Chapter 73

“I’ll go back and take a look later—if buying cultivation techniques from the clan’s library is cheaper, I won’t buy them from those shops outside anymore,” Su Jian said.

“Yes, yes, yes! When that time comes, Su Jian, call me to go with you,” Su Yu immediately beamed. He wanted to go see for himself, but felt a bit afraid going alone. If he went with Su Jian as a group, he’d have more courage.

“Big brother, where are we going? When can we stop so I can practice extracting wood essence?” Su Jin asked.

“Almost there, almost there. Once we reach that little stream ahead, we can stop. There’s a grass pavilion there—perfect for a picnic,” Su Jian said.

Su Jin: So we’re out for a picnic?

“The grass shrimp and river clams in that stream are delicious. Really,” Su Jian told Su Jin.

“Alright, let’s go there then.” Su Jin, swayed by her brother’s strong recommendation, grew interested.

They hadn’t walked long—only about five or six li—when they spotted a small stream, calf-deep and more than a zhang wide, gently flowing.

They walked another five or six hundred meters upstream and saw a small grass pavilion. The base was built of stone, but the roof was thatched with straw.

The pavilion looked humble, but inside it was spacious and clean, ideal for resting.

“Xiao Jin, today we’ll extract wood essence near here. No need to go far,” Su Jian said.

“Alright. I’ll go practice my spell by the ancient tree outside the pavilion.”

“Xiao Jin, don’t wander off,” Su Jian added.

“Relax, relax,” Su Jin left the pavilion, while Su Jian and the others took their tools—but instead of extracting wood essence, they went into the stream to catch shrimp.

Watching the three adults act like children, wading into the stream to catch shrimp, Su Jin sighed helplessly. She found an ancient tree and prepared to practice her spell.

She had just raised her hands, the spell not yet begun.

Xue Chiluo shot off instantly, vanishing into the earth.

“Don’t go too far,” Su Jin sent a mental message to it.

“Yes, Ancestress,” Xue Chiluo darted swiftly through the ground.

What was it planning to do?

Su Jin never intended to constantly control Xue Chiluo, forbidding it everything. Since she’d brought it out, she let it play freely.

With Xue Chiluo gone, Su Jin steadied herself and began focusing intently on extracting wood essence.

For her first attempt, she failed. Halfway through the spell, her mind suddenly flustered and the flow broke.

It’s fine, Su Jin comforted herself, and began the second attempt.

This time, as she pushed to eighty percent, a strange rustling sound suddenly came from deep in the woods.

Su Jin… broke again.

Su Jin glared angrily at the direction of the sound. She saw nothing, so she could only start over.

This time, she finally extracted her first strand of wood essence.

A half-foot-long strand, as thick as a baby’s finger, was drawn out and pulled by her spiritual sense into a large-bellied porcelain jar.

But that rustling sound came again.

It sounded like something crawling.

This time, Su Jin was truly angry.

She sent a direct mental command to Xue Chiluo: “Clear away whatever’s making noise around me and disturbing my cultivation.”

She didn’t really expect Xue Chiluo to do anything substantial—just scare off the annoying things.

Xue Chiluo had already tunneled ten li away underground.

But because of its special bond with Su Jin, no matter how far it went, it could clearly hear her mental call.

So it instantly stopped its earth-digging, turned around, and tunneled back toward Su Jin.

It had already spotted something interesting—it wanted to go have a snack.

But now Ancestress needed it.

Sigh. No choice.

It could only finish Ancestress’s task first, then return for its snack.

Xue Chiluo turned back, returning in less than a dozen breaths.

It circled Su Jin, patrolling, and quickly spotted its target.

It was a creature with a flat triangular head and a body like an unhatched tadpole, about half a palm’s length—similar in size to itself.

Xue Chiluo crept closer quietly.

The thing smelled delicious.

It curled up beneath the leaves, seemingly watching Ancestress from afar.

What audacity.

How dare it covet its own Ancestress?

Without hesitation, Xue Chiluo tunneled into the soil near the creature’s tiny black tail, then sucked.

The once-vibrant black tail instantly withered into a dried tadpole.

Its mother lost a offspring in that instant, unaware of who had done this!

Xue Chiluo shot out of the soil, leapt onto the dried tadpole, plunged its roots into it, and slurped—soon the entire dried husk was reduced to powder and fully absorbed.

Not a single speck remained.

After devouring one black tail, Xue Chiluo found the taste delightful.

It began searching around Su Jin for more black tails.

Two, four, six, eight…

The more it ate, the more addicted it became.

So delicious!

Su Jin sensed Xue Chiluo’s return. Ever since it came back, the rustling noises around her vanished.

She could finally focus fully on her spell.

One strand, two strands… within less than ten, the ancient tree began to wither, its leaves turning yellow.

Su Jin quickly stopped drawing from it.

She switched to the neighboring ancient tree.

In over an hour, she collected over a hundred strands of wood essence.

A bountiful harvest indeed.

“Xiao Jin, come eat!” Su Jian called out.

Su Jin hurried over, clutching the porcelain jar.

“Big brother, I collected a hundred strands of wood essence.”

“Well done,” Su Jian praised himself. “Come on, let’s have a nice, pretty lunch first, then keep collecting wood essence this afternoon.”

Su Jin stared at him blankly. “You and the two uncles spent the whole morning catching shrimp and clams—you didn’t collect a single strand of wood essence.”

“You little girl, always worrying. Your uncles and I can collect wood essence far faster than you.”

You think we came here for nothing? Of course not.

After lunch, we’ll just do a little work—we’ll gather enough for the next ten days,” Su Jian explained with a smile. In truth, they hadn’t gathered in a long time; they’d been too excited and spent half the morning catching grass shrimp.

Next time, they wouldn’t do that.

Wood essence is far more useful than elixirs, and Su Jian still uses it.

But since wood essence is easy to collect, it’s cheap, so Su Jian normally buys his from outside. He hadn’t personally collected wood essence in years.