William was finally seeing something other than amusement on Mei Lingxi’s face, and thankfully, it had nothing to do with him.

“It seems that my Senior is busy, Little Brother Wei,” Mei Lingxi sighed as she crossed her arms and tapped her forearm with her fingers, “I’m sure he will let us enter soon.”

He couldn’t do anything but nod his head as they waited in front of the sealed door leading to the third floor. With nothing better to do, he looked around, wondering if there was something else to check out. It was a little surprising that Mei Lingxi seemed to know exactly what he would find useful, but she could have missed something.

“Sister Lingxi, do you work here?” William asked unsurely, remembering how Lan Yin was incredulous at the idea of Mei Lingxi showing him around the Treasure Pavilion. It had made him assume she wasn’t a worker, but she knew her way around far too well, so perhaps that had been wrong.

“Indeed,” Mei Lingxi confirmed, “I’m the manager of the first two floors of the Treasure Pavilion.”

William uttered a soft sound in acknowledgment as everything suddenly made sense. It had been a little strange that almost everyone recognized who Mei Lingxi was. It was also strange when they followed her orders without fail, no matter how vague the orders were. Most of what he had seen were the slight motions of her hands followed by the attendants scrambling around. However, if they were familiar with her mannerisms because she was the manager, it made perfect sense.

He looked down at the Impact Boots and pushed down his irrational need to activate it and figure out how it worked, but he doubted Mei Lingxi would take kindly to that. She told him to try to activate the gauntlets because it was apparent he wouldn’t be able to do it. That same suggestion was missing when he put on the Impact Boots.

“Wait until you leave my Treasure Pavilion, Little Brother Wei,” Mei Lingxi could predictably tell what he was thinking, “I shudder to think of the consequences I will face if you get hurt.”

“Er, don’t you mean if I break something?”

Mei Lingxi laughed, “If something so minor could damage anything in the Treasure Pavilion, we would have been robbed blind long ago.”

William erased all thoughts of being impulsive and wondered why it had come into his mind in the first place. His need for doing things that couldn’t be explained by logic had mostly been erased by the time he had become an adult in his old world. It was almost as if his decision-making was regressing, and he had to fight against impulses he hadn’t had for over a decade.

Perhaps becoming a thirteen-year-old again came with all the annoyances the age was known for. It certainly made sense why William was so easily distracted by the women he had seen, and why he wanted to do something as idiotic as activating boots that should only be used in dire situations or during training.

Luckily, these impulses seemed to be minor annoyances that could be managed.

William saw Mei Lingxi frown before knocking hard on the door and muttering, “What is Senior Sun doing?” A few seconds later, her expression brightened before she stepped back from the door. “It seems that a guest has arrived on the third floor. Senior Sun will be able to let us through in a few minutes.”

“That’s good,” William smiled, though he was wondering if the time wouldn’t have been better spent searching through what was available on the first floor. That brought a question to the front of his mind.

“Why are we the only ones up here?” William asked, looking around the entirely empty second floor.

“This is a small place, Little Brother Wei. While Xuanjing City is large, nearly the entire population is mortal. Some cultivating clans occupy the city, but they wouldn’t be enough to make this Treasure Pavilion any larger. As for other cultivators, they only arrive to fix the arrays delivering food and other essentials for mortals when they are disrupted, or they come to the city to visit the various markets. The latter are almost always low-level cultivators, so they are useless to us.”

William remembered the crowd of cultivators waiting for the Qi Refining Rooms. Still, that wasn’t much when the city's population was over fifty million.

“So, which city has the most cultivators?” William asked curiously.

“Qingyun City,” Mei Lingxi said automatically, “I’m actually from there.”

William recognized that city as the one that was closest to the Jade Healing Sect. It made sense why Mei Lingxi seemed to have wanted to join the Sect when she was younger. Qingyun City was likely a significant source of the Sect’s disciples. Still, this didn't answer his question.

“Er, Sister Lingxi?” William asked sheepishly, “You haven’t told me why we’re alone on the second floor.”

“Haven’t I?” Mei Lingxi gained a slight dusting of red on her cheeks before it quickly disappeared, “The first floor has almost everything a traditional cultivator needs. The standard weapons, talismans, manuals, and the like. The second floor is more focused on unorthodox cultivation.” Mei Lingxi paused before carelessly waving her hand to the right of the floor, “And there are some medicinal pills, though the Jade Healing Sect had a near monopoly of them in the city.”

William didn’t like the sound of following an unorthodox path. While it might not be worse, it certainly meant there weren’t as many guinea pigs testing the path in front of him, so it was more likely that he would make some stupid mistake.

Just as he resolved to try and find himself a teacher for the sword, the sealed door cracked open as two people exited, one which William recognized.

“Elder Yu!” William exclaimed in surprise before bowing, noting that it was becoming natural for him to greet people in such a manner.

“Hm?” Elder Yu looked at him and said, “Wei Liang? What brings you to the Treasure Pavilion?”

William noticed that Mei Lingxi had stepped away from him and had glanced at the man next to Elder Yu.

[Name: Sun Jian | Level: ?]

“Sister Lingxi was instructed to let me pick three treasures by Prince Yuan,” William said truthfully before expanding when Elder Yu seemed a little displeased, “Senior Sister Yin is also here with me.”

“Is she?” Elder Yu looked around exaggeratedly, “Then why do I not see her?”

“Prince Yuan had a matter to discuss with Sentinel Lan, Elder Yu,” Mei Lingxi answered as she bowed deeply.

Elder Yu stared at her bowing form blankly before saying, “Sun Jian, do your juniors have no respect? What made this one think she could speak to me?”

William shivered, even though he wasn’t the target of those words. Perhaps it was the affectionate way Mei Lingxi referred to him, or maybe it was simply because his hormones were screaming at him to save the pretty woman. Whatever it was, he was about to open his mouth in her defense. Since Lan Yin looked up to Elder Yu, he could only imagine what the latter would do to someone she felt disrespected her. He hoped that being part of the Sect would give him some say.

Thankfully, William didn’t need to find out.

“Kneel!” Sun Jian barked at Mei Lingxi, who dropped to the floor immediately with a pale face, “Foolish girl! To have eyes but fail to recognize Mount Tai! What a waste!” Sun Jian gave Elder Yu a flattering smile, “Please forgive my junior, Elder Yu. I’ll teach her a harsh lesson myself on when to speak. Please, pay no mind to her.”

William would have giggled like a kid at hearing the infamous idiom being used for the first time, but he couldn’t find any amusement at the moment. The silence seemed to stretch for hours, even though it was a few seconds at most.

“Very well,” Elder Yu acquiesced, “Fetch Little Yin for me. I feel we have overstayed our welcome.”

Mei Lingxi immediately stood before bowing deeply and rushing off. Sun Jian did the same when he received a look from Elder Yu. Soon, the second floor was once again quiet.

“Wei Liang,” Elder Yu said slowly as she glanced at him.

“Yes, Elder Yu!” William bowed, terrified by the woman after what had just happened.

“You are lucky I was alerted. It would be best to avoid this place in the future. And if you must come here, avoid the third floor at all costs until someone from the Sect arrives to release you,” Elder Yu said solemnly, surprising him with a different warning than he expected.

It felt like his emotions were being played with as his fear was suddenly replaced with confused gratitude.