"We apologise, but please allow one of our elders to accompany you."

Having been pushed that responsibility, Mace grumbled to itself while walking over to the disciples and spirits.

Shortly, Tu Teng and its group were reunited with the other elder spirits and disciples.

These spirits and strange "mushrooms"... Mace didn't trust them very much. From when it discussed with them, the spirits genuinely seemed interested in trade. But after hearing one of them had snuck off to the waterfall? Now it was no longer as sure.

The elder spirits chattered to each other with soulsense. Mace tried its best but couldn't decipher what they were saying. Wasn't soulsense practically a universal language? The mushroom didn't really get how that was possible.

The 5 weird "mushrooms" sat around and seemed to be talking, but Mace couldn't sense any traces of soulsense. How strange...

For a moment, a 6th mushroom seemed to appear out of thin air. Mace did a double-take, but it was gone. Mace rubbed its cap. Did it imagine that?

"Wow. That really worked?" Liu Qiang said.

"Apparently," Yingyi said.

With the powerful soulsense of the mushrooms, the elder spirits couldn't sneak off. It was quite the troubling situation. They discussed among each other, Dian Ying even suggesting cutting off trade, much to Shi Xing's chagrin.

That was when Tu Teng had a sneaky idea. Since the mushrooms were unable to hear or see, while Mace was distracted, the elder spirits would combine their spirit sense to hide the presence of one of the disciples, replacing them with another suit of armour.

From there, each of the disciples was swapped out one by one, to the confusion of the poor mushroom.

"This is rather irresponsible of them... sending disciples to apprehend someone so dangerous," Xiuying muttered. "Didn't Mei get poisoned earlier?"

"We're not going to dunk our heads into the water like her." Yingyi snickered. "And the elders did give us some antibacterial talismans."

Mei looked to Xiuying for defence, but the older girl quickly looked away after a slightly guilty look. As if she was saying... "Sorry, can't help you with this one"?!

Urgh, fine! Mei admitted that was really stupid of her. She pouted and looked away.

"Hehe... I'm actually looking forward to this." Liu Qiang grinned as he tossed a mace in his hands. "It's not every day we get to use weapons like this."

The handle of the mace was made with golden metal, its head glowing a faint red and radiating warmth.

With a little reluctance, Shi Xin had lent the disciples some of the prized weapons in his collection. While each of the other disciples received their preferred weapons, to no surprise, he didn't any in the form of small axes.

She remembered what he said back then, incredulously.

"Why the hell are you using a firewood axe as your weapon?"

Honestly... good point. For some reason, she thought she would do better with firewood axes since she had used them her whole life. In the end, she barely even used her axes directly, using them as throwing axes instead. Okay, she did actually find that pretty fun, to be fair.

Shi Xin ended up handing her a wooden sword, made from Ironwood. Hm, so Ironwood trees actually existed and weren't just the name of a technique.

While the sword had the lines and patterns of wood, it had a silverish hue to it and a slight clunk when she tapped on it. Hmm... she ran the edge of it along the rocky ground curiously. Without a sound, a huge gash appeared on the rock. There had been no resistance in the slightest, as if she had cut into a block of tofu instead. Mei suddenly had a flashback to the super sharp knives the octochef had...

Was it strong enough to cut through her armour though? She tentatively fan her finger across the edge, relieved to find not a scratch was left. Hehe.

Hua! Hya!

Mei started swinging the sword around, listening to the satisfying sound of it cutting through the air.

"Hey!" Xiuying shouted. "Don't play around with dangerous weapons! You might hurt someone!"

"But the armour is strong enough to protect from the blade..." Mei protested, running the blade against her gauntlet.

The sound of grinding metal echoed as a few sparks appeared.

"Don't do that either! You'll dull the edge of the blade..."

"Cheh."

Mei stopped reluctantly.

She peeked into her reflection in the stream, raising her blade. So cool... Maybe she should switch her main weapon to a sword... She had only been using her axes for throwing anyway.

As the disciples trudged along, following a tracking compass Tu Teng had given them, the sound of rushing water began to echo yet again.

"Another waterfall?" Liu Qiang said.

"It seems to be where the plague spirit is hiding too..." Wang Wei mumbled, staring at the compass.

The disciples went forward to investigate.

Before them was a massive set of rusted metal grates, with bars as thick as arms; huge enough that a small house could be placed comfortably on it.

Mei felt like this was very much overkill for such a small stream. Even a raging river would be swallowed helplessly by that...

The disciples stepped onto the drain and stared into the seemingly endless darkness below.

"We have to go down there?!" Wang Wei paled behind his helmet.

The disciples stared at each other, as if trying to see who would be the poor brave soul to take a look.

"You know what? Screw this." Yingyi said. "Let's just blow it up."

"What? They told us not to use the explosive Spellarms unless it was an emergency!" Xiuying protested.

"How very noble of you! Would you like to volunteer to go down then?"

"No, but we should-"

"Then that settles it!"

Ignoring the protests of Xiuying, he slashed a hole into the drain, the sound of banging metal echoing as the severed bars fell in.

From his bag, he strapped a shield-like contraption to his arm. On it, a white stone carving of a dragon's head was attached, its eyes scarlet gems that glinted in the faint light.

As Yingyi focused, the eyes began to glow brightly, and blinding orange light shone intensely from its mouth. The dreary caverns lit up instantly, as if a massive bonfire was blazing at that very spot.

"Whoa! What's it supposed to be, a torch?" Liu Qiang said.

The disciples quickly backed away as the dragon began to glow redder and redder. A low humming sound began to ring out.

Panicked, Yingyi began unstrapping it.

"Throw it away! I think it might be blowing up!" Wang Wei shouted.

"That's what I'm doing!"

Finally dislodging it, he threw it into the drain.

A second passed as it fell. Time almost seemed to slow as it spun, towards the waters below.

In the next moment, the disciples watched as a massive beam of fire shot out, striking the ceiling of the cavern, vaporising the rock in its path.

Tilting forward, the beam descended. Mei watched in awe. It was almost as if a massive blade had been swung, bisecting the cavern from ceiling to ground.

What a terrifying weapon! No wonder Shi Xin told them not to use it. Actually, what the hell was he thinking, giving this to Yingyi?