19 days later, 10:56 (Morning)

The senior brother whom Wang Wei talked about was apparently, the 'food critic'. She vaguely remembered him being called something starting with Han, but she didn't care enough to remember, just nicknaming him "Senior Foodie".

Mei and her friends were gathered before him.

"Have you made sure you've packed what you've needed?" Senior Foodie asked.

She looked into her bag. Inside, a single piece of green Jade and 10 white Jades rested. The green Jade was worth a hundred Jades, making it a lot easier to carry.

While she definitely could have earned a lot more, she wasn't exactly the most diligent and only worked for the octopus occasionally.

She remembered being surprised to find out that Jade wasn't just an in-sect currency after asking the sect master, but also used as currency by cultivators outside. It made her a bit disappointed then, as she expected spirit stones.

"Why would cultivators use spirit stones? They are dug up from mines, and each vein is different! Even if you cut them into pieces of the same size, no two spirit stones will have the same amount of qi." the sect master said. "It would be very troublesome to trade with those."

Also inside was a qi lantern small enough that she could close her fingers around it and two pill bottles, one full of Qi pills and the other one full of Mending pills. A small knife in a sheath and Wang Wei's nasty pill wrapped in paper sat inside too. And finally, she had an axe carrier slung on her back, her 'trusty' axe in it.

She probably could have used more supplies, but her bag was not that big, unfortunately. The only reason she brought Wang Wei's pill was because she was hoping to find an appraiser of sorts in the city. It was unlikely, but a small part of her was hoping it was actually really valuable. Maybe Wang Wei had gone through a 'Dao realisation' or whatever nonsense as he made it, inventing a new pill?

"I'm ready," she said.

Su Qing, now twice as big from cultivating, zipped around happily.

For the last few weeks, the three spirits had been hard at work teaching the little spirit. Maybe it was because Mei rubbed off on it, but the spirit was very lazy too! Every morning, after its lessons were concluded, it would go to to 'babble' to Mei incoherently about how tired it was and how it didn't want to go to class tomorrow.

She found that cute at first, but eventually, it got old. It did have a positive impact on her though, as eventually, she decided to spend at least an hour a day cultivating. Mostly because she felt bad after seeing how even lazy little Su Qing was working hard.

So when it heard Mei was going on a trip for several days, the little spirit was overjoyed. Finally, a proper break from lessons!

"Did everyone bring something to auction?" Xiuying asked. "I brought these herbs and fruits!"

She took several delicious-looking spirit fruits and some herbal smelling plants. Mei tensed up. This again?

"I brought some weapons I forged... not sure if they're good enough to sell though." Liu Qiang said, looking worried.

He took out 3 sabres from his storage bag. They looked of good quality to Mei, though they were a bit plain.

"Haha!" Wang Wei laughed smugly. "I'm sure these will be worth the most!"

He took out a pill bottle, filled halfway with pills that gave off a soft ethereal light, shocking Mei. Why couldn't he have sent her one of those instead of the stinky green one?

"Wang Wei..." Xiuying frowned. "How many times do I have to tell you not to brag? It makes you look bad!"

"Right... sorry..." he said.

Yingyi sulked a little before taking a pill jar of his own out. There were only half as many and they weren't glowing.

Senior Foodie patted his back reassuringly.

"Don't worry, you're still making fast progress! Wang Wei has just been putting in inhuman amounts of effort. Not everyone can do that."

"Uh-huh."

Yingyi muttered something to himself grumpily.

As they turned to Mei, she sighed.

"I don't have anything, okay? What am I supposed to sell as a Spirit Master?" she said defensively. "It's not like I can sell spirits!"

Su Qing bobbed up and down rapidly, its version of nodding.

"That's fine." Senior Foodie said. "It's good to focus on one dao early on, but later on, you can always pick up another. I think you might be suited for horti-"

He stopped, faced by Mei's glare.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing," she mumbled.

"While our sect is lenient, you still need to follow seniority!" Senior Foodie chided. "Don't forget how important showing respect is. It's especially true outside of the sect. You might offend someone unreasonable and get into huge trouble."

"Okay..."

"Now, let's cut the chit chat. If everyone's ready, I want you all to change into these robes."

He handed several red robes covered in pretty golden patterns to them along with a token.

The token was an octagon with a ying-yang symbol on it. But instead of black and white, the halves were red and yellow and made of flames. "内" was engraved on the symbol, signifying the owner's status as an inner disciple.

"Why these?" Xiuying asked.

"Well-" Wang Wei started.

"These are the robes of the Vermillion Phoenix sect. Our sect is a hidden sect, so we aren't supposed to identify ourselves. But going out without the protection of a sect is dangerous, so I got these from a good friend of mine, a core disciple in the Vermillion sect!" Senior Foodie looked rather proud of himself.

Huh. It was the first time Mei heard the sect was a hidden one.

Beside the senior brother, Wang Wei pouted.

"You still need to be very careful though. While the Vermillion sect lets us borrow these, ultimately, we are still just paper tigers and do not truly have their backing. Try not to do anything that could give yourselves away as a fake." Foodie continued.

Mei felt a bit anxious. She began to rub her fingers together without realising it.

"So our sect won't do anything if we get into trouble?" she asked.

"Oh, they probably will. But if you're already dead, it's too late. Just don't get into trouble in the first place."

The mood was now heavy, looks of worry now on their faces.

Senior Foodie laughed awkwardly.

"Well, don't worry too much! It's rare to get into trouble anyway. I've only heard of 6 disappearances last year. Let's make it stay 0 this year!"

How reassuring.