As she opened her eyes, Mei immediately hopped off her bed.

Normally, she'd be groggy for a few minutes. But with how the tournament would be happening in just a day, she was too excited to feel tired! Her alarm, better known as Su Qing wasn't even back yet. Outside, it was still dark, though, from the morning calls of birds, she could tell sunrise was right around the corner.

Mei stretched, wondering if the puppet was complete. In the end, the carpenter only did say "by tomorrow", so it could take as late as this afternoon.

But after sitting around for a few more minutes, she decided to just go and see for herself. At first, she wanted to wait for Su Qing so they could see the puppet together, but she wasn't able to resist her impulse.

In the end, along the way, Mei felt it wasn't quite right. So instead, she decided to head to the spirit elder's residence to look for Su Qing.

Under the light of dawn, there weren't many people out yet, making it rather peaceful. The usual swarms of busy spirits zooming around the sect weren't lessened however, but Mei had long since gotten used to it. Plus, she would only see them if she used soulsense.

She looked around the grove, trying to catch sight of Su Qing. Now that she thought of it, she actually didn't have any idea where the teacher spirits conducted their lessons. Troubled, she thought for a bit and she realised she could just ask one of the spirits in the grove. She felt a bit silly for not thinking of that immediately.

"Hey!" she sent out soulsense to a random green spirit. "Do you know where the teacher spirits conduct their lessons?

"What?" the spirit seemed annoyed. "There are hundreds of teachers, be more specific!"

"Uh... I think my contracted spirit called one of the teachers Qiu Qiu? Sorry if it's not all that specific."

"Qiu Qiu?"

The green spirit thought for a bit before conveying shock.

"Wait! Do you mean Qiu Ling? That teacher is super strict!" it said. "I don't know who your spirit friend is, but to call Qiu Ling that, I respect their guts."

"Uh, okay."

Mei thanked the spirit as it led her to one of the trees further into the forest. Under the shade of the tree, the 3 teacher spirits floated before a group of little spirits, Su Qing one of them.

Spotting her, the little cyan spirit immediately rushed to her happily.

"Hmm? What are you doing here, human?" said the green teacher spirit.

The red teacher spirit seemed to get a bit hostile but Mei ignored it.

"You talked to Su Qing a while ago about refining a better puppet, right? It's ready now, so can you end lessons for him a little early?" Mei said.

"Ah, that. Sure, lessons are about to end anyway." Greeny said.

"Yay!" Su Qing cheered.

Before long, they were before the doors of Song Woodworks.

Initially, Su Qing wasn't all that excited about getting a proper puppet, but after a lot of talking up from Mei, he had gotten excited too.

As it was still early, Mei decided to knock the door gently before entering.

The man at the counter was different today. Mei noted his face was quite similar to the previous man though. Were they brothers?

"Welcome. Here to collect your order?" he said nonchalantly.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Mei felt surprised.

She took out the slip of paper and handed it to him. He nodded in response as he glanced at the details.

"Well, usually, when customers come this early, it's to collect goods," he said. "Give me a moment, I'll get your order."

He headed into the staff room. Mei could hear the sound of rummaging as he searched, and seconds later, he came out, carefully holding it.

Unlike the training dummies, the puppet had very human anatomy, that of a well-built man. There weren't any complicated details such as facial features, hair or ears, but the general shape of muscles was quite noticeable. It even had proper hands and fingers, so Su Qing would be able to use weapons!

Though, maybe it was a bit too human? Did a puppet really need to have abs? The carpenter who made it must have been really bored...

"Here you go." the man smiled as he put the puppet before Mei. "Oh, and take these too."

He passed her a large jar of sawdust.

"These are the scraps, if the puppet ever takes extensive damage, you can use it for repairs," he explained

Next, he handed her a wooden card.

"This is a complimentary voucher, if you need our services again, you can get a 20 Jade discount. It expires in 10 years, by the way."

"Oh, okay," Mei said. "Thanks!"

10 years? That seemed a bit much to her. She wasn't going to complain though.

Meanwhile, Su Qing had gotten into the puppet and was waddling awkwardly, trying to get used to the balance. He got the hang of it quickly though and started wiggling his fingers excitedly.

"Finger! Finger! So cool!" Su Qing exclaimed.

Next, he tried to wiggle the toes... and fell over, flailing.

The man at the counter spluttered, failing to hold back his laughter. Slightly embarrased, Mei thanked him again before ushering Su Qing out of the store.

As soon as the doors shut, the little spirit piloted the puppet to a nearby patch of grass and bent down.

"Su Qing? What's wrong?" Mei asked.

She looked down and saw him picking up a random rock the size of her fist.

"Hold rock!" the little spirit said happily.

"Uh... okay?"

Gleefully, the spirit started tossing the rock from hand to hand, almost dropping it a few times.

"Juggle!"

Mei was pretty sure that wasn't juggling.

After a bit more "juggling", Su Qing rotated an arm over his head and threw the rock as hard as he could, sending it flying towards a window! Mei felt her heart skip a beat, panic filling her in that brief second.

Bonk!

Thank god for spirit glass.

"SU QING! Don't do that!" Mei shouted. "What if you broke something or hit someone?"

"Qing Qing sorry. Accident." he said, sadly.

Mei sighed as she continued to walk. Su Qing wasn't picking up anything anymore, only following gingerly. But from how he kept glancing at random things and wiggling his fingers, she could tell he clearly wanted to pick something up.

Seeing that, Mei felt a little bad and figured it would probably be fine for him to hold something. As long as he didn't throw it, of course.

Having a puppet behind her carry sticks and rock would make her look weird though, so she decided to let him hold the jar of sawdust.

"Su Qing, see this jar? You can hold it!" she said.

"Yay! Hold, hold!"

Excitedly, he grabbed the jar from Mei. It slipped from his fingers, smashing onto the ground and exploding into smithereens. Glass against smooth wood did not produce much friction.

...should have seen that coming.

"Oh no! No no!"

Panicking, Su Qing hurriedly gathered all the sawdust into a clump and put it onto his head.

"Is hair now."

Mei: ...