"Ah, Xiao An! There you are!"

Mei turned as Ding Zhe suddenly shouted over into the distance.

It was... his "girlfriend", sitting under an outdoor shelter of sorts, meditating.

She followed as the monk quickened his footsteps. Clearly, someone was happy.

"Ding Zhe! I thought you were supposed to supervise the visitors? And this girl... did something happen?" An asked.

"Oh, apparently she has damaged meridians, so she couldn't train with the pillars. So I took her here to help you with the harvest."

"Ah... I see. Maybe we could consult the elders about it?" the nun gave Mei a sympathetic look.

Hmph. If the sect master couldn't resolve it, how much could some random monks do? Mei grumbled to herself a little.

"Also, brew her a cup of Purple Blossom tea. I don't think she's very convinced it's worth working for."

"Alright!"

The two of them chattered to each other for what felt like hours. Mei bemoaned her terrible fate, having to stand at the side awkwardly.

"So... are we going to farm rice or...?" she asked.

At this point, she'd rather farm than listen any longer.

"Sorry! We've been talking a little too long!"

Mei almost felt a little gleeful as An shooed the dismayed Ding Zhe away. Right after, the nun reached into her storage ring and pulled out a gourd of sorts, tossing it to her.

"Here, take this! It's the Purple Blossom tea!"

...who puts tea in a gourd?

Mei decided not to question it and unceremoniously took a swig before freezing.

What was this...

It was so sweet and refreshing! Some kind of honey had been mixed in. She felt a strange sense of serenity wash over her as she closed her eyes in bliss. All the distracting thoughts seem to have washed away. At the same time, the tea's qi swirled within her, even denser than the chestnuts! Mei felt like she could even sit down to cultivate for hours!

She quickly raised the gourd once again, guzzling greedily.

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"You... you really just drank the whole thing in one go?" An looked incredulous.

"Yeah."

Mei suddenly felt motivated, a feeling she hadn't felt in forever.

"Are we going to drain the water first? Before we harvest." she asked. "And give me the scythe!"

"Oh, we have fish living in the waters here, so we just harvest them from water directly."

"Huh? Then wouldn't it be hard to harvest? And the stalks would be wet and take forever to dry and probably even mould!" Mei was shocked.

"We can just remove the moisture with water magic! No problem!"

Wow. So much effort to keep fish happy. Whatever.

Right as An passed her a scythe from her ring, Mei grabbed it and leapt right into the water surrounding the golden brown rice plants.

"You can't be serious..." An mumbled.

Mei braced herself to hit ground knee deep, but to her shock, she was completely submerged! The water was at least 4 metres deep and flooded with an insane amount of qi. She stared at the sunlight breaking through the waters in a daze. Did spirit plants need that much qi to grow?

She shook off her thoughts before resurfacing.

"Please only cut the top of the plants! These rice plants actually regrow, so you don't want to damage them!" An shouted.

"Uh huh."

Mei took a breath reflexively before diving back down. Honestly... with how tall these plants were beneath the water, they might as well be trees... she supposed it made sense spirit plants were so gigantic when spirit beasts grew huge too. But how were they supposed to be harvested?

In the distance, massive koi-like fish with dull white scales twice the length of cats swam. They were insanely chubby; Mei had never seen fish with cheeks that looked almost pinch-able!

But before she had time to contemplate the fish, a splash sent bubbles and rippled through the water beside her; An had dived in as well.

"Mmmm mmmm mmm!" the nun mumbled while making various gestures, scythe in hand.

Mei didn't understand but nodded anyway.

She watched as An swam towards the tops of the rice plants, before swinging the scythe at them. The tops of the rice plants quickly floated to the top.

Swimming while harvesting? Mei wondered if she was having a fever dream. She looked to the scythe in hand with a dubious look. Spirit plants were supposed to be pretty tough, right? She swam upwards and swung at the rice plants as well, with all her might. There was a little resistance, but the scythe cut cleanly through!

Whoa! Between these scythes and the kitchen knives at the octopus chef's kitchen, which were sharper?

Mei decided to distance herself from An's harvesting. These scythes would probably lop off her arms like tofu...

...

An hour passed as the two swam around, cutting all the rice.

While it was weird and more difficult than conventional farming, Mei found it surprisingly fun. Plus, she didn't have to stand under the hot sun underwater!

An eventually pointed upwards, gesturing for them to swim back up.

"Break time!" she gasped as the two of them surfaced.

The nun channelled her qi, forcing the water out of both their robes. Then, she lifted all the floating rice out of the water, before drying it as well.

It was a strange feeling to have her robes got from sopping to dry in an instant. Outside the cool waters, the air now felt uncomfortably warm.

She watched as An went back to the shelter, picking up a huge bag of multicoloured pills.

"I like to pass the time by feeding the fish." she smiled.

Mei watched as fish after fish surfaced swarming over the the nun.

Pills?!

She decided not to question it as An fed them happily. Surprisingly, the fish were fairly obedient and didn't fight over the pills.

Were even the fish monks here?

"They're so cute aren't they?" the nun asked happily.

"Cute? Hmm..." Mei mused.

She was more preoccupied wondering what the fish would taste like.