"So this was what you were building..." Mei mused.

Before her, a crude wooden hut with two storeys sat, looking on the verge of falling apart. The walls were completely uneven, evidently grated together with Su Qing's wood fusing abilities.

"Hehe... I'm not very good at building..." he said sheepishly. "But it's fun!"

"Hm..." Mei stared at it closely.

Somehow, she felt like there had to be some way she could make use of this talent?

"Aha!"

From what she remembered, while Su Qing was surprisingly good at fighting because of his durability, he was kind of a coward... but what if he controlled puppets from a distance?

Mei imagined fighting the bandits again, but this time commanding an army of wooden puppets. Hehe. Conveniently, she ignored how it would actually be Su Qing doing the commanding.

She began telling Su Qing her idea, minus the part about fighting.

"Oooo! That's such a fun idea! If I control more bodies, then I can do more things at once!"

For the next few minutes, Mei and the little spirit gathered more wood. The Ironwood sword was very convenient, easily felling the trees with its absurd sharpness.

Before long, a 2nd puppet was made, with vines as joints for smoother movement. Mei was proud to say her puppet was a huge improvement from her previous attempt, but it was largely due to how easy it was to carve the wood with her borrowed sword. That didn't stop it from smelling like a sappy mess anyway, however.

Gingerly, the new puppet stood up.

"This feels weird..." Su Qing said. "Can't balance as well..."

The new puppet stumbled around a little, reaching out to the trees for balance, before he finally got used to the new body. Finally, it was able to walk without immediately falling on its face.

Su Qing's original puppet began to walk as well but fell over.

"Uuuu... it's too hard to focus on 2 different bodies..." Su Qing said sadly.

"Eh? But what about that time you made a horse to pull the wagon?"

"I think it's because I wasn't moving my main body, so I didn't have issues..."

"Hmm..." Mei mused. "What if... you added arms to your puppet? Four arms!"

"Eh? That's a good idea!"

Su Qing plucked off the arms of the new puppet and attached them to his back. He waved them around excitedly.

"Look! I'm an asura now! Hehe."

After waving them around for a little more, he suddenly leaned forward, touching the ground. A handstand? With a little hop, he was now standing on four arms! He bent forward, reaching his feet towards Mei and clapping them, mimicking a mandible.

"Eh??"

"Gwaaa! I'm an ant now!"

Mei: ...

Su Qing pouted at the lack of laughter. Mei was no fun.

Ants huh? Mei suddenly thought of another idea.

"I have another idea! What if you made a huge wooden puppet, then got in it?" she said. "If you're fighting a super small guy like an ant, then it's not scary, right?"

"Eh?" Su Qing tilted his head.

Why was Mei talking about fighting? Well, it did sound fun to be big though!

"Okay!"

Mei and Su Qing got to work, chopping down a few more trees. As yet another fell, a bird let out a panicked chirp as it flew off that very tree.

The two of them watched as it flew off into the distance.

"Aren't we destroying the birds' homes?" Su Qing asked.

Gehhh.

"Okay... we'll use soulsense to check for birds first next time..." Mei said.

Su Qing satisfied, they resumed gathering wood.

After several hours of hard work, the two of them beheld their work.

An extremely crude wooden giant with oddly stubby legs, as tall as four grown men, despite sitting. The two of them wanted it to stand at first, but realised it would probably fall over.

Its misshapen head lacked detail entirely, but Su Qing carved eyeholes with the help of Mei and put wooden spheres inside, thinking it would be funny.

Looking at how unsteady it was, Mei was worried it might fall flat and crush her. Then she realised that if she could survive being smacked by a giant metal grate, then the much lighter wooden giant shouldn't be an issue either.

"Finally! Now I can be super big!" Su Qing said cheerfully.

The little spirit popped out of the muscle puppet, leaving it to fall face-first into the ground, before zipping into the giant.

Mei watched with bated breath as the giant trembled. Slowly, it raised one of its arms, the limb trembling.

"So... heavy..." Su Qing strained.

As he reached the arm into the air, it suddenly broke off at the shoulder, slamming into the ground.

The two of them stared blankly at it.

"Um, it's okay, I can just make another arm..." the little spirit said.

The giant reached its other arm to the ground, pushing against it. Its legs shifted, pushing against the ground, shaking as well. Evidently, Su Qing was trying to stand up.

"Nnnn... nnn..."

"Um... you can do it?" Mei tried to give encouragement.

With a creaking sound, the remaining arm and both legs snapped off as well. With loud thuds, the giant fell to the ground in pieces.

The two of them were left speechless.

"Maybe we just didn't make the joints strong enough," Mei said.

"Yeah..."

Feeling rather disheartened, the two of them stashed the broken giant into storage, neither of them in the mood to continue.

Mei walked around for a little, before nearing a tree, kicking it. It didn't hurt, so she kicked it even harder, leaving a small dent in it.

??

Suddenly, she realised her armour meant she wouldn't get hurt from hitting stuff! She punched it hard once, then punched harder and harder, each hit shattering wood. Finally, the tree snapped, toppling to the ground.

"Mei Xiu? What are you doing?" Su Qing said, confused.

Whoa... did the armour give her super strength or something? But back when she was building the giant, lifting huge logs was just as difficult as usual...

Suddenly, she remembered a few words from the body elder vaguely.

Something about... defensive strength being more important than actual physical strength... and uh... something about honing the body into iron?

Mei didn't really get what he was saying back then, but she suddenly felt like she had an epiphany. If hitting stuff doesn't hurt her hands, then she can hit as hard as she wants!

Was this what the main characters from novels felt when they suddenly had realisations mid-battle? Mei suddenly felt awesome for whatever reason.

She suddenly had a crazy thought, pointing her finger towards the tree and jabbing it cautiously. She followed up with a full punch, her armoured finger piercing the wood entirely.

Whoa!!

Mei began running around, poking holes in all the surrounding trees with her finger like a crazed woodpecker. Su Qing watched, completely flabbergasted.

Just a minute ago, she was sad, but after punching and poking at trees, she was happy again?