After a short wait, the body elder marched confidently to the gate, before pulling it open forcefully. The gate swung inwards, bouncing several times and squeaking.

"Welcome, disciples!" he yelled.

Crossing his arms, he looked across the crowd of disciples with stern eyes, before nodding.

"I'm glad to see all of you are on time. Keep up the good conduct!"

As the disciples walked into the gate orderly, Mei couldn't help but reach a hand out to the gate, giving it a slight tug. To her surprise, it felt extremely sturdy, as if it were not on a hinge, but affixed on a wall! Mei pulled hard for an insant, but to no avail.

Mei darted her eyes around before following the crowd, hoping the elder didn't see her being weird. But as she walked past the muscular statues, she couldn't help but poke at their toes.

Entering the residence, Mei was slightly surprised by how normal it looked. It seemed the elder limited his statues to outside, in the courtyard.

Ming Jiang led the disciples into a large room, filled with training equipment and several stone tables and chairs, built into the ground.

"This is the training room!"

He promptly walked out of the room, much to the confusion of the disciples, who followed.

Urgh. With so many people, filing out of the door was taking a while. By the time Mei and her friends got out, the elder had already opened the door of the room he was showing next.

"This is a body refinement room!"

A body refinement room? That sounded cool!

Curious, Mei began trying to shove through the disciples. From the side, Xiuying's face was full of disapproval.

Some of the disciples weren't too happy about it and tried to shove back, but they couldn't compete in strength with her. It wasn't too long before she reached the door and looked inside, filled with curiosity.

It was a small room with black walls and flooring. So small, a grown man could touch the opposite sides of the room with his hands and feet. Carved into the ground was a cramped, rounded hole that was 2 metres deep. There was a tap made of the same black material right above it.

Seriously?

Mei peeked her head inside and saw a small hole at the bottom. It really was a bathtub...

A thought came to mind. In some novels she read, body cultivation was done with the help of body refining liquids. Were these rooms for that? Still, it was quite a let-down.

Ming Jiang headed back into the training room and took a seat at the tables as the last of the disciples saw the disappointing room.

"Disciples, I will get to the point!" he said. "Body cultivation is very simple. It's not like regular cultivation!"

From his ring, he took out a jar of red powder.

"You pour body refining powder into the bathtu- refining chamber, fill it with water, then cultivate! That's all there is to it!" he said. "I'm not giving these for free to you lazy bums, so pay for them! If you are poor, the cheapest one is 10 jade!"

Ming Jiang laughed uproariously.

...

To think even this musclehead was so greedy. Mei's impression of him changed in an instant.

Damn it. At this rate, she was never going to be able to pay off her debt...

"But since this is your first day, I'll have a little gift for you." he smiled. "A few of you have been here before, so to reward your diligence, I will host an arm wrestling competition!"

He took out 9 bottles of liquid, each a different colour, willing them to float in the air.

"The winner will get a bottle of high-grade bottle of elemental essence, based on the element you are cultivating. All of you that are at the first level of body cultivation or above, stand!"

Mei was stunned for a moment, before trying to stand.

Ming Jiang turned to look at her.

"Oh, you over there. The sect master told me of your circumstances. You are disqualified, sit."

EHHHH?!

Sure, her body cultivation was not the result of hard work unlike the other disciples, but it was at the cost of her Grade 6 talent! Which was a bigger cost than anyone here had paid!

Filled with indignance, Mei sat down. She looked across the 27 disciples that stood and recognised a few faces. Wang Wei, Xiuying and the guy in the tournament that used earth hands on Wang Wei, Zhang... Zhang Yu?

She stared blankly at the disciples that stood. There were... that many?

Dammit...

She thought back to what Luye said to her. It gave her hope, hope that she could stand out and get a good place. Back in the tournament, she thought she was the only one who had any body cultivation. But as it turned out, even just in her team, 2 of her friends were at the same level.

If she didn't sit with the gorilla and actively tried to hunt disciples despite Su Qing being upset, she would have likely been beaten by someone else with body cultivation.

Mei could not help but feel incredibly bitter.

She watched absentmindedly, as the elder directed the disciples went up to the tables.

A few rounds passed. Wang Wei, grinning happily, having beaten 3 disciples in a row. At that very moment, Mei felt like that grin was almost insufferable, mocking her. At least Xiuying lost right off the bat.

One by one, Wang Wei beat them with ease. He announced in his usual arrogance, that he had already reached the 2nd level of body cultivation.

Of course. Of course he did.

Before long, he had defeated his last foe.

"Well done." Ming Jiang said.

He grabbed the floating bottle of flames, offering it to the boy.

"No. Not yet." Wang Wei said.

"Oh?"

"I want to face Mei Xiu. If she wins, I want you to hand a bottle to her!" he said, a serious look on his face.

A look of disapproval came over Ming Jiang's face as he shook his head.

"If you insist."

Mei gritted her teeth. Fine, if he wanted to humiliate her so much!

She marched over angrily, sitting before him. She felt like the disciples were staring at her, but she did her best to ignore them.

She grasped his hand hard. Wang Wei tried to avert his gaze as she glared at him.

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

"Begin!"

In an instant, both of them pushed. Mei overpowered him, smashing his arm to the table with ease.

She stared at the sight before her, stunned.