Chapter 23: A Meal’s True Cost

“Do not neglect any good deed, however small; do not commit any evil deed, however trivial.”

For a long time, Su Mei, as the sect master, had instilled this teaching in many of the Qingluan Sect’s disciples.

Yet, a moment ago, the thought of having harbored such alluring notions towards the innocent young girl before her had left Su Mei reeling.

Though it was merely a fleeting instant, a sudden spark of a thought, it was enough.

As a peak master, Su Mei conducted a profound self-critique, deeply chastising her recent transgression.

She vowed that from then on, she would collaborate even more strictly with the other peak masters to eradicate the ‘strange picture books’ brought into the sect.

After all, if even someone of her profound cultivation could be so significantly swayed, it was undeniable how destructive those books were to one’s ambition.

Such provocative works could not be allowed to corrupt the fledgling cultivators any further.

****

Xiao Xixi, diligently devouring her meal, had her small, pearly-white face buried in her rice bowl. She was utterly oblivious to the rich sauce smudged on her cheek.

She had no idea that her simple act of eating an egg just moments ago would, within days, unleash a massive ‘book-clearing’ campaign across the Qingluan Sect. It was a scene that would bring countless male cultivators to tears.

Even more unaware was she that Su Mei, her beautiful master, sat calmly opposite her, having just silently recited the ‘Heart Purifying Incantation’ four times over.

At this moment, Xiao Xixi only knew that the food from the ‘Green Canteen’ was incredibly delicious.

With every bite, she felt her energy replenish even more vibrantly.

Having already consumed two chicken drumsticks and two eggs without realizing it, Xiao Xixi felt waves of warmth surge through her body, and her vitality soared to unprecedented levels.

To what extent? Without exaggeration, Xiao Xixi believed that if she were still a boy, after eating these few bites, she could easily ‘reward’ herself seven or eight times without issue.

However, despite Xiao Xixi’s fondness for the ‘Green Canteen’s’ offerings, the ‘rice bowl’ was simply too enormous, large enough for her to practically climb inside.

It was a well-known fact that a person could not consume an amount of food equal to their own body weight in a single meal.

After Xiao Xixi finished her chicken drumsticks and eggs, her tiny stomach felt utterly content.

Her previously flat, smooth abdomen had now rounded out, looking pleasantly plump beneath her fitted blue floral dress, resembling a small, inflated ball.

Nevertheless, even though Xiao Xixi felt full, the extravagant price of the meal weighed on her mind.

Staring at the mountain of food still piled high in her ‘rice bowl,’ Xiao Xixi ultimately decided, with firm resolve, to continue eating.

After all, the meal was exceedingly expensive, and truly delicious.

A short while later, Xiao Xixi, having eaten to twelve parts full, leaned back in her seat, utterly satisfied, and contentedly narrowed her eyes.

Due to her enormous consumption, her abdomen, beneath the fitted blue floral dress, had now swollen to the size of a small watermelon.

Su Mei, sitting opposite her, initially found the ‘watermelon belly’ and the young girl’s blissful expression rather endearing.

However, upon observing a few details, she couldn’t help but frown.

Su Mei’s observations focused on two points. First, there was Xiao Xixi’s current sitting posture.

It was common knowledge that if a girl wearing a skirt sat improperly, it could easily lead to ‘lucky pervert’ incidents. Therefore, girls typically sat with their knees together or their legs gathered to prevent accidental exposure.

Those with a more mature, ‘queenly’ demeanor might cross their legs. All three of these sitting postures shared a common benefit: they enhanced beauty and elegance without revealing anything untoward.

Xiao Xixi, however, had taken a different approach, adopting the wide-legged, uninhibited posture typically associated with ‘boys’.

In this posture, elegance was nonexistent; instead, it conveyed a sense of boorishness.

If this were the only issue, Su Mei might have simply attributed it to Xiao Xixi preferring this posture after her transformation.

But when combined with the young girl’s current action—using her two tender, white hands to grasp the hem of her skirt and repeatedly shake it to generate cool air and relieve the heat—Su Mei drew a conclusion.

It was the very same issue they had just discussed: Xiao Xixi, deep down, had not yet truly recognized herself as a girl.

Regarding the young girl’s unconscious habit, Su Mei, as a well-traveled peak master, quickly devised a suitable solution.

The idea was quite simple: she merely needed to discuss this cognitive issue with the Qingluan Sect elders. After all, the elders also had disciples under their charge.

Wouldn’t it be ideal to have the entire sect help this young girl establish a correct understanding of female values?

****

Having eaten her fill, Xiao Xixi was blissfully enjoying the sensation of satiety in her seat when an inexplicable chill suddenly swept over her.

She instinctively opened her eyes, only to find her beautiful master, Su Mei, had silently moved from the opposite side and was now sitting beside her. When had she done that?

At this moment, Su Mei’s deep, peach-blossom eyes were fixed on Xiao Xixi’s restlessly moving hands.

Feeling that gaze, and sensing her master’s unspoken but palpable displeasure, Xiao Xixi suddenly remembered that she needed to act more like a girl in front of her master.

Realizing this, she reluctantly stopped her hand movements.

Why the reluctance? Because when wearing a long skirt, shaking the hem to create a cool, upward draft was simply unparalleled in its refreshing sensation.

After Xiao Xixi obediently retracted her restless hands, she then, under her master Su Mei’s gentle gaze, adjusted her improper sitting posture to a maidenly, knees-together stance.

As she pressed her two slender, pale, and smooth calves together, Xiao Xixi discovered for the first time that this sitting posture was, surprisingly, quite comfortable. It felt wonderfully smooth and cool.

****

Ordinarily, after finishing a meal in the refectory, diners were expected to clear their ‘bowls’ and quietly leave the table, allowing others a suitable environment.

However, Xiao Xixi, unable to eat another bite, gazed at the large ‘bowl’ on the table, still half-full with the food she had just consumed.

Seeing so much food remaining, Xiao Xixi genuinely felt reluctant to leave. After all, regardless of waste, this single meal had cost one primeval stone. If she truly walked away now, Xiao Xixi knew she would feel a pang of heartache for quite some time.

As she looked at the bowl, Xiao Xixi quickly recalled her earlier confusion.

So, why exactly did the Qingluan Sect design this bowl to be so large and the price so exorbitant?

Sitting beside the young girl, Su Mei had observed Xiao Xixi’s worried, reluctant expression and quickly surmised the doubts in her heart.

After a brief moment of thought, Su Mei gently placed her hand on Xiao Xixi’s snow-white head.

Feeling the warmth on her head, Xiao Xixi instinctively looked to her side, only to see her beautiful master, Su Mei, observing with keen interest the ‘poor’ male and female cultivators at the table they had mentioned earlier.

Though Xiao Xixi was slightly puzzled by Su Mei’s head-patting gesture, seeing no sign of her speaking, she quickly followed Su Mei’s gaze forward with curiosity.

Through her observation, she soon made an astonishing discovery.

At the table ahead, the four individuals, despite having ‘rice bowls’ as large as her own, had already emptied them during the time Xiao Xixi had been eating.

Just as Xiao Xixi marveled at the immense appetites of these ‘cultivators,’ she heard her master, Su Mei, slowly speak in a low voice beside her.

“Xiao Xi, do you see how happily they are eating?”

Upon hearing Su Mei’s question, Xiao Xixi shifted her attention from the ‘rice bowls’ to the cultivators’ faces.

It was then that Xiao Xixi noticed all four of them wore expressions of agony. One person even had numerous beads of sweat on their forehead. Seeing this, Xiao Xixi couldn’t help but worry about their health, as eating too much was not a good thing.

Just as Xiao Xixi prepared to stand up, she found her small head gently pressed down. A little confused, she looked at her master beside her.

Her master, Su Mei, wasn’t looking at her but rather at the ‘suffering’ male cultivator with a nostalgic gaze. As if speaking to herself or reminiscing, she slowly said, “Initially, when I first arrived at the Qingluan Sect, I found their practices very strange.

Why design such a large bowl, and why charge one primeval stone, such an exorbitant price? But after cultivating for so long, I now find this design rather interesting.”

Xiao Xixi was bewildered by Su Mei’s mention of ‘interesting,’ as she simply couldn’t grasp the logic behind the design.

As she pondered, her beautiful master beside her slowly turned her captivating face towards Xiao Xixi, then revealed a knowing smile and said, “Xiao Xi, the food is delicious, isn’t it? But one primeval stone for a single meal, doesn’t that hurt your heart? So, how many days will you go between meals?”

Su Mei’s words, taken alone, sounded like a simple inquiry.

However, combining them with the ‘cultivators’ at the front table, who were forcing themselves to eat despite being full, and her comment about ‘how many days will you go between meals,’ Xiao Xixi, as a university student, suddenly seemed to grasp the reason for the ‘large bowls’ and ‘expensive food.’

Having read the entire novel, Xiao Xixi knew that cultivators in this world enjoyed certain privileges in all aspects of life. One could say that the ‘cultivator’ profession in this world was as beloved and popular as ‘civil servants’ in the real world.

Because this profession was so appealing, just like applying for civil service in reality, a considerable number of people came to the Qingluan Sect seeking immortality.

If ‘cultivation’ were likened to ‘civil service,’ then the Qingluan Sect could be seen as a large ‘cultivation’ school. And the ‘one primeval stone’ for each meal would be the tuition fee paid by the students (cultivators).

If viewed this way, Xiao Xixi found the high price of the Qingluan Sect’s food perfectly understandable.

The Qingluan Sect (school) intended to use the pressure of ‘tuition fees (meal costs)’ to ignite the cultivation motivation of its students (cultivators).

After all, people’s growth rate is often involuntarily accelerated under a certain amount of pressure.

As for why the bowls were so large, that was even easier to understand. Eating back and forth wasted time. Wouldn’t eating one full meal that lasted three or four days allow for better cultivation?

After Xiao Xixi finally sorted out this ‘logic’ in her mind, she, as a modern person, found this approach extremely inhumane.

However, she had to admit that she somewhat approved of the Qingluan Sect’s ‘forced pressure’ learning method. After all, on her way there, she had felt that the entire Qingluan Sect was permeated with an atmosphere of ‘internal competition’ in cultivation.

While she agreed with the concept, Xiao Xixi couldn’t help but feel a headache coming on. She suddenly remembered that she was only in the early stage of Qi Refining, still a long way from the ‘Qi Condensation stage,’ where one could enter seclusion.

Leaving aside the issue of cultivation level for a moment, another enormous problem now loomed before her.

Her spiritual root was the ‘Lustful Spiritual Root,’ one in a million.

In the original novel, ‘Xiao Xixi,’ though arrogant and domineering, had to be said to genuinely strive in cultivation alongside the villain ‘Xiao Changgu,’ cultivating ceaselessly—a true king of internal competition.

However, cultivation advancement in this world relied solely on refining the ‘spiritual root.’ This meant that no matter how hard ‘Xiao Xixi’ tried, she would remain in the ‘Qi Refining stage’ until she experienced the ‘Degenerate’ event.

Thinking of this, Xiao Xixi couldn’t help but feel a headache. After all, being lustful was out of the question.

But if she wasn’t lustful, she couldn’t reach the ‘Qi Condensation stage.’ Without ‘Qi Condensation,’ she would have to eat. No food meant hunger, hunger meant paying the Qingluan Sect for meals (one primeval stone). Being broke meant borrowing money, and if she couldn’t spend the borrowed money, she’d be threatened. If she still couldn’t pay after being threatened, the only recourse would be to be lustful.

After running a large mental calculation, Xiao Xixi couldn’t help but reveal an incredibly bitter smile on her cherry-red lips.

Su Mei, who had been observing Xiao Xixi for a long time, saw this bitter smile and assumed the young girl had finally understood. To further motivate Xiao Xixi in her cultivation, Su Mei’s crimson lips slowly parted.

Immediately, a charming yet gentle voice reached Xiao Xixi’s ears: “Xiao Xi, since you now understand that the sect’s expensive meals are for your own good, I’ll put this meal’s cost on your tab for now. You owe me one primeval stone, so remember to pay it back quickly!”

Xiao Xixi, who had just been pondering how to avoid ‘debt,’ became utterly stunned upon hearing Su Mei’s words. At this moment, only one thought occupied Xiao Xixi’s mind.

‘So, wuwuwu, this meal wasn’t a treat for me after all?’

‘Master, something is wrong with you!’