Having calmed down, her father listened to her explanation with a solemn look on his face.

Earlier, her parents had been using oil candles to light up the place, but now, Su Qing was the source of light, glowing as hard as it could.

"I see," he mumbled.

"Why did you get so angry anyway?" Mei asked.

Her father coughed and turned his face to the side.

"Well... um..."

"Oh, your father was a merchant long ago!" Mom butted in. "He used to live in the Wu country too, but after offending a cultivator, he escaped to our country!"

"Yeah... Yeah! That's why I was so touchy, haha..." Dad laughed awkwardly.

Looking at the nervous sweat on his face, Mei felt like there was more to that story but decided not to ask.

"The vermillion phoenix sect is in Wu?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's quite far away. Around 40,000 kilometres away, I've heard." Dad sighed.

Huh. Mei couldn't quite grasp how large that distance was, but she felt like she could now better understand how ridiculously fast Feng Shen was.

Her mother yawned.

"It's rather late. We should sleep." she said.

"Eh? But I thought it's only a few hours into night?" Mei felt rather surprised.

"Different countries have night and day at different times. You'll find out if you travel to another country." Dad said. "Are you sleeping here or are you heading back to your sect?"

Hmm... that was interesting. Mei wondered why day and night would be different in countries for a few moments but decided it didn't matter.

"I'll sleep here," Mei said.

After getting Su Qing to stop glowing, she laid on a familiar wooden bed. Before long, she drifted away, her parents following suit.

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The next morning, after spending a few hours with her parents, she waved goodbye and headed back to her sect.

As she entered her room for the first time in days, she saw a jar wrapped in paper placed outside her door, along with the crude puppet she made. To help preserve anonymity, the customers would receive a transmission after the auction, which was when they could actually collect their items. Senior Han must have retrieved it while she was back home and placed it here.

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Mei frowned. What if someone stole it? So unguarded...

Back in the auction, it was hard to tell because of the distance, but now that she was up close, the jar was huge, almost half her height!

She ripped off the paper haphazardly and tossed to the side, then opened the door and pushed the heavy jar inside slowly, afraid she would break it. With the puppet, however, she exercised less care, practically just tossing it in.

The bottom of the jar made weird grinding sounds as she pushed it to the drawer beside her bed, but luckily, the wooden flooring wasn't scratched. She stared at it with a vague grin, pondered what she would put inside.

Urgh, come to think of it, she didn't really have much to put in. Maybe she'd buy a jar of candy later to toss in.

For now, she decided to throw in the gross pouch of seeds the tree gave her. Yu Yan, the auctioness did show a seed as an example, so she figured it probably would make them grow better somehow?

Of course, she did notice the similarities to farming, but as far as she was concerned, it wasn't all that similar since she didn't need to plough entire fields. All she needed to do was to dig little holes for the seeds, then maybe water them once in a while.

...

Actually, that sounded a bit like a pain. Maybe she could find a spirit to help her water them?

Ah, wait! Mei suddenly realised she had the puppet to toss in. She felt rather smart as she dismantled the puppet and put part by part in. There wasn't enough space for the torso, but Mei nodded, satisfied.

Now for a good read. It had been a while since she was able to read, as "fun" as her time in the city was.

Just as she reached for one of her books from the table, she heard Su Qing squeal.

"No no no! Lesson bad!" it said.

3 spirits had flown through the window and dragged the screeching Su Qing away, much to her amusement. They really tracked the poor little spirit down fast, huh? Was teaching that fun?

Seeing that Su Qing would soon be hard at work again, Mei decided she would cultivate... later, of course. Right after reading the 13th volume of 'Asura's Purge".

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By the time Mei headed to the gigantic tree, it was already dark. Because of a massive cliffhanger, she ended up reading the 14th volume as well... then she showered and had dinner.

Night didn't mean the area under the tree wasn't crowded, however; it was still packed with thousands of people, if not more. Cultivators didn't need sleep, after all. If anything, it would be more empty during the day, as the Sect Master would be giving lectures.

Under the cloudy skies, the looming branches of the tree cast a deep shadow, hiding the sparse moonlight that remained. The only thing she could see were lights in the distance, lit by other disciples. 

Su Qing wasn't back yet, so she took out her lantern from her bag and strolled across the grass. It really was a pity, the little spirit was a way better lantern.

After minutes of walking, she stopped before a section of root. It made a small arch across the ground and thick as a human waist. She grinned, feeling lucky. Usually, it would be taken by someone else. She liked the spot a lot though, so she would always check anyway.

She hopped onto the root, making herself comfortable, before looking to the silhouette of the massive trunk. It was rather rough and a bit bumpy, but she didn't mind.

An impulse came over her as she stared. Back in the city, after thinking about the surprising amount of sentient trees in the forest, the massive tree had come to mind.

Such a powerful tree was probably sentient too, right?

If her curiosity were mere embers then, it was now a blazing fire, now that she could actually find out. But at the same time, she was hesitant to send soulsense into the root. After all, such an ancient tree was definitely some kind of super senior figure if it was sentient. It would be very rude to just disturb it, wouldn't it?

But then again... this was a virtuous sect. There was no way she could get into that much trouble, she was sure. A certain amiable pushover of a sect master came to mind, making her suppress a grin.

Yeah, it'd probably turn out fine.