"Here, I just got you these mutated spiritual plants from a nearby herb garden, a total of ten plants."
In the Hundred Herbs Hall, Lu Xuan was enjoying his tea when Steward He approached him, each hand carrying a cloth bag.
One of the bags contained a spiritual wood that was about as tall as a person. Most of it was sticking out, and its smooth trunk had many dark wormholes, with faint black mist occasionally drifting out.
"Not too bad luck, nine of them are first-grade, and one is second-grade. This second-grade one is the white-patterned wood. The spiritual plant cultivator who owned it tried many methods but couldn't save it, so they had to sell it to me."
Steward He placed the bag at Lu Xuan's feet and opened it. The ten mutated spiritual plants were wrapped in spiritual soil to prevent the little life they had left from fading away.
"Considering you'll need to quickly exchange them for spirit stones once you heal them, I picked some that are almost mature."
"The number isn't too high. I was afraid you'd get carried away if you managed to heal one and lose your cool, so I brought just ten to see how it goes."
"Once I confirm you really can heal mutated spiritual plants, I'll help you find more."
"Thank you, Steward He."
Lu Xuan understood that the old man was worried he might waste spirit stones if he went down the wrong path, and he sincerely expressed his gratitude.
The ten mutated spiritual plants were quite cheap, costing forty-seven spirit stones. Plus, he had to pay Steward He thirteen spirit stones as a fee for his help, bringing his total to sixty spirit stones.
Normally, spiritual plants lose their vitality quickly after being dug up from the spiritual soil, and mutated ones are even worse.
Lu Xuan didn’t linger and hurried back to his yard.
After calling out to the straw puppet and the Cloud Stepping Leopard, he didn’t even go inside his house and went straight to his spiritual field.
Being cautious, he activated the Mist Concealment Array, creating a thick fog to isolate a blank area of the spiritual field from the other spiritual plants, preventing them from being invaded or contaminated.
Then, he planted the ten mutated spiritual plants in the spiritual field.
Focusing on the plants, he quickly learned their detailed conditions and how to deal with them.
"Can't be saved, it's hopeless. Just let it die."
He pulled out a plant with small gray-black tumors on its roots. Using a red thread needle, he pierced all the small tumors, and yellow-black pus oozed out, smelling terrible.
With a quick Fireball Technique, he burned the plant to ashes.
"Another one that needs a hundred years of spiritual milk, hopeless."
"A first-grade spiritual plant actually needs a foundation-building cultivator's level of spirit power?"
"What kind of weird thing is this?"
Suddenly, a blurry, vengeful face appeared on the broad leaves of a blood spirit leaf. Before Lu Xuan could react, the face vanished silently, as if it were just an illusion.
"Playing tricks!"
Lu Xuan took out a Thunder Fire Pearl, and instantly, the lightning and fire energy surged out, flames roaring and lightning flashing, turning the blood spirit leaf into powder.
Then, he used an Evil Dispelling Talisman, and with the Cloud Stepping Leopard watching closely, he confirmed there were no signs of evil spirits in the spiritual field.
Out of the ten mutated spiritual plants, Lu Xuan destroyed four directly. They were either too far gone to be saved or required conditions that were too high, so he discarded them.
As for the remaining six, they were mainly invaded by mutated bugs. These bugs had been contaminated and changed, making them very different from their original forms. A regular spiritual plant cultivator wouldn’t recognize the problem without experience, making it hard to solve the root issue.
Additionally, some plants had mutated due to absorbing a lot of polluted spiritual energy.
These two types were relatively easier to handle. Lu Xuan cut away the mutated parts and eliminated the invading bugs. Then he used the Spirit Rain Technique and Wood Growth Technique to help the plants recover quickly.
A few days later, the invasive factors in the six plants were resolved, but they were still severely damaged, making it difficult for them to return to normal levels. The second-grade white-patterned wood still needed some time to mature.
Lu Xuan looked at the six plants that had returned to normal and felt satisfied.
Next, he inspected the spiritual field.
The one hundred and twenty Spirit Firefly Grasses he had planted had grown to about two inches tall, with slender green leaves that shimmered faintly, looking quite lovely.
The second-grade sword grass and dark marrow fungus were getting closer to maturity, and Lu Xuan wasn’t in a hurry to harvest them to maximize the reward from the white light orb.
In the area where the first-grade Blood Jade Ginseng was planted, Lu Xuan noticed that as maturity approached, the ginseng became more excited and active, increasingly eager to absorb the surrounding spiritual energy.
If he wasn’t careful, two or three, or even more Blood Jade Ginseng roots would get tangled together, desperately trying to drain each other's energy.
Lu Xuan had to focus more on them.
After using the Earth Summoning Technique to separate them, he took the five mostly mature mutated spiritual plants to the Hundred Herbs Hall.
As for the second-grade white-patterned wood, since it still needed time to mature, Lu Xuan planned to keep it in the spiritual field for now.
"Lu kid, come here quickly!"
In the Hundred Herbs Hall, Steward He spotted Lu Xuan from a distance and called out loudly.
"How did it go? How many of those ten mutated spiritual plants did you heal? You didn’t lose out, did you?"
"I handle my business well, don’t worry. How could I possibly lose out?"
Lu Xuan smiled as he took out the five slightly ugly spiritual plants from his storage bag.
"That’s true; you only know how to profit off others. When have you ever lost money?"
Steward He chuckled at the thought of Lu Xuan's past ways.
Seeing the five plants on the counter eased his worries.
"If you have over half a success rate, your skills have already surpassed most spiritual plant cultivators in the hall."
"No, I should say at least in this aspect, you’ve surpassed all spiritual plant cultivators."
"After all, many of the mutated plants they healed had lighter issues. The ten you bought last time were already ones they had tried before they reached your hands."
The thin old man sighed.
"Being able to cultivate perfect quality Spirit Firefly Grass and heal mutated spiritual plants, you’re a natural spiritual plant cultivator."
Though the five plants had returned to normal, they were of low and average quality due to prior damage and the short cultivation time.
Steward He estimated the value of each plant, and in the end, the five first-grade plants brought Lu Xuan a total of one hundred twenty spirit stones.
He had spent sixty spirit stones to acquire those ten mutated plants, and after deducting the time, spirit power, and the Evil Dispelling Talismans used, Lu Xuan made a profit of several dozen spirit stones.
Not to mention, there was still that second-grade white-patterned wood in the spiritual field, which would also yield a good amount of spirit stones once it matured.
Lu Xuan weighed the spirit stones in his hand and happily put them back into his storage bag.
(End of Chapter)