"Oh. Aren't you two the visitors from earlier?" one of the monks asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Erm..."

Wang Wei glanced around a bit anxiously, before his eyes landed on Mei.

"Oh! We were just trying to look for a peaceful spot to cultivate! See? She's even using pills and stuff."

He chuckled nervously.

"Here, of all place?" the monk asked. "The qi here isn't particularly dense and there are far more peaceful areas. I recommend the Yin Yang Lake, if that's really what you're here for."

"Oh! Urm..."

Wang Wei anxiously stared at Mei every few seconds, much to her dismay. She understood he was panicking, but what did he want her to do? She wasn't a social butterfly like Xiuying!

She saw him gesturing, pointing towards the incense pot.

Huh? Oh!

He wanted her to light the altered incense there?? Was she going to get into trouble for that?

But he did give her all those pills, so it wasn't like she could say no. The power of bribery was too strong...

She slowly tiptoed over, before hiding behind the pot and making sure no monks were nearby.

"AAAAaaaaaAAAA! Help! HELP!"

Wang Wei's blood curdling scream echoed through the forest, giving Mei a huge shock.

She wasn't sure what they were discussing, but it seemed to have led to them dragging Wang Wei to the stretching devices.

"Stop! You're going to cause a huge misunderstanding!" one of the monks said hurriedly. "You haven't even gotten onto the machine yet!"

"It's not that painful, just bear with it! A cultivator shouldn't back down from something like this!"

"Murder! Murder!"

...these monks were demons.

"What's going on?"

A few monks ran in from the distance.

Shortly, the group of monks began either arguing with each other or trying to reassure the screaming Wang Wei.

Wait, if they were all focused on him, then she could light the incense without them noticing!

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Mei quickly stuck all the incense in. Oh. She didn't have a lighter.

They didn't put a lighter beside the incense?

...

Okay, okay, okay.

She couldn't just give up now! If she did, what if Wang Wei got mad at her and no longer gave her any pills? That would be unacceptable.

Urgh... did they seriously just get a fire monk every time they wanted to light an incense? Even in her whole group, there were only two fire users... Wang Wei and Xiuying.

Surely the monks didn't have that many fire users? The ratio had to be pretty low!

And Xiuying wasn't even a real fire cultivator! She was mainly a wood cultivator, just using cultivating fire as a aside.

Suddenly, Mei was reminded of how Xiuying created threads of wood qi for Wang Wei to burn back in the tournament.

Maybe she could make one of those threads and get him to light it?

No... that would be too blatant. And she also wasn't good enough to maintain a thread that long.

Just then, a light bulb flashed above her head.

Right! She could use the faint fire from the lit incense, and use a wood thread to light Wang Wei's!

Mei suddenly felt really proud of herself for figuring it out. Maybe she wasn't actually that stupid but kind of smart? Hehehe.

Moments later, each of the weird incense were lit, faintly blue smoke wafting out.

...

She walked back to the monks and Wang Wei, who had been properly strapped by now. Upon seeing her, he stopped screaming and quickly turn away, embarrassed.

All an act, huh... She was surprised a noble like him would be willing to lose face like that.

She took a deep breath, readying herself.

"Senior monks, I remember you mentioned the Ying Yang Pond earlier? Can you guide me there so I can take a look?"

Now that the "trap" was set, it was time for her to divert their attention! She tried to give a thumbs up to Wang Wei, but he didn't seem to have noticed.

"Oh, you were the girl that was cultivating earlier. Sure, I'll take you there." one the monks said nonchalantly.

Wait, only 1 monk wasn't going to do much.

"Um, and if possible leave him alone for a bit. He likes the peace and quiet!" she said, pointing at Wang Wei.

"You sure? What if he can't take it anymore and needs us to undo it?"

"He'll be fine!"

Mei wondered if that was irresponsible of her... Well, it's not her fault if his incense didn't do the job though. Better than having the monks stick around to find out.

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

In a large clearing was a small lake, surrounded by stone paving, with prayer mats all around. A red small bridge arched across it, and the water was clear as crystal.

She could see a somewhat big turtle peacefully lying on the ground, surrounded by koi fish, lotus stems and other aquatic plants.

The qi in the air was noticeably denser, thought still inferior to the qi under the Heavenreach tree.

"Here is the Yin Yang Lake. The qi here is pure, so even if you aren't water aligned, you will be able to cultivate regardless. It's one of the many cultivation spots of our sect, so it be a bit crowded at times, but you can always asks one of our monks to make space."

Mei stared at all the monks sitting about. Around this small lake, there had to be around a hundred...

"If nothing else, I'll head back."

"Thanks."

She nodded in thanks as the monk left.

Mei looked around for a bit and realised there was a food cart of sorts nearby, so she went to take a look.

It was filled with all sorts of fruits, some strange, some familiar. Mei decided to grab a persimmon and a bunch of longans to snack on.

For a moment, she considered sitting with some of the monks of the prayers mats, but she didn't really feel like cultivating beside strangers...

She walked past them and onto the bridge, before sitting there.

"Sorry, but please refrain from cultivating on the bridge!" one of the monks called out. "It stops the qi from distributing evenly to the people around!"

"Oh. Um... I was just going to feed the fish..."

Mei hastily made an excuse and threw some of the longans down.

A few of the fish seem to have taken interest in them, but the turtle quickly rushed over and devoured the fruit, skin, seeds and all. So greedy...