"Stop."

The plague spirit resisted as Tu Teng tried to pull it out of the corpse.

"Stop this at once. This I do not like," it complained.

"I'd be more concerned if you liked it!"

The two spirits continuously tugged at each other, the corpse yanked around all over the place as a result. Mei wasn't sure if it looked more like a strange dance or more like a toy being fought over by two children.

"You. Do not force my hand." the plague spirit said.

From the stream, the water began to bubble rapidly, as if boiling. A strange greyish fog rose into the air. The ground began to rumble, crumbing into countless chunks.

Mei and the other disciples yelled as they fell into the gaps beneath the ground, the rock quickly sealing them beneath.

"Trying to take them as hostages? Hmph, useless!" Tu Teng harrumphed. "Even cultivators at the peak of this world would be unable to scratch their armour!"

"Hostages. Presumption of you to think so." the corpse spoke monotonously.

The floating rocks began to converge, converging into a massive arm that towered 10 metres into the air.

It grabbed onto Hu Teng's corpse, holding tightly onto its foot, before swinging it around maniacally into the ground. Loud banging echoed through the cavern as the body slammed into the cavern floor over and over again, crushing rock into dust.

"What the hell are you doing? Have you gone mad?" Tu Teng yelled.

"This body, I've melded with. You can't hold on, not as tight as me." the plague spirit said. "And... this body is strong. It will take more than that to damage it."

Finally, after several slams, it managed to dislodge Tu Teng from the corpse.

"You take over his body without permission, and now you can't even show it the slightest respect?"

"You forced my hand."

The plague spirit paused. Then it arched the massive stone arm backwards, before flinging the body forward at full force.

As fast as an arrow, the corpse shot into the distance, out of sight in seconds.

Tu Teng was speechless.

Beside him, a section of rock melted, a hand reaching out and grabbed the sides. Wang Wei pulled out himself out of the molten hole, panting.

"Why are you out of breath if you don't need air?" Tu Teng asked.

"I don't know..."

"You humans are weird. I'll go dig the rest of your friends up."

From its jade, it retrieved a vine still brimming with vibrant green leaves. The vine burrowed into the ground and parted the rock with ease, before digging each of the disciples up.

"Urgh," Mei said.

"What happened? Where did that guy go?" Liu Qiang asked.

Tu Teng pointed at the massive rock arm.

"He threw himself."

Well... that certainly is an advantage of not fearing death.

Did that mean all spirits could do that? What if she launched Su Qing with a massive catapult?

...wait, why was she thinking of something like that? She shook off the thought.

"I see..."

"Wait!" Wang Wei suddenly said. "I was distracted after being buried, but why were you attacking that plague spirit? He might have been disrespecting a dead man, but he wasn't hurting anyone?"

"Except Mei Xiu." Liu Qiang snickered.

Mei: ...

"What you said is true." Tu Teng nodded. "But, consider this. A plague spirit, like any other of us spirits, is immortal. If one day it were to change its stance and started attacking people, what sort of damage would that cause?"

"Left unchecked, a plague spirit could grow powerful enough to wipe out hundreds of cities before being subdued. You might say I'm being harsh to apprehend it, despite its innocence, but is it not our responsibility to prevent such things? Some things are too dire to leave to chance."

The disciples weren't sure what to say, remaining silent.

Tu Teng stared off into the distance. This reminded it a little too much of Hong Ling's situation.

It sighed.

"We don't have time to mull over this. Stand still if you want to follow me, and walk backwards if you want to scram."

The spirit took a flying boat out of its storage jade.

"Get in."

It shoved every disciple into the artefact before zooming off.

As the boat shot through the air, ironically flying over the stream, suddenly, a row of massive rock hands rose out of the ground, blocking their path.

The corpse?!

Mei looked down and saw 10 mushrooms beneath them, evidently the ones who cast the spell.

Oh. Nevermind then. Weird how the arms they conjured looked exactly the same, though...

"Visitors!" one of the mushrooms echoed. "Please do not run around the premises unsupervised."

Tu Teng lowered the boat reluctantly.

"Sorry, but we can't afford to let unknown visitors roam free. It's for the safety of our residents." it continued.

Hm? Did the mushrooms finally figure out they were humans?

Tu Teng felt rather irritated.

If not for its colleagues wanting to establish trade, it would have simply swatted these nuisances away and continued the chase!

Tu Teng didn't actually care about the damage the plague spirit could cause all that much, but because of its contract with the Virtue sect, it was obligated to help.

Once a spirit within the sect reached maturity, it would be obligated to form a contract with the sect. A rather roundabout way for the sect elders to farm karma... no doubt.

The green spirit felt rather irritated as it imagined the elders advancing in their cultivation, laughing as heavenly boons fell from above in place of tribulations. Reaping the work of countless spirits...

At the very least, the contracted spirits did gain a small degree of karmic protection, a benefit otherwise reserved for reincarnators. But it still didn't sit well with Tu Teng.

As the mushrooms escorted the disciples off the boat and towards the village, the spirit focused. During the scuffle with the plague spirit, it managed to leave a tracing mark on the corpse.

Now, all it had to do was to find an opportune time to sneak off.