Female Anatomy Triforce

Sipping some hot tea, bought from a new company she discovered called the Leaves of Dawn, Lin Songmei looked out onto the familiar cobblestone courtyard. Even though it was close to summer, it was a windy morning with a touch of chill. Unlike a year ago, the courtyard was now close to deserted.

About a month prior, as tensions within the city heated up a little, the supplies outside of food given by the esteemed beasts had eased to a stop. Considering her master Liu Xueli still swung by the city every few weeks, Songmei, for some reason, had an inkling of a feeling Xueli was involved.

After all, over the course of the year, with a slow investigation, a huge number of city officials had been rooted out and lost their positions. Songmei had no idea how many, but she felt like it was a lot. Every few weeks a new BREAKING NEWS article would pop up, with posters and billboards across the city talking about how some person she had never seen before had colluded with some demons she had... also, never seen before.

Now, the courtyard had been repurposed under Wrath's name. Now it was the morning meeting spot for the most important mission Wrath would hand out. Now, it was the command center where Wrath handed out battlefield assignments.

Very fancy.

Songmei and the others had only recently been able to take on the missions. Yan Mingqing had been the first to open her seventh extraordinary meridian. Following another couple of weeks, which was only a few days ago, Songmei had opened her seventh.

Han Youhong, Wang Taigang, and Zhao Liying, on the other hand, hadn't opened their seventh yet though.

It wasn't a big deal, their party as a whole had fluctuated, with some members getting stuck at some realms while others didn't.

Songmei, herself, had gotten mega-stuck at her second extraordinary meridian, and fourteenth meridian overall. So stuck that everyone else had opened their thirteenth before she did. Then Youhong got stuck, then Mingqing, and so on and so forth.

Getting pulled out of her thoughts, Songmei looked up as Mingqing walked back over, the steam of hot tea wisping out the top of her own thermos. "Your ponytail is a mess... want me to tie it?"

"Ah? Hah? Wait wha?" Songmei swung her head around, trying to get a look before realizing the futility of her actions. "What's wrong?"

"You left half your hair down," Mingqing raised an eyebrow. "Let me do it, just hold my tea for me."

"Alright," Songmei accepted with a gracious nod, taking a sip of Mingqing's tea as she handed it over. "Sorry, just taking my payment."

"... Why am I paying you to do your hair...?" Mingqing snorted with a laugh. "And I have the exact same tea as you too..."

"Don't worry about it," Songmei smiled, tapping the water bottles together like a fake toast. "Anyway, what were you talking about with the others?"

"They were just talking about how you, well, both of us, cultivate at demon speed. And asked what our secret was." Mingqing explained, shrugging as she pulled Songmei's hair up into a high ponytail. "Your hair is so nice as always..."

"Have you touched your own hair? It's nicer," Songmei raised an eyebrow, taking another sip from Mingqing's thermos. "Also, I don't think they're that far behind us... We'll probably all end up getting out of Westriver around the same time."

"Yeah, that's what I said, they kept asking for a secret though." Mingqing agreed with a sigh, hugging Songmei from behind now she had finished tying her hair. In a nice position, Mingqing grinned as an idea came to her.

Leaning into Songmei's ear, Mingqing squeezed her from behind before whispering, "I told them it was because of love."

Spinning and almost slamming her head into Mingqing's, Songmei let out a stream of stammers as a classic pink tinge crept onto her face. "Did... did you have to do that?"

"Nope~ I wanted to though," Mingqing sang with a laugh as Youhong, Taigang, and Liying walked over with unimpressed faces.

"I see you flirts are back at it again," Liying groaned, tapping her foot against the ground as she leaned against the wall.

"It's not my fault you're single," Mingqing retorted as Taigang, Youhong, and Songmei began laughing.

"Ah... yeah... why are we so single Taigang?" Liying murmured, leaning her head against Taigang's shoulder as she watched Mingqing take her tea back. "Cover my eyes Taigang, I can't do this!"

Laughing, Youhong covered Liying's eyes as Mingqing gave Songmei a peck on the cheek with a tease. "Sorry, just taking my payment."

"I'm the oldest one here by a year, how am I so single Taigang?" Liying sighed, taking a lychee jelly from Youhong's outstretched hand. "Why are you gay and why is Youhong so... just... generally uninterested in romance?"

"Well, that's just how it is," Taigang comforted, electing to not remind Liying about how he had collected more numbers than her—or about how Youhong was somehow averaging at least one person's number per excursion outside.

"I don't know, sucks to be you," Youhong grinned, popping a lychee jelly into his mouth. "A girl gave me her number earlier this morning. It's not my fault you got no game. Just be like me, I get a number every time I leave my apartment."

"Ahhhh, it's just the heavens, they cursed me!" Liying lamented, shaking her head as she pushed herself back upright. "Why can't they donate all the numbers Youhong gets to me! It's not like he needs them!"

"Yeah... I can't help you with that," Youhong shook his head, motioning for the two lovebirds to walk over. "So ignoring your, suspicious at best, cultivation secret, Mingqing, I also just wanted to ask what's the plan today? Are we willing to exert ourselves?"

"Sure."

"Sounds good."

"I don't care"

"If you say so, lychee jelly addict."

Glaring at Liying for her last comment, Youhong shook his head. "Let me finish. Don't just agree blindly, this is how we all got stabbed."

"No, I'm pretty sure we all got stabbed because we didn't pay attention," Mingqing interjected, feeding off of the laughter in the group already. "We're actually paying a lot of attention right now."

"Yeah!" Songmei smiled, flashing two peace signs, "It takes a lot of effort to find the perfect interjection point!"

"Just... listen." Youhong groaned.

Opening his mouth to continue, Youhong was cut off by Taigang as he gave Youhong's shoulder a few pats. "You're fighting a losing battle. You're not going to win against the u... triforce."

"You're not helping..." Youhong sighed before asking, "Also, since when have you been afraid of saying uterus?"

"Dude, because we're in public. The u... triforce is just a game night thing," Taigang defended himself, trying to shush Youhong.

"ANYWAY," Youhong facepalmed, unwilling to take the conversation further. "Stop distracting me. I overheard from a Wrath like... I don't know, one of those people under Wrath, that the Mayor's coming today with her. So if we take a bigger assignment, we'll probably get better rewards because the mayor's probably adding his own to the pool as well."

"Ohhh!"

"I see..."

"Actually making sense for once..."

"So you do have a brain in that head of yours..."

"OH SHUT UP!"