Chapter 10
The next day, Qian Yu got up earlier than normal and skipped his morning practice and met up with Chen Ya and Wu Jing in the residential area. Today was Tuesday and the appointed day of the month where they would need to go meet with the Zhao Family. As for what they were going to do, he naturally didn’t know.
The trio then proceeded to go to the meeting area that they agreed on previously near the inner disciples area. After a few more minutes, the 10 outer court disciples were all there. At this time, a girl walked out from the inner court gates.
“Hello everyone, I’m glad everybody could make it,” Zhao Xieren smiled.
Although she seemed normal, Qian Yu felt that she was a bit different. It had been a mere two weeks, but she looked a lot more stressed and tired. As a genius and a new inner court disciple, she probably attracted a lot of unwanted attention as the inner sect was a lot more competitive.
As for the outer court, the outer sect disciples didn’t really care about each other aside from a few rich and cocky kids who liked taking advantage of the weaker ones. Still, most people just focused on improving their strength to enter the inner court which required you to enter the qi gathering realm before you turned 17 and meeting certain criteria such as amassing sect points or contributions. As such, while Qian Yu was behind his peers in terms of cultivation rank, he was the youngest of the batch and didn’t lose his confidence.
“Alright, since we are a group, let’s start by introducing ourselves,” Zhao Xieren did an ice breaker.
Everyone nodded and did as she said, and without a doubt, Qian Yu was one of the youngest and weakest in the group but nobody really minded.
“Alright, thank you everyone. I have some important news to announce. The sect has already assigned us a mission which we’ll do in a month. Yes, it is a little earlier than normal but there was recently a large conflict with the Mountain Crushing Sect in the south so most of the more senior inner disciples are busy with that,” she paused and looked at the disciples to gauge their reactions. Some were a little nervous, but not to the point of completely being scared of it. Instead, some of them were even excited to finally get out of the sect and do something.
‘Hmm, the Mountain Crushing Sect is another heaven-tiered power who excel in an earth-type cultivation technique that enhances their own physical power while giving them earth related martial techniques,’ Qian Yu thought. When he first learned of the Mountain Crushing Sect, he initially wished he had become a disciple there instead but after thinking about it, it was probably a very male dominant sect which had sent shivers down his spine.
At this point, Zhao Xieren laughingly said, “Ok, let’s celebrate our entrance to the cultivator world, I want to bring everybody outside to treat everyone for lunch. In fact, I have already reserved a spot hehe!”
“WOOOT!” “Alrighty, let’s go!” “Go Boss Zhao!” some of them shouted.
Zhao Xieren started to lead all the disciples out of the sect and 20 minutes later, they arrived at a luxurious 7-floored restaurant. The famous Tiger’s Den, is a popular and luxurious restaurant brand throughout the world. Beautiful lanterns were hung everywhere and a large sign with a roaring tiger was on it.
All the disciples were mainly recruited from villages and although some of them had backgrounds like Wu Jing and Chen Ya, they never had the opportunity to go to such a grand place like this. Today, they all finally had the chance.
The restaurant had 7 floors on it and with her background as a noble and inner disciple of the Ice Arts Sect, she could dine on the 3rd floor, which let her show some prestige as the leader of the group. This way, they would have more trust and confidence in her and the mission will become a lot smoother and easier.
Entering the restaurant, Zhao Xieren and the gang walked over to the receptionist, asking to be led to their seats.
“May I see your reservation,” the receptionist asked.
“Ah yes,” Zhao Xieren said as she took out a small wooden slate from her bag.
The receptionist took the reservation from her hand and checked the authenticity. After a few seconds he calmly said, “I’m sorry Miss Zhao, it appears that all the rooms are reserved right now. I don’t know what happened but it seems your reservation got overridden by someone in the higher ups. Although this doesn’t happen much, Tiger’s Den will naturally compensate you. The meals will be on the house today.”
‘Ah, what happened? It's a good thing I didn’t tell them we were going to dine on the third floor,’ she consoled herself, however, she was quickly interrupted by a voice.
“Hahaha, would you look at that? Little Miss Zhao can’t even get a seat on the third floor and has to go dine with the commoners,” someone laughed loudly behind the group of 11.
Turning her head, she instantly realized this voice. It had been the same one that had been harassing her over the last two weeks, Lang Mei!
Lang Mei was from the Lang family who weren’t on good terms with the Zhao family. They both had countless disputes over the years and they would always try to take the other down a peg or two. She instantly knew what happened and realized that Lang Mei somehow got somebody to override her reservation.
“What are you going to do now girl. Without your brother and cousin here to babysit you like in the sect, I can do whatever I want!” Lang Mei exclaimed.
Originally, Zhao Xieren didn’t mind dining on the second floor but now, she was in a tight spot. Everyone had their own pride and she naturally couldn’t falter to Lang Mei especially as a leader in front of her team. It was a learning experience for her which she wanted to use to grow and meet the expectations and standards of someone from a noble background.
At that point, a loud voice full of confidence came from the stairs leading to the second floor. “Hahaha, Miss Lang, I don’t know about that one. I don’t think you can continue bullying my little sister.”