Walking leisurely to the ice dome, Hong Ling shattered it with a tap.

In the next moment, the bandit launched a fully charged punch at him, but it merely went through the spirit who didn't even bother to dodge.

The bandit let out a grunt of pain, clutching his arm as well.

"He hurt himself punching nothing?" Mei asked.

"Seems like he dislocated his elbow and shoulder from the momentum. He really doesn't have the durability to execute his martial arts to its full potential."

Mei: ...

Hong Ling squatted down to match the sitting bandit.

"Kid! I like your style," he said.

Huh?

"Kid? I'm 35! You look younger than me..."

Hong Ling ignored the bandit's remark.

"In the face of a Foundational cultivator's attack, you decided to sacrifice yourself to buy time for your friends! Very commendable! I suppose no one would expect how weak she was."

"Hey!" Mei shouted.

The bandit didn't respond. A green glow came from Hong Ling as he applied some sort of healing magic to the bandit, mending his broken leg and restoring his arm over the next 30 seconds. The bandit looked at the spirit with an incredulous look.

"Thanks..." he mumbled.

"Don't mention it. Honestly, if you didn't immediately break your leg on her, you probably could have defeated her with your martial arts alone. Losing your mobility instantly, not the smartest move!"

"I thought I'd be dead by her first attack..."

"Hahaha! Good point."

Was Hong Ling getting along with the bandit just to spite her?

"You have healing magic? Why didn't you heal me first?" Mei complained, holding up one of her hands that had been scalded red and covered in boils.

Now that her adrenaline and the effect of the pill started to wear off, she was starting to feel the pain... Her back hurt a lot too.

"Don't you practice the Vital Body arts? I don't need to heal someone that can recover on her own."

"Y-you're just doing this to get at me! You know it hurts a lot!"

"Good, so you do realise. Besides, why did you practice a regenerative body art when you're afraid of pain? You should get used to it so it doesn't hinder you in the future!"

Urgh...

Okay, admittedly she did think the "regenerating lost limbs instantly" stuff described at higher stages sounded pretty cool back then, but she was now realising how unpleasant it would be...

In the city, as Su Qing ran around in a panic, Hong Ling flew over with a very unhappy Mei in tow, once again unshielded.

"You forgot me!" the little spirit exclaimed, though with relief mixed in.

"Sorry about that, haha..." Hong Ling said. "Mei Xiu, you should have reminded me!"

Gah... that asshole was pushing the blame to her! Though admittedly, she did forget until they landed... but in her defence, it was hard to think while a crazy bastard dragged her through the air!

Hong Ling and Su Qing exchanged small talk for a little before the latter let out a gasp, seeing Mei's burns.

"Oh no! What happened to you?"

"Hong Ling didn't want to protect me while I was fighting the bandits... and then despite knowing healing magic, he healed the bandits and refused to heal me!"

Hearing that, Su Qing turned to glare at Hong Ling.

"Hey! You're making it sound worse than it was! See, Su Qing, this was what happened..."

Over the next few minutes, Hong Ling explained everything. Su Qing was initially still mad but was convinced surprisingly quickly.

"It's for her own good, you see?"

"Sorry, Mei Xiu..." the wooden puppet patted her on the shoulder.

Grr... stupid Hong Ling.

The air roared as they shot through the air once again, this time with Su Qing in tow. Mei was surprised by how much less nauseous she felt, but still complained regardless. The wind wasn't very kind to the scalds that covered her arms, so she stuffed her arms into her robes entirely, leaving the sleeves flapping away.

Earlier, Hong Ling made some contemptuous remarks about how Mei still wasn't ready to fight and that he and Su Qing would do the fighting instead when they chased down the rest of the bandits. That really annoyed her and made her want to argue back, but she didn't want to face a whole gang of bandits if just one was that bad, so she kept quiet.

They stopped and landed at the bandit camp, where the bandit was tied to a tree with a resigned look on his face. Hong Ling walked over casually and began undoing the ropes.

"I should have asked this earlier, but what's your name?"

"I'm not telling you. And if you think I'd rat out where my comrades teleported to, even I don't know where it leads to! So torturing me won't give you anything!"

"Relax. We're not laying a finger on you. We're part of a Virtuous sect, so that would be sort of against our code, eh?"

The bandit glanced over to Mei and suddenly had a look of realisation on his face.

"Oh! So that's why she was so..."

"Yeah. Sad, isn't it? Disciples sheltered from the outside world, away from strife end up like this. Weak! Unable to defend themselves!" Hong Ling said. "No idea what our old sect leader was thinking. Even in tournaments he hosted, they were all with padded weapons, despite being in a simulated world where they can't get hurt! Hilarious, isn't it?"

"Haha... I see." the bandit played along nervously.

Mei wasn't sure how to feel as the bandit and spirit bantered away, almost in a friendly way.

Su Qing seemed confused as well, whispering to Mei.

"He's not bad guy?"

"He bad."

"Oh okay."

As Hong Ling ranted about the sect activity and how the new leader was "so much better", the bandit realised to his dismay that the spirit did in fact have the means to locate his friends, even without him ratting them out.

Hearing that his captor was from a Virtuous sect and seemed to like him, he decided to try to play on the spirit's sympathy.

"So... about my gang..."

"Hm?"

"We didn't actually want to go into this line of work... but we needed to support our families."

There was silence for a bit.

"Don't give me that bullshit." Hong Ling said. "You lot are Qi Gathering cultivators, in a world full of mortals. If you needed to make a living, you could have easily gotten a job as bodyguards, or even do mercenary work. My guess as to why you are bandits? You were strong enough to get away with it, and it's easy money."

"But-"

"Don't get me wrong. I might like your guts, but you're still going into the slammer."