Chapter 009

Chapter 9: Girls Get Different Treatment

Ye Wan Wan looked around the table and knew the matter was set. No matter what she said, everyone just kept putting food in her bowl while saying: “Eat.” Someone added: “Too skinny.”

That warm care, which she had not felt for a long time, slowed the words she had planned to say about leaving. She noticed how Sect Master Li Ming De watched the group eat, especially how he looked at Bai Jian with pride. It was the pride of an elder for his own child. She had never felt that from Yan Ding. Pride. Joy.

Ye Wan Wan could not find her voice. She lowered her head and ate. She thought: [I will wait a little. I have to leave sooner or later anyway.]

Bai Jian finished the whole basin of rice. She even used rice to mop up the sauce so that nothing was wasted. Yet her belly did not look any bigger. No one knew where it all went. After rising, she patted Ye Wan Wan’s arm and said: “Come with me.”

Ye Wan Wan looked to Li Ming De and the others, but the elder only smiled and said: “Go, child. She will take you to meet the elders and the places you need.”

Ye Wan Wan gave a bow and then was hurried out by Bai Jian, as if Bai Jian feared she would run.

Leaving the cafeteria, Bai Jian took Ye Wan Wan to see the classroom where disciples studied and the training grounds. She showed her the Archive Pavilion, the Alchemy Room, the Artifact Refining Room, and the disciples’ housing. She even wanted to take Ye Wan Wan around the peaks where several Senior Uncles lived, just to learn the mountains.

Ye Wan Wan asked: “Why?”

Hearing the question, Bai Jian turned back. The confusion in the girl’s eyes was plain. Ye Wan Wan said softly: “I never said I would stay.”

Bai Jian looked into her eyes and said: “You have nowhere else to go.”

Ye Wan Wan froze.

Bai Jian pointed at Ye Wan Wan’s chest and said: “Your heart is telling me that you have nowhere to go.”

Ye Wan Wan’s heart clenched.

Bai Jian smiled, warm and soothing, and said: “It is good here. Stay.”

Ye Wan Wan studied Bai Jian. The woman was two or three years older than her, but there was no worldliness on her. Bai Jian did not feel twenty. She felt like an eleven or twelve year old girl. She had been protected well.

Ye Wan Wan moved into the disciples’ quarters. Because she had not formally bowed to a master, she would stay on the main peak for now. After the ceremony, she would choose a peak to live on. After listening for a long time, she finally understood that Heavenly One Sect had fewer than twenty people in total. Bai Jian said she even had a peak all to herself just for training.

Bai Jian added: “Though I do not like staying on my own peak. I live here most of the time.”

Ye Wan Wan thought for a while. This sect did not look poor. Even on Azure Cloud Peak at her old place, where people were few, they could not give one disciple a whole mountain.

Bai Jian said: “We do not lack for land. If you want to plant anything, plant it anywhere you like.”

Ye Wan Wan nodded.

Bai Jian said: “I have something to report to Master. You rest first. In the afternoon I will take you somewhere.”

Ye Wan Wan said: “Alright.”

Sitting alone in her room, Ye Wan Wan looked out the open window. The sunlight fell on a snow plum in front of the house. Black branches, white blooms, a dusting of gold. A strand of light seemed to jump into her eyes.

Ye Wan Wan thought. Could she really stay here? Bai Jian was right. She had no home now. Not in the modern world. Not here either. She gave a small, self-mocking smile.

She crossed her legs and began her Qi Refining for the day. After finishing one big and one small cycle, her level settled at the first layer of Qi Refining. She was one step from the second layer. She decided to draw talismans and stick them around the house, then make a push in one go for the second layer.

Two hours passed. When a small ring of airflow rippled out from her, she slipped into the second layer of Qi Refining.

She said softly: “Done.”

Looking inward at her dantian, she saw five Golden Cores moving along a certain pattern. Five little streams of qi turned with them. The red and the blue were slightly bigger. The other three were close to each other. Her Fire Spirit root had reached the peak of the second layer. Her Water Spiritual Root was in the middle of the second layer. Metal, Wood, and Earth were at the early second layer.

Ye Wan Wan nodded and said: “Not bad.”

When she came back to herself, it was already late afternoon. The time she had agreed on with Bai Jian had passed. She stepped out and found two people squatting outside her gate. Li Wan Zhi and Fang He An had been there for who knew how long.

Fang He An said with feeling: “I have been at Heavenly One Sect for years. Other than Eldest Senior Brother, you are the most hardworking person I have seen.”

Li Wan Zhi looked at her like she was from another world and asked: “You just trained like that? Brother, is your life really that boring?”

Ye Wan Wan flexed her wrist and said: “I had free time.”

They both answered at once: “If you were free, you could have slept.”

Ye Wan Wan thought: “…”

Fang He An shook his head and said: “If I had known, I would have taken you to plant herbs for Senior Uncle Xun Yin. Free time is still free time.”

Li Wan Zhi hopped over the railing into the yard and asked: “Are you really going to stay here?”

Fang He An looked at him and said: “Trying to run again? Sect Master said you were born a person of Heavenly One Sect and will die as a soul of Heavenly One Sect. You cannot run.”

Li Wan Zhi jumped up and shouted back: “I already said you do not have to refund the tuition. I did not pay it. My dad did. If you want money, go find him!”

Fang He An said with a straight face: “We took the money, so we do the job. That is our sect’s rule. You, Junior Brother, are ours.”

Li Wan Zhi planted his hands on his hips and was ready to curse. Fang He An did not care. He flicked his fingers and popped a pill into Li Wan Zhi’s mouth.

In an instant, the world went quiet. Li Wan Zhi pulled at his throat and waved his arms, but no sound came out.

Smiling, Fang He An explained to Ye Wan Wan: “Just a failed pill. It is great for shutting people up.”

He turned and said: “Junior Sister, Second Senior Sister is busy. She told me to take you to the Marrow Washing Pool.”

Ye Wan Wan blinked and asked: “The Marrow Washing Pool? I can go?”

That was a core place of a sect. Even at Supreme Sect, only the top three of same-realm disciples in the yearly matches could enter. In her second year, Ye Wan Wan had placed almost every year. But since her senior brothers had never gone, she gave her spot to them, planning to go later herself. Once Ye Qian arrived, she never got another chance.

“Of course,” Fang He An said with a grin. “Every new disciple goes.”

He pointed and added: “Junior Brother is going too.”

Hearing that, Li Wan Zhi trembled. Cold sweat rolled down.

The Marrow Washing Pool was on the main peak, so they did not need to fly. They reached a Purple Bamboo Grove. Past the bamboo stood steps climbing up the slope, wide enough for two side by side. They climbed to the three hundred seventieth step, turned left along the mountain path for a little over a hundred paces, and came to a cold pool.

“We are here,” Fang He An said. Then he stepped behind Li Wan Zhi and kicked him straight in.

Hands in his sleeves, he turned to Ye Wan Wan and said gently: “Junior Sister, do not worry. Girls get different treatment.”

Ye Wan Wan thought: “…”

Li Wan Zhi sank with a splash. His mouth opened like he was screaming, but no sound came out. Only a dry howl of air. Cold mist rose all around him. From that mist you could tell how strong the pool’s tempering was. His whole body was smoking.