After teleporting back to the canteen to grab a bite, on her way back to her room, Mei was surprised to see Wang Wei outside her room. Beside him, Su Qing buzzed around.

In his hands, he held a book, the cover titled: "The Beginning Alchemist's Pill Guide".

"Wang Wei?" she asked.

"Oh! You're here."

What was he doing here?

"Erm, well... I guess Su Qing's teachers wanted to see you. They asked me to look for you, to bring you to them." he explained. "If you don't have time, I can make up an excuse too."

...

"Ah, it's fine. I'll go..."

Not like she had anything interesting to read right now anyway. She sort of lost interest in the series she was reading after the protagonist got his cultivation base crippled.

As they headed down the stairs and out of the dorms, Su Qing flitted around anxiously, not saying a thing to Mei. Did he do something wrong and was getting punished?

"The brat is finally here!" the red spirit shouted.

Mei was a little perplexed as the three teacher spirits "whispered" to each other.

"Mei Xiu," the blue one spoke up. "Earlier today... we were informed by Su Qing that... you've been neglecting him."

"Eeek! Was not what I was saying!" Su Qing said in a panic.

"Kid. Contracted spirits aren't just playthings for your convenience. If you mistreat your contracted spirit, witnessing spirits have the right to report you to the sect! Even elders aren't exempt from this!"

"Ehh?" Mei gasped. "I, well... I wasn't..."

Right. For more than a week, she really hadn't seen Su Qing. It started when she was focusing on body cultivation... she realised sleeping while immersed in body solution was rather convenient, so she didn't even return to her dorm for a few days... Su Qing must have been confused by her absence and eventually stopped checking in.

She did wonder a few times why he wasn't around, but indeed, she really should have looked for him...

"Hmph! As expected of a human, like you. Only interested in recruiting spirits for your own benefits." the red spirit harrumphed while Mei stuttered helplessly.

"Yeah! Let's report this to the spirit council, for neglect!" the green spirit cheered.

At the side, Su Qing continued to buzz around anxiously.

"Wait!"

The spirits stopped for a moment as Wang Wei spoke up, much to Mei's surprise.

"Who are you to talk, as an outsider?" the green spirit said disdainfully.

"I'm not an outsider, I'm her friend! Sort of..."

"That doesn't really matter."

"Just hear me out! Earlier, when Su Qing looked for me for help, he told me about the situation! Indeed, Mei wasn't as responsible as she could have been, but it's not entirely her fault!"

"Preposterous! She-"

"Every day, you make him go through 20 hours of studying, with only 4 hours of free time! With half that time spent with his friends and Luye, when he finally goes to look for Mei, there's barely any time left! And Mei is a busy disciple of the sect too!"

Haha... yes. Mei sweated a little.

"With so little time, it's not easy for them to align their schedule and arrange to meet! You can't pin all the blame on her for this when your schedule is so inhumane!"

"Su Qing is still so young and barely knows anything! He needs to learn fast and be prepared for the world!" the green spirit argued.

"But is he happy about it? You spirits might not need to sleep, but you need to consider his mental health too! With such a schedule like this, Su Qing is miserable every day from overwork. He told me all about it!"

The three teacher spirits finally quietened down.

"Qing Qing... is this true?" the blue spirit asked.

Su Qing shrunk and became dimmer.

"...yes."

"See? You need to give him time off once in a while too. No student deserves to be this overworked." Wang Wei finished.

"Qing Qing, I'm sorry for not having considered that." the blue spirit said.

"Sorry."

"I'm sorry too."

...seriously? Was it really that weird to take breaks in spirit culture? Mei was suddenly glad humans were "inferior" enough to need sleep.

"Well, he has most of the basics covered. I say we let him rest for a month before bringing lessons back."

"Ehhh! Really?" Su Qing suddenly became glowing very brightly. "Yay!"

"Two months." Wang Wei said.

"No."

"Not negotiable."

"Too long."

Poor Su Qing... Mei felt like she was insulting the little spirit by thinking he was lazy like her back then.

"Now go! I'm not interested in seeing your dumb mug. If you still neglect Su Qing, we will really report you!" the red spirit spat.

...so hostile.

Come to think of it, the spirits were surprisingly hostile to them. Like back when she asked for directions too...

The teacher spirits floated away, leaving them alone. There was silence for a bit.

"Um, thanks for helping earlier," Mei mumbled.

"No need to thank me! We're friends, aren't we?"

"Haha..."

Once again, she realised she barely spent time with her friends either, only meeting them during breakfast. After Da Xing, the gorilla advised her about it so kindly back then, she still forgot about it and went back to lazing around in her room...

But there wasn't time today, and tomorrow, there were lessons as usual and community service in the afternoon, so she didn't feel like it-

No! It was going to continue forever at this rate. Mei steeled herself. No more procrastination. Tomorrow, she'd do something. Yes. And for Su Qing too.

"Hey, Wang Wei," she said.

"Hm?"

As he headed back, she told him the details.

"Huh. So you did have a contracted spirit. And here I thought you were wasting your talent, haha!"

The moment Wang Wei waved goodbye, the jade spirit spoke up.

"Whoa! Spirit inside?" Su Qing exclaimed.

"Haha, nice to meet you, kiddo! The name's Hong Ling."

"Hi!"

Mei grumbled, annoyed.

"Didn't I say not to talk to me?"

"Wait, hear me out alright? I do have something to propose."

"Huh?"

"Earlier, I overheard your conversation. Bit rude of me, I know, but I can't help it! Making an effort to preserve your friendship, now that's something I can respect, eh! Not many people are capable of that, you know?"

Mei: ...

"You don't need to butter me up. Just tell me what you want."

"Sheesh! What's with the attitude?"

Somehow, she just felt like the spirit wasn't very trustworthy...

"Alright, I'll make a small deal with you. If you're going to spend time with your friends, along with cultivating and community service, that's not going to leave you much time alone." Hong Ling said. "So, I have a small proposition!"

"Okay..."

"There's an artefact sold at a certain shop I used to frequent. A very popular one! It's a charm that takes control of your body as it sleeps, so you can get cultivation done as you rest. Sounds amazing, doesn't it?"

"Yeah..."

"If you spend 30 minutes talking to me daily, I'll buy one for you. It's worth about 3399 jade."

"WHAT?!"

"Heheh, it's a huge sum for you, but nothing for a tycoon like me. For the record, I have more than a million jade in my soul imprint."

"Soul imprint?"

"It's how the sect lets us spirit carry currency. We don't exactly have a physical body, eh? Oh, you disciples can apply for it too, by the way."

So much?! Mei felt quite jealous. This deal... it sounded too good to be true...

"How do I know you're not just buying me something bad?"

"It's a reputable, alright? You might not trust me, but you should trust one of the biggest stores in the sect. It's run by a certain famous someone you probably know, the grand spirit of the Myriad Realms Heaven Array!"

"Huh?"

"Yes, the only and only. The operator of the sect's teleportation array!"

Wait what?

"That crafty bastard took advantage of its position and opened one of the largest stores in the sect. As long as you have its token, you can buy items from anywhere in the sect with instant delivery! Who could resist?"

"About a hundred years ago, that fellow was getting sick and tired of delivering mountains of orders from thousands of stores around the sect. So it decided to open its own store. Immediately after establishing it, Myriad Realms signed a contract with the sect master, forbidding all stores except its own from using the array to deliver goods!"

...what a prick.

"Why did the sect master even agree?"

"To run such a massive array, there are almost no spirits capable! Only the strongest grand spirits can even operate it, and most of them quit in less than a month from the stress! Myriad Realms was the only grand spirit willing, so the sect master wasn't willing to risk it."