Chapter 28: 28: The Grave Mistake Of The Inner Disciples

Class had finished and Lin Songmei was sitting by the side of the training field, holding some ice against Yan Mingqing’s arm as Mingqing sat there, meditating. 

Well... Class had been done for a while. 

To give some... context though, after class finished and most of the disciples left, there was a small handful that stayed behind to continue practicing. There were the four direct disciples, Lu Qiang staying to help Cai Yufei, and a small group of inner disciples. 

Just earlier, during the lunch break and the walking over to the training field, Songmei had learned a little bit about the dynamics present in the inner disciples and... she kinda felt bad?

Obviously Mingqing wasn’t someone to ask, although Mingqing had a frightening ability to gather information and make connections, things like this weren’t really her expertise... Everyone would bow their heads and turn away the moment Mingqing began staring at them. 

After asking Lu Qiang and Cai Yufei though, Songmei had learned that a small hierarchy had formed within the inner disciples, a small group at the top. Yet, after classes had started, Songmei, being someone with eyes, noticed that there was some animosity between the direct disciples and this small group. 

She could understand it... it was like winning a war only to watch a third-party walk in and take over everything, and to make it worse, the third-party did it by accident!

In the end, Songmei didn’t care too much, she was just there to learn in the corner without disturbing anyone. Keeping this mentality, Songmei stayed in her own little area, practicing the technique even after class because... why not? 

She didn’t have anything to do anyway... 

Songmei heard that some inner disciples were going to go watch a movie but that just kinda... seemed like a waste of time... 

Absorbed in her own world, Songmei made quick progress, the technique itself wasn’t hard and the concepts had been explained by her master before. So, Songmei began the arduous process of learning. 

Sweat, exhaustion, pain. 

An hour had passed after class ended. There was still plenty of time before dinner but... Songmei needed a break, she had reached an acceptable level, but she wanted to practice more. Having a more solid foundation would only be helpful after all. 

Songmei also, from the bottom of her heart, didn’t want to disappoint Liu Xueli... Xueli had already given her so much; therefore, she’d do her best to make Xueli proud. 

Sipping some water though, in the midst of her break, Songmei had to put a pause on her plans for more practice as a confrontation broke out between Mingqing and the inner disciples. 

Rushing over, Songmei came to a stop at a distance, she didn’t want to intrude, but she couldn’t just stand there if Mingqing was going to get beat up. As the voices began to get more heated, Lu Qiang and Cai Yufei also came over, standing beside Songmei as they watched. 

Tapping her chin, Songmei couldn’t help but wonder... Why were the inner disciples so adamant?

It was a group of 5, and the gist of it was... training ground area. 

To sum it up, Mingqing didn’t have a specific area she had confined herself in, drifting around and practicing where she had felt like practicing. However, the inner disciples all had marked areas. Then, one of the disciples left her area to go ‘exchange pointers’ with another inner disciple and Mingqing had moved into it for a while before leaving, and that’s where the conflict began. 

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... It was so... so insignificant... 

This was like fighting about the location to put a garbage can... 

And so, a fight broke out, with the inner disciple who felt wronged challenging Mingqing to a duel. After thrashing the girl in a one-sided fight, Mingqing then got challenged by two others, thrashing them too before the disciples all left. 

That led to the current situation... where Lu Qiang and Cai Yufei went back to practicing, and Mingqing went to the side of the training field to sit down and meditate, using the circulation of Qi to quicken her natural healing process. 

Sitting there with her eyes open, Mingqing stared up at the ceiling, taking deep breaths. “Honestly, I really didn’t want to fight them...” 

“Yeah... I mean it did kind of backfire on them though.” Songmei murmured in response, holding the ice against Mingqing’s arm while Mingqing held some more ice packs against herself. “Nothing was broken, right?” 

“No, I’ll be fine, it’s not a big deal.” Mingqing shrugged, letting out a long exhale as she focused on letting her Qi heal her body. “It’s a pain though... My brother warned me that this would happen.” 

Shifting the ice she was holding, Songmei raised an eyebrow. “Not your parents?” 

“My parents told me it’d be a good test of character...” Mingqing shook her head, an edge of derision seeping into her voice. “Anyway, my brother mentioned this, that the inner disciples would be discontent with us... That girl really didn’t care about the training field thing. She was just looking for a reason to spark a fight. If she won, her prestige and fame would’ve gone through the roof.” 

Patting Mingqing’s shoulder with her other hand, Songmei let out a sigh of her own. “Yeah, Cai Yufei mentioned this to me earlier while the fights were going on... It seems troublesome though... I’m glad you won.”

“Of course,” Mingqing snorted, a small smile blossoming on her face, “I’m not going to lose to just anyone like that.” 

Freezing for a second as a pink tinge crept onto her cheeks, Songmei let out a small cough before nodding, agreeing with Mingqing. Mingqing was qualified to say that, after all, she had been raised to become a top-notch cultivator from birth.

That being said, Songmei wasn’t used to this! Unfair! Where was the extrovert who was grieving over their natural imposing ice queen facade, who laid around all day grinding a bricklaying game! Who replaced Mingqing with this confident, sly lady who wasn’t afraid of getting into a fight! 

Pushing those thoughts aside like how she pushed aside her wrist’s health, Songmei decided to change the topic. “The conflicts aren’t... totally necessary though. I feel like it wouldn’t be a good solution, but as a last resort, you could always just bring up your background. I don’t think anyone in our year has a background like yours...” 

“I mean there isn’t.” Mingqing laughed, pushing her dark-blue hair out of her face, “I don’t want to bring it up though. It’s troublesome, and it’d make things a lot worse if I lost after bringing up my background. And also... it’s just kinda scummy.” 

Putting the bag of ice aside and looking for another bag of ice, Songmei nodded, “That’s certainly true. Also... do you still need ice? It seems like it’s looking better. Though, I can totally get another if you’d like.” 

Mingqing fluttered her hand, shaking her head, “there’s no need. I’m healed up enough, I beat them all without much trouble, I’m fine. Want to practice some more together? Sorry for making you sit here and help me instead of letting you practice more.” 

With her hands on her legs, Songmei pushed herself up before offering a hand to Mingqing. “Sure, let’s practice together. It’s not a big deal, I was taking a break anyway.”