Zhao Yunxiao felt a sense of pity rise up in his heart as he watched Lou Quping keep away the jade bangle.
Negotiation was a battle – one that often warranted the use of mental warfare to come up victorious.
If not because he was rushing for time, Zhao Yunxiao would have tried many more methods to play this game of haggling with Lou Quping.
But as Lou Quping had mentioned earlier, a nightspirit rat was no easy target for an Intermediate Essence Gathering realm cultivator like Zhao Yunxiao.
In order to tackle this issue with confidence, preparation was key.
However, he only had until nighttime to complete his preparations, and getting the necessary information was only the beginning of it all.
For that reason, Zhao Yunxiao simply could not afford to waste too much time here.
"All right, since you are so sincere, there is no reason for me to refuse," Lou Quping looked satisfied after keeping away the jade bangle. "Now then, what do you want to know? Feel free to ask away!"
"I want to know everything about a nightspirit rat," Zhao Yunxiao replied without hesitation.
"...Everything?"
"Yes, everything."
Lou Quping felt the corner of his lips twitch.
"Okay, maybe not everything," Zhao Yunxiao clarified. "I just need to know their strengths and weaknesses, habits and behaviours, combat style and patterns... basically everything that I would need to look out for when facing or trapping a nightspirit rat. Oh, it would be best if Senior Lou can directly tell me how to capture a nightspirit rat without putting myself in any danger."
"So how's that different from wanting to hear everything?" Lou Quping asked.
"Well, I didn't say that I need to know the appearance of a nightspirit rat, or its general diet," Zhao Yunxiao reminded Lou Quping. "Senior Lou, you already accepted the payment."
"I'm beginning to think that this is not worth the trouble," Lou Quping remarked. "Are you intending to study here for a week?"
"I'm sure a beast tamer as talented as Senior Lou will be able to do a first cut of the essential information and teach it in a concise and succinct manner," Zhao Yunxiao said with a smile.
"Ahem! What talented beast tamer? Don't think that I don't know you are just sucking up because you need my help," Lou Quping could not hide the smile on his face. "I guess it can't be helped then. Come, let this Senior Lou teach you everything you need to know!"
Zhao Yunxiao's eyes lit up upon hearing that.
Initially, he had expected Lou Quping to point him to a disciple who specialised in nightspirit rats.
Should that be the case, Zhao Yunxiao would still have to do a secondary check to ascertain the credibility of the information, just in case the disciple remembered anything wrongly.
But now that Lou Quping – the administrative deacon of the Beastiary – was going to personally impart the information to him, then Zhao Yunxiao could simply take the information as good.
That would save him some precious time and effort!
***
The sky was already dark by the time Zhao Yunxiao left the Beastiary.
He did not have much time left.
There was a high possibility that the nightspirit rat would return to Gu Qiansi's garden plot tonight, and Zhao Yunxiao needed to be ready for it when it did.
Thankfully, nightspirit rats generally only get active in the wee hours of the night, so he still had some time to prepare.
After visiting the Beastiary, Zhao Yunxiao's next stop was the Outer Disciples' Quarters. Specifically, he was headed back to his own residence.
It seemed like a natural thing to do at this time of day too.
Apart from Zhao Yunxiao, there were many other disciples who were headed back to their residences.
The only difference between them and Zhao Yunxiao was that most of these disciples were returning to retire for the day, while the night was still long for Zhao Yunxiao.
On his way back, Zhao Yunxiao continued to mentally go through the list of things that he had do.
This to-do-list was the result of a long and intense discussion with Lou Quping, which was also the reason why he ended up only leaving the Beastiary this late.
However, the rewards were well worth the time.
At least Zhao Yunxiao now had a clear idea on how to deal with the issue at hand.
Before he realised it, Zhao Yunxiao had already arrived at his own residence in the Outer Disciples' Quarters.
Most outer disciples had their residences split into four main sections – the bedroom, the restroom, the meditation room, and the front hall.
But in the end, it was up to the individual disciples as to how they wished to furnish each section.
In this aspect, Zhao Yunxiao chose to design his front hall in a slightly different manner as compared to most others.
Instead of designing his front hall in a pretty manner to make it more presentable when hosting guests, Zhao Yunxiao chose to furnish it mainly with heavy chests.
There were chests of various sizes, all arranged in an orderly manner. In fact, they were even used in lieu of chairs and table in order to maximise the limited amount of space that he had to work with.
As for the items in the chests...
Click-! Click-! Click-!
One by one, Zhao Yunxiao unlocked the various chests to reveal the items within.
Weapons, hunting tools, array flags...
Stored within these chests was almost everything that a cultivator would need at some point. No matter the situation, there would be an item here that would come in handy.
While these were not exactly items of the highest quality, they were what Zhao Yunxiao had collected over the years, and he considered them his precious personal collection of essential items.
Some might call Zhao Yunxiao a hoarder, but he would like to think that he was simply being wise and practical.
Just take the current situation for example, what would he do if he did not have all these items at the ready?
He would have to waste precious time trying to look for the items that he needed, and he might not even be successful at that!
As expected, one had to be prepared for all situations.
Despite being faced with such a vast selection of items laid out before him, Zhao Yunxiao did not think twice before taking action.
He already had a plan in mind, and thus knew exactly what items he needed.
Not even a minute had passed and Zhao Yunxiao had already stepped out of his residence, loading these items onto a pushcart parked at the front of his residence.
He was just done loading the items when he let out a sigh.
"Stop hiding," Zhao Yunxiao said helplessly.
"You realised?" Lu Zhiying awkwardly stepped out from behind a corner.
"You are ten years too early to be hiding from me," Zhao Yunxiao shrugged. "Anyway, it is already rather late. Come back tomorrow if you have something to ask me."
"Since you know that it is already late, then why do you look like you are preparing to leave the house?" Lu Zhiying asked while tilting her head towards the pushcart full of items behind Zhao Yunxiao.
"I have some matters to handle, so that's different," Zhao Yunxiao replied.
"Oh? What matters?" Lu Zhiying asked.
"It's nothing much, just some small stuff," Zhao Yunxiao brushed off her question.
"I see, go ahead then!" Lu Zhiying stepped aside.
"All right, see you tomorrow," Zhao Yunxiao nodded before starting to move his pushcart.
However...
"Why are you following me?" Zhao Yunxiao asked after walking a good few metres.
"Who said I am following you, Senior Martial Brother Zhao?" Lu Zhiying asked in return.
"Your residence is in the other direction!"
"But I never said that I'm going back to my residence," Lu Zhiying shrugged.
"Junior Martial Sister Lu, men and women need to have some distance. It is especially dubious to hang out together this late at night," Zhao Yunxiao said with a sigh.
"Reputation is nothing but a hollow title. I have nothing to hide, so I naturally don't care about what others think of me either," Lu Zhiying said.
"You might not care, but I do!" Zhao Yunxiao argued. "Both men and women have equal rights. I have a right to feel safe and not have a woman tailing me late at night too!"
"Hahaha, all right, all right," Lu Zhiying finally laughed after seeing Zhao Yunxiao's vexed expression. "Tell me where you are going and maybe I won't follow you anymore."
"This..." Zhao Yunxiao furrowed his brows. "You really won't follow me anymore?"
"N-Yes, I won't!"
"Promise that you won't tell anyone about it either?"
"Sure! This I really can promise for sure!"
Zhao Yunxiao: "..."
Why did he suddenly feel like there was something wrong with the way Lu Zhiying promised not to follow him?
"Anyway, you probably guessed it right," Zhao Yunxiao said with a helpless sigh. "I am going to try and see if I can do something about the nightspirit rat plaguing Gu Qiansi's garden plot."
"I knew it! I knew it the moment you said you are going back to rest! There's no way you will do that when Senior Martial Sister Gu is in trouble!" Lu Zhiying exclaimed excitedly. "I want to go too! I promise to follow your instructions well and not get in the way!"
"You already figured it out back then? Did you tell your Senior Martial Sister Gu then?" Zhao Yunxiao asked.
"Hey! I may act like this, but I have some self awareness at least!" Lu Zhiying grumbled. "Since you chose not to tell her, I naturally won't tell on you either."
"Mm, you did well there. Gu Qiansi will not feel good if she knew about this," Zhao Yunxiao nodded. "But as for bringing you along, that's going to be a little difficult."
"But why? I will be good and stay out of your way!"
"Look, Junior Martial Sister Lu, this is can get quite dangerous..."
"I will bear full responsibilities if anything happen to me, and not implicate Senior Martial Brother Zhao one bit!"
Zhao Yunxiao: "..."
He felt like an elder brother being bugged by his naive younger sister.
The truth of the matter was that should anything untoward happen to the younger sister while accompanying the elder brother, the elder brother will still get into trouble with their parents no matter what the younger sister say!
It would probably be something along the lines of... 'as the elder brother, you should have known better than to believe anything your younger sister said!'
And in his case, it would be 'as the senior martial brother, you should have known better than to believe anything your junior martial sister said!'
Except, Lu Zhiying was not exactly THAT young anymore, so it should be all right?
As long as she really obeyed his instructions, Zhao Yunxiao thought that this could be a good experience for the newly joined Lu Zhiying.
Moreover, he truly did not have much time left.
With Lu Zhiying coming along, perhaps she could also help him with some small tasks and thus increase the speed of the preparation.
"All right, but you really have to listen to everything I say. Do you understand?" Zhao Yunxiao cautioned once more. "If you don't, then I won't ever bring you around from today onwards."
"Yes! Yes, I understand! Senior Martial Brother Zhao is the best!" Lu Zhiying cheered.
"Tch! Don't even try, your bootlicking won't work on me," Zhao Yunxiao clicked his tongue. "All right, let's hurry then. We don't have much time left."
"Yes, yes! Let's go, let's go!"
Once again, it was a long walk to the borders of the Outer Grounds before Zhao Yunxiao and Lu Zhiying finally arrived at Gu Qiansi's garden plot.
Zhao Yunxiao took a good look around upon arrival, and what he saw gave him mixed feelings.
The garden plot looked much better than when he left in the afternoon, testament to the effort that Gu Qiansi and the other disciples had put in to salvage it.
The wrecked plants had been cleaned out, while those that were still salvageable had been replanted. The soil had been loosened and then levelled accordingly.
He could even see some simple repairs made to the fence that surrounded the garden plot.
Zhao Yunxiao sighed for the umpteenth time today.
If nothing was done about the nightspirit rat, all that effort would be for naught.
Thankfully, the current state of the garden plot also meant that he was still not too late. Otherwise, the garden would have already been wrecked once more.
In Zhao Yunxiao's heart, the feeling of relief that he was still on time intertwined with the feeling of indignance on Gu Qiansi's behalf to give birth to a fire of determination.
Zhao Yunxiao removed the cloth covering the top of his pushcart to reveal all the items within, then turned to look towards Lu Zhiying.
"Junior Martial Sister Lu, we are going to stop this nightspirit rat no matter what."
Lu Zhiying was momentarily surprised by Zhao Yunxiao's sudden seriousness, but grinned with excitement immediately after.
"Just tell me what to do."