Chương 173: Let's Take a Little Detour
The Xuanwu Towers provided free breakfast of a similar standard to that of the canteen back on Purple Plum Mountain.
Honestly, Lu Zhiying had not appreciated it too much back then, especially after trying Gu Qiansi's cooking.
But now that she had experienced the disappointing visit to Full Moon Restaurant last night, she could not help but find it far more appetising than usual!
The view at the Xuanwu Towers might be beautiful, but it was still lacking as compared to those back on Purple Plum Mountain.
Therefore, the trio did not linger here for long, only taking a cursory look around before leaving for Redaxe Hall.
When they arrived, Hong Zi was already waiting there with a wide smile on his face.
And upon seeing the other party's eager expression, Zhao Yunxiao had to consciously suppress his feelings in order to prevent his face from turning dark in contrast.
Even after a night's rest, he still had not gotten over the fact that he did not do well when negotiating the new contract terms yesterday.
Nevertheless, Zhao Yunxiao successfully prevented his feelings from getting in the way. After doing a detailed check on the new terms and conditions, he signed the newly drafted contract to renew the agreement.
"It's our Redaxe Hall's honour to be able to renew our agreement with the mighty Black Tortoise Sect," Hong Zi said excitedly. "Please follow me outside. We have the first batch of lumber prepared for your collection."
As he said, a pile of lumber had been delivered to the Redaxe Hall's headquarters while they were busy going through the contract.
Due to the sheer amount of lumber, the small headquarters was not big enough to accommodate all of these goods, so they were simply stacked up outside.
Nevertheless, the passersby did not pay much attention to the mountain of lumber as they casually walked by on the streets. It was likely that this was not their first time seeing this.
"Seems like the amount is right," Zhao Yunxiao said after sweeping his spiritual sense over the pile of lumber.
"May I know how Young Hero Zhao intends to collect the lumber?" Hong Zi asked. "If necessary, our Redaxe Hall can perform the delivery as well, and only at a very reasonable fee."
"Don't worry, that is a small matter," Zhao Yunxiao said with a smile. Now that there was an opportunity for him to show off, his mood suddenly lifted a little.
He stepped forward and placed a hand on the pile of lumber.
The next moment, the entire pile of lumber vanished without a trace, stored nicely into his spatial pouch.
"Ohhh!"
Gasps of awe could be heard coming from everyone in the vicinity as their attention immediately fell upon Zhao Yunxiao.
Even though everyone knew that cultivators frequented Moonrise City, it was not every day that they could see a cultivator in action!
Noticing these glances, Gu Qiansi instinctively took a step back to distance herself from the group. On the other hand, Lu Zhiying pushed out her chest with pride.
As for Hong Zi, he could not help but gasp along with the other spectators, despite already knowing that Zhao Yunxiao was a cultivator from Black Tortoise Sect.
Over the years, he had liaised with many different disciples of the Black Tortoise Sect for this contractual matter.
But due to the low difficulty of the mission, the ones who had come in the past were usually outer disciples at the Foundation Building realm.
How would such disciples be able to afford a spatial pouch?
That was the reason why he had offered a delivery service the moment he saw that Zhao Yunxiao's group had arrived without any transportation prepared.
This was actually the first time that he had seen someone sweep up everything in an instant like Zhao Yunxiao just did!
It would appear that the disciple he was dealing with was on a slightly different level this time.
Hong Zi nervously swallowed a mouthful of saliva as he thought back on his interactions with the trio since yesterday, hoping that he had not said or done anything that could have offended them!
Thankfully, he could not think of any ways in which he could have upset the trio.
"Is that all?" Zhao Yunxiao turned to ask him.
"Y-Yes, that's all, Young Hero Zhao!" Hong Zi hurriedly answered. "Thank you for your patronage!"
"We'll be off then," Zhao Yunxiao nodded. "Let's go."
"Farewell, young heroes!" Hong Zi bowed respectfully, standing there until the trio finally left his sight.
That marked the completion of the trio's mission objective.
All that was left was to bring the newly signed contract back to the Outer Disciples Hall, and they would be able to collect the rewards.
"Where are we going next?" Lu Zhiying asked curiously. "We are not heading back to the sect already, are we?"
"Yeah, where are we going next?" Gu Qiansi repeated.
She could not be bothered to suggest anything since she knew that Zhao Yunxiao already had something in mind for sure.
"Hmm," Zhao Yunxiao looked at the sun to gauge the time. "Since we still have some time left, let's take a little detour."
Gu Qiansi rolled her eyes in response.
If she had not known better, she might really have believed that Zhao Yunxiao had only just decided to do this after noticing the time.
"Sure, sure, but where to?" Lu Zhiying asked excitedly.
"There is a forest near Moonrise City called the Red Forest," Zhao Yunxiao said. "According to what I've heard, it is a place where monsters and spiritual beasts are known to inhabit. There have even been the occasional appearances of demons. We can go check it out, and perhaps let you observe as we take care of one or two of the weaker ones."
"Oh? But if that's what you wanted, wouldn't it be easier to just return to Purple Plum Mountain?" Gu Qiansi asked in surprise.
After going through so much trouble to hide it, she had not expected that Zhao Yunxiao only wanted to do some hunting.
But if that was his goal, then the wilderness on Purple Plum Mountain also had a rather large population of monsters and spirit beasts.
On top of that, it was also closer to the sect grounds, so they would save quite a bit of time if they just went there instead!
"How boring. All you know is to stay in the sect," Zhao Yunxiao scoffed. "We are already spending most of our time on Purple Plum Mountain. Now that we are out, how can we not take the chance to explore the local places instead? Isn't that right, Junior Martial Sister Lu?"
"Mm! I agree!" Lu Zhiying nodded profusely.
Her response was within Zhao Yunxiao's expectations, considering her love for adventure.
As long as there was an opportunity to explore somewhere new, Zhao Yunxiao was certain that Lu Zhiying would not turn it down!
"See? Are you intending to disappoint Junior Martial Sister Lu?" Zhao Yunxiao turned back to Gu Qiansi.
"Is there something special about this Red Forest that you are not letting us on?" Gu Qiansi narrowed her eyes at Zhao Yunxiao in suspicion, completely ignoring his earlier comments.
"Well, I just wanted a change of pace," Zhao Yunxiao shrugged. "Isn't it more stressful to be somewhere that our fellow sect members frequent? For one, whenever we see a senior, we would have to accede to them or stop what we are doing just to greet them."
Of course, that was just an excuse.
The main reason for this detour was to test his Heaven's Descent Bowl, so Zhao Yunxiao naturally did not want to risk revealing it to others by testing it at a place that was frequented by other cultivators.
Even if they were fellow sect members, people were capable of all sorts of things in the face of benefits!
In contrast, while the Red Forest was not located too far away from Moonrise City, its location was actually rather secluded. Coupled with the fact that there was nothing really unique about the Red Forest, this made it far less frequented by cultivators as there was no good reason to make the trip.
On top of that, nobody would question them for setting up alerts around their perimeters since it was pure wilderness.
This would allow them to openly ensure that, even in the rare scenario that there were really other cultivators there with them, they would at least be aware of these people before anyone got too close for comfort!
"Fine, let's go there then," Gu Qiansi finally relented.
"That's more like it," Zhao Yunxiao nodded in satisfaction, believing that he had presented his arguments in a way that had made it irrefutable for Gu Qiansi.
What he did not realise was that she was intending to go along with his plan from the start, and was merely asking those questions out of sheer curiosity.
"Yay! Let's go!" Lu Zhiying cheered as well.
Under Zhao Yunxiao's lead, the trio left Moonrise City for the secluded Red Forest.
Despite its secluded location, Zhao Yunxiao had done his research beforehand, so he knew the fastest way to get there.
When they arrived there on their horses, morning had yet to completely pass.
"Are we bringing our horses in as well?" Gu Qiansi asked curiously.
While horses were good for helping them save energy while travelling, they would become a burden if they were to encounter any spiritual beasts or monsters in the forest.
In such a situation, not only would they have to deal with the enemies themselves, they would even have to spare extra effort to protect the horses from harm!
"Yeah, it's fine," Zhao Yunxiao said. "This time, we will approach this systematically instead of roaming freely within the forest."
"Systematically?" Gu Qiansi looked at him in confusion.
"That's right," Zhao Yunxiao nodded.
After all, experiments had to be performed in a controlled environment to get the most out of them.
Seeing that Zhao Yunxiao was not intending to elaborate further, Gu Qiansi stopped asking as well. In any case, she knew that she would eventually find out just what Zhao Yunxiao was intending to do.
Just like that, Zhao Yunxiao carefully led the group deeper into the Red Forest.
He might have done his research on the forest, but he was not as familiar with the place as compared to somewhere like Moonrise City.
In order to avoid any complications, he had his guard up the entire time while entering the depths of the forest.
They encountered quite a number of wild animals along the way, though there were no spiritual beasts or monsters since they were still relatively close to the fringe areas.
But when they finally went sufficiently deep into the forest, Zhao Yunxiao finally stopped the group.
"Let's start here," Zhao Yunxiao said.
"Okay! What are we supposed to do?" Lu Zhiying asked.
In response, Zhao Yunxiao retrieved a variety of items from his spatial pouch with a wave of his hands.
There were iron bars, bells, charms, ropes, chains, array flags, wooden pikes, arrows, and many others. It was a wide variety, but they had one thing in common – these were all items that were commonly used for the setting up of traps and alerts.
"You are amazingly well prepared for something that you have decided to do on a whim," Gu Qiansi teased while inspecting the materials.
"Always prepared for anything and everything," Zhao Yunxiao shamelessly shrugged off her comment. "Let's get started then!"
"Just tell me what to do, Senior Martial Brother Zhao!" Lu Zhiying stood at attention.
As a new cultivator, she genuinely enjoyed being able to participate in anything that seemed like only cultivators were capable of doing.
Being able to do so gave her a great sense of satisfaction!
"Fine, I'll play along too," Gu Qiansi said after seeing how excited Lu Zhiying was. "What's the plan?"
"Here's the plan," Zhao Yunxiao pulled out a long scroll.
On it was a detailed blueprint of an extremely extensive network of alerts – exactly how he wanted the setup to be.
"Is this also part of your normal preparations for anything and everything?" Gu Qiansi felt the corner of her lips twitch. "Isn't this a little unnecessary...?"
She knew that Zhao Yunxiao had always been a very careful person, but this was the first time she had seen him come up with such a complicated blueprint as well.
In fact, she was unable to fully understand how the entire thing came together even after examining the blueprint!
It would seem that he had suddenly raised his standards and was being exceptionally careful this time.
She was not wrong, either.
Zhao Yunxiao was truly determined not to make any mistakes, planning numerous layers of backup traps and alerts just in case something went wrong anywhere.
If Cha was to be trusted for once, the Heaven's Descent Bowl was an exceptionally precious treasure.
Letting anyone else find out that he had such an item in his possession could lead to serious consequences, potentially even death.
Because of that, it was only natural that he would do everything possible to prevent such an outcome!
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