The disciples stood in rows, before the teleportation array, already in their groups. Mei stood with her friends, Senior Han standing in front with a rather grouchy look. In her pockets, the jade spirit's token was now slightly glowing. Instead of giving her a new spirit token, Qiao Shun decided to remove Hong Ling's bindings, though he wouldn't be able to move far from the token.

Qiao Shun's spirit, Xiao Huo, was enthusiastically briefing the disciples about something, his master having run off to finally take a well-deserved break. Mei, however, was not paying attention, busy thinking about random stuff.

Yesterday, thinking about how they would head out for a month, Mei was reminded of something she wanted to do for a bit... which was to climb the Heavenreach tree and see whatever was on top.

And yet... with the impending trip, she felt like relaxing while she could, and ended up reading at home the entire day. She still felt like it was a bit of a pity though... she imagined there might be something pretty amazing above the canopy.

The night was spent browsing the library and grabbing all the books she was remotely interested in, so she could pack them up and ask someone to help her store them in their storage bag...

WAIT.

Mei was... empty-handed.

SHE FORGOT TO BRING THE BOOKS! Urgh...

"Hey..." she poked Senior Han.

"Hm?"

"I just realised I forgot something, can I go back to collect it?"

"...We're minutes away from leaving, it's too late now," he said. "What did you forget?"

"Books..."

"Like, cultivation techniques and stuff? Don't worry, I have a jade slip with most of the techniques from the sect library-"

"Even the fiction ones?"

Senior Han: ...

"Unfortunately not."

Xiuying let out an awkward laugh.

"Don't worry, we can visit a bookshop later! They might even have the same series," she said.

At the side, Su Qing, possessing his wooden puppet, was trying to look as inconspicuous as he could, feeling slightly responsible for not remembering to remind Mei...

With a flash, Mei and her group landed within a familiar clearing. It was where she tried to chop a tree and got beaten up, within the woods outside the cultivator city!

As for its name... had she been told? She forgot... Part of her wanted to ask but she was too embarrassed. She also wanted to ask what they were doing here, which would have been obvious had she listened during Xiao Huo's briefing.

"Ahahahaha!" loud laughter echoed through the woods.

From Mei's pockets, Hong Ling's token floated out.

"Finally! Free!"

From the token, white light flowed out, forming a long serpentine being with a horn and feathered wings.

Whoa...

"So that's your true form..." Mei mumbled.

"If a spirit had a true form, it would probably be a glowing ball of light." Hong Ling said sarcastically.

"What he's saying is: it looks cool." Senior Han finished.

"Haha! You get me!"

"I would rather not have to explain your appearance to the guards, however, so either morph into a human or go back to being an inanimate jade."

"Tsk."

With those words, Hong Ling morphed into a muscular but lean man nearly two metres tall in black robes, with long and unkempt dark red hair with a single gold highlight. With the sneer stuck on his face, an air of arrogance practically floated around him.

"Better?" the man asked.

"No." Senior Han said. "It's too flashy. But I'm not in the mood to argue with you."

The redhead laughed.

Before long, they entered the city. As expected, Hong Ling's unusual hair got looks from many people, a spot of red in a sea of black hair.

Mei and the group passed by familiar shops she vaguely remembered Senior Han introducing them to. Though, a question still lingered... until a few minutes later when someone spoke up.

"So what are we doing here?" Su Qing asked.

Mei silently thanked him.

"Karma farming. We look for reports of criminal activity, then apprehend them. It's an easy way of improving your karma fast."

This felt so insincere... Wait, and wasn't that bit out of the blue too? She remembered a while ago, during the tournament, they even made the virtual weapons padded to shelter the disciples from violence or something?

"Isn't that a bit..." Xiuying started.

"It is. Now, I'll go speak to some people real quick, so just sit there and wait for me."

Senior Han walked off, leaving them to sit at the stone seats in the public square. He seemed kind of annoyed today... Mei hoped it was not because she had yet to repay her debt.

As her friends chatted, Mei sat by herself, contemplating. Something poked her back, making her turn over. A tree branch?

"I remember you!" the tree said. "So have you planted the seeds I gave you?"

Oh! That tree... right, she was asked to plant the seeds. Damn, she didn't expect to ever meet it again.

Previously she left tending to the saplings to Su Qing, then proceeded to forget about it entirely. She nudged the wooden puppet.

"Hm?"

"What happened to the tree we planted?"

"What tree? ... Oh! I forget to check back on it, hehe..."

Mei made a mental note that Su Qing was rather forgetful as well.

Tree: ...

"At least you planted them." the tree said in a displeased tone before resuming its previous pose.

Almost an hour later, Senior Han returned, holding a few sheets of paper.

"I'm back. Did Hong Ling cause any trouble?"

"He was scaring children with weird faces..." Xiuying sighed.

Honestly, Mei thought that was a bit funny earlier.

Senior Han shook his head disapprovingly. He handed a sheet of paper to Xiuying, then to Mei and the rest of the group.

"These are your targets. The seals on the paper will help you locate them. Go apprehend them, then contact me again later."

After those short words, he headed off with a puff.

"Wait, you're leaving us just like that?" Wang Wei called out.

"Yes, I'm a bit busy right now," he said. "Sorry."

As he headed off, Mei took a good look at her paper.

Apprehend Fujin Bandits

Members: 15

Cultivation level: Qi Gathering 3-6

So little text... Now that she looked at it, the words seemed freshly written, still smelling of ink. The seal below, a red circle with intricate patterns took up most of the page. Just holding the piece of paper, she could vaguely feel herself being guided in a certain direction, albeit really far away.

"So... we're taking down those bandits togeth-" Mei said, glancing at Wang Wei's sheet. "Wait, we have different papers!"

"Yeah... you weren't listening during the briefing?"

"Haha..."

Now Mei was feeling a bit worried. Though, their cultivation stages did seem pathetically low... and Hong Ling would be there to protect her. Things were going to be fine!