Yang Qing unaware of the commotion he had left behind from his interaction with the lilies, was already outside the Scorpion lotus sect. His eyes shone with a runic light as the protective ward that hid the sect from the outside world came into view. It was in the shape of a scorpion and was a blend of attack and defense, with its attacking aspect being the most potent of the two.

From its strength, Yang Qing had no doubt it could kill a peak-stage core formation expert. It could be considered to be at the very top amongst orange-grade arrays.

Though it was lethal against those in the core formation realm, to him it was as fragile as a spider's web. A wave of his hand and it would shatter. The illusory effect was useless against him also as he could see every single thing that was happening in the sect.

The disciples were hard at work in their duties. The youngest of the disciples whom Yang Qing assumed to be outer sect disciples because of where their abodes were, their cultivation bases, the color of their robes, and their demeanor, those disciples were busy rushing all over the place, some were headed to the lecture hall for their classes, others to what looked like a library, others to the alchemy halls, others to the gardens, with others passionately showing off to their fellow disciples on a cultivation art they learned.

The more senior disciples, whom Yang Qing assumed to be the inner disciples, were more reserved and contained, unlike the younger disciples. Some were meditating, others were practicing their cultivation arts, pausing every now and then to evaluate their performance, and others were having discussions with the elders of their sect.As for the elders, some were guiding disciples, while others were in deep seclusion. Yang Qing managed to spot his target, the sect master of the sect. It was a mature-looking woman who looked to be in her forties, with a slender face, fair skin, black flowing hair, and an air of wisdom and stability around her. She was also the person with the highest cultivation base, with her being at the ninth stage of the core formation realm, and based on the fluctuations Yang Qing sensed from her, it wouldn't be long now before reaching the tenth stage.

Her name was Yu Mei and she was walking side by side with an elderly man next to her who had a similar cultivation base to her, while at the back of her, she was shadowed by three young cultivators who were all at the early stages of the core formation realm.

From the awestruck looks they were shooting at her, Yang Qing guessed they might be her disciples, as the three wore robes similar to the inner disciples despite their cultivation base which Yang Qing found rather peculiar because their cultivation bases matched some of the elders in the sect, but yet the robes seemed to delineate they were still disciples.

The object of discussion between Yu Mei and the elderly man seemed to be the delicate-looking crystal-white colored scorpions whose carapaces looked like they had been engraved with white vines with lotus on them. The size and number of the lotus seemed to vary from one scorpion to another.

The scorpions were lotus scorpions whose venom if refined well made one of the best cures for all kinds of toxins and miasma owing to the natural immunity of the scorpion which was immune to over a thousand different poisons. Which wasn't strange considering their most favored meals were toxic spiritual herbs and spirit beasts, followed by areas with dense miasma, yin energy, or spiritual qi with dense water elements.

They released a mist at night that purified the spiritual qi around them to make it gentle enough for their young ones to absorb easily. They were one of the few gregarious spirit beasts that liked to live as a herd.

Yang Qing had heard that their flesh was incredibly tasty but despite his gluttonous nature, he would never eat one. They were gentle and sociable creatures which could be seen in how the younger ones playfully congregated around Yu Mei, the elderly man, and the three disciples.

Once they bonded with someone, they were fiercely protective of them even at the risk of their lives. That was how the Scorpion Lotus Sect came to be. The jade slip given to Yang Qing mentioned that the founder was saved by a lotus scorpion couple that he was close with. They ended up in danger and the couple sacrificed their lives to give him and their brood of three lotus scorpions a chance at survival. The founder escaped safely and ended up raising the three lotus scorpions in the place of their parents. This was how he ended up in Camel Lake Town which had a gentle yin environment suitable for their growth.

Yu Mei was a descendant of that founder. The Order appraised her of her ancestry when she tried to join. Her talents were not sufficient to join but because of her background, which she had no idea of, she was given an alternative way of joining, and that was becoming a source, and in exchange, the Order would secretly support her and the sect by association.

The Scorpion Lotus Sect still existed by the time she was told of her relation with it, but it had been falling on hard times and wasn't what it was today. It only had a single core formation expert holding things together, unlike now when they had about thirty of them.

The flesh of the lotus scorpion was great for refining a cultivator's soul and in terms of purging toxins from one's body, it worked just as well as their refined venom, even better, because its flesh didn't require the hands of a skilled alchemist to transform it a usable form. One could eat it as is.

Because of its value, the Scorpion Lotus Sect which had a herd of them, was constantly targetted, falling on hard times. The reason they held on so long was because of support from one of the noble clans of the Sunbirch Kingdom.

After Yu Mei accepted her role as an informant, she was trained in everything about nurturing lotus scorpions, the knowledge even exceeding what the Scorpion Lotus Sect had accumulated since it was founded, and using the Green Jade Pavilion, the Order funneled resources into the sect, helping it develop into what it was today.

Because of her ancestry, and the struggles the sect had, her integration into the sect had been somewhat easy, which was further helped by her sincere efforts to protect her ancestor's legacy. She had grown up alone, unaware of her background. When she joined the Order, she had been an orphan who had been working at an inn. She fled the inn when the owner made inappropriate advances prompting her to slap him. Fearing for her safety and no one to turn to, she made her way to the Order in the hopes that she would be accepted and find shelter under its wings.

For someone who felt like nothing, had nothing, and believed she would live a nothing life, finding out about her ancestor, his story, and the legacy he left behind, she finally had something, something worth living for. She was not nothing.

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