"Are you delusional?" the illusionary old lady frowned.

"No, you're the delusionary one!" Mei harrumphed.

"This is ridiculous." the inner demon said. "You know what an inner demon is."

"No, I don't."

"Liar!"

"How does it stop us from making a deal?"

The old lady sighed.

"Listen here, an inner demon is the manifestation of your inner turmoils! They don't really exist, so there's no such thing as contracting one!"

"Well, if that's the case, how do you know something I don't?" Mei frowned.

"That's because I'm a manifestation of your subconcious memory!"

"What the hell is a subconcious?"

The inner demon froze.

"Don't underestimate what you learn subconciously! You see..."

As it tried to make excuses, Mei narrowed her eyes at it.

Was this some spirit playing a prank on her or something, pretending to be her inner demon?

She used soulsense, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. That couldn't be right!

Focusing harder, she finally caught a thread reaching towards her, from...

Weird... it was as if that direction didn't exist. Was this some sort of concealment?

She tugged at the string, but it didn't break.

"I-impossible!" the inner demon gasped. "How are you doing that?"

"I knew it! You're not actually my inner demon!" Mei shouted. "Stop bothering me before I report you to the elders!"

"What?" it yelled. "I'm not a spiri- I mean, darn, you caught me! I'm just a playful spirit!"

The thread quickly pulled away from her, vanishing as if it were never there. Mei stared blankly, stunned.

The heck was that?

After thinking a little more, Mei decided it wasn't worth worrying about and headed back into the residence.

She looked into Ning Xing's room, but she wasn't around. No choice but to wait...

Instinctive, she wanted to ask Su Qing to hand her a book, but she remembered he was still off playing in the Buddhist sect. Urgh.

Bored, she looked through Ning Xing's bookshelf. Plant encyclopedia, plants of SheShan, plants of- blah blah. Surely Ning Xing wasn't boring enough to only read plant manuals?

As she pulled out book after book, flipping them before putting them back, suddenly, she spotted a hidden book, squeezed sideways behind a row of books at the back of the bookshelf.

Pampered Wife: My Husband is the Strongest!

Mei snickered to herself. So Ning Xing liked this kind of books?

Well... it wasn't usually what she read, but she didn't have anything better to do anyway.

Sitting on Ning Xing's chair, she began reading.

The protaganist was apparently a poor girl working in a noodle stall with her parents. Every night, she had to spend countless hours kneading noodle dough, and people would mock her for being a "flour face".

One day, while she was manning the stall, an angry customer criticised the noodles, shouting it was only fit for a dog!

That was when a handsome young man who walked past stopped. After reprimanding the customer and trying the noodles for himself, he praised it.

As it turned out, he was a cultivator in disguise! And he took her in as a disciple so he could eat the noodles everyday!

This story made absolutely no sense...

Just then, the door opened, Ning Xing and Senior Han walking in.

"Mei Xiu? So you were here-"

Just as Ning Xing spoke, she spotted the book in Mei's hands. Her eyes went wide as she rushed over to snatch it away.

"You already want to head out?" Senior Han asked. "I thought I would have to drag you."

"I guess..." Mei mumbled.

It wasn't like she could say she wanted to hide from an annoying guy trying to hunt her down with a mob of spirits.

"Meet me at the canteen tomorrow morning then. I still have things to settle."

"Right..."

Hearing him, Ning Xing handed Mei back her teleportation token. Finally.

After chatting with Ning Xing a little more, he left swiftly. Mei decided to head back to her room for a little reading before going to sleep.

"What! She was blown away?"

The earthy man yelled at the two girls before him.

"Yes... we were trying to catch her, but some playful spirits blew her away and we couldn't find her." one of them said sadly.

"That crazy girl!" he shouted.

The spirits behind him whispered to each other.

"She deserved it."

"Hmph, it's just karma at work."

The earthy man felt rather worried. Did Mei Xiu really let herself get blown away by the wind just to escape? The worst that could happen if she was caught by him was the sect forcing some community service on her or making her retract the contract!

If she died because of him... No, he couldn't let that happen!

Late into the night, the burly man searched for her with the spirits...

Xiao Mei stood up in Mei's body, doing a stretch.

So tomorrow was the day they headed out to look for Yang Ning... how inconvenient. She had to work fast!

She crept under the bed and pried a floorboard up. There, a small bag of jade was hidden.

On some nights, she managed to stash a bit of savings from working a few jobs during the night.

She previously planned to buy some seeds and work with Su Qing to grow some spirit plants for profit, but Shaohe gave her an amazing idea.

Sure... reselling goods in the sect was restricted.

But who said anything about reselling goods from outside the sect elsewhere?

Xiao Mei felt like a genius.

After putting on a wooden mask, she teleported to the cultivator city in the country of Wu.

She looked around before rushing into the nearest pill shop and to a nearby attendant.

"What specialities does your shop have?"

The attendant nearly jumped, taken aback by her enthusism. Why was this girl wearing a weird mask?

"You mean pills only our alchemists know how to produce?"

"Yes! The cheapest one." Xiao Mei nodded.

"Um... that would be the White Lotus Focus Pill. It lets-"

"How many jade?"

"100 jade?"

Xiao Mei stared at her bag of jade, pained. It was nearly all her savings...

"I'll take one!"

After buying it, she ran out in a hurry.

"Maybe I shouldn't have sold it... that girl was so suspicious. She didn't even let me explain what it did."

The attendant mumbled to herself, before decided to report it to the higher ups.