"What's wrong, Mei Xiu? You look grumpy today." Xiuying asked.

"Nothing," Mei replied.

Yingyi took a closer look at her. Mei averted her eyes.

"Really? She looks just as grumpy as ever," he said.

Like yesterday, they were at having breakfast at the cafeteria. Liu Qiang ignored them, stuffing his face as usual.

"Oh..." Xiuying said.

In the end, they didn't end up talking much. Eventually, Xiuying tried to say something to break the ice.

"I was a bit nervous yesterday when I looked for the elder, but I was pleasantly surprised. The elder was a nice lady who was very supportive! The other disciples were very nice too and even gave me some spirit fruits as a welcoming gift."

She reached into her bag and took out some strange glowing yellow fruits around the size of apples. They were almost perfectly round and smooth apart from the attached stems.

Yeah, that's nice, Mei grumbled internally. The elder she met was enough of an ass to charge her money for pills, and Xiuying gets awesome free stuff? Maybe she should try horticulture after all.

"Whoaaa! They look awesome!" Liu Qiang exclaimed. "Can-can I have one?"

He turned to Xiuying with puppy eyes.

Mei thought he should have some dignity.

Xiuying laughed nervously. She was slightly weirded out by his reaction.

"Yeah, that was the intention. I bought them here to share with you guys."

"Thanks!" Liu Qiang grabbed a fruit and immediately took a huge bite out of it.

He had a look of bliss on his face.

"So good!"

Seeing the boy ravenously eat the fruit, Yingyi shook his head.

"Liu Qiang, we should have some dignity as cultivators."

"Shut up," grumbled Liu Qiang. "We've barely even started cultivating and you already want to act like a cultivator? And who says cultivators have to be super refined?"

Mei picked up one of the fruits and examined it, not paying much attention to them.

"Well, it doesn't hurt to start now." he shrugged. "Oh, speaking of which, Mei Xiu, you really need to take a shower!"

"Huh?" she snapped out of it.

"Maybe it's fine if you're still a peasant, but you stick out like a sore thumb like that! People are staring at you!"

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The busybodies quickly turned away.

"Aren't girls supposed to like to be clean anyway? You stink! And you look bad covered in grime! Men won't like you like this!"

Mei frowned.

"I'm not trying to impress any guys."

Xiuying coughed.

"Well... in any case, it's true that you should clean up. I've wanted to say it for a bit, but I was worried it might be a bit rude. You'll attract attention in a bad way if you don't." she said. "Soap and plumbing is provided for free anyway, so why not?"

"Eh? They have soap?" Mei was shocked.

Wasn't that stuff pretty expensive?

"Did you not go into the toilet or something? Didn't you see those bottles clearly labelled soap?" said Yingyi.

Mei did, in fact, go into the toilet but she was not paying attention. She was busy being impressed by how the toilet was not just a hole in the ground.

"Alright, fine..."

"Oh yeah, how did meeting an elder go for you guys?" Xiuying asked.

Mei tensed up.

Seeing that, Xiuying quickly added, "You don't have to share it if it's not pleasant...".

"I'll start." said Yingyi.

"I went with Wang Wei and met Qian Feng, one of the alchemy elders. He was very strict, but I liked his no-nonsense attitude. He's a really good teacher and I felt like I've learnt a lot listening to him." he said. "But, Wang Wei... he makes me really frustrated."

"What did he do?" Mei asked, curious.

"Apparently, he's crazy talented at alchemy! The elder said he had really good control over his qi, which is very important in alchemy. I would have been fine with it, but of course he had to be super smug about it and kept bragging! Urgh..."

Mei was speechless.

"What about you, Liu Qiang?" Yingyi turned to him.

"Huh? Oh." the chubby boy looked away. "Well... The elder told me I needed to lose weight. He told me I should stop eating normal food and eat fasting pills instead! He even gave me a book on fitness training! How am I supposed to live like that?"

Yingyi roared with laughter, making Liu Qiang glare at him.

Mei knew it was wrong, but she felt a lot better after realising she wasn't the only one rejected.

"That's right, stop eating so much, fatty!"

"Hmph."

"Don't be rude." Xiuying frowned.

"I'm just messing with him." Yingyi grinned.

Finally, they turned to Mei. Reluctantly, she spoke up.

"The elder said I had no talent with formations and charged me money for a pill he made me eat."

"Well, to be fair, the sect leader did say most people aren't good with formations. No surprise there," said Yingyi.

She supposed he was correct but was still annoyed.

"He still didn't have to charge me for that pill. Why is he so stingy as a good sect's elder anyway?"

After a bit more talking, they headed to the hall for their lecture.

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

"Alright, you are dismissed. Mei Xiu, please meet me outside the hall." the sect leader finished.

Mei was alarmed. Did Qiao Shun say something bad about her?

The disciples bowed as usual and left orderly. Xiuying gave her a reassuring thumbs-up as she walked off.

As she head outside to meet the sect leader, she felt rather nervous.

"Don't worry, you're not here to be punished."

Mei felt relived.

"As long as you didn't do anything wrong, there's no need to be worried about being punished. Unless you actually did?" the old man grinned.

She hurried shook her head.

"Kidding, kidding." he laughed. "Now, serious talk. I'm meeting you today to help you with your meridian issue."

He handed her a notebook with 'Mei Xiu' written neatly on the cover.

"When you tried to cultivate, you had some difficulties, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Back then, I took note of which parts were damaged and spent quite some time coming up with a cultivation method that works for you. Treasure it, alright?" he smiled.

Mei was stunned.

"Oh, thank you..."

She didn't really feel like she did anything to deserve the sect leader spending time to help her come up with a technique. Well, he was a pretty unusual one anyway, spending his time giving lectures to outer disciples.

"Don't worry too much about it. It's not like I have much else to do with my free time anyway since the elders handle most of the sect affairs," he said. "I like to teach anyway, which was why I founded this sect."

For a moment, Mei thought she saw a distant look in his eyes, perhaps with a hint of sadness mixed in. But as quickly as she thought she saw it, it was gone. She figured it was probably her imagination.