Mei immediately ran.

"W-what?!" the bandit shouted, confused.

Hopping on his remaining good leg, he chased, but he couldn't catch up to Mei, who still had both legs intact. He could not understand why a Foundational cultivator was running away from him...

With a wave of his hand, he shot out a burst of boiling water, hitting Mei squarely on the back.

She let out a shrill shriek as she tripped, rolling on the ground.

Without giving her a moment to take a breath, he tossed out another wave.

But now, Mei had her eyes trained on him. With a panicked and rather pathetic looking roll that looked more like a tumble, she barely managed to dodge, wincing as a few droplets from the splash hit her.

Oh no oh no.

If she ran, she wouldn't be able to avoid the water! Maybe if she ran backwards? No... she would probably crash into a tree. It was at that moment when her eyes landed on a fist-sized rock...

Quickly, she flung it towards him with Harmonic Strength imbued. With a gasp, the bandit hopped to the side, but falling to the ground. Behind him, a loud "bang" could be heard as the rock left a dent in yet another tree.

For a split second, Mei contemplated finding another rock to toss at him, but she didn't like the idea of getting scalded any more than she had to, so she decided to run before he could get up.

As she grew more distant, the bandit realised he probably should have continued to let her run earlier instead of trying to attack her. His heart still racing, he almost heaved a sigh of relief, until...

BONK.

Mei crashed into an invisible wall and fell backwards.

WHAT!?!?

Why was there a wall here? Did the bandits set this up? Was this some kind of barrier to keep people from going in, but Hong Ling flew past it?

She glanced back at the bandit who just got up, but even from this distance, he seemed just as surprised...

The two of them had a moment of dismay as they realised they were going to be forced to fight...

She grit her teeth, finally, deciding to use that one technique she spent the last month learning!

As she focused her qi, the bandit tensed up, worried about what was to come...

...

Mei awkwardly floated off the ground, wobbling. Slowly, she began to rise, higher and higher.

Thirty seconds later, she was now nearly an entire metre off the ground... The bandit, who almost threw more water to interrupt whatever she was doing, decided not to, as the sight before his eyes proved she was indeed a Foundational cultivator and not a fake...

Thud.

Mei fell flat on her face, to the ground.

"Ow."

The bandit decided to throw more water after all.

Mei screeched as another blast of boiling water flew towards her, then began to run around wildly.

Hey! Use your qi sense!

In her panic, Mei didn't understand why her own voice was talking to her but decided to comply. Slowly, she could see "strings" of qi coming out of the bandit's hands, controlling the water.

...

Just CUT THEM!

What? Wait, that was Xiao Mei yelling at her! What did she mean by that?

With your qi! What else?

Huh?

As Mei flailed around, still not understanding, Xiao Mei, with a sigh, directed strands of Mei's qi. With a mere touch... the bandit's strings of qi snapped, letting the water fall to the ground.

"Wait! Xiao Mei? How do you know how to do that?" she thought.

Xiao Mei didn't respond.

At the side, the bandit hurriedly extended more threads of qi, picking up the water again. Mei glanced anxiously at Xiao Mei who was now pretending to be asleep, realising now her nascent soul expected her to do it herself now...

What was wrong with Xiao Mei? If she died, wouldn't they both be dead? That idiot was a little too disinterested in this!

Biting her lip, Mei reached out her qi again, once again snapping the strings... Wow... that was almost too easy...

...

So, she was fighting a Qi Gatherer without using her unfair Foundational advantage the whole time...

The bandit, finally realising Mei was behind that, suddenly looked afraid again.

Spitefully, Mei began digging around for another rock. The first rock she got her hands on turned out to be just crumbly earth, much to her annoyance...

Suddenly, noticing the girl was distracted, the bandit formed a shroud of water around him again. Just as Mei was about to snap the strings again, the bandit turned a knob on his other gauntlet, turning the water into a dome of ice.

Mei: ...

That was so bullshit! Why did he have cheat artefacts anyway? If he didn't have those, all he could do was splash water harmlessly now that he had a broken leg! Dammit...

Finally finding a rock, she flung it.

Bang!

Cool... now there was a dent in the ice. The bandit hurriedly raised more water to repair it, but Mei snapped the strings with perhaps a little glee, watching as the liquid fell to the ground again.

...

Then she realised she couldn't throw rocks and snap strings at the same time. And it didn't seem like Xiao Mei wanted to help.

Shit.

Finally, after walking around and banging on the barrier around the camp for a few more moments, Mei gave up and sat down, deciding to wait for Hong Ling to come back.

...a few minutes passed.

Finally, with a flash of light, the barrier dissolved.

Mei saw Hong Ling there and prepared to yell at him for-

"What do you think you're doing!?" he yelled before she could, catching her off guard.

"Wha-"

"You're fighting a Qi Gatherer with a broken leg! As a Foundational cultivator! What the hell are you doing?" he yelled.

"But, wait... what?"

"It took you so long to figure out you could just disable his qi! What are you waiting for? Go up to him and smash down his ice shield!"

Wait...

"You... you sound like you saw the fight?"

"Of course I did! Heavens! You think I'd just leave?" he yelled. "I've been overlooking you for a month! You think I don't know how little you know about fighting? You think I'd leave you alone? But, this? Seriously?"

Mei finally put the pieces together.

"So you pretended to leave, then put up the barrier to stop me from running?" she yelled.

"Yes, what else?"

"You're trying to get me killed-"

"Get you killed? Who loses against a-"

"Shut up! I'm supposed to be the angry one here!"

"No! You shut up!"

The two of them argued pointlessly for over ten minutes while the confused and frightened bandit tried to figure out what was going on, unable to see a thing in his dome... it was getting really cold in there too...

Finally, the two of them calmed down.

"So... where's Su Qing?" Mei asked.

Hong Ling: ...

Mei: ...