Chapter 42: Healing Spiritual Herbs

Upon reaching the second level of the herb garden, Su Che saw top-quality spiritual herbs such as Blood Ginseng, Purple Snow Lotus, Red Flame Fruit, and Sky Blue Star. There were also lower and middle-grade spiritual herbs that were over five hundred years old, planted here as well.
The value of a spiritual herb depended not only on its innate grade but also on its age. For example, although the Seven-Star Grass was a lower-grade herb, a thousand-year-old specimen of it was worth far more than any top-grade herb that was only a hundred years old.
After walking for a long distance without seeing any fields of supreme-grade spiritual herbs, Su Che guessed that they must be in a special area on the second level of the herb garden, where they were carefully protected with utmost care.
Linglong’s residence was a two-story building facing the sun on the front and nestled against a mountain on the back. It was the most exquisite building Su Che had seen in the herb garden.
Entering the living room on the first floor, Linglong said, “Please sit first. I’ll go fetch that spiritual herb.”
Su Che nodded and sat down on the chair to the right of the table. Soon, Linglong came down from the second floor carrying an extremely large flower pot.
The pot’s diameter was four feet, and including the soil inside, it weighed at least 200 pounds. Yet in Linglong’s hands, it seemed weightless. Of course, this was not surprising—not only was she already at the eighth level of Qi Cultivation, but even Su Che had the strength to lift over a thousand pounds with ease.
Inside such a large pot grew only a very small spiritual herb, less than a foot tall. Its shape was quite unique—its long leaves shimmered with a faint golden light, not resembling real leaves but rather something like golden mist given form.
In the Immortal Prison, Lao He was flipping through a catalog of spiritual herbs and explained to Su Che, “The Flowing Cloud Golden Cup is a leaf-type spiritual herb. Although its innate grade is supreme, its rarity far exceeds that of most top-grade herbs. A herb fifty years old can already sell for hundreds of thousands of spirit stones at an exorbitant price…”
Unfortunately, this “Flowing Cloud Golden Cup” no longer had a bright golden glow. Its long leaves drooped weakly, losing their graceful movement. It was clearly gravely ill, on the verge of withering. It was barely clinging to life thanks to high-grade spirit stones and herbs buried in the soil of the pot.
“It cries every day. It’s so pitiful. Please save it,” Linglong said, looking at the frail herb with deep sorrow and concern.

“Save it!” She didn’t know how many times she had said those words, yet she could only watch helplessly as the little plant gradually weakened and withered…
Su Che asked softly, “This spiritual herb must hold extremely special meaning for you, right?”
Su Che believed that a girl of Linglong’s age must be quite emotional. If it were merely because of the herb’s high value and rarity, it wouldn’t have made her so sad—there must be some special emotion tied to it.
Sure enough, Linglong nodded gently and said softly, “It was my mother’s beloved possession during her lifetime. For some reason, after my mother passed away two years ago, it began to weaken… It’s all my fault for not taking good care of it…”
No wonder! Su Che nodded inwardly, thinking: She’s not so bad. At least she has a relic left by a loved one to hold onto her emotions. His own wife, unborn child, biological parents, siblings… All vanished in that damned catastrophe—there’s no way he could find even a trace of anything left…
Thinking of this, Su Che took a deep breath and said gravely, “Give it a try. I can’t promise anything.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Linglong’s voice was gentle. In truth, she didn’t have much hope either. Just as Su Che had predicted, she was desperate and would ask anyone who claimed to have talent in growing spiritual herbs for help.
Su Che knew nothing about healing spiritual herbs. Even Han Youming in the Immortal Prison, who had some talent in this area, wasn’t qualified to treat such a rare plant. Even the head gardener said even elders in the herb garden were at a loss.
Su Che walked around the flower pot a few times, pretending to observe carefully. In reality, he couldn’t see anything. He discussed it with Lao He in his mind: “She said the herb began to wither after her mother died. Could it be that this plant has gained sentience? That once its owner dies, it loses the will to live?”
“It’s not that mystical,” Lao He replied. “If this herb had gained sentience, it wouldn’t escape my senses. Besides, the higher the grade of a spiritual herb, the longer its growth cycle. It takes tens of thousands of years to develop consciousness. Look, this herb is only over a hundred years old.”
“I can’t tell. Whatever you say, I’ll believe it,” Su Che thought to himself.

Lao Hei chuckled and said, “We don’t have any other skills either. We can only rely on the healing function of the Immortal Prison—what you call that warm current—to give it a try. If even that doesn’t work, then we’re really stuck.”
“Alright.”
Su Che stretched out his right hand, carefully parting the slender leaves of the ‘Flowing Cloud Golden Cup’ to gently touch its stem.
Standing nearby, Linglong felt both delighted and extremely nervous. After all, she had asked many people to help save this spirit herb. Aside from the Elder of the Medicine Garden, no one else dared touch it—they were all afraid of accidentally killing this barely surviving herb…
This young man named Su Che dared to act just like the Elder of the Medicine Garden. That meant either he was highly skilled and bold, or he was reckless and ignorant!
That’s why Linglong was both hopeful and nervous, even muttering to herself, “You brat! If you kill it by being careless, just wait till I deal with you!”
“Ah!”
As she was thinking, a golden leaf of the ‘Flowing Cloud Golden Cup’ fell—of course, it was knocked off by Su Che. Linglong couldn’t help but exclaim in shock.
“Damn it…” Su Che was also shocked and cursed under his breath. This thing was way too fragile—was it almost completely rotten? How could such careful handling still cause a leaf to fall?
Linglong struggled to control her urge to swing her sword at him and tightly covered her mouth, fearing that another cry might scare him. If his clumsy hands trembled, they might even break the stem.
Terrified and nervous, Linglong couldn’t help but ask softly, “Should we just give up?”
“Don’t disturb me!” Su Che gritted his teeth and spoke to her through telepathy.
He used telepathy to avoid speaking aloud and exhaling close by, which might blow this dying herb into a pile of leaves, leaving only a bare stem—something that would be irreversible…
At this point, he was in a difficult situation. Su Che knew that if he failed to save this rotten herb, pulling back his hand would surely cause more leaves to fall.
Ignorance was also a crime. If he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have dared to act rashly!
Fortunately, Su Che was mentally strong. No matter how nervous he was, his right hand didn’t tremble at all. His thumb and index finger firmly grasped the stem of the spirit herb.
“If you don’t give me face, I’ll crush you to death and perish with you!” Su Che silently threatened, as the strange warm current from the Immortal Prison already appeared.

A gentle stream of warmth originated from the center of his brows, flowing slowly down Su Che’s right arm, through his two fingers, and finally into the stem of the “Flowing Cloud Golden Cup”… At first, there was no reaction, but after a dozen breaths, Lao He sensed something… “Master, it’s working,” Lao He said in a low voice, not daring to shout at such a moment. “I can feel that this stream of warmth has begun to nourish it.” “Is that so?” Su Che was pleased. “It’s good if it works. I knew it—Xianyu itself is extraordinary, and any ability it possesses must also be extremely rare!” The warm stream continued to flow into the spirit herb. After a short while, Lao Heremindeded, “That’s enough. This thing can’t take in too much nourishment; giving too much might even kill it. I think about ten more sessions, spaced three to five days apart, should be enough to revive it.” “Ten sessions, spaced three to five days apart, will be enough to revive it…” Su Che silently repeated Lao He’s assessment, already planning something else in his mind. The warm stream had stopped, but Su Che still pretended to hold the stem solemnly, muttering silently, while his free left hand formed various hand seals… Of course, these actions were useless; they were just pretenses. Su Che believed that such matters shouldn’t seem too simple or easy—it was better to prolong them and complicate things to make them more convincing. Standing nearby, Linglong couldn’t breathe a sigh of relief. She was growing increasingly nervous, yet her anticipation grew stronger as well. It seemed this little guy was quite capable—having not created the most terrifying danger after all this time, maybe he really had some skills! Another fifteen minutes passed before Su Che decided it was time to end this first “treatment.”