[X] Shen Hu approached you for once. He has found the abandoned lair of an underworld dragon, but is not confident that he can face the scavengers that fill it unopposed.
You know what, it's just nice to see Shen Hu taking the initiative with something. Plus, it'd amuse me if we ended up hooking him up with an adolescent dragon. Having a low-birth person in our loose circle of friends get a dragon is a funny counterbalance to Ji Rong's good fortune. They can even be rivals or something: heaven vs earth. Also Gu Xiulan would be pissed, which is also hilarious to the max.
Plus, like, loot? I like the guy, and if adventure loot helps him be relevant, then we'll gain in the future. Not politically though, since he's a poorboy and his clan has absolutely no pull with anyone.
[] Hanyi came to her, complaining about being bullied while playing on the mountain. Something about her claim makes you dubious though...
Hanyi's been sort of a drag, so an event where we can polish her to some relevance might be nice. Further, the narrative timing works fairly well with us pushing the family consolidation angle, and her pushing back with oddly familiar mischief. Further, current leading speculation based on SUPER SECRET ELITE INFO is the spirit being Heizui the adolescent river dragon. Having a rematch with him under similar terms of not being allowed to hurt him but with an added ban on FVM could be a decent way to level up our Dance skill now that it's at the cap of rank C.
At the same time, Hanyi out of all of our spirits is the lone one with hands, yet she never helps us with paperwork. Suffer in obscurity, traitor!
[X] Ruan Shen sought her out, seeking musically inclined help for a particularly troublesome elder's challenge he has discovered.
You know what, it's just nice to see Ruan Shen taking the initiative with something. You won't be able to hide from the consequences of your talent like this, young man! Music is cool, and an opportunity to make an impression on a musically-aligned elder is potentially super valuable. Obvious opportunity to break into Vocals now that we've hit the Music cap at rank C again. Seeing Ruan Shen's spirit(s) could also be cool. Interactions between Ruan Shen and our spirits could also be cool, but it might also just be crap. Hanyi's kind of a brat, but if it's a music challenge it doesn't make sense not to bring her.
Edit: also, since there's dragons in the other two votes, it's clear that Qingshe is this elder's bound spirit and she's integral to the challenge.
All I'd add is
Hanyi: Special note that with our SL linked Domain effects, getting her and Six to 4 is important.
RS: Most importantly, if successful this action gives us the name of an Elder who does Music Trials. Tutoring WANT
SH: If the Dragon Vacating his lair is related to poison bubbling up from the deep, then we could find loot in there to throw at Suyin to help her research. You know, the research that just saved us 3 AP.
Suyin didn't save us any AP scrunching our meridians, btw. Her tool doubles the efficiency of opening new meridians, not optimizing the meridian use of mastered arts. Need a new tool for that.