Lauren decided to be straightforward.

  “I don’t have my Master’s seal,” she admitted, “but he told me himself to come here if I ever needed flower dew. He said I could either buy the bottled stuff or, if I wanted it fresh, I could come straight to Hyakka Valley to collect it.”

  As she spoke, she pulled out her identity jade token and held it up.

  The old man’s face shifted instantly, his eyes going wide. “You—are you the Immortal Master’s new disciple?”

  Lauren smiled and gave a small nod. “That’s me.”

  The old man drew a long breath, clearly moved. “So it really is fate…”

  He inspected the jade token carefully before returning it to her with both hands. “No one from Starfell Summit has set foot in Hyakka Valley for over a thousand years. Your sect’s unused quotas have piled up all this time. You can use them freely.”

  Lauren’s heart leapt. She silently thanked her Master—and all her long-dead senior brothers and sisters—for leaving her such a great inheritance.

  “Then… I don’t need my Master’s seal after all?” she asked.

  The old man smiled faintly. “No. That rule exists to stop reckless youngsters from stripping the valley bare and killing the plants.”

  After bowing in thanks, Lauren left the greenhouse with Tamara, already planning to fetch some flower dew.

  She didn’t need much herself. Judging from Tamara’s earlier words, the girl probably just wanted to make soap.

  Soap, Lauren thought with some amusement. Pretty refined, for cultivators.

  Curious, she asked, “Do cultivators really need things like this?”

  Tamara leaned closer, lowering her voice. “Nyx got hold of a secret recipe for scented soap. They say bathing with it makes your skin smell fragrant for days and attracts butterflies. Our master would never let us use anything so frivolous, so…”

  Lauren’s lips twitched. “Your master’s an old man, isn’t he?”

  Tamara nodded quickly. “The one who oversaw our spiritual root tests when we first joined the sect.”

  What a coincidence.

  “Hey, is that purple one the flower you’re after?” Lauren asked, pointing ahead.

  Tamara hurriedly pulled out a list, compared it, and nodded. “Yes, that’s it!”

  “Then go ahead and pick it yourself. I’ll handle the flower dew up front.”

  “Okay.”

  Only Tamara had followed Lauren inside; the other girls were still waiting outside. From their vantage point, they could clearly see Tamara picking flowers—and more importantly, the old man wasn’t stopping her. Their jaws nearly dropped.

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  “He’s actually letting her pick?”

  One of them glanced nervously at Nyx. “Nyx, could you have been wrong?”

  Nyx folded her arms and snorted. “Hmph. Just wait until she comes out. One look at her cultivation level and we’ll know.”

  “I already took a look,” another girl said quietly. “I couldn’t sense it clearly, but… I think she’s stronger than me.”

  “You idiot. You’ve been cultivating for years and you’re still stuck at the fourth level of Qi Training. Of course anyone looks stronger than you,” Nyx snapped.

  Still, despite her words, Nyx’s confidence wavered.

  Meanwhile, inside, Lauren was already refining the flower dew.

  The process itself was beautiful to watch—almost dazzling. Tamara stood frozen, mesmerized by the sight.

  The blossoms shimmered as their essence condensed into crystalline dew, which floated in midair before liquefying into a brilliant spiritual fluid. One by one, drops of dew fell neatly into the ten porcelain vases hovering in front of Lauren.

  Tamara remembered how the other inner sect sisters collected dew—slowly, carefully, drop by drop into their jade flasks, terrified of damaging the flowers and being scolded by the old man. Compared to this, Lauren’s method was extravagant.

  No, not wasteful exactly—she wasn’t harming the plants—but the sheer volume she was collecting was unbelievable. Just this session was enough flower dew to fill a bath.

  Would the old man really allow this?

  Tamara kept glancing anxiously at the greenhouse, half-expecting him to storm out and accuse them of theft.

  But he never came.

  Hyakka Valley overflowed with blossoms, and Lauren worked so efficiently that, before long, all ten vases were brimming. Still the old man didn’t appear.

  “Tamara, are you done picking?”

  Tamara nodded quickly. “Yes. Lauren, thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” Lauren said with a smile. “It was nothing.”

  Tamara’s eyes lit up. “Can I come visit you in a few days? If I manage to make it, I’ll give you a piece.”

  Lauren thought for a moment before shaking her head. “I’m afraid not. I’ll be entering seclusion.”

  Tamara blinked. “Seclusion? Wait—you mean… you’re going to form a core?”

  Lauren nodded. “Yes. Dante and the others have already succeeded. I have to work hard, too.”

  Tamara’s heart skipped a beat. She was happy for her, but at the same time, she couldn’t help feeling small in comparison. Lauren wasn’t just another disciple—she was someone even Mr. Dante admired.

  Lauren walked her back and showed the old man what they’d picked. She didn’t so much as glance at the other female cultivators nearby. People that short-sighted weren’t worth arguing with; trading words with them would be a complete waste of time.

  The old man inspected their harvest, then gave a single nod. “Go on.”

  He didn’t stop them, didn’t scold them, didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow.

  The three women watching from the distance were stunned.

  It wasn’t until Lauren had left Hyakka Valley and shot into the sky on her sword, vanishing like a streak of light, that they finally gasped.

  “At that speed—she’s already in Foundation Establishment?”

  Tamara’s gaze lingered in the direction Lauren had flown, her feelings complicated. “Foundation Establishment? No… she’s already on the verge of Core Formation.”

  “What? Core Formation? That’s impossible! Didn’t she enter the sect at the same time as you?”

  Tamara gave a small, guilty smile. “Yes… she did.”

  Nyx went pale. “Impossible. Absolutely impossible!”

  The girl next to her tugged at her sleeve and whispered, “Could she be… the disciple of the Immortal Venerable?”

  Realization hit them all at once.

  “So it was her…”

  Nyx’s expression twisted, cracking as fear crept in. Gods above, what have I said? Did I just insult the Immortal Venerable’s disciple?

  She snapped her glare to Tamara instead. “Junior Sister Tamara, you really crossed the line this time. Why didn’t you tell us earlier?”

  The other two immediately piled on.

  “That’s right. She’s the Immortal Master’s disciple! You knew and you didn’t introduce her to us? Were you afraid we’d benefit? How selfish.”

  “We’ve always treated you so well, but you’ve been hiding this from us the whole time.”

  Nyx ripped the flowers straight out of Tamara’s hands. “Hmph. All our kindness wasted on you. Let’s go make soap without her.”

  Tamara froze, caught off guard. She hadn’t expected them to turn on her so quickly, as if their friendship had been nothing but soap bubbles itself.

  “Hey—those are my flowers!” she shouted after them, but they were already walking away.