But Senior Sister, I've Already Reached Foundation Establishment

The flying boat floated above the clouds, flying steadily for a long time.

Because of the Flowing Light Sword Sect's rule that no one could leave the mountain gate before reaching Foundation Establishment, this was the first time many of the disciples had stepped outside the sect since joining. Naturally, they were unwilling to pass up such a fine opportunity. Even though they had all been assigned cabins, none of them would stay cooped up inside, choosing instead to linger on the deck and take in the scenery in the sky.

Sang Ying, however, was the exact opposite. No matter how wildly the others enjoyed themselves aboard the flying boat, she remained quietly in her cabin, meditating to stabilize her cultivation.

She was still weak, but whenever she thought of the formidable figures she would have to face in the future—the Beast God, the Demon Emperor, and others like them—she dared not slack off in the slightest.

Su Fuyun's Water Spirit Root was defective. Aside from the legendary Nüwa Spirit Soil, the only thing in the world that could make her Spirit Root whole was Sang Ying's own nearly full-value Ice Spirit Root.

Su Fuyun's cultivation was low for now, and the defect in her Spirit Root had yet to manifest. If she discovered the problem later, her admirers might well make a move against Sang Ying to win her favor.

Sang Ying knew full well that those people were far stronger than she was. She did not hope to defeat them; she only wished to be able to protect herself.

But in the eyes of others, her sense of urgency took on a different meaning.

Before Sang Ying could fully enter meditation, someone knocked on her door.

Sang Ying had not wanted to answer. Before she began meditating, she had hung a do-not-disturb sign on her door precisely because she did not want anyone bothering her. Yet someone had to be tactless enough to pound on her door without even looking at the sign.

"Junior Sister, Junior Sister Sang Ying, are you in there? Senior Sister Chen Xiu and the others agreed to go take a look around the flying boat with me. Would you like to come along?" Su Fuyun's voice came from outside the door, soft and pleasant enough that it was hard to dislike her.

Yet that very voice forcibly roused Sang Ying from her meditation, and the sliver of insight she had struggled to grasp vanished in an instant.

Because of her father, Sang Zheng, Sang Ying had been taught from childhood to be tolerant and upright. Though she was not the sort to repay resentment with kindness, neither did she easily lose her temper with others.

Even after learning that she was a character in a book and would ultimately meet a miserable end, Sang Ying still disliked Immortal Venerable Yanchen and the others more than she disliked Su Fuyun.

But now she had to admit that perhaps she and Su Fuyun were simply born at odds. Just as now, hearing Su Fuyun's voice, she felt an inexplicable surge of dislike.

Su Fuyun was still knocking, but one of the female cultivators accompanying her could not help advising, "Forget it, Junior Sister Fuyun. I doubt Junior Sister Sang Ying wants to go with us."

The voice sounded rather like Chen Xiu's, the woman who had mocked Sang Ying earlier, and Sang Ying soon recognized her.

Hearing this, Su Fuyun explained from outside the door in her gentle voice, "Senior Sisters, please don't misunderstand. My junior sister is just a little cold by nature; she isn't deliberately refusing to come."

Sang Ying was no fool. She could hear the implication in Su Fuyun's words. Over the years, she had suffered more than a few times because of the other woman's specious explanations. But Sang Ying had long since prepared herself to keep her distance from these people, so their misunderstanding did not upset her.

Now, though, it seemed that her indifference and concessions had led Su Fuyun to think she was easy to bully.

"Oh, come on, Junior Sister Fuyun. You don't need to apologize for her. She's an elder's daughter, after all. She even managed to force Immortal Venerable Yanchen to take her as a disciple. It's only natural that she wouldn't want to associate with ordinary disciples like us." Chen Xiu's words remained barbed.

She was about to say a few more unpleasant things to express her dissatisfaction with second-generation cultivators like Sang Ying when the door in front of them was suddenly pulled open.

A delicate, ethereal face appeared before them, accompanied by Sang Ying's cool, firm voice. "It was wrong of me to make you senior sisters come and call me yourselves. But I thought at least one of you would have seen the do-not-disturb sign I hung on the door."

Following the direction of Sang Ying's finger, they saw the vermilion do-not-disturb sign hanging openly on the door. It was so conspicuous that even someone trying to ignore it would have found it difficult.

Chen Xiu had no choice but to swallow her indignation, while the female cultivators who had followed Su Fuyun there could not help feeling a little awkward.

In the end, it was the pink-robed female cultivator who had backed Chen Xiu up earlier who stepped forward to smooth things over. "Look at us. We didn't even notice that Junior Sister Sang Ying was cultivating."

She cupped her hands toward Sang Ying. "My name is Jiang Yan, and I'm a disciple of Falling Bamboo Peak. I thought this was probably your first time leaving the mountain gate, Junior Sister, so I wanted to invite you to the deck to see the scenery outside. I didn't expect it to cause such a misunderstanding. I hope we didn't disturb your cultivation?"

With Jiang Yan humbling herself so much, Sang Ying naturally could not refuse to give her face. She immediately replied, "It's all right. My meditation was merely interrupted. It's nothing serious."

Everyone was struck speechless again. Cultivators especially dreaded being disturbed while cultivating. Never mind having their meditation interrupted-even being called away just as they sat down to meditate would be enough to annoy them for a long time.

Seeing that Sang Ying could still speak to them so calmly, the female cultivators had to praise her for her "good temper."

"I'm sorry, Junior Sister. I didn't mean to disturb your cultivation." Su Fuyun's eyes reddened again. Though she was not as beautiful as Sang Ying, she was winsome and charming, and people could not help feeling sorry for her.

Had it been Immortal Venerable Yanchen or Zhou Heng'an, the two would probably have comforted her gently before she could even shed a tear. But everyone around her now was a female cultivator. No matter how pitifully Su Fuyun cried, they could not bring themselves to feel sorry for her.

Instead, her frail, pitiful appearance stirred a faint impatience in Jiang Yan.

When Sang Ying did not respond, Su Fuyun spoke again. "But really, Junior Sister, you don't need to be in such a hurry. Even though you're entering a Foundation Establishment Realm secret realm without having reached Foundation Establishment, the senior brothers and sisters will protect you. So you don't need to push yourself so hard to cultivate. Didn't Master say that on the path of cultivation, we shouldn't be impatient for quick results and immediate gains? We should proceed slowly."

Finally, she gave Sang Ying a reassuring smile, like a gentle senior sister who had worried herself sick over her willful junior sister.

But what Su Fuyun did not know was that the moment she spoke, the expressions of the female cultivators behind her changed.

Chen Xiu in particular did not know whether she should remind Su Fuyun that Sang Ying had long since reached Foundation Establishment.

Sang Ying sighed. "You're right, Senior Sister."

The earnest way she listened to the lesson made her much more pleasing to Su Fuyun's eyes. But before Su Fuyun could put on the airs of a senior sister and lecture her again, Sang Ying cut her off:

"But Senior Sister, perhaps you didn't know. I've already reached Foundation Establishment."