"Urgh..." Mei groaned.

Her head hurt... What happened?

She was in an unfamiliar room. The floor was entirely covered in bamboo mats, and a cubic lamp hung from the ceiling. Outside, orange light from the setting sun slipped through the bamboo windows.

Around her, she could faintly hear the sound of arguing. She vaguely remembered chasing Hong Ling with Senior Han, then...

"The debt!" Mei suddenly said, getting up abruptly.

Li Xuan, Qiao Shun, Li Jie and Senior Han were sitting around a table, all staring at her. Senior Han, in question, was covered in bruises and bandages.

Eh?!

"Oh, don't worry about that. You managed to bring Hong Ling to the sect, just as you fainted." Senior Han said.

Mei heaved a sigh of relief, then quickly begun to get excited. She didn't need to worry about her debt anymore!"

"Han Yun's plan was very reckless." Li Jie said. "There was no guarantee you would have succeeded finding Hong Ling, and he managed to anger a country's guardian."

"Hah! In the end, they're just opportunistic spirit beasts taking advantage of belief to cultivate. What gods?" Senior Han harrumphed.

"Mei Xiu, for the next year, refrain from consuming any kind of soul awakening medicine. Your soul needs time to recover." Li Jie said.

Mei nodded. She was too broke for that anyway!

"And... the debt?" she couldn't help but ask.

Senior Han held back a chuckle.

"Mei Xiu..." Li Jie sighed. "Your contribution to the sect is indeed praiseworthy, but we can't just have Han Yun repay all of it for you."

"What?!" Mei jumped.

"While a large part of this debt is to ensure new disciples can get a good foundation for their future, there is a secondary part to it." Li Jie said. "It encourages disciples to work hard to earn jade, and not sit around complacently!"

Gahhh!

Mei scrunched her face. He was definitely calling her out!

"We still have to reward you, naturally, so here is my offer. Five years. Make the 26,000 jade in that time, and the debt will be called off." Li Jie showed her five fingers.

"You can't be serious! The deadline was originally 100 years! This is too unreasonable!" Mei shouted.

"All you need to do is make 15 jade a day." Li Jie said. "Even you can do it."

"Sorry, my hands are tied, haha!" Senior Han laughed.

Grrrr...

"Then what if I can't make the jade in time?" she asked.

"Then we'll cut the debt to 16,000 jade and leave it at that. Still an ample reward, isn't it? Back to a hundred years, or rather, ninety-five. "

Mei: ...

Well, it was, but... how could she just wait it out and lose out on 16,000 jade? That was way too cruel!

And 15 jade a day? Hah! She would still need to buy all sorts of tools, artefacts, pills and whatever, right? Was she just supposed to live super frugally and fall behind her friends in those 5 years? Maybe she'd actually have to make 30-50 jade a day instead to make ends meet eventually!

"No." Mei said.

"No?" Li Jie asked.

"This isn't fair! Add more time!" she said.

"Mei Xiu..." Li Jie sighed. "In the end, all that happened was you being strapped and used as a radar for a few minutes. And you still complain the reward is too unfair?"

Gah!

Mei bit her lip, unable to retort.

Senior Han patted Li Jie's shoulder, grinning in a rather annoying manner, despite the bandages on his face.

"I mean, technically, 26,000 jade to search all over a country in minutes is very chea-" he said.

"Shut it! That's not the point I'm trying to make!" Li Jie frowned. "Anyway, this is not negotiable. I hope you reflect on your past months in the sect and work hard from here on."

Mei made an indescribable expression.

"Understand?"

"Yes..." she grumbled.

"You are dismissed." Li Jie waved to her.

...

After everything, Mei went to bed early to sleep off her frustration.

Meanwhile, Xiao Mei got up eagerly, ready to perform more trades. She quickly teleported back to the the city, heading to White Lotus immediately. Previously, she didn't return immediately in fear of looking suspicious. Now that she knew it really was profitable, she even bought Mei's entire jade stash so she could make bigger profits!

As she pranced over happily, she suddenly got a bad feeling. Before she could react, a strange pressure suddenly weighed her to the ground! Not good! She tried to activate her teleportation token, but couldn't reach it with her fingers.

The passersby gasped at the sight of the strange masked girl pinned to the ground.

"You... I remember! I didn't realise it back then, but you were in cahoots with that wrongdoer, weren't you?" Xuanwu's voice boomed.

"I'm only a disciple from his sect that tagged along! I didn't know what he was going to do!" Xiao Mei said.

That stupid turtle! All Senior Han did was create a noise disturbance, and he was so mad about it, he even took it out on her?

"It's great Xuanwu!" a man nearby suddenly yelled.

"Great Xuanwu has awoken from his slumber, speaking for the first time in a decade!"

Groups of people gathered, kowtowing.

Wait... slumber?

There was no way... was she overthinking it, or was this big, stupid turtle just mad about being woken up from its nap? It probably didn't even care about the citizens of Wu being disturbed!

This was way too much! Even Mei wasn't that petty!

"I will be holding you hostage until the wrongdoer responds!" Xuanwu roared.

The ground opened beneath Mei, swallowing her. In a strange earth bubble, she was being taken deeper and deeper underground!

"Ah!" Mei suddenly shouted. "Where am I!"

Shit! Xiao Mei started panicking. Even after all the techniques to keep her asleep, Mei still couldn't sleep through that!

Mei banged on the rumbling earth bubble and tried to look for her token, but the turtle had already taken it away.

"Xiao Mei!" she said desperately. "What happened? You don't sleep, right?"

How did things go this badly? Xiao Mei wanted to cry.

"Maybe it's just a bad dream." she said.

She wasn't sure if she was also trying to convince herself that.