Lightwind Pavilion

"Hmm?" Lu Zhiying instinctively turned her gaze towards Zhao Yunxiao's wrists.

She did not know if Zhao Yunxiao usually wore a jade bangle, but there were definitely no signs of any accessories on his wrists right now.

"Oh that?" Zhao Yunxiao glanced at his wrist as well before looking back up to match Gu Qiansi's gaze. "Like you said, I've been wearing it for so long and yet it still didn't show any effect. Since it is obviously not working, I decided to get rid of it for a potential change in fortune for the better!"

"Really? Even though you cherish it that much?" Gu Qiansi probed further.

"That was back when I thought it works," Zhao Yunxiao shrugged. "No point keeping around something that is useless."

Gu Qiansi eyed him for a few moments before letting out a helpless sigh. "In any case, you were right about the nightspirit rat returning. We found some fresh claw marks near the edge of the garden plot. But for some strange reason, there wasn't much damage done to the crops unlike the night before."

"Really? You guys really got lucky then!" Zhao Yunxiao revealed a look of surprise. "Perhaps the nightspirit rat found another fertile land, deciding to make that its primary feeding ground instead. That said, you still need to be careful about your spiritual herbs! Who knows when it, or anything else, will come visit your garden plot again?"

Lu Zhiying: "..."

"I know, I know! You have repeated that a million times already! So naggy!" Gu Qiansi answered irritably, but paused for a moment before speaking again in a more serious tone. "Anyway, thank you."

"What are you thanking me for?" Zhao Yunxiao asked in confusion.

"For whatever. If someone is thanking you then just accept it gracefully. Why are you asking so much?" Gu Qiansi rolled her eyes. "If anything, you can just treat it as though I'm thanking you for checking in to see if I'm okay here."

"Tch! And have you thought about why I have to keep checking in on you?" Zhao Yunxiao clicked his tongue in frustration. "How many times have I asked you to move over to my garden plot? I've done my fair share of research, and the administrative deacon there is one of the better ones. If you are agreeable, I can easily put in a few good words for you to make things happen!"

"I have told you many times that I am already done setting up my plot section, and moving would have been damaging to the herbs!" Gu Qiansi retorted. "These are lives too. We shouldn't be hurting them for our own convenience!"

"Wait, you have a garden plot too, Senior Martial Brother Zhao?" Lu Zhiying interjected. "Don't you need to tend to your crops then? Why haven't I seen you do so at all these few days?"

"The herbs I am growing at the moment do not require much care, so it is fine as long as I go check in on them around once a week," Zhao Yunxiao explained. "In fact, Gu Qiansi wouldn't need to keep coming to her plot either if not for this whole thing with the nightspirit rat."

"He's just lazy," Gu Qiansi chimed in from the side.

"Haha, I'm sure Senior Martial Brother Zhao has his reasons," Lu Zhiying laughed awkwardly in response to Gu Qiansi's comments. "But Senior Martial Brother Zhao, are you not afraid that your garden plot will be attacked by nightspirit rats too?"

"Can you not jinx it?" Zhao Yunxiao felt the corner of his lips twitch. "If it really does happen, you are going to be the first person that I will look for!"

"Yes, bring me along when that happens!" Lu Zhiying nodded happily. "Not just that, but please bring me along if you are intending to check in on your garden plot too. I want to see the difference between different garden plots!"

"...Sure," Zhao Yunxiao was slightly taken aback by that enthusiastic response. "But I have to let you know in advance that there is nothing special about my garden plot, so don't be too disappointed if you don't see anything interesting."

"Why don't you guys go do something else first? I still have quite a bit of work left to finish up," Gu Qiansi suggested.

"Sounds good," Zhao Yunxiao nodded.

"I can help!" Lu Zhiying offered.

"Why don't you stop bothering your senior martial sister and follow me?" Zhao Yunxiao immediately stopped her.

"Hey! That's not nice!" Lu Zhiying complained.

"We will head over to the Lightwind Pavilion first. You can come look for us when you are done," Zhao Yunxiao chose to ignore Lu Zhiying.

He could see that the progress here at the garden plot was on track.

Gu Qiansi and her fellow disciples working on the garden plot should have no problem finishing things up cleanly, so there was no reason for them to stay and distract them any longer.

"Let's do that then," Gu Qiansi agreed.

With that, Zhao Yunxiao brought the grumpy Lu Zhiying away while Gu Qiansi stayed behind to continue her work.

***

The Black Tortoise Sect territory covered the entire Purple Plum Mountain.

Within this vast expanse, Lightwind Pavilion was but one of the many resting spots scattered across the land.

However, one thing that sets it apart from the others was its location.

In order to get to Lightwind Pavilion, one had to enter the woods through a narrow dirt trail, of which its entrance was located in an inconspicuous corner of the road.

Only after following the dirt trail for almost a kilometre would one finally arrive at the pavilion.

Travelling a kilometre on a dirt trail was nothing difficult, much less to cultivators. However, there was little reason for anyone to do so when the other rest areas were far more accessible.

Because of that, the Lightwind Pavilion was not a popular resting spot among the disciples of the sect.

In fact, most of them did not even know about the existence of this Lightwind Pavilion!

Nevertheless, this was a place that Zhao Yunxiao and Gu Qiansi could not be more familiar with.

Ever since stumbling upon this location when they were young, they had always returned to Lightwind Pavilion to hang out and play together in their free time.

Even after years had passed, this remained the place that they defaulted to whenever they wanted to have a rest outside of their own residences.

But while it contained many of their childhood memories, it was not exactly a secret location belonging to just the two of them either. Over time, it had become a place where they hung out regularly with their friends as well.

"Wow, this is a lovely place!" Lu Zhiying exclaimed in surprise after finally reaching the end of the dirt trail.

Before her eyes, the densely packed pine trees suddenly opened up to a huge clearing in the woods.

A small but exquisite open pavilion overlooked a pond with such calm waters that it seemed just like a huge mirror on the ground. There might not be many fishes in the pond, but that only added to the serenity of the location.

The wide-open area in front of the pavilion and pond was now completely white, covered in a layer of snow.

Nothing here but the pavilion, the pond, and the pine trees surrounding them.

This scenery might not qualify to be considered picturesque, but it certainly looked decently cosy.

"Isn't that right?" Zhao Yunxiao replied smugly as he appreciated the view before him.

He had been here countless times, but he had never gotten bored of it.

Lightwind Pavilion had not always looked like this.

Zhao Yunxiao could still remember the first time he came – this place was nothing but a mess with overgrown vegetation, and that was putting it mildly.

The open pavilion used to be in a dilapidated state. Not only did rainwater leak through the holes in the roof, but the wooden flooring was also rotten and gave way at certain spots.

It was their group that had made repairs and improvements to the place over the years, shamelessly personalising this public rest spot to their liking since they were really the only visitors.

They had to trim the grass, weed the ground, and replant the trees that were out of line.

As for the pavilion itself, it had been in such a bad state that the amount of work they did was almost akin to rebuilding the entire thing altogether.

Come to think of it, they really did a good job transforming this place into its current state!

"Is this where Senior Martial Brother Zhao and Senior Martial Sister Gu usually have your secret dates?" Lu Zhiying teased.

"That's right, but today you are my date instead," Zhao Yunxiao answered nonchalantly, causing Lu Zhiying to stick her tongue out in response.

Zhao Yunxiao slowly walked across the snow-covered clearing, climbing the few steps up to the pavilion while Lu Zhiying followed closely behind.

There were a few wooden benches and stools lying around the floor in a disorganised manner. But disregarding that, the view of the surroundings was even better when viewed from within the pavilion.

Lu Zhiying silently appreciated the serenity of the location for a moment before a look of worry slowly appeared on her face once more.

"Will Senior Martial Sister Gu be okay alone?" Lu Zhiying asked.

"Don't underestimate your Senior Martial Sister Gu. When it comes to plant cultivation, she is certainly one of the best I know," Zhao Yunxiao replied while putting down his backpack. "Moreover, she is not alone. She has her colleagues to rely on as well."

Indeed, Gu Qiansi was not the only one working on that particular garden plot.

While the disciples at any garden plot usually worked on their own plot sections, they would still work together when it came to matters that affected the garden plot as a whole.

Otherwise, should the condition of the garden plot suffer, their own plot sections would not be able to escape deterioration as well.

"That's good to hear," Lu Zhiying felt a little less worried after hearing that.

"Well then, let's not waste time while Gu Qiansi is busy working," Zhao Yunxiao said while walking out of the pavilion. "Follow me."

"Where are we going?" Lu Zhiying asked in surprise while hurriedly following after Zhao Yunxiao.

Zhao Yunxiao did not go far, stopping on the wide-open area outside of the pavilion before turning around to face Lu Zhiying.

"This is the third day since you joined the sect. What are you practising at the moment?" Zhao Yunxiao asked.

"When I joined, I was given two manuals to study – Xuanwu Fist Art and Xuanwu Movement Art," Lu Zhiying answered.

"As expected," Zhao Yunxiao nodded.

Xuanwu Fist Art and Xuanwu Movement Art.

These were the two manuals that would be handed to all disciples when they first join the Black Tortoise Sect, and would serve as the basis of all martial techniques for Black Tortoise Sect disciples.

In a sense, they could be considered defining techniques of the Black Tortoise Sect.

Due to a myriad of reasons, most disciples would eventually choose to switch out and focus on other techniques. But every member of the sect definitely knew how to execute these two martial techniques to a certain degree.

On the contrary, there were also those who chose not to move on to more advanced techniques and stuck to refining their mastery of these two.

Zhao Yunxiao was one of them.

While he often referenced other techniques to learn their intricacies, it was mainly in a bid to refine his own understanding of his current techniques.

In his eyes, there was simply no reason to switch out of the Xuanwu Fist Art and Xuanwu Movement Art, techniques that he had already spent so many years trying to perfect.

And given that they were good enough to be considered defining techniques of the Black Tortoise Sect, their quality were surely of a decent level.

After all, there was no way that the Black Tortoise Sect would make everyone learn some trash technique to build up their martial foundation!

Of course, as an outer disciple, Zhao Yunxiao did not have access to as many resources as inner disciples of the sect, and this included higher level technique manuals.

Due to this limited selection of techniques at his disposal, Zhao Yunxiao had even less reason to switch out as compared to inner disciples.

Regardless of the reason, after having spent much time and effort on them over the years, Zhao Yunxiao was actually rather proud of his mastery of these two techniques.

"So how has the practice been coming along?" Zhao Yunxiao asked.

"Not too bad! I think I am slowly starting to understand the basics," Lu Zhiying answered cheerfully.

"Is that so?" Zhao Yunxiao smirked. "Well, words are meaningless. Why don't you show me what you've learnt?"

"Heh, so in other words, this is a test of my progress so far!" Lu Zhiying immediately understood what was going on.