What in the world was Senior Han up to anyway, running off like that for a bunch of days?

Wasn't he supposed to be their guardian, making sure they didn't get into danger? Granted, they did have guardian spirits, but still...

Unless... Mei suddenly had a "revelation".

Senior Han must have been assigned something by the sect too! And apparently, it was annoying enough that it made him grouchy?

A rather mischievous thought came to mind. What if she followed Senior Han with soulsense?

Without any books on hand, Mei didn't have much to do anyway. Of course, she still had the option to browse local libraries, but she was worried if there was a particularly enticing series here, she wouldn't be able to get her hands on later volumes until she was willing to waste jade to teleport here...

Unlike Wang Wei, her wallet wasn't bursting at the seams after all.

Closing her eyes to focus, she quickly activated soulsense. Ack! So many people... it was really hard to find Senior Han in particular... Come to think of it, she had yet to use soulsense when he was close. Would she even be able to identify him?

She continued to look.

Oh, Su Qing. He was on the roof for some reason. Mei decided to call out to him.

Before long, the wooden puppet scrambled down the stairs, running up to her.

"Good morning!"

Without sparing a moment Mei quickly explained. Su Qing was a little jarred at first but quickly caught up.

"Ooooo! Stalking Senior Han? I don't know why, but that sounds fun!"

"Hey! Don't word it like that, okay? I'm not some creep..."

"Creep?"

"Nevermind."

What the hell were the teacher spirits doing anyway, teaching an innocent baby spirit the word "stalker"?

The two weirdos left hastily. Mei had already forgotten to inform her friends on Senior Han's behalf...

"There! I see him!"

Mei pointed excitedly at a certain soul in the distance.

Nearly 10 minutes had passed since she roped in Su Qing on her little misadventure. Thankfully, her Foundational cultivation reduced the exhaustion of soulsense massively. Even so, she was beginning to feel somewhat mentally exhausted.

"Wait, Mei Xiu! I have an idea!"

The puppet suddenly began to break into planks and assembling itself into a small wagon, barely enough to fit a single passenger.

"Whoa!"

"Hehe, get in!"

Mei hopped inside after a little hesitation. The passersby gave her weird looks as she zoomed past them.

Being able to change forms just like that was pretty cool! Mei began daydreaming about the possibilities...

Mei stood before a powerful swordsman, his blade rippling with killing intent or whatever! Then suddenly he leapt over, only to be interrupted by Su Qing!

"Hah, this is merely a puppet." He laughed. "Do you really think-"

"Hoho. Think again!"

Then something something, Su Qing transformed into a huge wooden dragon! Roaaaarrrr!

!!!

"What! Impossible! Nooooooooo..." he screamed.

The wooden dragon flew over and crashed into him, baring his razor sharp teeth!

KABOOOOM!

The ground exploded for some reason. Mei struck a "cool" pose before walking away without a care.

Hehe.

"Mei Xiu? Mei Mei? We're there?" Su Qing suddenly poked her.

"Eh? Already?"

Mei snapped back to reality.

"Were you thinking about something?"

"Er... nothing..." she looked away.

Before her, she saw a plain-looking Buddhist restaurant. Huh. It was actually the same one Senior Han had treated her and her friends to the previous visit.

"What do we do now? Just walk inside and surprise him?" Su Qing whispered.

"Er..."

Mei realised she didn't even consider that.

"Er, we watch from the windows!"

She was worried he would get mad if he found out they were tailing him.

"Okay!"

...

Now she was actually acting like a stalker. Maybe this wasn't the best idea.

The two of them snuck over and peeked into the window. Su Qing was still in his wagon form as he did so, making it a particularly odd sight.

Inside, Senior Han sat before a table, covered with several dishes. He had a rather pleased expression on his face as he munched on a spring roll slowly. He was practically back to his old cheerful self.

"Su Qing... I think we're being too conspicuous..." Mei whispered.

She could practically feel the weird looks boring into her back.

"Hmmm... Aha!"

"You have an idea?"

"Yes! Okay, you step here and..."

"Okay..."

"Then I do this and... tada!"

Su Qing had turned into a cramped box tall enough to be seen from the window, with a peephole for Mei to look through.

Mei: ...

"Hehe!" Su Qing felt rather smug. "I'm a genius!"

Mei could only imagine what people were thinking as they watched.

By whatever miracle, she was not immediately reported to the guards over the next few minutes.

She was beginning to regret her decision, however. Watching Senior Han eat at the speed of a disabled tortoise was really grating her... did he not care if the food got cold? And she was starting to get hungry as she watched as well...

Could it be that he just ditched them to go on a food tour?

"Hey, was this box always there?" a staff member suddenly said.

Mei began to sweat.

"It doesn't look like any of the delivery boxes we get. You think a customer left it here?"

"What type of weirdo carries around huge boxes wherever they go?"

"Haha, good point."

"Maybe it fell off a wagon by mistake?"

"I think it's too perfectly aligned for that..."

Just as the man was about to turn over to take another glance, the box shifted a bit, no longer perpendicular to the window.

"Huh? Wait, it's not? Weird, I could have sworn..."

"Who cares? That's not important. I think we should probably hand it over to lost and found."

One of them took out a piece of jade.

"Hello? Lotus Buddhist Restaurant here. No, not that one, we're the one..." the staff member muttered something about forgetting the address. "The one beside the central public square. We found a strange box outside our window, most likely dropped by..."

A few minutes later, an unmanned wagon arrived, scooping up the box with it and leaving.