On the riverbanks, under floating islands that sail atop vast ocean waves, gigantic sea creatures roamed the waters as young ageless men and women gracefully glided on swords in the sky.
A continent filled with demons lurking in the woods, where plants and trees uprooted themselves and lumbered through the hills.
Its regions are known for secrecy and discipline, evil and righteousness. The Forgotten Waters Sect floated majestically above the ocean, obscured from prying eyes by rolling walls of mist.
A young woman with hair the colour of a starless night, her tresses tied loosely with a light blue ribbon, sat at the shoreline.
The delicate ends of her strands spilled into the water's edge as she sat and gazed into the distance. Her body, clad in light-coloured robes, was well defined. Her subtle curves and feminine figure highlighted by the tranquil air surrounding her.
The maiden's smooth skin, porcelain and clean, shimmered as her bare feet splashed around in the water.
Time had changed her girlish, undeveloped figure to one of a young maiden, and the baby fat on her face had gradually receded. What was once the beguiling bloom of young adulthood blossomed to reveal the throbbing petals of a newly christened rose. Her peach blossom eyes, shaded by a heavy set of long, shadowy eyelashes, appeared to scan the horizon.
She watched everything and nothing, while the water mirrored the glowing sky above.
Indeed, the maiden looked just like a fairy who fell from Heaven and awoke in the mortal realm.
This was the exact same girl who had been designated to become an outer sect disciple in the Bestiary Division.
Li Meirong's clear eyes looked away from the void of the pond to the barren edge of the floating island. She was distracted by the grumbling in the pit of her stomach.
As the wind blew gently through her robes, Li Meirong reached for her bag of snacks with a pair of slender fingers. She had found tranquility in her new home; her gestures were no longer clumsy with fear. Instead, she exuded a unique sort of charm and grace with every movement.
She longingly chewed her snack, a pastry she had baked the other day. The grumbling stopped. Satisfied, she tossed the leftovers into the murky waters. Bubbles soon surfaced as schools of fish battled to gobble up the delicious crumbs.
The pond was right outside the entrance to her home, and within the Bestiary Division's jurisdiction.
Although she knew this section of the division was deemed the lowest in rank, she still found solace here. When forced to consider the alternative, this modest patch of land seemed a whole lot better than living in a brothel.
She had very little privacy these days, which was more stressful than usual. Li Meirong had been living her life rather aimlessly as of late, entertaining herself with bits and pieces of personal projects and stimuli.
That was enough for her, though. Something to do so she didn't have to think. If Li Meirong had these things, she was satisfied with her circumstances, simply by keeping herself a little busy.
She had learned quite a lot during these past few years. Building her own cabin, being one. True, it ended up looking more like a toolshed than a proper home, but it was pieced together by her own two hands. Log by log, nail by nail. She came to appreciate the structure all the more, immensely proud of all she had accomplished.
This started a new wheel of thought. Soon she had learned to use ancient tools to prepare meals, as well as how to make do without a modern toilet. She practised sewing often, stitching and hemming her clothes, even though she was still bad at it.
Of all the things she had missed from modern living, her TV and mobile phone were at the top of the list. There was so little entertainment for her in this place.
One could say that in the past five years, Li Meirong had been the victim of endless bullying, teasing, and mental torment.
It began with the innumerable amount of tasks she shouldn't even have been responsible for, and ended with offensive pranks, such as someone sending young, "virile" men to her cabin at night.
Li Meirong couldn't point her finger at the culprit, but she knew the source of it all. She'd caught the wind of the rumor and slurs floating through the sect.
"A fickle woman of questionable morals," the other apprentice cultivators in the sect were whispering about her when she walked by.
A small part of her, somewhere, wished she could have at least lived up to her reputation.
However, just as in her previous life, she was still a virgin; untouched. Well, as far as she knew, anyway.
Li Meirong chuckled gingerly at her own silly thoughts.
Surprisingly, she managed to find fulfillment in the menial tasks she was assigned. Despite not being allowed to practice cultivation due to her unprivileged position, Li Meirong excelled at finding inner purpose in her work. She had no choice, after all, since outer sect disciples were not provided with the benefits of learning any cultivation methods.
Regardless of her foul reputation, many fellow juniors and senior apprentices alike visited her for assistance in various daily tasks. They'd come to her for help with everything from gardening, animal care, and even accounting.
It was rather preposterous how immortal, known for battling nightmarishly frightening monsters and demons, required common sense advise on such mundane tasks.
The suppressed giggles faded faster this time, as Li Meirong's thoughts drifted to how it all started. Five years ago.
The first memory, or at least the clearest she could recall, was of when she had been left to feed the spirit beasts. She was given the lowest quality of sustenance for her task, both for herself and those under her watch.
The beasts were not common livestock, and their demands were not as simple as others seemed to have thought.
So, when Li Meirong introduced spices and herbs to their otherwise bland nourishment, she became the coalition's favourite among the beasts. Her grandmother hadn't been lying when she said that the best way to a man's heart was through his stomach.
Apparently, the saying applied to Spirit Beasts as well.
After having such great success with the meal preparation for the Spirit Beasts, word got around, and soon even the Grandmasters of other divisions occasionally summoned her to prepare their occasional evening dishes.
She learnt early on that for cultivators, food was not a necessity; therefore, the task of food preparation was considered a low-class position in the sect. The meals provided were often odourless and bland, meant only to quell one's hunger, and not stimulate one's palate.
Cultivators could choose to consume food, but would not starve if they go without sustenance.
The majority of the cultivators abstained from eating because food contained impurities which hindered a spiritual advancement.
Since Li Meirong was denied the right to learn cultivation techniques, then for all intents and purposes, she was a mere mortal.
The upside to the lack of a spiritual foundation was that she ate merrily with the fellow magical creatures under her care.
Chao Dequan, the servant boy in charge of the crane mounts whom she had befriended at Healer's Peak, kept in touch with her every once in a while. He slowly grew into a young strapping lad. In her eyes, he was still the same adorable baby, perhaps because she still saw him as that cute boy who had once helped her mount a crane for the first time in her life.
Li Meirong made quick work of enriching the grain and snack recipes provided to the cranes at Healer's Peak. With the addition of small amounts of protein and dried fruit slices to add flavour, she'd made Chao Dequan's job much easier when handling the herd under his care.
Li Meirong habitually collected seeds and plants along with their roots whenever she had the chance to visit the forests below, and slowly with the passing months, she'd successfully managed to build an impressive herb garden in her backyard. Rome was not built in a day, and neither was Li Meirong's progress, but still she was content with knowing that she did accomplish quite a bit.
Speaking of beasts and gardens, her plant spirit companion, the very same carnivorous plant named Chou, stayed by her side through thick and thin.
Although they had met under the worst conditions, the pair bonded and became inseparable.
Li Meirong did not forget her promise to Chou and regularly fed him a drop of her own blood.
There had even been a point when she had become bold enough to inquire about Chou's insistence on feeding from her.
Chou had decided that a demonstration would be better as an answer. He had shifted to his true form, doubling the size he'd been when they first met. He grew to be nearly the same length and width as her cabin.
Chou became a formidable sight, capable of giving low-level cultivators a run for their money.
Having had the opportunity to overhear bits and pieces of information from inner sect disciples who occasionally passed nearby her residence, Li Meirong had gathered that they would have labeled a spirit of his calibre one of the fifth rank.
She had also overheard that while different spirits had varying capabilities, they were classified according to their spiritual capacity, much like cultivators were. Their ranks ranged from one to ten.
Above rank ten were the ranks of eleven and twelve. Those were special spirits who were otherwise known as Godly Beasts.
Chou started as a third rank plant, which is already a threat to common society.
Spirit Beasts didn't usually elevate in ranks. Chou's ability to rise higher through the levels was all thanks to Li Meirong's special blood.
Besides increasing in size, Chou had urged her to shed a drop of blood on a planted fruit seedling in order to further emphasize the demonstration.
The results had astounded her. Within a week, the seedling had matured into a full adult tree, bearing fruit right outside her cabin.
With her newfound knowledge, Li Meirong wasted no time in turning her garden into an orchard.
The growth of plants around her abode was shocking, not only to her but also to the other apprentices.
The Herb Caretaker's Division had once sent her an invitation to join their island, but she refused the offer. She'd already grown attached to her cabin and beautiful garden on the Bestiary Division's island.
Sadly, not everything that had happened during those five years had been as pleasant and rewarding...