Chapter 68: Leaving Without Saying Goodbye

“What?” Chu Liuxing resisted the urge to dig at his ears, looking completely baffled. “You’ve already finished refining all your spirit herbs?”

Gu Weiyu nodded. “Yes, I plan to go to the Treasure Pavilion this afternoon to trade the pills I refined.”

Chu Liuxing’s eyes lit up with excitement. “That’s my brother for you! This afternoon, I’ll go with you and lend you some support!”

As they spoke, Sanshui returned, followed by more than a dozen servants, each carrying a food box in their arms.

Very quickly, the table was filled with steaming, fragrant delicacies.

“Little Yu, don’t you love this dish—Spicy Spirit Fish Fillet? This is made with today’s freshest ingredients…”

Chu Liuxing pointed at the generously portioned fish on the table and called out warmly.

Gu Weiyu nodded, swallowing subconsciously.

Every ingredient on this table came from the choicest, most tender parts of various spirit beasts, and had been prepared by the Pavilion’s own master chefs!

The Treasure Pavilion truly deserved its reputation as the wealthiest and most extravagant business in the Void Realm, with branches everywhere—one could say it raked in fortunes daily.

Perhaps, from now on, she might never again taste such rare delicacies!

With that thought, Gu Weiyu opened her appetite and ate heartily.

Seeing this, Chu Liuxing’s own appetite swelled, and his chopsticks never stopped moving. Soon, the entire table was left a chaotic mess of emptied plates and cups.

“Ah, that was satisfying!”

Both of them ate till they were stuffed, then lay on the couch like lazy fish, basking in the afterglow.

That afternoon, in the Treasure Pavilion’s pill trading area—

Gu Weiyu arranged six jade bottles in a row before the Pavilion’s designated pill-grade appraiser.

“Master Qi, you must examine these carefully!” Chu Liuxing reminded with concern from the side.

Master Qi nodded calmly, picked up a bottle, uncorked it, and sniffed gently at the mouth. He then used a secret art to examine each pill inside.

“Not bad at all, most are of superior grade.” Master Qi nodded approvingly, checked the other five bottles in turn, then looked at Gu Weiyu.

“Young Master Hu, the quality of all six bottles is superior. Each bottle is worth two hundred spirit stones. After deducting the two hundred spirit stones for the herbs you used, your net profit is one thousand spirit stones.”

As he spoke, Master Qi took out a storage pouch, filled it with one thousand spirit stones, and handed it to Gu Weiyu.

She accepted the pouch. It was unbound, so she could easily probe it with her spiritual sense—inside, it was packed full of spirit stones.

Gu Weiyu’s heart thumped with excitement. She had never possessed so many spirit stones before!

No wonder alchemists were so respected—earning spirit stones was unbelievably fast!

Even Chu Liuxing, watching from the side, was full of envy. Although he had plenty of pocket money, none of it had ever been earned by his own hand.

“No problem with the amount, is there?” Master Qi inquired gently.

Gu Weiyu shook her head, carefully tucking the pouch into her robe. “Thank you for your trouble, Master Qi.”

After leaving the pill trading area, Gu Weiyu expressed her gratitude. “Brother Chu, thank you for taking care of me these past days.”

Chu Liuxing looked at her in surprise. “Little Yu, why are you being so formal with me?”

Gu Weiyu smiled and said no more. “I’ve been refining pills nonstop these past days—I’d like to return early to rest.”

“Of course. I’ll have Sanshui fetch you when it’s time for dinner,” Chu Liuxing agreed readily.

Gu Weiyu nodded and returned to her own courtyard.

Shortly after dusk, Chu Liuxing instructed Sanshui, “Go see if Little Yu has rested enough.”

“Yes, young master,” replied Sanshui respectfully, turning to walk to the neighboring courtyard.

Gu Weiyu’s courtyard was silent. Sanshui hesitated a moment, then approached her room and knocked softly. “Young Master Hu?”

There was no response from within, only silence.

Thinking she hadn’t heard, Sanshui knocked again and called out louder, “Young Master Hu?”

After waiting a while, still no reply came—there was not the slightest sound, as if no one was inside at all.

An uneasy feeling crept into Sanshui’s heart. He pushed the door gently, and it swung open with a creak.

It wasn’t locked?

Unable to help himself, Sanshui stepped inside, scanning the room quickly. It was empty—there was no sign of Gu Weiyu anywhere!

Without thinking, Sanshui spun and ran back. “Young master—young master—something’s wrong!”

“What are you flustered about?” Chu Liuxing looked at the panicked Sanshui in puzzlement. “Where’s Little Yu?”

“Young Master Hu is gone!” Sanshui gasped out, breathless.

Chu Liuxing was stunned by the news and hurried to the neighboring courtyard.

Inside the room, there was not a soul to be found. A single sheet of plain stationery lay pressed carefully atop the little table by the window.

He picked it up and unfolded it. The flowing calligraphy on the page read:

“Let this letter stand in for my presence.

Brother Chu, forgive me for leaving without saying goodbye. The reasons for this will be explained if fate allows us to meet again.”

Chu Liuxing closed the letter silently, recalling the oddness in Gu Weiyu’s behavior these past days. A vague suspicion began to form in his mind.

He tucked the letter away carefully into his storage bracelet, then strode to the front desk of the Treasure Pavilion. “Liu Huo, did you see Young Master Hu today?”

Liu Huo, the young clerk who had met Gu Weiyu before, looked up. “Yes, I did. He left just after noon, said he had something to take care of.”

He left at noon? At that, Chu Liuxing understood immediately—Little Yu had planned to leave the Treasure Pavilion all along.

Sanshui, silently following his master, heard this and his face shifted with regret. If only he had visited the Task Hall sooner—now it was too late, the person was gone!

No, he resolved, tomorrow he would find a chance to visit the Task Hall. Getting one thousand spirit stones would not be so bad!

——

In the dense forest more than ten kilometers outside Danyang City, a sudden, fierce attack struck with deadly precision, hitting a Swiftwind Rabbit hidden among the brush.

The rabbit thudded to the ground and was instantly bound tight by writhing vines.

A boy of about nine years old appeared quietly among the trees, stepped forward, and picked up the rabbit. “That’s settled—dinner is taken care of!”

It was none other than Gu Weiyu, who had just left Danyang City.

She carried the rabbit to a brook at the edge of the woods and deftly skinned and cleaned it.

“Should I roast it, or make Beggar’s Rabbit?” she wondered aloud, holding the rabbit up. “Beggar’s Rabbit it is—easy and tasty!”

She wrapped the rabbit in broad leaves, coated it in wet clay, then buried it in a cleared patch of earth. Lighting a fire above, she sat down and waited for her meal.

Half an hour later, her belly satisfied, Gu Weiyu made her way to a secluded little valley she had scouted earlier.

There, she set up a Four Symbols Killing Array and a Concealment Array, then pitched her tent and crawled inside.

This would be her temporary shelter for the time being.