"I'm kind of envious though! We just had a typical trip, but you actually got to explore ruins..."

Mei laughed awkwardly.

After being asked by her friends, she elaborated about her trip, though she did leave out pesky details like her losing to a single bandit...

Hong Ling shook his head. For someone so concerned about face, it was amazing how little effort she was putting into cultivation.

The group chattered for the next few hours. It was starting to get dark.

Just as they were considering sending someone to get food, Liu Qiang arrived, carrying several massive paper boxes, while munching a skewer. Behind him, more bandits were dragged along.

The nearby civilians had already been whispering to each other about the large group of handcuffed people and now the group only grew bigger.

Somehow, the friends hadn't really noticed, but the bandits were feeling rather mortified, being stared at like zoo animals. As the new bandits arrived, one of the bandits Wang Wei captured gave them a solemn nod, a nod between brothers that suffered on the same path...

"Yo. I got dinner." Liu Qiang said casually.

"Thank you!" Xiuying said.

"No problem. I just got hungry on the way back."

"So, how were things on your end? Did the bandits give you trouble?"

"I guess you could say that..."

With that, Liu Qing recounted his tale... Meanwhile, the friends opened up the boxes he bought and began to eat as they listened.

After being brought into the bandit camp by his guardian spirit, he turned his skin into metal and stormed straight into the camp, wielding a menacing weapon... a ball of rubber on a wooden stick.

Apparently, he was afraid of hurting the bandits... Mei was a bit speechless when she heard that. Wasn't that a bit too confident? She had no idea of the incident Liu Qiang faced back when he visited his family, almost killing a mortal with a careless strike...

The bandits were insulted by his choice of weapon and all charged up to fight him at first, but after being unable to harm him entirely and having several men smashed to the ground with the rubber mace, they all fled!

Liu Qiang ended up having to chase them all down with the help of the seal, wasting a lot of time.

"Wait, so..." Mei started, turning to Wang Wei. "I didn't think of this before, but wouldn't the bandits you fought flee as well? How did you catch them all so fast?"

"Oh, they couldn't flee because I conjured walls of fire to block them off."

Mei: ...

The last member of the group finally arrived.

Yingyi only had 5 bandits behind him, following him as he limped. He was beaten black and blue, covered in bruises. Unlike Mei, he didn't accept the medicines Wang Wei offered him before the trip and didn't have any regenerative body arts.

Xiuying was about to voice her concern but Liu Qiang beat her to the chase.

"Yingyi! What happened?" he asked.

"I lost," Yingyi said.

With those words, he sat silently, refusing to say anything else. Liu Qiang offered him a fishball stick, which he munched on gloomily.

Another hour later, Senior Han had still yet to return. The group decided to book a trip at the very same hotel they had stayed at previously. Mei was fretting over the cost, but thankfully, Wang Wei paid for the rooms.

The receptionist gave him a weird look as he registered all the tied up bandits to a single room.

That night, Yingyi went to bed first.

The bandits would probably have fallen asleep first since they had nothing to do, but being in a cramped room full of anxious sweaty men who were constantly arguing made that a bit hard.

Meanwhile, Su Qing kept bothering Yingyi's protector spirit to tell them what happened until it finally relented.

Xiuying weakly said something about how this was a bit inconsiderate to Yingyi, but she ended up listening in anyway.

Unlike Hong Ling, this protector wasn't interested in showing off, only manifesting as the typical ball of light.

"Hah..." the spirit started. "That boy... he was very stubborn! When I brought him to the bandit camp, he didn't just charge right in. He went around, looking for lone members, ambushing and capturing them one by one."

"Eventually, the main camp found out, however! He wasn't skilled enough to conceal himself, and the bandits felt something was off after the disappearance of 5 members. They surrounded him and beat him up! I offered to help him restrain them, but he refused."

"Finally, after using some escape techniques, he got away, just barely. I thought he would call it quits at that point, but he still continued to stalk them, waiting for another chance. If it wasn't because I told him he would need to return by night, he would probably still be trying to hunt them down..."

"You didn't heal him?" Xiuying asked.

"He didn't let me!"

As she listened, Mei felt a little guilty. She did way worse than Yingyi, but didn't dare to mention it, making it seem as if he did the worst.

When the sun rose, Senior Han had arrived.

Mei found him standing outside in the hallway, almost like a callback to the previous time here. This time. however, he was not here to hand out vegetable buns. All he did was stare vacantly out of the window.

"Uh... hi?" she said.

"Hey."

There was awkward silence for a moment.

"I saw Detian's letter earlier today. The bandits have been rounded up too," he said, breaking the silence. "Since the tasks have been complete, you'll have the next few days off."

"Ah."

"I have something to attend to, so I'm going to have to trouble you with informing your friends."

"Oh, okay."

Couldn't he just have shoved letters under their doors?

More silence.

"So... when are you going off? Since you're in a hurry."

"I'm not really in a hurry. Just taking a breather."

With those words, he walked off. Didn't even leave a single vegetable bun behind.

She stared strangely at Senior Han. Sure, she didn't appreciate how chatty he was at first, but seeing him act so cold was just weird...