As Tie Feng so helpfully reminded after I told him and Lan Yue of my advancement, it’s going to be a slog to get through the last three stages. You need to push your body to the breaking point, and this is where most stagnate at each realm, where talent and access to resources matter the most.

  Of course, I then asked Lan Yue about the cost of those resources, and I lost all the joy I had for my advancement.

  Money. It all comes back to that.

  Even saving as much as I could over the past month barely puts me closer to the cheapest pill that can help.

  As I’m lamenting over my lack of funds, I’m writing an essay in class. It’s on a short story we read about how Zhihu was in the wrong for wanting to challenge his ex-betrothed to a duel after she broke her engagement to him due to his poor talent when a hand slams on my sheet.

  I follow the hand up to the face of a smiling man.

  “Well hello junior brother, it seems we haven’t had the chance to meet before so I wished to introduce myself and your other senior brothers,” he says with too many teeth, two other disciples as old as him flanking me on either side with only one bothering to look friendly.

  “Greetings Senior Brothers, it is a pleasure. Though… the ink was not dry on my sheet,” I say a little awkwardly.

  He pauses what he was about to say and turns his palm over, his friends snickering as his face scrunches at his black palm.

  “Now,” my eye twitches when he grabs a plain paper from my desk and wipes his hand, “we’ve been in the same situation as you, not knowing anyone to support you and guide you through the sect and cultivation. Seeing you and your fellow juniors makes our hearts ache and makes us want to be good role models.”

  “That is very generous of you Senior Brother,” I simper.

  “Yes, as you know there are other disciples around that will bully you, pushing you out of your training grounds, taking your resources or even beating you within an inch of your life!” He says with false righteousness in his tone. “But your senior brothers are quite strong you know, so we can bring you under our protection, for a small little contribution as we need something to compensate for our time.”

  I stare at his winning smile, one that dims slightly at my answer, “Apologies Senior Brothers, but I will have to gratefully decline your offer.”

  He stares at me for a moment as his two friends shuffle a little closer, “Are you sure you wish to not take advantage of my generosity Zhan?”

  My spine straightens at him saying my name, but I keep a smile on my face even if it’s a bit strained, “Yes I am sure Senior Brother, I believe I am doing fine on my own, but I thank you for your offer.”

  “Very well then. I hope you don’t regret your decision,” he says before abruptly leaving.

  The other two follow him with sneers, one knocking my inkwell over and splashing it all over my page and I scramble to turn it upright.

  I stare at the three as they swagger out the door and to my page, irrecoverable.

  Thankfully I just started on that page!

  “You should have agreed Zhan,” a voice speaks up beside me.

  Turning, I see it’s the scrawny boy in my class that I saw a bit ago getting pushed around by the three.

  “Yeah maybe, but they won’t actually do anything if I need help, better to save up whatever I can for myself than pay it to those leeches,” I say to him.

  Don’t actually remember his name, though it’ll be embarrassing to ask after two months of sitting beside each other and him knowing my name.

  “They have been in the sect for four years and been doing this for a while now. They can sabotage you in ways you won’t expect with who they know or can bully into making your life horrible. Not many among the outer disciples can beat them, Biu and the other two that were with him are at the eighth stage, and he has a group of lackeys at the seventh, enough that not many find it worth to take them on.”

  I stare at him at the torrent of information he spewed out, “How do you know all this? Aren’t you new as well?”

  “Ah, well. I hear around you know?” He shiftily says.

  I raise a brow but dismiss it, not caring much either way.

  “Surely there have been some among those they bullied that became inner disciples? Wouldn’t a Meridian Creation cultivator have gone after them and beaten them handedly?” I question.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  It’s difficult to advance far without support and luck, but four years is a long time for a lucky few to move on.

  “You would think so, but as far as I know only three have and their all too busy with duties to support their cultivation than coming down to beat them for no reason. Even so it would not do much, they would just stay low for a bit before continuing on.”

  Now that I don’t agree with. No way they don’t have a free hour to come down and rain some retribution. At least that’s what I’d do if I had my money and resources taken like that.

  Hmm… even if they forget about me, I may just do it to feel good once I advance.

  “Wait a second, if they’ve been here for four years, what’re they still doing in our class?”

  “Like I said, they know people. A bit of coin or some pressure is enough to get ignored and have free reign. Though I have seen them still struggling with the tests so they may just be stupendously slow.”

  ---

  I’m fresh off the sparring grounds, advancing to the sixth stage improved my physique but it did nothing for my combat skills. The increase in stage comes more opportunities to fight those with more experience and those that know how to use their strength given they reached the sixth before enrolling in the sect.

  Hence, I’m covered in dust and dirt from hitting to ground quite often, my previous respectable win rate now half that due to my lacking spear work. The wins I do achieve are due to none expecting a fist slamming into their face.

  Something that’s been getting me approving nods from Elder Lieshen, the only sort of feedback I’ve been given from him since advancing.

  Turning into the small training ground, I pause when I see it occupied for once and the group within also notice me.

  Disappointed but not wanting to argue, or even fight, for the courtyard, I turn to leave and hopefully find another.

  “Hey wait!” A cheery voice says, making me turn back to face the girl who called out.

  Looking at her, I can’t tell much, beyond her age which is at least three years younger than me, so I decide to be neutral in my address, “Yes fellow sister?”

  She bounds the twenty-meter distance between us in two skips, and yes, she skips which is concerning as she’s likely a higher stage than me, maybe two. Add in her age and it seems I’ve attracted the attention of a more influential disciple, or disciples as looking behind her, her three friends also look younger than me.

  “So you’re the one that’s been coming around our training grounds huh!” She says exuberantly as she lands in front of me.

  “I and my friends have been using these grounds Senior Sister,” she preens when I give her a more respectful address. “We noticed it was also being used, but as we never met, it did not seem as though we would intrude but I do apologize if we disrespected you by training here. If you wish we will avoid these grounds and find a new one.”

  It would suck to do so as this one is perfect, but I’d rather use a worse one than deal with drama.

  “Don’t worry about it!” She waves a hand dismissively, “We’re only here because we were curious who else trains here, and what type of Senior Sister would I be if I were to stop my Junior Brother and his friends from working hard!” She says with a firm nod with her arms crossed.

  Given she barely reaches my stomach, it’s quite a look. But her words do relieve me because we won’t need to look for another place to train and miss all the drama I was dreading about.

  Win-win.

  “Oh! I almost forgot! I’m Xue Xu! But since you’ve been nice you can call me Sister Xue!”

  “It’s nice to meet you Sis-”

  “You should come meet my friends!” I get cut off as she grabs my arm and excitably drags me to the others resting further inside.

  Although small, her grip is like steel so it doesn’t take much convincing to let her pull me along until I’m facing the three. Another girl, older by a year or two than Xue Xu, and two boys, one about the other girl’s age reading a book and ignoring us all and another a little younger than me sitting with a calm smile.

  “Xuxu, let go of him, you’ve already dragged him to us,” the girl says with exasperation as she looks at Xue Xu, who let’s go of my arm and gives a cheshire grin.

  The girl then starts childishly poking at her friend who swats her hands and tries to get her to stop. Turning from the two I greet the two boys.

  “Greeting Senior Brothers, this one is Zhan and I thank you for allowing me and my friends to continue using these training grounds.”

  The one with the calm smile and a high ponytail is the one to answer, “It is a pleasure Junior Brother Zhan, I am Chen Yun and my friend here,” he nods his head to the sharp-eyed boy having not raised his head from his book yet, “is Wang Xie.”

  “And I am Mei Ruyin,” the girl finally says, stopping Xue Xu’s attacks by grabbing her hands and lifting the shorter girl into the air where she feebly kicks around to escape. “Though we do not need to ‘allow’ anything, these are training grounds, it is not as though we are guarding it from trespassers.”

  “But you’re guarding me right now Ruru!” Xue Xu grins as she continues trying to wriggle free, but she just rolls her eyes and shakes the girl in her hands about instead.

  “As Sister Ruyin said, these are training grounds and we do not wish to bar our juniors from training,” Chen Yun says.

  They decide they don’t want to leave anytime soon, so I’m forced to socialize with them.

  At some point our talks lead to me finally learning who they are and I get confirmation that their quite important disciples. I personally never heard of them, but I also only get gossip from Lan Yue so it’s not too surprising.

  Xue Xu, Mei Ruyin, and Wang Xie all come from noble families, the former apparently a prodigy at the ninth stage. The other two are no worse, both being at the eighth stage. Chen Yun though is a grandson, one of fifty, of an inner elder of all people and of course is at the ninth stage as well.

  With their backgrounds, I guess it’s a simple enough matter to buy whatever they need whenever to advance quickly from a young age. I don’t care much; I’ll make enough eventually to match them.

  I do eventually start relaxing and dropping my formal speech as we keep talking, Xue Xu being the main reason why, with the others slowly relaxing as well. Good because I dislike changing how I talk and it would grate me to simper at every little thing they do with the usual posturing that comes from their status.

  One thing leads to another though, Xue Xu getting bored and noticing me getting antsy at potentially missing some of my training.

  That’s how Tie Feng and Lan Yue step into the courtyard to find me straining through squats with two precarious piles of rocks balanced across my shoulders, Xue Xu gleefully adding to the stack, one close to my limits, before flipping into a handstand atop it to cheer me on after she ran out while Mei Ruyin tries to coax the girl down.

  I couldn’t move out of bed the next morning.