Chapter Thirty: Disaster in the Herb Garden

"With your weak abilities, how could you possibly sense Lord Bear's presence?" Wiping ginseng juice from his mouth, the little white bear continued to knock down his master, "Strength is everything. Instead of wasting your time bickering with a decrepit old man who’s halfway to his grave, you’d do better to focus on your cultivation. Even accompanying you is an embarrassment to Lord Bear."

His self-esteem shattered by the bear cub's words, Yu Youwei groaned as though suffering from a toothache, "You’re not even human!"

Taking a huge bite of ginseng, the little white bear scoffed, "Lord Bear is a divine beast. If not for the misfortune of signing a contract with you, I wouldn't even deign to glance your way."

"You’re just a bear cub yourself. The odds of you surviving to adulthood don't look promising either!" Yu Youwei retorted viciously, then threatened, "If you don’t give that old man a fit of rage, I'll skin you and hang your hide for a lantern, you glutton!"

Knowing when to yield, the little white bear said sensibly, "I’ll take care of it—I'll ravage that old man's herb garden more thoroughly than a flock of sheep, and let him accept his bad luck."

"Let’s hear your plan," Yu Youwei said, half-convinced.

"The fool’s coming. Pretend to sleep and wait for Lord Bear’s good news," the little white bear whispered, transforming into a streak of white and darting outside. As Ning Mofei entered, the bear vanished from the window.

"Youwei, look! I picked so much fruit, and washed it all clean!" Ning Mofei burst in like a gust of wind, carrying a wooden basin.

Yu Youwei had meant to feign sleep, but the enticing fragrance made her turn her head, eyes widening in disbelief. "Are you feeding pigs?"

"If we can’t finish, we can make juice," Ning Mofei said, placing the basin by the bed and picking up a cluster of shining purple grapes. "These amethyst grapes—our ancestors used them for wine. Try one."

The purple flesh was rich with wood elemental energy, ideal for healing Yu Youwei’s damaged meridians and nourishing her mutated wood spirit root. She ate happily, and Ning Mofei’s smile was dazzling.

"What a monster—don’t smile at anyone else, or I'll get jealous," Yu Youwei teased.

Ning Mofei, half-understanding, asked, "You like getting jealous? There's none of that here with the ancestors!"

"You really are a fool!" Yu Youwei patted the empty space beside her, yawned, and said, "Come up and rest for a while."

"I’m not sleepy. I want to see if Third Brother has woken up," Ning Mofei shook his head.

Sleepiness gone, Yu Youwei sat up. "I'll go with you. If he hasn't woken, we can light candles and pray for him to wake soon."

"Will candles make Third Brother wake up faster?"

"Of course." The main point was that the little white bear was off to wreak havoc in the herb garden, and she needed an alibi. Ning Mofei was the perfect witness to keep at her side.

In the back courtyard of Yongqing Hall was a half-acre spirit spring pool. The herb garden lay beside it, where a dozen green-clad maids fetched water from the pool and watered the medicinal plants. The garden was shrouded in spiritual energy, each patch of earth glowing differently, and the leaves of each herb radiated unique colors.

On the east side of the spirit spring pool, a gourd trellis hung over the water, lush vines climbing the waist-high frame, with seven green gourds dangling in various sizes. The little white bear peeked out slyly from the gourd leaves, smearing a handful of iron-rust colored mud on each gourd’s base.

Soon, a swarm of tiger-striped scarlet moths flew against the wind, heading straight for the trellis. Such a large-scale spirit herb garden not only had spirit-gathering arrays to promote growth but also defensive formations. The little white bear’s mysterious divine power ignored the array barriers, but the scarlet moths crashed into the invisible boundary and slid down its curved edge.

The little white bear, clutching a gourd leaf, crawled out from beneath the trellis, dug up a piece of luminous wood spirit stone from the ground three meters away, then darted back and chewed it to bits.

With a chunk of wood spirit stone missing, the formation around the gourd trellis was breached. A blue moth slipped through the gap, followed by the entire swarm, which soon covered the vines beneath the seven gourds, devouring every bit of iron-rust mud-smeared vine in an instant.

All seven gleaming green gourds fell into the water with a splash.

"Oh heavens, how did tiger-striped moths get into the garden?" a maid cried in alarm.

A more desperate shriek followed: "It’s over! All seven Purple Cloud Gourds have fallen into the water!"

The maids rushed to the trellis, faces ashen as if the world had ended, none noticing the sly little white bear’s presence.

With the tiger-striped moths as scapegoats, the little white bear went on a rampage—devouring favored herbs whole, digging up the roots of those he disliked.

Some maids chased after the moths, others ran to report to the overseer, and soon a crowd poured into the garden, turning the usually tranquil place into chaos.

Yongqing Hall had one floor above ground and three below, with formations isolating sound and keeping the interior eerily quiet. Ning Baixia was housed in the second basement. The entrance to the underground meditation chamber was guarded, and Ning Mofei called the guard Granny Mu.

Granny Mu was a matron of middling years, plain and rustic, her drooping eyelids barely open as she sat. When Ning Mofei introduced Yu Youwei, she raised her lids, her sharp gaze seeming to pierce space itself, a tangible wave of mental force extending toward Yu Youwei, stabbing her mind like needles.

Yu Youwei staggered back with a muffled groan, reaching for a shadowless poison needle.

The shadowless poison needle was the famed spiritual weapon of Ye Yincheng, the Poison Rakshasa—seventy-two needles, matching the seventy-two earthly fiends, a dread artifact. Since Ye Yincheng vanished ten years ago, the needles disappeared as well. They were nearly impossible to guard against, specializing in breaking the dantian, and once terrified the cultivation world.

If not for Qingshuang being corrupted by yin energy in the Profound Yin Spirit-Eroding Array, Yu Youwei would never use the needle. Discovery would bring no end of trouble.

"Youwei, are you alright?" Unaware of the tension, Ning Mofei hugged Yu Youwei, nearly causing her to jab herself with the poison needle.

Granny Mu’s eyelids dropped again, and the mental pressure vanished abruptly. Yu Youwei put away the needle, eyeing the matron warily and marveling at her formidable mental power.

"My head suddenly hurt—no idea what sort of evil spirit I ran into!" Yu Youwei cursed the monk, but Granny Mu showed not a flicker of expression.

"Do you think there are ghosts?" Ning Mofei, his mind like a child’s, feared both ghosts and the dark.

"Come on, let’s go see Third Brother. Afterwards, we’ll pray for him." Yu Youwei dragged Ning Mofei down the stone steps. At the first corner, she looked back; Granny Mu happened to open her eyes and flashed her a toothy smile.