Chapter 143

After dinner, Su Jin took the food box to deliver meals to Su Qingniao and relieve her from duty.

As soon as she stepped outside, she heard crying not far away.

The crying seemed to come from the nearby spirit rice fields.

No need to ask—it must be someone who suffered heavy losses and couldn't bear it anymore.

Su Jin walked straight to the field's edge and saw Su Qingniao lying flat on her back, utterly drained.

Around her body lay a towering pile of her spoils.

Countless rabbits, rodents, insects, and snakes—truly a mountain of corpses.

"Tsk tsk, you really worked hard this afternoon?" Su Jin said with a smile.

"Ugh, I'm exhausted. Here, there's a small bundle of spirit rice stalks over there—add that to the losses from this morning, and I lost twenty-nine stalks today. Not bad, right? I asked around. Others lost even more."

Luckily, tomorrow is the third day—we'll finish our task soon.

Everyone says that as long as tonight's losses aren't too heavy, we still have a good chance of completing the task."

Su Qingniao was too tired to even get up from the ground.

She didn't care about appearances—just lay there.

"Get up quickly, eat your dinner first, then go back and sleep. You'll need to wake up in the middle of the night to cultivate," Su Jin urged, tossing the bundle of stalks into Little Wu Tian.

They were all Crimson Spirit Rice—this top-grade spirit grain, she rarely got to eat herself.

Once she grows enough of it in Little Wu Tian, she can enjoy Crimson Spirit Rice to her heart's content—eat it however she wants.

Su Qingniao struggled to get up; her hands trembled intermittently as she ate.

Su Jin couldn't help but laugh.

"You're laughing? I'm this miserable! By the way, are you sure you don't need me to come help tonight? I saw several groups agreeing to rest first and return later to help." Su Qingniao asked urgently.

"No, no need for you to come back," Su Jin said. "If you come, you might slow me down and create gaps in my defense."

Su Qingniao was left speechless.

Even though what you say makes sense, it makes me feel like a useless waste!

"Fine, fine, I'll go back and rest."

After seeing Su Qingniao off, Su Jin released Xue Xue Chiluo again.

With Xue Xue Chiluo, whether something was above or below ground, no matter what it was, Su Jin didn't need to look at it again.

With nothing else to do, Su Jin began silently cultivating. Lately, she'd been cultivating so much!

And after several recent battles, she felt her mindset was subtly shifting.

By midnight, her Yi Mu Chang Chun Gong naturally overflowed and broke through to Level Three.

After breaking through, Su Jin herself was stunned.

She hadn't even drunk a drop of Mu Hun Ye—and she'd broken through to Qi Condensation Level Three nearly ten days ahead of schedule!

After Yi Mu Chang Chun Gong broke through to Qi Condensation Level Three, her sensitivity to surrounding spirit plants and ordinary herbs grew even sharper.

She knew that tonight, the spirit rice would ripen—and it might trigger a small beast surge and insect swarm.

She'd better bring her Whalebone Bow tomorrow. If anything unexpected happened, the Whalebone Bow would give her some room to act.

The next morning, as dawn barely broke, Su Qingniao arrived.

Su Jin hadn't yet recalled Xue Xue Chiluo, so she let it follow her underground.

"Why are you here so early?"

"I came to check how you're doing," Su Qingniao said quickly.

"How am I doing? Same as always," Su Jin said.

"Then how many spirit rice stalks did you lose last night?" Su Qingniao asked urgently.

"I lost none," Su Jin said.

"How is that possible? I heard everyone lost heavily last night—some lost over a hundred stalks!" Su Qingniao said.

"When I'm on guard, nothing gets lost," Su Jin said smugly.

Su Qingniao was utterly dumbfounded.

Su Jin is so powerful I can't even imagine how she protected every single stalk—none lost at all?

"Where's breakfast?"

"Breakfast hasn't arrived yet," Su Qingniao said.

"Then hurry back and get it," Su Jin urged. "After you eat, this patch is yours again."

Su Qingniao suddenly felt immense pressure.

My partner hasn't lost a single stalk so far!

When Su Qingniao ran back again, Su Jin received her own breakfast. After eating, Su Jin decisively abandoned the reluctant Su Qingniao and returned.

Su Jin is incredibly powerful—that was Su Qingniao's deepest impression lately.

She thought and thought, unable to resist sharing her astonishment, and sent the news to Su Wujie and Su Cheng.

Su Qingniao: "Did you know? Su Jin lost not a single spirit rice stalk last night! She guarded six mu of spirit rice fields and never failed once! I'm shocked!"

Su Wujie: "Su Jin must have secretly broken through. She's probably already reached Qi Condensation Level Three!"

Su Cheng: "Su Jin definitely broke through again. Her breakthroughs are as easy as drinking water. This time, she either broke through to Alchemy Level Four or Qi Condensation Level Three! I heard from my maternal grandmother that Su Jin's mother is Lin Linghua. From childhood, she had the talent of a Great Witch, deeply valued by her tribe—had it not been for an accident that caused her to sleep for three years and ruined her foundation, making her incapable of ascending to Great Witch, she would never have chosen to marry far away to Xiancheng."

So Su Jin, like her mother, has the talent of a Great Witch.

In the Wu tribe, a Great Witch is equivalent to a Nascent Soul cultivator in our sect!

That means Su Jin has the potential to ascend to Nascent Soul!

Su Qingniao read Su Cheng's message, her heart pounding wildly.

She thought: If I've learned this big secret, will someone come to silence me?

Su Qingniao: "Su Cheng, how do you know about Su Jin's mother's background?"

Su Cheng: "My maternal grandmother is the Internal Affairs Director of the Xiancheng Intelligence Bureau."

Su Qingniao: "My apologies, my apologies." Su Qingniao was greatly shocked—she had never imagined that the boy-next-door actually had such a terrifying backer!

Grandfather had strongly recommended that she attend the clan school in the past; looking at it now, it wasn't simply because he had a free enrollment quota for children. She had failed to see through Grandfather's intentions back then, even felt it added to Mother's burden, and had thrown a tantrum at him.

When she got home and saw him this time, she must apologize to him properly.

She really should have entered the clan school to study—if she hadn't entered the clan school, how would she have met so many bizarre classmates?

Buzz buzz buzz—another swarm of insects flew over.

Su Qingniao quickly set aside the distracting thoughts in her mind and began focusing on dealing with the insects.

She had to go all out to protect more of the spirit rice.

When noon came, Su Jin came over to deliver her lunch.

Only to discover that Su Qingniao had actually injured her arm.

A cripple watching over a rice field—what for?

"Eat your lunch and head back. I'll watch over the field this afternoon and tonight."

Su Qingniao's eyes went red.

"I ran into a wild boar this morning. I was careless for a moment and let it ram my arm and injure it."