Waking up to a brand-new day, Sofie felt excited about going to the mission hall together with Yang Meng as she quickly sat up on her bed.
"Ouch" letting out a small cry of pain, Sofie had accidently touched a sore spot on her hand when she sat up on her bed and with that. Memories of a certain demons training in hand to hand combat was remembered.
Shivering to herself upon remembering Xiao Yao's training, Sofie sat there on her bed for a good five minutes before recovering.
"I… I think I will only train with Xiao Yao one day a week from now on." Saying this to herself, Sofie was extremely close to saying never, but remembered how important fighting was, as someone who cultivates and quickly decided that 6 days without tortu- training should be a good enough to relax and recover again.
Thinking this far, Sofie had decided to use the rest of the time for condensing the permanent qi vessel, her little flame and train her qi spell. Ah, and potential missions at the mission hall together with Yang Meng.
Sofie had already decided Yang Meng would be going with her on all future missions from the mission hall, as she would get more mission points from taking team missions.
Having laid down her future plans, Sofie got out of her bed and quickly got dressed. Not forgetting to spend half an hour of her time playing with her plushies before leaving for breakfast, it had been some time since she last gave her plushies some attention.
The corridor of the house was empty and the door to Xiao Yao's room was closed, Yue Wan's door on the other hand was wide open.
Maybe she had something to do in the morning?
Not thinking much over it, Sofie exited the house and made her way to the dining hall.
Both her and Yang Meng spend most of their morning there, so Sofie thought it would be a good place to find Yang Meng before going to the mission hall.
…
Arriving at the dining hall, Sofie quickly spotted Yang Meng happily sitting alone at a table with a giant mountain of food in front of him. Looking closer, the mountain was ever so slowly shrinking in size.
Sofie got hungry just from looking at a distance and quickly gathered enough food to create her own mountain, before making her way to the table Yang Meng was sitting at.
"H-hey." Nervously calling out to the foodie in front of her, Sofie placed down her plate and sat in front of him.
"Who? Ah, Sofie! Good morning." Yang Meng looked a little tensed up at being called out and looked around cautiously to find out who called out to him, it was only upon seeing Sofie that he relaxed.
"G-good morning Yang Meng, is something wrong? You look tense. Nervous about the mission we are going to do!?" Sofie asked the moment she saw how tense he was.
"Hah… It's just… Gra- elder Mei Yue have been training me yesterday and I guess I'm still affected…" Yang Meng explained while letting a sigh escape from his mouth. Clearly exhausted from the 'training' by elder Mei Yue.
"I think I know what you mean…" Sofie said as memories from the previous day started flowing in. The so-called training was nothing short of torture!
Looks like Yang Meng also had a hard time training… But I wonder what elder Mei Yue was training him in, for him to still be so tensed up… Must have been hard.
Thinking this, Sofie felt a sense of comradery at the prospect of both of them going through tortu- a hard training regimen.
Yang Meng was a little surprised, as he looked and saw the look of understanding on Sofie's face. Wondering to himself who trained her.
Was it an elder as well? Maybe someone scarier, like grandma Mei Yue. Maybe she decided to train Sofie as well…
Not really sure who trained Sofie, Yang Meng started to feel their friendship deepening as both of them had gone through the same kind of training (hell)!
*****
"So… Where is the mission hall?" Sofie asked Yang Meng, while standing in front of the dining hall.
"The mission hall is located close to the gathering hall, if I'm not wrong." Yang Meng answered with a pondering expression.
"Then lead the way!" Sofie said as she excitedly started pushing Yang Meng in the direction of the gathering hall.
"O-okay okay, just follow me." Yang Meng said as he quickly dodged to the side escaping from Sofie's hands, before quickly moving in the direction of the gathering hall.
Sofie was a little sad that she didn't get to push him as his body felt really soft to touch and made her entire hand sink in, but it didn't really matter that much, so she just quietly followed behind him with a sulking expression.
…
The path to the mission hall was filled with disciples and Sofie was inwardly surprised at how many there were, just the path to the mission hall from the dining hall and Sofie had seen more disciples than the number of disciples eating in the morning.
The disciples of the scorching sun sect clearly had a bad habit of not eating in the morning!
Coming to this conclusion, Sofie inwardly decided to do something about it and show her senior sisters and brothers the importance of breakfast.
The time passed and the two of them soon reached their destination. The mission hall of the scorching sun sect.
The mission hall was a large building with several floors. The sheer number of disciples here far surpassed any number of disciples Sofie had seen gathered together at a single place, an endless stream of disciples entered and exited the mission hall at all time.
"Follow me when we enter and don't get lost!" As Sofie was admiring the giant building in front of her, Yang Meng called out to her before he grabbed hold of her hand and moved into the stream of disciples in front of them.
Not expecting Yang Meng to grab hold of her hand, Sofie could only blush nervously and nod in response as both of them made their way into the mission hall.
…
The inside of the mission hall was nothing short of amazing as there were different designated areas for the differing cultivation realms.
The designated area for the qi condensation was one of the biggest, as it was split into several smaller areas. Most likely depending on how far one was in the qi condensation realm. Most of the disciples went to this area.
The biggest area inside the mission hall was for people in the meridian opening realm, it was further split into 12 different areas. Most likely the same as the designated area for people in the qi condensation realm. The number of disciples here were way fewer and they had way more space compared to the crowded area for the disciples at the qi condensation realm.
Sofie really wondered why the area for people at the meridian opening realm was so much bigger when there were way fewer disciples there. Maybe so the weaker disciples had something to strive for?
Thinking this, Sofie looked around and spotted the second biggest area, a giant sign was hanging in front of it saying hollow core. Most likely for people in the hollow core realm.
Sofie looked at the area and saw that it was extremely luxurious, there was even a few servants walking around in the area, serving tea to an old man lazing at a couch.
The only person in that entire area was the old man…
Sofie felt a little speechless at the area for people in the hollow core realm, but quickly turned around to look after the area for the qi gathering realm.
Looking around, Sofie could not find it, so she decided to ask Yang Meng.
"Hey Yang Meng, do you kno- "Looking again, Sofie was certain, there was no Yang Meng besides her anymore…