Mei finally fell asleep on the ground, back in her room.

Xiao Mei took the sleepwalking charm out of her storage jade and activated it in instant, as if it were as natural as breathing.

She stood up and stretched, taking in a deep breath, enjoying the fresh air. Unbeknownst to Mei, Xiao Mei had been taking turns at her body every night.

The teleportation token...

After the incident back at the Heavenreach Tree, Xiao Mei had been a lot apprehensive about going from her room. If anything happened and Mei woke up, how was she going to explain?

But now that she had unlimited teleports, she could just return immediately if Mei started to come to! She couldn't help but grin.

That is... unless the token somehow could tell Mei herself wasn't using it. Xiao Mei got a little antsy, but thankfully, it worked just fine.

With a flash of light, Xiao Mei appeared beside Su Qing.

"Eh, Mei? What-"

She grabbed him and immediately teleported into the Spirit Elder's residence next.

"Xiao Mei? Did something happen?" Su Qing asked, worried.

"It's nothing big, I just need your help for something!"

She went back to the same room, knocking on it again.

"What is it? Didn't you get the hint I don't want to be bothered?" a woman yelled.

Li Xuan yanked the door open violently with a frown, but shortly, her expression changed.

"No... you're her Nascent Soul! You sure have a lot of guts to come here while possessing her, huh?"

The Spirit Elder looked at Mei with a bemused expression.

"They say the spirits are the eyes and ears of the sect... as the Elder in charge of them, I'd be more surprised if you didn't already know." Xiao Mei said. "So I decided to take the risk."

Li Xuan nodded.

"Mmm. You're much sharper than the original Mei. Did part of the Sect Master rub off onto you?"

Xiao Mei wasn't sure what to answer and kept silent.

"Well, go on. What did you come here for?"

"Su Qing, can you take out the new puppet?"

"Okay..." he grumbled. "You only dragged me here for that?"

"No, there's more, I'll explain in a bit."

Xiao Mei presented the wooden puppet to Li Xuan.

"Not too long ago, Mei helped me commission this puppet, so I could move around properly. But I realised I could barely be more than 10 metres away from her."

"So you want me to help with that. But why do you think an Elder would waste my time on this?"

"The elders here are very kind... and in the worse case, I'll pay a consultation fee somehow." Xiao Mei said resolutely.

Li Xuan let out a chuckle.

"Alright, alright, I was just messing with you. As an Elder, I'm obligated to help." she said. "The first thing you'll need is a Soul Attuning Sigil, engraved on a formation plate and embedded in your puppet."

"You'll need to learn the appropriate Attuning techniques as well, but you should be able to find books on it in the sect library."

Xiao Mei bowed.

"Thank you, master! And sorry for disturbing you!"

"No need to be so formal. Oh, and one last thing. I've been experimenting with something new lately, and you seem perfect for it."

"Eh?"

Xiao Mei got goosebumps.

"No need to be so scared! It's unrelated to studying you."

Li Xuan took out a strange block of wood covered in roots.

"This is an artificial plant I created recently. I call it "Lumbersoul". It survives off absorbing qi instead of photosythesis, can be chopped into pieces without dying."

"I can give a puppet made entirely out of it for you."

Xiao Mei gulped.

"What's the catch?"

"I engineered it specifically to test it's compatibility with the Ironwood body. Aren't you disastisfied with your wooden puppet? Help me cultivate the puppet's body to the 5th stage and see if its body turns pliable."

"The fifth stage is like the equivalent of Nascent Soul isn't it? How do you expect me to handle that?" Xiao Mei protested.

"You can take a hundred years if you want. I have the patience." Li Xuan shruged. "If the experiment proves a success, Lumbersoul puppets will prove to be the perfect Wood vessels."

"Since they can get stronger as you cultivate their body? But surely that's more expensive than just buying better wood!"

"A living body with cultivation is better than a slab of wood just as durable. It's well worth the cost."

Li Xuan took out a plain wooden puppet and plopped it before Xiao Mei. It was entirely featureless, but before her eyes, it quickly morphed to match her puppet.

"It's appearance can be changed at will once you've refined it. Deal?" she asked. "Well, even if it doesn't work out, you'd still have obtained an extremely powerful body. You don't have much to lose."

"Alright, thanks..."

"I'm glad you're so agreeable! Now if excuse me, I'd like to get back to relaxing in my room."

Li Xuan placed the puppet into Mei's hands before shutting her door.

Xiao Mei stared at it in a daze.

...

"Aah... she was so scary! I didn't dare to talk." Su Qing finally spoke.

Xiao Mei snapped out of it, hearing his voice.

"Once Mei wakes up, can you tell her you've consulted Li Xuan for her and she no longer needs to pay a visit to Qiao Shun?"

"Okay!"

"Thank you!"

Xiao Mei looked at the new puppet once again before sighing.

Now that she thought clearly, wasn't she being taken advantage of? The cost for buying body solution up til the 5th stage was most definitely going to be ridiculous.

Li Xuan was essentially leaving the testing to someone who had no better choice. If it turned out the Ironwood body didn't work as it did on the human body, then the old fox would have avoided losing a fortune for nothing!

Hah...

Why were the elders in this sect so stingy and scheming?