Then she will be having cold rice and some kind of mysterious cultivator chilli oil that she hopes isn't more expensive than her house for lunch, sitting wherever nearby seems like a reasonable place to sit down. 

And then, assuming that she isn't interrupted in her lunch plans, she will go looking for the refining hall. 

People mostly aren't going to interrupt her; They have their own plans to advance, with many going straight for intensive training.

One of the scribe types will only condescend at her a little bit while pointing out the path to the refining hall.

It's a large place, but looks comparatively humble when positioned next to the fancy houses and fancy intake hall. More practical; Heavy stone construction, mostly unadorned, no windows. There's a small office with a bored looking Senior manning a desk. She raises an eyebrow at Mei Cao. "What's a new outer disciple who's barely even awakened properly doing all the way up here, hmm? I don't suppose you have the necessary sect points to rent a production space or get someone to teach you already, do you?"

"I have not." What's a suitably subordinate way of saying she wanted to stickybeak. "I have never before had the chance to witness how cultivators refine. I felt it behooved me to see what the this place was like. It seemed like it might be the work most similar to the work I have done previously." 

Siiiigh. "Have some spine, kid. You're a cultivator now too, you know? What work was that? Smithing? Herbalism?" She sniffs the air. "...Charcoaling? Yes, charcoaling. Huh. Well, you're not entirely wrong. Listen up because I'm feeling teacher-like today! The two main production arts for cultivators are arrays, which consist of writing, weaving, drawing, or carving meaningful characters in very careful patterns on appropriate materials to achieve useful effects. This is also known as talismanry. And the other is our art, refining, the art of breaking up and mixing qi-rich materials into more useful and potent forms. It's something between cooking, alchemy, and bears more than zero resemblance to charcoaling. The refiner's art is the very foundation of a cultivation sect's prowess! We make the pills that talented cultivators eat to cultivate even faster! We produce the medicines that our dear friends in the Medicinal Department use to repair cultivators who have managed to injure themselves through ignorance, ineptitude, or ill luck! We even produce the qi-rich alloys, inks, and mixtures that talisman and array artists use for their own arts! It's a noble art you're interested in! But you're not going to be able to learn it as you are. Get to high red soul at least, and open an arm, head, and lung meridian first - and then you'll be fit to study the Argent Refining Art, basic form."

She pauses.

"Though, I suppose you might find someone willing to teach you the non-spiritual parts of the work, gathering and grading spirit herbs for example, before reaching that point, likely in exchange for performing their chores, or sect points. I, myself, am not interested in such an arrangement."

Refining sounds interesting, in a way. Like charcoaling but for everything. 

"Thank you for your guidance. I will return when I have met this standard, or when I am properly able to purchase teaching." 

She's unusually enthusiastic about it; she wants to match this senior's enthusiasm.

The desk minder stares at her for a moment, then chuckles and shrugs. "I could ask around for you if you like? Not even a favor. I'm bored and might get credit for it if there's a good match. Have you spent any time in wilds? Got any special skills aside from the patience and diligence of charcoaling?"

"I would appreciate it if you could! I am a capable enough hunter and forester, by the standards of my village if not by a cultivator's standards. I never left the wardstones. I tried to fight a spirit that snuck through the wards once? It went badly." 

"As a mortal? I'd imagine so! Okay... I'm Lia Hejin and if I send someone to ask after you they'll make sure to mention 'rubies and lilies'. So you know it's not someone bullshitting you to get you alone or anything. Might come to nothing, might not."

"Well, it was threatening the burn." She says in a tone of voice that implies she understands how unreasonable this was in retrospect. 

"I appreciate it!" She makes sure to memorise the sign, and also the idea that using signs to secure messages is a thing she should be considering doing. It's nice how helpful people have been for her even though apparently in a few weeks people will also be trying to get her alone to mug her.

Next thing on her todo list: the archive. She can't read that well but it seems like an important thing to visit and comprehend at all. 

But, see, the helpful people have mostly been seniors, who have less reason to care about petty first year rivalries.

The archive is also findable! It looks like a big library. The disciple minding the front desk doesn't look up from his book the whole time he explains the place. They, again, charge Sect Points for entry unless you have a permanent pass. And even then some parts of the Archives will be off limits depending on one's access level. One sect point for a week's pass, or one red spirit stone for a day pass. This is to pay for maintenance, staff, hiring combat focused disciples for the periodic purging of ink spirits, and so on.

The usual use case is to swiftly explore the archives for whatever information you need, be it on history or cultivation or arrays or refining, and then either write down copies yourself or pay for a copy to be scribed for you (which is more expensive). They do also offer employment for scribes if your writing is good. There's also a service where the front desk disciples will allow you to order copies of specific books, if you know the name already, without needing to pay for the day pass to go fetch them, just the scribing fee itself. A copy of Argent Refining Art, Basic Form, for example, is five sect points or twenty five spirit stones. She can sign up to earn sect points at the mission hall, he mentions idly. Or sell things at the disciples' market.