With a week left before the tournament, I finally saved up enough to get a few things on my long shopping list of what I want.

  More like need after what happened in my first mission. Thankfully there’s no mandatory missions the month the tournament is in, so I haven’t been forced onto another mission out of my league.

  I’ll be ready for it next time though.

  The good thing is I didn’t have to cut my training to do the missions! Apparently, disciples don’t like doing hard labour some missions require, going for easier ones like spiritual herb picking. But then with very few people taking those missions, the pay is quite good.

  Which is why I’m currently in the inner sect, hauling a marble statue in my arms up the stairs of the building being constructed.

  Not as good as dedicated exercise, but more than enough to get my muscles burning!

  The actual skilled labourers the sect keeps employed move around me to finish the construction. The foreman said it’s a new home for an inner elder as he apparently found his current one too small. Said elder’s home is just across the street and already three stories high, the new one is five.

  I breath out heavily as I carefully place down the statue on the top floor and straighten with a groan. The statue is, of course, the elder in carved billowy robes elegantly posing with his sword pointed towards an imaginary foe.

  My job is to transfer all the furniture and such over. Much cheaper to hire a disciple at a high enough stage to carry it all than pay the labourers to use their already built pulley system to bring all of it over.

  Apparently, paying extra to move furniture faster is where the elder draws the line. Not complaining though, it’s how I got the job.

  This was the last piece for me, so with a sign off on my mission scroll by the foreman, I head out the inner sect calmly, and as quickly, as I can, making sure to keep to the side and not chance meeting anyone’s eyes down until I cross the bridge over the river to the outer sect.

  Once no more inner disciples are around, I giddily rush over to the mission hall to get my contribution points recorded and a bag of coin.

  Heading back to my room, after a bath and a change of clothes of course, I double check I have all the coin I’ll likely need and head to Lan Yue’s place.

  Unlike Tie Feng and me, with the allowance she gets from her family, she’s able to live in a far larger place.

  She has three whole rooms! I have one, but it’s good enough for me.

  Knocking on her door, I tap my foot as I wait for her to answer.

  I wait a minute.

  Impatient, I start banging on the door, making it echo through the hall and don’t stop until the door flies open and I’m faced with an annoyed Lan Yue, a green sort of paste on her face and her hair untied and free from her normal ponytail.

  Smiling brilliantly, I lift my bag of coins and jingle it, “Help me shop?”

  She glares and slams the door in my face.

  “I’ll take that as a yes!”

  It was indeed a yes as she comes out a few minutes later without the paste on her face and dressed in her normal sect robes but still with her hair untied.

  We walk in silence, though a bit uncomfortable as Lan Yue studiously walks in front of me.

  “So nice weather?” I get a side-eye for that.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Your hair looks nice when it’s let down?”

  That’s a huff! Improvement! I think?

  Trying to cajole her into talking again, it takes a while and an offer of paying for food afterwards that she finally gets over me interrupting whatever she was doing.

  “So, what are you shopping for?”

  “Well armour… again,” I say with a little laugh.

  “Of course,” she deadpans.

  We arrive at the same shop as last time, inside the same disciple from last time whose eyes narrow when she sees Lan Yue who returns it with a small smile. She looks harmless, but after hearing her ‘negotiations’ from last time, I don’t trust it, and seemingly neither does the disciple as she locks in a staring contest with Lan Yue.

  I leave them to whatever mind games they’re playing head straight to the same bin with the Imperial armour and dig through it.

  The mission taught me something, no matter what other people say, covering your organs is essential no matter how fast you are or if you can dodge an attack or not. The Mortal technique proved that no matter how aware, strong, or fast you are, you can’t dodge everything.

  Hence, I’m looking for a breastplate to protect my organs. I got lucky last time, my bones stopping the strike, but it was still too close. Finding one in good quality is easy enough, but the size is a problem again as even with the straps loosened as far as they go, it’s still quite snug.

  “Stop stop!” I screech out as Lan Yue strains to pull the armour off me by the shoulder straps, my broader than average frame getting me stuck in the armour and leaving me bent over with my arms above my head.

  After a bit of maneuvering, she’s able to pull the hunk of metal off and I rub my sore head as she takes the armour and a pair of greaves to the disciple at the desk to refit them all.

  I was going to go for a helmet but honestly it doesn’t seem worth it, and Lan Yue concurred. Metal’s heavy, so armour must be thick to defend against most attacks, but you can’t really do that with helmets.

  You can’t reasonably expect to survive any direct attack to the head, especially against fellow cultivators. So, as a soldier, it’s better to make it light and thin enough to block debris and shrapnel from stray attacks whilst holding a position or formation while attacks fly around them, making it near useless for me as I’ll be no where near fights that result in shrapnel that can kill me.

  She’s a fast worker, getting longer straps fitted with chainmail in the larger gap the armour leaves by my sides with the straps extended.

  I silently trail behind a smug Lan Yue as we head to her choice of restaurant, purse lighter but not as empty as I feared, but it seems like it will be considering the décor of the restaurant she chose.

  She has good taste though, so it’ll be worth it.

  We get seated and order, the dismay of losing my coin dispersing once I see they have all you can eat spiritual beast meat.

  “So, how’s your family doing?” I ask her after we finish ordering.

  “Good. They have been able to take advantage of the contacts I have made in the sect and have found other merchant clans willing to buy our stocks for further distribution. My parents also have thought about expanding to more cities, further from the sect’s territory, so my brothers were given the chance to prove themselves by taking charge.”

  My brow rises in surprise, “You didn’t tell me you had any brothers.”

  She raises one in return, “Have I not?” I shake my head, “Well, I have two. My elder brother…”

  She starts talking fondly about her family, and even I can tell she misses them based off some of the stories she talks about her mischievous elder brother, with the younger never far behind to pull him out of whatever trouble he caused.

  It’s not really something their parent’s discouraged either as the elder has a silver tongue and a personality one cannot dislike, getting deals and contracts wherever he’s sent. The younger stays behind the scenes, slowly taking over from their father in managing the logistics of their trade.

  We get interrupted when the food arrives, Lan Yue’s a respectable portion as spiritual beast meat is more filling than normal. Mine however takes up my entire plate and I swear I don’t drool as I eye the various slices of meat drizzled with sauce on my plate.

  My first bite is as good as it looks, tender and succulent. Swallowing it, I feel it set heavily in my stomach though not much else. I expected more, given it’s fresh spiritual beast meat, but maybe I was wrong?

  Oh wait. No, I feel a bit of… warmth? Yup, the meat I just ate is warming in my stomach, totally normal. Glancing at Lan Yue I see that she’s not worried so I just shrug and focus on the best tasting food I’ve eaten and dig in.

  “Agh!” I cry out as Lan Yue flicks my head and breaking my gluttonous trance.

  She looks at me with a bit of disgust, food barely touched while I’ve finished more than half of mine.

  “Eat slower!” She orders sternly.

  “I will,” I say through a mouthful.

  “Swallow before talking!”

  I shrink back and slow down my chewing as I stay silent. Seeing that, she gives a firm nod and goes back to eating her own food.

  The rest of the meal we eat in comfortable silence with a bit of talking.

  I pat my bulging stomach with a happy groan as we walk down the street, Lan Yue rolling her eyes at me. I was able to eat another plate that the waiter clearly didn’t like delivering whilst Lan Yue ate dessert. Seems ‘all you can eat’ is supposed to be limited to a single plate for them.

  Worth it.