Pianzi.

Yao Jun opened his eyes in the morning, ending his nightly meditation session. It had already been two weeks since the inner disciple tournament ended, so all the disciples that didn't become inner disciples had already returned to doing chores. Despite this, Yao Jun had still not managed to meet with Yao Pianzi or the others again, but he comforted himself with the thought that they were probably busy with being introduced to the inner disciple area.

Standing up from the bed and stretching his body, Yao Jun heard a pleasant popping sound from his joints. After two more weeks of meditating, he had managed to enter the early stages of the 4th level and was pleasantly surprised to see that reaching the fourth level had given his body a small boost in toughness and strength.

Yao Jun quickly washed himself before slipping into a new green robe and leaving the house. He did not manage to meet with Yao Pianzi and the others, but he still had his chores to take care of. The only difference was that he was now the only one taking care of the medicine garden, instantly nearly tripling his workload. He had already talked about it with the external elder that was in charge of the medicine garden, and she had promised him that they would send over more people, but so far there was no one.

Yao Jun slowly wandered through town, since he was now the only one taking care of the medicine garden most of his time was spent there, giving him little time to do anything but sleep and work. Due to this, he would always walk through town very slowly as he was headed towards the medicine garden, enjoying the peaceful walk.

As he was nearing the town entrance, he spotted a small group of people entering the town. Seeing these people, Yao Jun was pleasantly surprised. The group was exactly Yao Pianzi and the others. Yao Jun put on a smile and made his way towards the group.

"Good morning Big sis Zi, Senior Brother Mu, Senior Sisters Wei and Zhu. I never did get to congratulate you on successfully becoming inner disciples. Congratulations!" Yao Jun spoke with a smile as he cupped his hands at the group.

"Ah? Junior Brother Jun? What are you doing here?" Yao Zhu seemed rather confused at seeing Yao Jun.

"Did you not tell him Senior Sister Pianzi?" Yao Wei looked towards Yao Pianzi while raising one of her eyebrows.

"Tell me what?" Hearing their exchange and seeing how dismissive Yao Mu was, Yao Jun felt slightly uneasy but even more confused.

"Ahaha, yeah I didn't really bother to tell him, I just stopped thinking about it after the tournament." Yao Pianzi spoke with a small laugh and shot a slightly apologetic look in Yao Wei's direction before turning towards Yao Jun.

"Listen, Junior Brother Jun, you should stop meeting with us." Yao Pianzi still held the same smile as she spoke to Yao Jun, but her words hit Yao Jun like a punch, only increasing his unease.

"....What?" After being dazed for a bit, Yao Jun managed to spit out the word, but after thinking about how they interacted in the past, he managed to draw some conclusions.

"Listen, I know we may have been a bit close earlier, but that was only so that we could get more time to cultivate. If we didn't get that time to cultivate in the medicine garden, there was no way we could have managed to become inner disciples."

"But if we simply spent all our time cultivating in the medicine garden, people would be suspicious when we never came back with any herbs, so we all agreed that we needed someone to harvest the herbs for us."

"And then I was told that we were getting a new disciple in the harvesting group, it was the perfect chance. You got to have some friends for a while, and we got to get in more cultivation time, it was a win-win situation."

Yao Pianzi still wore that cheerful smile, but the others in the group had already looked away from Yao Jun, no longer paying attention to him. Yao Jun himself had a rather ugly face. His face was completely pale and he looked lost, like an abandoned puppy. He had made some conclusions upon seeing Yao Mu be so dismissive, but he found that actually hearing it was much worse.

"So it was all just a lie? A little game you played to get what you wanted?" Yao Jun spoke in a slightly hoarse voice as he swept his gaze across the group. Yao Pianzi still looked cheerful and Yao Mu still looked dismissive. The Wei and Zhu twins were the only ones who looked slightly apologetic, but even that faded quickly.

"Not everything was a lie, the food really was good, that wasn't a lie. And you shouldn't say it so harshly, look at it as a business transaction. You got some friends for a while and we got to cultivate as I said, it was win-win."

Yao Pianzi seemed slightly annoyed at how Yao Jun phrased it, so she corrected him, but she didn't expect him to burst out into laughter.

"Really, I can't fucking believe that I fell for it. Should have known not to trust something that seemed so simple and sweet. Fucking really, what a good lesson."

Yao Jun spoke in a self-deprecating tone before turning his gaze to Yao Pianzi. His eyes had lost all the shine they used to have when he looked at her, all that was left was a dead gaze like he was looking at air.

"Pianzi right? Really should have known, the name itself tried to warn me. Fucking hell, never have I seen anyone whose name fits so well. Fucking hell."

As he was talking, Yao Jun had already started walking past them, heading towards the medicine garden as the sound of his cursing slowly drift away with the wind, leaving behind only his lone back.

"He didn't have to be that rude, did he? Who does he think he is?!" Yao Pianzi spoke with a cold snort, it was truly the first time someone had spoken so rudely to her. She was used to people fawning over her because of her looks and talent, but that mongrel even made fun of her name? After she had been so good to him ever since he arrived?

"Never mind that Sister Pianzi, we should head back to the clan, the salary should have been divided by now." Yao Mu spoke with an indifferent voice, but he still turned his head and narrowed his eyes at Yao Jun's back. He had been pursuing Yao Pianzi for a while now, and even considered her to be his woman, so hearing someone who came from such a tiny town like Flying Fish insult her made him quite angry.

Yao Jun went to the medicine garden, but he didn't come back in the evening. He only showed up at the entrance of Golden Moon after the fourth day ended. He looked just like he did as he left, only a bit dirtier than normal, his hands were especially dirty, covered in dirt and blood. His face held a faint smile, looking like nothing had happened, only his slightly red and moist eyes betrayed his emotions.