Night

Sunday, night.

Zhang Wuji walked along the streets of the White Serenity City and smiled thinking back to the days events. He had gotten the results and he had successfully become an alchemy apprentice. So he decided to give a party to all his friends. Li Xiaomei didn't quite like the venue he had decided and had brought all of them to the best restaurant in the city the Mi's. They had chains all over the country and beyond. Originating from the Golden Sun Empire they serve the best food in the industry. Their ingredients are enough to blow one's mind away. Their best dishes were made from tier 3 ingredients. One must know tier 3 is equivalent to core formation realm. Although cheaper dishes were available, they were not something Zhang Wuji was willing to spend on. Finally Li Xiaomei paid for the whole thing.

Zhang Wuji promised to pay her back, but who knows how long it would take. They spent 120 gold in total for a 9 person meal. That is more than six times of what he had in total. They spent more than a hundred gold on a single item made of a grade two fish. That amount is enough to buy two bottles of thirty low quality grade two qi recovery pills. He thought it to be a waste to spend all that on a meal but couldn't say no to her. And moreover she was the one paying for the meal.

The fish was wasted on six body refinement realm cultivators and two mortals. Only Shan Daoling and Zhai Qingshuang could enjoy the benefits of such an extravagant meal. After the meal, Shan Daoling went back to the sect and Li Xiaomei, Zhai Qingshuang, Pan Mu, Man Tong, Man Xin went to practice as the latter three were lagging behind. Lin Yingjie took Wan Lin to Myriad Fragrance Pavilion. Zhang Wuji sponsored for the two of them. He still had his doubts so didn't join them and wasn't in the mood to practice so decided to take a stroll and enjoy the night city brilliance.

The streets were bustling and brightly lit even at this hour. It was around ten and he had two more hours before the sect gates will be closed. Despite the chaos on the streets, his mind was filled with calm and peace. His training with the help of Wan Lin was going at a good pace, he didn't know if it was an illusion or truth but he felt his cultivation improve everyday. Though he didn't get to test it, he was quite confident in his martial arts. Then there's his recent success with alchemy. Overall life was going good.

He fel like he had achieved the goal he had set for himself, and even if he hadn't, he was close. His laziness, weakness in mind, daydreaming, all had been dealt with by the busy life his commitment to change had brought him. He didn't even have the time to think of others' opinion of him. He was really grateful to Wan Lin and Li Xiaomei without whom he knew this wouldn't have been possible. Without their help he would've long given up with his weak mind.

Thinking of the anger diary which he had not touched for a while now, he smiled. 'I might not need the diary again.' His smile grew wider. He looked at the sky, savoring the joy of contentment.

After a while of strolling, he felt it was time to go back. Although he and Wan Lin had decided to cultivate in the evening instead of the usual morning timings, he didn't want to spoil his schedule. If he were to sleep late, he'll get up late and everything else would also be delayed. He didn't want that. Classes, his new apprenticeship and other things had fixed timings, so the delay will inevitably cause him to skip some things. So he changed his direction intending to leave the city.

By now he was very familiar with the city so he didn't have to stick to the main road which greatly shortened the distance to his destination. While walking on one of such inner streets, he heard a miserable scream from a turning so he walked over and peeked. If the problem was within his capabilities, he would definitely help. What he saw stunned him to the core.

A lone female outer disciple of the sect was surrounded by five male, one of which Zhang Wuji remembered as someone in the top fifty that participated in the outer sect competition. Two of them were already fallen on the ground, probably unconscious. The other three were engaged in a losing fight with the female disciple. Soon the three including the one that had participated in the competition were defeated. The woman said something and left. Zhang Wuji did not register what she said. There was a violent storm going on in his mind.

As soon as he saw her, he knew she was the one he saw the other day under the moon. That day he hadn't clearly seen her face so he never tried to search for her. He thought she was some high realm cultivator following some kind of method that brought about a calming effect in the surroundings which was what influenced him. So he didn't even have any thoughts to approach her if he ever came across her.

But today, for some reason, he just knew this woman in front of him was her. She wasn't some unapproachable high realm cultivator, she was just an outer sect disciple. He instantly got excited for some reason. Happy, relieved. She was beautiful. Her face reminded him of the image which had pulled him out of the abyss, helped him move forward. She wasn't wearing white today, there was no moon to illuminate her graceful figure, but, she was still perfect.

He involuntarily took a step forward, intending to help her out, when a body fell before him with a thud. He looked at it. It was one of the three standing men. His face was bloodied. Bone was sticking out his left cheek. He hovered his hand above it and shrieked, not daring to touch it. He probably wanted to stop the bleeding or maybe put the bone back in but didn't dare to. His shriek brought Zhang Wuji back to reality.

'Right. That fellow participated in the tournament. He's in the seventh level atleast. His companions don't seem to be bad either, some of them might be in the late stage even. Yet she is able to thrash them with not a single injury on them. What level is she in?

No, she must be sixteen or seventeen, I don't think I saw her in the tournament, maybe she just reached level seven. She must have good combat experience. I just started cultivating seriously, I'll catch up to her. I'm even an alchemy apprentice.'

He looked on as the remaining two were defeated easily. He stood there and watched her leave. The five eventually helped each other up and left silently. Some of them looked at Zhang Wuji venomously but didn't take any action. Zhang Wuji registered none of that and continued to stand there. He stood there for a long time before his mind slowed enough for him to come back to his senses.

'Right, she's like a goddess. How can I.. I don't deserve her.' He swallowed hard and turned to leave.'

'What was I even thinking? I just got into apprenticeship at seventeen. In three years I will have to become a grade one alchemist. Who am I kidding? If alchemy were so easy, everyone would be doing that.'

'And I just started cultivating properly, how could I possibly catch up to her? Heh, I guess I lost my mind too.'

'Since I'm going to be kicked out anyway, why work so..'

'Shit! I gotta control myself! I gotta stop thinking about this. I have work to do tomorrow. Tomorrow will be my first day as an alchemist apprentice. If I am assigned to work under Teacher Li, with her help it is possible for me to reach grade one within the next three years.'

'Teacher Li is a genius but she still took two years to reach grade one how can I... no, she took two years to reach seventh level, a prerequisite to grade one. Otherwise she would've reached grade one much earlier. Right! I still have a chance. I gotta get these depressing thoughts out of my mind.'

Zhang Wuji started running back full speed not allowing any space for his thoughts. But how long can one run from one's own thoughts?

Zhang Wuji woke up late, still sleepy. Thankfully he had planned to cultivate in the evening. Still his martial arts training time was gobbled up. He was irritated. His thoughts haunted him late into the night. He didn't get enough sleep. He freshened up and went to the mess to eat something before going to the classes.

The mess was opened three times in the day, morning, evening and night. Zhang Wuji started eating in the morning after he started his training with Wan Lin. Before that he used to directly eat in the evening after cultivation and classes as he anyway had some soup to drink early in the morning. This is what old Zhang Wuji did so he had continued with that routine even though he felt the ten hour gap between the two meals to be too much. Now that he woke up much earlier to train with Wan Lin, he had ample time to eat before going to classes.

The mess was a huge building. It had a serving counter to one side and wooden tables and chairs covering the whole building. The two metre long, one metre wide tables were placed two metres apart from each other. The chairs were placed on the longer sides of the tables. After the placement of the chairs, the distance between the long sides of the tables was enough only for two people to walk comfortably. Each table held six chairs and the square room was designed to hold 600 people in total.

He took a plate, got his food served at the counter and took a seat adjacent to a window. His was the third table from the counter. This is where he sat everyday. The mess was open for two and a half hours in the morning, he never saw any rush in the mess.

He sat down and ate laboriously. He didn't feel any taste. He was thinking back to the day before's events. Thinking back to how he ruined his schedule for nothing. Thinking about how he was almost on the verge of wasting his six months' efforts. He wanted to stop this dangerous flow of thoughts. But he didn't know how. Maybe some things are best left to time. Myriad thoughts were running in his mind, but mostly he was thinking of the lady, and how he was inadequate.

At this time, a group of seven entered the building.