The moment they made their way out of the tunnel leading down to the underground forest, Sofie let go of Yang Meng"s hand and quickly ran into the distance. Leaving behind a bewildered Yang Meng and Chen Chun, who both just stared at the Sofie slowly disappearing in the distance."I better get going… See you another time senior brother Chen Chun!"
Yang Meng said as he ran towards the disappearing Sofie. Not forgetting to wave goodbye to Chen Chun in the process.
"Wh-what just happened?"
Confused and bewildered at suddenly seeing his junior brother and sister disappearing as soon as they reached the surface, Chen Chun only managed to get out of his confused state when both of them were already long gone.
…
"Yang Meng!?"
Sofie called out in a surprised voice as she looked at the chubby boy running besides her.
"What? Do you think that you are the only one hungry after not getting something to eat for so long?"
In a disgruntled voice, Yang Meng looked at the surprised face of Sofie with a sharp look in his eyes.
Sofie"s surprise from seeing her chubby friend running full speed towards the dining hall together with her slowly died down. After all, Yang Meng was someone who could eat as much as her. Why would he not be hungry as well?
Remembering about their journey up the moonlight mountain. Sofie realized that she was the only one complaining about there not being any food, while Yang Meng never complained once. Even though he was most likely just as hungry as she was.
Feeling ashamed about how she acted earlier, Sofie felt her face flushing up a bit.
"Hm? Is anything wrong?"
Noticing the sudden shade of red appearing on Sofie"s face, Yang Meng asked in a concerned voice.
"N-n-no!"
Growing embarra.s.sed after being noticed, Sofie quickly sped up and ran even faster towards the dining hall.
"Wh wait up!"
Seeing Sofie suddenly speeding up all of a sudden, Yang Meng tried his best to follow. Resulting in Yang Meng trying to catch up, while Sofie tried to run away from him.
Luckily for Sofie. The dining hall was not too far away, at least close enough for her stamina to hold up.
So even with the better stamina of the two, Yang Meng couldn"t catch up with Sofie"s short term sprint.
…
"Hah… Hah… Hah…"
Exhausted to an extreme degree. The first thing Sofie did when she arrived at the dining hall, was gathered a few chairs and set them close together for her to lie down on. Earning a few weird looks from nearby disciples, wondering why she would bother making a chair-bed in the dining hall instead of just sleeping in a bed at home.
"Why did you run so fast? Were you that hungry?"
Yang Meng"s face appeared above Sofie as he looked down at her with a unknown glint in his eyes.
"O-of course! I haven"t eaten for so long after all, so of course I would be hungry!"
"I see…"
Clearly not believing what she had just said, Yang Meng decided to just ignore it and made his way towards the tables filled with food.
The food was still something you could go up and take however much you wanted or just order something to eat from a waiter or waitress.
Yang Meng quickly build a mountain of food on his plate and returned to the table where Sofie was laying down on the chairs, which she had gathered together to form her chair-bed.
Looking down at the chairs lined up in a row with Sofie laying lazily on top of them, Yang Meng realized that all the chairs from the table had been taken into Sofie"s chair-bed.
"Sofie… Can I get a chair?"
Hearing the slightly annoyed voice, Sofie, who was still exhausted from running earlier, looked up and spotted Yang Meng and his towering mountain of food.
*Growl*
Feeling her exhaustion disappearing like it never happened in the first place, Sofie quickly flew up from the chairs and made her way towards the tables filled with food as she remembered the reason, she was here in the first place.
"…"
All Yang Meng could do, was helplessly look on as Sofie started building her own mountain of food as well. Wondering where the sudden boost in energy came from.
…
"So, when do you want and turn in the moon flower for the mission?"
Having finished the food mountain in front of him, Yang Meng asked in a serious voice, while looking over at Sofie, who was still engrossed in eating the food in front of her.
"Hm? I doewnt knwow"
Reluctantly turning her attention away from the food in front of her, Sofie looked over at Yang Meng and tried to answer to the best that she could with a mouth full of food.
"Please don"t speak with food in your mouth…"
Feeling like he had suddenly become her parent, Yang Meng corrected her poor behaviour.
"S-sorry… I-I don"t know when we should turn in the moon flower for the mission, w-when do you think?"
Embarra.s.sed at being caught talking with food in her mouth, Sofie quickly apologised.
"Hm… No problem, how about we go to the mission hall early in the morning? If we do it before eating breakfast, there shouldn"t be so many people at the mission hall."
"Why not just do it now?"
Confused about this, Sofie decided to ask.
"Well… Going now would be a bad idea, as most of the people are returning from missions are going over there to complete their mission at the mission hall now. Meaning the place is completely filled up to the brim with disciples… Way worse than the time we first came there to accept a mission…"
Saying so, Yang Meng narrowed his eyes slightly. Clearly not willing to go to the mission hall in the rush hours.
"Worse than the first time we went there…?"
Sofie blanked out for a moment when she remembered how she got lost the first time she entered the mission hall.
Back then, the entire mission hall was completely filled up to the brim, but that was not even the rush hour yet… Just thinking about how busy and crowded the current mission hall was, left Sofie shivering slightly.
…
As both Sofie and Yang Meng had agreed to go to the mission hall early the next day. Deep inside the underground forest, Yue Wan and Chen Long had finally stopped their verbal dispute.
"W-where is Sofie?!"
"B-brother?"
Both of them quickly realized that they were alone in the glowing forest and not far away from them, a small note was nailed into the side of a tree.
The note was glowing in a bright colour, so it was easy to spot even inside the glowing underground forest.
"Ah, there is something over here!"
Discovering the brightly glowing note, Chen Long quickly made his way to it and read it out loud.
[To Chen Long and Yue Wan]
[h.e.l.lo brother and Yue Wan, I have taken the junior brother and sister back to the sect, seeing as both of you were too "busy" with your own things]
[Sincerely Chen Chun]
"CHEN CHUN!" "BROTHER!"
Both Yue Wan and Chen Long felt angry that they were left behind, but could not really say anything to it as both of them had really been too absorbed in their verbal fight earlier…
Not sparing even a second longer, both of them used their cultivation to the fullest and made their way back towards the sect grounds.