The next day when Ming Yue woke up she had decided to do what Jun Xi suggested the day before: she would explore the sect, do a few missions, and try to make a few friends.
Before she only moved between the training field, the classrooms, and the Sky Pavilion. She always tried to keep herself at a distance from others due to the annoying transformations she couldn't control and she didn't trust fully in the ring's power to hide her demonic aura. She was fortunate that she joined the youngest generation, as she didn't think that during this period she would be able to handle the questions and judging eyes of those that belonged to the same generation as her while worrying about her identity as a fruit demon.
But now she felt full of confidence as she could finally control her transformation and she no longer had to worry about it, plus the confidence she got from forming her demonic core, so now she felt ready to explore and meet the people of the sect and slowly make this her home.
She washed her face, put on some light makeup, and combed her hair. Then she put on a light-blue dress and hanged the little bell on her belt. She gave it a little tap which produced a tingling sound.
"Let's go little bell!" She said confidently and strolled out of her room.
She strolled past Jun Xi's door and noticed it was slightly ajar and decided to have a peek to see if he was inside.
What she saw made her gulp. He sat by a small table, his back facing her, in a loose robe and was combing his long inky black hair. It seemed like he had just had a bath.
This was the first time she had seen a man comb his hair in her life, especially such long hair which was no shorter than hers. It looked strangely alluring and made a beautiful scene.
Suddenly she darted into the room, "Master! Let me!" She grabbed the comb but Jun Xi refused to let it go. "As thanks for helping me form my demonic core and for the bell you gifted me yesterday." She said and continued to tug at the comb. Finally, with a slight frown he let her have it.
She giggled happily as she sat down behind him and began to comb his hair. She began to hum a little tune as tender feelings bubbled inside of her.
As she was combing his hair happily she suddenly thought about how different this life was compared to her previous and how much she had changed. She had become much more fearless and dared to do and say things she'd never dare to do or say before. Perhaps dying and realizing it wasn't the end had changed something within her. She felt like she took life much less seriously than before, that no matter how bad things turned it would eventually solve itself.
Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted as Jun Xi suddenly grabbed the comb and stood up. Without turning around he said, "That's enough, you can leave."
Ming Yue pouted as she saw her hand holding nothing but air.
Why did he suddenly turn grumpy? Did she do something wrong? She sighed, she never seemed to be able to figure out his mood which changed quicker than the weather. But then, that's what made him interesting, she thought and giggled silently in her mind.
"I will go and explore the sect and I don't know when I'll be back." Ming Yue said as she stood up and walked to the door.
"En." He responded.
Ming Yue stepped outside the gates of the Sky Pavilion and took a deep breath before she looked around. She realized she had no idea where she should go or what to do.
The Sky Piercing Mountain had nine peaks.
Eight of them housed pavilions where sect elders lived with their disciples.
Among those, three peaks stood out:
The first one was the peak where Jun Xi lived as he was the only non-elder who had his own peak. As to why Ming Yue wasn't sure, but she had an inkling it was because he was a rare genius and was no less powerful than the elders.
The second one was the smallest and most desolate peak and was used for keeping demonic beasts they held in captive. The demonic beasts were used for teaching, training, and research purposes.
The third one was probably the greenest peak in the sect and seemed to be always surrounded by a blue mist. Here they grew their spiritual plants and produced medicinal pills for the sect.
The ninth and center most and tallest peak could be broken up into three levels:
The first and topmost level housed the sect's palace and was where the elders had meetings and discussed whatever affairs that concerned the sect as a whole. Of course the palace had many halls, for example the treasury where they kept many rare treasures and artifacts; the library where they kept cultivation manuals and other important and rare books; the divination hall where they could perform various divinations to forsee important events that either affected the world or the sect.
The second level of the ninth peak was were you'd find the training fields, classrooms, and the dorms where most of the sect's disciples lived and trained.
The third level housed several buildings for various functions like: the inn where visitors could stay; an administration office which dealt with various book keeping, registers, etc; the missions building where disciples could accept missions and earn credits with which they could exchange for weapons, armor, treasures, pills, etc; the weapons and armory where you could buy new equipment; the pill shop where disciples could buy various pills; a small market place where both merchants and disciples could set up stalls to sell various products; and a few other buildings. However what they all had in common was that they all served a function and no people lived there.
And finally below all the peaks was were the farms and fields were. Here the sect grew various crops and rice, and bread various animals such as cows, pigs, and horses. All of which was used to provide food for the sect.
And if you continued the path down from here you would soon arrive at the large main gate of the sect where Jun Xi and Ming Yue landed when Ming Yue first arrived at the sect.
Of course even as far down as here they were still very far up from the base of the mountain.