NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14: Long-life Root × Small Beast
Chapter 14: Long-life Root × Small Beast
Li Wen Ze noticed Li Xi’s unusual behavior and followed her gaze.
Then he too was shocked.
At this moment, the spirit field had fully recovered, with the ashes of the weeds completely absorbed as nutrients.
But spots of green appeared on the dark brown soil.
Upon closer inspection, these green spots appeared exactly where the weeds had been distributed in their memory.
“Could these green things be…” Li Wen Ze said with difficulty, “weeds?”
“Why?” Li Xi mumbled.
The two approached and crouched in the spirit field. Indeed, the green sprouting from the ground were the small buds of those weeds.
Li Xi really wanted to know what was different about these weeds, so she reached out to dig around the green buds to investigate.
As she dug, she was surprised to find that the roots of these weeds were very long.
Many secondary roots branched out from the long main root, and these roots were covered with tiny hairs that firmly gripped the surrounding soil.
Li Wen Ze also came to help, digging deeper and deeper. They dug nearly five feet down and three and a half feet across before unearthing the entire root system of the weed.
The root system of this grass was much larger than its above-ground part! It was almost as if it grew upside down.
It wasn’t until she saw the full view of the weed that Li Xi vaguely remembered when she was very young, her father holding her and telling her to be careful not to let a certain grass take root in the spirit field. Once this grass took root, it would be a great harm. The characteristics matched this weed perfectly.
“Long-life root, this grass is called long-life root!” Li Xi remembered!
“It takes root when it falls, has a developed root system, the root is primary and the leaves are secondary, the leaves may die but the root persists – this is the long-life root.” Her father had repeated this sentence while holding her.
“So it’s the long-life root, that makes sense. But the long-life root is even more formidable than we’ve heard. The speed at which the burnt leaves regrow is too fast!” Li Wen Ze also had a sudden realization.
Of course, all farmers knew about the long-life root, but Li Xi had just started farming this year, and Li Wen Ze had given up long ago. Even if they had observed their family members farming before, it was always on well-tended spirit fields where precautions against long-life roots were taken early on.
Moreover, to prevent mature seeds of long-life roots from other places spreading to good spirit fields, the villagers had initially put in great effort to clear this grass and would have people responsible for regular cleaning. So this grass was actually quite rare in Taohua Village.
So where did the rampantly growing long-life roots in Li Xi’s spirit field come from?
Li Xi straightened up and surveyed the surrounding land.
Suddenly, she noticed something unusual.
There was a darker spot at the edge of her spirit field, which looked like a very small hole.
The hole had been at an awkward angle before and was hidden by weeds. Li Xi and Li Wen Ze’s attention had been on the weeds, so they hadn’t noticed it.
But under these circumstances, the hole was very suspicious.
If there was a hole on the ground elsewhere it would be normal, but how could a small hole appear on a spirit field?
Li Xi walked over quickly, intending to dig open the hole.
“Be careful, there might be a spirit beast in the hole. Let me do it,” Li Wen Ze blocked Li Xi and stepped forward.
“Be careful too, Brother Wen Ze,” Li Xi nodded.
Li Wen Ze cautiously didn’t dig directly into the hole opening, but started from the side. During this process, there was no abnormality in the hole. After digging bit by bit, a small gray-black beast with all its fur standing on end appeared at the bottom of the hole.
This small beast had low spiritual power and had been affected by the earlier fireball technique. It was now on the brink of death.
Li Wen Ze pulled the small beast out from the bottom of the hole. As he moved it, many things fell from the beast’s dense fur.
Upon closer inspection, these fallen items included fragments of underwater grass, grass seeds, and dried mud and sand.
“It seems this small beast brought the long-life root here,” Li Wen Ze showed Li Xi the things that had fallen from the beast.
“Flowing down from the river, washed ashore, and just happened to find this spirit field to make its home. What luck,” Li Xi joked self-deprecatingly.
Li Wen Ze comforted her, “Now that we’ve discovered what kind of weed this is, the village will surely have a solution.”
“That’s good, but all our previous efforts were in vain,” Li Xi’s usually cheerful round face couldn’t hide her disappointment.
“What should we do with this small beast?” Li Wen Ze quickly changed the subject seeing her disappointment.
“It brought us such trouble and caused such a loss to my spirit field. Might as well let it stay in the spirit field forever as fertilizer,” Li Xi waved her hand.
“Uh,” The children in the cultivation world are really fierce. Li Wen Ze was slightly stunned when he heard her say this, then reacted and muttered in his heart.
He had thought that since the small beast was so cute, Li Xi would feel compassion for it. He had even prepared to persuade her not to keep it.
“Oh, right, Brother Wen Ze, please help me kill it. It’s too cute, I can’t bear to see it die when I’ve seen it alive. I don’t have the heart to do it myself,” Li Xi turned her back to Li Wen Ze.
Ah, how is this not compassion?
Also, is “can’t bear to see it die when I’ve seen it alive” used like this?
Li Wen Ze was dumbfounded, but he still applied a slight force with his finger, ending the already dying small beast’s life.
Really, whenever he’s with this little girl Li Xi, he keeps breaking character. The aloof and mysterious aura he had worked so hard to cultivate – was it easy for him?
Li Xi must be specifically here to counter him!
He had initially thought to give the beast’s corpse to Li Xi, but on second thought, he decided against it. Might as well finish the job completely. Li Wen Ze directly used the fireball technique, thoroughly scattering the small beast over the spirit field.
“Is Brother Wen Ze done?” Li Xi was still facing away from him.
“It’s done, you can turn around,” Li Wen Ze said, “Our urgent task now is to go check the banks of Qingxi River. Since this small beast came all the way from the riverbank, there must be long-life root seeds dropped along its path. Let’s go take a look to confirm, then go back to notify the village.”
“Brother Wen Ze is always so thorough!” Li Xi hadn’t even thought of this. She had been thinking about rushing home to tell her family about her spirit field. Hearing Li Wen Ze say this, she immediately felt it made sense and began to deploy her usual skills, showering Li Wen Ze with exaggerated praises.
“That’s natural,” Li Wen Ze tried to maintain a calm expression on his face as Li Xi praised him, but the corners of his mouth kept turning up uncontrollably.
Li Xi was inwardly smug. When she wanted to seriously please someone, no one could resist her. Look at how Brother Wen Ze is smiling!
Nailed it~