"He's so sorry!"

A massive hand pressed Si Yuan's head to the table, one of his arms against the table and two other struggling against the hand, in a futile attempt to resist it. The fourth and final hand was swatting at the face of the aggressor, an extremely muscular asura who was a head taller than the already tall talisman maker.

"Um... it's fine, haha." Mei let out an awkward laugh.

After the end of the surprisingly brief ceremony, a massive asura leapt to their airship with a loud thud, grabbing the flailing Si Yuan in his left hands. He then explained the situation to Qiao Shun.

Mei was then wisped back over to the Artefact Store, where... this was happening.

"Let go, you stinking old man!"

"You dare to argue? This only happened because you like to show off to customers!"

"This is literally the first time it's happened in years! Get off my case!"

Mei: ...

Si Yuan finally shoved the hand away, before coughing.

"How undignified. Is this how the staff of one of the biggest chains in the sect should act?" Qiao Shun's voice came from the door.

"Hey, don't eavesdrop on us!" the bigger asura shouted.

The elder let out a harrumph before retracting his peeking face and closing the door again.

That stinky elder... why was he waiting outside? Mei thought he would have returned after following them here...

"Ahem. Do you have the talisman on you?" the big asura asked.

"Of course she does! She was affected by it moments ago!"

The two of them appeared on the cusp of fighting again, but remembering Qiao Shun's words, they only glared at each other.

Mei handed over her talisman awkwardly.

Honestly... while she didn't like it, she sort of agreed with the stinky white box elder. With the grand appearance of the store, she certainly expected the staff to be... more dignified. The only 3 staff members she had met certainly weren't that. Especially that insensitive prick at the counter...

Si Yuan pulled the auxiliary talisman off and put on a pair of silver glasses, before squinting at the talisman intently.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Aha! So that's what went wrong! The discharge line misaligned, so all the qi was going to the skin!"

"Little girl," the big asura said, putting his hand on a very displeased asura's head. "Si Yuan here is very sorry about his mistake. We will issue a replacement talisman, right away. Don't get it wrong this time, you greenhorn!"

"Shut it!"

...and they were back at it again. Mei was a bit annoyed by being called "little girl", but didn't comment.

Grumpily, Si Yuan began sewing a cloth talisman, like before, but much slower and carefully this time. Ironically, him being slower made her actually able to appreciate his skills. That level of precision was just absurd!

Back at home, she remembered trying to thread a needle for several minutes without success. Si Yuan would probably thread 4 needles per second, each hand working on a different needle.

Shortly, he was done.

"There, take it. Here, refund."

Si Yuan dumped a bag of 50 jade on the table unhappily and placed it alongside the new talisman. Then he took out a trash can, similar to the sect master, and picked up the previous talisman-

"Wait!" Mei called out.

"Hm?"

"If you're just going to throw it away, can I keep it?"

The big asura laughed as Si Yuan muttered to himself about "money pinchers", but Mei took both the talismans happily. Back on the airship, she was pretty angry, but now she was overjoyed. If she was going to get the product for free everytime it malfunctioned, she would be happy for everything she bought to break down!

Maybe if she was really lucky, it would even happen when she finally buys a storage bag. 1000 Jade saved... heheh.

"I see you are done discussing." Qiao Shun said, opening the door again. "Mei Xiu, I have something to discuss with you."

"Hey! I said no eavesdropping. How did you even hear us? There's a soundproofing formation on... right, you're a formation master." the big asura trailed off. "Don't screw with the formations without permission! I'm pretty sure that is against sect rules!"

Mei gingerly walked over to him, outside of the room, before closing the door. In the end, neither of them even apologised directly. Hah.

"What is it?"

"It came to my attention several days ago that you were suffering from karmic problems back during your breakthrough. Is that right?"

"Yes..."

"The sect master recommended you to seek out community service to amend it, is that right?"

"Yes?"

"With your personality, I doubt you would ever get to it. So, I've taken the initiative to enrol you in community service."

"Ehhh!?"

"Today is the day the sect master departs, so you are exempt for now. Starting from tomorrow, you will have to do community service in the afternoon, after lessons. Take this."

Qiao Shun handed over a jade piece to the devastated Mei. Ah... more jade slips.

"There's a spirit sealed inside that will inform you when it is time, so you don't forget. If you fail to attend, you will have to answer to me. Is that clear?"

"Yes, master..."

Dammit...

----------------------------------------

"Hey hey, what's with the sulky attitude?" a voice suddenly entered her mind.

Mei stared over in surprise at her newest jade piece.

"It's just a bit of service, and you'll be done with it in no time. Me? Now that's who gets it bad."

"Huh?"

"I've been sealed here for years! Pfft. For what? Violating a few MI-NNOOR sect rules. It's been weeks since I've talked to anyone. Do me a favour and chat for a bit, eh? I'm going to die of boredom. Well, at least my sentence will be up in a few more months, so hey, I've got that to look forward to."

"Uh, okay."

"Anything interesting happen recently? I haven't gotten news in weeks. Since I'm stuck here, you know?"

Mei decided to put the talkative jade into the cabinet, despite its protests.