What Makes You Think It’s Okay to Fight in Someone Else’s Restaurant?

Fortunately, Maryam's explosion had happened during the day, so she shouldn't have woken up any sleeping guests. The furniture had been moved a little, but nothing was broken. Feeling mildly embarrassed, she headed downstairs.

She did hope the management would make something up to cover for her if anyone asked about the noise.

A balance had been reached between the blood and the soul energy within Maryam's body. It wasn't perfect—her blood energy was still not as strong as her soul—but absorbing yang energy from meat no longer was efficient. It would soon be time for her to go to the sect to obtain better resources and raise her boundary further.

She had quite enjoyed the past few weeks at the inn and was a little reluctant to leave. She had even gotten close with the barkeep. His name was Jacob, and he was the one she went to directly for her supply of meat. He was an attractive, well-put together young man, who ran things in an orderly fashion. Other than the fact that he wore a pair of bracelets similar to Autumn's, he looked a bit like a clerk. Pleasant, but not memorable.

Now, she was standing at the bar, talking with him.

"I should probably be leaving soon," she told him.

By now, Autumn would have relocated the trading spots to minimize the potential damage Maryam could do by leaving and reporting them to the authorities. Of course, Maryam still could compromise the inn, but she suspected there were extensive evacuation plans. Besides, Autumn was trusting her a little; that much was clear.

"The bar will be emptier without you," said Jacob.

It was midway through the holiday Godsweek, and Maryam decided to stay for the rest of it and leave at the end. Most of the inns in town were packed, and business was booming.

The Drunk Deer wasn't the most upscale inn in town, but it wasn't too run-down and had plenty of customers. One of them was a boy who looked around 14. Maryam could tell he had his cultivation forcefully supressed down to the Channel Creation stage. His true strength should be higher.

Another, walking in the door, was a girl who looked around the same age, with similar strength.

"Table for one," she said.

"I'm sorry," said Jacob, "But as you can see, the restaurant is full."

The girl looked very displeased.

She started to say, "Do you know who I am?" but cut herself off halfway, and instead merely stated, "I'll free up some room."

Then, she marched over to the boy's table and sneered.

"Trash like you shouldn't waste the air. Get out of my sight."

The boy seemed to recognize her, and smirked.

"If I am trash, then you are a landfill! I never asked you to bark at me, you pathetic b*tch. My dignity is the only thing that stops me from p*ssing in your face! You think you can push people around just because you have a good father? Coward."

He spat on the ground.

"You dung-eating apricot of the abyss!"

The girl was outraged, and with that infuriated battle-cry, she struck at the boy's face with her palm. There was an eardrum-rending screech as her strike crashed through the air, and it landed with a huge noise. Ripples of sonic energy buffeted the boy, destroying the table and the wall behind him.

However, by the time the strike landed, the boy was gone.

"I defecate in your coffee," he replied, continuing to smirk, bolts of lightning twisting around his arms.

He charged at her, and then his head slammed into another object.

Maryam held the two unruly cultivators by the backs of their necks and slammed their heads together again.

Then, she carried them outside and threw them on the ground.

"What the hell do you think you're doing in someone else's restaurant?"

The two stared at her, dumbfounded.

"Do you have any idea how much damage you caused? Personally, I don't, but it looks quite substantial. What part of this place looks like an arena to you? Is it the tables?"

The two continued to stare in silence.

"Names!" she barked.

"I-I'm Intina, ma'am," stuttered the girl.

"Olecter, ma'am," said the boy.

"Alright, Intina, Olecter. Jacob, do you want to explain to these two what they've done?"

Jacob listed the charges. A few tables had been crushed by Intina's sonic strike, and Olecter's lightning had left burn marks in several locations. Extensive property damage, interfering with business, endangering customers—if taken to the police, the two would probably go to jail. He pulled out a calculator and began entering numbers.

"However, if you two agree to work here for two months, I'll consider us square," said Jacob.

Intina and Olecter agreed, seemingly somewhat stupefied at the prospect that jail and money would ever be issues that concerned them. Chagrined, they followed Jacob inside.

As Intina passed Maryam, she muttered, "If we were at our actual strengths, you'd be done for."

"If."

Maryam smiled slightly. Immature children like these would not awaken her anger or killing intent. And if she were at the height of her power, they could have become dust at her will.

Maryam's thoughts began to drift. Autumn had not come to visit the inn since the beginning of Godsweek. After the arrival of Intina and Olecter, two more days passed without her visiting.

After an initially rocky start wherein Intina and Olecter extended their mandatory service time by scuffling with each other and damaging plates, the two of them quickly proved themselves to be fast studies. They were an excellent help in the kitchen, and the inn ran more smoothly with their assistance.

Finally, on the last day of Godsweek, Autumn arrived.

"I was worried I wouldn't get the chance to say goodbye to you," Maryam told her over a cup of tea.

Autumn looked at her silently for a moment.

"I hear you are going to join the sect?" she asked.

"Yes. I leave tomorrow."

"You don't mind belonging to someone else?"

"I have my ways to handle it."

Autumn started, "If we meet again…"

"I hope we meet again," said Maryam, "and I feel pretty confident that we will."

"Will we be enemies?"

"I'm not an enemy you want to have," said Maryam, and then she added "And neither, I suspect, are you. But rest assured, I don't betray my friends."

"Is that what we are?"

"Of course. Although, if you want to be something more…" Maryam winked.

Autumn sighed into her cup. Maryam noticed absentmindedly that she now had a ring, made of the same metal as her bracelet, wrapped tightly around her index finger.

"Good luck."

And then she was gone.

Maryam looked at Autumn's now-empty cup of tea and lamented. It was really such a shame that a beauty like Autumn was so cold. Although, she mused, maybe she found the unattainable more attractive? It was a shame, regardless.

The next day, she headed out to register at the sect.

Sect registrations were typically handled at a country's capital city. Greendeer village, the place where she had been staying, was several hundred miles away from the capital. Maryam decided to take a train.

There had been no trains when Maryam was originally alive. Impressed by their size and speed, she found herself wondering how such things ran without a powerful cultivator to drive them.

She found a stewardess and asked her.

"I believe it's powered by flame elementals," the stewardess told her, "They heat water into steam, and the pressure is used to push rods. The rods are arranged in such a way that this makes the wheels turn."

Maryam thanked her.

She marveled again at the ingenuity of mortals and wondered if the lights that lined the streets and hung in houses operated the same way. And Jacob's calculator was also incredible. Nothing these devices did couldn't be done by an immortal with sufficiently advanced power or the right specialty, but the fact that they could be operated by people without a trace of cultivation seemed to her like magic. It was a beautiful magic of a sort she had never encountered before.

Compared to engravings and formation arrays, it wasn't as delicate and complex. But Maryam was never a huge fan of extraneous detail. Certainly, it was very impressive. When it came down to her own decisions, however, she preferred to use what was needed and nothing more.

When Maryam arrived at the sect recruitment headquarters, they took her to a measuring room immediately. While people who reached the peak of the Channel Creation stage and were planning on entering the Core Creation stage were required to register immediately before breaking through, the initial aptitude test to rank disciples only happened once a month.

To give time for people who had been celebrating Godsweek to arrive, it would be held in two days. In the meantime, the recruitment elder gave Maryam a temporary identification token and left his brand on her soul. Brands were created from spiritual energy, and once one was taken into one's soul, unless the owner willed it, it would be difficult to remove without causing major injury.

The owner of the brand could cause extreme pain to the bearer with a thought, although it was rarely used. It also allowed the owner to track the bearer wherever they went. The sect liked to pretend it was for the safety of the disciples, but essentially it was a form of insurance to ensure the sect members did not defy their superiors.

Maryam, however, walked around with a body that was constantly tearing itself apart due to the conflicting energies within—without even batting an eyelid at the agony. She was the child of destiny; her will was stronger than gods. She had already isolated the elder's energy brand to avoid it contaminating the rest of her soul, and if he decided to cause her pain…

Well, no matter how much it hurt, it wouldn't stop her from doing what she wanted. Of course, if he did that, she'd kill him afterwards. She didn't *enjoy* pain. Not that sort of pain, at any rate.

There was no need for Autumn to worry about Maryam's freedom.