Chapter 230: Huang An's Grievance
In order not to aggravate Zhao Yunxiao's injuries, the duo did not rush on their journey back to Purple Plum Mountain. As they took their time, a journey that could have been completed in two days took them three days to cover instead.
Still, Zhao Yunxiao was just thankful that nothing unexpected occurred along the way.
By now, the winter chill was completely gone, replaced by the unmistakable warmth of spring. Birds chirped joyfully as they danced among the trees, while beautiful butterflies skipped from flower to flower.
Zhao Yunxiao glanced at the flowers, and could not help but be reminded of the flower demon in his sealing bag.
Throughout the journey, Hua Xian had been unexpectedly well behaved, only speaking up once or twice and immediately shutting up again once told to do so.
This made Zhao Yunxiao more confident in the quality of the sealing bag. Indeed, a product of Wushuang was not to be underestimated!
Initially, he had intended to immediately hand Hua Xian over to the sect administrators upon returning to Purple Plum Mountain, just to eliminate any chances for complications. But seeing how effective the sealing bag was, Zhao Yunxiao was starting to feel a little more greedy.
Since Hua Xian was being so utterly suppressed, perhaps he could afford to perform a few experiments on Hua Xian before doing so?
Nevertheless, Zhao Yunxiao was not going to rush into anything stupid before doing his own research.
First, he needed to visit the Sect Library and find out just what weaknesses fairymist flower demons had.
In the event of a mishap, he needed to be fully ready with everything he needed to suppress Hua Xian. If he could not find a way to ensure that, then he would rather do away with this plan altogether!
Zhao Yunxiao bade farewell to Nie Hanchang after returning to the sect grounds, then headed to the Outer Disciples Hall to report the completion of the sect mission.
"Rain dance at Kindness Village – completed..." Qi Jiesheng was once again the one handling the administrative matter for Zhao Yunxiao this time. "You sure like to tackle these danger-free missions, Junior Martial Brother Zhao."
"No reason to put oneself in danger for no reason," Zhao Yunxiao shrugged nonchalantly. "Thanks for the help!"
"That's subjective," Qi Jiesheng could not bring himself to agree. "Some may argue that stepping out of your comfort zone is the fastest way to learn. For example, aren't you close with that Junior Martial Sister Huang of yours? Even someone as meek as her went out of her way to experience something new. Even though it did not necessarily end with the best outcome, at least she can tell herself that she tried! I'm sure that will still end up being helpful to her in the long run."
"Junior Martial Sister Huang? Do you mean Huang An?" Zhao Yunxiao frowned upon hearing that. "What do you mean by that? Did something happen to her?"
The last he heard, Huang An was intending to go on a hunting trip. For that reason, Zhao Yunxiao even went out of his way to teach Huang An about arrays and pass her some items that he deemed helpful.
But from the sound of it, perhaps things did not go too well?
"Oh, you didn't know? You really do head here first thing after returning from your sect missions," Qi Jiesheng realised. "Apparently, she got into a conflict with other sect members during a trip out of the sect and ended up taking a loss. As for the specifics, it would probably be best if you go ask her yourself."
"I understand," Zhao Yunxiao nodded. "Thank you for the information, Senior Martial Brother Qi. I will be taking my leave for now."
Having heard of this news, there was no way that Zhao Yunxiao could still proceed with his initial plan of heading to the Sect Library. Instead, he headed straight for Lightwind Pavilion after leaving the Outer Disciples Hall.
As expected, he could hear the melodious zither tunes even before he arrived at the main clearing in the woods.
Ever since she was young, Huang An had always been this way.
Whenever she was feeling down, she would come to Lightwind Pavilion to play the zither all by herself, almost as though the sound of zither had the power to chase all her troubles away.
"Junior Martial Sister Huang," Zhao Yunxiao said while approaching the pavilion.
"S-Senior Martial Brother Zhao!" Huang An almost jumped up in fright. "Y-You're back...? How's your trip?"
"It went well," Zhao Yunxiao nodded. "More importantly, how was your hunting trip?"
"T-That..." Huang An hesitated, her eyes darting left and right while fiddling with her fingers. "It was okay, I guess...?"
"Is that so?" Zhao Yunxiao narrowed his eyes. "But what I heard is slightly different. Am I misinformed then?"
"You already heard...?" Huang An looked at Zhao Yunxiao with guilt in her eyes. "Did Senior Martial Sister Gu tell you?"
"Are you all right?" Zhao Yunxiao avoided the question.
"Yes, I am fine... I guess," Huang An nodded meekly.
"Tell me about it," Zhao Yunxiao furrowed his brows.
Judging from how hesitant Huang An was, the situation might be a little more complicated than he had expected.
"This... all right," Huang An hesitated initially but quickly relented, perhaps realising that nothing could be hidden forever. "What happened is like this..."
With that, Huang An slowly started recounting what happened during her hunting trip.
Shortly after Zhao Yunxiao and Nie Hanchang went on their sect mission, Huang An went on her hunting trip as she had planned.
While out hunting in the wilderness of Purple Plum Mountain, Huang An quickly chanced upon another group of senior martial brothers and sisters, who generously invited her to join their group.
Tempted by the opportunity to potentially expand her circle and learn from her seniors, Huang An promptly agreed. With that, she joined the group and went around hunting together for a few days.
Who knew that in a moment of distraction, these friendly senior martial brothers and sisters would actually end up stealing the spatial escape talisman that Huang An had in her possession?
When Huang An found out and confronted them about it, they first ridiculed her for being careless enough to lose her own items, then questioned her obvious unfamiliarity with the item, accusing her of perhaps having stolen it from others herself.
Finally, they brushed her off by claiming that the spatial escape talisman had belonged to them from the start!
Unable to win in both reason and might, Huang An had no choice but to leave in indignance.
She would have just sucked it up if the spatial escape talisman had truly belonged to her in the first place, but the problem was that the talisman was something that she had borrowed from Zhao Yunxiao!
"I'm so sorry, Senior Martial Brother Zhao..." Huang An muttered while hanging her head low. "You lent me that precious spatial escape talisman out of concern for my safety, and I actually ended up losing it in such a manner..."
"Don't be too worried about it. Since I am willing to hand it to you, I naturally do not need it back anymore," Zhao Yunxiao forced himself to say. "But who are these people? And how did they know that you have a spatial escape talisman?"
After hearing about what happened, Zhao Yunxiao could feel a fire raging from within.
However, he also knew that with Huang An's personality, she must have been feeling extremely guilty and depressed since the incident. Thus, it was necessary to first ease the poor girl's emotions.
"It is Senior Martial Brother Gan Luozhi's group..." Huang An said hesitantly. "I... I might have gotten carried while chatting with them and accidentally told them about the spatial escape talisman..."
"So, that's how they knew..." Zhao Yunxiao sighed helplessly.
Indeed, something like a spatial escape talisman was a trump card that would only be revealed in the most dire situation, and not something that would be put on public display.
Without Huang An telling them about it, they would never have known that she had one in her possession, much less plot to steal it from her.
As for this Gan Luozhi, this was not the first time that Zhao Yunxiao had heard of him. In fact, he was quite the infamous character in the outer sect.
Gan Luozhi was infamous for acting unbridled in the outer sect, relying on his good relationship with Hua Sheng as backing to avoid being held responsible for his actions.
And this had truly worked well for him so far, especially considering how Hua Sheng was the unofficial leader of the outer disciples – someone whom everyone else would take the initiative to greet during each monthly cultivation lecture.
It was no wonder that the various senior martial brothers and sisters from the Medicine Pavilion had not stuck up for Huang An before this.
Some of them might be inner disciples, but Hua Sheng was not just some random outer disciple, either. Not only did he have a powerful twin elder brother in Hua Shui, but he was also on good terms with numerous inner disciples, as well as certain elders!
While Hua Sheng himself had always been a reasonable person, it was only natural to expect people to favour those closer to them.
If they ended up offending Gan Luozhi, who knew what this cunning person could end up whispering in Hua Sheng's ears?
However, Zhao Yunxiao was not intending to let this matter slide just because of that.
It was one thing that he lost the spatial escape talisman, but this was also the first time that Huang An had tried to step out of her comfort zone to go on a hunting trip.
How could he allow the matter to end like this for her?
At the very least, he had to set an example for Huang An, letting her know that they had to at least try fighting for what was rightfully theirs!
In fact, Zhao Yunxiao was even starting to feel guilty about the entire matter.
In his eyes, Huang An would never have had to go through this whole ordeal if he had not taken the liberty of lending her the spatial escape talisman!
"Don't worry. Just leave this matter to me," Zhao Yunxiao patted Huang An gently on the shoulder.
"Eh? What are you intending to do, Senior Martial Brother Zhao?" Huang An's eyes shook in anxiety. "Don't tell me that you are planning to confront Senior Martial Brother Gan Luozhi?"
"Of course!" Zhao Yunxiao answered without hesitation. "Even though I am fine without it, I still can't just let him take it for free! After all, it is mine to begin with!"
"But he's close with Senior Martial Brother Hua..." Huang An quickly cautioned.
Huang An was not someone who cared too much about the sect politics, so it was clear that someone had already warned her about this matter.
"Well, Senior Martial Brother Hua hasn't officially endorsed his actions, has he?" Zhao Yunxiao said. "In addition, we have reason on our side, so who knows? Perhaps I can even get Senior Martial Brother Hua to stand on my side this time!"
"Then... I will go with you!" Huang An quickly offered.
No matter how afraid she was, there was no way that she could just let Zhao Yunxiao go alone when she was the one who had caused the trouble!
"Our Junior Martial Sister Huang An sure has changed. How brave!" Zhao Yunxiao praised with a smile. "All right, come along then. Let's go get back what is rightfully ours!"
***
It was not too difficult to locate Gan Luozhi.
As someone who had built his identity almost entirely on being the trusted sidekick of Hua Sheng, locating the latter would be equivalent to finding him ninety percent of the time.
And everyone recognised the unofficial leader of the outer disciples, making it easy to find Hua Sheng's current location with just a bit of asking around.
The Sect Market was divided into three main areas.
There was the assessment and sales area that facilitates the selling of goods, the standard market area that facilitates the purchase of goods, and the open market area that facilitates free trade among disciples.
Right now, Hua Sheng was calmly strolling through the various shops in the open market area, taking a look at the items on sale. Alongside him were his usual companions, with Gan Luozhi naturally counting among them.
"This is kind of expensive. Are you sure you are selling it at the right price?" Gan Luozhi picked up a treasure fan and scrutinised it closely. "We don't want people laughing at Senior Martial Brother Hua for buying something overpriced!"
"Considering the quality of the treasure fan, I assure you that you won't ever find this at a cheaper price elsewhere!" the shop owner quickly assured.
"I don't intend to get that, but you can buy it if you find it worth the money," Hua Sheng casually remarked while looking at other items.
"Haha, Senior Martial Brother Hua is as thrifty as always. Let me see if it suits me then," Gan Luozhi continued looking at the treasure fan.
Gan Luozhi had sharp facial features that made him look rather handsome. On top of that, he was also rather well-built and went around dressed in fine silk robes. Everything considered, he was actually quite an attractive young man.
The treasure fan fitted his style perfectly, allowing him to exude the aura of a learned scholar.
However, this learned scholar's brows suddenly furrowed as he noticed a familiar figure approaching from the distance.
"Is there something wrong with it, Junior Martial Brother Gan?" the shop owner hurriedly asked.
"No, it has nothing to do with you," Gan Luozhi replied coldly while putting the fan down. "It is just that my mood is suddenly affected for some reason."
"What's wrong, Junior Martial Brother Gan?" Hua Sheng asked, but quickly turned his attention to the duo who was walking up to them. "Looks like you are here for a purpose. Is there something you need?"
This duo was naturally Zhao Yunxiao and Huang An.
"Greetings, Senior Martial Brother Hua," Zhao Yunxiao clasped his fist towards Hua Sheng. "Apologies, but I am here to look for Senior Martial Brother Gan Luozhi today."
"I see," Hua Sheng calmly stepped aside, not questioning further.
"What is the matter?" Gan Luozhi asked as well, though he could not help but shoot a glare at Huang An who was standing behind Zhao Yunxiao.
In response, Huang An could not help but cower, hiding her tiny frame behind Zhao Yunxiao's back.
"Greetings, Senior Martial Brother Gan," Zhao Yunxiao clasped his fists towards Gan Luozhi. "I heard that you have taken a few things from Junior Martial Sister Huang without permission in the wilderness of Purple Plum Mountain a few days ago. Therefore, I am here to humbly request that you return the things that do not belong to you."
Since Gan Luozhi was going to pretend that he did not know what was going on, Zhao Yunxiao would naturally make the situation crystal clear from the start, so that he would have no choice but to explain himself!
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