Covered in sweat, Hui opened his eyes and gasped a breath. He sat up. All alone. The room sat as empty as it had before.

No, not quite. At the foot of the bed, a bowl sat on the ground. Two blue stripes wound around its rim in the familiar pattern of the Starbound Peak cafeteria’s earthware. A spoon hooked over its edge. Inside it, a small brown dish laid, stained with the remnants of a putrid-looking black liquid.

Hui stood and stretched. Energy rushed inside his dantian, already close to full. He took a deep breath and let it out, and felt qi circulate in and out of him with the breath. The air around him swirled with qi, so thick that he nearly choked on it. No wonder my qi went out of control. With so much qi around, even if I wasn’t trying to, I’d still absorb too much.

He breathed again, relishing the feeling of qi circulating inside him. I wasn't a waste, after all. Though... it's a small miracle I never felt qi until now, with it so thick on this peak!

A bell tolled, interrupted his thoughts. He felt as though he was inside the bell, acting as the thing’s clapper. Every time it rang, his entire body shuddered with the force of the sound. Hui clapped his hands over his ears and looked around. So loud! Where’s it coming from? Is this an attack?

At last, the bell quieted. Hesitantly, Hui lifted his hands off his ears.

Loud as thunder, a voice cracked over the peak. “Uh, hello? It’s Lao Gongren. Am I doing this right?”

Hui slapped his hands back over his ears. Cowering, he stared up at the sky, brows furrowed. Wait, don’t tell me. Is this… is this Master’s doorbell? It even has a voice message function? How high-tech!

He stood, gingerly removing his hands from his ears. "Lao Gongren?”

“Is Weiheng Hui up yet? I uh… sorry, I hope I’m not disturbing anyone.”

Hui ducked and pressed his hands over his ears yet again. One way communications, huh?

He jumped into his boots and pulled his robe on, pausing a second at the sight of pristine blue. Wait, who cleaned it? Sis Mei?

He shook his head. Later, later. Before Lao says anything else and bursts my ears! He sprinted down the mountain.

Instead of struggling to run, or suffering the usual side effects of a long illness, to the contrary, his body seemed to float with each step. He ran effortlessly, each step eating up the ground. Air rushed through his lungs, the effort barely enough to make him breathe hard. He laughed and jumped, flying through the air before he plummeted back down. Racing on, he rushed down the rest of the mountain, jumping ten feet at a time like a kid on the stairs, a big smile pasted on his face.

A familiar face awaited him at the base of the peak, one of the very first cultivators he'd ever met. Despite the passage of years, Lao Gongren looked exactly as young as he had when he'd picked up the small child in a distant village, barely older than twenty.

“Someone’s in a good mood,” Lao Gongren greeted him, smiling.

Hui nodded. He spread his arms out. “Lao, do you notice anything different about me?”

Lao Gongren squinted. His eyes went wide. “You’ve entered Foundation Establishment?”

“Yes, I hit Qi Gather… what?” Hui frowned and focused inward, drawing his dantian into focus. It isn’t full yet, though. How could I have…?

Curious, he circulated his energy and pushed it against the walls of his dantian. Pliable, his dantian shifted, expanding with the force of his energy.

Qi Gathering, fill your dantian. Foundation Building, expand it. Did… Did I sleep through all of Qi Gathering? Blast through into Foundation Building in my sleep?

I really am a genius!—or so I’d say, if I hadn’t read so many cultivation novels. I’ve managed the first step, but that’s all. And about five years too late, at that.

Still! I’m a cultivator now. A proper cultivator! Ah, it feels so good!

He grinned sheepishly. “Y… yeah! Foundation Building.”

Lao clapped him on the shoulder. His smile looked forced, uncertainty somewhere in his expression. “Congratulations!”

Hui tipped his head, then shrugged. It’s not important. “What did you come to the peak for?”

“Oh—right! I came to warn you.” Lao leaned toward Hui. “You should stay on the peak for a while. Don’t leave. There’s… unsavory rumors going around about you.”

“Rumors?” Hui asked.

Lao grimaced. “Chang Bolin claims you strung him up by the ankle and dangled him over a cliff, then forcibly dislocated his hip. He claims he would have been permanently crippled if he weren’t saved in a timely matter by Lan Taijian.

“Lan Taijian suddenly claims he had his eye on Chang Bolin, despite passing over him thrice at selection, and wants you exiled for intentionally crippling a fellow inner sect disciple. I told them he was being ridiculous, that you aren’t even Qi Gathering yet, and besides, a gentle child like you would never—”

Hui took a deep breath and bit his lip. Oh shit, I didn’t realize he’d run off and tattle. That brat! And of course Lan Taijian takes him up on it. He hates Master. Probably wants to take it out on me.

Hurriedly, Hui bent and rubbed his eyes, summoning tears. He gazed back up at Lao Gongren with a pitiful expression, eyes puffy and red. “I… I had to!”

“Right, I—” Lao stopped dead. “You… huh?”

He let his lower lip tremble a little, hands clenching into fists in his robes. Casting his eyes to the side, he shook his head vigorously. I’m fifteen. I haven’t hit my growth spurt in full yet. I can still pull off the small, innocent look for a little while longer! “He killed me. It was justifiable self… revenge.”

Lao squinted at him.

Hui coughed. “A—attempted to kill me. I played dead to save my life. When I woke up… If I hadn’t counterattacked, he never would have stopped tormenting me.” His expression twisted at that, the false tears momentarily interrupted by a scowl. That’s a lesson I learned in my last life. If only I could’ve done the same to those damn debt collectors—!

Looking up at Lao, he managed to blink out a few more tears. “He hurt me so badly, I couldn’t wake up until now. And he wants to act like I’m the one who—” Cutting off his sentence, he frowned at the ground, frustrated.

“Chang Bolin has bothered you before?” Lao asked, concerned.

Hui nodded. Wiping his tears with shaky hands, he sniffed a few times for good measure. “He was jealous that I was Weiheng Wu’s disciple. It was verbal harassment until today, but I think getting passed over at selection for the third time made him snap. I was so scared. He said he going to kill me for real, kill me and scatter my soul to the winds, I… can you blame me?”

Lao Gongren raised his hand. “Hold up, hold up. Do you have any evidence of this?”

“Chang Bolin has a henchman. Tall, burly, kind of stupid, always at his shoulder. He was there. He knows. Him, and elder sister Mei.” Hui smiled. I have to thank her for the congee while I was asleep. She really helped me out there.

“Elder sister Mei?”

“Outer sect disciple. She works at Starbound Peak’s cafeteria. Ah, don’t tell anyone, but she gives me congee when I drop by every now and again.”

Lao’s face went pale. “Starbound Peak’s cafeteria? Don’t tell me… you’re the cafeteria rat?”

“Huh?” Puzzled, Hui tipped his head again.

“The cafeteria keeps losing food. It runs out of rice faster than allotted for, and sometimes eggs and chickens vanish from the pantry, too. The staff have been searching for the rat for years.” He paused and glanced at Hui. “Since you got here, come to think of it.”

Oh, shit. I didn’t mean to cause trouble for elder sister! “Ah, haha, I doubt it’s me. She only gives me some rice, and only every now and again. Once a day, maybe.”

“Once a day?” Lao’s eyes opened wider.

“Once…once a week?” Hui tried.

“A week!” Lao exclaimed.

“A month, a month, I definitely wasn’t going there more often than monthly!”

Lao sighed and put his face in his hands. “Hui.”

“Yes?” Hui sat down in his best contrite pose, all his attention focused on Lao.

“You are aware that most cultivators do not have to eat, right?”

Hui nodded.

“Starbound Peak’s cafeteria is something Lan Taijian personally funds. It serves only the highest quality spiritual rice, spirit beast chicken, and spirit chicken eggs, among other ingredients. Eating spiritually-enhanced food is a luxury for cultivators, a luxury that can boost one’s realm and aid in one’s development. Lan Taijian’s disciples consider it to be an honor to be invited to the cafeteria, moreso if they are given a vaunted pass to come as they please.”

“Oh,” Hui said. I had no idea. It was delicious food, though.

“Do you understand what you have done?” Lao asked.

“What—what the cafeteria rat has done. If I was Lan Taijian, I would hate that rat,” Hui said, grimacing fiercely.

Lao glared at him from between his fingers. “Do not leave the mountain. Do not enter Starbound Peak. And especially, especially, do NOT go to Starbound Peak’s cafeteria.”

“Er… I’m sorry,” Hui muttered, eyes downcast. But… elder sister Mei’s congee…

Sighing, Lao waved his hand. “This wouldn’t be so big of a deal if Lan Taijian didn’t have it out for Weiheng Wu. Disciples get in fights all the time. Kill each other, even. It’s simply the way of the cultivation world. No one’s ever escalated a spat like this to the Peak Lord level before, especially not when one side is an inheriting disciple, and the other is from the outer sect. As the Sect Leader says, ‘Let them hash it out themselves! Only the strongest survive!’”

“Ah… really?” Hui asked, curious.

Lao shook a finger at him. “Don’t get any ideas, now.”

“I wasn’t! I value my poor little life, thanks,” Hui replied. I’m not a psychopath like that Chang Bolin guy. I’m not going to run around killing people for fun.

But it is good to know I won’t usually get punished for a little revenge…

“Well, in the end, I doubt you’ll be in danger. If Weiheng Wu shows up and vouches for you… no one wants to step on the tiger’s tail. Though… if he stays in seclusion, there’s a good chance you could end up with lashes or manual labor.”

“Oh, that’s all?” Hui asked.

“Even Lan Taijian can’t get Weiheng Wu’s inheriting disciple exiled over a spat—th, that’s all? Hui, you do understand how serious those punishments are, right?”

“I’ve dealt with both before,” he said flippantly, waving his hand. What, you think the debt collectors left me alone? Whenever they got bored, they’d work me over a little. Lashes? I’ve had worse. And manual labor? Don’t get me started. Ha, I remember that summer I spent on the tuna boat… I thought I was dead for real that time. Now that I’m a cultivator, how hard can manual labor be, anyways?

Lao furrowed his brows. After a moment, he shook his head. “Hopefully you can avoid both. But right now, the best thing you can do is lay low.”

Hui nodded. He stood and bowed formally. “I understand. Thank you for warning me.”

“Ah, it’s fine, nothing worth thanking me for. As long as you understand and obey,” Lao insisted.