Inside the ring.
Zhao Mei wandered around aimlessly. As her only point of reference was the bed in the middle of nowhere, she could only go so far before she got lost.
In the vast space where only darkness was in sight, Zhao Mei would obviously not want to get lost.
However, she could not sit still either, as anxiousness would pervade her mind if she did.
Her mind was in a dilemma. She sat down on the bed as she massaged her forehead.
Zhao Mei gradually relaxed as she applied massaging techniques she knew onto herself. Her mind was cleared of worries, albeit temporarily.
As she relaxed further and further, she squinted her eyes, noticing that something was wrong.
W... What?!
The Earth energy in this place is so dense!
Zhao Mei was surprised. Instantly, her mind was focused on one thing, and one thing only: cultivate.
She closed her eyes and sat in a cross-legged position, inhaling and exhaling.
'"Inhale the energy, exhale the impurities," this is the basic foundation of any cultivation technique.
Even a six-year-old is taught the very same thing.
Every cultivation technique had its own little quirks and advantages, but if one were to compare all of them, they would have one similarity, and it is this.'
Zhao Mei's mind was full of unnecessary thoughts such as this.
Immersed in cultivation, all she could see with closed eyes was pitch black. Well, even if she opened them, all she would see would still be pitch black... Whatever!
As such, unknowingly, Zhao Mei had opened her eyes. With there being no difference between the two, combined with the fact that Zhao Mei had focused her mind on cultivation, she had not noticed that her eyes had opened on their own!
A blurry figure approached Zhao Mei slowly. He had a look of indifference, before suddenly clicking his tongue. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. To not cover yourself up all this time?"
"Hmm?" Zhao Mei had thought that the man who approached her was just one of her unnecessary thoughts since she had the belief that her eyes were currently closed.
She raised her head very carefully as she studied the man.
He was about the same age as her, only slightly older.
He had extremely handsome facial features, ones that looked a little familiar.
With slightly long hair that reached up to his back, he wore a white robe which exuded an aura of gracefulness.
Zhao Mei nodded her head approvingly. She was satisfied with the image that her head constructed for some reason.
"Hmm, and then...?" The man looked at her with tender eyes, speaking with a playful smile on his face.
The string of words Zhao Mei heard left her a bit confused. Why would my mind have such weird thoughts?
Suddenly, the man had torn her clothes off completely!
After that, the extremely handsome man had taken out clothes from his storage ring! Furthermore, it looked like the same storage ring Li Bai possessed.
The cracks on the ring were exactly identical to the one she saw on the child's finger.
She could never forget the image of the ring since she had engraved it on her mind when Li Bai took out the Sacred- no, Heavenly Cotton!
Zhao Mei examined the clothes. 'Hmm... they look really comfortable!'
Suddenly, the man put his hands behind her, and covered her bare skin with the clothes.
'Hmm? Wait... is this not a construct of my imagination?' Zhao Mei felt bewildered as she felt the clothes touch her back.
"Eh, what? No fair... Fine, I won't do it!" The man started to talking to someone she could not see. He had his eyes closed as he spoke.
'This man is peculiar... I can't see through his cultivation.' Zhao Mei thought as she tried to scan the other party of his level.
'This can only mean two things - one, he has absolutely no cultivation, or two, he is stronger than me!'
Even if the man was in the same cultivation level as her, First Level Godly Mark, she would sense something!
Similarly, even if someone had absolutely no talent, even if that someone has been crippled, she would still sense a faint trace of energy in his body.
The only believable option was that he was, at least, a level higher than her.
"But..." Zhao Mei had a hard time grasping the situation. After all, except if it was that case, it was pretty much impossible for one to reach the Godly Mark at such an early age.
The only reason that she could do it was because her body was special, not to mention the catch that came with being able to cultivate this fast! She would die at an early age of 20 as a price for absorbing this much Dark energy and tipping the balance.
And that specific exception was that one needed to be an extremely exceptional Marked Genius!
A Marked Genius would typically appear in about every fifty years, so the chances of one meeting one of those people by accident was almost zero.
Even for Marked Geniuses, reaching this realm of cultivation by the age of 19 would be hard!
Not to mention the fact that if one was an exceptional Marked Genius, they'd already be known by everybody in the country. Her mother and father would personally groom him, and she would definitely have seen him already, making him, at least, an acquaintance.
As such, she found it hard to believe that a stranger would suddenly be a Marked Genius!
'...So he is a construct of my imagination?' Zhao Mei came to a conclusion.
"...yeah, yeah, fine. You win." The man finished conversing and turned his attention to Zhao Mei, who was clearly contemplating something. Her eyes were closed as her expression would change from time to time, from one of realization to one of disbelief and from that to confusion and so on.
The man couldn't help but feel amused at the sight of her face. He let out a light chuckle.
Zhao Mei's thought process was disturbed as she heard the man suddenly laughing... Did she do something funny?
"Meimei," the man beckoned.
"Eh... huh?" Zhao Mei was startled as she heard her name come out from the man's mouth. 'How does he know my name?'
"You're probably wondering 'How does he know my name?' by now." The man said as he nodded.
"Wha- what?" Zhao Mei widened her eyes as she heard the other party's voice. 'Hmm... he must be the very clever type!'
"Well, yes, I am the clever type!" The man said with a teasing smile.
