Chapter 118

Su Jing followed Xiao Jin's footsteps through the woods, with the blue deer always by her left. The light blue "natural aura barrier" around her acted like an invisible protective film, completely isolating the surrounding fragrance of grass and trees from the potential aura of ferocious beasts.

Neat footprints were left on the layer of decaying leaves underfoot. Occasionally, startled small flying insects would dart out from under the leaves, but they dared not approach the barrier. The faint roars of beasts in the distance were fading away, clearly indicating that the ferocious beasts had not noticed this moving "safe zone".

Little Jin ran in the lead, its short golden fur shimmering in the sunlight filtering through the tree canopy. Every now and then it would stop and look back to make sure Su Jing and Qing Lu were keeping up. Its round ears would occasionally turn toward the herb patch, as if to confirm its location.

After walking for about 20 minutes, Xiao Jin suddenly sped up and darted to a hollow that was half-hidden by vines, where it excitedly barked.

Su Jing parted the vines and looked down—this depression was more hidden than the previous herb patch, shaped like a shallow bowl, with a layer of more fertile dark brown humus at the bottom, densely covered with low-level spiritual herbs: the pale red hemostatic grass had thicker leaves with healthy luster at the edges.

The pale green Qi-gathering grass buds were fuller, with the white buds at the tips faintly glowing, indicating a higher quality than those harvested previously. In the center of the depression, several distinctive seedlings stood out—only 10 centimeters tall, with clearly defined veins on their pale golden leaves, gleaming with a warm luster, and delicate golden edges on the leaves. The soil around their roots was slightly raised, exuding a faint spiritual energy, just as the communicator had indicated: [Millennium Spirit Grass Seedling (Low-Tier): Can be cultivated into a high-tier medicinal plant, a core ingredient for refining high-tier pills, requires constant temperature and humidity for preservation].

"There are actually seedlings of a thousand-year-old spiritual herb. We must be careful when picking them so as not to damage the roots."

Su Jing squatted down and gently touched the golden leaves with her fingertips. The leaves felt more supple than ordinary spiritual herbs, and the golden edges on the leaves gave off a slight warmth when her fingertips brushed against them.

She summoned five mining robots from her spatial storage, but deliberately replaced the silicone claws of the robotic arms with softer sponge claws. She then switched modes on the communicator: "Use the robots to harvest ordinary spiritual herbs, and I will manually harvest the thousand-year-old seedlings. You are responsible for clearing away the weeds around them, and don't touch the soil around the seedlings."

Upon receiving the instruction, the robots immediately dispersed to the edge of the depression. Their sponge claws gently pried open the soil around the roots of ordinary spiritual herbs, digging them out intact along with a small amount of humus. When transferring them to the sorting box, they would also use a small brush to sweep away the loose soil on the leaves, making their movements even gentler than before.

Little Jin also came to the center of the depression, circled the thousand-year-old seedlings twice, and gently pried away the weeds around the seedlings with its little paws, but did not touch the soil, obviously knowing that these seedlings were precious.

The blue deer stood at the edge of the depression, head down, gently sniffing the air. Despite the air barrier, it instinctively remained alert to its surroundings. Its light blue fur shimmered in the sunlight, like a quiet guardian.

Su Jing took out a specially made small silver shovel from her spatial storage—made from silver crystal fragments, with sharp edges that wouldn't hurt anyone. She then activated a trace of ice-type ability, condensing a thin layer of ice around the seedling's roots to slow down the loss of soil moisture. Then, she carefully used the silver shovel to draw a circle around the seedling's roots, slowly digging away the soil to reveal white roots covered in fine hairs, each one intact and unbroken.

"Slow down, slower." Su Jing held her breath, picked up the first thousand-year-old seedling along with the surrounding black soil, and placed it into the transparent cultivation box that had been prepared in advance. The box was lined with the space's unique "spiritual soil" and had a constant temperature and humidity layer, which could simulate the seedling's original growth environment.

She dug up 10 seedlings in succession, carefully placing each one into a separate cultivation box. The inside of the box lid was labeled with "Millennium Spirit Herb Seedlings (Nos. 1-10), Cultivation Temperature 25℃, Humidity 60%".

The collection of common spiritual herbs was also underway, and the robot's sorting box was quickly filled: 60 hemostatic herbs, 80 qi-gathering herbs, plus 10 thousand-year-old seedlings, totaling 150.

After Su Jing checked the root system of the last common spiritual herb and confirmed that it was undamaged, she stopped the robot. A statistical notification popped up on the communicator: [Collection: 60 Hemostatic Herbs, 80 Qi-Gathering Herbs, 10 Millennium Spirit Herb seedlings, totaling 150 items;]

The total number of spiritual herbs is 350 (140 hemostatic herbs, 200 qi-gathering herbs, and 10 thousand-year seedlings). The numbers are clear and exactly as expected.

Next, the herbs were categorized and stored. Su Jing first put the hemostatic grass and qi-gathering grass from the robot's sorting box into her space—the hemostatic grass was automatically classified into the "healing medicinal plant area," joining the previous 80 plants. The system automatically separated them with a light red light membrane and labeled them "mature spiritual herbs, which can be used to refine healing pills."

The Qi-Gathering Grass was categorized under "Medicinal Plants for Assisting Cultivation" and placed together with the previous 120 plants, with a light green light membrane labeling it "Mature Spiritual Herb, which can be used to refine Qi-Gathering Pills".

Next were the seedlings of the thousand-year-old spiritual herb. Su Jing didn't throw them directly into her spatial storage. Instead, she first created a separate area in the "Medicinal Plant Cultivation Zone" of her space, using her mind to manipulate the spiritual soil into 10 small pits, each corresponding to a cultivation box. Then, she embedded the seedlings along with their cultivation boxes into the pits.

Open the lid and let the roots slowly adapt to the spiritual soil. The system prompts: [The seedlings of the Thousand-Year Spiritual Herb have been stored in the exclusive cultivation area. The constant temperature and humidity system has been activated. The survival rate is 98%. It is expected to enter the growth period in 3 months and can be used for seed cultivation.]

"That's a safer approach. We can refine the mature pills and keep the seedlings for planting, so we won't have to search for spiritual herbs everywhere anymore."

Su Jing breathed a sigh of relief and put the empty cultivation box back into her spatial storage. Little Jin ran to her feet, carrying a Qi-gathering grass that had just fallen to the ground in its mouth, and looked up at her, barking as if to ask for praise;

The blue deer also came over and gently rubbed its forehead against her shoulder. Its pale blue antlers gleamed, clearly indicating that it was also happy about the successful collection.

Just as Su Jing was about to pack her backpack and continue exploring, Xiao Jin suddenly stopped, its ears perked up, its dark eyes fixed on the northeast direction of the depression, and it made a soft "woo-woo" sound in its throat.

Su Jing immediately became alert and used her mental energy to sense things—although there was a barrier of natural energy, the fact that Xiao Jin reacted meant that what was approaching was unusual.