No need to panic, Sofie! We said to take a mission together, so wouldn't that mean he would be at the qi gathering realm area in the mission hall? Good! All I have to do now is find out where the area for the qi gathering realm is and I will be able to find Yang Meng!

Thinking this, Sofie calmed down and started looking around trying to find the area for people in the qi gathering realm.

Sadly, this proved difficult, as the other disciples constantly got in her way. Blocking her view from time to time. For the first time ever, Sofie wished that she wasn't as short as she was.

"W-why is everyone so high… I can't see anything from down here…" Sofie muttered quietly to herself as she felt despair slowly taking over, at this point even finding the exit was difficult. Going against the 'current' of disciples entering was not easy and from what she saw outside, there was another entrance for exit.

"Lost?" A voice came from behind her, nearly scaring the living out of her as she jumped in freight at the sudden voice besides her.

Turning around, Sofie saw an old man kindly smiling down at her. Looking closer, it was the same old man she saw lazing around in the hollow core area earlier. Meaning he was someone at the hollow core realm…

Sofie did not get scared when she was faced with someone who was most likely at the hollow core realm. This in turn made the old man interested in the little girl in front of him, as she had clearly seen him in the area for people at the hollow core realm.

"So, are you lost little girl?" The old man asked Sofie one more time.

Sofie was still wondering who the old man in front of her was and forgot to answer the question from him earlier.

"Y-yes…" Hearing him ask her again, Sofie quickly answered the question honestly in a somewhat low voice. Clearly ashamed that she had gotten lost.

"Haha, no need to worry about it. Most new disciples get lost when they go to mission hall for the first time, so where are you going? I do know my way around this place!" The old man said in a proud voice. Clearly trying to show off to the new disciple standing in front of him.

Sofie was reminded of a certain someone when she saw his behaviour, but quickly threw it to the back of her mind as she answered. "I-I'm trying to get to the area designated for the qi gathering realm."

"Hm… The area for people in the gathering realm is indeed a little harder to find, as it is located on the second floor. Haha, I really wonder why they placed it on the second floor instead of the first one. Did they want to make it harder to find for the new disciples?" The old man said as he looked to be in deep thought over the question.

Sofie felt like what the old man said might be true… At least she knew the elder generation from the sect loved to mess with the new disciples, she could see that from all the weird cultivation manuals present inside of the martial hall paG.o.da…

"T-thank you, I-I will be going then." Giving a light bow, Sofie was about to make her way towards the stairs going up to the second floor.

"No problem, just ask if there is anything." The old man said as he disappeared before Sofie could even respond.

Sofie really had no idea what to say, so she just stood still for a few seconds before recovering completely and walked up the stairs leading to the second floor of the mission hall.

…

The second floor of the mission hall was way smaller compared to the first floor. Looking out of the railing at the side, Sofie could look down and see the crowd of disciples constantly entering and exiting the mission hall.

The second floor was way more comfortable according to Sofie, as only few disciples were present here. They were either new disciples or just some seniors who had yet to break through to the qi condensation realm yet.

Looking around the disciples below, Sofie soon spotted the old man who helped her earlier and for some reason it came as no surprise to Sofie when she saw him half asleep in a couch inside of the hollow core area.

Sofie really felt that the old man was a lazy one.

Were all the elders of the scorching sun sect so… Unique?

Thinking further about it, Sofie discovered that all of the elders she had met yet were unique in some way. Only elder sun was behaving like a kind elderly man. The others were either lazy or had too much energy... Especially elder Mei Yue, she always found time and energy to train the new disciple. Yang Meng also told her on the way to the mission hall how 'energetic' elder Mei Yue was whenever she trained him.

Remembering Yang Meng, Sofie quickly looked around the second floor and quickly spotted an area with the word's [Qi Gathering] written on a sign above it. Most likely the designated area for disciples in the qi gathering realm.

…

Sofie soon made her way to the area for disciples at the qi gathering realm.

Looking around, Sofie found out that most of the disciples were gathered around a board with pieces of paper on them and upon inquiring a few of the senior disciples, Sofie found out that the board was called a mission board. Apparently, the missions you could do, was pinned onto these mission boards.

Inspecting an empty mission board, Sofie could see a few words above the mission board saying; [Missions for stage 1 – 3 Qi Gathering Realm: Spirit Herb Tending, Spirit Herb Gathering, Spirit Flower Tending and Spirit Flower Gathering].

On the mission board, Sofie spotted several different mission. The most interesting was one about spirit herb gathering.

[Gather Lesser Fire Spirit Flowers]

[Recommended Cultivation Realm: Stage 3 Qi Gathering]

[Objective: Gather at least 25 lesser fire spirit flowers and 5 fire spirit flowers]

[Reward: 1 mission point for every lesser fire spirit flower gathered, 5 mission points for every fire spirit flower gathered]

[Bonus Reward: Will also be given 1 low grade mortal spirit fruit for every low mortal grade fire spirit flower found]

Sofie had no idea what the difference between a lesser fire spirt flower, a fire spirit flower and a low mortal grade fire spirit flower was. All she knew was that the low mortal grade fire spirit flower was something rare as she could get a spirit fruit from it!

"Ah, there you are Sofie! I really thought that I lost you for a moment there." An unbearably annoying voice came from behind her and almost punched the origin of the annoying voice.

Yang Meng was standing there, with no idea whatsoever as to why Sofie suddenly looked at him like a tiger that was about to pounce its prey at any given moment.