The spiritual plants in the medicinal garden seemed to sense the shift in atmosphere, swaying one after another. The moon-essence grass shook off a layer of silver radiance, the gold-patterned lingzhi puffed out fine golden powder, and the man-eating flower king even cautiously extended a vine to lightly tap the tip of Li Nanzhu's shoe.
"See? They're all comforting you," Duan Xianxing said with a grin, reaching out to ruffle Li Nanzhu's hair, only to have his hand swatted away by Suisui’s skeletal claw halfway.
"Ouch!" Duan Xianxing shook his hand dramatically. "You little ingrate, I’m trying to help her!"
The blue flames in Suisui’s eye sockets flickered twice as it pulled a mushroom spore flashing with electricity from between its ribs, making a move to throw it at Duan Xianxing.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Duan Xianxing scrambled back two steps, hiding behind Liu Qingyang. "I give up, okay?"
Li Nanzhu finally broke into a laugh through her tears. She looked down at the feisty Suisui in her arms, and the heavy feeling in her heart gradually dissipated. Sensing her change in mood, Suisui immediately dropped its aggressive stance and obediently rubbed its skull against her wrist.
Watching this scene, Zhu Yinxi twirled his jade flute in a beautiful arc between his fingers. "It seems our little junior sister has found quite an extraordinary companion."
Liu Qingyang tightened his green headwrap and said thoughtfully, "Still, an existence like Suisui... I doubt you’d find a second one in the entire cultivation world."
Hearing this, Li Nanzhu subconsciously pulled Suisui closer.
Regardless of anything else, since Suisui had chosen her, she had to protect it. She had just been overthinking things earlier; how could she have thought about leaving Suisui here? If Cang Dongqing eventually made her way here and saw such a unique existence like Suisui, she would certainly find every possible way to take it away.
That wouldn't have been for its own good; it would have been its undoing.
"Since the problem is solved now," Duan Xianxing chuckled, "should we continue heading down?"
Li Nanzhu picked up Suisui and bowed deeply to the spiritual plants.
"Thank you for the gifts you gave Suisui. If I can, I’ll bring Suisui back to see you in the future."
As soon as Li Nanzhu finished speaking, the plants in the medicinal garden suddenly grew restless. The moon-essence grass shook its silver leaves violently, the cap of the gold-patterned lingzhi opened and closed, and even the man-eating flower king anxiously slapped the ground with its vines.
"What are they doing...?" Duan Xianxing took a cautious step back.
Suisui jumped down from Li Nanzhu’s arms and clattered into the middle of the plants.
It first touched the leaves of the moon-essence grass, then gently stroked the cap of the gold-patterned lingzhi, and finally stopped before the man-eating flower king, rubbing its skull against the thick primary root.
Surprisingly, the man-eating flower king's three eyes actually glistened with moisture.
It carefully used a vine to wrap around Suisui and lift it high into the air. Suddenly, it tore off its most precious central petal and tossed it into the air along with the other plants' gifts.
The silver leaves of the moon-essence grass turned into points of light the moment they detached from the parent plant. The flesh of the gold-patterned lingzhi let out a creaking sound as it tore, and the explosive flame fruit directly burst open, forcing the fire seeds out from its core.
These treasures converged in mid-air, finally condensing into a crystalline green bead that slowly fell into Suisui's empty chest cavity.
The bead turned into flowing light the moment it touched the bones, engraving fine leaf-vein patterns onto every single one of Suisui's bones.
"Is this... the origin gift of the spiritual plants?" Zhu Yinxi looked at the scene with surprise. "They gave a portion of their life force to Suisui."
Li Nanzhu's eyes reddened again.
She saw the patterns on Suisui's skeletal frame flickering in rhythm with its breathing, flowing as if they were alive.
Even more miraculously, the cracks where the bones had once been broken were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The man-eating flower king suddenly pointed a vine toward a corner of the garden—there was a clump of inconspicuous blue flowers glowing there.
As the light grew brighter, the patterns of an ancient teleportation array gradually emerged on the ground.
"There’s a stroke of luck like this?" Duan Xianxing's eyes lit up. "We don't have to backtrack!"
Zhu Yinxi carefully inspected the array. "It's also a one-way teleportation array. Judging by the patterns, it should lead deeper into the cave dwelling."
Suisui ran back and tugged on the hem of Li Nanzhu’s clothes, pointing a skeletal claw toward the teleportation array before making a 'safe' gesture.
"You even understand this?" Liu Qingyang raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Just as the group prepared to step into the array, the man-eating flower king suddenly blocked them.
It used its vines to bring over five pieces of gold-patterned lingzhi caps and tied them to the waists of the four people and Suisui's pelvis.
"Is this... a protective talisman?" Li Nanzhu touched the cap, feeling the surging spiritual energy within.
The man-eating flower king nodded and handed Suisui a separate small bundle—woven from some kind of spiritual plant fiber and filled with various seeds.
Suisui solemnly tied the bundle to its ribs and then clattered something to the spiritual plants. All the plants swayed in unison as if performing a final farewell.
Li Nanzhu looked at these plants, seeing them so full of life, and remembered how in the original story they were dug up directly with their soil, never even showing these traits.
Or perhaps they had, but after Cang Dongqing took them away by their roots, they completely lost this hard-won sentience—especially now that they had given so much of themselves to Suisui.
"Can your teleportation array be closed?" Li Nanzhu asked seriously. "I mean, making it so no one can teleport here again, but instead be sent directly to the next area."
She really liked these plants that were so kind to Suisui and didn't want them to be ruined like that.
The plants suddenly went still for a moment, leaves and vines suspended in mid-air as if pondering Li Nanzhu's abrupt request.
"Little junior sister...?" Duan Xianxing looked at Li Nanzhu in surprise, not quite understanding why she would suddenly suggest closing the teleportation array.
"Just because we can come here doesn't mean others won't." Li Nanzhu unconsciously rubbed Suisui's skull. She felt it was better to speak clearly. Back when she read novels, she hated the male and female leads who wouldn't open their mouths; clearly, all sorts of misunderstandings could be avoided with an explanation, yet they insisted on keeping their mouths shut as if they were sealed with super glue.
Isn't it better to just say what’s on your mind and avoid misunderstandings?
That was her thought now. Even if they didn't ask, she would proactively explain her reasons.
Moreover, selfishly, she was unwilling to let Cang Dongqing get these spiritual plants. The more Cang Dongqing obtained, the stronger she would become and the harder she would be to deal with. Cutting off one opportunity at a time was the way to go.
"Especially people from the Sword Heart Sect. If we could get here, they have two Golden Core stage cultivators, so their journey will only be easier. Not everyone will follow the rules here like we did."
"...The people from the Sword Heart Sect... surely they wouldn't?" Liu Qingyang hesitated. After all, in his eyes, the Sword Heart Sect wouldn't do something that would damage their own fortune.
"Wealth stirs the hearts of men," Zhu Yinxi said, shaking his head. "You can't guarantee that everyone will behave. As long as one person starts, the others will abandon their principles. People care more about what’s right in front of them than abstract fortune."
Liu Qingyang wanted to say more, but remembering the behavior of the Sword Heart Sect group outside the cave dwelling and the incident at the inn, he ultimately shook his head.
"Brother Zhu is right." Liu Qingyang looked at the man-eating flower king. "I just don't know if they have a way. If they don't, the four of us alone won't be able to do anything to this array."
The man-eating flower king's flower head bobbed up and down, and the other plants followed suit. Their branches and leaves quickly pointed at the teleportation array and then at several specific positions, as if telling them what to do.
The gold-patterned lingzhi even shook off a few more pieces of its cap, proactively piling them around the teleportation array as if to help.
Duan Xianxing scratched his head. "But if we do that, won't Suisui..."
Suisui suddenly disassembled and reconstructed itself in the air, forming a 'no' gesture.
It patted the small bundle on its chest with its skeletal claw and pointed to the gold-patterned lingzhi talismans tied to the group's waists—these were the best mementos.
Li Nanzhu's eyes felt warm. "Okay, let's do it together."
Suisui was then surrounded by the spiritual plants for a final farewell.
The man-eating flower king used a vine to carve four grooves into the ground where the teleportation array was located, with a flickering point of light at the end of each line.
The gold-patterned lingzhi rolled to the intersection of the lines, its cap splitting open to reveal golden mycelium essence.
Liu Qingyang smiled. "Luckily there are four of us, otherwise this really would be hard to handle."
Zhu Yinxi tapped his jade flute on the nearest groove. "I’ll take the Kan position."
As Li Nanzhu crouched down, she discovered that what was flowing in the grooves was actually the sap of the spiritual plants—they were also using their own strength to change the array!
Suisui crouched by her feet, pressing its skeletal claw onto the smallest point of light. The leaf-vein patterns on its bones resonated with the light.
"Three, two, one!"
The moment the four streams of spiritual energy were injected simultaneously, the entire garden shook violently.
Countless threads of light were drawn from the bodies of the spiritual plants, weaving into a dense net above the array.
"The array is restructuring!" Zhu Yinxi quickly pulled everyone back a few steps. "It really is changing the teleportation rules."
Before he finished speaking, every plant in the medicinal garden suddenly glowed. Countless points of light floated out from leaves, caps, and petals, converging above the teleportation array.
The ball of light grew brighter and brighter before finally exploding with a 'pop,' turning into a rain of light that fell onto the modified array diagram.
The originally complex patterns were now simplified into a glowing ring with a leaf-shaped mark in the center.
"One-way teleportation, and the original path is permanently closed." Zhu Yinxi's jade flute tapped the edge of the array, stirring a ripple. "These spiritual plants... paid a price of thirty percent of their life force."
Li Nanzhu’s nose felt sore.
She crouched down and lightly touched the ground with her fingertips. "Thank you," she whispered so softly it was almost inaudible. "I will definitely protect Suisui."
The man-eating flower king touched her fingertip with a vine, and the other plants swayed in response.
Most surprisingly, the spiritual plants that had parts taken from them were wilting at a speed visible to the naked eye—they were deliberately creating the illusion of having been plundered.
"Clever," Liu Qingyang whispered. "This way, even if others come later, they’ll only think the valuable things have already been taken. They won't bother with these wilted plants that have already lost their value."
The light of the teleportation array suddenly began to grow unstable. Zhu Yinxi was the first to step in. "It’s time to go; the array won’t hold for much longer."
The others stepped into the circle of light one after another.
Just as Li Nanzhu stepped in, she suddenly heard a faint clicking sound.
Looking down, she saw that a spore of the gold-patterned lingzhi had somehow found its way into the bell on Suisui's tailbone, gently tapping against the metal with the vibrations.
That wasn't a parting gift.
It was a promise of reunion planted by the spiritual plants.
In the final moment before the light swallowed her vision, Li Nanzhu saw the man-eating flower king make a strange gesture with its vines—three vines overlapping like a flower bud.
She had read about this gesture in the original story. It was a blessing ritual among ancient spiritual plants, meaning—
"May your roots always reach the sweet springs."
Rate on N.U.
