After recovering his pushcart as well as dismantling the traps and concealing array around it, Zhao Yunxiao happily made his way back to the sect grounds.
Returning to the sect grounds did not mean that Zhao Yunxiao’s work was over either.
He made a quick stop by his residence, dropping off the carcasses of the silver spotted grand deer and the salamander monster, the giant tree ostrich eggs, as well as his hunting equipment. After which, Zhao Yunxiao packed his pushcart with a new set of equipment and headed out once more.
As for his destination, it was naturally his garden plot.
Among everything that he had gotten from this trip, the most precious one was definitely the darkpetal lily.
In order to make sure that the spiritual herb was able to get all the nutrients it needed, he wanted to transplant it into his garden plot as soon as possible!
Neither Lei Wenzhang nor Qing Bian were present at the moment, but that was of no concern.
He alone was enough to deal with this.
In fact, he was half glad that they were not present right now. Otherwise, he would have to waste some time on explanations.
Zhao Yunxiao did not touch the main part of his plot section that was meant to produce the monthly quota crops, choosing to head straight for the part that he used mainly for experimental purposes.
This area was largely empty, occupied only by the two Frozen Spiders.
This also meant that there was quite a bit of space left unused in this area.
The fact was that the majority of this space could be considered as rather dangerous for any unsuspecting creatures because of how aggressive and dangerous the Frozen Spiders were.
However, the Frozen Spiders’ diet did not consist of other plants.
Actually, even if they did, Zhao Yunxiao was still confident that they would not be able to threaten the darkpetal lily.
After all, while the darkpetal lily might not be a carnivorous plant like them, it was dangerous for other reasons altogether.
Zhao Yunxiao immediately got to work upon arrival.
He loosened the soil a fair distance away from the Frozen Spiders, where he transplanted the darkpetal lily after carefully removing the last bits of the giant tree ostrich’s nest from its roots.
While he might not be as skilled as Gu Qiansi, Zhao Yunxiao had still accrued quite a bit of experience with herb growing, so he had no issues doing so all by himself.
But transplanting the darkpetal lily was not all he needed to do here.
After doing so, Zhao Yunxiao started erecting pillars around darkpetal lily, using which he set up a huge net surrounding the plant.
The darkpetal lily had yet to bloom, but were it to happen in the future, its pollen could become a danger to anyone in the vicinity.
In order to prevent his precious darkpetal lily from becoming a safety hazard for others, Zhao Yunxiao had no choice but to set up such precautions.
Otherwise, if any accidents were to happen to others, he simply could not afford to pay for any resulting compensations!
It took him a couple of hours, but Zhao Yunxiao eventually left his garden plot satisfied after completing the necessary.
Now that he was done dealing with the most important matter, Zhao Yunxiao returned to his residence to handle the rest.
It was still rather early in the day, so he was not exactly in a rush.
Just like what he did for the nightspirit rats, the first thing Zhao Yunxiao did upon his return was to start draining the blood of the two carcasses.
While that happened, Zhao Yunxiao cleaned and repaired slight damages on his equipment, storing them away once that was done and then returning to finish treating the two blood-drained carcasses.
The only difference was that since this was not his first time encountering these beasts, he no longer had to test his compatibility with their blood.
Once again, Zhao Yunxiao only kept a small portion of the two carcasses, selling off the bulk of it at the Sect Market.
By the time he was back at his residence, the afternoon had almost passed.
The now slightly richer Zhao Yunxiao picked up his bamboo backpack once again, and left his residence with yet another destination in mind.
Last night, Gu Qiansi had mentioned that she would be introducing Lu Zhiying to some sect members.
Just from hearing that, Zhao Yunxiao immediately knew who she was referring to.
And that was why Zhao Yunxiao naturally knew where to find her too.
***
At this moment, Gu Qiansi and Lu Zhiying were currently seated on a grass mat that had been laid out near a pretty little pond.
There were two other young female outer disciples with them, the four of them seated in a circle surrounding a wide selection of sweets and cakes that had been laid out before them.
While they enjoyed the tea and cakes, sweet giggles could be heard from time to time as the four young ladies had a nice chat and enjoyed the beautiful view of the impending sunset.
But as time passed, these sweet giggles could only be heard from three of the four young ladies.
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Among the four, Gu Qiansi was starting to get slightly restless.
It was not because she was uncomfortable with this particular setting either.
In fact, that could not be further from the truth.
The two other female outer disciples were her senior martial sisters whom she had known for a long time – basically, they were the only other people whom she hung out with apart from Zhao Yunxiao’s group and those from the Herb Gardens.
From time to time, they would come together to have picnics like this to take a break from the arduous cultivation life, and Gu Qiansi absolutely enjoyed doing so.
This was when they would talk about everything under the sun, which was especially interesting since, unlike Gu Qiansi, these two senior martial sisters were quite aware of the happenings in the sect.
Through them, Gu Qiansi got to know many things that she would usually only be able to hear from Zhao Yunxiao.
Just like always, today started off well as she introduced Lu Zhiying to the two senior martial sisters, and the two of them were very welcoming as well.
The atmosphere was nice and casual as they slowly introduced the different aspects of the sect to Lu Zhiying, even going as far as telling her who to look out for and why.
But as the conversation progressed, Gu Qiansi started to feel that something was amiss.
There were no obvious differences in the way that Lu Zhiying was acting, but Gu Qiansi could still somehow feel that Lu Zhiying was slowly losing interest in the conversation as it moved away from introduction about the sect in general to gossips about others.
With this junior martial sister’s unpredictable personality, Gu Qiansi could not help worrying that she would suddenly lose patience and do something strange again.
But contrary to what she thought, Lu Zhiying was not only showing an expression of great interest, but she was even actively joining the conversation and laughing along as well, so much so that the other two never noticed her growing disinterest.
Gu Qiansi had always been confident about how well she could read her friends. But even she began to doubt herself upon seeing how well Lu Zhiying was doing, wondering if she was just thinking too much.
Of course, even if her intuition was spot on, Gu Qiansi would rather not pull Lu Zhiying out of the current situation as much as possible.
Be it in the sect or out in the world, connections were important for a smooth sailing life.
Right now, Lu Zhiying only really knew the members of the Flying Shell Performance Group, so she wanted to help her build her network as soon as possible.
Gu Qiansi felt apologetic for putting the adrenaline-lover Lu Zhiying through something as mundane as this, but it was all for her own sake!
“Oh right! Did you guys hear that just a few days ago, Deng Wei and Leng Huiqi went on a hunt together?”
“I heard! That Deng Wei has been going around telling everyone about how he impressed Leng Huiqi. What a braggart!”
“Oh, I heard him mention that at the Sect Library a few days ago too!” Lu Zhiying chimed in. “But isn’t that a good thing? It’s nice that they enjoyed each other’s company.”
Gu Qiansi raised an eyebrow in surprise.
She had never heard of this matter, and yet Lu Zhiying already knew of it?
“He even went to tell that to the sect librarians? Does he really want the whole world to know?”
“Did you forget that he is following Elder Mo? It is only natural that he goes to the Sect Library often. But I really wonder what Leng Huiqi sees in him. His lecherous side comes out every time he sees a pretty girl!”
“Then again, it’s not like Leng Huiqi is a noble one either. Her ego is no joke! Like Junior Martial Sister Lu said, maybe it’s a good thing that the two of them get together after all. This way, they can stoke each other’s ego in private every day instead of making others do it for them!”
The group laughed, but Gu Qiansi kept on sneaking peeks at Lu Zhiying.
Just like always, this junior martial sister of hers looked amazingly beautiful as she laughed, almost like a fairy who descended from the heavens.
However, Gu Qiansi could not help but feel that it seemed a little unnatural.
She just could not put a finger as to which part of it was unnatural.
“Is there something on my face, Senior Martial Sister Gu?” Lu Zhiying’s question broke her out of her daze.
“Oh? N-No, it’s nothing,” Gu Qiansi quickly shook her head. “I was just thinking that you really look amazing!”
“Junior Martial Sister Gu is right, you really do look amazing, Junior Martial Sister Lu! How many people have hit on you so far?”
“I’m sure there are a lot! But Junior Martial Sister Lu’s status is different now. She is now the admirable one! How many guys out there can actually say that they will be a good match? Perhaps only the inner disciples have the qualifications to do so now!”
“Hahaha, you are complimenting me too much. Things are not like that at all!” Lu Zhiying laughed along.
Gu Qiansi felt the corner of her lips twitch.
The laughter this time felt unnatural as well!
“On guard!”
A familiar voice caused Gu Qiansi’s eyes to sharpen immediately.
She instantly leapt away from the mat, smoothly pulling a dagger out of her long sleeves at the same time.
Bang-!
Dagger met dagger in a heavy collision, the impact audible for a good distance around them.
Despite the attacker appearing all of a sudden, Gu Qiansi still managed to fend off the attack without fail.
“Not too bad!” Zhao Yunxiao remarked with a grin as he pulled back and kept away the dagger in his hand.
“I can react to this level of sneak attack anytime, any day,” Gu Qiansi smirked while keeping away her dagger too.
“We shall see about that,” Zhao Yunxiao shrugged before turning to the three young ladies remaining on the mat. “Greetings, Senior Martial Sister Chang, Senior Martial Sister Luo.”
“Greetings, Junior Martial Brother Zhao.”
The two of them responded with a calm smile, seemingly already used to the scene that had just transpired.
However, the remaining one among the three young ladies was not nearly as composed as them.
“Senior Martial Brother Zhao!” Lu Zhiying leapt to her feet and ran over the moment she saw Zhao Yunxiao. “You’re back early!”
“That’s right, something came up so I came back early,” Zhao Yunxiao answered with a smile before turning back to Gu Qiansi. “Are you free now? There’s something you need to see.”
Hearing that, Lu Zhiying immediately turned towards Gu Qiansi with hopeful eyes too.
Gu Qiansi could not help but let out a wry smile.
At this moment, she became absolutely sure that Lu Zhiying was definitely bored earlier.
She might have been joining the conversation and responding well, but the difference in her enthusiasm level between then and now was far too obvious!
Thankfully, it seemed that the two senior martial sisters had still managed to not notice this somehow.
“My apologies, senior martial sisters. Is it okay if we take our leave and tend to this needy brat?” Gu Qiansi asked.
“Gu Qiansi will make it up to you next time by bringing more snacks,” Zhao Yunxiao promised on her behalf.
“I never said that!” Gu Qiansi snapped back.
“Haha, go ahead. Don’t worry about us.”
The two seniors were rather accommodating indeed, giggling as they observed the interaction between Zhao Yunxiao and Gu Qiansi.
“Thank you and farewell then, senior martial sisters,” Gu Qiansi answered.
“Farewell, Senior Martial Sister Chang, Senior Martial Sister Luo!” Lu Zhiying clasped her fists towards the two of them as well.
With that, Gu Qiansi and Lu Zhiying followed Zhao Yunxiao’s lead as they promptly left the area, with both the young ladies silently wondering about what the latter had in store for them.
The only difference was that one was filled with anticipation, while the other was filled with impatience.