Almost immediately, an emerald green sprout climbed up from the seed. It grew rapidly until it was about one-third of a meter tall. Then, it bloomed with a blue spirit flower, and began to grow even taller.
Bai Xiaochun looked over at what was happening, and then turned his attention back to the seed, which he continued to study thoughtfully.
Li Qinghou was watching Bai Xiaochun the whole time, and soon, a virtually undetectable flicker of surprise could be seen deep in his eyes.
While Bai Xiaochun stood there thinking, all of the surrounding Outer Sect disciples were watching Du Lingfei. The plant in her hand was already two thirds of a meter tall, and already had a second flower.
By the time Bai Xiaochun sent some spiritual energy into the seed, Du Lingfei’s spirit plant had already already sprouted with three flowers. Bai Xiaochun didn’t maintain a steady flow of spiritual energy, but rather, sent it in in fits and bursts. In fact, when the seed sprouted, he even blew the first few sprouts away with a breath of air.
After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, Du Lingfei’s face was ashen, and she was gritting her teeth. With her final bit of energy, she caused a sixth blue flower to sprout, after which she breathed a sigh of relief. Placing the plant down next to her, she clasped hands and bowed to Li Qinghou.
Li Qinghou nodded. “Six spirit flowers, all of them superior-grade. Nice job.”
Feeling very pleased with herself, Du Lingfei looked over at Bai Xiaochun. When she saw that his spirit plant wasn’t even one third of a meter tall yet, her sneer widened.
The surrounding outer Sect disciples were getting very excited.
“Elder Sister Du definitely deserves her reputation. That Bluespirit Thistle bloomed with six flowers. That’s incredible! Bai Xiaochun hasn’t even caused one flower to bloom. He’s completely good for nothing.”
“A competition of plant catalysis first involves studying the seed, and then using unique catalysis methods to cause it to grow. In that regard, Elder Sister Du is really at the head of the pack.”
In the middle of all the conversations, Bai Xiaochun’s spirit plant gradually reached a height of one third of a meter. Next, a somewhat shrivelled blue flower appeared. Compared to Du Lingfei’s flowers, it looked rather malnourished, and even elicited some laughs from the crowd. But then, all of a sudden, a second blue flower appeared on the short plant. Next was a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, and a seventh….
In the space of a few breaths, Bai Xiaochun’s spirit plant bloomed with nine flowers!!
This instantly led to widespread shock and disbelief.
Du Lingfei was staring at what to her was a completely unimaginable scene. “Bluespirit Thistle blooms with one flower every third meter. How could this plant have nine flowers when it’s only a third of a meter tall!”
However, things weren’t over yet. Even as the nine small blue flowers appeared, Bai Xiaochun closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then suddenly exhaled sharply. That one breath contained spiritual energy which settled onto the nine flowers and, in the blink of an eye, caused them to begin to shiver and change colors. No longer were they blue, but rather, indigo!
Indigo starts out as blue, but its color is deeper and more profound! 1
As soon as people realized what was happening, their eyes went wide with astonishment.
“That’s… that’s not a Bluespirit Thistle!!”
“Indigospirit Thistle! It’s Indigospirit Thistle, the seed of which is very difficult to distinguish from that of the Bluespirit Thistle! In fact, if you use the catalysis method for Bluespirit Thistle in Indigospirit Thistle, you’ll actually produce a Bluespirit Thistle, except you’ll have wasted the seed!”
Everyone was shocked, and were starting at Bai Xiaochun in disbelief.
Bai Xiaochun opened his eyes, then placed the Indigospirit Thistle off to the side. Chuckling sarcastically, he clasped his hands behind his back and looked at Du Lingfei.
His skill with plants and vegetation had already reached an indescribable level. After studying the seed for a while, he had noticed the differences, and was easily able to tell what type of seed it was.
Du Lingfei’s face flickered; to her, it felt as if someone had just slapped her across the face. She staggered backward a few steps, looking first at her Bluespirit Thistle and then at Bai Xiaochun’s Indigospirit Thistle. Suddenly, her face flushed with heat. Earlier, she had berated Bai Xiaochun for his lack of knowledge, but then, moments later, he had proven definitively that she had wasted the seed.
“This Bai Xiaochun is definitely extremely lucky,” she thought, grinding her teeth. “I assumed it was a Bluespirit Thistle, and he guessed that it was an Indigospirit Thistle. Well, that was just a lucky chance on his part, not him actually identifying the seed!”
“Bai Xiaochun takes the first round,” Li Qinghou said coolly. “That truly was the seed of an Indigospirit Thistle, not a Bluespirit Thistle. They look similar, but some of the veins grow differently. Without studying it down to the finest detail, it’s easy to confuse them.” Looking over at Bai Xiaochun, he waved his hand again, causing a spirit plant to appear.
It was a very unique, with four colors, and nine leaves of different shapes. It also had two flowers on it, one black and one white. The flowers almost seemed in sentient, as they were constantly struggling with each other, as if they wanted to suppress each other. Although the plant seemed like one single plant, if you looked closely you would see the signs that it had been grafted together.
“The first round was dedicated to catalysis. As for the second round, it will focus on identification. This particular spirit plant has been grafted together from numerous other plants. Whichever of you can correctly guess the greatest number of graft materials… will be the winner.”
Li Qinghou sent the grafted plant floating out in front of him, then looked over at Bai Xiaochun. Considering he had brought Bai Xiaochun into the sect, he was very curious to see what other surprising things he could do.
Du Lingfei gritted her teeth. In her mind, she had just been careless moments ago. Now, she was unprecedentedly focused. Taking out a jade slip, she walked up to the spirit plant.
Bai Xiaochun’s eyes gleamed with interest as he also stepped forward and began to examine the plant, occasionally making notations in a jade slip. A moment later, Du Lingfei stepped back, rubbing the bridge of her nose. Then she looked over at Bai Xiaochun with a grim expression on her face. She had identified eight types of plants. The others were types she didn’t recognize.
However, Bai Xiaochun wasn’t finished. His eyes were glowing even more brightly as he buzzed around the plant in circles. Occasionally he even cried out in surprise, as if he had just noticed something very interesting.
“Wow, you can do that!?
“Well this… this is very interesting!”
The crowd looked on silently. None of them believed that Bai Xiaochun could identify any of the plants, and in fact, most of them were convinced that the reason he had catalyzed the Indigospirit Thistle was simply luck.
“Faker!” Du Lingfei thought. “Yeah, you just keep on faking it!” Inwardly, she was starting to feel uneasy, and her hatred for Bai Xiaochun only continued to grow.
Enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, and Bai Xiaochun was still going. He really was completely absorbed in what he was doing, and had even forgotten that he was in a competition. Seeing a grafted plant like this had seemingly opened up a huge door in his mind regarding skill with plants and vegetation. All of a sudden, he realized that the tens of thousands of medicinal plants he was familiar with were not just useful on their own, but could actually be mixed together.
Eventually, he backed up reluctantly, eyes shining with fascination and admiration.