Without letting the bandit argue, Hong Ling flew off with Mei in pursuit of the other bandits.

"Wait, how does the tracker know where the bandits are? Didn't they teleport to somewhere else?" Mei asked suddenly, finding it seemed a little off.

"Sweaty* probably found them with his qi sense and teleported there to put trackers on them."

Sheesh... that was actually a bit creepy... but at least she didn't need to worry about getting lost.

The bandit, who was now gagged, made muffled sounds as they flew through the air. Mei wondered if she was a little sadistic as she found it weirdly satisfying. No no, that was normal, right? After all, he did just try to kill her not too long ago...

Mei wasn't sure where she expected to find the bandits. Or rather, she didn't even wonder about it. If she was asked, she would probably have just imagined another bandit camp in the middle of some other forest

Not... ancient ruins.

Beneath them, old grandiose stone buildings sat, dusty from the passage of time. Most of them were crushed, destroyed by something. Those that weren't targetted by whatever that was seemed to remain mostly intact, their materials standing the test of time.

"This... is where the jade led?" Mei asked, in awe.

"Apparently. They must have gotten their hands on one of the jades the people here once owned."

Behind them, Su Qing muttered something about how the buildings in their sect were still more impressive.

A barrier seemed to separate them from the ruins, but Hong Ling easily made an opening with a little focus.

"I think there might be passages underground since that's where the tracker points to," Mei said, staring at the wanted poster.

"Yeah, obviously."

Grrr...

Hong Ling focused for a moment before pointing to one of the larger buildings.

"Over there. I sense a path downwards."

Mei tried to use qi sense as well but the formation within the barrier suppressed it entirely...

After pulling her out of the way, Hong Ling raised a cage of rock from the ground around the bandit.

"You stay there."

The bandit made a muffled sound of protest.

Hong Ling leisurely opened the door as it let out a loud echoing creaking, waltzing in as if he owned the place. Mei sneezed from the dust that swirled in the air and looked around. She opened a door and walked into what seemed to be a small bedroom, the table and shelves all barren.

She pulled open a wooden drawer only to find nothing but a dead spider inside.

Seemed like the place was already ransacked... well not that it was a big surprise given it seemed the bandits had a jade that led here.

"There's nothing of value here, don't bother." Hong Ling said impatiently.

Mei ignored him and opened another drawer, finding some utensils. Oh! She took out a wooden spoon.

"For a souvenir!" she said smugly.

Hong Ling: ...

She took out chopsticks next and put them on Su Qing's wooden puppet's face, just above the straight line that was supposed to be a mouth. (There was a crude smiley face drawn with ink)

Su Qing quickly figured out what Mei wanted and fused the wood, before curving the chopsticks.

"Mustache!" he said gleefully.

The two of them laughed.

"Stop fooling around!" Hong Ling said.

"What? It's not like Senior Han gave us a deadline. What's wrong with stopping to look around?" Mei said.

"Yeah, yeah!" Su Qing said.

Hong Ling shook his head, sighing.

Mei glanced around before getting an idea.

"Hey, what if you make that drawer into an armour?" she said.

"Hmm?" Su Qing thought for a bit. "Okay, but you need to channel some of your qi to me for that!"

Mei nodded.

Slowly, Su Qing moulded the drawer into a rather plain and perhaps a little crude wooden armour. Mn. That was way better than a muscle puppet!

Su Qing looked down for a bit and decided to draw a smiley face on the breastplate, looking very proud of himself. Then he moulded the legs of a nearby table into a single pole.

"Stick!" he said.

"Oh, then you should make a few axes for me..."

Wooden axes were better than nothing.

The two of them followed the impatient Hong Ling further down, Mei's bag now having 3 axe handles sticking out, finally having had their fun. Or... perhaps not. Su Qing was very hyper and would hit random things with his new weapon as he walked past them.

Mei continued to peek into the rooms check all the drawers much to Hong Ling's annoyance. If they were locked, she would get Su Qing to bend the wood apart.

"There's literally nothing of value inside them! Stop wasting your time!"

"Yeah yeah."

As Mei got Su Qi to bypass yet another lock, this time on a wooden chest, to her shock, there was actually a glass jar inside, filled with white pills!

Smugly, she held it up before Hong Ling.

"Aha! See?"

"Those are clearly expired." the grouchy spirit said.

Mei: ...

"Why do pills have an expiry date..."

"Everything has an expiry date."

"But this is the world of immortals..."

At the side, Su Qing destroyed yet another table and fashioned a few wheels out of it, before adding them to the sides of the chest, which he stretched out to make bigger.

He hopped into it, making the wheels spin with qi, going from one end of the corridor to the other! Mei watched in awe.

"I made a carriage!"

"Awesome! Let me ride it too!"

A vein bulged on Hong Ling's head.

"THAT'S IT! Stop fooling around! I've been way too patient with you two! I'll give you another 30 seconds, and then we go straight for the bandits. No more searching boxes and drawers, no more making toys! Understand?"

Mei and Su Qing grumbled to each other but didn't complain.

Su Qing quickly added another chest behind with more wheels for Mei to sit on as well. He reached for a 3rd...

"Do you want to ride too?" he asked Hong Ling.

"NO!"

So angry for no reason...

Su Qing made a little puppet out of wood and put it on the front.

"It's a small horse!"

Mei thought it looked more like a dog but didn't comment.

"30 seconds are up, put away your toy wagon."

"We can go faster with it!"

Hong Ling didn't feel like arguing so he walked ahead, the carriage following; Mei and Su Qing making horse clopping sounds to annoy him.