After washing off the grime, Mei dressed herself and left the refinement room and headed to the training room.

Hmm... the elder still wasn't there. A few disciples were sitting there and chatting, probably waiting for the Ming Jiang to come back.

Mei stretched while leaving the room, before jumping a few times, out of sight. The process of body refining might have been iffy, but she felt so full of power now! Her body felt lighter than it ever had before, a rather refreshing feeling.

Should she wait with the disciples? She thought about it for a while.

Eh... even if the elder came back, she could throw out an excuse, saying she thought he wasn't coming back. All good to head out and have fun! Hmm, what was there to do for today? Mei considered staying for a bit and waiting for her friends, but thinking about it... Xiuying would probably force her to wait.

Yeah, nevermind that. She was just going to head off on her own!

As she walked out, she suddenly thought of something. Right, when she first got the Qi-Imbuing Vase, about a week ago she wanted to toss one of those candy jars inside! 5 Jade was about half of what she got from the Octopus after a day of work, a fair sum. But then again, compared to her debt, it was nothing anyway.

Mei arrived at Yang Ning's shop cheerfully. Previously, she would probably have taken an hour, but her newfound strength, though it didn't make her all that much faster, helped her reach it in 30 minutes; because of how much less tired she got from running.

The 3-metre tall cramped box of a shop, with a board labelled "Yang Ning" nailed on, was crude as ever. Though today, there was a wooden cart next to it, its 3 partitions filled with dried fruit.

One of them she recognised, dried peaches, but the other two green and blue ones she didn't. Probably some kind of weird spirit fruits.

As usual, he was cultivating. The little snake had tipped a jar of bugs over onto the counter and was eating them happily. Seeing her, it hissed, leaping towards the shopkeeper and hiding behind his head. He jolted for a moment.

"Hey! I told you not to do that!" he shouted at the snake, before sweeping the bugs back into the jar with qi sense.

Turning to her, he nodded unenthusiastically. Unfriendly as usual...

"One large jar of candy, that's all," she said, placing 5 jade on the counter.

Yang Ning grabbed a jar from one of the shelves and passed it to her, before going back to cultivation. It was a little hard to tell if he was paying attention since his eyesockets were always covered.

Before she left, Mei decided to check out the price of dried fruit, since they were new goods.

They were all... 20 Jade per piece?!

"Yang Ning! Why is the dried fruit so expensive? The candy is so much cheaper!" she complained.

"I dilute the juice from a single fruit and use it for about 10 jars. It's mostly just sugar," he said nonchalantly.

"What?!" said Mei. "That's... scamming!"

"People sell things to make profit." Yang Ning said, with a bored tone. "I'm not running a charity."

"But... we're in a virtuous sect?"

"Virtue does not mean you should sell things for next to no gain. People need to make a living! I'm practically a paragon of virtue for telling you the truth, if you ask me."

For a moment, he grinned at his joke, but it disappeared just as quickly.

"Sorry..." she grumbled.

As she left, she heard him mumble "entitled brat", much to her displeasure. He definitely intended for her to hear him!

After a fine day of slacking in her room and going to bed, Mei was awoken by Su Qing, as usual. Today, however, he seemed to be more excited than usual.

"Mei! Mei! Growing!" he squeaked.

"Huh?"

She got up groggily, rubbing her eyes.

"What is it?"

"Come see! Come see!"

Following the little spirit while yawning, she walked to the Qi-Imbuing Vase, stuffed at the corner of the room, looking inside. To her surprised, a sapling had grown from the pouch of gross seeds, piercing the cloth! Right, she tossed it in back then. She completely forgot.

"You want to plant it?" she asked him.

"Yes!"

Mei looked outside and saw that it was still dark out. Around 5 in the morning, she figured, from the sound of birds. Honestly, she didn't really care much about the seeds anymore.

Heading downstairs, to a patch of grass, she realised she didn't have a tool for the job. No matter, she wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty. She ripped the grass out of the ground and dug a hole with her bare hands, before burying the pouch. The little sprout she left exposed, however. Soon, it would see sunshine for the first time.

As she turned to head upstairs, Su Qing called out to her.

"Wait!"

"Huh? Is there something wrong?"

Urgh, he was probably going to complain about how she didn't plant the seeds separately. Mei knew she should have, but she thought it would be a pain, hoping the naive little spirit wouldn't realise.

"Let's make rock nest!" he said, cheerfully, before floating upwards.

Oh, nevermind.

Seriously? Now he wanted to make it in real life?

No doubt, he was now assembling the puppet. A few seconds later, she saw a figure jump out of the window, much to her alarm! With a long bang, the wooden figure crashed to the ground inelegantly, before getting up.

"Don't do that! People are still sleeping!" she scolded.

"Sorry..." Su Qing said softly.

Mei sighed.

"Well, have fun. I'm going upstairs to read."

"But... I want to play with you!" he whined.

Seeing a very muscular puppet act so childish was somewhat gross. She really wished the Song brothers didn't mess around in their boredom.

Mei was about to make an excuse when she remembered what she decided on after talking to the gorilla, Da Xing.

"Okay, fine..."

"Yay!"

Mei spent the next few hours looking for pretty rocks with the overly enthusiastic spirit. For the first time, she felt like there weren't enough rocks in the sect. It was the last thing she thought she would complain ever since becoming a cultivator.

Hmm? From the side of a road, something caught her eye.

Mei walked over and picked it up.

"Hey, this looks like a pretty nice rock for your nest!" she smirked, holding up a loose brick.

"No!"