Li Qinghou and Elder Sun exchanged a glance, and then Li Qinghou said, “Very well. The time has come to reveal which spirit plants you’ve identified. Du Lingfei, you go first.”
Du Lingfei gritted her teeth, then pulled out her jade slip and began to speak.
“I saw eight types of plants, including Waterheaven Rhubarb, Coldsole Root, Earthdragon Fruit, Dawnfog Lichen….” She continued on until she reached the final medicinal plant. “Sealwort Flower!” With that, Du Lingfei looked over at Bai Xiaochun, certain that he would never be able to surpass her. Of course, although eight didn’t seem like a lot, it was an incredibly difficult task to identify the various elements of a perfectly grafted medicinal plant like this. Eight was actually quite a bit.
“Hmph. If Bai Xiaochun is shameless enough to say the same eight plants,” she said coldly, “then we can can consult the jade slips as proof!”
Bai Xiaochun cleared his throat, looked around, then flicked his sleeve and pulled out the jade slip that held his notes.
“Let’s forget the eight plants that Elder Sister Du mentioned. Other than those, I saw a total of 67 types of medicinal plants. Unfortunately, there were 31 that I couldn’t identify. That means that in the end, I identified 36.” His words instantly sent the surrounding disciples into an uproar.
“36? How is that possible!”
“Seven or eight should be the limit. How could he possibly have identified dozens?!”
Du Lingfei glared coldly at Bai Xiaochun. She simply didn’t believe his words, and assumed that he was going to just randomly guess the types of plants.
“Junior Brother Bai,” she said sarcastically, “why don’t you just say there were 30,000 types of plants. That would cover everything in the third volume of plants and vegetation, so at least you would be certain of guessing a few right.”
1. This is a common Chinese expression to express how something that comes after/from something else, is superior
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Chapter
34: Crushing It in Plants and Vegetation
All of the Outer Sect disciples in the audience snickered in response to what Du Lingfei had just said. None of them believed that Bai Xiaochun’s skill with plants and vegetation could possibly match up to hers.
That was especially true after hearing the last thing he said, which seemed completely unbelievable. Obviously, Bai Xiaochun was just going to blindly guess at the grafted plants.
“If Bai Xiaochun really can identify all those types of plants, then his skill with the plants and vegetation of the first three volumes would put him on the same level as Elder Sister Zhou Xinqi! How could that be possible!?”
“Ah, he’s just being cryptic to confuse everyone. This guy is so annoying! At least he’ll finally be exposed as a fraud!”
As everyone jeered and mocked Bai Xiaochun, he stood there, frowning slightly.
“Are you people finished yet?” he said, his expression ice cold, true anger finally burning in his heart. If this were a combat situation, he wouldn’t feel like that. But considering his grand aspiration of becoming a master apothecary, for people to doubt his abilities with plants and vegetation was a huge insult.
“You can say I’m just lucky, and you can say I won because of my magical items. But when it comes to the Dao of plants and vegetation, don’t think that your superficial knowledge enables you to see the length and breadth of Heaven and Earth!”
When his voice echoed out, solemn and serious, his slight frame suddenly seemed more like a towering mountain. The cold way he looked at the Outer Sect disciples caused their laughter to turn into stares of shock.
Even Du Lingfei was taken aback. The Bai Xiaochun in front of her right now seemed like a completely different person than the one from before.
Bai Xiaochun snorted coldly and then flicked his sleeve. Abandoning his normally charming yet aggravating demeanor, he stood with his hands clasped behind his back, looked around coldly, and then began to speak, radiating a strange, indescribable energy. “This spirit plant, which I’ll tentatively refer to as a Black-White Orchid, contains Goldsilver Root, Heavenyellow Leaf, Watery Netgrass, Ninelands Fruit, Spiral Pulp, Bordercloud Bloom, Searchwind Stalk, Yang-Soaking Fruit….”
As he continued to speak, that energy grew stronger and stronger, leading to strange expressions on the faces of the spectators.
That was especially true of Du Lingfei, whose frown deepened as she looked over at the spirit plant. She was familiar with all of the medicinal plants that Bai Xiaochun referenced, which were indeed from the first three volumes of plants and vegetation, and yet she couldn’t see any evidence whatsoever that they existed within the grafted plant.
Du Lingfei snorted, still completely unconvinced that Bai Xiaochun was actually identifying the grafted plants. “Seems like you really are just going to recite a bunch of random plants from the first three volumes of plants and vegetation. If you can actually recite all of those plants from memory, then I guess I’ll have lost, and in fact, I’ll admit defeat.”
Everyone began to once again ridicule and mock Bai Xiaochun.
“Yeah, that’s right. If you’re good enough, then why don’t you recite the entire first three volumes of plants and vegetation!? Then you’ll definitely win!”
“Trying to seem cryptic, huh? Superficial knowledge? The length and breadth of Heaven and Earth? You’re the one with the superficial knowledge. If you don’t recognize the plants, just say so. There’s no need to try to pull a fast one. How despicable!”
Bai Xiaochun looked coldly at Du Lingfei, then back at the crowd. Then he laughed, looked back and the plant, and continued, “Grow Hundredgrass Root for thirty years until it becomes fullgrown Hundredgrass. Remove the stalks and veins, roast them, then soak them in spirit water. After that, graft them onto Skybleak Leaf, and you end up with this distinctive spotting pattern.” Bai Xiaochun waved his hand, causing a slight gust of wind to lift up one of the leaves on the plant, revealing a distinctive spotting pattern.
“Nine Skybleak Leaves have been combined into a single leaf, and then fed Whiteburn Flowers as they grew. You can see that right here!
“Whiteburn Flowers only bloom once they reach one hundred years of age. When they do, you have only one hundred breaths of time to graft them onto a Clover Ginseng, which you can use to feed the Skybleak Leaf. This white flower here is obviously a Whiteburn Flower!
“Clover Ginseng, when roasted with spirit fire, eventually withers, infusing the ginseng with the essence of the leaves. That will then aid in the growth of Flatshell Seed, and the two can be combined!
“Then, that Flatshell Seed….” As Bai Xiaochun spoke, he gestured grandiosely, pointing out the various parts of the spirit plant which contained the evidence he referred to. His descriptions were very precise, and even included the various techniques involved. Soon, the looks of scorn faded away, and everyone began to breathe heavily. Faces fell, and eventually, all the Outer Sect disciple had looks of disbelief on their faces. There were even some people who cried out aloud with shock.
“This is impossible!!”
“Heavens, how could he be doing this!?”
Each and every statement uttered by Bai Xiaochun was like an invisible palm slapping these people. After all, all of them were apprentice apothecaries. Earlier, they hadn’t been able to see through the secrets hidden in the spirit plant, but with Bai Xiaochun’s detailed explanation, all of a sudden, it seemed to make more sense.
Everything Bai Xiaochun said was correct, and complete. His performance was a like a huge slap in the face to all of the Outer Sect disciples.