Chapter 18: Setting Up An Array In The Courtyard

“Yes, this servant understands.”

Zi Su responded without hesitation but in her heart, she couldn’t help but sigh with emotion. The young lady was truly diligent and her drive was exactly the same as their Lord’s. No wonder their Lord treated her differently.

After freshening up, Bai Luochu walked outside her courtyard and strolled around. Perhaps there was some lapse in her memory about the route in the residence, or maybe it was because she didn’t get to chase after the assassin last night. She was somewhat distracted...

Bai Luochu had unknowingly walked to the location where the assassin exchanged moves with the residence’s guards. She arrived before the Glass Treasure Pavilion.

Previously, Bai Luochu only had a rough glance at the pavilion when Zi Su pointed it out to her. Now that she was standing before it, she decided to take a closer look. She realized that the Glass Treasure Pavilion truly lived up to its name.

The Glass Treasure Pavilion had a total of nine floors and each floor had eight windows. The window frames split the windows into four portions, seemingly to conform with the eight divinatory trigrams and four conjunctions. On the top of the pavilion was a great eastern pearl and the ledges of each floor were each embedded with gems of the same colour. The gems on each floor would never repeat and it seemed as though treasures of different rarity and attributes were sorted out into their individual floors. The color of the gems on the ledges should be used to differentiate the attributes and grade of the treasures housed on the level.

Putting aside the priceless treasures inside this place, it wouldn’t be excessive to say that the Glass Treasure Pavilion was an enlarged version of an exquisite treasure pagoda. If any single one of the gems on the outside was plucked off and sold away, it would be enough for a regular family to spend for the rest of their lives in comfort. It seemed like the First Prince was a rich and imposing individual!

As Bai Luochu scanned the Glass Treasure Pavilion from top to bottom, she raised her eyebrows in astonishment. Why wasn’t there anyone guarding the pavilion?

As though Bai Luochu suddenly thought of something, she looked around at the arrangements of the flowers, trees, and plants in this courtyard only to realize something. The owner of the Glass Treasure Pavilion used the fauna around the Glass Treasure Pavilion and the pavilion itself as tools to form an array in the Book of Changes.

This array wasn’t a vicious one and regular sects would set up such arrays at the entrance of the mountain to serve as their first line of defense.

Bai Luochu might not have sufficient spirit qi, but it was still more than enough to neutralize the array. However, she didn’t want to reveal her talents yet. After all, one always had to keep abilities hidden in order to leave a way out in times of peril...

Furthermore, the moment she entered the courtyard, her gaze was attracted to a certain spot. Needless to say, she detected the presence of a secret guard.

Bai Luochu rubbed her nose and immediately understood. It seemed like the assassin must have neutralized the array, drawing the secret guard to his location. It should also be the reason why the battle occurred.

With such intricate knowledge of arrays in the Book of Changes, it seemed as though there were many crouching tigers and hidden dragons in the capital city of the Cloud Water Nation.

After leaving the Glass Treasure Pavilion, Bai Luochu strolled around the residence for a long time before she found her way back. She quickly rushed into her room to avoid suspicion.

Just as she stepped into the door, the fragrance of cooked rice entered her nose. Due to her excessive worry the previous night, she lost her appetite during dinner. Right now, she had just completed a session of cultivation and after wandering around the residence for some time, her stomach was growling.

Now that Zi Su had arranged all the dishes, the fragrance of the food surged towards Bai Luochu’s nose, enticing the gluttonous worm inside her tummy.

“Rumble.” Bai Luochu’s stomach let out a growl and the atmosphere turned awkward.

Zi Su couldn’t help but let out a giggle and broke the awkward silence in the room. “Pfff. Young Lady, if you are hungry, quickly sit down and eat. If the food gets cold, they wouldn’t taste as good.”

When Bai Luochu heard what Zi Su said, she could only let out an embarrassed smile. She followed Zi Su’s suggestion and sat down at the table.

After finishing her breakfast, Bai Luochu asked Zi Su to help her grind some ink. Picking up a brush, she wrote down the name of some herbs on a sheet of paper. Handing the paper over to Zi Su, she politely requested for her to retrieve them. They were all herbs that could assist her in her cultivation.

In fact, she was just using this excuse to send Zi Su away in order to set up an array in her courtyard.

Watching Zi Su’s figure disappear into the distance, Bai Luochu quickly took out the remaining poisonous plants she had obtained in the Bestial Battle Arena. Without delay, she started to set up a simple array using the time she had alone.

No matter what, as assassin snuck into the residence the night before. Even though he wasn’t here to claim a life and was instead here to obtain treasures, it still wasn’t safe. What if that assassin’s target wasn’t the Glass Treasure Pavilion or the First Prince’s main mansion? What if his target was her? Nothing would end well if that were the case.

In addition to that, even under the surveillance of two people, Bai Luochu and the secret guard, someone managed to slip into her room. It was fortunate that the intruder didn’t have any malicious intent towards her. If he really harbored sinister thoughts in his mind, she would be dead before she had time to scream for help. His strength was overwhelming and her second life would be wasted if he decided to move against her.

As for the array in her courtyard, it would release a layer of poison mist the moment an intruder broke in. Even though the poison mist wasn’t fatal, the intruder’s spirit platform would be paralyzed. Their ability to use spirit qi would be sealed up and her life wouldn’t be in immediate danger.

The intruder wouldn’t be able to utilize their spirit qi for a whole six hours after breathing in the poison mist.

Bai Luochu had a reason as to why she chose the array. The array that she set up couldn’t be detected by those experts, otherwise, it would be useless.

This array wasn’t commonly seen and apart from the temple’s disciples, almost no one had seen it before. Also, the reason behind laying down this array wasn’t to harm others. Instead, it was to keep herself safe. The array she chose couldn’t activate when members of the residence entered her courtyard.

This was the only array that could fulfill all the conditions at the same time.

After carefully searching through her memories, she placed those poisonous plants according to the eight divinatory trigrams listed in the Book of Changes. She set the courtyard as the center of the array and carefully arranged the poisonous plants while placing other plants at the side to provide a cover.

When Zi Su brought the herbs back, she was startled when she saw that all the plants in the courtyard had been rearranged. These plants might have been arranged carefully, but no matter how she looked at it, the landscape of the courtyard was destroyed. After all, the plants were arranged by a professional in the past. Bai Luochu merely shifted some plants around to cover her array.

“Young Lady, the courtyard’s previous arrangement had been meticulously designed by landscaping masters. Are they not to Young Lady’s liking?”