As the aquatic masses stared at her with judgement eyes, Mei harrumphed.

But begrudgingly, she decided to try to reason with them, reaching out with a thread of soulsense. She was still a little nervous approaching them after she was flung as if she weighed nothing...

...

Nothing. Weird... Even with normal animals, with soulsense, she could at least sense their feelings.

Whatever! All she had to do then was teleport them away! Stupid fish... Would they be as haughty on a grill?

Though, the monks would probably get mad at her if they went missing. Shaking her head, Mei decided she had to relocate them somewhere safe. Somewhere the fish couldn't escape, with water... Honestly, not many places came to mind.

Hm... a random underground lake she saw while under Xiagu's canyons would probably do.

Mei took a few steps backwards and waited for a few minutes. Thinking the pest would leave them alone, gradually, fish after fish returned to the waters below. Mei sat in wait in a weird position. As the last fish submerged, suddenly, she lunged it, wrapping her arms around it!

Before it could react, Mei had already teleported it away. She teleported back again, grabbing another! And another!

Seeing their companions disappearing at the touch of the human with the weird smile, the fish began to flee, terrified. But Mei was relentless! What if they called "reinforcements" and disturbed her cultivation once again? With quick motions, she teleported after every fish she could find, sending them to the shadowed realm as well.

Phew... Mei almost reflexively took a sigh of relief, then remembered she was underwater.

With the waters now at peace again, she back to the bottom of the rice field to cultivate.

...

Hours passed as she shut her eyes in focus.

A familiar exhilarating sensation washed through Mei as energy swirled in her dantian. With a glimmer, threads of qi weaved together, condensing into a singular strand of purer qi! As her foundation absorbed it, she could feel she was once again at Mid Foundational.

Hm...

Was she imagining it, or was her foundation more solid than previously? Could she create some kind of insane foundation if she "rebuilt" her foundation over and over again?

Nah... that was something only a masochist would do! Besides, if this was an actual method, the sect master would have taught it in his lectures, wouldn't he? Mei nodded to herself, proud that she was no longer confusing the real world with the xianxia novels she used to read.

Finally opening her eyes, she realised the water now seemed rather cloudy.

Before her eyes, swarms of large beetles with were gnawing away at the rice plants, devouring the grains and sucking the sap dry! What were previously vibrant green plants brimming with vitality were now withered husks...

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Shit!

Mei immediately connected the dots. Those fish... they were what kept those insects away to begin with!

In a hurry, she teleported to the fish swimming around frantically in the underground lake, quickly sending them back to the rice fields. The disorientated fish were in no state to hunt, but with swarms of bubbles and loud buzzing, the beetles leapt out of the waters, soaring to the skies above.

Mei surveyed the damage in a panic as she swam around. There were probably hundreds of rice plants fully devoured in such a short time.. spirit insects were terrifying! She looked across the massive plantation anxiously. Given the plantation was enough to feed the entire sect, this was likely only a small fraction out of hundreds of thousands of rice plants... but this amount of damage wouldn't go unnoticed.

How was she going to hide this mess?

In a panic, she teleported to the monk dorms. It was late now, so maybe Xiuying would be around!

She banged on Xiuying's doors, prancing around frantically. It felt like a minute passed before the door swung open.

"Mei Xiu?! Why are you soaked from head to toe? The bamboo mats are going to get wet!" Xiuying took a step back, startled.

"Xiuying! I think I need you to give me a different face with make-up again!" Mei said hurriedly.

"What? Wait, this make-up is supposed to be waterproof!"

Xiuying rushed over and grabbed Mei's face.

"You'd have to be underwater for hours to get it to bleed off! Why would you swimming with make-up on, and for so many hours?"

"Umm... something came up? Can you help me with a different disguise?"

Mei sweated a little. Honestly, she forgot she had make-up on earlier.

"Hmph. There's only so much make-up can change. You only look like a different person entirely because you're normally... less dressed up?" Xiuying crossed her arms. "In the first place, you should at least put in some basic effect to look presentable. Even just combing your hair every morning wouldn't take long! Oh, I just remembered I wanted to give this to you. Here, take it."

Xiuying handed a wooden comb to her.

"Oh, thanks..."

...what a pain. Mei still accepted it anyway for some reason. Another thing to add to the bag and forget for months!

Well, if Xiuying couldn't give her another disguise... there was one other thing she could think of. Time to flee!

"Honestly, you really need to-" Xiuying began to rant about something, but was cut off by Mei running out of the room.

"Sorry, something came up! I need to go!" Mei shouted.

"Huh? Why are you running?"

Xiuying rushed out of her room and looked left and right, but Mei had already teleported away.

...

Brrr...

Mei was once again outside the sect master's palace.

Of all the places she knew, this had to be the best place to hide! Who'd expect her to be brazen enough to hide at the sect master's residence itself? Mei nodded to herself proudly, marvelling at her own "genius". And while staying here, maybe she'd find one of the "secret manuals" the sect master alluded to!

But with her soaked clothing... it was freezing cold! She couldn't help but shiver uncontrollably. Mei wondered why she didn't just dry herself off at her room first.

The two stone lions, stared at her with a strange expression.

"Ah, training your cold endurance? Very diligent?" one of the lions said, unsure.

"Please don't come back too often. Getting up to open the gates is quite the hassle." the other lion said.

"Hey! That's rude." the first said, before lowering its voice to a whisper. "But I agree."

Mei: ...

"So... will you let me in?" she asked.

"Fine."

The lions finally pulled and massive gates open and back in, letting her run in.

Just like in her previous visit, the palace was pitch dark. Mei was about to bug Xiao Mei to serve as a lantern again, but thinking of how long she might camp here, she felt like it would be a little awkward.

Mei ran across the massive room to a closed window, covered by a shutter of metal. What a weird "curtain"... she struggled with it for a minute before realised it was meant to be pushed up. As the bottom window opened, the rows of windows above opened as well, the clicks of metal echoing through the palace. Whoa... that was kind of fun to watch!

For the next 10 minutes, she went around opening all the windows she could. Who would have thought watching dozens of windows open at once would be so addicting?

"Hey." Xiao Mei said suddenly. "Do you think there might have been a reason the sect master decided to block all the windows?"