"Chee..." Liu Qiang grumbled. "No fun."

He cross his arms as Xiuying confiscated his bottle of seasoning after a struggle.

"I'm sorry! Really sorry!" she turned to the monk, bowing down.

"He's a monk anyway, isn't he? Should he be getting mad over little things like this?" Yingyi grinned.

"Don't provoke him!"

Ding Zhe shut his eyes, taking a long, deep breath. The veins bulging on his forehead faded.

"No, he's right." he said. "This is unbefitting of a monk. This junior monk has much to learn."

"I'll leave you to your own devices today. If you have something to discuss, I'll be at my residence, as usual."

With that, he walked off slowly.

"Liu Qiang!" Xiuying frowned.

"Alright, alright, sorry! I was just having a little fun!" the chubby boy waved. "It's just a little teasing between boys!"

"Are you trying to be his mom or something?" Yingyi laughed.

Xiuying sighed.

"You guys..." she said. "Well, I don't have much to do anyway, so I'll go talk to him."

Just like that, the tour for today was discontinued.

Well, not that she minded. Maybe she could grab one of her books from Su Qing and...

Wait! Where was he?

Literally. HOW?

How did she keep forgetting about him? Was this a secret ability he had or something? How did-

Urgh...

"Mei Xiu? Anything wrong?"

Okay. She did remember she grabbed a book from Su Qing earlier. At least he come along and wasn't left behind.

Was he sneaking off to play again? That little spirit was getting more and more mischievous...

She resumed eating, only for Liu Qiang to wave his hand before her.

Hm?

"Hehe!" he grinned. "I actually have a second bottle of seasoning! Any of you want to try it as well?"

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"Eh? But Xiuying will be mad..." Wang Wei said as the chubby boy turned his gazed to him.

"She's not here to see us! Just try it."

Mei glanced around warily. Surprisingly, there weren't any other monks at the canteen. The monk manning the store was meditating... or was he asleep?

She gave Wang Wei a thumbs up expressionless.

"You too?" Wang Wei cried out.

With the power of peer pressure, each of the disciples now had seasoned food.

After mixing the veggies and tofu in the seasoning a little, Mei took a bite with the rice.

Hmm... Not bad.

But also not good enough to annoy the monks over.

Soon, the disciples finished their food. Wang Wei nudged her suddenly, catching her by surprise.

"Can we meet at the square earlier? Lotus Square, I mean." he whispered.

Lotus Square? Ah, the monk did call it that...

"Sure, but why?"

"I don't want to discuss it here."

----------------------------------------

"Um, so why did you take me here?" Mei asked.

Before them was the set of "torture devices" that even made even the "resolute" Jian Jue cry. At least, she assumed she was. Training for years takes a lot of willpower, right?

"I actually really want to use these, but I don't want to be tortured. But it seems like he won't let me use painkillers..."

As Wang Wei trailed off, Mei nodded meaningfully.

"You want me to tie you to one of those, right?"

Wang Wei glanced at the "torture device", then at Mei again. Was she imagining it, or did he no longer look as sure now? She wasn't sure if she should be feeling offended.

"Now that I think of it, we don't actually know how to operate these. I'm not sure if that's safe."

"I guess."

The two of them stared at each other awkwardly.

"So what do you plan to do now?" Mei asked.

"I'll just look around and see if I can think of something."

"Why don't you ask another monk for help?"

"Are you kidding me? Ding Zhe already seems like he's pretty lenient. If I asked another monk, what if they just drag me over and force me to do it without painkillers?"

"What if you take the painkillers first?"

"Urgh!"

Wang Wei grabbed his head.

"Maybe I'll just watch them and learn how to tie it from them."

"Don't you need someone else to tie it?"

"I can use qi sense to do the tying."

Mei: ...

Wang Wei: ...

"What'd you bring me here for then?" Mei asked.

"I didn't want to do it alone, okay! Liu Qiang and Yingyi might tatter to mess with me, and Xiuying, you know her..."

"So, basically, process of elimination."

"...yes."

Mei felt a little offended by that.

"Sorry... I'll give you these. Can you keep watch for a bit?" he said. "They might think I'm up to something if I'm alone."

Why would two visitors hanging around be less suspicious?

Wang Wei handed her a bottle of pills labelled "Foundational Qi Pills".

Whoa!

"Leave it to me!" Mei said.

She stashed the pills away happily.

...

It didn't seem like any of the monks were using the devices. Was it just her or did this sect feel a little abandoned at times?

Wang Wei snooped around, looking for anything useful nearby.

"Look, Mei Xiu! There's a huge incense pot nearby!"

"Okay."

Wang Wei suddenly seemed to have an idea, as he took out his alchemy pot, before snatched some of the unused incense and tossing them in, followed by various herbs and pills.

For the next few minutes, he sat, carefully refining.

Boring. Mei began munching on one of the pills, deciding to finally cultivate. It really had been quite a while since she properly did, huh?

Whoa. Cultivating felt a hundred times faster with these... Mei felt like she could get addicted. She definitely had to find a way to get more of these from Wang Wei. This had to be why his cultivation was so fast!

Finally, he retrieved the altered incense sticks from the pot and handed them to Mei.

"Aren't incense sticks supposed to be flammable? How are they still intact after that?" she asked.

"You're not going to listen if I try to explain it to you."

True, but... Mei wasn't sure how to feel about that.

Just then, several monks approached.