made a show of dusting herself off, "Yu Song, I think it's best if we get back to work," she said, "come on, we should finish the rest of the day and go back inside our house before Gang Gong gets the time and idea to come to us."

"Fair enough," I stood up after her.

I've had work after lunch before, and because I had a full stomach back then, I got a stomach ache. It didn't feel like that for me right now- "You-" I slammed my hoe on the ground, "-know, Xie Wen, I've always wanted to ask why you're here,"

She looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "You've always wanted to ask?"

"Pretty much yeah," I replied while picking up a root crop from the ground. It looked like an eye, a pure white circle with a dot in the center, "by the way, what's this?" I showed the root crop to her.

"That's... a low-grade Oracle Ginsen I think," Xie Wen answered.

"Yu Song?" I hummed, "Can we go back to the part where you said you wanted to ask why I'm here?"

I looked at her, "Uh, sure?" I nodded, "can you tell me why?"

She hummed, "it isn't that complicated a reason, I think." She said, "I've always wanted to be a cultivator you know?" I nodded to show that I'm listening, "And I guess the small village that I come from didn't have the resources to support my dream so I went away,"

Okay, that sounds like typical Xianxia stuff so far. It's cool that I'm in familiar territory at least.

"And that's all?" I asked her.

"Nope," she shook her head, "I've also met someone back then," Xie Wen looked up at the massive towers in the distance, the blue and tallest one being the most eye-catching out of all of them, "I think he belonged to this sect."

"Not gonna say any more than that?" I asked.

"Nope."

"Okay, cool." So Xie Wen is chasing after a cultivator guy that she met some time ago, that doesn't sound that bad does it?

But what does it have to do with me? I thought. I mean I get it, Xie Wen wanted to become a cultivator so she joined a sect, then got inspired even more when she met another cultivator (that, or it's the cultivator himself that made Xie Wen want to join this Sect in the first place,) and now she's here, working as an outer disciple.

But my question is, why is Xie Wen with me? And why am I protecting her from Gang Gong- a guy that likes Xie Wen?

I looked at the girl with a frown, she didn't try to appeal to the old Yu Song so he can protect her did she?

I'm gonna watch out for her and see what happens. I finished before getting back to work.

The rest of the day passed by in a flash and Xie Wen acted cold till the end of it. When we were all done for work, every outer disciple of the Alchemist Pavillion stood in front of the murderous old man and present our baskets, the old man will then suck all of the roots inside of them into his spirit ring and in return, he'll give the outer disciples a Talisman of sorts.

Xie Wen told me that the value of the Talisman depends on how good we did at harvesting.

When it was finally my turn, the old man gave me a smile, "Yu Song, have you gotten stronger?" he asked and looked over to the person standing behind me, "someone as talented as you shouldn't waste your time living with a girl that obviously slows you down."

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"I guess so?" I chuckled while scratching the back of my head, "Xie Wen is pretty nice though and I don't think she's bad,"

The old man nodded, "I see, tell me if you change your mind and I'll separate you two so that you can cultivate in peace at night again,"

"Thank you, I'll think about it." I bowed and ignored the part where he implied I'm having sex with Xie Wen.

Actually, did Yu Song have sex with Xie Wen? The girl didn't seem like the type because I feel like she's more of an "I'll use you and then suck you dry before leaving" type of girl. And her baiting Yu Song using sex didn't seem that strange for her to do.

"Now, let's see," not knowing what I'm thinking, the old man sucked all the roots out of my basket into his storage ring, "Ah, you found a few low-grade Oracle Ginsens, impressive," he complimented.

"Thanks?" I thought they looked interesting enough so I started deliberately searching for them and found out that you can sense them for some reason, "I also found some other interesting things, like that odd little plant with eyes," I added.

"Ah, a Mandrake," the old man said, his eyes gleaming, "good job,"

I bowed when he handed me a red Talisman with a golden turtle imprinted on it, "Thank you," I bowed.

"You're welcome," he smiled.

I moved out of line and it was a sullen Xie Wen's turn to present her roots. Surprisingly, the old man looked impressed and told Xie Wen that she did a good job before handing her a blue Talisman with a black hawk drawn at the center. Xie Wen walked over to me with excitement on her face, "I can't believe it! He actually gave me a Talisman of Sight!"

"Is that good?" I asked while looking at the rectangular piece of paper the size of my hand, "What does it do?"

Xie Wen nodded vigorously, the way her head bobbed up and down caused her long hair to fly around, "yes!" she answered, "and to answer your second question, using this Talisman will allow me to see like a Hawk."

"And it's good because..?" I trailed off.

She looked at me as if I'm stupid, "Yu Song, you know how we harvest crops for the Alchemist Pavillion right?" I nodded, "well, what do we use when we do it?"

It clicked, "Our sight." I replied.

"Exactly!" she said before running over and hugging me, "I'm so happy!"

"You know what would make you even happier Xie Wen?" It was at that moment that someone that I have been partially expecting to come out. "If you're with me,"

I stared at Gang Gong (because who else would it be?) and the guy looked like this fat, bloated thing of a man with a large pot belly and log-like arms. Gang Gong had a face that belonged to a pig, with a flat nose, sharp eyes, and large mouth, his clothes were strangely clean and on his hand is a weapon, a basic club made of black wood.

It looked tough and I didn't want to be at the other end of that thing. It was a wonder how Yu Song disappeared from this world, but now? Not so much.

Gang Gong had his hand held up with his thumb pointed at his ugly face, "come on, Xie Wen, you know that I like you and I've been trying to get you to my side since you came here!" he glared at me, "and- and you stuck to him even though he only joined the sect 6 months ago!"

Xie Wen humphed, "Oh yeah? Well, at least Yu Song managed to reach the 7th Stage of Qi Gathering in those short months! What about you? You only reached the 9th Stage last week! And you've been here for years!"

Okay, so, the showboating aside, what Xie Wen said is actually pretty useful, learning that this body is in the 7th stage of some realm gave an answer as for how strong I am and her saying what stage Gang Gong is helpful too.

Gang Gong's face turned red, "y- I've been helping you all this time because you said that you'd be with me!"

Ah. I grimaced. There it is.

"No you didn't! you just threatened every guy who made a move on me because you wanted me for yourself!" Xie Wen replied fervently.

"But you had entire plots of land to gather herbs from back then! You got Pills and-"

"Okay, what the fuck," I stood in between the two of them to stop them from talking.

I turned to Xie Wen, "You're telling me that you've been here for years already?"

She nodded, "Yes, but my foundation is weak so I'm not that strong yet..." her words eventually petered out, "but I swear I can become stronger, just give me time-"

"Yeah, no," I said coldly, her words reminded me way too much of someone leeching off of me at some point. I faced Gang Gong, "And you, what do you want with Xie Wen?" I asked.

Instead of answering, he just charged at me with his short little legs and heavy body- which is surprisingly pretty fast but nothing compared to me.

I ran away from the club wielding maniac, "wow." I said, "Straight to violence already?"

I stared at him calmly and confidently, "Come back here!" Gang Gong yelled, "y- you're too scared aren't you?" he smirked then faced Xie Wen, "Is that the man you like Xie Wen?"

Xie Wen stared at the two of us back and forth but didn't say anything.

"Eh, probably," I shrugged and a grin spread on Gang Gong's red face. He was about to speak but I talked first, "But let's be honest here, it wouldn't be a problem for you if you aren't so fucking fat," I smirked and gave him the bird.

"FAT?!" Gang Gong started breathing heavily, "we'll see who's fat-"

"Can you even see with those eyes? You're the one who's fat dipshit,"

And again, in response he started running. But I was faster.

"See?" I said after a few minutes of running to the panting Gang Gong, "Look at you, you can't even fucking run!" I started laughing, "Jesus," I wiped my eyes and stared at the scared looking Xie Wen, "this guy really scared you huh?"

"Y-You'll see-" he stopped talking when I threw a rock at his forehead.

"What?" I picked up another rock and threw it at his face, this time much harder. It struck and the sound of crunching resounded, "What will I see Gang Gong?" I picked up another rock and threw, then again, and again-

Gang Gong started chasing after me but again, I was much faster. I kept throwing rocks at him, "Oh? Are you too slow to chase me properly?" to be honest, I expected cultivators to not get weighed down by fat but I guess I was wrong.

Gang Gong threw his club but with him being tired, panting, and light headed, it missed by a long shot. I picked up another rock, "sorry, but, you sort of started this first,"

I threw it at his face and he fell, "I mean, I only met you and you just attacked me out of the blue you know?"

Can't believe I wanted to hear him out at first too.