Chapter 227: Chapter 225: Amber Spiritual Seed 1
Translator: 549690339 —
As he traveled, Lu Xuan slowly veered from the path of the three fellow disciples.
It wasn’t until he was quite a distance away that he stopped.
He carefully cast his Spiritual Sense around, and found no trace of any other cultivators.
However, the density of those strange vine growths did seem to be greater than before, and they could be easily noticed in all directions.
The Strange Ghost Vine was made up of a number of thick and thin green-black vines, twisted and gnarled, which at first glance, would have one believe they were malicious spirits from the mountains, ready to devour anyone who approached.
The tips of the vines also bore pale green flowers that, when viewed from afar resembled flickering ghost flames, adding an eerie and horrifying appearance’ to the plant.
Lu Xuan maintained a safe distance from the Strange Ghost Vines around him wary of a sudden attack.
Then, he made the spiritual energy within him flow, executing a large Spirit Ram Technique that covered a hundred yards in diameter.
Raindrops of spiritual energy began to fall, permeating all the Strange Ghost Vines in the area.
Through cultivation and feeding, one can glean detailed information about the current condition of Spirit Beasts and Spirit Plants.
Even if these Strange Ghost Vines were to mutate into something akin to Demon Beasts, as long as they absorbed the Spirit Rain drawn in by Lu Xuan, he could ascertain everything about them.
Lu Xuan focused his mind on the nearest Strange Ghost Vine, and a thought flashed through his mind.
[Strange Ghost Vine, a third-grade spiritual plant, a demon-mutant plant. It has a strong aggressiveness and can disguise itself as a normal spiritual plant, actively ambushing the demon beasts or cultivators approaching them.] [It feeds on other spiritual plants or the flesh and blood of demon beasts.] [Unable to make into a seed.]
“A Demon Mutant Spiritual Plant, capable of launching surprise attacks on cultivators or demon beasts.”
Information concerning the Strange Ghost Vine triggered a sense of curiosity in Lu Xuan.
This was the first time he had encountered a spiritual plant that could attack cultivators. Previously in the Linyang Market, many spirit plants became mutants due to the influence of a Demon Envoy. However, none of them demonstrated any signs of aggression.
After entering the Sky Sword Sect, he had nurtured an increasingly diverse and higher-ranked range of spirit plants, including the Enchanted Immortal Peach, Hundred Pupils’ Bizarre Tree, and Holy Baby Fruit, which can affect cultivators’ desires and minds.
However, whether driven by their nature or controlled by cultivators hidden in the shadows, none of them exhibited aggressive behavior like the Demon Mutant Ghost Vine.
Lu Xuan continued to inspect the other spirit plants.
In the vast range covered by the Spirit Rain Technique, there were nearly twenty Strange Ghost Vines, most of which were Demon Mutants. It was not until the sixth one that Lu Xuan found a normal Strange Ghost Vine.
[Strange Ghost Vine…. After maturing, it can be used to refine certain special high-grade elixirs or can help cultivate malevolent techniques.]
[Can grow normally by absorbing spiritual energy.]
Out of the more than twenty Strange Ghost Vines, four were normal plants, while the rest were demon mutant strains.
There’s quite a difference between the mutant plants and the normal ones.” “Their growth methods vary slightly. The demon mutant plants are no longer satisfied with merely absorbing spiritual energy; they have a strong appetite for the flesh and blood of other spirit plants or demon beasts.” “However, some unknown changes may occur during the mutation process causing the Demon Mutant Ghost Vine to be incapable of making seeds and ’ prolonging its life.”
While Lu Xuan was contemplating, he firmly remembered the locations of those four normal Spirit Plants.
“What is professional?”
“Without careful screening or risk-taking, one Spirit Rain Technique can quickly identify normal Strange Ghost Vines.”
“That’s what professionals do.”
The previous three had picked Strange Ghost Vines by brute force, each step fraught with danger. They would band together to deal with any hits, whereas Lu Xuan was more like a minesweeper, identifying which were risky with his techniques, and then simply bypassing the Demon Mutant plants to pick the normal Strange Ghost Vine Spirit Plants.
He slowly walked towards a Demon Mutant Ghost Vine, stepping lightly, and extended his hand to gently approach the grim green flower on the vine.
“Grade Three Spiritual Plant, soon it will be mine.”
Just as his fingers were about to touch the flower, Lu Xuan abruptly turned around and walked straight towards another one.
Behind him, the Strange Ghost Vine which had been slightly trembling as Lu Xuan approached, calmed down. The ground underneath it drew back hundreds of root-like tentacles into the depths of the earth.
Lu Xuan repeated this approach. Every time he was about to get close to a Demon Mutant Spirit Plant, he looked excited, as if he had noticed some tremendous opportunity.
Yet just as he was about to touch it, he swiftly withdrew his hand, stirring up the Demon Mutant Ghost Vine into agitation, with nowhere to release its restlessness.
Only when he got to a normal Strange Ghost Vine did he carefully pick it. However, due to not having nurtured and cared for the Spirit Plant, no white light group appeared after the picking.
In this way, he navigated through the many Spirit Plants, pretending to approach the Demon Mutant plants, then swiftly retreating. When he encountered a real normal Strange Ghost Vine, he unceremoniously picked it. Lu Xuan’s actions seemed to have angered these Demon Mutant Spirit Plants. While picking the last normal Strange Ghost Vine within the coverage of the Spirit Rain Technique, suddenly, hundreds of green-black vines armed with barbs burrowed out from the ground, attacking Lu Xuan like lightning.
“Bring it on!”
Lu Xuan was fully prepared and slapped the green marbled gourd on his right side.
Suddenly, a sword humming sound echoed, and countless tiny sword Qi, like swimming fish, spat out of the gourd mouth and met those green-black vines.
The Sword Qi was extremely sharp, leaving a number of tiny sword marks on the vines. As the marks increased in quantity and depth, the green-black tentacle-like vines immediately shattered, scattering all over the ground. After unleashing the Sword Qi from the Sword Nurturing Gourd, Lu Xuan’s Purple Lightning Sword sparked with splinters of light, executing the Autumn Wind Sword Law from the “Four Seasons Sword Art”, like a cold, desolate whirlwind full of boundless intent to kill.
Slices of green-black vines fell to the ground, like chopped worm segments, wriggling and struggling on the gray-black soil, in their death throes.
After losing its ability to camouflage itself and ambushing, the Ghost Vine’s attack suddenly dropped several ranks, and Lu Xuan easily disposed of several Demon Mutant Ghost Vines that had surrounded and attempted to kill him.
“Hmm? Why the sudden retreat?”
He noticed that the Demon Mutant plants he had identified, as well as the ones in the distance, quickly burrowed into the Spirit Soil, disappearing in an instant along with the vines and normal Strange Ghost Vines on the ground.
Lu Xuan smelled something fishy.
“Could it be that they’ve discovered my counter to them? Or do they have some premeditated scheme?”
He was filled with doubt, as the pale blue light cluster in his Dantian was slowly rotating.
Strands of Qingmu Origin Energy seeped out from his body, quickly woven under Lu Xuan’s mental control into a vast pale blue net, the mesh extremely fine, ensuring that no tiny Spiritual Seeds were missed.
He intended to use this large net to sieve through the empty Medicine Garden, seeking out any hidden Spiritual Seeds.
Qingmu Origin Energy naturally harmonizes with Spirit Plants, and can sensitively perceive the life force within Spiritual Seeds, making it much easier than Lu Xuan having to use his spiritual sense to seek them out.
The pale blue net continually delved into the earth, up to the limit of Lu Xuan’s spiritual sense, before being pulled back.
Lu Xuan did not get discouraged and chose a new spot, continuing to sieve for seeds.
“I’ve found something.”
After repeated attempts, Lu Xuan noticed an extremely faint life fluctuation on the pale blue net.
He ran the Earth Attraction Technique of the Great Achievement Realm, causing the soil structure to continuously change, turning over the contents within.
A Spiritual Seed that seemed as beautiful as amber.