Seph felt a growing power in his arms as he got past twelve hours of meditating, and that power kept growing and growing until it stabilized after an entire day had passed.

  He knew its destructive effect, but at least the next time he would use it intentionally and not despite himself.

  After he finished meditating, he went outside of his cultivation tomb, and looked at Lilith’s longingly, but she didn’t come out, so he went back inside and spent the rest of the day reading before sleeping to wake up for the training courtyard the next day.

  His dreams were weird again this night too, he dreamt of endlessly repeating his fight against the big-mouthed cultivator Crouse, only this time around he didn’t knock him out immediately, the fight repeated endlessly each time with a different sequence, each time with a new outcome, some of them Seph even lost the fight.

  The next day, Seph woke up tired again, not knowing what to think of the dreams of the prior night, but he didn’t want to overthink it and miss the training courtyard for the second day in a row.

  He went to the washing space and washed his face and his hair, looked at a small mirror in front of him to notice black circles around his eyes like he was sleep deprived.

  He sighed as he saw how he looked like now but didn’t linger on it and called Sun to jump on his shoulder, and they both got out of the cultivation tomb.

  Before he could take one step outside, he found Lilith right in his face. Her face was so close to his as she gazed at him.

  Seph leaned his head back and said, “How long have you been standing out here like this?”

  Lilith said through gritted teeth, as if she was grinding out the words, “A while.”

  Seph said, scared as his head was still comically leaned back, “Did I do something wrong?”

  Lilith narrowed her eyes and said, “I haven’t seen you in two days.”

  Seph cleared his throat and said, “Ah, yes, I didn’t know how to reach out to you, knocking at the door wouldn’t have helped, I looked for a few minutes at your door for the past two days but nothing was going to happen if I stared any more than I did!”

  She kept her eyes narrowed and looked at him, while he looked like a cornered mouse as he said, “The first day I woke up too late for the training courtyard and went to the shop and finished the secret locations mission.”

  She intoned, her eyes still narrowed. “Yes, I found out about that from Silver Chan.”

  All this time, Sun had a similar reaction to his master, because he was at eye level with Baby, who found it entertaining to mimic everything Lilith was doing to Seph but to Sun instead.

  The monkey was scared shitless of getting scorched by her; his precious fur wouldn’t like that very much.

  Seph swallowed heavily and said, “Am I in trouble?”

  Lilith gazed at him for a minute more, then relaxed her posture and smiled, “Not if you will take this gift from me.”

  She got a diary book from her spatial ring and handed it to Seph; the book also had a writing feather in a special spot on its cover.

  Seph turned it in his hand and said confused, “You want me to write my diaries so you could read them?”

  Lilith giggled and said, “Something like that; when you write in this diary, it will show up in my twin copy of the diary.” She got out an identical copy of the diary Seph held from her spatial ring, and continued, “Whenever we can’t meet each other, you could just write me a message and when I see the message, I’ll write you one back.”

  Seph remembered how Zhi used a similar diary to expose the powers of Scorn and his generals, but he didn’t want to spoil Lilith’s mood by telling her about it, so he said, “That’s fascinating, we will never be out of touch again like the last two days.”

  Lilith said shyly, “Yes, I have missed you.”

  Seph was taken aback but ended up saying, “I missed you too.”

  Sun and Baby turned their heads in disbelief to their owners, both glared at them, but Lilith and Seph didn’t even notice them.

  Seph cleared his throat again and said, “Umm, so where did you get this?”

  Lilith said cheerfully as she hooked her arm into his, “Oh, I got it from Silver Chan when I went to look for you in his shop, but you had already left.”

  The duo left their cultivation tombs and walked together as they chatted like they hadn’t seen each other in ages.

  Lilith was leading him by their locked hands, and Seph didn’t recognize the way, so he asked her, “Where are you taking me, by the way?”

  Lilith said, “To the courtyard, of course.”

  Seph was puzzled as he said, “How do you know the way?”

  “I went in the second day without you. You, sleepyhead.”

  Seph asked, “Anything exciting happened without me?”

  She acted like she was thinking and then said, “Not really, just a lot of fawning inner sect disciples who want to show me around or give me gifts.”

  Seph thought, I never gifted her anything!

  He cleared his throat as he said with a hint of fear in his voice, “Did you accept their gifts?”

  She said harshly, “What’s it to you?”

  Seph looked embarrassed and said, “I mean... just... that.”

  Her giggle cut him as she said, “Relax, no I didn’t accept their gifts, I don’t need them, and I don’t need the expectations that come from accepting gifts from strangers.”

  Seph wiped his forehead even though there was no sweat and said, “Yes, that’s right, I totally agree with you.”

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  I wonder if she would accept a gift from me; I want to try. I mean I could always make an excuse that she herself gave me this diary as a gift; I wonder how expensive this diary is, Zhi was very famous and rich, and he had one, it couldn’t be cheap.

  She poked him with her elbow in his side as she asked, “Where did you go? You zoned out.”

  Seph replied, “Oh, nowhere, I am right here, with you...” his last word lingered.

  She smiled shyly as she looked to the ground and then Seph suddenly said, “Oh, we have arrived at the courtyard!”

  Seph scanned the area; there were groups of disciples clustered in different places. There were individuals scattered here and there doing stretches preparing for the morning training; there were a few lovebirds just sitting next to each other chilling and talking and giggling.

  But the most important thing he noticed was the Bounty Board; this was where he could find public postings of things he could do to get sect merit, which he needed to take out any manual from the library.

  Seph absentmindedly left Lilith and went straight to the board; she frowned but followed him anyway.

  On the board, Seph saw a notice that said:

  Herbologists Needed!

  The Alchemy Workshop would like to announce that we are always in need of herbologists.

  The ingredients are all in our vast garden; each month a new cultivated batch is available.

  Pay & Merit: Dependent on amounts gathered.

  We give compensation for broken gathering tools.

  Always available bounty–do not remove–report to the workshop for assignment.

  This bounty intrigued Seph since it would raise his gatherer level with no need to search the lands for herbs himself; they are just there in the garden waiting to be picked.

  He then looked at the next Bounty.

  Miners needed!

  The blacksmith would like to announce that we are always in need of miners.

  The metals are all available in the mines of the sect.

  Warning: Only cultivators who can defend themselves from the occasional monster attack can apply for this job.

  Pay & Merit: Dependent on amounts gathered.

  We give compensation for broken gathering tools.

  Always available bounty–do not remove–report to the blacksmith for assignment.

  Looks like it will be very easy to raise all my artisan jobs since I am finally in the sect now.

  Corrupted materials needed

  Greetings everyone, Marie, the head alchemist, here.

  For those of you who venture outside and gather corrupted materials, we constantly need them.

  We will take all quantities, so just come around when you have some for me.

  Warning: This requires killing monsters outside of the sect boundaries.

  Pay & Merit: We pay handsomely with both spirit stones and merit for corrupted materials.

  Always available bounty–do not remove.

  Seph’s eyes slid to the next notice, and it had a different color, and it read.

  Rat infestation in the mines

  There have been reports of a big pack of rats in the mines under our sect.

  We require one or more brave inner-sect disciples to take care of them.

  First come, first served.

  Pay & Merit: We pay handsomely with both spirit stones and merit.

  Come to me directly after you get this done.

  Signed: The elder.

  Lilith noticed he read this one, and asked, “What do you think we clear this one together?”

  Seph looked hesitant as he said, “I am not sure; I think it’s safer I go down there and mine some stuff and see how bad the situation is. We don’t know how many rats, or how big they would be.”

  Lilith said, “Hmm, no wonder you won the trials; you are way too smart and cautious. I think you will survive the cultivation world just fine.”

  Seph looked skeptical as he said, “Me? Smart?”

  Lilith nodded and said, “Yes, you are. I would call you quiet smart, who doesn’t act like a genius all the time. It’s true you are clueless about the cultivation world, but you don’t show off your scholarly knowledge like some would do. So, I don’t think you would have been a showoff if you were knowledgeable in the cultivation world either.”

  Seph still looked skeptical. “I am afraid you are overestimating me, but I hope what you say is true. It’s important to be smart to survive in this cultivation world.”

  Seph then wondered about something, but thought to ask Lilith, “If we get merit through this bounty board, how do the outer sect disciples get merit? Everything posted here is for inner-sect disciples only.”

  Lilith answered, “I think they have a different board with simpler tasks in the outer sect shacks area.”

  At that moment they heard a gong being rung, and they diverted their attention to the source of the sound.

  At the end of the training courtyard, there was a big brass gong with a disciple standing beside it and hitting with the beater.

  In front of the gong stood a muscular man who wore only trousers and whose upper body was bare, who looked serious, as he put both hands behind his back.

  The disciples scrambled and gathered in front of him, and Seph and Lilith joined them.

  “Greetings everyone, I am Master Fu Man Chi, for those of you who don’t know me. Every day we practice simple training here for an hour, with potentially more training available for bright disciples. At the end of every session, I’ll choose those who could take further training with me to develop their potential even more. So, work hard and follow our training, and don’t worry if you don’t get all the moves right. Eventually, your body will become flexible enough and strong enough to follow our every move.”

  The disciples all lined up in front of Master Fu, and once they were all aligned, the master took a fight stance, which everyone followed, with more than a quarter of the disciples not getting that stance right.

  Seph noticed that the training wasn’t exclusive to inner sect disciples, as he saw many outer sect disciples with their distinctive green robes.

  The training went as the instructor flowed from one stance to another smoothly, like a river leaning right and left to avoid rocks in its path, like a tree leaning with the strong wind to let it pass through, standing firmly in its place unmoving, defying the elements that want to uproot it.

  Seph thought the training was useful somehow for his style, even though it wasn’t palm oriented, but he noticed the way the instructor moved his feet with every move, and he mimicked him to the best of his ability as a first timer, and he could see their potential and usefulness in a fight.

  Lilith was beside him and moved with more grace; it was much easier for her to move fluidly and copy the instructor’s moves almost to perfection even though it was her first time.

  Seph didn’t know if that was because of her attributes or because she had undertaken similar training in the past.

  Sun was also training was them and following every move, but he was super awkward in his movements, since his body frame was completely different. Still, that didn’t dissuade him from trying his best.

  Meanwhile, Baby was sitting on a bench behind her friends, basking in the warm rays of the sun without a care in the world; she loved to laze around.

  Unbeknownst to the group though, there were eyes all around the arena stealing glances at the group with hateful thoughts, and envy, and jealousy festering in their hearts.

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