"For a while now, I've heard of your misconduct, fooling a young spirit into signing an uneven contract." he continued. "Perhaps it could have said to be you having not known back then. But even now, you encourage a fellow disciple to follow in your footsteps!"

Mei backed up. This weirdo was so intimidating!

"Hey, she was just looking out for me! She wasn't thinking of anything bad!"

Wang Wei stepped up between her and the man.

"Hmph, as virtuous cultivators, how would we act as such? How would you feel if you were fooled into working on unfair terms from a young age?"

"Um..." Wang Wei wasn't sure what to say.

"Why are you all ganging up in me anyway?" Mei complained. "Am I somehow the only disciple that contracted a young spirit? Some other people must have done it by accident too!"

Well... though back in the magma chambers she was fully aware. Not that she would admit that.

"You are far from the first. But what got spirits to talk about you was mainly how you went as far as to indoctrinate one of the training dummy spirits!"

The man's voice echoed through the caverns, making other disciples turn over. Mei felt rather uncomfortable.

"Well, I was thinking they probably weren't happy stuck in that musty room all day anyway! And they get hit and stuff!" Mei made up an excuse.

"Those dummies were precisely part of a program the elders and spirits agreed on! By now, surely you've noticed the cowardly nature of spirits?"

"...yeah?"

"That was part of a experiment to see if they could overcome that by exposing them to combat! And to give them experience in controlling bodies and mending wood!"

"Oh."

So it was for that very purpose? Su Qing was indeed ridiculously good at stitching wood together. Mei had assumed it was something all wood spirits could do.

"Anyway, you're not fooling me! If that really was your intention, wouldn't you have tried to free even more of the dummy spirits? And what about the new spirits? We learnt you destroyed their magma pool!"

The spirits all around started to look at her accusingly, murmuring in agreement.

"You all are too unreasonable!" Liu Qiang frowned. "I know people like you. It's not that Mei Xiu is the only one who did this, you all are just specifically looking for someone to bully, aren't you?"

With that, the two of them began to argue incessantly. Wow... what a mess.

Mei decided to just grab both her friends and teleport away.

"You won't get away that eas-" the man yelled as they disappeared with a flash.

After the whole fiasco, Mei reassured Wang Wei and Liu Qiang before heading off on her own.

"Teleport to Senior Han! Han Yun?" she focused soulsense into the token.

Nothing happend.

Darn. What now?

Mei thought hard for a moment... Aha! She recalled Ning Xing was friends with him- wait, no, Yang Ning!

Gahh!

But uh... if Senior Han was investigating Yang Ning, then he might have asked her something! It was still worth a shot.

Mei had a feeling the earthy man had started a "witch hunt", so she figured she might as well get out as soon as possible. It wasn't exactly secret the outer disciples were in the Buddhist sect.

She asked around, and soon arrived at the Horticulture Elder's residence.

It was a tall white building, with countless attached regular pots housing all sorts of strange plants. Some disciples were flying around, tending to them.

Around the main building were several strange glass domes, the insides brimming full of greenery.

Mei was flabbergasted. Where were the fields and sweaty farmers she imagined? Was this really what farming was like in a cultivation world?

To the side, she spotted two disciples lugging along a 3-metre tall capsule made of white metal, covered in pipes and valves. On its front was a oval glass window, showing an oversized red gingseng growing in some... transparent jelly?

"What is that?" she asked them.

"Oh, are you new here?" one of the disciples, a handsome young man smiled.

"This is a Golden Veined Scarlet Ginseng, but not a natural one. Our sect has crossed several wild variants, and adapted them into growing in artificial environments."

"I see?" Mei didn't get it.

"Some people think that wild herbs are the best. But how can they beat domesticated herbs grown in perfect conditions?" the man said proudly. "Our estimates suggests this gingseng is about 25 times more potent than wild variants!"

The other disciple suddenly looked at Mei with an almost hungry light.

"Kuang Zhi, this disciple has grade 6 wood meridians!" he stammered, a crazed look appearing in his eyes. "You! Come join us! Herbalists are the pillar of cultivation! How can alchemists make their wonders without our support? Join! Join us!"

Mei excused herself and ran off in a hurry. Those guys were kinda scary...

As she headed into the main building, several disciples took note of her.

"You seem like you have a lot of talent?"

"Are you here to apply?"

"Grade 6 talent! A rare genius!"

As they swarmed around her, she started regretting coming here.

Though... if horticulture wasn't as she imagined, could it be, it wasn't actually all that bad?

Mei hurried shook her head. No matter how nicely they dressed it, farming was still farming! But still, her heart wavered a little.

For the first time in a while, she heard the cackle of the old lady again. She turned around to shoo her inner demon away, but to her surprise, it was now in a white coat? What?

And it wasn't letting her just swat it away this time!

Mei ran down the hallways as it and the disciples chased, deciding to find Ning Xing before she lost her sanity.

She asked around in a frenzy, running past many classrooms.

Finally, she found Ning Xing's room, barging in! Ning Xing who was at a table, turned to her in surprise. She almost knocked a stack of detailed plant diagrams over.

"Mei Xiu? What are you doing here?"

Mei grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her.

"Han Yun! Where is Han Yun?"

"H-hey! Why do you look on the verge of tears? Calm down, I'll tell you!"