Slowly, the bomb began to glow brighter and brighter, the very air around it distorting from the heat.

"I'm not bluffing! It's really going to explode!" Detian said.

"I'm aware."

...

Despite the barrier placed above them, Mei didn't feel all that reassured either. Through Su Qing was the most distraught, whimpering constantly. She patted him reassuringly but it didn't help much.

Detian sighed.

In the next moment, white light engulfed the entire chamber, followed quickly by the sound of an explosion. Mei was blinded by the sheer intensity of it and clutched her eyes, but thankfully, Vital Body allowed her to recover quickly.

As the light died down, the walls of the entire chamber were red hot, washed with waves of raging fire.

Beside Hong Ling, a massive spherical barrier was broken, the spirit drinking up the flames like a black hole. Evidently, he had broken out of Detian's attempt to protect him in order to absorb the flaming qi, much to the elder's shock.

The flames were quickly absorbed, though the floor remained red hot. Hong Ling's cultivation base rose tremendously. As for how much? As someone who had barely embarked on the Foundational path, Mei had no clue.

"You... broke into Core Refining?" Detian said, confused. "Wait, no, you were hiding your cultivation?"

Ah, so that was how much it increased.

Hong Ling shrugged lazily.

"Urgh, now that it's come to this, the guardian must be awakening. We'll discuss further after getting out of here!"

Mei thought Hong Ling would argue but he didn't say a word, allowing Detian to drag every last person in the chamber along, him included, rushing towards the chamber's exit.

Loud mechanical whirling echoed through the massive room as a massive being rose out of the ground, 6 glowing eyes appearing in the darkness. Mei couldn't make out its form, but judging from the position of its eyes, it was tall enough that its head could reach the ceiling!

Followed by the sound of thunderous hissing and loud bangs, dozens of red hot projectiles were launched at them, homing in.

Before they hit their mark, however, Detian had already left the chamber. Mei was briefly deafened by a series of loud explosions that made the very air vibrate.

"Welp. Can't say I dodged that, eh." Hong Ling said wryly. "I'll tell you what happened."

He lazily recounted why they were here.

"I see," Detian said.

The old man thought silently to himself for a bit, then took out a piece of paper and began writing furiously on it.

"I'll be taking these bandits with me. I explained I took the bandits with me in the letter, so hand it in for your reward," he said. "Leave this place immediately, and do not leak its location! Or else!"

"Not making us swear any oaths?" Hong Ling said, amused.

"Since you're under Han Yun, I'm giving face to him!" he said.

Han Yun? Was that Senior Han?

"Now scram!"

With those words, he ejected them.

The task "completed", Mei and the spirits returned to the city. Mei was a little disappointed they didn't get to explore it. How did that elder find them so fast anyway? Did they set up something that could detect people entering the ruins?

As they neared the public square, to her surprise, Wang Wei and Xiuying were sitting there, handcuffed bandits in tow.

"Hey!" Wang Wei waved. "Back already? Where are your bandits?"

"Er... I guess we met an elder who wanted them..."

Mei whispered to him about what had happened, Xiuying leaning in as well, listening keenly.

"That old man? Seriously?!" Wang Wei was shocked.

"Yeah... I was really surprised too."

At the side, Su Qing poked her.

"What about what we made? You're not talking about it?"

Mei sweated a little. Honestly, she was a little embarrassed...

"Oh! Now that you mention it, Su Qing, your vessel looks a lot better now!" Wang Wei said. "Less... attention-grabbing?"

A weird macho wooden puppet with funny hair and a smiley face... yeah, it wasn't the best of looks.

"Hehe! It's very cool, isn't it?"

"I think it could use some work, but it's a good first step!" Wang Wei said.

Indeed, the armour was rather crude and a little weird looking. It was pretty clear Su Qing wasn't the best designer around.

The three of them chatted for a bit while Su Qing excitedly told them about all the "awesome things" he made, Mei most quiet. Finally though, she asked what was on her mind.

"So... how you two catch the bandits so fast? Did your protector spirits help out that much?"

Wang Wei laughed.

"Heh, all I did was put some flames on display and they got scared and quickly submitted!"

Seriously? That easily?

She peeked at the rest of the bandits, but to her shock, they didn't seem all that far off in strength compared to the ones she faced.

"Y-you're making us sound like a bunch of cowards!" one of the bandits complained.

"Yeah! When that crazy boy came up to us, he set himself on fire to intimidate us, and it got so hot, all the trees around started catching fire!" another one continued. "Like, he wasn't even touching them! It was so hot, we were getting burned simply by standing next to him, and we didn't dare to even breathe!"

"H-hey! Don't make me sound like some sort of psycho!" Wang Wei started to get flustered.

"Someone shot an arrow at him but the point bounced off him and the shaft was ashes the moment it hit the ground!"

"Oi!"

Okay... so Wang Wei was just a complete monster... fine. Why the hell was fire so overpowered? Dammit...

All she could do was throw some strong punches and that was about it. She couldn't help but be reminded of how she was told Wood cultivators weren't the best fighters when she first joined the sect.

From the sound of it, Wang Wei's body path was also stronger than hers too? What the heck? Maybe she could understand metal and earth being superior, but fire?!

Maybe this Vital Body route actually kind of sucked...

"What about you, Xiuying?" she grumbled.

"Oh, when I asked about the handcuffs, my protector spirit told me they could suppress qi. I'm pretty good with my control of qi sense, so all I did was sneak into camp and float cuffs over to each of them!"

What.

To demonstrate, Xiuying took a set of handcuffs out of her ring and tossed it into the air. In the next moment, it shot over to Su Qing and cuffed one of his arms before he could react, then forcefully pulled that arm to his other, cuffing them together. In less than 2 seconds, a powerful fighter was apprehended.

Mei was speechless. So qi sense could be used that way as well...