"Mei Xiu, where were you yesterday? You didn't show up for breakfast, nor the assembly!"

As Mei trudged to the table groggily, she yawned at the sound of Wang Wei's voice.

She didn't sleep well last night... while she laid in bed, she couldn't help sneaking a peek at Xiao Mei every so often.

Xiao Mei would stare back. Her eyes, wide open.

Remembering what the sect master said about awakened nascent souls trying to take over, it really was hard to fall asleep. Her only solace was that she figured like her, her nascent soul was too clueless to understand how soul stuff even worked, and thus had no chance at possession.

"Do you ever sleep?" she remembered asking earlier. Xiao Mei didn't respond.

"Hey! Why are you drifting off already? I barely said two lines!" Wang Wei waved his hand in front of her face.

Yingyi and Liu Qiang laughed. At the side, Xiuying continued to eat quietly.

"Yesterday was Qiao Shun's first lesson! He was very displeased, going on about how disrespectful it was that students would miss out on the first lecture of them all!" Wang Wei said. "You're going to be in huge trouble!"

Urgh... more things making her day worse.

"I was consulting the sect master about something yesterday... maybe I can tell him that." Mei sighed.

"Consulting about?"

"Nothing much. What routes did you guys pick? The sect master offered to help with daos, right?"

After witnessing the sect master coughing mouthfuls of blood previously, she was slightly worried if anything would happen down the line. That, and she would rather change the topic.

"I picked the Golden Core path. If I want to refine better pills, I need more power!" Wang Wei grinned.

"I went with the Artefact Core path! It sounded so cool!" Liu Qiang said. "The sect master said he couldn't help with it though, so I didn't get any aid..."

Yingyi laughed and slapped the chubby boy's back, who frowned.

"Indeed it's cool! But where are you going to get the funds for it, eh?"

"I'll just have to work harder smithing... so I can make good artefacts to sell..." he said, his enthusiasm dampened.

"It's still not too late to change," Yingyi said, a more serious look on his face.

"Get off my case!"

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Wang Wei put his hand to his chest.

"Don't worry! If you're lacking money, I can lend some to you! Ahaha!"

"Tsk... it kind of annoys me how smug you are about it. But thank you anyway."

"W-what's with that look? I'm trying to help sincerely? Ehh? Why are you staring at me too, Xiuying?"

"I took the nascent soul path." Xiuying said, ignoring him.

"Same here." Yingyi finished.

"Haha... no complications?" Mei mumbled. "Me too."

"Complications? Is that why you were consulting the sect master?"

"It's already dealt with!"

Wang Wei didn't seem convinced. For the rest of the meal, Mei didn't participate in the conversation, eating her rice dumplings quietly.

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"Mei Xiu!" Qiao Shun's voice echoed through the hall. "You were absent yesterday."

"Um, well..."

"The sect master told me of your circumstances. You are excused, but do not be late, or miss any lectures again in the future. The sect master is a lenient man, but I am not. These lectures are very important, for your future! Understood?"

"Yes..."

Mei stood with several other nervous-looking disciples, who evidently had missed the lecture as well. Why did Qiao Shun have to chew her out specifically? Unfair...

"All of you except Mei Xiu, stand at the back of the hall. And you, return to your seat."

Somewhat dejectedly, they trudged to the back and stood. That light? Mei was expecting more.

As if on cue, several spirits flew over, carrying huge weights and plopping them into the hands of the misconducting disciples. They had strained and confused looks on their face, but they held the weights anyway.

"If you drop them, you will be standing there tomorrow too!"

Mei was glad the sect master covered for her.

"As some of you were not present, today, I will have to cover yesterday's topics as well. Apologise to the abiding disciples, for wasting their time!"

"We are sorry!"

"Good. Now, as I said yesterday, there will be tests on the topics I cover. For the disciples that fail the tests, I will arrange remedial lessons for them. But I do not want to see a single disciple fail! Not a single one! Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes, master!" the disciples in the hall shouted.

Urgh.

Mei didn't have a good impression of him, to begin with, but she didn't expect him to be this strict. Uuuuu... Why did things have to be this hard? She just wanted to relax...

Hah... If Qiao Shun could hear her thoughts, he would definitely lecture her about how this was not a resort, but a cultivation sect.

To think she would miss the sect master for this reason instead...

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"Hnnnn!"

As Mei focused, a small pebble was lifted from the ground by a thread of qi attached to her fingers.

Finally... some semblance of actual magic! Not just bodybuilding! She couldn't help but grin.

For now, it was just this tiny little pellet, but in the future...

Plop.

The pebbled dropped to the ground.

Ehh...

She had been fairly upset about Qiao Shun's strict attitude, but now she wished she listened a little harder back then. With his droning voice, it had been hard though. Mei told herself she tried her best.

"What are you doing?"

Hearing someone's voice, she jumped up in shock.

"Jiang Ming?"

"It's Zhang Ming! Don't confuse my name with that muscle-headed body elder!"

"Sorry. I was distracted."

"I saw you lying on the grass with a constipated look from a distance..."

Mei jolted. How embarrassing...

"Did you forget? Qiao Shun said it was best to start training qi sense with objects of the same element since there's more resonance. See?"

He took out a small flask of water and poured some of it onto his hands, turning it into ice. With a focused look on his face, he lifted it into the air with a strand of qi. Slowly, the ice began to turn, spinning faster and faster! ...until it lost control and smacked him in the face.

Zhang Ming coughed.

"Ignore that. I'm new too."

"Thanks for the help..."

Mei grabbed a small twig and some grass blades from the ground before walking off. She was going to practice back at the dorm instead...