After leaving his abode, Tianlan walked down the street which was lit with lamps equipped with night pearls. He had rushed to his abode in order to get some rest and had thus missed out on the scenery. That, and it was dark out, so things weren’t as clearly visible as they could be.

He passed the abode next to his, and glancing into it, he could see that it was empty. Walking to the next one, he saw Ming Hong looking at himself in a mirror while straightening his clothes.

It seemed that the argument between Mr and Miss second place ended with her taking the better abode for the first two weeks.

***

Tianlan followed the flow of qi and found himself outside a gloomy black building.

There were two disciples standing in front of the entrance who were dressed in different attire than most other disciples Tianlan had seen walking around. Normal disciples had plain white robes, but these two had black robes with red armbands which had the character for ‘discipline’ embroidered on them.

With a bad feeling, Tianlan walked up to the two disciples and made an inquiry.

“Which building is this?”

The two turned to face him not restraining their sharp auras and generally unfriendly bearings.

“This is the Hall of Punishment.”

“It acts as a detention facility.”

It was as Tianlan had feared. This wasn’t a building one could simply visit.

“Say. The qi’s pretty thin here, isn’t it? Why is that?”

“The qi gathering formations naturally need somewhere to deposit all of the null element qi that’s extracted. The Hall of Punishment is one such place. For those who are sent here, they will find it extremely difficult to advance in their cultivation. A suitable punishment for misbehaviour.”

“Really? But it seems to me this place is a little too small to contain all of that qi. Wouldn’t it leak out and affect the local area?”

One of the disciples shrugged his shoulders.

“Don’t ask me.”

The other seemed to know a bit about it and answered.

“The excess qi is condensed into a liquid form and is used to help offset the power consumption of the formations.”

Tianlan nodded his head in realisation.

“Ah. I see.”

“You must be a new disciple. The last thing you want to do in the first week is to end up in here. It will pretty much kill your career.”

“Thanks for the tip. And, just so I don’t end up here, do you have any advice for me? What should I look out for?”

“Other than following the rules outlined in the manual, just keep your head low and avoid offending the wrong person.”

“Offending the wrong person?”

“Yeah. Rules are one thing, but not everything is determined by the rules. Some people can make your life very difficult even if you don’t break the rules. The elders for example, and some of the senior disciples from the inner sect and above. You’ll want to watch out for their friends and lackeys in the outer sect too.”

The other disciple interjected.

“Basically, be quick to bow your head and don’t try to be anything special. That’s the way to live a decent life.”

“Is that what you do?”

“Pretty much.”

“But isn’t it stifling? Why should you have to be restricted while others can do as they please?”

“That’s just the way of the world, kid. We’re not some protagonists in a movie. Listen good and listen well. If you don’t have a strong backing, then keep your head low and stay out of trouble.”

“But what if trouble comes to find me?”

“Then blame the Heavens for your bad luck.”

Tianlan nodded his head and thanked the two for their advice before going on his way. It was on to plan two. If he couldn’t easily access the null element qi, then he would just have to counter the effects of the qi gathering formations.

Watching him leave the two disciples commented on him.

“He didn’t listen to a word we said, did he?”

“Nope.”

“He can only blame himself later on.”

“He probably thinks he’s hot stuff because he got first place among the new disciples.”

“Hm? He got first place? How do you know that?”

“I overheard some sisters talking about the handsome blue-eyed new hero. They say he killed the vulkan tiger.”

“Pfft. Don’t tell me you bought that nonsense.”

“What do you take me for? We all know those girls will hype up their crushes to the high heavens. Remember Lei Long from a few years back?”

“Hahaha. Yeah. The supposed once-in-a-thousand-years talent who was going to master sword intent within his first year in the sect. Tell me why he went on to become a personal assistant that year. Hahaha.”

“Right? And who could forget Shu Aige?”

“You mean First-Place-Aige? The guy who said he was going to get into the inner sect on his first try, and that he was going to be first place in the inner sect within five years? Has he even broken into the top thirty yet?”

“All I’m saying is, being confident is fine an all, outside the sect, but inside, it’s best not to let the ladies’ compliments get to your head.”

“That reminds me of Qingren Nanhai”

“Yeah. That’s just tragic.”

“Yup. One mistake of going after a core disciple’s girl and his rising momentum was crushed in an instant. I hear he’s still recovering from his injuries to this day.”

“Man I can relate. It’s not like the girls have labels on them. How can anyone know that a senior brother has his eyes on one? Those guys are really too overbearing. And the senior sisters aren’t any better either. Do you see how they look at us as if we’re mud on their shoes? I wish someone would teach them a lesson.”

“Fat chance of that happening.”

“One can hope.”

***

“Are you sure it’s okay for us to cultivate here, Sage Tianlan?”

The Fang Clan members walked through Tianlan’s gates one by one as they looked at the dimly-lit front garden. Even taking a few steps onto the property, they could tell that it was head and shoulders above their dingy cultivator caves. The difference was more than just night and day.

That being the case, they couldn’t understand why Sage Tianlan would be so generous as to let them cultivate in this wonderful environment. It would surely affect his own progress.

“How can I cultivate in peace when I know that my friends are having a hard time? Now, don’t ask any more questions. My home is your home.”

They looked at him with sparkling eyes and wondered what they had done in their past lives to deserve such treatment. The position of the childish sages only grew by the day in the hearts of these impressionable youths.

While everyone was exploring the place, Tianlan saw a little boy sneaking around on his own.

“What are you doing, Wu?”

Fang Wu jumped in fright when he heard Tianlan’s voice. But he didn’t immediately make his way back to the group. Instead, he separated the bushes in front of him to observe the two white wolves on the other side.

“They’re so cool. I just want to-”

While he was whispering, the wolves took notice of him and exchanged glances before heading off to another location.

Seeing this, Wu could only join the others with his head down.

“Why don’t they like me?”

“You’re coming off a little strong, Wu,” one of his cousins replied.

“Yeah. If I were them, I would avoid you too.”

“You need to be more relaxed Wu. Just treat them as part of the scenery. That’s also how you attract the ladies.”

“Is that right? Somehow it doesn’t seem very reliable coming from your mouth, Kang.”

“What are you talking about? Back home, they called me the Lady Whisperer.”

“Yeah. I was the one who came up with that nickname. It’s because every time you used your stupid whispering voice, the ladies were repelled, and yet you insisted that they were just playing hard to get. Speaking of, how many of those ladies came around in the end?”

“… It’s still a work in progress.”

“I can see the work, but I’m not so sure about the progress.”

***

Tang Zen had just come back from the library after collecting her techniques and watched as the Fang Clan juniors bantered with each other. She had overheard the earlier conversation about Tianlan letting them cultivate in his abode and was baffled by it.

She could only see him as a fool.

Were his friends worth jeopardising his own performance in a week’s time? She didn’t think so. Even the playboy next door didn’t dare to share his abode with others and was making moderate use out of it.

‘That’s as far as he’ll go.’

She put the unnecessary thoughts out of her mind and went into her abode to begin her intensive training schedule. After managing to wrestle this abode from Ming Hong, she only had one thing to focus on for the next week. Improving her sword techniques.

It’s just that, in order to settle things quickly, she had agreed to spend a day with that playboy in a month’s time.

***

Ming Hong made sure he was looking presentable in the mirror before checking his breath and heading out for a nice stroll.

On his way out, he happened to spot Tang Zen and smiled at her.

She avoided making eye contact and swiftly made her way to her own place.

“And to think I agreed to let you have the better place. Never mind though. You can make it up to me in a month’s time.”

He fired an imaginary arrow with his index finger, aiming for her heart, but she deftly evaded it and rushed into her abode.

With the slamming of the door, Ming Hong felt a pain in his heart.

“What doesn’t kill you… really hurts sometimes.”

But with a hop, skip and a jump, he was back to his usual self, ready to get acquainted with his fellow disciple sisters.

***

“Come now. Don’t hold back on my account.”

Tianlan could tell that the Fang Clan members weren’t giving it their all during their cultivation and decided to encourage them further. The more they extracted the elemental qi, the easier it would be for him to cultivate the null element qi that the formations were already attracting.

They all looked at him with gratitude and put more effort in, causing the elemental qi to start to thin. Their absorption was starting to exceed what the qi gathering formation was able to support.

This was exactly what Tianlan was looking for.

Just as the Fang Clan members were feeling guilty about taking all of the qi, to their shock and delight, they felt a sudden influx of more elemental qi. It was as if the qi gathering formation had kicked into overdrive after having been challenged.

Tianlan’s cultivation had acted to boost the effect of the qi gathering formation, causing more of the qi around to the abode to rush in, increasing the quality of the environment.

***

After a few hours of cultivation, Tianlan had managed to recover enough that he could move his arms without pain. He sent his guests back to their caves for the night, telling them that he would invite them over again the next day. He took a shower then changed into some robes that came with his abode and went to sleep.

The next morning, Tianlan took another shower and when he came out, he was greeted by a foreign sound.

When he looked to see what it was, he found that it was coming from the hexagonal jade that acted as the key to his abode. Curious, he took hold of it and injected his qi into it. After doing that, an image was projected into his mind. He was able to see the second place disciples, Ming Hong and Tang Zen, standing outside his gate. One had a smile on his face and the other seemed to be in a grumpy mood.

Tianlan used the jade to open the front gate and went down the stairs to the ground floor where he opened his front door and leaned against the door frame.

He looked down at the person in front.

“What can I do for the two of you?”

Tang Zen was about to voice her complaint, but when her eyes followed the beads of water trickling down Tianlan’s face, past his neck and onto his collar bones, her words were caught in her throat.

Not knowing where to rest her eyes, she ended up looking down to the ground.

Ming Hong noticed this and the smile on his face faded away.

This wasn’t how Tang Zen had approached him. And he had even gone so far as to create a similar aesthetic by using a cleansing technique before opening the door in his bathrobes…

How come the responses were so different?

Failing to come up with an answer, he grumpily stated their reason for being there.

“It’s rude to keep people waiting, you know? We’re supposed to go choose our treasures at the treasure hall.”

“Oh.”

Tianlan had almost forgotten about this. But when he thought about it, he wasn’t late.

“Didn’t we have until midday to do that?”

“Yeah, but this sister’s impatient.”

Ming Hong turned to Tang Zen, who was still looking down at the ground. He placed a hand on her shoulder and nudged her.

“Isn’t that right?”

“Oh. Uh. Yes. It’s rude to keep people-”

Just as she looked up into Tianlan’s eyes, the path of her sentence changed.

“The two of us can only go in after you, so…”

When she realised that those eyes seemed to have some sway over her, she turned around sharply.

“Humph! Get dressed and come with us. I don’t want to waste my time waiting for you.”

As she stormed out of Tianlan’s abode, she didn’t know that her face had taken on a red hue nor that her heart had started beating a little faster. But as an expert in the field, Ming Hong was able to see all of this. His eyes grew a little colder as he observed his rival.

“You win this round. But don’t think I’m down for the count.”

“Hm?”

Tianlan didn’t want to keep the others waiting, so he got dressed and joined them as they headed off to the treasure hall.

But he had no idea what Ming Hong was talking about.