Qingge had bitten down on her lip in concentration as she stared down her opponent, pearls of sweat running down her face. Her mind raced as she sought for an opening in their defense, her hand clutched tightly, ready to strike true.

Then she found it: a mistake. A second of hesitation, considering if this might be a trap, then she made her move.

"Queen to C4, Check. I've got you now."

This was the game. She'd win for sure this time!

"Rook to C6."

Daiyu didn't show any signs of disturbance, even though she'd just been forked. She was playing mind games and Qingge knew it.

"Queen takes F7."

Daiyu smiled, cutting Qingge's celebration short.

"Congratulations, you got my queen. Rook to E1, check."

"Wait, you…"

"I am waiting."

"…"

"…"

"Queen to F1.", Qingge pressed out through her grinding teeth.

"Rook takes, checkmate."

Qingge starred at the board in disbelief – she had been doing so well! Daiyu continued to smile with the innocence of a freshly budding flower. Maybe her friend was actually a century-old cultivator in disguise, because she sure was scheming like one.

"You look at me like I just stabbed you in the back."

"You tricked me!"

"Do you announce to your sparring partners when you're about to do a feint? No wonder physical combat isn't your thing!"

"I… this is different."

"Sure. You have ample time to think your responses through here."

The two stared at each other for several moments, Qingge pouting and Daiyu still keeping her haughty smile. Qingge was the first to crack up. Then, as if a floodgate had been forced open, they both broke into laughter.

"I can't believe I'm still this bad! It looked so simple from the outside.", Qingge said, barely catching her breath.

"You've only been playing for half a month, you're doing just fine."

"Feels like longer, honestly."

"Not used to things taking a long time anymore, miss direct disciple?"

Qingge grinned.

"You could try catching up to me instead of complaining. How's that going, by the way?", she added in a more serious tone.

Daiyu took a moment to think before answering.

"Quite well, honestly. Should take no more than a month or so until my core is fully liquified."

"Good. I need you to hurry up so you can stop teasing me about it."

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Since Qingge had become Master Wei's disciple, she'd started helping Daiyu out with cultivation resources where she could. Of course she didn't pass on what her master gave her, since that would have been massively disrespectful, but she had a considerable income as general manager, increased once more when she had reached Soul Realization, and Master Wei had made it clear that she could use that any way she desired.

Daiyu adamantly refused to accept her help for free, so they had instead agreed that Qingge would give her interest-free 'loans'. Qingge didn't plan on ever collecting them, and they had started joking that Daiyu would simply wait for some long forgotten hidden ancestor of hers died and left her a massive inheritance, from which she could pay her back. Her friend barely remembered her parents, much less any other family, and this was her way of laughing about it.

Daiyu, like a considerable percentage of disciples, came from a humble background, her talent for cultivation having been discovered entirely on accident. Like all the others with that sort of backstory, she'd been forced to cut ties with her mortal parents from the moment she'd been accepted into the sect – not because the sect strictly forbade such contacts, but simply because it didn't support them. As disciples, they couldn't travel beyond the sect grounds on her own and for their mortal parents the trip would mean dangers and costs they couldn't shoulder. The children would gradually take on the sect as their new family and the parents would need to content themselves with the knowledge that their children would live the supposedly glorious life of cultivators.

"I'll get there, but you'll have to put up with it for a while longer."

"That's just great."

"Another round?", Daiyu questioned, gesturing at the board.

"Nah, I've had enough for now. Maybe in the evening. Speaking of that, what's for dinner today?"

Daiyu was still long way to go before breaking through to the Soul Realization Realm, so she hadn't been considered for the combatants at all. Nevertheless, when she had heard that Qingge would join the army she had immediately jumped to volunteer as an aid, securing a job in the kitchen.

Cooking was a rare skill under cultivators in large sects, but Daiyu had always kept her interests a lot more diversified than most of her peers. As one of the few cultivators in a host of mortals, she had immediately been made one of the head cooks, which afforded her a good amount of free time, especially in the afternoon, that she and Qingge would mostly spend together.

If she was honest with herself, Qingge was massively grateful for this company, even though she had initially tried to object to Daiyu coming along. It helped quell her anxieties and pass the time in what was otherwise a pretty monotonous journey.

"Fish and rice."

"Again?"

"It's all we've been catching, but if you happen to see a boar catching a swim out here, do tell me. Otherwise, you'll have to become an elder first – they eat quite well, as I'm told."

"It's on my list, but point well made."

"Sure, it is. Until then, be happy you've been assigned as a squad captain. The lower ranks get pretty much the same stew every day and you really don't wanna know what's in there, trust me. Not to speak of the servants; fancy some hardtack so dry you can't even bite it without soaking it in water first?"

Qingge grimaced.

"Can we really not afford better?"

"I didn't make the plans.", Daiyu answered, shrugging. "I think the official rationale is that every spirit stone used on storing fresh goods won't be used on the ship's weapons and defensive formations later. But between us, I think that's bullshit. The upkeep of the formations we use for that is minimal and the low-grade spirit stones they consume wouldn't be of much help for the more powerful formations anyway. Manpower plays a limited role, but I know firsthand that we could be doing more."

"So?"

"Figure it's got to do with the hierarchical order. You know how people are. The Elders can't be eating the same stuff as everybody else out of principle, or half of them will feel slighted. And then it keeps going like that all the way down the chain, just like it does everywhere else."

"Could have guessed that… still shitty."

Daiyu shrugged again.

"What can you do, 'cept wiggling your way through as best as you can? I can make sure everyone working with me gets fed well enough at least, perks of working in the kitchen. They deserve it as well, toiling away as they are. They're no less busy than a cultivator is with their training, I tell you!"

The two remained silent for a long moment. Qingge hadn't intended for their talk to go to such an unsavory topic, it just happened like this from time to time. She knew from experience that it was hard to return to a more lighthearted topic from here and it was getting late anyway.

"Speaking of training, I think it's time I go look after my squad."

"Tell them I said hi."

"They don't even know you."

"They should by now, if you've been telling them I said hi as I told you."

Qingge chuckled.

"I'll tell them. See you at dinner?"

"See you at dinner. Good luck with your training."

"Good luck with your… well… fish."

They shared another laughter before Qingge headed out, making her way towards the training grounds.

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