Meng Yi sits within the cultivation circle, Golden Mango in hand and a hard to read look on her face as she stares intently at it.

We’re in the cultivation room within the mansion, and Meng Yi has been like this for over two minutes now.

I’m starting to think she’s stalling.

“So, is your plan to stare at it until it turns beast rank or something?” I ask after a while. “Because, jokes aside, that would be a neat trick. Not at all a profitable one, but still neat.”

Meng Yi shoots me a look. “This is a significant moment for me, Young Master Xian,” she says, and that makes me pause.

I suppose it is a significant moment for her, isn’t it? This is like if, in my old life, I’d made a rich friend and then they’d gifted me like a house or a really fancy car or something.

For her this is probably a dream she never even dared to dream.

“You’re right,” I say. “I’m sorry.”

Meng Yi nods in acceptance of my apology.

“You know,” I say after a moment, “this makes me wonder what it’s like for royalty. Imagine being from a family so wealthy that you’ve had divine or noble rank supplements boosting your cultivation before even learning a method. A method that, after all of that, will be divine rank.”

I think about that for a moment, trying to imagine what such people would be like based on my own experience from being noble rank, and just the mental image alone leaves me in awe.

“There must be some terrifying monsters in the world,” I say.

“Resources like that have to be earned,” Meng Yi says, “even for royalty. One has to prove themselves talented enough, or competent enough, to deserve such an investment, so, yes, you’re right, such people would be quite terrifying.”

Meng Yi looks back down at the mango, the golden light reflecting off it lighting up her face.

“You’ve earned it, Meng Yi,” I say honestly, guessing the turn her thoughts have taken.

She looks at me. “No, I haven’t,” she says. “But I will. I promise you.”

And with those words, Meng Yi takes a big bite of the fruit.

A wash of qi explodes across the room, slamming into the walls so hard they shake.

Meng Yi’s eyes widen, her body locking up for a moment, then with a light of determination in her eyes, she swallows, and her body glows gold.

The qi of the fruit mixes with Meng Yi’s own, altering it, fine-tuning it, making it better in some way that is entirely beyond my understanding… then Meng Yi takes another bite.

The explosion of qi is even greater this time, as is her struggle to swallow. The piece of the fruit seems practically lodged in her throat.

Crap, she’s not going to choke, is she? I wonder worriedly, but before I can move to help, Meng Yi slams a hand against her chest with all her might, forcing the morsel goes down.

The golden glow emanating from within her triples, making her a mere outline bathed in sunlight.

The qi within the room triples with the light, becoming so much now that it feels like a physical thing, almost like a liquid that I’m submerged under.

Breathing in pulls it into me, and breathing out pushes me into it.

Curiously, I inhale in that way that triggers my cultivation.

The sun within my chest flares, and it promptly begins sucking in the qi of the Golden Mango from around me ravenously.

It’s like a vacuum on max, like my very skin has begun to take in this energy too in an attempt to maximise the rate at which I can consume it.

Apart from the noble rank qi pills given to me by my rolling power, this is the first qi I’ve consumed that’s actually at the right rank to matter to my cultivation, but even as my body sucks it in from around the room, I know that this isn’t enough. Not even remotely.

For this to do anything for me, I need to go right to the source.

Tough luck, cultivation, because the source is someone else’s property now. And you know what Barney the friendly dinosaur says about stealing.

I exhale, and the sun cools, my body relaxing in its attempt to play qi vacuum.

I note the outline of Meng Yi’s body move as she takes another bite of the fruit.

I watch her carefully, to see if she’ll again have trouble swallowing, but thankfully that doesn’t seem to be the case this time, as the golden glow of her body quickly brightens once again.

If she gets any brighter, I just might go blind. As it is already, I’m pretty sure I’ll be seeing spots for days.

Meng Yi does get brighter, but not by much, because by the time she takes another bite, she’s already begun to dim some.

I don’t know how long I stand and watch Meng Yi eat and glow, but I know it’s a long time. Long enough that I find myself in need of a bathroom break.

Even after she finishes the fruit, it takes a while for Meng Yi’s qi to settle, my qi sense detailing to me the slowing and eventual cease of the alterations the young woman undergoes.

The glow is the last thing to go. Fading out entirely as Meng Yi rises.

I observe her. She looks fine. Better than fine actually, she looks radiant. Beautiful and capable. Not even the mango juice staining her mouth and chin can ruin the image.

Her cultivation has definitely advanced. But, more than that, I understand fully now why Meng Yi had warned me that no one will miss the boost the Golden Mango will give her, because, more than just advancing, Meng Yi feels… better now. In every conceivable way.

The only thing I can liken it to, is what it was like when I upgraded my cultivation to noble rank. Nowhere near as significant, of course, but similar.

“How do you feel?” I ask.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Meng Yi licks her lips and rubs her fingers together.

“Sticky,” she says.

I laugh. “Yeah, mangoes tend to be,” I say, then point at the seed still in her hand. “What are we doing about that?”

“I don’t know,” she admits. “Maybe we could bury it.”

I shrug noncommittally. “You think it’ll burn?” I ask.

Better a suspicious pile of ash than a noticeable mound of freshly dug earth that can easily be dug up, in my opinion.

Meng Yi studies the mango seed closely for several seconds. “It might,” she says finally.

It does. Almost disappointingly well, in fact. Meng Yi cuts it up first, in the hopes it will make it burn easier, then we toss it in the huge kitchen stove that looks big enough to roast a pig in.

I watch the fire take the seed, feeling a little disappointment in how ordinarily it burns. There is no great release of qi, no esoteric colour to the flames, not even a funny smell.

The seed of a noble rank fruit and it burns as easily, and as unimpressively, as anything el—the fire turns green, then it flares brightly, and, feeling a sense of imminent danger like I never have before, I grab Meng Yi and throw us as far away from the stove as I can.

BOOM!

Being caught in an explosion is nothing like seeing it on a screen. It is a significantly different experience. And I can say, with zero doubt in my mind, that henceforth, I want all my experiences with explosions to be from behind a screen, thank you very much.

With ringing ears, I pull myself up, coughing from the dust and the smoke as the warm, meaty form beneath me stirs.

“Are you okay?” I ask, helping Meng Yi sit up. She nods, but she looks dazed, and I hope to heaven that it’s simply shock and not a concussion.

I scan her head, checking for signs of injury. There seem to be none, and I hope that’s the case.

“Yi!” I hear a voice shout. “Qigang!” Is that Xiuying?

Xiuying comes rushing into the house, through the giant hole in the wall that is where the stove used to be.

What the hell? How powerful was that explosion?

The woman takes in the two of us, then the room.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

Xiuying’s mouth works soundlessly for several seconds. “What the fuck happened here?” she fires back.

“Uh…”

I look at Meng Yi. She looks at me. I look back at Xiuying.

“I tried to cook,” I say.

Xiuying stares at me with the expression such a statement deserves.

“You tried to cook?” she asks flatly.

“Yep,” I say, rising and offering Meng Yi a hand to help her up too.

Xiuying gives the room a second, meaningful scan.

“And what the fuck were you cooking? Thunder powder?” she asks, then points at Meng Yi. “Also, what happened to her?”

I look at Meng Yi, scanning her for injuries. I see none. “What happened to her?” I ask Xiuying cluelessly.

The woman’s eyes flash with a clear desire to wring my neck.

Ever helpful, Meng Yi says, “I believe she’s referring to my recent… advancement, Young Master Xian.”

“Oh, that. Well, um… she had a breakthrough.” I say, latching onto the first thing I can think of.

“A breakthrough,” Xiuying says, looking like she can’t believe ears. “That’s seriously what you’re going with?”

“Yeah, it’s not very believable, is it?” I have to admit. “Especially not in this situation.”

“No shit,” Xiuying says.

“Are you implying I’m incapable of having breakthroughs in my cultivation?” Meng Yi asks with some annoyance.

Xiuying shoots her an unimpressed look. “Girl, if you had that much talent, you wouldn’t need this one,” she says, gesturing at me.

Meng Yi thinks about that for a moment, before shrugging like ‘well, you’re not wrong.’

“So, you two wanna tell me what actually happened here?” Xiuying asks.

Meng Yi and I look at each other, and in a strange moment of matching wavelengths unlike I’ve ever experienced, we both turn to Xiuying and say, “He tried to cook/She had a breakthrough.”

Xiuying scowls at us for several seconds. “Fuck you both,” she says succinctly.

—❈—

I expect Xiuying to be extra rough with me during training today, out of spite or something, but to my surprise, she isn’t.

Now, this could simply be because she’s always come at me so hard that turning it up by even the smallest amount would take this from training into abuse… in fact, I suspect that’s exactly why, considering how she scowls at me throughout the session, but I decide to take the win regardless.

It sucks that we have to lie to her, especially when it’s so blatant too, but I guess needs must.

It’s too bad really, because, despite the daily abuse, I’m starting to think of Xiuying as a friend, and I’m not exactly flush with those these days.

A solid kick to my stomach drags my focus back to my current activity with an explosive gasp of air.

Staggering back, I cradle my sore abs.

“Focus,” Xiuying instructs, and I give her a shaky thumbs up in understanding.

Maybe I spoke too soon about her not wanting to cross into abuse.

“It’s some sort of treasure, isn’t it?” Xiuying asks as I try to get my breathing back under control.

“What?”

“The thing that made Meng Yi advance, it’s some sort of treasure. You gave it to her, and then I’m guessing, like a complete idiot, you tried to burn the seed, or maybe the peel.”

I open my mouth to come up with a denial to her words, spot the ‘don’t fuck with me’ expression on her face, and wisely decide to, in fact, not fuck with her.

“It’s not like we knew it was going to explode,” I say instead.

“Everyone knows that, Qigang,” Xiuying says. “Everyone does.”

I shrug noncommittally.

“Why did you lie?” she asks after a moment. “Did you think I would be jealous or something?”

“What? No, of course not, it’s…” it’s what? I have a superpower that some people would be willing to start a war over, and the need to keep that a secret makes me need to also keep a bunch of other stuff secret too?

“…it’s complicated,” I settle on.

“Why?” Xiuying asks. “Didn’t you get it from the same place you got the celestial plum?”

“Sort of,” I say.

Xiuying’s gaze practically bores into me at that answer.

“Qigang, you haven’t been taking gifts from strange entities, have you?” she asks, signs of worry clear in her eyes.

Despite her worry, I can’t help but laugh. “No, don’t worry about that. I’m not that stupid. Besides, you really think Meng Yi would let me do something like that?”

“I guess not,” Xiuying accepts. “She’s got a good head on her shoulders regardless of anything else.”

“Like what?” I ask and she gives me a questioning look, not following.

“You said ‘she’s got a good head on her shoulders regardless of anything else’. Anything else like what?” I ask again.

Xiuying looks surprised to be put on the spot, but I suspect that it’s more than surprise that makes her avoid my gaze and question when she says, “It’s nothing. I just don’t like some of the choices she’s made for herself.”

“Choices like me?” I ask.

Maybe it’s narcissistic, but I’m pretty sure that this is about me. Or rather, the unpleasant piece of scum that was old me.

Xiuying gives me a long, hard look. “No offense, I mean, I know you’ve changed now and everything, but she deserved better than to be some asshole’s bed warmer,” she says.

“I agree,” I say easily. “But unfortunately, people don’t always get what they deserve.”

“So?” she retorts angrily. “That doesn’t mean you roll over like a dog. You fight! Even if it kills you, you fight!”

The passion of her statement shocks me for a moment, but I recover quickly enough. This is pretty much what I’d expected after all.

When I’d first seen the dynamic between Meng Yi and Xiuying, it had been immediately obvious that these are two women who respect each other, even though they have differing views of the world.

Meng Yi is obviously the sort who works with what she has, while Xiuying will definitely bang her head against the wall in her path until one or the other gives.

I can’t say for certain which one of these is better, but I do know that they’re practically antithetical to one another.

“Doesn’t she have family?” I ask, replying to Xiuying’s comment about fighting even if it costs your life. “She’s mentioned sisters a few times.”

Xiuying’s jaws clench, and she stands silently before me with a scowl aimed at nothing.

“That’s the problem with love, isn’t it?” I muse. “So nice to have, and yet, in many ways, it’s a chain around your neck.”

And that’s the simple truth of the matter. For Xiuying, fighting, even if it means her death is a viable option because her life is all she has to lose. But that isn’t always the case though, is it?

For some people there are much worse things than dying.

Xiuying sighs and looks at me with some irritation, though the lack of real heat in her expression suggests that she isn’t truly upset with me. “When did you get so wise?” she asks.

I shrug. “Blame enlightenment,” I say, getting a snort out of her.

We stand quietly for a time, thinking our own thoughts, until finally, Xiuying says, “I can’t believe you gave it to her.”

“Gave what to who?”

“Whatever you gave to Yi that you tried to burn like an idiot,” she explains. “I sensed it in her qi, it has to be noble rank at least. That’s an amazing treasure, Qigang.”

I shrug. “She’s earned it,” I say.

“No, she hasn’t,” Xiuying says back. “Not that.”

The words are said without malice or jealousy. This is simply Xiuying saying what she believes to be the truth.

“You know, Meng Yi said the same thing,” I say.

“Good,” Xiuying says, then after a moment, she adds: “I’m glad you changed, Qigang.”

I blink in surprise at that. Then I smile. “Me too.”