Mei headed back to the hotel with Wang Wei, both excited and slightly uneasy at the same time.
Along the way, she was worried about the whole situation but decided there wasn't much point in mulling over it.
Right now, what she wanted to do was to find out what type of technique it was.
As she stepped into the hallway her room was in, she saw to her surprise Xiuying, Yingyi and Liu Qiang standing there, talking to Senior Han. Ning Xing, Xiuying's friend was there too.
"Oh, you're here!" Han said. "Where did you two go last night?"
Mei quickly tried to think of something.
"We got too into touring the city I guess?" she said.
He looked confused.
"But I thought you said you were tired?"
...
"I felt better after lying down for a bit?" Mei said awkwardly.
"I see... well, you should have told me then!" Senior Han said enthusiastically. "I could have been a tour guide for you two!"
"Yeah..." Mei looked down to the ground.
Wang Wei gave her a knowing look yet again for some reason.
"Well, now that everyone's here, we should all go out together!"
Mei looked at her bag and sighed. Well, could always look at it later tonight, she supposed.
In her room, she laid on the floor, holding the flying shuttle in her hand. Outside, it was night. The outing ended up taking way longer than she thought it would. Xiuying should have been with her, but Ning Xing ended up renting a room for them both, so now she was here alone.
She was so impatient earlier, wanting to test it out, but now, after the long day, she just wanted to lie down for a bit. She thought about the events prior.
While Senior Han didn't give them a chance to enter the shops yesterday, today, they visited a lot of shops, courtesy of Xiuying. Apparently, the solution was as simple as telling him they wanted to take a look.
It was fun at first. She spent a lot of time gawking at all the amazing things on sale. She didn't actually buy anything though, since she didn't have much on her. The stuff in the city was just too expensive.
Xiuying and Ning Xing, however, remained enthusiastic all the while. They went from shop to shop, buying a few items here and there. The worst part was at one point when they went to a clothing store.
Xiuying and her friend would try on many pieces of clothing, occasionally asking her and the others how they looked. She really didn't think Xiuying would be one of those girls... In the end, Xiuying got 3 dresses she liked for around 300 Jade. What a waste of money...
At what point would she even be able to use them anyway? Inside the sect, they wore the disciple robes, and outside, well, they could wear other clothing, but really, how often were they going to head out?
There were a few points where they stopped by streetside stores to buy food, but as it turned out, a lot of it was spirit beast meat. Eventually, Liu Qiang got very frustrated and tried to negotiate, saying he would try just 1 tiny piece, but Senior Han adamantly refused.
It ended up descending into a heated argument, despite Xiuying's efforts to stop it.
"They're already dead anyway! If no one ate them, then their death would have been in vain!" she remembered Liu Qiang saying angrily.
"They're dead because people killed them for food!" Senior Han argued. "And even if it weren't for that, do you think they'd be fine with someone eating their corpse? Would you be fine with people eating you?"
"Hmph! If I'm dead, then does it matter? Even no one eats me, bugs are going to eat me anyway, so why would it matter if spirit beasts ate me? They're less disgusting than bugs anyway!"
Xiuying, continuing her efforts to stop them, suggested they try a vegetable skewer the same stall offered... but apparently there was a sentient spirit plant mixed in as well, so they couldn't eat it either.
Mei felt quite exasperated back then...
Maybe stuff like this was why it seemed most people weren't virtuous cultivators. It was such a pain! It wasn't just going to be an issue with food either, pills, artefacts and more were probably going to have the same issue too.
She stared at the shuttle with eyes of suspicion. No way there would there be some dumb problem about it being made from some kind of sentient wood, would there?
Sighing, she imbued some of her qi into the wood. The characters lit up yet again. She focused, and immediately, words began flowing into her mind.
"Myriad Strings Inferno Art"
What?
"Weave strands of deadly fire and slice your foes into piece!"
...
Of couse. A fire technique.
Indignation rushed through her. She felt an urge to throw it all the way across the room but resisted.
"FENG SHEN!" she yelled with soulsense.
From its ring, she heard snickers.
"What? I didn't lie to you, did I? There was indeed a technique inside."
Great. She grumbled, throwing the shuttle off to the side half-heartedly. Perhaps it was karma, punishing her for being dishonest.
There really wasn't much to do at night, since she didn't have any books on her, so she just rolled around until she fell asleep.
"Get up."
Mei groggily rubbed her eyes. The bird's massive head popped out of the ring popped out of the ring and stared at her, giving her a shock. Fortunately, it was still weightless, so her hand wasn't smashed to the ground.
It looked really odd, such a huge head jutting out from her finger.
"It's so stuffy in here... I'm itching to fly." Feng Shen grumbled. "Do you think you could do me a favour and release me at the rooftop? I'll find you again later after the auction.
"What?" Mei widened her eyes. "Won't people spot you as you take off?"
"I'll manage."
She wasn't sure she entirely believed that. Worse, however, was that if it left, she would be without a 'bodyguard'! What would happen if another thief or something targetted her?
"But-"
Feng Shen gave a cold snort.
"I know what you're thinking... coward," it said. "Today is the auction anyway, so Master Han will be accompanying you. He's way stronger than me, so anything I can take care of, he can too."
"Right..."
Mei decided to go out and ask Senior Han anyway. As she left her door and headed to his door, she found him standing in the hallway, eating some familiar-looking vegetable buns. He turned to her and waved.
"Want some? I stuffed around a hundred into my storage bag before heading out," he said, his mouth still chewing.
Mei: ...
She thanked him before accepting a few from him.
"Feng Shen says it wants to go out and fly," she said.
"Him, as in male." the bird corrected.
What? How did he know she was saying 'it' specifically?
"Sure, why not?" he said.
Ack. She was sort of banking on Senior Han disagreeing. She didn't feel entirely comfortable with letting the bird go, but she headed up to the rooftop level him anyway.
From the ring, she felt something hop out followed by a gust of wind, but she couldn't see a thing.
"He can turn invisible?"
Senior Han shrugged.
AN: In chinese, it (它), him (他) and her (她) all have the same pronunciation, Tā.
