With a whirl, the drill spun rapid, becoming a blur of white. Despite that, it was as quiet as gentle wind.

Wang Wei lowered it to the ground, loud grinding echoing through the chamber. A small section of the crystal had been reduced into a fine powder.

Mei could hardly believe it was the very same crystal that shrugged off her blows. The drill made it look brittle as sugar. Turning off the drill, Wang Wei put on his mining mask and collected the crystal dust into a small jar.

"Incredible... I could even use this to grind dried herbs to powder." he mumbled to himself.

Mei watched eagerly as he harvested the rest of the crystal carefully.

"Um... Can I give it a try?" she asked.

"I want to try it too!" Su Qing said.

How was he planning to try it while stuck on her face as a mask?

Wang Wei glanced at them with a doubtful expression before shaking his head.

"I spent a lot of savings on this! It's not a toy!" he huffed.

Oh well.

The crystals harvested, Wang Wei searched the caverns before finding another tunnel further down. Mei followed along, cautiously looking around with soulsense. This time, she wouldn't forget...

Without pools of lava nearby, the tunnels was pitch black, save for the faint glow of lava from the tunnel behind them. Wang Wei took out a lantern wordlessly. Come to think of it, she should get a new lantern too, after her last one broke.

With soulsense, Mei saw a strange sign in the distance. There was a cluster of small souls frolicking around, their auras not particularly mighty. Mei still wasn't good enough with soulsense to tell godshard souls from spirits, but she was 90% sure those were spirits.

Was there some kind of treasure there? She noticed spirits like places particularly dense in qi.

"Wang Wei, I think I see a lot of spirits in that direction." she pointed to one of the tunnel walls. "There might be something interesting over there."

"But how are we going to- Oh!" he frowned, before his eyes suddenly lit up.

Wang Wei took out his drill and started drilling a passage in the wall.

"We can just carve our own path!"

Cascades of rock powder fell behind him as he drilled. That looked fun... Mei was a little envious. With her guidance, they reached the spirit cluster shortly. Wang Wei continued to drill until a sudden red radiance flowed out of the hole before him.

Lava!

Su Qing shrieked as Mei quickly backed off, prepared to run, but luckily, it melted and re-solidified with some of the rock dust.

"Too close..." Wang Wei heaved a sigh of relief.

Seems like digging around underground was pretty dangerous, even without spirit beasts.

Wang Wei drilled a staircase of sorts upwards before trying to break into the chamber again. This time, they were above lava level. Mei followed him in gingerly.

The rock walls of the chamber were covered in a strange glossy glow coating, reflecting the light of the lava.

Strange golden lotus flowers grew out of the magma pool, while little spirits frolicked, splashing in it. Mei couldn't help but marvel at the sigh, while Su Qing whimpered. Wang Wei reached his hand to touch the lava, before quickly retracting it.

Mei stared at him, dumbfounded.

"Hehe. Too hot." he said sheepishly. "But I think we can dig some tunnels below to drain the lava!"

"Wait!" Su Qing said.

"Hm?"

"What about those fire spirits? This is their home! You can't just destroy it just to harvest their treasures!"

"This..." Wang Wei frozed.

He turned to look at Mei pleadingly. Mei waved helplessly. She gestured helplessly. This dilema was beyond her too!

"Um, can you discuss with them?" Wang Wei finally said.

Oh. So that was what he wanted her to do. Awkward.

"Hey! Can we take some of these lotuses?"

As she reached out with soulsense, a swarm of fire spirits flocked over, filled with curiosity. They didn't seem to have understood her. This... wasn't this just like when she first met Su Qing? These were "baby" spirits, still unable to understand words!

What a headache...

Come to think of it, didn't the sect master say she could now take in a fire spirit now that her fire meridians recovered?

Maybe she could contract one of them!

She could imagine the teacher spirits cursing at her once again, saying she only knew how to take advantage of children... but was it still her fault when the older spirits were so demanding?

Probably...

One of the spirits was more golden than red. Back then, she picked Su Qing for his strange colour too and he turned out to be a dual element spirit! Was she going to be lucky enough to get another? Hehe.

She projected some imagery to it, promising adventure and fun to it. The little spirit get excitedly, bouncing around in agreement. Mei was about to form the contract when Su Qing started screaming.

"No! Don't form a contract! Fire spirits are scary!"

"What?" Mei was stunned.

"I don't want to live with a fire spirit! No!"

"This..."

She cursed to herself. Su Qing was so unreasonable right now! She prepared to start arguing with him, when she remembered Xiuying's and Wang Wei's argument. Back then, after finding out Xiuying was also cultivating a small strand of fire despite being primarily wood, he said she could set her cultivation ablaze with a single mishap!

Was this also a risk she had to face with a fire spirit contracted? Mei was suddenly much less enthusiastic. But seeing the golden spirit's excitement, she wasn't sure how to reject it at this point...

Ah, Wang Wei!

She instructed him on how to form a contract as he followed in confusion.

"Now you have a contracted spirit too!" she grinned.

"Seriously? Thanks... but I don't even know how to use soulsense yet. How am I supposed to talk to it?"

"You'll learn!"

For some reason, Mei was in a good mood despite giving up a rare opportunity.