"Why are you always in such a hurry, Senior Martial Brother Zhao?" Lu Zhiying complained as she finally caught up to Zhao Yunxiao.
"You are asking me?" Zhao Yunxiao sneaked a glance behind them before turning to face Lu Zhiying. "I am the one who wants to ask you why you were with Senior Martial Brother Hua Shui!"
"That guy from just now?"
"Don't call him 'that guy'! He is Senior Martial Brother Hua Shui!" Zhao Yunxiao quickly corrected her.
"Yes, okay. Senior Martial Brother Hua Shui," Lu Zhiying said. "Well, he was the only one at the table. There were so many empty seats so I just decided to wait there as well. What's wrong?"
"What do you mean what's wrong? How can you sit right next to him as if it's nothing? Isn't it scary?" Zhao Yunxiao asked.
"Is it supposed to be scary?" Lu Zhiying asked back.
Zhao Yunxiao took a deep breath.
"Sometimes I really don't know whether you are brave or oblivious," Zhao Yunxiao remarked. "Anyway, be careful when dealing with Senior Martial Brother Hua Shui in the future. Not only is he one of the more influential inner disciples, he is also known for being strict about order and hierarchy. If he catches you doing something wrong, you will really be in trouble!"
"Oh? What kind of trouble?" Lu Zhiying's eyes lit up.
Zhao Yunxiao saw the sudden change in Lu Zhiying's expression and felt a headache coming on.
"Actually it is nothing much as well. Let's just go look for Gu Qiansi. Aren't you curious as to what kind of problem arose for her to be so busy today?" Zhao Yunxiao said.
"Oh, you are right! Let's go!" Lu Zhiying nodded. "How did your interview go anyway?"
"Who knows? They are only selecting three outer disciples to go along with Elder He since this will be a relatively short trip, so I won't get my hopes up," Zhao Yunxiao shrugged. "Gu Qiansi should be back already, so let's go look for her directly at her residence."
"Okay!"
***
Knock-! Knock-! Knock-!
Knock-! Knock-! Knock-! Knock-! Knock-!
Lu Zhiying watched curiously as Zhao Yunxiao continued to knock on the door without rest. In her head, this scene before her eyes quickly superimposed with a similar memory from the day before.
"Senior Martial Brother Zhao and Senior Martial Sister Gu sure are close..." Lu Zhiying muttered under her breath, drawing a stare from Zhao Yunxiao.
"Who's close with her?" Zhao Yunxiao narrowed his eyes at Lu Zhiying. "In what way do you see that we are close? With which eye? Your left eye or your right eye?"
Before Lu Zhiying could reply, someone shouted over from the adjacent residence.
"Stop knocking already! Junior Martial Sister Gu has yet to return!"
Hmm?
Zhao Yunxiao looked up at the sky.
Judging from the time of the day, Gu Qiansi should have been back long ago.
Unless... she was unable to settle the issue at the Herb Gardens?
"Is Senior Martial Sister Gu still at the herb garden?" Lu Zhiying said what Zhao Yunxiao was thinking.
"Junior Martial Sister Lu, why don't you return to your residence first?" Zhao Yunxiao suggested. "I will just go do a quick check to see if she is still at her plot at the Herb Gardens."
"Hmm?" Lu Zhiying realised that Zhao Yunxiao's expression had turned slightly serious. "If it is not too much trouble, can I go along as well?"
"This... I guess there's no harm," Zhao Yunxiao agreed. "However, she might not actually be there so it might be a wasted trip."
"It's all right! I have time!" Lu Zhiying nodded. "Let's go then!"
***
Herb Gardens.
Unlike the Alchemy Chamber or the Forge, the term Herb Gardens did not refer to a particular location in the sect grounds.
Instead, it was more of a category of numerous locations that had been allocated for herb cultivation.
These locations could be found in various different parts of the sect grounds, each considered a garden plot on its own.
Each individual plot was then further divided into sections, with a disciple in charge of manning their own section within the plot.
Due to the varying conditions required for the growth of certain herbs and plants, different garden plots might focus on cultivating different types of herbs so as to optimise their geographic advantages.
However, disciples still had absolute autonomy over how they wished to cultivate their respective sections.
Apart from a certain quota of selected herbs that each disciple was expected to submit every month, they were completely free to choose what else they wished to cultivate in their respective sections.
Most disciples would go the safe route and cultivate basic herbs with traditional methods that had been tried and tested, while the more adventurous ones might try to innovate and find more efficient methods.
Some would also try their hand at rare plants and herbs that were slightly higher on the list in terms of the difficulty of cultivation.
It was not unheard of for a disciple to ruin their section simply because they planted a poisonous plant or failed in their innovative cultivation methods.
Worst still, some disciples' mistakes even ended up affecting the nearby sections.
In such cases, these disciples might not only find themselves in trouble with his or her fellow disciples, but also with the administrative deacons.
That was why when choosing their plot sections, it was very important to find out who the neighbouring sections were under.
Gu Qiansi's garden plot was located near the borders of the Outer Grounds, which meant that Zhao Yunxiao and Lu Zhiying had to walk quite a bit before they finally arrived at their destination.
Be it fortunate or not, it was not a wasted trip.
They might have confirmed that Gu Qiansi was indeed still working in the garden plot, but seeing her working away labouriously was not exactly the most pleasant of sights.
In fact, Zhao Yunxiao could see that almost every disciple affiliated to this garden plot was present, uncharacteristically still working hard on their respective sections despite the relatively late hour.
And the reason for that was laid clear at first glance.
The originally tidy state of the garden plot was nowhere to be seen. Instead, many herbs and plants appeared to have been dug out prematurely and thrown around in a messy manner, as though the plot had been wrecked by a fierce battle.
Gu Qiansi and the other disciples were basically performing a cleanup of the scene, trashing the dead plants and salvaging the remaining ones, including replanting those that had been uprooted but were yet to be lost.
"What happened here?" Zhao Yunxiao asked while approaching Gu Qiansi's garden plot section.
"Zhao Yunxiao?" Gu Qiansi looked up in surprise. "Junior Martial Sister Lu as well. Why are you guys here?"
"Senior Martial Brother Zhao was worried after hearing that you haven't been back since morning, and thus he came here to take a look," Lu Zhiying answered. "I simply tagged along as well."
"Don't listen to her spout nonsense. I just wanted to see what could have happened to make you so shamelessly leave the difficult chore of taking care of Junior Martial Sister Lu to me all day," Zhao Yunxiao corrected Lu Zhiying.
"Hey! That's not nice! At most it's an easy chore and not a difficult one!"
"So what happened here?" Zhao Yunxiao ignored Lu Zhiying's protest.
Gu Qiansi looked silently at Zhao Yunxiao for a moment before answering. "We are not too sure either. I only heard this morning that the garden plot has been wrecked. But by the time I reached, things are already as you see. We found claw and bite marks on the field and crops, but that's about it. As for what exactly happened for the plot to end up like this overnight... who knows?"
"Claw and bite marks? Can I have a look?" Zhao Yunxiao asked.
"I can't stop you even if I wanted to," Gu Qiansi said with a shrug. "Just look around, those marks are everywhere."
Zhao Yunxiao turned his gaze towards his surroundings.
Sure enough, as long as he paid closer attention, he could see that things were exactly like what Gu Qiansi had said.
There were numerous claw marks on the ground, while the uprooted plants were ridden with a combination of both claw and bite marks.
Zhao Yunxiao picked up a dead plant that had been uprooted and left unattended, carefully examining the marks left on the plant.
"...A nightspirit rat?" Zhao Yunxiao muttered.
"You recognise these traces?" Gu Qiansi asked in surprise.
"I am not one hundred percent certain, but these marks do resemble those made by a nightspirit rat," Zhao Yunxiao tried to think back to his past experiences. "I guess the mess here does fit that narrative too."
"What is a nightspirit rat?" Lu Zhiying asked. "Is it a spirit or a monster?"
Gu Qiansi looked towards Zhao Yunxiao for an answer, not knowing much about the topic herself.
"Nightspirit rats are monsters that take the form of a giant rat," Zhao Yunxiao explained. "As the name suggests, they are usually active at night and move so stealthily that they are often mistaken as spirits. Their stealthy movements, along with them being very aggressive creatures that enjoy destroying things, make for an extremely dangerous combination. Perhaps it is a fortunate thing that only the garden plot is damaged, and that no one was hurt."
"Is that so?" Gu Qiansi sighed. "We were still discussing if one of us should stand guard tonight just in case the perpertrator returns. But if what you said is true, that might be a bad idea."
"It's best not to do so, or at least not alone," Zhao Yunxiao advised. "If it is a nightspirit rat, it will likely return tonight. Unless all of you work together to scare it off, anyone who stays behind will only get hurt."
Gu Qiansi looked over to the other disciples who were busily working on their individual sections, none of them coming over to look at them even though they must have overheard their conversation.
"Seems like nobody is interested," Zhao Yunxiao remarked. "In that case, you should not stay tonight either."
"Isn't it possible to ask the elders for help?" Lu Zhiying suggested. "I don't know how scary this nightspirit rat is, but the elders of the sect should be able to resolve the issue easily, shouldn't they?"
"The elders are far too busy to bother about something like this," Zhao Yunxiao shook his head. "Issues like this are usually handled by the administrative deacons. Unfortunately, the administrative deacon in charge of this garden plot is notorious for being lazy, and would likely just blame the matter on the working disciples instead."
"What...?" Lu Zhiying frowned. "There's such a thing?"
"Just my luck I guess," Gu Qiansi said while she continued with her replanting.
"I told you long ago that you should move to another plot."
"I was already done setting up my plot section, and moving would have been damaging to the herbs," Gu Qiansi replied bitterly. "I thought that things will be fine as long as I take good care of my plot section. Who knows that something like this will happen?"
"Stop planting already!" Zhao Yunxiao lightly grabbed Gu Qiansi by the wrist to stop her. "Didn't you hear me say that if it really is a nightspirit rat, it will most likely come again tonight? In that case, all this salvaging is for naught!"
"What am I supposed to do then?!" Gu Qiansi finally raised her voice as she looked up at Zhao Yunxiao. "I can bring some of the salvageable ones back to temporarily plant them in my residence, but am I supposed to just throw everything else away?!"
Zhao Yunxiao was momentarily at a loss of words.
He knew that all these herbs were essentially the fruits borne from a cumulation of effort over time. As long as there was still a slim chance of salvaging them, almost nobody would choose to abandon the herbs.
"All right, I understand. I will be leaving first then," Zhao Yunxiao let go of Gu Qiansi's wrist. "Try not to work till too late. You still need energy to continue tomorrow."
"...Okay," Gu Qiansi replied. Zhao Yunxiao's reaction made her feel slightly bad for having raised her voice.
"Where are you going, Senior Martial Brother Zhao?" Lu Zhiying asked. "Why don't we help out Senior Martial Sister Gu since we are already here?"
"Sorry, I've had a long day, so I will be going back to rest first. Maybe I will come around tomorrow to see if there's anything I can help with," Zhao Yunxiao said with an apologetic smile. "Bye then."
"Huh? You are going back to rest?" Lu Zhiying asked in confusion.
"No worries, have a good rest," Gu Qiansi said before turning to Lu Zhiying. "You should go rest as well, Junior Martial Sister Lu. You won't be of much help out here anyway."
"Hey! That's not nice! The sun hasn't even set yet, so I am full of energy! Even if nothing else, I can at least be a runner and help you carry things around!"
"All right, all right. Bring me that basket then."
"Okay! Here!"
"Must be nice to be young..."
Zhao Yunxiao took one last glance at the two young ladies working together, then turned around to leave.
The moment he turned around, his eyes sharpened, and his fists clenched tight.
Indeed, in such a situation, almost nobody would have chosen to abandon the herbs.
But Zhao Yunxiao was certain that if he were in Gu Qiansi's shoes, he would have done so for sure.
Rather than salvaging herbs that would likely just be wrecked again that night, Zhao Yunxiao would rather spend his time on more meaningful things.
And that was exactly what he was intending to do right now.
After leaving Gu Qiansi's garden plot, Zhao Yunxiao did not head back to his residence to rest as he had said he would.
It was not that he did not want to stay and help Gu Qiansi out with her plot section.
However, what Gu Qiansi needed the most right now was not someone who could help her with salvaging the wrecked herbs.
Instead, what she needed was a way to deal with the root of the problem – the nightspirit rat.
Since asking the administrative deacon was not an option, Zhao Yunxiao could only try to take matters into his own hands!