I trudge to the couch and allow myself to tip and fall, sprawling across the cushions without a care for grace or decency. Exhaustion has claimed every fibre of my being and my brain is effectively sludge. I half expect it to leak from my ears any moment now. As if that wasn’t enough, I am still famished!

  “Ugghh!”

  “Rough day?” Lingfei inquires from the desk she rarely vacates.

  I make every effort to roll onto my back, but despite my best efforts, I only make it half way. “You could say that. Is it possible to learn too much in one day?”

  “Perhaps. I’d say you could always learn more, but eventually the effort will take its toll. What did you learn today?”

  The door opens before I can reply and Jingyi enters. She is carrying a batch of ingredients for a light dinner and the spritely spring to her step hints at a good mood. I reach out longingly, like a child hoping her mother will pick her up, but Jingyi passes by with naught but a pleasant smile.

  “Are you ladies hungry?”

  “Famished!”

  “I could eat.”

  Jingyi sets her basket down and returns to loom over me with her hands on her hips. “Have you decided to give up on being a proper lady? Were all those lessons for naught?”

  I roll my eyes at her teasing and then struggle out of my outer robes to lounge in my underwear: a short skirt and dudou, the latter of which I would love nothing more than to be rid of. I deposit the garments along on the floor for later and stretch out hoping it will force some of the exhaustion out of my limbs.

  She shakes her head disparagingly and returns to work. “Barely a week and I hardly recognize her anymore!”

  Lingfei chuckles softly in the background.

  “It’s been a long day,” I protest half-heartedly. “Elder Cai works us to the bone!”

  His Excellency squawks from somewhere out of sight, but I can’t help but feel he is calling my bluff.

  “I did cleanse my dantian of impurities, though, and that seems like a big step.”

  “It is,” Lingfei confirms. “You’ll be working on some of the meridians next week, I suspect.”

  “Is it as gross as this was?”

  “It may be, but as you refine your control you should be able to direct the impurities to certain acupoints rather than randomly about your body. It will make it much easier to clean up.”

  “I got luckier than some. It oozed out of my arms. Song Ling got it all down her back. I had to help her clean it up!”

  “Song Ling?”

  “Oh! A girl in my lessons. She’s my friend.”

  “You made a new friend?” Jingyi is excited by the revelation, but her tone darkens slightly. “Maybe there is hope after all…”

  I furrow my brow in consternation. ‘Jingyi! Is that what you truly think of me?’

  “Well, fortunately, we can go to the spa and get cleaned up, which is what we did. I came back for lunch, but you weren’t here at the time, so I went to the Hall of Plenty with Ban Xiuyi, but there was more than just plenty of food there. Everyone was trying to eat all at once so we didn’t have a chance!”

  “If I had known you’d be back before me I could have left something for you to eat. I got a bit distracted on my way home, so please forgive me.”

  “Distracted? You?”

  I see her turn away to hide her shame out of the corner of my eye. “We all have our weaknesses.”

  “Oh?” I perk up at her whispers and crawl to the edge of the couch to peer over the armrest at her. “And what weaknesses might our cute Xiang Jingyi have, hm?”

  “Uhm, after delivering the letter to the courier, I was on my way back and stopped by the storehouses again. Did you know that they have some of the finest silks here? Not just silks; the sect has so many wonderful materials!”

  Her excitement is contagious.

  “Is that where you found the folding screen I saw by the storehouse?”

  “Oh? That? No, I made that — or am making it, I suppose I should say”

  I choke. “What!?”

  “It’s not done, obviously, which is why I was interested in more supplies…”

  Her thoughts trail off as the water begins boiling furiously over the little wood stove so she doesn’t have the time to finish explaining. I don’t press her for it since she is hard at work preparing the dinner I so desperately need.

  “Miss Xiang is a rather prodigious talent,” Lingfei announces to break the sudden silence. “I have never seen anyone work with such speed and accuracy. Her skill with a needle is truly astounding, and to think that she’s only just begun…”

  “Huh…” I shift position to kneel on the couch and recline against the back so I can converse directly with Lingfei. “You knew about this?”

  Lingfei watches me with a degree of curiosity until our eyes meet. Her striking blue eyes flicker nervously before she takes great interest in the surface of her desk.

  ‘Oh? Someone is shy.’

  I muse over that detail while lazily rocking my hips from side to side.

  “She has spent almost all of her time working on it — at least, any time you aren’t around.”

  “That’s incredible, but uhm… yeah, after the Hall of Plenty, we went to some of the presentations the senior disciples were giving this afternoon. Did you go to any?”

  “I went to one on pre-imperial symbology and the advent of modern daoism, but I was familiar with most of the information since it was greatly distilled for an introductory session.”

  “Riiight… The first one I went to was about organs. I learned a bit about them in my early lessons back home, but I think it was more medicinal than this.”

  Lingfei peeks up again, but her gaze doesn’t linger for long. As soon as I look in her direction she averts her eyes again. It becomes a little game of tag, but I suspect I am the only one amused by it.

  “The organs are an important part of early cultivation,” Lingfei comments. “You’ll likely have lessons focusing on them in a couple of weeks.”

  “So it seems. Some are yin, some are yang, and they all have their relation to the five phases. It was almost too much for me to keep track of. Ban-shijie absorbed all the information better than I did, so I can review with her later.”

  “Despite her uncouth ways, she is as clever as a fox,” Lingfei admits with a slight grumble. “If you require it, I should also be able to free up my schedule to go over anything you need help with.”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “Really?”

  She shifts nervously. “I don’t see why I couldn’t do that for my junior.”

  “You’re the best!”

  My words hit home and her reserved exterior crumbles for a moment. It is long enough for her cheeks to flush a pretty red. Compliments are proving very effective against Bai Lingfei, especially when they reinforce her sense of worth or focus on her marked success.

  Lingfei clears her throat. “Anyway, you’ll want to pay special attention to the organs in the future. With your… situation, you may benefit more than most by reinforcing your fu organs.”

  I allow my head to loll to the side and rest on my shoulder. “What do you mean?”

  “Most cultivators, myself included, completely ignore our body’s ability to produce qi because it is so inefficient compared to external production, but in your case…” she eyes me again, but this time it is with confidence. “You may benefit from it. The fu organs produce and store the innate qi before it is refined in the dantian. Your neutral qi is less efficient than elemental qi, but it won’t conflict. If I were you, I’d look into whether or not it could be beneficial.”

  I drape myself over the back of the couch and let out a sigh. “That sounds like a lot of work…”

  “Maybe you’ll feel better about it after you eat?” Jingyi tempts me by holding a bowl of hot food beneath my nose.

  The aroma of fresh beef makes my belly rumble and my mouth waters ravenously before I know it. I snatch it from her and slink back onto the couch to sit and eat. The delicious mix of braised meat, rice, and fresh vegetables disappears in short order and I flop back onto the couch, groan languidly, and pat my belly.

  “That was so good…”

  “Finished already?” Jingyi scurries over and collects my empty bowl. “Did you remember to chew?”

  “Nooo… I forgooot…”

  “How about his excellency? Would he like something to eat? Some beef, perhaps?”

  The bird doesn’t respond.

  “Do you like rice?”

  Still no response.

  “No rice. How about peas? Bok-choy?”

  His excellency doesn’t so much as squawk; I find it suspicious.

  “Ah, I can do that!”

  I sit up and peer over the couch at the raven, but he flutters down from his perch to Lingfei’s desk just in time for her to deliver a bowl of food. He begins picking over it as if he prefers certain items in a specific order. Despite staring at him, he doesn’t acknowledge my scrutiny.

  “How do you feel about the rest of this week’s lessons, Zhou-shimei?”

  Lingfei’s question dispels my interest in His Excellency, so I return to lounging. “Since I cleared my dantians, I should be done. Elder Cai seems intent on guiding everyone to the same point before the end of the week, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she let the rest of us go to focus on our own.”

  “And what would you do if you were left on your own?”

  “Great question!” I raise a hand up over the couch so she can see and wave it about. “Worthy of a great answer!”

  “Do you have a great answer?”

  I let my arm fall with a thump. “I do not…”

  “I suggest finding places suitable to your cultivation. Knowing where to find a concentration of suitable qi might be critical for your development in the near future.”

  “Oh! Like water qi in the spa!”

  “Uh… yes, I imagine that the pools there would be suitable.”

  “What are your elements, Bai-shijie?”

  “I possess only a water root.”

  “You should come to the spa with me!”

  There is a suspiciously long pause. So long that I almost sit up to see if she is still there. “No, I believe I require somewhere with less distractions.”

  “That’s too bad. Jingyi! You should come with me next time.”

  “I’d think I’d like that.”

  Jingyi makes her way to my couch so I pull my feet up to make room. She sits all prim and proper and begins folding my discarded clothes with a scowl directed my way, so I drape my legs across hers and smirk as I disrupt her work.

  “It’s so refreshing that I find it difficult not to go, especially since it is so close by.”

  “Maybe we should all go one day as a little group outing,” Jingyi suggests.

  “I don—”

  “Wonderful!” His excellency squawks, cutting Lingfei off before she can say anything. “Accept. We accept!”

  “We’ll have to ask Ban-shijie, too.”

  “Wasn’t she with you earlier?” Jingyi asks while trailing her finger up my shin.

  The slow and minimal contact between her finger and my skin evokes a particularly potent ticklish sensation that sends shivers up my entire body. The jittery feeling is so strong that I nearly wriggle off the couch. Jingyi, of course, finds my reaction amusing.

  “S-she was! I’m nooOT! S-stop!”

  Jingyi cackles while I squirm uncontrollably and dangle precariously close to falling onto the floor.

  “You’re not…?” Lingfei is certainly curious.

  “Cease!” I cry out as my eyes fill with tears. There is no way I can hold back my giggling. “You will regret this!”

  Jingyi complies and ends my ticklish torture, but I can see a glint in her eye that suggests further mischief if she is left unsupervised.

  “Anyway, I’m not sure where she went after we parted ways. She has a lot on her mind right now, so she might have needed some time alone.”

  “Master Zhou will be able to look into her sister’s whereabouts once he gets your letter. If anyone can find her, it is him.”

  “That’s what I told her. I hope we are right.”

  “Ban Xiuyi?”

  “Yes, Grand Elder!”

  Xiuyi whirls around and bows without hesitation. She holds her bow just a moment longer than necessary to be polite and then looks up. Grand Elder Wei Yukou stands in the open doorway and peers down her nose at Xiuyi. The stern, matronly woman is taller than many men, and her face appears to be a stranger to smiles, but a familiar acquaintance to scowls.

  “Come inside.”

  Her voice is warmer than her appearance might suggest. However, there is a tinge of unparalleled authority hidden beneath her words. She is peerless in confidence and her pride is unquestionable. Ban Xiuyi can feel the raw power radiating from the woman and knows in an instant that Wei Yukou’s overwhelming aura is more than justified.

  She scrambles inside as quickly as she is able.

  “Thank you for taking the time to meet with me, Grand Elder.”

  “Your situation is one of great concern, Miss Ban,” Elder Wei moves to sit and gestures to a seat opposite her. “Please, sit. I’d offer you a drink, but I think the tea has gone cold by now.”

  Ban Xiuyi sits immediately. “Your gracious hospitality is appreciated.”

  Elder Wei crosses her legs and folds her hands in her lap. “I have been informed about the situation regarding your sister. Unfortunately, we have no leads at this time, but the investigation has only begun.”

  Xiuyi clutches her robes. “I want to request permission to join the search.”

  “Denied,” the response is prompt and emphatic. “You understand that there are rules, and I do not intend to make any concessions.”

  “But—!”

  Her hand raises and silences Xiuyi before she can continue. “Trust in us, Miss Ban. It is not merely your sister who is missing, but an initiate of the Taiyi Sect. We will find her, I assure you of that.”

  Xiuyi’s shoulders droop. “Thank you…”

  “Focus on your studies. If we have not found her by the time you become a full-fledged disciple then you will be authorized to join the search.”

  “Really?”

  “The outer disciples are not subjected to the same rules and restrictions as our initiates, so you will attain some degree of freedom at that time.”

  Elder Wei’s words fill her with hope. The sect is searching for her sister, and someone like the Grand Elder herself considers it a high priority! Furthermore, she speaks with such confidence regarding the future that Xiuyi cannot see anything but success in her future training. Elder Wei says she will become an outer disciple, not that she needs to become one, so Xiuyi firmly believes she must make it so.

  She drops from her chair and falls to her knees. “I cannot thank you enough, Grand Elder!”

  Elder Wei gives the initiate a chance to pay her respect and offer her thanks before leaning forward to urge her to rise. “It is our duty. We take our duties very seriously.”

  Ban Xiuyi wipes the tears from her eyes as Elder Wei nudges her back to her seat.

  “Now…” Elder Wei settles back in. “Tell me about your sister. The more I know about her and the life you two lived up until this point, the better.”