Chapter 59: 59: When Your Competitors Seem… Too Good

“His name is Wang Taigang,” Han Youhong explained to the now mystified Lin Songmei. “He’s the new golden boy of the Pavilion of Radiant Light... literally. He has a technique where his body transforms into a gold-like color.” 

Songmei... kinda wanted to meet this Wang Taigang now... 

She was just worried that he’d be arrogant... or maybe think too much with his lower body. 

“Is he a nice person?” Songmei asked, deciding to just ask some more questions as there wasn’t anything else interesting around. 

There were just a ton of rock walls. They could probably open a quarry with how many there were... 

Too bad they were all worthless rocks though... 

“He’s actually really nice,” Mingqing laughed, her gait light as she walked along hand in hand with Songmei. “At least, he treated me very well when we were younger. He’s a very bright and cheery person. Had a super bright smile and stuff. Though... I have heard he treats dudes differently. But uhh... didn’t have friends growing up really so uhh... yeah, not sure.” 

“Hmm...” Han Youhong tapped his chin, pensive as he pondered out loud, lychee jelly still entering his mouth like an industrial production line. “He treated me fine? The only time I got to interact with him was at the large parties hosted by famous families like Mingqing’s. His social status was honestly closer to Mingqing’s than mine. He came from a pretty famous line of Yin and Yang cultivators.” 

“I... see...” Songmei murmured, nodding along. 

This was interesting!! It was like listening to gossip! Well... it was gossip! And it was gossip about important people that she should know about! So it was a win-win!

“However, I don’t know if you felt this too,” Han Youhong turned towards Mingqing who tilted her head and replied with a questioning hum. “I kinda felt like he was a little... two-dimensional. He was too bright, you know? Dude smiled a little too much. So underneath all that Yang, under all that brightness and glory, he might be a different person...” 

Damn... this was deep. Songmei never noticed stuff like this... She was just like, can they talk to me? Are they nice people who don’t hate me? LET’S GO! BESTIES!

Maybe Han Youhong could be a psychiatrist...

Just as Songmei thought that though, Han Youhong followed it up with a “Or maybe I was just depressed and edgy during those times. I was kinda emo back then...” 

“R... really?” Mingqing questioned with an expression that really just seemed to say “bruh” before turning her attention back to keeping an eye on the monotonous walls. “I think I get where you’re coming from though. Like from a glance it's pretty easy to see where I'm motivated from and where my flaws are from and blah blah that type of stuff.” 

“I... hmm...” Han Youhong began, falling silent after raising a finger and thinking for a moment. “You know what, I feel like this isn’t really a place where I can comment... Songmei, do you have anything to say?” 

“No... not really.” Songmei shook her head. She wasn’t gonna say anything... 

Well, for one thing, she didn’t really have much to say, sure she knew what motivated and drove Mingqing, but there wasn’t a point in saying it out loud, anyone could tell after all. But for another thing... 

Mingqing was... Mingqing. They might be friends but they weren’t the friends who knew each other since birth! Mingqing was still pretty much cultivation royalty or cultivation high-aristocracy depending on one’s interpretation!

And Songmei was dirt on the ground in both the cultivation AND non-cultivation world...

“L-Let’s just move on...” Songmei broke the moment of silence, waving away the two sets of eyes that had settled onto her. “So we might run into both of your sect mates?” 

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“We might, yeah...” Han Youhong nodded with a shrug, eating a lychee jelly while having its wrapper disappear into his spatial storage ring. “We’re all under different masters. So we all decided to form our own teams.” 

“Sooo... they probably have teams then, yeah?” Mingqing chuckled, poking fun at Han Youhong who just glared back while eviscerating another jelly and all its future bloodlines. 

“Probably...” Han Youhong relented, looking around and scanning the... very gray, very boring rock walls that surrounded them. “‘Wants to marry a rich person’ girl probably has a party or at least another person around her. Someone she probably wants to latch onto. Yang boy also has a group too for sure. He’s sociable like that. I, on the other hand, was perfectly fine being alone, I was content. But I ended up running into you two, and you two are chill, so I stick around.” 

“Well, we’re honored,” Mingqing laughed, doing a flourishing bow. 

Nodding in agreement, Songmei gave a double-thumbs up and a smile to show her affirmation before the group fell into silence once more. 

It was really, really boring in the ravine. They just walked, and walked, and walked!

And there was barely a change in scenery! It was like... woah, the wall of the corner up there where we’ll have to make a left turn is kindaaaa closer! 

Woahhh.

So far too, they hadn’t seen any other groups either. Back in the forest and clearing, the three of them would run into groups every which while. But now? It was... silent. Their voices echoed through the ravine, their footsteps crunched against the dirt and rocks while also splashing the puddles. 

There was plant-life though, which was a big plus in Songmei’s book. She was one of those weirdos who could enjoy staring at nature all day. Kinda had to as that was her best entertainment growing up sometimes... 

In the cracks between rocks, Songmei could see some small ferns growing, some small bushes. 

She was pretty sure that’s what it was called... 

She never really had an interest in plants, in the libraries growing up, she always picked out books that were narrative... And sadly, no one wrote books about the amazing fern and how it overcame all its obstacles to defeat the big bad gardener.

Other than ferns and bushes, Songmei also saw a few mushrooms? She also swore a little ways back that she had seen one that had a little bit of natural luminescence, so that was interesting. Highlight of this ravine hike so far. 

This ravine wasn’t isolated though, it was connected to a number of others, all forming a web of cracks in the earth, aftermaths of the large fight that had taken place. In the center of this web was a massive crater, the main area they needed to investigate. 

Fancy stuff... 

To put it in other words though, they had been charged with getting to the center of a labyrinth of ravines to check out a potentially super duper ultra mega hazardous crater site... 

Not as fancy stuff... 

Shrugging her shoulders, Songmei squeezed Mingqing’s hand one more time. It was going to be fine, she was confident they’d be able to survive and escape if need be.