Just moments after Liu Qiang tossed a handful of crumbs into the lake, swarms of fishes charges at them, gobbling them as if they hadn't eaten in days.

In just seconds, the crumbs were gone, but the fish bobbed their heads out of the water greedily, frothing up the water.

Looking slightly freaked out, he tossed in another handful... only for one of the fish to leap out of the water and lunge at his hands, chomping on his fingers, the sound of metal screeching ringing out!

"Ahhhh!" he yelled, shaking the fish off his finger. "Stupid fish!"

Wincing, he stared at his fingers, seeing bite marks...

"What type of crazy fishes are those? My fingers are supposed to be as hard as steel!" he glared at Da Xing.

To think feeding fish would be what disrupted the peaceful atmosphere...

"Sorry! The first batch of fishes always acts like that. Once they have their fill, the gentler fishes will come!" the gorilla apologised. "Here, let me apply some healing salve..."

Soon, just as Da Xing said, the very aggressive golden fishes were satisfied, taking their leave. In their place, more passive silver and brown fishes took their place, restoring the tranquillity of the lake.

"Is it really fine to feed them bread? I remember back where I lived, there was a nearby pond, but a lot of the fish died because the children were feeding them too much bread..." Xiuying asked.

"Well-" Da Xing started.

"Hmph! These are crazy spirit fish that can even eat metal if they want! It'll be a miracle if bread kills them!" Liu Qiang huffed, still rubbing his fingers.

"...I suppose that's one way to put it..." Da Xing sighed. "Well, it's what they seem to enjoy most, and it doesn't hurt them... So I think it's fine."

Hm.

Back in Qiulan mountain, that helpful owl refused to eat biscuits because they would make it feel queasy... With the fish, was it sort of a situation where they enjoyed bread but would regret it when it went out the other way? Hah. Almost like with overly spicy food. Mei smirked to herself.

"Wait what! That's yellow striped riverweed!" Wang Wei suddenly exclaimed.

"You only noticed now?" Yingyi said.

"...I was too busy reading."

"Yeah, it grows here natively! Are you two interested in botany?" Da Xing was suddenly full of enthusiasm. "I could show you all the amazing plants around here!"

"I was thinking it would be perfect for the pill I'm working on right now!" Wang Wei's eyes sparkled.

"Oh... nevermind."

Poor Da Xing.

For an alchemy ingredient, that was a disappointing mundane herb name.

"Uuurgh... water makes me feel a little uncomfortable, but I'll bear with it..."

With those words, he reached his arm into the water with a wince, struggling to pull the slippery weeds out.

"Wait, I have just the thing for this!" Xiuying grinned.

From her storage bag... she produced a set of diving gear...

...

"So... why do you have that in your bag?" Liu Qiang asked.

"Haha... I got a bit carried away shopping a few weeks ago. I think I have just about everything for any situation!"

Typical rich kid... Mei grumbled to herself.

"I can help! I can go into the water and pull it out!" Su Qing squeaked.

"Oh, that would be great!"

At the side, Xiuying looked a little saddened as she put the diving gear back...

Seconds after the energetic little spirit dived into the water, entire clumps of riverweed floated to the surface, their roots perfectly intact. Damn... Su Qing was actually perfect at harvesting... Mei quickly swatted her inner demon away before it could say a word.

"Hey, Su Qing! That's harvesting a bit much isn't it?" Da Xing protested.

"Ok, sorry!"

As Wang Wei excitedly put clumps of soggy riverweed into large jade boxes, Da Xing shook his head.

"The beast elders are going to be so mad at me..." he muttered to himself.

As the last of the fish left, content, Mei suddenly heard footsteps from behind.

"Oi! Look who it is over here, cosying up to humans!"

Behind, two gorillas just as large as Da Xing arrived, sneering.

"Look at you, so busy being Da Xing that you forget to be Xiao Xing!" the other gorilla said.

At the poor joke, the two of them laughed rambunctiously*.

"Not you two again!" Da Xing groaned.

"Xiao Xing! Xiao Xing! Xiao Xing!" the two of them chanted, laughing all the while.

Mei: ...

This was so childish.

"Oi. You humans over there! This idiot might have welcomed you, but this is our territory." the first gorilla said. "You're not welcome here!"

"That's right, get out!"

Looking to her friends, it didn't seem like anyone was willing to argue with such towering beasts... They would have to leave it to Liu Qiang... who was hiding behind Da Xing's back?! Where did all that bravado go?

"I'm just taking them through the forest, alright? What's the big deal? It's not like there's any rule against that!"

"You big oaf, it's an unspoken rule! Other than you, which weirdo here likes humans, huh?"

"I, uh... let's go!" Da Xing stammered.

Hastily, he grabbed Mei and her protesting friends and stuffed them into his huge pockets, before lumbering off.

It was the last thing she expected him to do... She thought it would descend into a huge argument.

"Oh, look! The coward is running away again!"

"Ahahahaha!"

...

After a few minutes of running, the gorilla put them back on the ground, sighing...

"I guess the relationship between humans and spirit beasts isn't too good here, haha..." Xiuying mumbled.

Da Xing nodded sadly.

"Why do they hate us so much anyway? It's not like we eat them nor fight with them in this sect." Liu Qiang harrumphed.

Mei thought back to her experience on Qiulan mountain, where she was sent to "steal" herbs from the herb gardens of the beasts as "taxes". Maybe the elders pulled enough shenanigans like that to turn the spirit beast population against them?