Home Sweet Home

Hu Mei

As we flew back towards the sect, I found myself unsure of how to feel about the situation. I'd grown accustomed to being a servant of the clan, but I couldn't decide which was worse: traveling with Zhang Jing or dealing with Lin Qing this maniac. Zhang Jing was so reckless that we had to pack up and leave early twice because she couldn't keep her mouth shut and constantly got involved in dubious adventures. How she was still alive was beyond me—one of those mysteries of the world, I suppose.

While we were going to get our master's friend and his "future wife," we got kidnapped and nearly sold into slavery. All because Zhang Jing got bored and decided to play dice in a tavern. She won against some very shady characters, and judging by their astonished expressions, it was akin to witnessing a divine miracle. She didn't even notice their reactions or comments, and while I was dragging her away, we were caught and abducted. By some miracle, passing cultivators freed us, and now, some clan leader's son was trailing us, professing his love for Zhang Jing and claiming she was a goddess descended from the heavens. Fortunately, we managed to slip away from them, but given that Zhang Jing let slip which sect we were from, we'll likely see him again.

We felt nothing but gratitude towards him, but Zhang Jing's constant reminiscing about our master indicated that this young man's chances were slim. Our master's friend, however, was quite a character. During the flight, he and his "beloved," Liu Qing (not to be confused with Lin Qing), quarreled, made up, broke up, and reconciled multiple times. He even started courting me. Given that we were traveling in the same shuttle, there was nowhere for me to go. Zhang Jing found the whole situation hilarious and only added fuel to the fire.

Turning to me once again, Lin Zhi said, "Do you have a map?"

Finally, I thought, a sensible question and not pick-up lines. "Of course we have a map" I began to reply, just about to explain how we navigated such vast distances.

"Cause I keep getting lost in your eyes" he finished, looking at me with lovesick eyes.

I sighed, feeling both exasperated and slightly amused. How did I end up in this situation?

"Fuck, I'm getting a nervous tic from his advances" I muttered, exhaling loudly. Zhang Jing immediately burst into laughter.

"Oh, it looks like he's serious" she said, laughing. "Hahaha."

"Lin Zhi, what about Liu Qing?" she asked, looking at Liu Qing, who had a tired and bored expression.

"Me? What about me? It's not my fault. My heart leads me through life. Those were just fleeting emotions, but now I realize how wrong I was. Those were just momentary infatuations" Lin Zhi said, turning to Liu Qing. "My dear, you're not mad, right? It just happened. We should be grateful it happened before we got seriously involved."

Zhang Jing continued to mock him. "But you were about to get married! How is that not serious?"

"Well, we didn't get married, did we? So, it doesn't count. And my dear Liu Qing understands and isn't mad at me!" Lin Zhi insisted.

I glanced at Liu Qing, who looked utterly bored.

"How much longer do we have to fly?" she asked.

"About an hour, I think. We're already flying over the sect's territory" replied Zhang Jing. "Oh, master, I hope you're waiting for me and missed me as much as I missed you!"

Xia Tao

About an hour later, I was stepping out of the mansion when a whirlwind of joy and excitement knocked me off my feet. I was lifted off the ground and hugged tightly. The only thing I managed to notice was pink hair—Zhang Jing must have returned earlier than expected.

(IMAGE HERE)

"Ahhh, I've already missed this place. So quiet and peaceful" said Hu Mei from somewhere nearby.

"Master, I'm so glad to see you! Don't make me leave you for so long again!" Zhang Jing exclaimed, releasing me and looking around.

"Oh, and you're here too?" she added, a bit gloomily, noticing Mei coming out to greet us. "We've brought someone you needed!" She pointed to Lin Zhi and Liu Qing standing behind her.

"Brother, you won't believe it! I've met my destiny! Bless us!" Lin Zhi said, running up to me. Liu Qing facepalmed and sighed deeply.

"Um, but didn't you meet Liu Qing a while ago?" I asked, a bit puzzled.

"That was just a fleeting infatuation. I'm talking about Hu Mei" he said, moving toward her and attempting to hug her, only to receive a punch in the face. Judging by Hu Mei's expression, he had thoroughly annoyed her.

I was completely baffled by what was happening.

"Um, I think you need to win her favor first." I said

"Say If I said I deserved that, would it make you smile?" Lin Zhi asked with a wide grin, looking at Hu Mei.

"Um, well, sort it out among yourselves." ahahahahai they'll sort it out

"Right, right, more master for me" Zhang Jing said, hugging me and sniffing the air. "Master, why do you smell so much like other girls?" she asked suspiciously.

Mei grabbed her by the collar and pulled her away from me. "Stop bothering the master. You and Hu Mei come with me and tell me everything that happened. I'll update you on what's going on here. Lin Qing, take Lin Zhi and Liu Qing and find out their plans. Master, go attend to your duties. Don't let them bother you, you're very busy."

Hui Ying

Three days before the auction.

Our training with the spiders was starting to pay off. Gradually, we began to defend, evade, and use the webbing more effectively. I could now control five threads simultaneously. We even managed to harvest some strawberries as they ripened, achieving self-sufficiency with the berries. It was perfect—eat a strawberry, go harvest more, and improve our web-handling and movement skills. Our tactics evolved too; I used four threads for defense against spider attacks, as they had started shooting multiple threads simultaneously, and one thread to harvest strawberries. Interestingly, the spiders were also improving—their threads became increasingly invisible and faster. As a result, a technique that once required us to be stationary to look for web attacks was now used on the move, otherwise, the incoming webbing would be impossible to notice. The training yielded tremendous results, but if more than one spider was present, escaping was nearly impossible.

The battles for the mini-fortress also became increasingly intense. The fortress crumbled repeatedly under our relentless attacks, leading us to ask Mei for techniques or arrays to strengthen the structure. Even my threads, now almost invisible if you didn't know what to look for, could slice the fortress into pieces in about five seconds just by running through it.

Recently, additional clan students were added to our teams. Our numbers increased from 6-6-7 people in teams to 31-31-31. More regular students joined to handle routine tasks and maintain order. The penalties for finishing last in the idol contests were abolished because our motivation to develop using strawberries was incredibly strong. The new clan students were shocked by how things operated here. Slowly, they also began mastering the thread and evasion techniques. During battles for the mini-fortress, everyone would sit down, activate observation techniques, and watch the fights, initially with wide-eyed amazement.

There were no grand techniques, no ground grappling, no powerful moves. While trying to execute any of those, you'd simply get bound by threads or sent to the respawn point. For the unprepared, the battle looked something like this: people running in a chaotic pattern, while everything around them exploded in strips, chunks of earth flying into the air, and grass falling as if by itself. A very unusual sight by local standards.

Despite the challenges, life was becoming quite enjoyable. With my skills improving, the strawberries I received and harvested were sufficient for my development needs. We even stopped traveling in large groups, preferring to go individually or in pairs when necessary. We also had three more plots planted, as the number of students increased. 

Life was looking good, and if this continued, my future as a cultivator seemed promising.

I was about to head to the first strawberry plot to restock strawberries, which, interestingly, had become "our" plot for the first group of students. Just then, a new student ran up, saying that Zhi Qiao was calling everyone who could harvest strawberries to the first plot. Intrigued, and as I was heading there anyway, I told the student to gather others.

When I arrived, there were about sixteen students already there, with Zhi Qiao seemingly waiting for more to arrive.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Wait a few more minutes until everyone's here" he replied. After a few minutes, two more students arrived. Then Zhi Qiao began to explain.

"We're not all here, but the other two won't be joining us. They got taken to the beehive cave and are probably being tortured. They'll likely reappear at the respawn point in about two to three hours." His words left us stunned. It had been days since anyone was taken, and we always went in groups of two or three for safety. Although sometimes you'd come back empty-handed if you couldn't get past the spider webs, being captured was rare.

"It seems the spiders didn't like that we learned to harvest strawberries and have changed their tactics. Now they're spreading webbing on or under the ground, making it impossible to react in time. We noticed this today. Those two were captured instantly and taken away. Some webbing was visible as usual, but some came from beneath the ground."

"Qiang Zhuang, try harvesting some strawberries" Zhi Qiao called out.

Qiang Zhuang, one of the students who had previously jeopardized the group, was often the one to be sent for dangerous tasks. Grumbling, he stepped forward, assuming the usual position 20 meters away. He deployed four threads—one targeting the strawberries and three for defense. Immediately, two spider threads countered his, and we watched closely.

Within moments, Qiang Zhuang was immobilized and swiftly dragged toward the hive, despite our attempts to protect him.

"As you can see, we couldn't even notice the threads creeping up on him. We need to figure out how to counteract this, or strawberries will be off-limits. The spiders are eating the strawberries themselves, so we must hurry, or we'll lose access to them entirely."

This was an unexpected turn of events.