“No wonder Master said the Xinfa you cultivate is excellent—this way, we don’t need to find you a new one,” Ji Qing said.
“If Junior Sister’s Mu Linggen can nourish seeds, doesn’t that make her a mutated planting-type Mu Linggen?” Rong Xuan frowned.
“That would be a pity,” Ji Qing said with some regret. “Speaking of which, we haven’t even tested Junior Sister’s Linggen yet.”
“I asked Master yesterday,” Ji Qing continued. “He said the sect’s Lingshi testing stone can’t be found.”
“Regardless of Junior Sister’s spiritual value, since she’s already at the second level of the Lianqi Period, she can cultivate,” He Fan said. “It’s just a shame about the Mu Linggen.”
“Senior Sister, Third Senior Brother, Fifth Senior Brother, Sixth Senior Brother—my Mu Linggen is not a planting-type Mu Linggen.”
“What?”
You Yu didn’t say more. She directly summoned her bean-sprout wooden vine: “There was a Lingji in the Storage Bag Master gave me, and I cultivated it.”
Seeing that thin little wooden vine, the others were all left speechless.
It was so small—could it even attack?
But regardless of its size, the fact that she could cultivate a wooden vine proved that her Mu Linggen truly wasn’t a planting-type Mu Linggen.
“How strange. If Junior Sister’s Mu Linggen isn’t a planting type, then why can she turn ordinary seeds into Lingzhong?” He Fan scratched the back of his head in confusion, hitting on the key question.
“Senior Sister, can’t your Mulingli remain in the seeds?”
“No, it can’t. If you don’t believe me, I’ll show you. Give me a handful of seeds.”
You Yu took out a handful of identical seeds. Ji Qing took them, mobilized the Mulingli within her body, gathered it in her palm, and wrapped the seeds in it.
After a moment, she withdrew her spiritual power and showed the seeds to You Yu.
You Yu took them and sensed them—there truly wasn’t a trace of spiritual power lingering in these seeds, let alone any nourishment of the embryo.
And Ji Qing had nourished them for even longer than You Yu had last night.
“Could Junior Sister’s Mu Linggen be mutated?” Rong Xuan guessed.
“Why don’t we go ask Master?” Ji Qing didn’t dare jump to conclusions, so she led her junior brothers and sister to the medicine garden.
Jiang Wenji wasn’t weeding today—he was watering the medicinal herbs.
“Master.”
Jiang Wenji saw them but didn’t stop what he was doing. He asked, “Why have you all come?”
“Master, Junior Sister’s Mu Linggen is somewhat abnormal. We can’t figure out the cause, so we came specifically to ask you,” Ji Qing replied.
Jiang Wenji set down the gourd ladle and looked at You Yu. “What’s wrong with your Mu Linggen?”
“Master, last night my Mu Linggen evolved ordinary seeds into Lingzhong, but I can also cultivate the Lingji you gave me.” As she spoke, she brought out the Lingzhong and demonstrated her little bean sprout.
Jiang Wenji first glanced at her little bean sprout, then looked at the seeds in her hand.
They were indeed Lingzhong.
“How did you do it last night? Do it again.”
You Yu took out seeds, nourished them with her spiritual power for a while, then withdrew her spiritual power.
The ordinary seeds were still ordinary seeds, but one could sense the spiritual power lingering within them, and the embryos were rapidly absorbing that spiritual power.
At this rate, these ordinary seeds truly could evolve into Lingzhong.
“Your situation—I’ve never encountered it before either. But it’s said that in ancient times, Mulingli was very powerful,” Jiang Wenji said. “Tell you what, I’ll go to the Cangshu Pavilion when I have time and look for answers for you.”
“Alright, thank you, Master.”
Seeing how obedient she was, Jiang Wenji added a warning: “Your Mu Linggen is different from others’. Don’t let anyone else know about this, so as not to bring trouble upon yourself. Understand?”
“Yes, Master.”
“You all as well.”
“Don’t worry, Master. We won’t tell anyone.”
None of them were loose-tongued, and since this could bring trouble to their junior sister, they would be even less likely to speak of it.
“You all go back first. Xiao Jiu, stay behind.”
Ji Qing and the others guessed he wanted to give You Yu further instructions, so they all left the medicine garden.
After they left, Jiang Wenji stopped watering the herbs and said to You Yu, “Xiao Jiu, try channeling your Mulingli into these medicinal herbs.”
You Yu had never done this before, so Jiang Wenji taught her how.
A quarter of an hour later, the Mulingli in her body was completely depleted.
And the small patch of medicinal herbs before her had their leaves unfurled with the most joy.
“Your spiritual power is exhausted? Go back and meditate to recover,” Jiang Wenji said. “From now on, come here whenever you have time and channel some of your Mulingli into them.”
“Alright, Master. This disciple will head back now.” You Yu bowed to Jiang Wenji and rode her paper crane back.
She didn’t resent Jiang Wenji for roping her into this labor, because she had read in books that depleting one’s spiritual power completely and then absorbing again could promote spiritual power growth.
Returning to her own mountain peak, she first sat in meditation to recover her Mulingli.
Seeing the white specks of light still drilling into her body, a sudden realization struck her: her mutated Mulingli was almost certainly related to those white specks of light!
But what those white specks of light were, she had no idea.
By the time You Yu finished her meditation session, it was almost noon. The grass she had cut yesterday was still not dry enough to burn. She thought to herself—if she could infuse vitality into the grass, could she also draw the vitality out of it?
Grass devoid of vitality would burn easily.
She had never seen anyone do this in the books she’d read, and she didn’t know if it would work.
But trying cost nothing, right?
All research begins with a hypothesis, then verification.
She tried wrapping the weeds with her Mulingli, connecting to the vitality within them, and then slowly drawing it out bit by bit.
It worked!
Everyone in the world knew that Mulingli brought vitality, but no one had ever thought to do the opposite.
At this moment, she also hadn’t considered what kind of paradigm shift this reverse thinking would bring to the understanding of Mulingli.
An hour later, all the grass she had cut yesterday had been turned into withered stalks, devoid of any vitality.
“I feel like my control over Mulingli has become more adept.” You Yu patted her numb legs. “Now I can light a fire.”
She burned the grass, scattered the ashes into the soil, mixed them in, and then sowed the seeds she had prepared last night.
These seeds weren’t from the Earth she knew, and she had no idea how to plant them, so she simply scattered them randomly and decided to see what grew later.
After planting, she felt she still had some Lingli left, so she controlled it to spread a thin layer over the soil.
When she said thin, she meant truly thin—if you didn’t look closely, you wouldn’t even notice the faint green tint on the earth.
After all, she was just a little rookie at the second level of the Lianqi Period, with pitifully little Lingli!
She took out the buns she had made that morning and gnawed on a few, then began cultivating again.
Anyone below the sixth level of the Lianqi Period was still a rookie, unable to learn most Lingji. The only Lingji they could learn were the simplest ones with no real power, like her little sprout vine.
Little Sprout: Who are you looking down on?