The group quickly reached a consensus, agreeing to split up and search.
Each person had their own agenda, and naturally, no one wanted to travel together and risk exposing their secrets.
Li Ban, naturally, continued to stick with Qiao Zhen'er.
The two outsiders searched together, while the two martial arts hall disciples formed another group.
The honest-natured Lu Jiu stayed behind to guard the door, ready to sound the alarm if any abnormal monsters approached.
With a brief sweep of his senses, Li Ban knew exactly where all the good items in the vicinity were hidden.
None of it caught his eye, but it would make a nice thank-you gift for Qiao Zhen'er to reward her for covering for him.
Even though Qiao Zhen'er still hadn't noticed anything unusual about him.
As a result, Qiao Zhen'er found her haul for the day delightfully large.
In several spots she had already checked, his sharp eyes spotted deeply hidden treasures.
After searching for half a shichen, Qiao Zhen'er did a detailed count and was shocked to find she had already gathered items worth two hundred taels of silver.
She secretly pocketed small trinkets worth a hundred taels and handed the rest to Zhao De to carry.
This was actually her tacit approval for her young disciple to secretly pocket a little for himself as well.
However, Li Ban thought nothing of the loot, so he didn't hide a single thing for himself.
A shichen later, Qiao Zhen'er led Li Ban back to the entrance.
Lu Jiu was still standing guard, gripping his two Tiger-Head Hammers.
The two martial arts hall disciples had returned a bit earlier than them. Judging by their expressions, their haul was likely sparse.
They waited at the door for a while, but the two spirit practitioners, Shen and Chen, were still nowhere to be seen. Qiao Zhen'er's expression had already turned rather ugly.
Before they went in, she had told everyone they had to be out in exactly one shichen. Once the time was up, she would lead the group away without waiting for anyone.
Yet, they had now exceeded the time limit by a ke, and those two had still not emerged.
To make matters worse, they weren't low-level spirit practitioners whom Qiao Zhen'er could easily boss around.
Qiao Zhen'er glanced up at the sky. "We'll wait one more ke. If they aren't out by then, we head straight back."
Everyone was a little dissatisfied, but they had nowhere to vent their frustration.
Li Ban turned to Qiao Zhen'er. "Master, I'll go take a look around the perimeter to make sure nothing else is approaching."
Qiao Zhen'er nodded.
She was completely at ease with her clever young disciple.
Li Ban went to the rear of the merchant guild's warehouse. His ears twitched, and he immediately pinpointed the presence of the two spirit practitioners, Shen and Chen.
He still wanted to use Zhao De's identity to keep a long-term watch on the swamp vines here. Naturally, he didn't want anyone causing trouble and ruining his plans halfway through.
However, after listening for a moment, he realized the two had simply run into a bit of trouble and weren't preparing to make a move just yet. Thus, Li Ban decided to leave them be.
Just as he heard Shen and Chen start to leave and was about to head back himself, he suddenly noticed a plant in the corner behind the warehouse—something that shouldn't have been there.
He saw a few peculiar dandelions.
They looked different from normal dandelions. The stems and leaves were largely the same, but where the seeds should have been, there were instead clusters of white fluff.
That fluff actually looked—somewhat familiar!
Li Ban quickly stepped forward and lowered his head for a closer look. 'Why does this look so much like the white fluff from the Recycling Station?'
However, after a careful inspection, Li Ban found that this white fluff didn't possess the corrosive and devouring properties of the ones at the Recycling Station.
They seemed to genuinely just be ordinary mutated plants.
'Is it just a similarity in appearance?' Li Ban pulled out a small iron box, snipped off a section of the plant, and placed it inside.
The plant didn't show any signs of being overly active.
Just as Li Ban stood up, ready to head back once more, he heard another unusual sound from the distant fog.
The fog obscured his vision; even Li Ban couldn't see very far.
Still, he could faintly make out a few writhing shadows in the fog behind the warehouse.
This time, Li Ban was certain that they absolutely were not the eerie black shadows he had created.
Li Ban narrowed his eyes, wanting to go over and investigate, but he heard the two spirit practitioners, Shen and Chen, about to step out.
'Maintaining my cover is more important,' he thought.
The writhing shadows didn't give off any sense of danger, so he chose to head back immediately and continue playing the role of Zhao De.
Right after Li Ban returned to Qiao Zhen'er's side, the two spirit practitioners walked out the front door of the warehouse.
Qiao Zhen'er's face was icy.
Although she wouldn't just abandon them here, she was definitely going to give them a warning.
"I only brought you two along out of respect for the Hall Master. If you can't coordinate with our movements, don't bother coming in with me next time."
Spirit Cultivator Shen hadn't expected Qiao Zhen'er to actually threaten them in front of so many people. He narrowed his eyes, and the air around him grew heavy.
However, Spirit Cultivator Chen was much more agreeable. He held Shen back once again and smiled at Qiao Zhen'er, explaining, "Apologies, we just ran into a bit of trouble. We came straight out as soon as we resolved it. Next time, we'll be sure to leave some buffer time to deal with any unexpected accidents."
"Let's hope so."
Seeing their cooperative attitude, Qiao Zhen'er didn't press the issue, though her tone remained a bit cold and hard.
Shen was clearly dissatisfied, but he eventually swallowed his anger.
On the way back, to avoid arousing anyone's suspicion, Li Ban made sure the group spotted the eerie black shadows twice, forcing them to take a few detours.
Ultimately, everything went smoothly. The group of seven returned to the iron chains, crossed the River of Helplessness once more, and arrived back in the territory of Yingzhou.
After returning to the Weiyun Martial Arts Hall, Qiao Zhen'er took the Hall Master's two friends to report the situation to the Master.
Li Ban prepared to find a quiet place to study the peculiar "dandelion" he had found.
However, just as he was turning to leave, he was stopped by Lu Jiu.
"Ah De." Lu Jiu was very tall, and he looked down at Li Ban from above. "When we were resting, Master took you out. What did you two talk about?"
"Nothing important."
The usually honest-natured Lu Jiu appeared quite serious in front of Li Ban. "Since it wasn't anything important, there's no harm in telling me, is there?"
Li Ban mimicked Zhao De's usual demeanor and laughed mischievously. "It's exactly because it's not important that I answered you like that. If it were something genuinely important, I'd definitely have lied to you right away. If you really want to know, go ask Master."
With that, Li Ban spun around and left without waiting for Lu Jiu's reaction.
In truth, what Li Ban and Qiao Zhen'er had discussed really wasn't important, and it had nothing to do with Lu Jiu either.
But Lu Jiu's reaction was a little strange.
'Is there something fishy going on with Qiao Zhen'er's apprentice too? Her situation in the Weiyun Martial Arts Hall really isn't looking good.'
Li Ban returned to Zhao De's room and raised a hand to cast a protective barrier.
At the same time, the figure of Priest Qian Que materialized.
"Did you gain anything from this trip?"
Li Ban replied, "I found those abnormal vines. I'm seventy percent sure they're connected to Xiao Suo. However, Xiao Suo wasn't there."
"So we wait?"
"We wait!"
After saying that, Li Ban brought out that bizarre "dandelion."
"Priest Qian Que, do you recognize this thing?"