Chapter 29

Su Jin got home from school, put down her schoolbag and small basket, and ran to the backyard.

Her red ginseng seedlings each vigorously waved their tiny leaves, as if filing complaints against her.

“I heard you, I heard you—I’ll go pull the bugs out of the soil right away,” Su Jin replied helplessly.

Although these little red ginsengs couldn’t clearly transmit their thoughts to her like Xue Chiluo could, they still could communicate.

For instance, panic, pain, fear, disgust, and especially complaints.

The moment she stepped through the door, they flooded her with all these emotions.

Most of them were about bugs: “Save us! Complain!”

Su Jin pulled out her silver needles and diligently chased down the bugs in the soil. After a long while, she finally cleared the earth beneath the little red ginsengs.

This time she caught ten white-thread hookworms.

This time, instead of destroying them outright, she placed the captured worms into a small wooden box.

Yun’s wife had just caught a common spiritual hen, along with six chicks.

These worms would make perfect extra food for them.

White-thread hookworms were pests, but they were real spiritual insects—eating them brought great benefits to spiritual chickens.

“The number of worms I caught today seems excessive. That’s odd. I remember when Father planted red ginseng, there weren’t nearly this many bugs in the early stages?”

Father’s red ginseng seedlings had been growing for over a month, and he could only pull out five or six bugs per mu. But why, when I planted just this tiny patch, only eight or nine days ago, did I catch so many white-thread hookworms?

Are my red ginseng seedlings that delicious?

If this keeps up, when the red ginseng nears maturity and begins to flower and fruit, won’t the soil be crawling with bugs?

Will I even be able to save my ginseng?”

The more Su Jin thought about it, the more depressed she became.

“I’ll have to go to the clan school library and look up more books on pest control,” Su Jin thought silently.

In the following days, Su Jin diligently studied and meditated on her cultivation method, striving to achieve triple cultivation soon, while also visiting the clan school’s library every day to search for remedies against white-thread hookworms. After searching many shelves, she finally found a book covered in dust at the bottom corner of one shelf: “Six Hundred Cases of Pest Control,” by Su Pangjun.

Within this seemingly ordinary, simple book, Su Jin found the method she needed to prevent and control white-thread hookworms.

The book introduced three methods to rid red ginseng of pests.

One was a medicinal formula.

According to the book, spraying the liquid once every half-month would completely eradicate white-thread hookworms.

But… Su Jin looked at the formula. Every ingredient listed was expensive, and she’d have to brew a fresh batch every half-month—she couldn’t afford it.

The second method was to raise a special spiritual chicken called Panshan Chicken, which exclusively ate white-thread hookworms. Once you kept these spiritual chickens, you no longer had to worry about white-thread hookworms destroying your ginseng—they’d all end up in the chickens’ stomachs.

But according to Su Jin’s knowledge, Panshan Chickens had long been extinct. So this second method was impossible.

The third method, the book said, was a legend the author had heard—its existence was uncertain.

Legend had it that in ancient times, the great shamans of the Wood Clan cultivated a mutated red ginseng, which they named Xue Chiluo. Xue Chiluo was itself a companion spirit bred by the Wood Shamans—a type of wood-elemental spirit.

Upon birth, Xue Chiluo possessed its own spiritual awareness. It was fiercely loyal to its master and protected various ginseng-type spiritual herbs, driving away and devouring numerous pests.

More capable than a watchdog.

Crucially, Xue Chiluo excelled at eating insects. If you kept a few in your herb garden, the flowers and plants there would thrive, free from any pest threat.

Xue Chiluo also possessed an innate supernatural ability: it could draw blood and bodily fluids from all living beings at a distance to strengthen itself. It was said that high-level Xue Chiluo could even nourish their masters in return.

The book didn’t specify how exactly it would nourish its master.

Su Jin thought: Su Pangjun, you’re letting me down at the critical moment??

Author Su Pangjun held Xue Chiluo from ancient times in extremely high regard.

He even lamented that he wasn’t born in ancient times, or he’d have definitely acquired a few to raise.

After reading it, Su Jin wondered: Could the Xue Chiluo I’m raising in my Xiao Wutian be the one described in this book?

After all, they’re both called Xue Chiluo!

If the little sprout in my Xiao Wutian truly is an ancient Xue Chiluo, how do I get it out of Xiao Wutian to help protect my little red ginsengs?

Su Jin held the book in her hands and began searching for other books about ancient Xue Chiluo.

Unfortunately, she found none.

In the end, she could only take “Six Hundred Cases of Pest Control.”

The next morning, as soon as she arrived at school, she saw Su Wuji sitting at his desk beaming with joy.

Su Cheng and Su Yunhu were both smiling broadly, congratulating him.

“What happened?” Su Jin sat down at her chair and asked.

“Hahaha, I broke through to Qi Refining Level Two last night,” Su Wuji said.

“How are you so strong? We’ve only been cultivating for fifteen days!” Su Jin exclaimed, astonished and impressed.

“Well, I had the Spirit Gathering Array to help, and Grandpa even brought back a spiritual pear. With so much support, of course I broke through early. But it’s not that impressive—I heard someone else broke through to Qi Refining Level Two three days ago. They probably ate plenty of good stuff too.”

“My aunt also said she’ll get me a spiritual fish in a couple of days,” Su Cheng said.

“My father said he’ll get me a few pounds of spiritual beef,” Su Yunhu added.

“If I keep cultivating normally, I should break through to Qi Refining Level Two in about ten days,” Su Jin mused. “A few days earlier or later shouldn’t matter much.”

“But I still want to break through sooner,” Su Cheng said.

“Me too,” Su Yunhu chimed in.

“Then aim to break through these next few days,” Su Jin encouraged. Her body cultivation technique had finally become second nature to her—today, she planned to begin triple cultivation.

“Su Jin, why don’t you ask your family to prepare some spiritual items? I’m sure if you ate them, you’d break through to Qi Refining Level Two quickly,” Su Wuji asked, puzzled.

“A few days earlier or later doesn’t really matter—you all know that breaking from Qi Refining Level Two to Three is much harder. Besides, I’m aiming for triple cultivation; my breakthrough might come even later.”

“So it’s better to wait a bit—let me get used to it first.”

Su Wuji and Su Cheng both turned pale at her words.