Roots

"Hm…" Bai Shuixian hummed out.

"Is something the matter?" Liao Fang asked, seeing her humming deep thought while standing on the dirt road with the wheat field in front.

"You only grow wheat?" she asked.

"Of course not," Liao Fang said. "We also grow sweet potatoes, corn, and peanuts."

"That's it?" Bai Shuixian asked.

"Well… There really is no good spot to plant anything. It is impossible to grow anything out here. To be able to grow these four is already great, is it not?" Liao Fang said.

Crouching, Bai Shuixian touched the ground to feel the hardness of it. Then, she walked to the field channels and grabbed a handful of dirt to see the consistency of it. After touching dirt here and there, she came to a conclusion.

"Don't you guys have animal poop?" she asked, staring at the dry dirt that was dusty in color.

"Huh? We do, but we throw it out to the forest. Why do you ask?" Liao Fang answered and responded with a question while following her.

"Use the animal poop as fertilizer. You can also build lavatories and create channels for the poop to fertilize the dirt under the roots of the plants," she told Liao Fang.

"Uh… Miss, lavatories are for human use though?" Liao Fang said with an asking tone. "Also, there are no lavatories here. Not only that, there is not a single person here that can design something as complicated as channels underground to fertilize the dirt. Besides, why would you want to fertilize something underground and not up above? That is not very conventional."

"Say, have you ever looked at the roots of a plant while it is growing?" she asked.

"That is impossible. Besides, in order to do that, you would need glass. Glass is not something so easily found," Liao Fang said.

"Well then, if you have ever seen it, the roots of a plant will go for where there is most food or nutrients for them," she explained. "Just like how birds will move with the climate, plants are the same."

"You have seen it before?" Liao Fang asked with curiosity.

It was not everyday that he got to hear about someone rich enough to get their hands on glass. In fact, glass was a new product and only nobles and royalties had such items. Even when they did get glass, they used it for something that explicitly enhanced their statuses.

Bai Shuixian said she used glass to hold plants before which was something nobody would do. Usually, only flowers would get placed in vases for appreciation. However, the thing was that there is still yet to exist glass vases.

Liao Fang could only guess that Bai Shuixian was not just a normal person or someone with an ordinary standing. He already knew that she was rich and important because of what the village chief pointed out. However, he thought that she was just a daughter of a wealthy noble family.

Now, he could guess that she came from someone more important. As for who it was, Liao Fang could only guess, but it could not be the royal family. Even the royalties do not put much care in the development or study of plants.

Bai Shuixian did not answer Liao Fang's question, but instead walked on further to see the other crops. Once she walked and there was only a flat empty plain of dirt, she finally looked back with a face that showed she understood the situation. With this expression, it made all the people following her wonder what she had up her sleeves.

"Okay, where's the mountain?" Bai Shuixian asked.

This stumped everyone. They thought she was going to give out orders or ask other questions about the plot of land, not the mountain. In fact, was she not being too ignorant with the way she examined the place?

Bai Shuixian saw the expressions on everyone, but she did not want to explain herself. The more she spoke, the more questions there would be and she was a lazy person by nature. Was she really a lazy person by nature though?

Shaking his head, Zhu Jin repeated her question, "Where's the mountain?"

With his gruff voice taking over, the village chief pointed towards a direction.

However, the chief also said, "Well, we won't follow you. Though we use the forest to hunt animals and gather wood, we always go in huge groups of a hundred."

Following up, Liao Fang explained, "The beasts in the mountain are too fierce and not only that, none of them has been seen nor defeated before."

Hearing the word "beasts", Zhu Jin perked up. When it came to the topic of beasts, he was on the top of the list. He wanted to see how those beasts that scared the villagers would score if he fought with them.

Ignoring the words of the chief and Liao Fang, Bai Shuixian walked on ahead towards the mountain with Zhu Jin almost skipping on his legs out of pure bliss. She wanted to sigh and shake her head at his hyper reaction, but at the moment she held little control of her body. It was something that only Zhong Chen and the white tiger knew.

By the time they reached an isolated area with no person around, the both of them used qinggong to traverse the rest of the way. The mountain was huge and tall with lots of cliffs and waterfalls, but it was still easy for Bai Shuixian to travel in it. At some point, she also reached a tree that was huge and fancy with its curves and vines.

When she looked around, she saw that though the location was far from a huge water source, it had a small running stream. Not only that, it was the only special tree that looked different from the rest of the surrounding trees. If there was one thing Bai Shuixian loved, it was that she liked to be special and different from the rest of the world.

"Zhu Jin, I think I found my favorite place to live in," Bai Shuixian breathed out in appreciation as she continuously looked up at the tree.

"This is just a normal tree, isn't it?" Zhu Jin asked confusedly.

"Not just a tree. Don't you see it's roots?" Bai Shuixian pointed out.

"Roots?" Zhu Jin repeated curiously and stared down towards the roots.

At that moment, he saw that there were huge piles of leaves covering the holes at the roots of the tree. Had Bai Shuixian not pointed it out, he would not have known. However, considering the reach of the vines of the trees, there should not be so much leaves at the roots, so what hid down there?

"You are curious?" Bai Shuixian asked with a smile.

"Naturally," Zhu Jin answered.

"Then what are you waiting for? Remove those leaves," Bai Shuixian ordered.

Sighing, Zhu Jin remarked, "Aigh, I knew it. You never tell me anything unless you're too lazy to do it yourself."

"Not my fault. You know that I'm lazy," she said.

Removing large amounts of leaves, Zhu Jin stated, "I thought she was at the forefront already which is why I didn't suspect anything. Who knew that you were at the front?"

"Hm… She's not at the front and nor am I," she told Zhu Jin. "She told me that she liked this place after she saw the leaves and asked me to remove the leaves, but naturally, I'm too lazy to do it."

Shaking his head, Zhu Jin said, "Alright, I'm done. Ask her what she wants now Chi Chi."

"Stop calling me Chi Chi!" he protested immediately after hearing that name. "How many times must I tell you to stop addressing me in the same way as that Xuan bastard!?"

Laughing, Zhu Jin exclaimed, "The name Chi Chi is cute though! Such a fierce person like you needs a cute name so that everyone won't run away."

"I don't need friends anyway," Chi Dujuan stated. "Hurry up and enter the hole, you stupid tiger."

"Alright, alright. Wow… Even resorting to cursing now," Zhu Jin muttered. "You're never going to get a wife with that behavior."

"MY BODY IS A WOMAN'S YOU STUPID TIGER!" Chi Dujuan shouted upon hearing Zhu Jin's mutters.

"Yes, yes, now hurry up and get down here with me," Zhu Jin said after entering. "The place is quite spacious. I didn't know something like this could exist in nature."

Once Chi Dujuan entered the place after Zhu Jin, he said, "It wasn't made in nature. In fact, nature would never do this. This is the act of mankind."

"Why would anyone make their home under a tree trunk though?" Zhu Jin confusedly asked with a are-they-crazy tone.

"You should ask Bai Shuixian then," Chi Dujuan replied. "She wants to make this place her home."

"Oh, right," Zhu Jin laughed nervously.

God knows that he was deathly afraid of all the people in Bai Shuixian's body. Every single one of them were overbearing and overprotective of her. It was during the times when she had a switch that Zhu Jin wished she would come back soon for every moment with those people were torture to him.

"Don't worry. That Xuan bastard is too busy sharpening his sword to care about you," Chi Dujuan informed him when he saw Zhu Jin's nervous laughter.

"Oh, that's good. That's good then," Zhu Jin remarked with a relieved sigh. "Well then, looking at this place, I can already tell what she wants to do."

"Me too," Chi Dujuan agreed.

"Then, can you take care of this?" Zhu Jin asked. "I want to deal with the beasts that they speak of."