Chapter 54: Hide and Seek

The Herb Village is over ten li from the Herb Valley. To save time planting medicinal herbs, houses were also built in the Herb Valley, where the menial laborers ate and lived.

It was still the common bunk bed setup, and moreover the kind where dozens of people shared one room.

After a day's work, Hua Changxi finished dinner and entered the room where the female menial laborers lived.

The room was fifteen meters long and six meters wide, with the door in the middle. Earthen sleeping platforms were laid on both sides, each two meters wide and fifteen meters long.

The temperature in the valley was still relatively low, especially in the early morning and evening; therefore, all the inner spots were taken, leaving only empty spots near the door and windows.

Hua Changxi had never feared the cold since childhood, and after starting cultivation she feared it even less. Seeing that more moonlight came through the left window, she decided to sleep on the left platform by the window.

The bedding and sheets were already there, reeking strongly of mildew and strange odors, and there was no telling how many people had used them.

With too many people in the room, Hua Changxi found it inconvenient to use the Cleansing Art. She could only fold the bedding and place it in the corner of the platform.

After tidying up, Hua Changxi left the room, intending to fetch water for a simple wash. While coming in and out of the room, she sensed someone sizing her up.

At first, she thought it was again those male menial laborers trying to take advantage who were watching her, but when she seized the chance to look back, she discovered it was actually the One-Armed Man.

Upon realizing the One-Armed Man was sizing her up, alarm bells rang in Hua Changxi's heart. Only then did it suddenly dawn on her that the One-Armed Man's reaction upon seeing her had been far too calm.

This is abnormal!

She had broken through the One-Armed Man's oppressive aura in the Medical Department warehouse. Meeting again, even if the One-Armed Man didn't seek revenge, he should not have been completely unresponsive toward her.

The only explanation was that the One-Armed Man had moved his attention on her into the shadows.

Was the One-Armed Man monitoring her?

That made sense—if she were to encounter someone who could match her again, she would also observe them secretly for a while.

Hua Changxi returned to the room with a heavy heart.

She had no idea how long the One-Armed Man would monitor her. With him watching her, how could she still search for the Yuanling Herb?

Hua Changxi did not want to lie on the foul-smelling platform. Earlier she had planned to sit cross-legged and cultivate, but now with the One-Armed Man watching her, she dared not show any unusual behavior. She could only endure the discomfort and force herself to lie down on the platform.

Moonlight sprinkled over her. Hua Changxi gradually calmed her mind, stopped paying attention to the One-Armed Man outside the room, closed her eyes, and began to practice the Little Bird Breathing Technique.

She discovered that while cultivating in the Herb Valley, the spiritual energy flowed especially smoothly, and her cultivation speed increased significantly.

After one night, Hua Changxi awoke to the sound of others talking. She glanced at the data: [Realm: Qi Sea Realm 1850/].

In a single night, she had increased by over 100 realm points, several times faster than in the Menial Hall.

Over the next few days, Hua Changxi worked while secretly observing the One-Armed Man. She discovered that every day he came down from the western mountain into the Herb Valley at the fourth quarter of the Si hour (10:00), and left the Herb Valley into the western mountain at the beginning of the Xu hour (19:00).

This was his visible routine; in secret, every night during the Zi period, he would come down from the western mountain, secretly patrol the Herb Valley, and in particular take a look at her dormitory.

After discovering this pattern, one night when the One-Armed Man came down again to patrol, Hua Changxi quietly followed behind him and entered the mountains west of the Herb Valley together with him.

Knowing that a Grandmaster was stationed in the Herb Valley, she dared not follow too closely. From afar, she saw the One-Armed Man reach a rocky cliff halfway up the western mountain.

In front of the rocky cliff was a flat stone platform, and behind it was a stone cave.

On the stone platform, an old man in gray robes sat cross-legged facing the moon.

Hua Changxi guessed that this old man should be that Grandmaster surnamed You.

"Is he cultivating?"

Hua Changxi felt somewhat helpless. Because she came from an untrained background, she had no idea how to judge whether someone else was a cultivator.

"Master."

Hearing the One-Armed Man's address to the old man, a look of surprise flashed in Hua Changxi's eyes.

"Master, that Hua Changxi has been no different from the other menial laborers these past few days. Could we have been mistaken?"

"Someone who can withstand the oppressive aura of a seventh-rank martial artist yet goes to be a menial laborer—that in itself is abnormal. Now that she's been punished and sent to the Herb Valley, she doesn't make a fuss or think of leaving. The more well-behaved that little girl is, the greater her ambition. Continue to watch her and see what she really wants to do."

Old Man You gazed at the bright moon in the sky: "Here in the Herb Valley, aside from medicinal herbs, what else is worth her coveting?"

Listening to their conversation, Hua Changxi felt unsettled inside.

So in the eyes of clever people, her actions were full of loopholes everywhere.

Seeing the One-Armed Man sit down beside Old Man You and also begin to sit cross-legged in meditation, Hua Changxi quietly retreated back to the Herb Valley.

Knowing that the Grandmaster and the One-Armed Man were watching her, Hua Changxi was not entirely passive; she was also counter-surveilling the two of them.

Because the Medicine Valley was large and everyone was spread far apart, Hua Changxi used the One-Armed Man’s movement patterns to evade his surveillance and scout the valley several times.

Unfortunately, she still hadn’t found the Yuanling Grass.

At noon on the thirteenth of the third month, Hua Changxi returned from the fields for lunch and discovered that the One-Armed Man was actually not there.

This was strange—the One-Armed Man was a very conscientious and responsible person; when patrolling the Medicine Valley, he was exceptionally diligent, never arriving late or leaving early. Why had he abandoned his post today?

“Why isn’t Master Guo here?”

Hua Changxi casually asked the female laborer beside her, because she had helped the woman plant medicinal seedlings, and over these days, the woman had been looking after her.

“The day after tomorrow is the fifteenth.”

“On the fifteenth of every month, Old You delivers medicine to the Medical Department. Master Guo must have gone to help Old You collect herbs.”

Hua Changxi looked surprised: “What kind of medicine needs to be delivered on the fifteenth of every month?”

The female laborer shook her head: “I wouldn’t know about that.”

Hua Changxi couldn’t press further, so she quickly finished lunch, went to the supervisor to collect the seedlings she needed to plant that afternoon, and then hurried away.

After placing the seedlings in the medicinal field she was responsible for, Hua Changxi didn’t start working. Instead, she activated her Lingbo Weibu and quietly entered the Western Mountain.

During this time at the Medicine Valley, because of her hide-and-seek with the One-Armed Man, her Lingbo Weibu had become increasingly adept. As soon as she gathered spiritual energy in her feet, she could instantly run a hundred meters away.

Hua Changxi first reached the mountainside, but she didn’t see anyone on the stone cliff. Not daring to rashly investigate the stone cave, she could only wander around nearby.

After circling several times, aside from discovering some medicinal herbs needed by martial artists, she found nothing else.

Unwilling to come all this way for nothing, Hua Changxi turned back to the stone cliff.

“Why did the Grandmaster choose to live here?”

“Is it just because there’s a stone cave?”

The stone cave was fitted with a stone door, and now the door was tightly shut, so she couldn’t enter to investigate. Hua Changxi circled around outside.

This time, she immediately noticed a problem.

The spiritual energy here was so dense!

After starting to cultivate, she had been pondering one question: where did spiritual energy come from?

Hua Changxi stood on the stone platform, closed her eyes, and performed the Little Bird Breathing and Exhaling Technique. After sensing the distribution of spiritual energy density around her, she opened her eyes immediately.

Hua Changxi walked to the edge of the stone cliff and looked down.

Just a moment ago, while running her cultivation technique, she found that the spiritual energy was densest at the bottom of the stone cliff.

The stone cliff wasn’t vertical; it sloped at about twenty degrees. Looking down from above, she couldn’t see the bottom.

Hua Changxi weighed her own strength and thought that with her current mastery of Lingbo Weibu, she could go down and find out.

Although Hua Changxi wasn’t afraid of heights, the thought of jumping down made her heart tighten, and she hesitated for a moment. But then she remembered how Old You always guarded the stone cliff—if she didn’t go down while he was away, it would be hard to find another chance later.

With this thought, Hua Changxi stopped hesitating. She leaped, pressing her feet against the cliff face as she swiftly ran downward.

Even with the cliff face for support, Hua Changxi still felt like she was in free fall, her legs running so fast they were like fiery wheels.

At this moment, Hua Changxi couldn’t help thinking that it would be great if she could ride a flying sword or command the clouds.

It felt like a long time, or maybe just the blink of an eye, when Hua Changxi saw the bottom of the cliff.

Because she couldn’t control her speed, Hua Changxi crashed heavily onto the ground, landing flat on her face in a sprawling posture.

Hua Changxi grimaced in pain, her features contorted. It took her a while to recover before she tremblingly got up.

The next moment, when she saw the countless spiritual plants growing at the bottom of the cliff, her pain instantly vanished.

Although these spiritual plants were all first-grade, they still filled Hua Changxi with great excitement.

“Master, what exactly are these fruits?”

“Your master doesn’t know either.”

“Master, your disciple sees that these fruits have a fragrant aroma...”

"What, you want to eat one?"

"Eating one or two shouldn't be noticed by the higher-ups, right?"

"Do you know what happened to the last person who had the same idea as you?"

"Killed by the higher-ups?"

"No, the higher-ups never found out he stole and ate the fruit. But he still died—less than a breath after taking the fruit, his body exploded."

"Ah~"

"That person was your senior disciple, an eighth-rank martial artist."

"What, the senior disciple died!"

"His body was completely shattered. It's all because I, your master, was greedy. Your senior disciple was testing the medicine for me. Why do you think the higher-ups trust me to guard the Medicine Valley? Because these precious herbs—I can watch them, but I cannot eat them. If I do, I die!"

"How can this be?"

"......"

Hua Changxi, hearing the voices growing nearer, changed expression and quickly waved out a stream of spiritual power. A gust of wind arose, scattering the traces of where she had landed. Then she dodged and hid in the grass a hundred meters away.

Soon, the figures of Old You and the One-Armed Man appeared in Hua Changxi's sight.

The two didn't notice Hua Changxi; they stepped on the cliff wall and left the bottom of the precipice.

Once they were gone, Hua Changxi raced against time to investigate the bottom of the precipice.

The One-Armed Man had gone up, and he would soon patrol the Medicine Valley. She had to rush back before he reached the valley.

Ignoring the other spirit plants at the bottom, Hua Changxi focused solely on searching for Yuanling Grass and finally spotted clumps of it in the southeast.

Not only first-rank Yuanling Grass, but also second-rank Yuanling Grass.

"Bang!"

The Shennong Cauldron was summoned, and Hua Changxi began rapidly gathering the Yuanling Grass. Each time she harvested a stalk, she used a technique to seal the medicinal properties and spiritual energy within the herb, locking in the Yuanling Grass's potency.

Hua Changxi planned to leave once the Shennong Cauldron was full. But to her surprise, she had gathered over a hundred second-rank Yuanling Grass stalks and the cauldron still wasn't full.

"This..."

Not having time to investigate what was going on with the Shennong Cauldron, Hua Changxi quickly began gathering first-rank Yuanling Grass.

She didn't dare take too many, worried Old You and the One-Armed Man would notice something unusual. After gathering three hundred first-rank Yuanling Grass stalks, she stopped.

She recalled the Shennong Cauldron and prepared to leave the bottom of the precipice. But as she turned, she spotted a jujube tree laden with bright red fruit.

Seeing the jujubes, Hua Changxi's mouth began to water.

"Hoo~"

A stream of spiritual power shot out, and thousands of jujubes fell from the tree with a rustling sound.

Hua Changxi summoned the Shennong Cauldron again. A whirlwind stirred, gathering the jujubes into a pile, and she quickly loaded them into the cauldron.

Not daring to linger any longer, Hua Changxi infused her legs with spiritual energy, stepped on the cliff wall, and swiftly climbed upward.