Elder Ming immediately regained his senses when he heard Song Yu Qi yelled, and let go of her.
Finally free, Song Yu Qi took a few steps back and folded her arms around her chest.
"Why did you do that?" She asked in a reprimanding tone. She glared at him menacingly but because she was so beautiful, it appeared more coquettish than anything else.
Seeing her reacting like this, Elder Ming silently chuckled and realized that he shouldn't have acted so impulsively. He had always wanted to experience courting a girl like the mortals and, although he was confident that with his appearance and status the girl would definitely fall for him, he wanted her to love him for his personality in priority. For this reason, he decided that he would take his time with her.
"I sincerely apologize, miss... Hm, may I know your name?" He asked.
Song Yu Qi didn't want an elder to become her enemy so, since he apologized, she just sighed and decided to drop the matter. After all, it was just a hug, it was not like he had tried to kiss her or worse...
"My name is Song Yu Qi." She answered.
Elder Ming smiled, now he knew her name! He took out a box from his spatial ring and presented it to her.
"Disciple Yu Qi, I'm sorry for what I did. Please, accept this gift as a token of my apology." He said. He wanted to add 'and as a token of my love' but it was too soon and she would probably reject him because of that.
Song Yu Qi took the beautiful wooden box from Elder Ming's hands and opened it with curiosity. Inside, there was a lotus flower entirely made of ice. Since she didn't know what it was, she looked at him questioningly.
"I can tell that you practice a Cultivation Method of the Ice element. What I gave you is called an Eternal Ice Flower. After consuming it, it will greatly increase your cultivation." He explained.
The Eternal Ice Flowers could only be found in the Eternal Snow Peak located in the Central Continent. They were so rare and precious that their values were inestimable! However, in Elder Ming's eyes, Song Yu Qi was totally worth this gift.
Song Yu Qi panicked when she heard that Elder Ming had noticed her Cultivation Method. Thankfully, since he didn't say anything about it, it meant that he didn't know that it was a Divine-grade method.
She was very excited about this Eternal Ice Flower and would obviously accept it since it was Elder Ming's way of apologizing.
"Thank you, Elder Ming." She said, smiling. She put the box in her inventory while pretending to put it in her Storage Pouch.
"Alright, I will let you do your sect mission now." He said with a stoic face. But inside he was very satisfied that she accepted his gift with a smile.
Song Yu Qi nodded and looked around her. She immediately noticed that all the girls were glaring at her with daggers in their eyes. Seriously, if looks could kill, she would have died a thousand times!
'What's wrong with them?' She wondered.
What was wrong? If the girls around could have heard her thoughts, they would have immediately attacked her! Elder Ming never gave a gift to a girl before and no matter what they did, they couldn't catch his attention. But that 'bitch' just arrived and managed to capture his heart in a minute. So, of course, they hated her!
Ignoring their looks, Song Yu Qi walked towards Tan Yanyan and Xia Zilin. She wanted to quickly finish this mission and get out of here. The further away they were from Elder Ming, the better.
"Are you two alright?" She asked them.
"Yes." Answered Tan Yanyan. Since Elder Ming was not close anymore, she felt better.
"Yes, Sister Yu Qi." Answered Xia Zilin. She also felt much better and regretted that she acted like that in front of her sisters.
Song Yu Qi smiled and turned to Li Mingyue.
"Senior Sister, we are ready to start the mission." She said.
Li Mingyue now considered her as her love rival so she would make sure to give her the hardest job to do.
"Alright, follow me." She said in an irritated voice.
They arrived after a few minutes in front of a spiritual field. It was as large as a football field and was covered with different varieties of Spiritual Plants.
"There are twelve similar spiritual fields. You will need to remove the weeds from all of them." Explained Li Mingyue
Li Mingyue walked towards the field in front of her and bent down to pick something up. Then, she showed them dark green grass sprigs and explained that it was the weeds that they needed to remove.
"Is there a tool to remove the weeds?" Asked Song Yu Qi.
"No, you must do it with your hands." She answered, shaking her head. Actually there was a tool but she didn't feel like telling her. She wanted to see her 'suffer' by doing it with her bare hands. The two other girls accompanying her were, unfortunately, 'collateral damage'.
Li Mingyue then gave them three Storage Pouches and told them that they needed to store the weeds inside them.
"Once you have removed the weeds from all the spiritual fields, I will quickly check that everything was done correctly and give you the note with Elder Ming's seal if I'm satisfied." She said.
The three girls nodded in understanding and started working while Li Mingyue left the place with a smirk on her face.
It would probably be faster if each one of them was taking care of one field separately but the three of them wanted to stay together to talk while working.
"Sister Yu Qi, do you think that Elder Ming fell in love with you at first sight? He even hugged you!" Asked Xia Zilin, blushing.
"I don't think so. He apologized for what he did and didn't seem interested in me after he gave me the apology gift." Answered Song Yu Qi.
"Sister Yu Qi, you are so dense..." Said Tan Yanyan, sighing.