Over the next few days, Lin Zhixue was intermittently called to the Gu manor to work several times.
It was still that same herb field—loosening the soil, watering, and plucking withered leaves, all effortless chores.
Every time she finished, Gu Yanqing would have a servant hand her a pouch of spirit stones. The amount was just right: slightly more than the monthly allowance she received at home, yet not so much that it aroused suspicion.
Having finished her work that day, she put the tools in order and walked into the center of the courtyard.
Gu Yanqing was seated by the stone table flipping through an old book. Hearing her footsteps, he looked up at her.
“Finished?”
“Yes,” she answered, but didn't turn and leave as she usually did.
Standing there, she hesitated for a few breaths, her fingers unconsciously pinching her cuffs, before finally asking, “Tomorrow... do you still need me to come?”
Gu Yanqing’s hand paused over the pages.
She rarely spoke of her own accord.
Usually she left right after finishing her work, never saying a single unnecessary word. On the rare occasions he asked something, she would answer like squeezing toothpaste.
Her asking this out of the blue today was quite unusual.
He considered it for a moment, then gave a noncommittal response.
“It depends on whether the manor is short on hands tomorrow.”
Lin Zhixue fell silent for a brief moment, as if organizing her words.
When she spoke again, her voice was a little softer than before, tinged with a cautious probe.
“Tomorrow... I have some matters to attend to. If possible, could you find someone else to take my place?”
Her gaze didn't meet his, resting instead on the carvings along the edge of the stone table.
She stammered slightly as she spoke.
Gu Yanqing gave her a look.
Matters? What matters could she possibly have?
Yet he didn't press her. He remembered the sight of her trembling fingers as she sat on that embroidered stool in the Lin family's room a few days ago.
The semblance of normal rapport he had painstakingly cultivated wasn't worth jeopardizing by scaring her off with prying questions.
Besides, he had the system and could check her location at any time; if anything truly seemed amiss, he could deal with it then.
“All right.”
Lin Zhixue visibly breathed a sigh of relief. She bowed her head in thanks, turned around, and swiftly departed from the courtyard.
The next morning, after running through a set of sword forms, Gu Yanqing habitually opened the system to take a look.
The little red dot was indeed not at the Lin family residence. He casually glanced at the location tag, then froze.
The coordinates indicated she was outside the city. What was more, she was heading toward the mountainous terrain north of the city.
Outside the city? Up in the mountains?
The “matters” she spoke of were leaving the city to go up the mountain?
What was a cultivator at the fourth layer of Qi Refining doing running into the deep, ancient wilderness all on her own?
Just as he was about to close the system interface, an excerpt of text flashed through his mind.
It was a plot point he had read in the original novel.
Before Lin Zhixue became completely overpowered, she had once ventured out of the city and into the mountains alone in search of a spirit herb called “Cold Marrow Grass.”
This herb was rarely found in the markets, growing only in damp rock crevices on the shaded side of the mountain.
She had wanted to use it to cleanse and temper her meridians, striving to seize a slim opportunity for a breakthrough.
He remembered that chapter of the book with great clarity.
Beside the Cold Marrow Grass lurked a jade-eyed wolf at mid Foundation Establishment, stationed right near that cliff face on the shaded side of the mountain.
Lin Zhixue hadn't been the only one to go up the mountain from the Lin family that time; two disciples of the same clan had accompanied her.
Yet when the demon beast appeared, those two fled faster than anyone.
In the end, although Lin Zhixue survived thanks to her protagonist halo, she was gravely wounded and bedridden for half a month before recovering.
The jade-eyed wolf’s territory wasn't large, but its habits were fixed.
Lurking during the day, it would emerge to drink water in the afternoon when sunlight reached the lake on the mountain’s shaded side.
And that lake happened to be less than a hundred paces below the cliff face where the Cold Marrow Grass grew.
According to the timeline of the original novel, the demon beast's appearance was scheduled for today.
Standing in the courtyard, Gu Yanqing closed the system interface and opened it again, over and over. The little red dot continued to creep steadily up the mountain.
What did her courting death have to do with him?
She was the female lead anyway, blessed with a protagonist halo; she wouldn't die. At most, she'd be severely injured. And what did her lying in bed recovering for half a month have to do with him?
He even entertained a dark thought:
If she truly died on the mountain, no one would come to kill him in the future. He wouldn't have to rack his brains every day to farm favorability, nor would he need to gingerly weigh every word he spoke. What a relief that would be.
He turned around and walked back a few paces. Then he stopped in his tracks.
Cursing under his breath, he turned, strode back into his room, grabbed the sword he had practiced with for days, and marched toward the city gates.
The path up the mountain wasn't hard to find. At the mountain's foot lay a beaten dirt path, winding deep into the dense forest.
The wind in the mountains was much cooler than in the city; blowing down his collar, it carried the scent of pine resin and damp earth.
As Gu Yanqing climbed, he dredged up all descriptions of the jade-eyed wolf from the original book.
Mid Foundation Establishment, medium build, extremely fast, eyes gleaming with an eerie jade-green light under the sun, solitary by nature, disliking packs. Weakness: the belly.
The jade-eyed wolf possessed thick hide and fur; ordinary sword strikes could hardly wound its back and flanks. But the fur on its belly was the thinnest—the only spot across its entire body that could be pierced by the sword qi of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Yet knowing its weakness was one thing; being able to land a strike was another.
He had indeed practiced his swordplay diligently these past few days, progressing from having his strikes bounce off branches to smoothly executing a complete set of basic sword forms from start to finish.
Even so, that was the extent of it.
He had never engaged in real combat.
Striking a wooden dummy and fighting a genuine demon beast were two entirely different matters.
A wooden dummy didn't move, didn't dodge, and wouldn't snap around to take a bite out of you.
Rounding a bend on the mountain path, he saw an old herb gatherer walking down with a bamboo basket on his back.
He quickened his pace to catch up, cupped his hands in greeting, and asked, “Old sir, is there a lake on this mountain?”
The old man gave him a look, probably finding it odd that such a decently dressed young man was climbing the mountain alone, but nodded nonetheless.
“There is. Head west, cross a pine forest, and you'll be there. But that area hasn't been peaceful lately; there are signs of wild beasts roaming about. If you don't have urgent business, young man, it's best to head down the mountain early.”
“Understood. Many thanks.”
Shaking his head, the old man continued down with his bamboo basket, muttering under his breath, “Young people these days, not a single one knows their place...”
Gu Yanqing waited until he had walked far enough, then turned and headed west.
On the system map, the little red dot was in the northwest, roughly several hundred meters away from him, moving slowly—she was probably still searching for herbs.
He had to take care of the jade-eyed wolf before Lin Zhixue approached that lake.
Then he could slip away without a sound, as if nothing had ever happened.
When passing through the pine forest, a thick layer of pine needles blanketed the ground, soft and noiseless underfoot.
The canopy blocked most of the sunlight, leaving the forest as dim as dusk.
Tightening his grip on the hilt, he slowed his steps and walked toward the faint glimmer of water visible at the forest's edge.
Rate on N.U.
