Ming Yue continued to fight the swords, she didn’t know how much time passed nor did she care. It was an unending battle, the blades constantly met each other at every point. They weaved around as if they were water, flowing and flexible. Suddenly she felt hand resting on her shoulder and she stopped. The two swords had also stopped and merged together as one before going back and floating at its original spot.

“Its time for you to rest, you’ve been fighting for several hours now,” said Meng Zhao, “Look, its almost night. You should go back and take this time to examine what you’ve gained.”

Now that she thought about it, Ming Yue could barely move around and suddenly collapsed from exhaustion. She was in a state of extreme concentration for several hours, it was more stress than her body could handle. Meng Zhao saw this and picked her up, carrying her back to his office and letting her rest on a futon. When she came to, he helped her up and gave her some tea. The tea was light blue and suffused a sweet smell. Ming Yue drank it and felt a refreshing feeling course through her body. The tea has some recovery effects and she felt much better. Meng Zhao waited for her to recover before asking her something.

“You know, there is going to be a competition half a year from now at the Capital, Five Element City. It’s called the Youth Dragon Tournament, Anyone under 20 can enter and there was no limit to cultivation level. If you want to look for the Splitting Moon Blade, there is a chance it is there,” he said.

Her face lit up, when she obtained Parting Sun, she made finding its sister blade one of her objectives. She wasn’t sure where to search and only looked randomly. However, now she had a lead to go on. After resting and conversing with Meng Zhao, she left his office and went back to the inn.

“The next time, we meet, just call me Grandpa Meng”, he said, smiling and waving goodbye.

Ming Yue thanked him and left. As for Meng Zhao, he went back to his desk and looked at a small plant with a soft expression. It was a purple flower given to him by Ming Yue’s father as a farewell gift from when he decided to live in a village. It was supposedly good for relaxation. After, Meng Zhao had been healed by him, they quickly became extremely good friends going on the same missions. In fact, Meng Zhao was the first person he went to tell him about his wife giving birth. He was also among the first to hold Ming Yue as a newborn baby. He sighed and went back to his work, reading through paperwork, etc. The next several days were quite peaceful.

After Ming Yue recovered from her first experience with the training room, she continued to challenge it and only stopped when she could no longer fight. Every time this happened, Meng Zhao would take her away to rest and talk to her about cultivation. On one such occasion, they talked about how Ming Yue had been cultivating for the last year or so.

“The way you are cultivating isn’t the best. In fact, it is quite dangerous. Yet, it is not as uncommon as you may think. Cultivation manuals set down a path for people. They have been perfected to suit the populace but in the end, they are not perfect for each individual, only suitable. Many people knew this and wanted to forge their own path rather than taking one that has already been made. They start by circulating their inner force all throughout their body, finding ways to improve it. To make it unique only to them. But by doing so, they risked destroying their body, those who fail are either crippled or dead”, he said.

“Let me examine your body. I need to see the state of it and whether or not it is in a dangerous condition.”

He put his hand on Ming Yue’s back, sending in his force. After several minutes, there was a surprised look on his face.

“Your body isn’t in as bad as a situation as I had thought. You must have been going about it quite carefully”

That was an understatement. When she first began, Ming Yue was extremely cautious with this. Even the slightest pain made her withdraw her energy and direct it somewhere else. Its been almost a year since then and she knew that it wasn’t perfect yet but it was at least complete. She could circulate her energy throughout her entire body but there was still pain in parts of her body.

Then Meng Zhao said, “Let me help you quicken the process.”

He sent in more of his energy and helped her polish her cultivation method. His energy guided hers throughout her body while nourishing and healing the meridians. Her body went though multiple cycles until she reached the peak of the 4th Human Realm. Her cultivation efficiency had also increased by 20%.

“Thank you, Grandpa Meng!” she said with a small smile.

These past several days had allowed them to get closer. There was a sense of kinship between the two. After all, he was friends with her father and he had helped her immensely. She left after today’s session and Meng Zhao went back to his desk in a happy mood. However that did not last long.

A messenger soon came in bearing grim news.

“A rank 5 monster is causing chaos in Death Wind Mountain. Due to the continuous destruction, a monster horde is forming and the closest city to it is Luan City. Based on early reports, If we don’t do something, the city will be destroyed!”

Meng Zhao’s face turned serious and immediately made orders.

“Send this out to all of the other Pavilions. This is a defense mission, the reward will 1000 contribution points along with whatever they harvest from the monster corpses!”

“Yes sir!”

The messenger left and prepared send out the orders.

Ming Yue had already left and walked back to her inn. She decided to have a quick bite and went into a restaurant, ordering some simple dishes. Suddenly, some people rushed in and started talking to the other customers.

“Did you hear? Luan City is in danger because of a monster horde. The Jade Dragon Pavilion had already created a mission. The rewards are quite nice and I hear that the monster leading this horde is a rank 5.”

“Hm”, she thought, “Luan City is in danger!?”