"Stop right there!"

Startled, Mei turned around, only to see a stag floating in the air, a bird perched on its antlers.

"They're the invaders I mentioned, sire!" the bird said. "I saw them destroying every tree in their path!"

Eh?

For some reason, Mei felt she had seen that bird not too long ago.

"For the destruction of private property, you shall be jailed and fined!" the stag yelled.

From a bangle around its calf, a net appeared out of thin air, shooting toward her and Su Qing.

"Whoa!"

Mei reflectively slashed at it with her sword, cutting it in half.

"My cloud-piercing net! You scoundrels!"

"Why are you attacking us, Mr Stag?" Su Qing said.

"Are you deaf? You have destroyed public property under the management of the Four Winds Council!"

"The trees?" Mei asked.

"What else?"

Several cannons suddenly materialised, floating around it.

"Resist arrest and you'll get a cannon to the face!"

Geh...

Mei already used a lot of teleport charges, so she didn't want to escape just yet. She was pretty sure the armour could keep her safe, but Su Qing...

Maybe if he went into his jade... no, the jade would still need to be protected...

Aha!

"Su Qing, get your puppet into the jade! I have an idea!"

"Eh?"

Confused, Su Qing obliged. Mei opened up her helmet a little before snatching the jade out of the air, stuffing it in.

The stag and bird were stunned. Did that human just... eat her contracted spirit? Its soul aura vanished without a trace!

Mei closed the visor back up and scrunched her face from the jade squishing her nose. She wiggled around for a bit before "Su Qing" fell down the neck-hole and into the chest plate. That wasn't very comfortable either...

From the little spirit, she sensed muffled soulsense. Were the armour's enchantments stopping him from speaking properly?

"What did you just do?" the bird squawked.

"Uh, nothing..." Mei said.

She turned around and started running.

"You dare resist arrest?"

The stag roared as whirling sounds came from the floating cannons.

"Please wait, great protector!" the bird chirped. "If you fire right now, you'll destroy the surrounding trees!"

"Oh." the deer paused, coughing awkwardly. "In that case..."

Under Mei's feet, the ground trembled for a moment, before a massive spike of rock struck her! She screamed as she shot high into the air, spinning.

The two animals paused at the sight.

"I didn't expect that to actually hit the human." the stag said.

"As expected of great protector."

Shortly, Mei crashed into a tree, snapping several branches.

"That human... it can't fly?" the bird mused.

"That's not possible. What Qi Gathering cultivator would have such powerful armour?"

"Perhaps it stole artefacts from its Clan treasury?"

Mei felt slightly offended as she listened to the two of them bantering. She could fly... float? She just wasn't very good at it yet...

From its bangle, the stag summoned a black cage and sent flying toward the girl stuck in the tree. She grumbled before slashing at it, destroying it as well. The remains of the cage crashed into her, sending her tumbling to the ground.

"Good heavens! What a ridiculous weapon..." the stag said. "How are we supposed to deal with that?"

The two of them paused.

"Lord protector, I just had a most brilliant idea. If you launch the human into the air, you can fire your cannons at it without damaging the trees." the bird said.

WHAT? Was she target practice now? Also, wouldn't the cannonball eventually land and hit trees anyway?

"Hoho... An excellent suggestion."

Mei screeched as yet another spike sent her into the air.

BOOM!

She crashed to the ground, disorientated. What... nothing happened?

"Ah. I missed."

High above, the cannonball sparkled before vanishing into the horizon.

Mei suffered for the next few minutes, tossed up again and again by spikes, until she was finally hit and sent flying into the distance as well.

Mei wanted to cry... and also to go home...

After it hit her with the cannon, the stupid deer chased her and eventually dumped her into the river canyon, where she was washed away.

She crashed into the platforms and rocky walls over and over again, she eventually washed up into a cave beside the rushing river. The guards, who had just seen a speeding boat hours ago, were speechless, deciding not to bother.

She thought she'd have puked by now, but amazingly, she managed to hold back. Hong Ling's offhand remark about getting a friend to grab her feet and spin her in circles as training came to mind. Urgh...

After hearing about Su Qing's crazy boat trip, she didn't expect to follow in his shoes, let alone so soon.

Mei propped herself against a wall to do a handstand, then shook around for a bit until Su Qing's jade fell back into her helmet and out of the visor.

A few seconds later, the jade expanded into a shaking puppet.

"Uuuu... Mei! It was so scary in there! I couldn't sense anything!" he cried.

Mei spent the next few minutes consoling him.

...

Wait.

Where did the sword go? Oh no... if the elder spirits found out she lost it... would she be millions of Jade deep in debt?

Oh no, oh no- Oh.

She watched as the Ironwood sword flew into the cave, carrying her bag on its hilt as well.

...??

"Thanks?" she said.

The sword didn't respond.

As Su Qing poked at it curiously, she rummaged through her bag to see if anything was lost or damaged. The first thing that caught her eye was the teleportation token, which was glowing a faint blue. It seemed she got a message from the sect during all that chaos.

Her qi lantern had been smashed into smithereens, along with the pill jars Wang Wei gave her... that sucked... Oh, her Jade pouch was still intact! Thank goodness, that would have been the worst.

A weird green powder stuck to the insides of her bag... what the heck was that?

Oh. It was the remains of Wang Wei's weird nasty green pill. She forgot she brought it along.

Everything else was lost. Mei sighed before picking up the teleportation token, listening to the announcement.

"Disciples, the new sect master has an announcement to make. Please return by tomorrow."