Chapter 145

Su Jin sensed the instant three wild dogs attacked her; three more gourd seeds instantly appeared beside her, transforming into three gourd vines in the blink of an eye, and all five vines danced together—whap, whap, whap.

They whipped back the bird-snakes, insects, and the three wild dogs that had attacked her.

Especially the three wild dogs, knocked flat on the ground, unable to rise for a long while.

Su Qingniao, who had run over, stared in stunned silence.

Five gourd vines!!

Su Jin had a major breakthrough this time.

“Su Qingniao, hurry up—two field mice ran toward you!” Su Jin, watching Su Qingniao standing frozen in place, twitched her lips in exasperation and quickly called out. She couldn’t keep all five vines dancing for long.

So she still needed Su Qingniao as a little helper.

At the very moment she spoke, a dark shadow shot out at high speed from the thicket to her left.

Its sharp claws gleamed blindingly white even in the pitch-black night.

It was a sizable beast, lunging straight for her throat.

“Danger! It’s a shadow cat! Su Jin, watch out!” Su Qingniao screamed at the top of her lungs.

But the moment the shadow drew near Su Jin—less than a foot away—a streak of golden light sliced cleanly across its head.

A black-and-gray striped cat, the size of a dog, thudded to the ground at Su Jin’s feet.

Su Jin looked down: the cat had been split cleanly from head to tail—undoubtedly the work of her family’s Bu Sa Tan style—perfectly divided. “This cat has no honor.”

Su Qingniao froze for a moment, stumbled on her feet, then barely managed to crush the two plump little field mice that had nearly scurried past her.

“Su Jin, was that just now your trump card?”

“Mm. My grandfather always said, if you don’t have at least two trump cards when you go out, you won’t even finish your missions. I didn’t believe him before—but now I do.” Su Jin, while directing the five gourd vines to whip away countless small creatures and giant insects, spoke with a nostalgic expression.

Hahaha!!

A clear young boy’s voice rang down from above.

“Whose kid is this? So amusing!”

Another, older cultivator’s voice followed: “That’s the child of the Chang Gang family! How could you miss a shadow cat just now?”

“I didn’t mean to—I chased it all the way back,” the boy replied.

“If not for that kid carrying a trump card, Chang Gang would come to your house and strangle you.”

“I really didn’t mean to,” the boy protested.

“If you miss one more, I’ll know you did it on purpose.”

Su Jin listened in disbelief. How could these clan cultivators be so unreliable? Why are they still talking about past oversights? Get to the front line and work! Stop letting more through!

She looked up—the sky was too dark to see anyone.

Most of the insects and bird-snakes here had been killed or paralyzed by her vines.

Su Jin quickly gathered all the spoils and fed them to Xiao Wu Tian, then looked up and shouted: “Pay attention! If you let through even one more shadow cat, even my trump card won’t save me!”

“Got it. I’ll be careful,” came the clear voice of the boy from above.

A chuckle from the older cultivator also drifted down.

After waiting a long while, no more voices came from above.

Su Jin had collected every last spoil.

Su Qingniao finally walked over, looking utterly astonished.

“Su Jin, how dare you shout at those clan Foundation Establishment cultivators? Only Foundation Establishment cultivators can fly!”

Su Jin turned to her, startled: “They’re clan elders. He messed up and nearly got me killed—am I not allowed to say anything?”

“Won’t they get angry?”

“They wouldn’t, would they?”

Su Qingniao: “...”

“Enough. Don’t think about that—another swarm of insects is coming.” Su Jin summoned four new gourd vines.

Since her sudden burst of using five gourd vines earlier, Su Jin had noticed that controlling four vines now felt much smoother. Her spirit threads manipulated them with far less resistance.

“Su Jin, we lost over a dozen spirit rice plants,” Su Qingniao surveyed the field and reported immediately.

“Not many. Less than a hundred total over three days. It’s past midnight now—we’ve only got two more hours left. Just hold on a little longer.” Su Jin said.

Su Qingniao thought it over—she was right.

They were about to finish their mission.

So get back to work.

The ripe spirit rice fields were like vast, sweet baits, luring every hungry creature nearby.

Since it was hard to break through here, they turned to attack other plots. Not every student was as strong as Su Jin and Su Qingniao.

Soon, other rice fields fell.

The sky gradually brightened.

Su Jin and the others finally saw a group of adult cultivators arrive overnight to harvest.

Though exhausted, everyone’s spirits were decent.

Especially when they saw the golden fields of rice.

The final two hours were brutal—Su Jin and Su Qingniao lost another fifty-plus spirit rice plants.

So they’d failed to hold below a hundred. In three days, they’d lost a total of 135 spirit rice plants.

Liu Shi arrived in a large flying cart to pick them up.

“You can go home today—bathe, change clothes, pack more supplies. Tomorrow morning, gather at the clan school gate before class.” With that, she tossed the students into the cart like kittens, then ordered the driver to race toward the inner district.

The students were delivered home; Su Jin got off at the entrance to her alley.

When she returned home, her merit points were awarded: two for completing the mission, one more for reporting the insect infestation.

She now had 156 points.

Sigh!!

Earning points is so hard!

But at least she’d gathered a small patch of over a hundred crimson spirit rice plants from the field.

Maybe someday she could achieve spirit rice freedom.

After washing her clothes and bathing, Su Jin took some Ice-Chen Dew, Earthheart Blueberry Dew, and Wood Soul Elixir and placed them into Xiao Wu Tian. Especially the Wood Soul Elixir—even though she’d already broken through to Qi Refining Stage Three.

But according to her grandfather’s secret tip, once she broke through Qi Refining Stage Three, she must use explosive cultivation.

Break through to Qi Refining Stage Four as fast as possible.

Otherwise, she’d be stuck at this bottleneck for a long time.

Her grandfather said breaking through Qi Refining Stage Four was strange: the more you delayed, the more you tried to be cautious and refine slowly, the harder it became.

The more you charged ahead, the more spirit items you consumed, the easier it became.

He himself had broken through in just six months.

Those with the same or even better talent than him had taken over a year, even two or three years.