Chapter 54: Hide-and-Seek

The Herb Manor was over ten li from Herb Valley; to save time planting medicinal herbs, houses had also been built within Herb Valley, where the laborers lived and ate.

It was still a large communal bed, the kind where dozens of people shared a single room.

After working all day and eating dinner, Hua Changxi entered the quarters designated for the female laborers.

The room was fifteen meters long and six meters wide, with a door in the exact center; earthen kang beds lined both the left and right sides, each two meters wide and fifteen meters long.

Temperatures in the valley remained quite low, especially early in the morning and late at night, so all the inner spots were already taken, leaving only spaces near the door and windows available.

Hua Changxi had never feared the cold since childhood, and even less so after beginning cultivation; seeing more moonlight streaming through the left window, she decided to sleep on the left kang near the window.

The quilts and sheets were ready-made, emitting a strong musty and strange odor, suggesting who knew how many people had used them before.

With too many people in the room, Hua Changxi could not safely use her Spotless Technique; she simply folded the bedding and placed it in the corner of the kang.

After tidying up, Hua Changxi stepped out to fetch water for a quick wash, noticing as she came and went that someone was sizing her up.

At first, she assumed it was another male laborer trying to take advantage of her, but when she seized the chance to look back, she discovered it was the One-Armed Man.

Realizing the One-Armed Man was observing her, Hua Changxi's inner alarm bells rang; only then did she suddenly realize his reaction upon seeing her had been far too calm.

This was abnormal!

She had previously broken through his pressure in the Medical Bureau's warehouse; upon meeting again, even if he sought no revenge, he should not have been completely unresponsive toward her.

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

Was the One-Armed Man surveilling her?

It made sense; if she encountered someone capable of matching her again, she too would observe them secretly for a while.

Hua Changxi returned to her room filled with worry.

She did not know how long the One-Armed Man intended to watch her; with him staring her down, how could she possibly search for the Yuanling Grass?

Hua Changxi did not want to lie on the foul-smelling kang; she had originally planned to sit cross-legged and cultivate, but with the One-Armed Man watching, she dared not exhibit any unusual behavior, so she endured the discomfort and forced herself to lie down.

Moonlight spilled over her body; Hua Changxi gradually calmed her mind, ignoring the One-Armed Man outside, closed her eyes, and began circulating the Little Bird Breathing Method.

She discovered that cultivating within Herb Valley made spiritual energy flow exceptionally smoothly, significantly accelerating her cultivation speed.

As night passed, Hua Changxi woke to the chatter of others and checked her status: [Realm: Qi Sea Realm 1850/].

In just one night, she had gained over 100 realm points, several times faster than in the Laborer Hall.

Over the following days, while working, Hua Changxi secretly observed the One-Armed Man, noting he descended from the western mountain into Herb Valley every day at the fourth quarter of Si hour (10:00) and left the valley for the western mountain at the beginning of Xu hour (19:00).

This was his overt movement pattern; covertly, every night during the Zi hour, he would descend from West Mountain again to secretly patrol Herb Valley, paying particular attention to her dormitory area.

After discovering this pattern, one night when the One-Armed Man descended for his patrol, Hua Changxi quietly followed him into the western mountains of Herb Valley.

Knowing a Grandmaster guarded Herb Valley, she dared not follow too closely; from a distance, she watched the One-Armed Man reach a stone cliff halfway up West Mountain.

Before the cliff lay 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 this elder must be the Grandmaster surnamed You.

"Is he cultivating?"

Hua Changxi felt somewhat helpless; being self-taught, she had no idea how to judge whether someone was a cultivator.

"Master."

Hearing the One-Armed Man address the elder, surprise flashed through Hua Changxi's eyes.

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

"A person capable of withstanding the pressure of a seventh-rank martial artist yet choosing to become a laborer is itself abnormal. Now punished and sent to Herb Valley, she makes no fuss and shows no desire to leave; the more obedient that little girl acts, the greater her ambitions must be. Continue watching her to see what she truly intends."

Elder You gazed at the bright moon in the sky: "Aside from medicinal herbs, what else in Herb Valley could be worth her coveting?"

Listening to their conversation, Hua Changxi's heart remained unsettled.

So in the eyes of intelligent people, her behavior was full of flaws.

Watching the One-Armed Man sit beside Elder You and begin meditating cross-legged, Hua Changxi quietly withdrew from Herb Valley.

Knowing the Grandmaster and the One-Armed Man were surveilling her, Hua Changxi was not entirely passive; she began counter-surveilling them.

Since Herb Valley was vast and everyone was scattered widely, Hua Changxi used the One-Armed Man's movement patterns to evade his surveillance, probing the valley multiple times.

Unfortunately, she still had not found the Yuanling Grass.

On the noon of the thirteenth day of the third month, Hua Changxi returned from the fields for lunch and discovered the One-Armed Man was unexpectedly absent.

This was strange; the One-Armed Man was extremely diligent and responsible, carrying out his patrols of Herb Valley with utmost dedication, never arriving late or leaving early; why would he abandon his post today?

"Why isn't Master Guo here?"

Hua Changxi asked casually of the female laborer beside her; since she had helped this woman plant seedlings, the woman had taken good care of her these past days.

"The day after tomorrow is the fifteenth."

"On the fifteenth of every month, Elder You must deliver medicines to the Medical Bureau; Master Guo has likely gone to help Elder You gather herbs."

Hua Changxi feigned surprise: "What medicine must be delivered specifically on the fifteenth of each month?"

The female laborer shook her head: "I do not know that."

Hua Changxi dared not probe further; she quickly finished her lunch, collected the seedlings she needed to plant that afternoon from the steward, and hurried away.

After placing the seedlings in her assigned herb field, Hua Changxi did not work but activated the Wave-Treading Micro-Step, quietly entering West Mountain.

During this period in Herb Valley, playing hide-and-seek with the One-Armed Man had made her Wave-Treading Micro-Step increasingly adept; once spiritual energy gathered at her feet, she could sprint a hundred meters in an instant.

Hua Changxi first reached the mountainside; seeing no one on the stone cliff and daring not rashly investigate the stone cave, she could only wander nearby.

After circling several times, she found nothing besides some herbs required by martial artists.

Unwilling to have come all this way for nothing, Hua Changxi returned to the stone cliff area.

"Why would a Grandmaster choose to live here?"

"Is it simply because there is a stone cave here?"

The stone cave was fitted with a stone door; currently shut tight and impossible to enter for investigation, Hua Changxi merely circled the exterior once.

With this turn, she immediately spotted the problem.

The spiritual energy here is so dense!

Since beginning her cultivation, she had been pondering one question: where exactly does spiritual energy come from?

Hua Changxi stood on the stone platform, closed her eyes, and circulated the Little Bird Breathing Method. Upon perceiving the distribution of spiritual energy concentration around her, she immediately opened her eyes.

Hua Changxi walked to the edge of the stone cliff and leaned out to look down.

Having just circulated her cultivation technique, she discovered that the spiritual energy below the cliff was actually the most dense.

The stone cliff did not drop straight down but sloped at an angle of about twenty degrees; looking from above, its depth was unfathomable.

Hua Changxi weighed her own capabilities and concluded that with the Wave-Walking Micro-Step she had currently mastered, she could descend to investigate.

Although Hua Changxi was not afraid of heights, the thought of jumping down still made her heart tighten with hesitation. Yet, recalling that Elder You usually guarded the cliff, she realized that if she did not go down while he was absent, she might never find another opportunity.

Thinking thus, Hua Changxi hesitated no longer. She leaped forth, planted her feet against the cliff face, and sprinted rapidly downward.

Though she borrowed force from the cliff wall, Hua Changxi still felt as if she were in free fall, her legs running so fast they resembled wheels of wind and fire.

At this moment, Hua Changxi could not help but wish she knew how to ride a sword or soar upon clouds and mist.

It seemed like an eternity had passed, yet also like the blink of an eye, before Hua Changxi finally saw the bottom of the cliff.

Unable to control her speed, Hua Changxi crashed heavily onto the ground in a face-first sprawl.

Thrown so hard that she bared her teeth in pain and her features twisted, it took her a good while to recover her senses and tremble her way back to her feet.

The next instant, upon seeing the countless spiritual plants growing at the cliff's base, the pain in her body vanished immediately.

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

"Master, what exactly are these fruits?"

"Even your master does not know."

"Master, this disciple finds these fruits emit a clear, penetrating fragrance..."

"What, you want to eat them?"

"Eating one or two surely wouldn't be noticed by those above, would it?"

"Do you know what became of the last person who had the same idea as you?"

"Was he killed by those above?"

"No. Those above never even knew he had stolen and eaten the fruits. Yet he still died; less than the time of a single breath after swallowing the fruit, his body exploded and he perished."

"Ah~"

"That person was your eldest senior brother, an eighth-grade martial artist."

"What? Eldest senior brother is dead!"

"Dead without a whole corpse! It is all because your master gave in to greed; your eldest senior brother was testing the medicine for me. Do you think those above would so confidently entrust the Medicine Valley to my guard? It is because these precious medicines are things I can see but not eat—to eat them is death!"

"How could this be?"

"......"

Hearing voices approaching from afar, Hua Changxi's expression changed. She immediately swept out a burst of spiritual energy; a gust of fierce wind arose, scattering the traces of her landing. Then, she flashed away to hide in the bushes a hundred meters distant.

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

The two did not detect Hua Changxi; they stepped along the cliff face and departed from the cliff base.

As soon as they left, Hua Changxi raced against time to investigate the cliff bottom.

The One-Armed Man had gone up and would soon patrol the Medicine Valley; she had to return before he reached it.

Ignoring the other spiritual plants at the cliff base, Hua Changxi focused solely on searching for Yuan Spirit Grass, finally spotting patches of it to the southeast.

Apart from first-grade Yuan Spirit Grass, there were even second-grade Yuan Spirit Grass.

"Bang!"

The Shennong Cauldron was summoned. Hua Changxi began harvesting the Yuan Spirit Grass at high speed; for each plant she picked, she employed a spell to seal the medicinal properties and spiritual energy, preserving the grass's essence.

Hua Changxi had planned to leave once the Shennong Cauldron was full, yet unexpectedly, even after she harvested over a hundred stalks of second-grade Yuan Spirit Grass, the cauldron remained unfilled.

"This..."

With no time to investigate the mystery of the Shennong Cauldron, Hua Changxi swiftly resumed harvesting the first-grade Yuan Spirit Grass.

She dared not harvest too much, fearing that Elder You and the One-Armed Man would notice something amiss, so she stopped after collecting three hundred stalks of first-grade Yuan Spirit Grass.

Stowing the Shennong Cauldron, Hua Changxi prepared to leave the cliff base, but just as she turned, she spotted a date tree laden with bright red dates.

Upon seeing the dates, Hua Changxi's mouth began to water profusely.

"Hoo~"

A surge of spiritual energy shot forth, and thousands of dates fell from the tree with a "swish-swish-swish."

Hua Changxi summoned the Shennong Cauldron once more; a whirlwind arose, gathering the dates into a pile, which she rapidly loaded into the cauldron.

Daring not linger any longer, Hua Changxi infused her legs with spiritual energy, stepped against the cliff face, and climbed upward at great speed.