Mei sat at the dining table with her friends, fidgeting uncomfortably.

Liu Qiang and Yingyi snickered to each other, while Ding Zhe shook his head.

"What's so funny about it?" she protested.

"Yeah, isn't she super pretty right now?" Xiuying said, grinning.

Right now... Mei's face was completely caked with make-up. Before they headed out for breakfast, Xiuying mercilessly detained the struggling Mei, forcing a makeover on her! Mei told her she had a mask that could conceal her aura, but Xiuying said someone running around with a mask would be suspicious, so she needed to disguise in a different way.

Well... she wasn't wrong, but...

Mei looked at her reflection in her bowl of clear soup.

Honestly, Xiuying did a great job. She was completely unrecognisable, now looking more akin to some pretty noble girl... not a look she appreciated. Oh, and the mask was strapped to her beneath her robes, to hide her aura anyway. Whoever made it probably should have made it into a bracelet instead and paired it with an ordinary mask.

"Well, you did a pretty good job, I admit." Yingyi said to Xiuying, before turning away. "But Mei Xiu, your posture is super bad! And you look like you want to murder someone! It's completely unbefitting of your appearance!"

Mei pointed her middle finger at him, but it only made him laugh harder.

After a rather annoying meal, Ding Zhe brought them to a temple. Despite it's make of simple white stone, it was imposing from it's sheer size, towering at least 10 storeys high. At its gates, two monks were sat in the lotus position on cushions, meditating.

Ding Zhe walked over to one of them, reaching into his ring and pulling out a purple package with tea (茶) written on it in neat calligraphy. He tossed it into the monk's lap, who opened his eyes, looking slightly annoyed. But just as quickly, the monk smiled.

"I see you are taking the visitors here again today. But since you're their guide, there isn't a need for you to pay the fee."

"Just take it." Ding Zhe said.

"Oh, who here is this young lady, by the way? I didn't see her previously." the monk turned to Mei.

"She's... a disciple who arrived a little late for various reasons." Ding Zhe put a hand to his forehead. "It's difficult to explain."

The monk shrugged and decided not to ask, pulling the gate open for them. Mei followed the rest of the group in.

Immediately, she felt a strange, familiar sensation. Like back when she first visited her parents, her pores were practically gaping for qi. This temple... it was devoid of qi!

Inside the temple, a massive grey pillar reached to the ceiling, dotted with holes sucking in qi. Hundreds of monks sat at a circular platform at its base, made of the same grey material.

"Why isn't there any qi here? What did we come here for?" Mei asked, nervous.

Was this some kind of crazy qi stealing thing?!

"This temple is the qi refining temple. Cultivation has much more to it than just absorbing as much qi as you can. That pillar is one of the treasures of our sect, and it is used to help our monks refine their qi to the purest." Ding Zhe said.

"How does sucking all the qi away help with that?"

"When you sit close to it, you need to channel your qi throughout your body, where it can be pulled out of your pores. You need to hold tightly onto the purest parts of your qi, and the pillar will pull out the impure qi. Because of that, refining qi in this temple will also improve your qi control!"

Huh... Mei was once again reminded of how little she knew about cultivation.

She followed as Ding Zhe ushered them onto a free section of the platform, a few monks moving aside to make space.

As Mei sat, immediately, she felt a force tugging on her qi, a horrible feeling.

Still, looking at the rest of the group sitting down to also refine their qi, she resigned herself and began channelling her qi as Ding Zhe suggested. The pulling intensified, and immediately, from every pore, qi started to leave her. A piercing pain suddenly shot through her entire body and Mei screamed, jumping off the platform. Her eyes wide, she heaved on the ground.

"What's wrong?" Ding Zhe got up and ran over to examine her.

"Is it supposed to be that painful?" Mei asked weakly.

Maybe she could take painkillers like back when body cultivating...

"Huh? It's not supposed to hurt at-"

"Oh!" Wang Wei said. "I remembered! Mei has damaged meridians! The sect master mentioned it when she first joined. I think that's probably the cause!"

"Seriously?" Ding Zhe looked done.

...Mei honestly thought her meridian problems weren't really a huge deal ever since the sect master wrote up a dedicated cultivation manual from her... but she supposed she should have seen it coming back to bite her at some point. How miserable.

"What do I do then?" she asked.

"...I'll take you to Xiao An."

...

Leading her out of the temple, Ding Zhe led her a good distance away. Eventually, they reached a mountain, carved into rice terraces. The sight of fields of green rice plants growing from the layered paddies was rather scenic, but Mei immediately got a bad feeling.

"...you're not asking me to harvest these, are you?" she asked.

"Well. Xiuying told me about your aversion to farming. So I thought you should learn to get over it."

Really? Again? Getting forced to farm was getting really old...

"Here, I'll pay you in advance." Ding Zhe passed her a purple tea packet.

"Why are you paying me with tea?" Mei complained. "At least give me jade!"

"Well, our sect's teachings stop disciples from using currency within the sect. So we exchange for favours with tea bricks." Ding Zhe said. "This is Purple Blossom Tea, a spirit tea that aids in cultivation and focus. It's very good, give it a try."

"They don't even pay anyone here at this sect?" Mei gasped in horror.

"We pay in tea bricks."

Mei: ...