After Xiao Ming had finished her purchases, both she and Liu Yue decided to head back.

  "What are you going to do, Xiaomeng?" they tentatively asked.

  After thinking for a moment, Xiaomeng answered, "I will wait for my seniors here and purchase my stuff after they come." Both girls listened carefully and then, waving their hands, bade farewell to Xiaomeng and went their own way. These two did not come with anyone and just brought a map with them to navigate the sect. Sadly for Xiaomeng, Senior Sister Lan's trust in her seemed quite thin, enough to send her with a babysitting group.

  For the foreseeable time, Xiaomeng just observed the hustle and bustle going on below on the first floor. She also saw the engaged couple whose names she couldn't quite recall. For someone who was forcefully engaged and separated from her lover, the girl didn't seem all that sad. Was she simply not sad, or was she just pretending not to be? she thought. If it was the first, then Xiaomeng really decided to stay away from puppy love. And if it was the latter, then she really needed to improve her observation skills.

  From time to time, some outer disciples tried to make their way toward the upper floor but were soon stopped just as they reached the last step. Some kind of array was engraved there, which prevented unauthorized people from coming up.

  But then Xiaomeng began to wonder how she was allowed to come up. She certainly didn't have any physical proof of being an inner disciple. Not being able to solve it herself, she went to the counter to inquire.

  "There is a large array surrounding the whole sect," the female receptionist explained. "It recognizes every disciple, and also many sub-arrays are connected to it, using its recognition function in their own operation, essentially solving any cases of fraud and impersonation. This also makes it harder for external enemies to attack inside."

  Xiaomeng suddenly started to hiccup. The receptionist quickly brought out a glass of water and handed it to her. Drinking the water, Xiaomeng's thoughts went to the words she had just heard. Isn't this just too advanced for a lower-level cultivation world? she thought.

  After calming down her hiccups, she asked hesitantly, "Who was the one who came up with this idea?"

  "Ah," the receptionist's eyes twinkled. "It was the Fourth Elder." Then, noticing Xiaomeng's clothes, she commented, "You must also be from the Pill Refinement Hall. You can ask the older disciples there for details. Many of them were involved in this project."

  Completely focused on the conversation, Xiaomeng didn't notice the group that had appeared behind her. Feeling someone place their hands on her head, she looked back and came face to face with the senior sister from the morning. She controlled her urge to jump back and let the older girl pat her head. Can't have a bad impression for now. Being a young girl is a really tiring task, she mused in her mind.

  The senior brothers and sisters helped her purchase the things she would need. Her bill came to only eight hundred low-grade spirit stones. But unlike her two acquaintances, who had bought a lot of supplementary ingredients for further cultivation, she only bought the basics. Her anger for that thieving old man once again flared in her heart.

  On the return journey, Xiaomeng was once again carried on the back of Senior Sister. It was already afternoon by the time they had completed their business and left the Contribution Hall. In the middle of the journey, Xiaomeng curiously asked, "Senior Sister, were you also involved in the making of the array that surrounds the whole sect?"

  The senior sister just shook her head. "By the time I entered the sect, it was already completed. Since it was constructed in just the last century, Senior Sister Lan will be your best bet if you want to know more." Afterwards, Xiaomeng kept to herself during the journey, quietly listening to the seniors' chatter.

  It was a little past afternoon by the time they reached the Pill Refining Hall. Saying their goodbyes to Xiaomeng, the Foundation Establishment seniors went back. Xiaomeng also made her way to her little residence. While walking, her stomach grumbled, stating its hungry state.

  Xiaomeng could only make a helpless expression at this. For a whole day, when a cultivator was about to enter the Qi Refining Realm, they had to remain on an empty stomach. This prevented any mishap while accumulating energy in the Lower Dantian for the first time.

  Returning to her room, she fell onto the bed. In order to forget the feeling of emptiness in her belly, she started to recount random things. Soon her thoughts went to the time she had first entered the Qi Refining Realm in her original body.

  She still vividly remembered the memory. It was her seventh birthday that day, and her mother, Su Yulan, had brought her a big gift after the celebration was over. Looking at her cheerful face, her mother had said, "It seems like it is the right time for you to start cultivating." Following that, her mother brought her hand and placed it on her back.

  She suddenly felt a foreign but warm feeling enter her body. That energy lightly tapped the first Qihai acupoint, breaking it open. And after a few moments, she had just entered the Qi Refinement Realm. There was no epiphany or a sudden burst of energy—just a warm feeling which had settled in her Lower Dantian just below the navel.

  Although it wouldn't go that smoothly this time, she just hoped it would not trouble her too much. Soon her eyes started to droop, thinking about these arbitrary thoughts. And after some time, she had fallen asleep.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Xiaomeng had a nice dream of blue sky and green grasslands. She was running around in the green expanse without a care for the world. But while running, a hole suddenly appeared below her feet, and she fell down into the darkness. Her body rapidly thrashed while she was falling. And right at that moment, she was woken up by a sharp pain that shot up her leg.

  Xiaomeng tightly clutched her leg in her hand, a slight misty drop visible below her eyes. Maybe the dream was too vivid, and she had flailed her legs in reality and hit them against the edge of the bed. Although there was no swelling, the sole of her right leg had gotten a bit red, and whenever she touched the reddened area, she would feel a pain like a needle piercing her leg.

  Right at that moment, someone knocked at her door. By now, Xiaomeng had really started to get annoyed by the sound and decided to ignore it. But soon the knock came once again, and she decided to open the door. Getting up from the bed, she started to hop on one leg toward the door. But in the middle of it all, her balance tilted, and she started to fall headfirst.

  "Ahh!" A surprised sound escaped her mouth. In that brief moment, her hands had covered her face, and she braced herself for the impact. But a breath passed, and then two, but even after three breaths, the pain did not come. Xiaomeng slowly pulled her hands away from her eyes and was face to face with the floor, her forehead merely inches from it.

  Slowly, Senior Sister Lan lifted her by the scruff of her clothes and placed her on the floor. Looking up at the kind senior sister, Xiaomeng thanked her, "Thank you, Senior Sister."

  Senior Sister Lan just waved her hands. "It's a paid service." Xiaomeng's expression froze upon hearing those words. Looking at her, Senior Sister Lan smiled slightly. "Don't worry, you can pay me back when you earn more." Xiaomeng could only let out a dry laugh in response.

  Getting up, she followed behind Senior Sister Lan toward the courtyard. Passing through the door to the back, the last rays of sunlight were setting. Due to the spirit lamps in her room, she hadn't realized it was already late evening. Her senior sister went to one wall engraved with array diagrams and inserted her spiritual energy into it. Shortly after, a dark barrier surrounded the courtyard, completely isolating it from the outside.

  "Bring the ingredients," Lan ordered. Xiaomeng limped inside and brought out the materials she had purchased that morning. By that time, Senior Sister Lan had taken out a small pill furnace from her storage ring. Lighting a fire using her qi, she refined the materials and brewed them into a blackish concoction. Taking it out in a bowl and cooling it a bit, she handed it to Xiaomeng, who just looked at it in disgust.

  The smell was so bitter that it had spread throughout the courtyard, making her gag. But with Senior Sister Lan's stern gaze on her, she could only take it and gulp it down in one sharp, big gulp. The bitterness spread throughout her mouth, and it was even worse than yesterday morning. Moreover, unlike then, she didn't have any sweet candy to neutralize this taste. It was akin to a full-blown torture course for her.

  By the time she had set foot in this place, Xiaomeng had been led by the nose by everyone around her. Her vow to become strong strengthened even more—if not for anything more, just to make sure she doesn't need to breathe something like this again.

  Senior Sister Lan made her sit down with her legs crossed and sat behind her, placing her hands on her back. "Focus on the flow of my energy and try to guide yours in the same way. The brew has increased your spiritual affinity for some time, making it easy to detect and operate qi for a while," she explained.

  Before long, Xiaomeng felt a foreign cold energy invading her body from her back, but she tacitly allowed it to enter. The energy flowed through her meridians, completely unblocking them. The energy flowed to the Qihai acupoint, two fingers below the navel, and with a single impact, opened it. She felt a warm feeling spread in her belly.

  Then the energy continued to gather in her Lower Dantian. "Focus and try to take control," Senior Sister Lan instructed. Xiaomeng listened to her and tried to take control of the energy, but failed miserably. Then she tried again but failed again. And after several such failures, she was able to control a strand of it.

  This process continued for quite some time, and Xiaomeng was slowly able to take control of all the qi gathered in her Lower Dantian. Noticing this, Senior Sister Lan withdrew her hands. Her forehead was beaded with sweat. She had to take care not to accidentally damage Xiaomeng's meridians in the process, which took a lot of concentration and took a heavy toll on her mind.

  Getting up, she said to Xiaomeng, "You are now officially a Qi Refinement cultivator. After completing a few cycles of energy circulation, go back and rest. Too much cultivation on the first day could put unwanted stress on the body." Thereafter, she went back to her own quarters. The most important step was over, and soon the qi would stabilize. She was no longer needed here.

  Xiaomeng continued to cultivate and circulate the qi in her Lower Dantian. She was already familiar with the process, having done it millions of times, but doing it in this body felt a little different. It had some differences from her original body, making the flow of qi rough around some parts. But it would resolve with time.

  Having observed enough, she decided to stop and rest. Yet before long, she discovered that she was losing control of the qi. Her half-baked spiritual root was refusing to obey her commands and was starting to circulate more and more qi in her body. In a rapid response, she tried to direct the qi to other places, but it proved futile. The incoming qi was a lot more than she could handle.

  Soon her meridians started to creak from the excess pressure, and her face contorted with pain. In a last-ditch effort, she tried to do the thing she had most heard about. Concentrating all the qi she could gather, she impacted the Guanyuan acupoint, three fingers below her navel.

  Due to the immense strength of the attack, the Guanyuan acupoint was opened after just three tries, and qi started to flow from it. Just like that, Xiaomeng entered the Second Layer of Qi Refinement. But this only provided a brief reprieve, and a more troubling problem arose.

  Her half-baked spiritual root was itself not able to bear the sudden pressure and began to lurch and break. From the records she had read, there was never supposed to be such a thing. But she didn't consider the fact that she had never actually worked with it before, and this was her first actual try.

  Is this how I die? Xiaomeng thought. The pain that had been relieved due to her advancement in cultivation was also coming back in full force. Just as she had given up hope, a warm current of unknown origin entered her Dantian. The rampaging energy instantly became docile, as if it had seen its predator. The small current of energy made the flow of the qi smoother and also repaired the state of the spiritual root. After doing all that, it disappeared from her body.

  Xiaomeng just lay limp on the cool grass, just thankful to be alive. With all the stress relieved, she felt her vision go dark and fell unconscious. This sect was really a streak of bad luck for her.