Where in the world did her axe go?

After it bounced off the nose of the bear, it was as if it vanished.

Mei was rather frustrated. It wasn't even like axes were particularly small, so how did it disappear just like that?

Beside her, Su Qing was searching as well, combing his hands through the grass.

"If can't find chop chop, maybe throw rock?"

As if to demonstrate, the little spirit happily picked up a rock before throwing it into the distance.

Mei: ...

Great, her little spirit was a rock-throwing addict.

"What if you run out of rocks?" she said jokingly.

Su Qing's puppet's jolted in shock.

"Hnnnnn..."

The little spirit was deep in thought for a few moments.

"Make basket!"

The muscular puppet began crawling around enthusiastically, picking up all the twigs and branches in sight, much to Mei's amusement. After gathering a pile big enough to hug, Su Qing then began using his mending powers to fuse the sticks together. Slowly, the assorted twigs began to form the ugliest basket she had ever seen.

"Is that a bird nest?" she laughed.

Su Qing gasped in realisation. If his puppet had eyes, they would have lit up.

"Yes... rock nest. Baby rock bird..."

Mumbling to himself, Su Qing began to pull clumps of grass out of the ground, padding out the "bird nest".

By this point, Wang Wei had come over, wondering why Mei was taking so long to find her axe, only to see Su Qing ripping out all the grass in sight, leaving behind only barren dirt.

"What's Su Qing doing?" he asked.

"He's... making a basket to hold rocks," said Mei.

"No! Is rock nest! For baby rock eggs!" Su Qing said excitedly.

Wang Wei laughed.

"Okay, I'll help you.

Then, he began using his sword to cut grass, helping Su Qing out.

...

Before long, the entire team was helping the little spirit gather grass and rocks. Mei was speechless. They were in a tournament, for goodness' sake! Why were they wasting time making a dumb nest of rocks?

Sure, she wasn't opposed to harmless fun, but when she thought about how other teams would be earning points as they messed around, she couldn't exactly relax.

"Why don't we look for other teams or fight some wild animals to earn points?" she said.

"It won't take long," Xiuying said. "Besides, we don't have any idea where they are, so what's the difference staying here for a bit?"

Mei didn't think that was how it worked. Left helpless, she could only wait for them to finish making the rock nest.

Su Qing followed everyone happily, holding his giant grassy basket of rocks.

Mei found her axe by now; apparently, it had been stuck in tree branches. That bear must have had a super bouncy nose.

They had been walking for at least 10 minutes, but not a single team or beast had come into sight.

"Maybe we should make some noise to get people's attention?" Mei said. "It's probabably better than walking around aimlessly."

"Oh, good idea!" Wang Wei said. "But what type of noise?"

Mei thought for a bit, then looked to everyone's weapons. Her eyes came across Zhang Ming's shield. Despite having been broken earlier in the tournament, it had been magically restored.

"Lend me that for a bit," she said, grabbing it from him.

"Hey!"

She smacked it a few times with her axe, letting out loud banging sounds. Not loud enough, however.

"I thought it would work a bit like a gong," she said sheepishly. "But the tournament turned everything into wood so it doesn't seem to be working."

"My shield was wooden in the first place." Zhang Ming grumbled, snatching it back. "Metal shields are too heavy."

Urgh. If only they could find metal...

WAIT!

"Liu Qiang! I have an idea!" she said, suppressing a grin.

"Huh?"

"Can you use your metal skin technique?"

"Sure, but why?" Liu Qiang said, as his skin began glowing with a metallic lustre.

Without hesitation, Mei smacked his bum with the side of her axe.

BAAAAANG!

"Ow!"

Mei laughed. After a few moments of shock, Yingyi and Zhang Ming began to laugh as well.

"At least warn me first..." Liu Qiang grumbled.

"Sorry, I thought it be funny," Mei said.

"That wasn't very nice..." Wang Wei muttered.

"Awooooooo!"

From the distance, the sound of several animals running came.

The heck? Even if it was loud, that was way too fast!

She watched as 10 wolves approached, beginning to encircle them. That was a lot more than she bargained for...

Mei felt rather nervous. She had the urge to throw her axe, but as the wolves were still walking around them slowly, she didn't want to provoke them into charging all at once.

But in the next moment, Wang Wei waves his hands, sending a torrent of flames surging through the air, the heat prickling her skin. All the wolves were engulfed in the massive swath of flames, even the trees being set ablaze.

Mei stared in awe.

Since when did Wang Wei get that strong?

The flames stuck onto the wolves, continuing to burn. Before long, the wolves vanished.

"Haha!" he laughed. "Your idea worked really well, Xiuying!"

What?

"Oh, while you were looking for your axe, we had a discussion," Xiuying explained, seeing her confusion. "Basically, I channel all the wood qi I can muster into the air, and Wang Wei ignites it!"

"Afterwards," she continued, popping a handful of qi pills into her mouth. "I continue to supply wood qi, so the enemies will keep burning."

Xiuying ate yet another handful of qi pills. Was it really safe to eat that many?

"It's not fair." Liu Qiang grumbled. "if your attacks are that strong, what are the rest of us supposed to do?"

"Well, you could always throw those..." Wang Wei said, pointing at Su Qing's basket of rocks.

"No! Don't throw rock eggs!"

Su Qing hugged his "nest" of rocks defensively.

"I'm kidding!" Wang Wei laughed.

Well, at least now Su Qing would stop throwing rocks everywhere.