Chapter 88: Low-Grade Exotic Spiritual Plants

Su Changyin: "Uncle Chief, take it easy."

Less than half an hour later, the Chief Uncle arrived at his cave entrance, wielding a large club.

"Su Changyin, you little brat, get out here!"

Hearing his uncle chief's familiar bellow, Su Changyin's vision went black.

Damn it!!

He rushed to the front door of his cave, ignoring all decorum, and flung it open.

The Chief Uncle's club swung straight at him.

Su Changyin immediately turned and ran like hell.

The Chief Uncle kicked open the door and gave chase.

The uncle and nephew chased each other for barely a moment before the nephew was caught.

Su Changyin looked to the sky and wailed: "Uncle Chief is a Golden Core cultivator, bullying me, a mere Purple Mansion!"

Ouch, my butt really got hit.

It's swollen already.

The uncle and nephew finally stopped their chase. Su Changyin sat slumped on a stone chair, one cheek resting against it, face full of grievance. Opposite him sat the Chief Uncle, calm and composed.

"Uncle, why did you come here and hit me right away?"

"You raised a Xue Xue Chiluo in our clan lands and didn't tell me a word? Should I praise you instead of beating you?" Su Chengzong shot back.

"I was just worried that if too many people found out, it might get exposed," Su Changyin whimpered.

"So am I one of those 'too many people'?" Su Chengzong asked again.

Su Changyin stayed silent.

Afraid of getting beaten!

"You don't know that everyone in Dongcheng already suspected there was a Xue Xue Chiluo lurking there?"

Otherwise, why wouldn't the insect plagues dare enter Dongcheng?"

"Back then, when the chiefs of several clans gathered, we all speculated which family had acquired a Xue Xue Chiluo."

"We probed each other for hours but couldn't figure out which one."

"Since even we clan chiefs didn't know, this Xue Xue Chiluo must either have been raised by someone outside our clans—or acquired by accident."

"Or else it's the work of some disobedient descendant who raised one and didn't report it to his family. All the clan chiefs were guessing and grumbling—and I, your uncle, even slapped my chest and swore it couldn't possibly be one of our Su clan's disobedient brats."

"And then you, the disobedient brat, show up."

"I'd barely said that out loud for five days before you came along and slapped my face with it!!"

"Tell me, if I don't beat you, what else should I do with you?"

The Chief Uncle growled through clenched teeth.

Su Changyin thought: I didn't even know you clan chiefs were gathering to study this stuff.

"Tell me, how did you get that Xue Xue Chiluo?" Su Chengzong rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you stole it. Our ancestors are all proud people—they couldn't handle a Great Shaman from the Mu Witch Tribe coming back from the Netherworld to knock on our door."

The "knock on the door" joke is really popular now.

"How could I have stolen it? Even if I wanted to, I never had the chance," Su Changyin immediately retorted.

Su Chengzong heard this and just rolled his eyes again, thinking: I knew you weren't a good kid!

"If you didn't steal it, did you trick someone into giving it to you? Have you been digging through ancient ruins lately?"

Companion Witch Spirits aren't necessarily smart—they might be fooled.

"No, let me tell you the truth. Your daughter-in-law comes from the Mu Witch Tribe, right? She gave birth to four children for our fourth son. The eldest is six now and has started cultivation at the clan school."

"So she planted a batch of red ginseng."

"Ahem, and then a Xue Xue Chiluo hatched!"

"Wait, say that again—what seed did the Xue Xue Chiluo hatch from?"

"Red ginseng seed."

"How could a red ginseng seed hatch a Xue Xue Chiluo?" The Chief Uncle was stunned.

"It didn't hatch from the red ginseng seed? Then from what seed did it hatch?" Su Changyin, confused, asked back.

"I don't know," the Chief Uncle frowned. "Red ginseng seed? Xue Xue Chiluo! No wonder—the sect has been ordering us to grow so many low-grade exotic spiritual plants."

"What are low-grade exotic spiritual plants?" Su Changyin was now equally confused.

"You know most of the low-grade spiritual plants we grow in our herb gardens are local varieties, right?" the Chief Uncle asked.

"Yes, isn't it because the sect wants us to use local spiritual plants to replace rare ones in their pill formulas, to cut costs across all pill tiers?" Su Changyin replied blankly.

"At first, I never suspected anything."

"But then your little granddaughter hatched a Xue Xue Chiluo from red ginseng seed—that doesn't add up. Red ginseng is a local low-grade exotic spiritual plant."

"What do you mean 'doesn't add up'?" Su Changyin asked.

"Ah, I get it now. That's why!"

"Uncle Chief, what are you getting now?"

"I finally understand why, right after we established contact with the Mu Witch Tribe and finalized the marriage alliance, they sent us so many local low-grade exotic spiritual plants—and insisted we plant them."

"And the sect kept stressing that we must grow those low-grade exotic spiritual plants."

"At the time, I wondered: if they're just local low-grade varieties, why call them 'exotic'?"

"The offspring of Great Shamans' companion witch spirits aren't exotic!"

"Now I realize—the 'exotic' really means 'exotic.' These so-called local low-grade exotic spiritual plants are actually the seeds of the Mu Witch Great Shamans' companion witch spirits."

"These 'exotics' hide among ordinary low-grade spiritual plants, and only sprout when they encounter descendants with special Mu Witch bloodline."

"The Mu Witch Tribe really plays deep games. If not for your child hatching a Xue Xue Chiluo, I'd never have seen the truth."

"So in the end, this matter comes down to my little granddaughter inheriting an extraordinary Wood Witch bloodline," Su Changying concluded. "It seems I haven't toiled in vain. My daughter-in-law is truly capable."

"Wait, if I recall correctly, isn't your little granddaughter's biological father your good son?"

"That one has already been expelled from the clan. From now on, Clan Leader, just pretend he never existed," Su Changying said with particular calmness.

"Oh my, so ruthless? Aren't you afraid he will resent you later?" Clan Leader Su couldn't help but laugh.

"Not resenting him is already being fair enough to him. My daughter-in-law is someone I schemed for nearly twenty years to bring into the family. The young girl is so lovely. Back then, I even thought that if the eldest wasn't willing, I still had the second and the third; after all, rich water shouldn't flow into outsiders' fields.

I could still get a good daughter-in-law.

But the eldest said he was willing. To make the eldest worthy of his wife, I fully supported his Foundation Establishment.

Later, after the second and third had married and had children, and his wife was already pregnant with their second child, he suddenly said he wasn't willing anymore. He said he was going to take care of his first love!!

Fortunately, my fourth grew up.

Otherwise, I might have really, in a fit of excitement, killed my own son."