Beware Of Chicken

Cheat? A technique that told one everything a Spiritual Herb needed? That was even more impressive than having a method for figuring it out! It was a technique on par with the abilities of the Divine Sovereign Shennong, the Yan Emperor!

That kind of technique… it was a Heavenly treasure that every man who grew Spiritual Herbs sought.

To fools, being able to ask a plant how it’s grown would seem a limited, useless technique. And to most it would be, because even if one knew how a plant was grown, growing it was another matter entirely.

The cultured soil, the exacting detail, the temperaturentrol formations, and the Qi to nurture the Spiritual Herbs—Shou knew many cultivators who would look at a garden and say, “I’ll either find them or buy them.” Or the more thuggish ones would try to take them, with no scruples in their race for the Heavens.

That, for most, was more efficient.

And even those who would see its value might hesitate to dedicate time to learning it because it would not directly improve them. It was a technique of pure knowledge.

How utterly sublime.

“What a Heavens shaking scripture,” he whispered.

“Something like that,” Jin said with a wry smile.

Shou left it at that. There was a limit to intruding on another’s techniques, especially when he had no proper rmpense to begin to make such a request at the moment.

His mind was still reeling as he sat down at the round table… when he paused.

He blinked, his eyes focusing on an unassuming twig poking out of the soil. It had a slightly reddish tint to it, and had a feeling of fiery Qi. If it was just that, Shou would havenfidently said it was some variation of the Pearlescent Flamebud—most had no idea what the First Shoot of the Spiritual Herb looked like.

But there was something deeper beneath the fire. Something of wood, something of water…

“...Rou Jin,” Shou asked. “What Spiritual Herb is that?”

Shen Yu, who had been blessedly rather quiet other than the occasional boasting statements Shou had largely tuned out, raised a brow.

“You don’t know either?” the man asked. Ge, Yukong, and Minyan all turned to look at the Herb.

“Hmm,” Ge said, stroking his beard. “It looks similar to some I have seen, but… it is rather strange.”

Minyan, probably the most well-travelled of them besides Shen Yu, spoke next. “It is nothing like I have seen, either.”

All of them turned to Jin.

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“All I know is that itʼs not dangerous, so I’ve just been letting it grow,” he said with a shrug.

It was a Spiritual Herb Shou was unfamiliar with. Excitement blossomed in Shou’s soul.

“You said you have no methodology. May this old man show you his methodology to deduce the nature of a Spiritual Herb without destroying it?”

“As long as it doesn’t hurt it… Please,” the young man said, clearly interested.

Shou rose from his seat, a smile on his face.

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Jin Yukonguld only smile with amusement as her husband and Rou Jin got into it. Both of them were immensely passionate about herbology, and the grin on Shou’s face and the light in his eyes was as fetching as it always was.

“Aaand we’ve lost them,” Shen Yu said with a smirk on his face.

“Ah, thatʼs Shou for you,” Ge replied. Both of the men were utterly relaxed, to the point of nearly uuth uncaring.

Shen Yu only truly acted like this around those he trusted utterly, and Ge was happy to play along. Shou had obviously thrown any sort of propriety to the wind as well. Only Tianzhe Minyan stayed apart—she was obviously still studying Shen Yu and his grandson, but her thoughts were her own, hidden behind her veil.

That her Qi was calm and that she wasn’t glaring holes in Rou Jin said enough, however.

The tour of Rou Jin’s house had been mildly interesting. The most impressive part had been the mortal with his steamntrolling formation—Liu Bowu was his name. Hismmand of the arts without any Qi of his own wasmmendable, and his observations and implementation of the power of steam, though used for mortal ends, was indeed interesting enough; she would have to experiment, but the formation itself was quite rudimentary.