Chapter 68
Chapter 68
"Here, these are the diseased spirit plants I just got for you from the nearby herbal garden, a total of ten."
In the main hall of the Hundred Herbs Hall, Lu Xuan was leisurely sipping tea when Steward He arrived, each hand holding a sack.
One of the sacks held a spirit tree, about a person's height, with most of it exposed. Its smooth trunk bore numerous dark bug-like marks, occasionally emitting faint black vapor.
"Luck isn't bad. Nine are first-grade, and one is second-grade. This one is the second-grade, the White Vein Wood. The plant master who owned it tried many methods, none worked, so they sold it to me."
Steward He placed the sack at Lu Xuan's feet, opened it, revealing ten diseased spirit plants with roots wrapped in spiritual soil, preventing the little remaining vitality from slipping away.
"Considering that once you heal them, you'll swiftly exchange them for spirit stones, I picked some that are nearing maturity."
"Not a large quantity, though. I fear your luck might make you overly confident if you successfully cure one, so I brought ten first to see the results."
"When confirmed that you indeed have the ability to cure these plants, then I'll help you find more."
"Thank you, Elder He."
Lu Xuan understood the elder's concern about him losing his way or wasting spirit stones and expressed his gratitude sincerely.
The purchased ten diseased spirit plants were very cheap, costing forty-seven spirit stones. Adding the thirteen spirit stones paid to Steward He as a broker's fee, Lu Xuan spent a total of sixty spirit stones.
Normally, when unearthed from spiritual soil, regular spirit plants lost vitality relatively quickly, let alone diseased ones.
Without delay, Lu Xuan hurried back to his own courtyard.
After a brief greeting to the Grass Puppet and the Cloud-Stepping Lynx, he didn't even enter the house, heading straight to his spiritual field.
Out of caution, he controlled the Mist Concealment Formation, thick mist enveloping the field, isolating the area with the spirit plants to prevent intrusion or contamination, avoiding any risks to them.
Subsequently, he planted the ten diseased spirit plants into the field.
Focusing his mind on the plants, he quickly grasped their detailed conditions and potential solutions.
"Untreatable. No hope. It's beyond saving."
One plant, with small gray-black tumors on its roots, was pulled out by Lu Xuan. His Red Thread Needle turned into a thread, piercing all the tumors, oozing out drops of foul-smelling yellow-black pus from the wounds.
With a simple Fireball Technique, he turned all the plants into black ash.
"Another need for Hundred-Year Spirit Milk, beyond saving."
"A first-grade spirit plant requiring the spiritual power of a Foundation Building cultivator?"
"What on earth is this?"
Suddenly, a vague resentful face appeared on the broad leaf of a Blood Essence Leaf plant. Before Lu Xuan could react, the face vanished silently, as if it had been his imagination.
"Playing tricks!"
Lu Xuan took out the Thunderfire Bead from his storage bag. Instantly, the power of thunder and fire surged from the bead, flames roaring, lightning crackling, reducing the Blood Essence Leaf to powder.
Then, he took out an Expelling Evil Talisman, along with the Cloud-Stepping Lynx keeping watch, ensuring no signs of malevolent spirits remained in the field.
Out of the ten diseased plants, four were directly destroyed by Lu Xuan. Either they were beyond saving or the conditions for healing were too demanding, outweighing the benefits, so he discarded them.
As for the remaining six, they primarily suffered from invasive demonic insects. These creatures, contaminated by malevolence, had entirely different characteristics in both form and method of invading the plants compared to before. Without experience or recognition from ordinary plant masters, it was challenging to address these issues at their roots.
Moreover, some plants underwent disease due to absorbing a large amount of polluted spiritual energy.
Dealing with these two types of issues was relatively easier. Lu Xuan, based on their immediate conditions, cut out the diseased parts, removed the invasive demonic insects inside the plants, then used techniques like Spirit Rain and Wood Growth to expedite their recovery.
After several days, the factors causing abnormalities in the six plants were resolved. However, due to severe damage, restoring them to normal levels posed a significant challenge.
The second-grade White Vein Wood would also need some more time before maturing.
Lu Xuan looked at the six restored plants with satisfaction.
He then inspected the field.
The planted one hundred twenty Spirit Firefly Grass had grown to about two inches, slender leaves shining a faint green glow, quite charming.
The second-grade Sword Grass and Dark Marrow Fungus were nearing maturity. Lu Xuan refrained from harvesting them immediately to ensure the best quality white light sphere as a reward.
In the area where the first-grade Blood Jade Ginseng was, Lu Xuan noticed that as it approached maturity, it became more energetic, displaying a stronger instinct to absorb the surrounding spiritual energy.
Carelessly, two or three, or even more, Blood Jade Ginseng stems entangled, eagerly absorbing each other's spiritual energy.
Lu Xuan had to focus more attention on them.
Using Earth Attraction Technique to separate them, he took five nearly mature diseased spirit plants to the Hundred Herbs Hall.
As for the second-grade White Vein Wood, he intended to nurture it in the field until it matured.
"Lu lad, come here!"
In the Hundred Herbs Hall, Steward He spotted Lu Xuan and called out loudly.
"How did it go? How many of those ten diseased plants did you cure? No losses, right?"
"I handle things properly, you can trust me. How could I possibly incur losses?"
Lu Xuan smiled, taking out the five slightly unsightly plants from his storage bag.
"That's true. You're always gaining advantages for yourself. When did you ever incur losses?"
Steward He chuckled, recalling Lu Xuan's past conduct.
The five plants on the counter relieved a good deal of his worries.
"To have a success rate of over half, your skill surpasses most plant masters here."
"No, at least in this aspect, you've surpassed all the plant masters. Many of the diseased plants they've healed were of milder conditions. The ten you bought previously were only sent to you after they failed to cure them."
The lean old man sighed.
"Being able to cultivate perfect Spirit Firefly Grass and cure diseased spirit plants, you're a born plant master."
Though the five plants had returned to normal, due to previous damage and insufficient nurturing time, their quality was inferior or average.
Steward He estimated a price for each plant. In the end, the five first-grade spirit plants earned Lu Xuan one hundred twenty spirit stones.
With the cost of sixty for the ten diseased plants, subtracting the consumed time, spiritual power, and Expelling Evil Talismans over these days, Lu Xuan made a profit of dozens of spirit stones.
Not to mention, there was still the second-grade White Vein Wood in his field, which would fetch quite a number of spirit stones upon maturity.
Lu Xuan weighed the spirit stones in his hand, satisfied, and returned them to his storage bag.
---------------
This chapter upload first at NovelBin.Com