Chapter 73: Xue Chiluo's Snack Record

"I'll go take a look later. If buying a Cultivation Technique from the family school's library is cheaper, I won't buy from those outside shops anymore," Su Jian said.

"Yes, yes, yes. When the time comes, Su Jian, you call me to go with you," Su Yu immediately beamed. He wanted to see it, but he was a bit afraid to go alone. If he went in a group with Su Jian, it would give him courage.

"Big Brother, where are we going? When can we stop so I can practice extracting Wood Essence?" Su Jin asked.

"Soon, soon. Once we reach that small stream ahead, that will do. There's also a thatched pavilion over there, very suitable for a picnic," Su Jian said.

Su Jin: So we came out for a picnic?

"The grass shrimp and river clams from that stream are delicious. Really," Su Jian told Su Jin.

"Alright, let's go there then," Su Jin said. Hearing her own big brother's strong recommendation, she became interested too.

They hadn't walked long, covering only about five or six li, before they saw a babbling stream, calf-deep and over a zhang wide.

Walking another five or six hundred meters upstream, they spotted a small thatched pavilion. The pavilion was built of stone, but its roof was made of thatch.

The pavilion looked rather simple, but inside it was spacious and clean, very suitable for resting.

"Xiao Jin, we will extract Wood Essence nearby today. We won't go far," Su Jian said.

"Okay. Then I'll go practice the spell at the ancient tree outside the pavilion first."

"Xiao Jin, you absolutely must not run far," Su Jian reminded again.

"Rest assured, rest assured," Su Jin said. She left the pavilion herself. Su Jian and the others took their tools, but instead of extracting Wood Essence, they went into the small stream to catch shrimp.

Watching Su Jian and the three adults wade into the river to catch shrimp like three big children, Su Jin helplessly sighed. She found an ancient tree and planned to cultivate the spell.

She had just raised both hands when the spell hadn't even started to be cast.

Xue Chiluo had already shot out with a whoosh, diving into the earth and vanishing from sight.

"Don't run far," Su Jin transmitted to it with her divine sense.

"Okay, Ancestor," Xue Chiluo sped along while burrowing.

Who knew what it wanted to do?

Su Jin didn't intend to control Xue Chiluo constantly, forbidding it from doing anything. Since she had brought it out, she let it play to its heart's content.

With Xue Chiluo gone, Su Jin steadied herself and began to focus intently on practicing the extraction of Wood Essence.

Su Jin practiced this spell, and for the first time, she actually failed. Halfway through the spell, her mind suddenly panicked and broke off.

It's fine, Su Jin comforted herself, and started to cast the spell a second time.

This time, when she had exerted herself to eighty percent, a strange rustling sound suddenly came from deep within the woods.

Su Jin... broke off again.

Su Jin glared angrily in the direction the sound came from. She really didn't see anything, so in the end, she could only start over.

This time, she finally extracted the first strand of Wood Essence.

A half-foot-long strand of Wood Essence, as thick as a baby's finger, was drawn out by her and pulled directly by her divine sense into a large-bellied porcelain bottle.

But then that rustling sound came again.

It sounded like some ghostly thing crawling.

Su Jin was truly angry this time.

She directly transmitted a thought to Xue Chiluo: "Clear out the ghostly things making random noises around me and disturbing my cultivation."

Actually, she didn't really intend for Xue Chiluo to do anything specific; she just wanted it to drive away some messy things.

Xue Chiluo had already burrowed underground and was about to run ten li away.

But its relationship with Su Jin was special; as long as Su Jin transmitted a thought to it, no matter how far it ran, it could hear clearly.

So it immediately stopped its earth burrowing. Then it turned its head and burrowed back toward Su Jin.

It had actually discovered something very interesting long ago and wanted to go over for a snack.

It didn't expect Ancestor to need it.

Sigh, no choice.

It could only finish the task Ancestor entrusted first, then come back for a snack.

Xue Chiluo rushed back in the opposite direction; it took less than ten breaths.

It circled around Su Jin on patrol and quickly found the target.

It was a thing with a flat triangular head and a body like an unhatched tadpole. Its length was about half a palm, roughly the same size as Xue Chiluo.

Xue Chiluo quietly approached.

This thing even smelled fragrant.

It was curled up and lurking under the leaves, seemingly spying on its Ancestor from afar.

This fellow was truly dreaming big.

How dare it covet its own Ancestor?

Xue Chiluo said nothing more, burrowed into the soil layer near that small black tail, and then sucked.

The small black tail, originally full of vitality, instantly withered into a dried tadpole.

Its mother body also lost a sub-body in that instant, not knowing who did this bad deed!!

Xue Chiluo quickly drilled out of the dirt, jumped onto the dried tadpole, and drove its roots into it. Slurp, slurp, the dried tadpole, which quickly turned to powder, was also sucked empty by its root system.

Not a single crumb was left behind.

Having eaten one small black tail, Xue Chiluo felt the taste was quite good.

It began to search around for small black tails, using Su Jin as the axis.

Two, four, six, eight...

The more it ate, the more addicted it got; the more it ate, the more excited it became.

So delicious!

Su Jin felt Xue Chiluo return. Since it came back, that strange rustling sound around her was gone.

She could finally devote her full attention to cultivating spells.

Thus, one beam, two beams... before ten beams had appeared, an ancient tree began to wither. Even its leaves started turning yellow.

Su Jin quickly gave up trying to stroke it.

She switched to the ancient tree next door.

In a little over an hour, she had actually collected over a hundred beams of Wood Essence.

Truly a bountiful harvest.

"Xiao Jin, come eat," Su Jian began calling out.

Su Jin quickly grabbed the porcelain bottle and ran over.

"Big Brother, I collected a hundred beams of Wood Essence."

"Well done," Su Jian praised himself. "Come, let's first have a delicious and beautiful lunch, then continue collecting Wood Essence in the afternoon."

Su Jin looked at him speechlessly. "You and the two uncles spent the whole morning catching shrimp and gathering river clams; you didn't collect a single beam of Wood Essence."

"You little girl, you always worry too much. If your two uncles and I wanted to collect Wood Essence, we could do it much faster than you."

"Do you think we would come here for nothing? Never."

"After we eat, if we work for just a little while, it will be enough for our consumption over the next ten days or so," Su Jian explained with a smile. Actually, everyone hadn't had a group meal in a long time; this time they were just too excited, so they spent half the day catching grass shrimp.

Next time we come, it won't be like that.

Wood Essence is far more useful than pills; Su Jian is still using it now.

However, Wood Essence is easy to collect, so it isn't expensive. Therefore, the Wood Essence Su Jian usually uses is purchased from outside. He hasn't come out to collect Wood Essence personally for several years.