What kind of flower is ticklish!
But the man-eating flower king didn't care about that. Its main root reared up high, about to strike down—
"Let me handle this!" Duan Xianxing suddenly rushed out. Under everyone's horrified gaze, he performed a precision knee-slide directly under the flower king's main root and curved his hands into claws: "Take this! Tickling Technique!"
"Scritch-scratch, scritch-scratch—"
The man-eating flower king's movements suddenly froze.
Its three eyes bulged wide, and the main root began to tremble suspiciously. As Duan Xianxing increased the intensity, the entire flower began to sway violently, and a strange "gurgling" sound came from its flower disk.
"It's... laughing?" Liu Qingyang's worldview shattered into pieces.
The giant sunflower used its leaves to cover its flower disk, its stem bending into a bow. A second later, a loud "retch" was heard.
"I can't take it, blegh... This thing hasn't brushed its teeth in hundreds of years, it stinks, blegh!" Duan Xianxing's nose was clearly overwhelmed by the stench.
This behavior clearly enraged the opponent. Overcome with shame and anger, the man-eating flower king slammed its main root into the ground. Suddenly, all the spiritual plants in the medicinal garden turned in unison, surrounding them menacingly.
"Run!" Li Nanzhu didn't even have time to worry about Suisui. It was just a bunch of bones and would be fine, but she would definitely have a problem if she was torn apart!
In his haste, Liu Qingyang stepped on a handful of seeds. The seeds sprouted instantly into vines, nearly wrapping him up like a zongzi, but luckily Liu Qingyang was fast enough.
Meanwhile, Zhu Yinxi had already vanished back to the octagonal pavilion before everything happened, calmly watching the three of them in their pathetic state.
In the end, it was Duan Xianxing who saved them. Somehow, he had climbed onto the man-eating flower king's disk and was hugging the central stamen, shouting: "If you come any closer, I'll keep tickling!"
The medicinal garden instantly fell still.
The gold-patterned lingzhi rolled silently back to its spot, the vines retreated obediently, and even the arrogant moon-essence grass lowered its leaves and stopped moving.
The man-eating flower king's three eyes blinked piteously. With a gentle shake of its main root, it set Duan Xianxing on the ground and then "shloop"—it tunneled back into the soil, leaving only a mound on the surface.
"...Seventh Senior Brother, did you bully it a bit too much?" After a long silence, Li Nanzhu spoke up.
"I think so too," Liu Qingyang agreed, nodding.
"Agreed," Zhu Yinxi said as he walked back out.
Duan Xianxing patted the pollen off himself. "I was giving it a free massage, okay? See, it was so comfortable it went back into the ground."
Just as he finished speaking, the ground suddenly cracked. A vine "shlooped" out, wrapped around Duan Xianxing's ankle, and dangled him upside down, shaking him.
The ground shook violently as the man-eating flower king burst out of the earth again. Its three eyes were teary as it shook its flower disk—
"Achoo!"
A glob of sticky nectar sprayed directly onto Duan Xianxing's face, instantly sealing his eyes and nostrils.
A sickeningly sweet scent mixed with a fermented sour stench rushed into his brain. The nectar was also filled with suspicious particles that slowly slid down his face...
"Blegh—this is worse than Third Senior Brother's pills—blegh—" Duan Xianxing wiped his face frantically, but the more he wiped, the stickier it became. Eventually, his entire face turned an amber color. He felt as if he were about to faint.
Li Nanzhu's shoulders shook as she tried to stifle her laughter. "Is it... taking revenge on you?"
Ultimately, it was Zhu Yinxi who summoned a stream of water to thoroughly wash the nectar off Duan Xianxing's face.
"This flower is way too petty!" He wiped his face indignantly. "I just tickled it a few times! Was it really necessary to spray nectar all over me?"
Li Nanzhu struggled to hold back her laughter, her shoulders shaking. "Seventh Senior Brother, are you sure it was just 'a few times'? It was shaking so hard it almost fell apart."
"Then why didn't it spray the rest of you?" Duan Xianxing grumbled stubbornly.
Zhu Yinxi glanced at him. "Because I, unlike certain people, don't enjoy crawling into flower stamens."
Duan Xianxing: "..."
"You're all bullying me, waaah!" A moment later, Duan Xianxing lay directly on the ground and started wailing. Li Nanzhu turned away silently; she just wanted to say she didn't know this childish guy at all!
Seeing Duan Xianxing rolling on the ground, the spiritual plants in the garden suddenly became active. Like a crowd of onlookers who loved a good show, their leaves rustled and shook incessantly.
"Are they laughing at me!" Duan Xianxing scrambled to his feet.
As soon as he said it, a bright red chili plant suddenly "poofed" out a cloud of spicy smoke, accurately clouding Duan Xianxing's face.
"Cough, cough... What is this! It's so pungent! Cough, cough!" Duan Xianxing's face was a mess of tears and snot.
Zhu Yinxi once again silently distanced himself from Duan Xianxing, saying calmly, "Mature spiritual plants can be a bit... naughty."
"Naughty?" Liu Qingyang looked at his ankle, which had been wrapped by a vine at some point. "You call this naughty?"
Before he could finish, he was hoisted upside down, shaken, and then "plop"—he was tossed into the spring at the center of the medicinal garden.
"Glug, glug... this water..." Liu Qingyang emerged from the water, took another sip in surprise, and said, "The spiritual energy is actually so abundant!"
Before the others could respond, he saw his hair in the water's reflection beginning to glow.
The green color spread rapidly from the roots like a living thing. In the blink of an eye, his black hair was dyed a piercing fluorescent green. Under the sunlight, it looked like he was wearing a clump of glowing seaweed on his head.
Li Nanzhu looked with some pity at Liu Qingyang, who was about to bottle some of the spring water, and finally couldn't help but tell him the truth.
"This should be Hundred-Herb Dew. It changes color for three days if you touch it, but..."
"But what?" Liu Qingyang's hand paused on the porcelain bottle, a bad premonition rising within him.
"...You could also interpret it as the spiritual plants'..." Li Nanzhu tried to phrase it as tactfully as possible, "Uh, ex—no, waste product. Yes, waste product!"
The group watched as Liu Qingyang's face changed colors repeatedly, shifting between red and black like an opera performer. Eventually, he let out a heavy sigh.
"At least it's from spiritual plants, it's not dirty." Liu Qingyang tried his best to convince himself as he climbed onto the shore, letting Zhu Yinxi hit him with seven or eight water streams to wash off.
The man-eating flower king poked half its disk out of the soil. Its three eyes narrowed into crescents, and a gurgling sound came from the stamen—this time, anyone could tell it was laughing.
"What do we do now?" a green-haired Liu Qingyang asked, utterly drained. Right now, he was even worse off than Duan Xianxing. At least that guy was amber; what was he supposed to do with a head of green hair?
"The color will fade naturally after three days," Li Nanzhu recalled from her books. Seeing his expression, she finally handed him a large headscarf.
"If all else fails, wrap it up with this. It's only three days anyway. You wouldn't want people to know that the prestigious son of the Water Moon Sect's leader is wandering around a cave dwelling with a head of green hair!"
Liu Qingyang eventually gritted his teeth and wrapped his hair up. Although it looked ugly, it was much better than the green.
Fortunately, it didn't affect much else. The spiritual plants returned to their lazy state, only shaking their leaves occasionally as if watching a play.
"What now?" Liu Qingyang asked in a low voice. "Are we still harvesting?"
"We harvest!" Duan Xianxing gritted his teeth. "I have to settle the score!"
Li Nanzhu sighed. "Seventh Senior Brother, are you sure you're not just rushing to your doom?"
"Not a second time!" Duan Xianxing charged directly toward the thunder-attribute plant he had been eyeing earlier.
It was a mushroom that emitted lightning. Small sparks danced on its cap, making it look quite majestic.
"This is cool! It matches me perfectly!" Confidently, he reached out to touch the mushroom.
"Crack-crackle!"
A flash of lightning surged. Duan Xianxing's hair stood on end like a cat that had its tail stepped on, and a small puff of black smoke even drifted from his mouth.
The mushroom shook its cap triumphantly and puffed out a few more sparks, forming a smiley face in the air.
Duan Xianxing gritted his teeth. "You're finished!" He suddenly whipped out his copper gong—
"CLANG!!!"
The deafening sound startled the mushroom, causing its cap to shrivel.
Piteously, it dropped three tiny mushrooms and then "shlooped" back into the soil.
Duan Xianxing leaned down triumphantly to pick them up. The moment he touched the small mushrooms, the large one released an electric charge from the soil. The shock sent Duan Xianxing jumping three yards high. "Ow! This mushroom was faking death!!"
"He never learns," Li Nanzhu shook her head helplessly. How could the spiritual plants here be so easy to pick? Fortunately, they weren't malicious; they were just playing pranks.
The other two were much more successful. Liu Qingyang had chosen an explosive flame fruit. The fist-sized red fruit was currently smoking.
As soon as Liu Qingyang reached out, the fruit suddenly went bang. However, it wasn't fire that came out, but a cloud of red powder that dyed Liu Qingyang from head to toe the color of a tomato.
"Hahaha!" Duan Xianxing pointed at the human-shaped tomato that was Liu Qingyang and laughed until he couldn't breathe. "He was green a moment ago, now he's red! Hahaha!"
The explosive flame fruit's leaves curled triumphantly as it grew a new fruit.
Luckily, Liu Qingyang had learned his lesson. He took out a water skin and made a watering gesture.
The fruit immediately shook happily, dropped off on its own, and rolled to his feet. It even thoughtfully replaced the powder with ordinary sparks that wouldn't stain.
"So I just had to pretend to water it..." Liu Qingyang picked up the fruit, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Zhu Yinxi chose a water-spraying lotus, a blue lotus growing in a pond.
As he approached, the lotus suddenly expanded and sprayed a large ball of water, trapping him inside.
"Second Senior Brother!" Li Nanzhu was about to save him when she saw Zhu Yinxi calmly straightening his wet sleeves inside the water ball.
The water-spraying lotus puffed out several smaller water balls, forming a smiley face, and then flew toward Zhu Yinxi's jade flute.
Zhu Yinxi understood. He placed the jade flute to his lips and blew just a single note. The water-spraying lotus vibrated excitedly and voluntarily offered up a small lotus blossom.
"That... that's it?" Duan Xianxing was dumbfounded.
As for Li Nanzhu herself, it was even simpler. Having been intimidated by the gong earlier, the moon-essence grass very cooperatively allowed her to harvest one of its stalks.
Since everyone could choose three spiritual plants, after figuring out their temperaments, they quickly selected the remaining two they needed.
In the end, it seemed only Duan Xianxing was being targeted. Although depressed, he had at least obtained good items, and he soon adjusted his mindset.
Except...
"Where's Suisui? Why haven't I heard Suisui's bell since then?" Li Nanzhu felt anxious. She had always kept Suisui with her. Though they hadn't been together long, they had built a bond. Suisui was practically the first creature in this cultivation world she had truly opened her heart to. If something happened...
Li Nanzhu didn't dare think further. Even though she knew the plants might not do anything to Suisui, Suisui was just a pile of bones. If it became fertilizer...
Before Li Nanzhu could continue her wild thoughts, the familiar tinkling sound suddenly rang out among the plants again.
"Suisui!"
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