36. Finally

Before noon, Mei Lin ordered food and tea. After he brought her food, they exchanged a few words before Xu Yi went to help his father with serving. With the second floor bustling with activity once again, Mei Lin slowly entered her cultivation state and began her cultivation with the aid of tea. As she entered cultivation state she also thought about evening cultivation. 'Once I am back in the room, I will drink more blood and speed up my cultivation progress.

With a clear mind and a set plan for her upcoming cultivation session, Mei Lin began her practice. Every hour, she paused briefly to replenish her teacup and observe the customers on the second floor. Some of the faces she saw seemed familiar, but she refrained from engaging with them.

As evening approached, Xu Yi sat behind the table, patiently waiting for Mei Lin to conclude her cultivation session. After a few minutes, Mei Lin opened her eyes and met Xu Yi's gaze. She found herself drawn to his green eyes, reminiscent of her own before she became a blood cultivator and her eyes turned red. Unable to tear her gaze away, they soon found themselves engrossed in conversation about cultivation.

As Xu Yi began to discuss the cultivation ceremony, Mei Lin couldn't help but reflect on her journey into cultivation, which had been more serendipitous. On the other hand, Xu Yi had become a cultivator through his potential and the awakening ceremony. Intrigued by the different paths people took to become cultivators, Mei Lin expressed her curiosity about this ceremony.

After listening to Xu Yi for a long time, Mei Lin retired to her room. Once in her room, Mei Lin pulled out a crystal bottle and placed it next to the cultivation mat. Removing her clothes, she sat on the cultivation mat, drank a few drops of blood entered the cultivation state, and started her cultivation once again. After absorbing all-natural energy from the drops of blood, she ended her cultivation.

As Mei Lin slowly opened her eyes, a thought crossed her mind. 'If I cultivate inside the room, without any disturbance, natural energy is a little stronger here and my cultivation speed is slightly faster compared to cultivating on the second floor. Maybe I can stay here and cultivate.'

*****

As Mei Lin's routine continued the next morning, she found herself heading to the second floor without much deliberation. Dressed in her red robe from her master, which made her look magnificent, and wearing the bamboo hat gifted by Xu Yi, she took her usual seat. Mei Lin ordered breakfast along with a spirit tea and began her cultivation.

Cultivation progressed swiftly with the aid of the spirit tea, and Mei Lin continued throughout the day. Just before lunch, a young-looking blonde girl entered the second floor. She was clad in a green cultivation robe and possessed striking blue eyes. Her beauty immediately captured the attention of everyone in the tea house, prompting discussions about her identity. However, her face was concealed behind a mask, preventing anyone from seeing her true features only her blue eyes were visible.

Unknown to Mei Lin, the beauty who entered the tea house was indeed Zhan Xia, the daughter of Zhan Liang. As Mei Lin remained immersed in her cultivation state, seated at the opposite side of the tea table, Zhan Xia quietly made her way towards her.

Zhan Xia watched Mei Lin intently for nearly an hour and noticed that when Mei Lin drank the tea, she didn't end her cultivation state. This observation intrigued Zhan Xia, sparking her curiosity about Mei Lin's cultivation techniques and practices.

After Mei Lin concluded her cultivation session, she opened her eyes and discovered Zhan Xia sitting right in front of her. "So you finally find me." Mei Lin smiled a little. She wasn't sure if the wail would cover her eyes if she opened them so she immediately closed them. "Do you need something from me?" Asked Mei Lin coldly "Yes, I want to ask you, how did you manage to survive the encounter with the bandits and injured Feng Jing? That you managed to crop his cultivation base, how?"

Just as she hushed the questions, everyone from the second floor stopped talking and all their views shifted to Mei Lin trying to find out as much as possible, and started scanning her with their spirit sense.

As spirit senses impaled on Mei Lin, she instantly felt uncomfortable, because their superior cultivation stages scanned Mei Lin all over again and again, but she couldn't do anything with it and none of the spirit senses caused her any harm.

"I don't know who is Feng Jing, and someone else killed all the bandits, not me." Zhan Xia didn't believe Mei Lin and all that she said, but she didn't know what to do to get to the truth. "How is that possible that you didn't die after being injured so much? From what I know your hand was pierced by the spear, and your back was slashed by a machete."

Mei Lin didn't say a word and said there like a statue not moving an inch. Zhan Xia started to get angry, as she saw, that Mei Lin was ignoring her the same way as her father yesterday, but calmly asked again. "What cultivation path are you cultivating?" I am cultivating Wood's path." Said Mei Lin and immediately put out from storage ring green book without a name.

On the cover of the book was a magnificent tree and around him was a flower garden. The book looked very new and ancient. As Zhan Xia looked at the book she saw, that this book was very well maintained, maybe even enchanted with some kind of spell, so it would not be destroyed so easily. Mei Lin didn't wait for anything and slowly placed the book on the table. "You can take a look if you want, I can't stop you anyway."

As Mei Lin spoke for the second time, Zang Xia hesitated. She didn't want to pick up a cultivation book and read it, fearing that others would see her as an oppressor who forced Mei Lin to reveal her cultivation techniques. However, her curiosity overpowered her reluctance. After a few moments of internal struggle, she picked up the book and began to read.

This cultivation book was about specially picked by Mei Lin from the master's library. The book was about breeding trees and plants, and controlling them to do your bidding. Book like itself was not very useful, because creating sentient puppets from the flowers and trees was much more wasteful than controlling animals. Mei Lin picked this book because she thought that it would help her with breeding blood flowers and she would have a better chance to harvest more benefits from the flowers.