The next day at chenshi, Gu Yanqing's carriage came to a stop at the entrance to the Lin family's alley. When the curtain was lifted, Lin Zhixue was already waiting by the door.
She had changed into a neater outfit today—dark gray, narrow-sleeved tunic and trousers, with the cuffs and hems tied tight.
Her long hair was not left loose as usual, but tied high into a ponytail with that pale cyan hair ribbon.
A longsword hung at her waist—the very one she had carried when gathering herbs on the mountain last time.
Faint scratches marked the scabbard, showing that it had seen some years.
The morning light fell across her face, tinting her cheeks with a faint flush, and her complexion looked much healthier than it had in recent days.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Mm.”
“Let's go.”
He turned and walked toward the mouth of the alley, with Lin Zhixue following roughly two paces behind him.
The early morning streets and alleys had yet to awaken fully. At a few breakfast stalls, the vendors had just fired up their stoves, white steam billowing from bamboo steamers.
The two walked one after the other without exchanging a word, only the alternating rhythm of their footsteps clicking against the bluestone pavers.
Gu Yanqing felt a bit unaccustomed to it.
Usually, he walked alone, utterly carefree.
Now that there was someone behind him, he didn't know whether he should walk faster or slower, nor whether he should turn around and make conversation.
Fortunately, that noisy artifact spirit was uncharacteristically quiet today.
Floating beside Lin Zhixue's shoulder, it twisted its head this way and that, eyes shining as it stared at the freshly steamed cakes and sugar-roasted chestnuts along the street.
Passing out of the market and turning a street corner, they encountered three people walking toward them.
All three were cultivators with swords at their waists—two men and one woman.
The two men trailing behind wore ordinary gray cloth robes and had unremarkable looks. Their cultivation appeared to be around early Foundation Establishment, and each carried a traveling pack on his back.
The woman leading them was about eighteen or nineteen years old, tall and slender.
She wore a dark red, narrow-sleeved gown, its cuffs embroidered in silver thread with an unfamiliar pattern.
At her waist hung a longsword, its scabbard inlaid with several faintly luminous spirit crystals.
Her features were striking and bold, her brows and eyes carrying an undisguised sharpness. Half of her long hair was held up by a jade hairpin while the rest tumbled over her shoulders. With every stride, her skirts swished faintly, exuding an aura that was both crisp and unabashedly flamboyant.
She was entirely different from Lin Zhixue.
Lin Zhixue's beauty was hidden away, like a blossom growing from a rocky cleft on the shaded slope of a mountain, easily missed if one failed to look closely.
This woman's beauty was brazenly flaunted, like an unsheathed blade dazzling enough to catch the eye from half a street away.
Gu Yanqing cast a glance her way.
Not because she was beautiful... though she certainly was.
Rather, it was an inexplicable sense of familiarity—as if he had seen her somewhere before, yet was certain he never had.
Her face, her sword, and the pattern embroidered on her cuffs held no place in his memories, yet his intuition told him she was no ordinary passerby.
Lin Zhixue had noticed the trio as well.
To be precise, she noticed the woman in red, along with how Gu Yanqing's gaze lingered on her a moment longer.
She lowered her head, watching the tips of her shoes shuffle forward step by step.
Her gray cloth shoes pressed against the bluestone pavers, the toes lightly dampened with morning dew.
Even she wasn't quite sure what she was thinking.
Xiaoyu pulled its gaze away from the snack stalls just in time to see Gu Yanqing and the woman in red brush past each other.
It stared at Gu Yanqing's profile, then turned to look after the woman's retreating back.
Crossing its arms, it scoffed, “What are you gawking at? Can't even move your feet the moment you see a pretty girl, huh?”
Floating back to Lin Zhixue's ear, it said with a teasing smirk, “Zhixue is still the prettiest. Even without wearing a gown like that or putting on fancy hairpins, you're way better looking than her.”
Lin Zhixue's ears flushed crimson in an instant.
She shot Xiaoyu a sharp glare, her lips moving as she hissed in a barely audible breath, “Stop talking nonsense.”
Xiaoyu wore an innocent look that seemed to say, 'I'm just telling the truth, why glare at me?', and drifted over to her other shoulder to keep muttering.
Gu Yanqing, naturally, heard it all.
Looking away, he kept walking forward, his expression unchanged.
Behind him, Xiaoyu went on jabbering. He could hear it loud and clear, but he had no choice but to pretend he hadn't heard a thing.
Her beauty was beside the point; he hadn't looked at her because she was pretty.
That odd sense of familiarity lodged in his chest like a thorn—impossible to pull out, leaving him no choice but to set it aside for the moment.
Once outside the city, the mountain trail grew narrower.
Birdsong chirped clear and melodious through the woods. The sun, filtered by the leafy canopy into dappled specks of light, scattered across the two travelers, while the air carried the rich fragrance of pine resin and moist earth.
Gu Yanqing walked ahead, casually pushing aside branches blocking their path and making sure loose gravel was firm underfoot before stepping aside to clear the way.
Lin Zhixue followed behind him. Noticing his considerate gestures, her steps hitched almost imperceptibly before she continued following him as before.
“Which way do you think we should go?” Gu Yanqing stopped at a fork in the path and turned back to ask her.
Lin Zhixue walked up to survey the terrain on either side.
To the left was a gentle slope with sparse vegetation and a thin layer of topsoil.
To the right lay the shaded side of the mountain; though somewhat steeper, the trees were dense, and a thick carpet of fallen leaves covered the ground.
“That kind of humus soil requires years of accumulated fallen leaves to form. The shaded side has ample moisture, so the humus is preserved more easily. We should take the right path. It would be even better if it's near a water source.”
Gu Yanqing nodded and set off toward the right.
Lin Zhixue fell into step behind him. The two tread over the fallen leaves in tandem, their steps raising soft rustles beneath their feet.
After walking for more than a shichen, she had turned over and inspected the soil in several spots along the way, but none were what she was looking for.
There were fallen leaves, but they were either too dry or too sparse, and the level of decomposition was insufficient.
On the bright side, she managed to gather a few wild spirit herbs of fine quality along the way, which counted as an unexpected boon.
She emptied another handful of inadequate dirt back onto the ground and brushed the soil from her hands, a hint of dejection creeping into her voice. “Maybe I made a mistake.”
Gu Yanqing glanced back at her. “If you made a mistake, we just keep looking. What does it matter?”
With that, he resumed walking, clearly unbothered.
Lin Zhixue's pupils shrank slightly. Readjusting the bamboo basket on her shoulder, she quickened her steps to catch up with him.
After walking for a while, she abruptly stopped and pointed toward a low-lying hollow tucked behind a cluster of boulders off to the side.
“Over there. The boulders provide shade, and the fallen leaves all gather in the hollow. Even when it rains, they won't get washed away. We can try there.”
Gu Yanqing followed the line of her finger.
The hollow was concealed behind several massive rocks. Sitting low, it was filled with a thick layer of accumulated leaves that felt spongy underfoot.
Brushing aside the dead leaves on the surface, he scooped up a handful of the dirt beneath and squeezed it in his palm.
Dark brown, loose, moist, and giving off faint ripples of spiritual energy.
“This is it.” Lin Zhixue squatted down and rolled a pinch of dirt between her fingertips, the tightly drawn line of her lips finally softening a fraction.
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