For the last several days the person in question, whose demise was being carefully planned, had been spending her time in complete idleness.

Following Xiong Mei's unexpected arrival, and with an irritating lack of progress in her cultivation, Li Meirong had chosen to take a much needed break from her constant training.

Tonight was one of those carefree nights.

A few hours ago, Li Meirong had gone to visit her friend, the head chef of the Bestiary Division.

For Li Meirong, the plump head chef was a very special existence in this world. Despite their bickering, Bao Li was one of the very few people whom she could confide in.

As such, Bao Li was the first person to be introduced to Chou, Feng Huang, and of course, Snowball, who she had already become acquainted with. Especially after taking into consideration the countless amount of times Snowball had snuck into her chamber in the dead of night, practically begging for food.

Bao Li had marvelled at the sight of the Turtle Demoness and highly evolved Plant Spirit, but most of all, her gaze had lingered on the aloof Fox Spirit, Snowball.

Soon after Li Meirong had arrived over to the outer sect disciple's quarters with her contracted pets, she and Bao Li had secretly gone and fetched a bottle of sweet, fermented rice drink from the kitchen, whilst the rest of the disciples were deep asleep.

Li Meirong spent another night distracting herself at Bao Li's place, talking about everything and nothing, drinking her worries and troubles away with the wine.

In all the years of her life, Li Meirong had never used drinking as a coping mechanism. However, she had also never met a person whom she couldn't stop thinking about before.

After a short while, both girls became quite tipsy.

Bao Li made herself comfortable as she went to sit at the table, sloppily drunk. She slumped over the wooden surface with her upper body and used both elbows to support her weight. A few strands of stray hair escaped the pair of buns styled atop her head as she hunkered down in front of Li Meirong.

In the meantime, Li Meirong stared at the ceiling absent mindedly. Her eyelids sagged and her long eyelashes cast dark shadows over her fair skin as her thoughts lay elsewhere.

"Sister Meirrrrrrrong."

"What is it?" Li Meirong asked, her gaze still directed at the ceiling.

Bao Li hiccuped as she tried to grab hold of her friend's attention, slouching on her seat across from Li Meirong, "You're really something, aren't you? Only recently, you were of a lower rank than me, and now look at you! You're at the peak of foundation realm. That's incredible!"

Li Meirong levelled her gaze with Bao Li's and smiled helplessly. "It's not all that incredible. To be honest, I think I ascended into a higher level with my spiritual powers by a sheer fluke. Now, no matter what I do or how hard I try, I'm unable to progress any further."

"It's incredible if I say it is! Time to drink up!" Bao Li ordered with a rather playful tone, pouring wine into Li Meirong's cup yet again, sloppily spilling a little as she zealously poured.

"Fine. One last drink." Li Meirong chortled and drank the proffered wine.

Abruptly changing her demeanor, Bao Li pointed an accusing finger at Li Meirong, as though the latter had committed a grave and terrible crime. "You've got to listen to what I say. This old woman knows what she's talking about, a'ight? Remember what I told you about the Wei couple? I told you something didn't feel right about them, and look what happened?"

"You're right. Absolutely right. Whatever you say." Li Meirong replied offhandedly.

Li Meirong could barely concentrate on Bao Li, for not even a moment after knocking back the wine, she started feeling sick and began to dry-heave. She quickly covered her mouth with one hand, trying to keep down the contents of her stomach. She downed one drink too many and was feeling the effects of her foolish decisions.

Although in her case, she was still somewhat sober, as for Bao Li, the girl was completely drunk.

The young looking head chef kept her stance, growing grumpier by the minute. Bao Li's slurred speech came out as a declaration. "This old woman is serious. You don't even understand how lucky you are! Who cares if it was an accident or not?! You're on par with disciples who were cultivating for hundreds of years now! Ah, you even became an inner sect disciple under Grandmaster Zhu Zhang's personal order!"

Bao Li hiccuped again, her accusatory finger shaking. "And then… you even had Senior Zhu Qingyue propose to you! Why is this life so unfair? What about me? I need to find a man too!"

As she continued the rant, her complaints shifted into a pitiful whine. She grabbed another cup of wine and chugged it down.