So even Liu Qiang was getting somewhere... Mei felt a little saddened.

"Anyway, I'll explain!" Liu Qiang said, pointing to the blueprint.

From what Mei could tell, it was a strange gauntlet of sorts, with two metal plates attached to it in a way that resembled moth wings.

"It's basically a shield attached to a guantlet, but it can split in half and fly off like wings!" Liu Qiang explained. "Then I want them to be able to return like boomerangs!"

He pointed to a strange nozzle on the fist next.

"And this part is a flamethrower! It can also be used to heat those blades up before I shoot them for more damage!"

Huh... this thing was actually surprisingly complicated. Liu Qiang actually could make something like that?

Though...

"Won't it burn you if you heat it up?" Mei asked. "It's literally attached to your arm."

Liu Qing smiled proudly.

"Actually, recently I started cultivating fire as well! My master, the Smithing elder recommended it to me."

"I thought fire supresses metal?" Mei asked.

"Apparently not," Liu Qiang shruged. "Or maybe it's something to do with the sect's manuals."

Mei listened as they continued to discuss. Apparently, Liu Qiang and Yingyi had been working on it for a while now.

But after many attempts, Yingyi couldn't synthesize a good fuel for it, so they were asking Wang Wei for help.

Sensing Yingyi's bitterness, even if she didn't like him very much, she felt a little bad for him. It must not be easy to be in the same group as someone so far ahead in his main field.

Mei was listening quietly until she heard them starting to discuss something about "Spell Circuits". She couldn't make sense of it, so she excused herself and left.

...

So even Liu Qiang was hard at work.

She went to the room the monk assigned her, staring at the ceiling while lying on the floor.

The faint chitter of crickets could be heard outside.

She laid there for an hour, staring at the ceiling. Ah... she couldn't sleep.

Outside, it was already night.

Mei decided to head out for a walk. But as she pushed opened her sliding door, she could see the lights still on in Wang Wei's room.

She could still hear them chattering. Was there really so much to discuss about making a single artefact?

She slowly crawled over in curiosity, putting her ear against the door.

To her surprise, she heard Ding Zhe inside as well. Didn't they just get into a fight over seasoning a few days ago? How did they already reconcile?

Was this Xiuying's handiwork? Maybe a little scary...

"-oh yeah!" Liu Qiang said. "Ding Zhe, how did you even end up in this sect anyway?"

"I remember back in my city, there was a Buddhist temple." Wang Wei said. "It was sort of a tradition there for children to learn for a year, even nobles, to learn values from the monks. Some of the children end up wanting to stay and continue their studies, and end up as monks."

"Huh! So Wang Wei, you've had some monk practice as well?" Yingyi exclaimed.

"Haha... only for a month. My father wanted me to get back to my studies fast."

The boys poked fun at each other before Ding Zhe finally decided to speak up.

"How I got here, huh..." he mused. "It's a bit of a long story."

Mei could hear the melancholy in his voice.

"I used to live in a village in a rural area, far from any towns. Just your typical farmboy."

"But one day, we got attacked out of the blue. Hundreds of buffalo stampeded, trampling all our crops and destroying our houses."

"Wait, were your houses made of straw or something?" Liu Qiang asked. "How can a buffalo just destroy a house?"

"They were spirit beasts. Anyway, let me continue. Some villagers were trampled as well, crushed to death. My family was lucky enough to be caught up in it."

"Our village head and several guards were cultivators, so they organised a huge hunting party in reveng-"

"Who cares?" Yingyi asked. "What does this have to do with how you joined? We didn't ask you to tell us your life story!"

"Just let me get to it! Before the day we set out to hunt, a strange monk in yellow happened to visit us. To cut a long story short... he managed to mediate between us and the buffalo."

"It turns out, the herd leader's daughter was killed by huntsmen, and he assumed it had been the doing of my village."

"I was really moved by it back then, so me and my girlfriend asked him to take us in as disciples-"

"Hold on, you have a girlfriend?!" Yingyi said, shocked.

"Yes, I used to." he frowned.

"You broke up? Or did she not pass the sect's tests or whatever?"

"We both got into the sect and still on good terms!" Dingzhe grimaced. "But romance just isn't allowed here."

"Well, at least you don't have to marry a bald girl!" Yingyi laughed.

Mei could see Ding Zhe's shadow on the door as he stood up and kicked him down.

"Ow!"

"There's much more to love than just appearance!" the monk harrumphed.

"Hey hey, I was just joking around to lighten the mood! Sheesh..."

"If you still want to be with her, then why don't you two elope out of the sect?" Liu Qiang asked.

Ding Zhe was silent for a moment.

"Other than their stance on relationships, I really do have a lot I admire about this sect. And well... it's not like I can go back at this point."

"Whoa! You look really aggravated! Did something happen?"

She heard Ding Zhe take a deep breath.

"To put it simply, the monks here have gone through a special body remolding. It represses our libido and improves our innate talent, but..." he said. "Say, have you noticed any girl monks here?"

"Huh. I think I've talked to a few, but I couldn't tell they were girls until I heard their voice." Wang Wei said.

"That's exactly it. My girlfriend... was shrunken."

There was silence for a moment. Then Liu Qiang and Yingyi burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?" Wang Wei asked, confused.

Mei: ...

"That's not even what I'm most concerned about. The worst part is when it happened to my little brother...

The two boys laughed even harder.

"They make the monks here shorter for some reason? And you also have a younger brother that got in?" Wang Wei said. "Why is that funny?"

As Liu Qiang and Yingyi practically howled, Mei decided maybe it was time she left...