Yang Fei sighed, letting go of the mechanism before him.
"No luck. Let's search the rest of the palace for now, we might be able to find a better lead."
Qiao Shun nodded, and the two of them went back to check on Mei.
"Mmmmmm! Mmmmmm!"
The two of them stopped at the sight before them.
Mei had been tied to one of the giant seats with mud ropes, her mouth clamped shut.
"What are you idiots doing?" Qiao Shun cursed.
The golems waved their arms around frantically.
"Master! We can explain!" the golems said. "She was trying to bribe us, so we restrained her before she could do anything else suspicious!"
"Release her."
"Yes!"
Mei gasped as she was finally released.
She glared at the golems and cursed to herself. What did she do to warrant that? After she was silenced, she was tempted to yell at them with soulsense. She had been talking to them with soulsense to begin with, so what would silencing her actual voice do?
But Xiao Mei said the golems might try to smack her unconscious if taping her mouth shut didn't work, so she stayed quiet reluctantly.
"Why were you two even so aggressive anyway? Could you have just ignored her?" Yang Fei frowned.
"Well..."
The golems leaned in as if whispering and reached threads of soulsense over. Yang Fei looked puzzled, but he leaned in as well.
Ah! They were going to badmouth her, weren't they? Mei angrily reached out with a thread of her own, wanting to see what nonsense they would say!
"They say she kidnaps baby spirits..."
...
"And one time, she captured a whole nest of wild baby fire spirits..."
...
"She betrayed Hong Ling..."
...
"Someone so suspicious wanted to make a deal with us. We were scared..."
...
Mei grew more and more dismayed as she listened. What the hell? How in the world did so many bad rumours spread about her amidst the spirits? Also Hong Ling's capture wasn't even her fault, it was Xiao Mei's!
This was not good.
Right now, Su Qing was still playing around in the Buddhist sect. But if he returned to the Virtue sect and heard all those nasty rumours...
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
She imagined a scene.
"Mei Xiu! You were so evil all along. I'm packing up, bye bye!"
Nooo! That was really bad! She didn't want to admit it, but she was getting pretty attached to him despite arguably neglecting him most of the time. Also, the wood puppet she bought for him was really expensive... but that was besides the point. Mei gritted her teeth.
Meanwhile, Qiao Shun shushed the two spirits as Yang Fei listened with twitching eyes.
"Enough gossip, let's move on."
He dismissed the two golems and gestured for Yang Fei and Mei to follow.
"Um..." Mei asked. "Why are you taking me along? Shouldn't I be sent back to the Buddhist sect?"
She needed to rush over and find Su Qing immediately, then find an excuse to keep him occupied there until the rumours wore off! Otherwise, she might lose a precious friend forever!
"Your sudden appearance is suspicious, so we'll keep an eye on you for now." Qiao Shun said.
Eh?!
Yang Fei laughed awkwardly.
"Now, now. You don't need to worry. We'll let you off once we're done investigating the palace."
Mei stared at him with pitiful eyes. He wasn't going to say anything about the rumours? Maybe he was smart enough to realise she was innocent?
Qiao Shun took the lead as they wandered through the hall. But every now and then, he would stop to examine any curiosity, slowing their pace to a crawl. Mei was reminded of how she tried to open every single doorknob on her previous visit here, but they were all locked.
Meanwhile, Mei and Yang Fei began to talk. She was relieved he was reasonable and didn't mention anything about the spirits' rumours.
Could it be that her soulsense was crazy enough to eavesdrop on the elders without them realising? Senior Han did hint that her soulsense was completely absurd. Or was Yang Fei choosing to remain silent because he noticed she had been listening?
Yang Fei told her the sect master hadn't returned to his palace for secluded cultivation, but left for somewhere unknown. Ah! Mei nodded. That ceremony where he walked into a portal at the end was indeed a bit weird.
The elders thought Li Jie, now the temporary leader, might know something. But when questioned, he said he had an agreement with the sect master not to disclose such details.
Weird...
Mei was beginning to get curious as well.
Suddenly, she paled as a horrifying thought came to mind.
"Y-Yang Fei!" she said.
"Hm? What is it?"
"Before the sect master left, he was awakening the stuff like Nascent Soul in the disciples early, right?" she said frantically. "And you heard he had a mishap with me that resulted in Xiao Mei, right?"
Even Li Xuan seemed to know of this, so she thought Yang Fei might as well. She was still upset about how none of the elders informed her Xiao Mei was stealing her body.
"Xiao Mei?" Yang Fei frowned. "Ah, you meant your sentient nascent soul. Yes... it's unfortunate, but we're aware."
"Ah! Not that I'm saying it's better if you didn't exist, Xiao Mei!" Yang Fei suddenly said hurriedly, realising his faux pas.
Xiao Mei: ...
"When the sect master did the ritual, he had a backlash!" Mei continued. "And he coughed out this nasty black blood that had scary tendrils! Is that normal?"
Could it be that the sect master left the sect to seclude because the backlash had severely injured him? The thought made her feel a little guilty.
There was a moment of silence.
Then Qiao Shun grabbed her shoulders suddenly.
"WHAT?" he yelled.
His eyes became bloodshot and Mei almost screamed.
"Do you swear what you said is the truth, and not embellished in the slightest? Swear a dao oath!"
"Um... umm... Umm..."
Mei began to stammer as he practically shook her.
"Calm down! CALM DOWN!" Yang Fei yelled. "You're scaring the poor girl!"
"Ah."
Qiao Shun finally let her go and took a deep breath.
"Sorry. That was undignified of me."
Yang Fei looked at Mei seriously.
"Mei Xiu. This is a huge matter. That writhing qi you spoke of... if it is true, it is a sign of demonic involvement!"