"Good morning everyone! I overslept a bit."

From a distance, Mei saw Xiuying yawn as she headed over to their usual spot in the canteen. She seemed to be in quite a good mood.

"Ehh?!" she exclaimed. "Why is everyone looking so down?

Liu Qiang looked plagued by guilt, Wang Wei looked quite worried, Mei Xiu looked quite melancholic and Yingyi was just staring into space.

By the looks of it, none of them had really been talking since they arrived, just poking slowly at their food. Even Liu Qiang didn't seem to have much of an appetite.

"Nothing," said Mei.

"Yeah... nothing..." said Liu Qiang.

Xiuying laughed awkwardly.

"Well, cheer up everyone!"

With her efforts, eventually, the mood started to get a bit more uplifting.

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"Alright, I think that's enough for today, you're all dismissed. Have fun training!" said the sect master.

As the disciples streamed out of the hall, he stood outside of the hall as usual. It was natural that disciples would have questions no matter how well he explained topics, so he would always stay around for a bit after lectures to answer questions.

Today, however...

There were especially many disciples lined up.

Mei, Xiuying and Liu Qiang were all lined up as well.

The sect master was quite dismayed. Usually, after lectures, he would spend around 10 minutes answering questions, then relax for a bit until it came time to lecture the inner disciples, go for another break, then lecture the core disciples after that.

But it didn't seem like he was going to be getting his morning break today.

As he quickly answered their questions, Mei's turn came soon.

"My dad said a cultivator gave him this ring. Can you help me appraise it?" she said, handing him the ring.

How brazen! But then again, that was kind of his fault. With how friendly and helpful he acted around disciples, they really didn't hold back whenever they needed help... Even asking him to appraise random junk they found...

"Interesting. Meet me later outside the break room, the one beside the hall." he said, hiding his thoughts.

Liu Qiang's turn came in a while.

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"Sect Master... can I discuss something with you in private later?"

"You seem quite troubled." he said in a thoughtful voice. "Meet me later outside the break room beside the hall!"

Finally, came Xiuying's turn.

"Sect Master, what are the pills you gave us during the talent assessment?" she said. "I want to help my family cultivate, but it seems to be rather slow with all the impurities."

Such a filial kid... he felt rather touched.

"Well..." he started.

The issue was, those pills weren't any ordinary ones! They were Meridian Cleansing pills, each probably fetching a price of around 10000 Jade in the sect.

"They're called Meridian Cleansing pills. You can buy them at the sect's pill workshop."

Seeing her head off excitedly, he felt a bit bad for not telling her the price. But he didn't really have the heart to sink her hopes right here.

Of course, he could just give her the pills, but...

Honestly giving just 1 to each new disciple for free was already expensive enough. A lot of the amenities the sect provided were quite expensive too. If he gave out free stuff every time he felt bad for a disciple on top of that, the sect might just go bankrupt! There were limits to generosity.

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"Dammit, those disciples!"

He was in the break room, but there was still a line of disciples outside.

Mei was far from the only one asking to appraise items found while visiting their families.

"They've been influenced by those trashy novels! Thinking everything might be a hidden treasure..." he muttered to himself. "Kids these days..."

In what other sect would the sect leader be 'forced' to sit around and appraise items for outer disciples? Even for a virtuous sect, it was simply absurd.

When it came Mei's turn, he lazily prodded the ring with his qi sense, expecting nothing.

But to his surprise, he felt something from it!

His surprise wore off quick though, as occasionally, disciples did actually find artefacts.

With a tiny bit more effort, he managed to get the ring under his control. It seemed to be a storage ring of sorts.

Inside the ring, he could sense a small storage space. It was small enough that a hand would barely fit.

There was a tiny pedestal holding up a core inside. An actual core from a human cultivator!

It wasn't just dug out of a dead cultivator either. It was still alive, just dormant.

After checking its aura, he immediately realised what was going on. He thought back to the day when he took in Mei as a disciple and sighed, shaking his head.

"No wonder..." he mumbled.

He headed out of the room and put it into the hands of an anxious Mei.

"It's actually an artefact!" he announced.

Mei looked stunned for a moment, then overjoyed.

"It's an artefact that contains a cultivator's core. If you learn how to use it, you can fight with the power of a core cultivator!"

"Rea-really?" she said.

"Its power is limited though, so you should only use it if you're in danger. Also, unless you learn core battle techniques early, it won't be that strong," he warned. "Considering that, it should only be effective against a peak foundational cultivator at most."

"Oh," she said, not sounding that disappointed. "Thank you!"

As she turned to leave, suddenly, she walked back, making him raise an eyebrow.

"How much would this be worth in Jade?"

Wait, she wasn't planning to pawn it off, was she? The sect master grew a bit anxious. Hopefully, she was just curious about how much it was worth.

"You shouldn't sell it. Isn't this a gift from your father?" he said.

"I'm not planning to sell it! Just curious."

"Hmm... I think it might fetch around 100,000 Jade. Maybe a bit more in an auction."

Mei's expression was filled with shock once again.

"100,000 Jade..." she mumbled.

"Don't even think about selling it!" the sect master yelled, seeing the look of greed on her face.

He coughed as the other disciples stared at him. Might have overreacted a bit.

"This is something your father gave you. How would he feel if you just sold it?"

"I know... I wasn't planning to." Mei mumbled before walking off.

When it came Liu Qiang's turn, the boy told him about how he accidentally hurt the bodyguard of an arrogant scholar.

The sect master's face darkened, giving the chubby boy a fright.

"It wasn't intentional!" he pleaded. "Please help me save him!"

The old man sighed. His day just kept getting better and better.