Just as Li Meirong opened her mouth to speak again, Senior Wei shouted at her from across the stage.

"The battle has already ended! Since there is no reason for us to fight any longer, can you please hurry to do something about your familiar? Before he kills mine, if possible!" The final few words of his sentence came out in something similar to a croak, his anxiety evident.

Li Meirong focused her attention on Senior Wei after shifting her gaze away from the irate fox spirit by her side. He looked distraught, to say the least.

Although no apparent harm had been done to him, his face appeared worn and aged, as if he had become a middle-aged man in the space of an instant.

She gave him an unfriendly look. "You have a lot of nerve to make demands of me when you just made me live out my worst nightmare!"

Senior Wei flushed red.

"But you are fine and unharmed! Why make a big deal out of this? It was just an illusion, after all…" he trailed off as Li Meirong's expression darkened further, pointing a finger to the far right and hurriedly continuing, "Listen, I put you under a spell, that is true, but nothing really happened to you. My method of using illusions in battle is one of the most remarkable. Is this not for the best? This way, none of us were harmed. However, I cannot say the same for your conniving tactics! Seeing as how my pixie is about to perish in the most ridiculous of ways!"

Li Meirong shuddered involuntarily, her mind still in turmoil from the so-called 'harmless' illusion.

None of them were harmed, he said? Everything she had experienced felt far too real to be a simple, vivid dream! She could still clearly recall the feeling of cradling Chou's corpse in her arms; she could still remember the sensation of her body being torn in half and of Zhu Qingyue devouring her organs while she still lived.

"We'll see. Whether or not I decide to retaliate for your harmless illusion depends on how well my plant spirit is doing." Li Meirong glared at Senior Wei, and turned in the direction he had pointed as slowly and unhurriedly as she possibly could. If, in the process, his pixie should drop dead? Well, nobody would see her crying about it.

She froze as her gaze settled on the tableau to her right.

"Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?" Li Meirong whispered to Snowball, her mouth hanging slightly open.

Snowball stared in the same direction and let out a small sound that was reminiscent of an awkward cough.

He then remained silent for a prolonged moment.

"I do not say this often," he replied finally, "but I, too, am at a loss for words."

Before their astounded eyes, Chou was busying himself by clapping his little hands together and laughing boisterously.

He was perfectly unharmed and as utterly cheerful as ever.

Judging by that alone, one might say that the situation was not so abnormal after all.

It was the other aspect of the scene, however, that caused not only Li Meirong to become speechless, but the rest of the spectators as well. At Chou's side was the red lobster he had brought along with him from Li Meirong's dimension.

The lobster was squeezing a little pixie between one set of sharp pincers, and with Chou's friendly urging the lobster was closing its claw tighter and tighter around the pixie's dainty waist.

The tearful, pained cries of the pixie reverberated throughout the arena.

Chou finally noticed his master's presence and turned towards Li Meirong with a bright smile plastered on his chubby face.

"Master, it took you so long to wake up!" he said cheerfully. "Look, Master, didn't Chou say Zhu Zhi shows great promise? Chou knows what he is talking about… Zhu Zhi saved the day!"

"I-is that so…?" Li Meirong responded faintly.

"Zhu Zhi's success was, of course, all because of Chou's careful instructions!" Chou declared with an eager nod as he thumped his bare chest proudly. "While Chou and Master were under a spell, Zhu Zhi snuck behind the vile pixie and went 'snap snap' on her, successfully breaking the spell and saving us!"

"..." Li Meirong blinked a few times as she processed the new information, at a loss for words.

'So the lobster saved the day?' she thought incredulously.

She turned to Snowball, rubbing her forehead and heaving a sigh. "If the lobster broke the spell, then what are you doing up here on the stage?"

Snowball blinked enormous, innocent golden eyes up at her.

"I wanted to get rid of the boy, but the pixie threatened to keep you locked inside her illusion should he be harmed, so I protected you until you opened your eyes," he simply replied.

"Well, that explains the mountain of fur on my face when I woke up…" Li Meirong muttered.

Instead of responding, Snowball pointedly avoided looking at her face once again.

The tips of his ears were ever so faintly stained pink.

A grunt of pain diverted Li Meirong's attention once more, this time back to Senior Wei who was now lying flat on the stage floor.

While Li Meirong had been conversing with Snowball, Senior Wei had rushed to rescue Lucidity, the pixie, from the clutches of the lobster's claws.

Unfortunately for Senior Wei and his familiar, the senior cultivator had never opted to practice martial arts, and so it took Chou nothing more than a single flinging motion with one of his vines for the senior to be tossed away yet again.

"Tsk, tsk." Chou clicked his tongue in disappointment as he stared down his nose at the sprawled figure of Senior Wei. "Without your familiar, what are you good for? At least my Master knows how to defend herself!"

Turning his attention back to his favourite lobster, Chou kept urging Zhu Zhi to snap the pixie in half.

"Squeeze harder, Zhu Zhi! You have to work those claws to get better at snapping things in two!"

Li Meirong felt a cold line of sweat trickle down her spine.

She had forgotten just how sadistic Chou actually was under the facade of his adorable, boyish appearance.

Despite Chou's sadism, Li Meirong was not so righteous nor forgiving as to wish the best for Senior Wei or his pixie. The way that illusion had messed with her mind seemed far worse than any cuts or bruises she had received in previous battles or would have received in a proper fight against Senior Wei. However, reluctant as she was to admit it, Senior Wei had raised a valid point: neither she nor Chou had actually been harmed…

"Chou, tell Zhu Zhi to let the pixie go," she said finally. In the end, she decided to choose to forgive. She had enough enemies in the sect as it was, and killing the pixie would just add yet another person to the long list of those who hated her for her mere existence.

"No can do, Master. If Zhu Zhi will not practice snapping his claws, how is he supposed to become a better fighter?" Chou asked, his tone very matter-of-fact.

The pitcher plant spirit made it sound as if this were an obvious and rather huge matter of importance that must take precedence before all else. Even the lives of other familiars.

Li Meirong exhaled deeply; a nerve on her forehead twitched.

"We can argue about this later," she told the pitcher plant. "Do as I ask, alright?"

"Hmph!" Chou folded his arms and sulked like the petulant child he appeared to be.