"Here, take this, you'll need it to enter the Inner Court since you're still an Outer Court disciple. You can also locate Core Disciple Fei's living quarters with this." The sect elder handed Yuan a token after writing a few things down in his book.
"Thank you," Yuan accepted the token and turned to walk out of the Mission Hall shortly after.
After leaving the Mission Hall, Yuan followed the map in the token to Fairy Fei's living quarters.
An hour later, Yuan reached the end of the Outer Court that was also a border between the Outer Court and Inner Court.
"I would like to enter the Inner Court for a mission," Yuan handed the token to one of the sect elders stationed there.
"Hmm… let me see…"
The sect elder looked at the token and nodded, "I see… Okay, here's your permission slip. Make sure you don't lose it, and you are only allowed to stay within the Inner Court for 4 hours. Once your time is up, the permission slip will destroy itself. If you're caught inside the Inner Court without a permission slip, you'll be punished, so make sure you keep that in mind. Of course, you can extend the time by coming back here. However, I am only allowed to extend your time if you still haven't completed your mission."
"I understand," Yuan nodded.
After entering the Inner Court, Yuan continued to follow the path towards Fairy Fei's house, and as an Outer Court disciple inside the Inner Court, Yuan naturally attracted the gazes of the Inner Court disciples there.
Although he'd encountered a few Outer Court disciples on his way to Fairy Fei's house, it was only like one out of one thousand disciples that were Outer Court disciples there.
Many minutes later, he arrived in the area where Core Disciples live.
"Let's see… building #7…" Yuan walked around the spacious area and looked at each building individually.
After walking for about ten minutes, Yuan suddenly stopped walking when a distinct sound entered his ears.
"This sound… Someone's playing the zither. It's most likely Disciple Fei."
Yuan proceeded to follow the sound of the zither and arrived in front of this large building a few minutes later.
Right as Yuan stepped onto the doorstep, the zither music stopped, and the sound of people clapping followed immediately afterward.
"That was amazing, Senior Sister Fei! It's only been a week since I last heard you play the zither and you have already improved to the degree where I almost couldn't recognize your music!"
"Me too! If I didn't watch you play, I would've thought it was someone else!"
"Congratulations, Senior Sister! Your Zither Arts has improved to another level yet again! At this rate, it won't be long before you are able to use 'that' Zither Technique!"
Yuan could hear a couple of unique voices coming from the other side of the house, and they were all female voices.
*Knock* *Knock*
Yuan knocked on the door a few moments after the zither music stopped.
"Are we missing someone today? I thought we weren't expecting any more guests today."
"I don't think anyone else is supposed to be here."
"I'll go see who it is…"
A few moments later, a pretty Inner Court disciple opened the door and appeared before Yuan.
"An Outer Court disciple? Do you know whose door you're knocking? What do you want?" The Inner Court disciple asked Yuan with an irritated expression on her face, mostly because she saw Yuan as a nuisance who was disturbing their time with Fairy Fei.
"I'm here to see Disciple Fei," Yuan said to her.
"D-Disciple Fei?" The Inner Court disciple looked at Yuan with a gawking expression on her face, almost like she was in disbelief.
"Y-You're just a mere Outer Court disciple! How dare you address a Core Disciple so casually? Do you think you are friends with her or something?! Get out of here before I shove my foot up your butt!"
Yuan was speechless. Why did the Inner Court disciple suddenly become so aggressive?
"Calm down, Junior Sister Feng. A young lady shouldn't speak so vulgarly, especially not when you're in Senior Sister Fei's house. What's with the commotion, anyway?" Another Inner Court disciple appeared before them.
"Hmph! Blame this disrespectful Outer Court disciple!" Disciple Feng said while pointing at Yuan's innocent-looking face.
"Hm?" The second Inner Court disciple looked at Yuan's handsome face for a moment before speaking, "What did you do to anger my Junior Sister so much?"
"I… I don't know." Yuan shrugged his shoulders in an innocent manner.
"Y-You little thing!" Disciple Feng immediately fumed again. "How dare you say that you don't know! You addressed Senior Sister Fei as 'Disciple Fei' like you're her friend! That is unacceptable for an Outer Court disciple!"
Yuan looked at her with wide eyes, "Really? What's wrong with calling a fellow disciple 'disciple'?"
"Are you seeing this, Senior Sister Ying? This guy has no awareness at all!"
The other Inner Court disciple shook her head with a bittersweet smile on her face, and she said, "You're here for Senior Sister Fei, right? Since you were able to come here, it must have been approved by a sect elder. Why do you need to see her?"
Yuan then retrieved the mission paper and showed it to them, "I'm here for this."
"Let me see that…" Disciple Ying took the paper from his hands to look at it closely.
"Did you know about this? I didn't know that Senior Sister Fei had created a request in the Mission Hall. And who's this 'Yuan'?"
"Uhh… That would be—"
Before Yuan could even finish his sentence, another voice interrupted him, "What's going on out here? Who's outside disturbing my performance?"
A few moments later, Fairy Fei appeared before them.
"H-Hello…" Yuan said to her with a stiff smile on his face.
"Y-You are!" Fairy Fei's eyes widened with shock after seeing Yuan's face, and she staggered backward until she bumped into a wall.
