Chapter 128
Su Jing followed Xiao Jingang to the vine-covered area on the west side of the hillside, where she saw a patch of vines, about waist-high, trembling slightly.
It is a sixth-order wisteria spirit: thick, dark green vines intertwine and weave into a dense clump, but the pale purple flowers that should be blooming at the top droop listlessly, with the edges of the petals curled and yellowed.
Many leaves are covered with pinholes, and brown withered spots are around the holes. Even worse, tiny black insects, about 1 centimeter long, with oily bodies, are hiding in the gaps of the vines. They are burrowing under the vine surface and gnawing at it, leaving a light brown bite mark where they crawl, which makes people's scalp tingle.
"It's a parasitic infestation; if we delay any longer, the vines will wither and die."
Su Jing squatted down and gently touched a damaged vine with her fingertips—she could feel the worms wriggling under the skin, the vine's resilience had obviously decreased, and juice seeped out with a gentle squeeze, carrying a faint fishy smell, indicating that the infestation had been going on for some time.
At this moment, Xiao Jin darted to the front of the vines, used its little paws to pry open a vine that was entangled in the ground, and pointed to a pale white cocoon inside. Inside the cocoon were several larvae that were about to hatch. If they were not removed in time, the pest infestation would spread even faster.
Su Jing immediately assigned tasks: "Number 3 and Number 4, put on your miniature tool kits, use soft brushes to sweep away the adult insects on the leaves and vines, then use tweezers to pick out the cocoons. Be gentle and don't break the vines."
Number 5: Take 10 ml of Qi-gathering grass juice from the space, dilute it with 5 ml of purified water, and put it into a spray bottle;
I'll deal with the bugs under the skin; I'll freeze them with my ice-based abilities, but I won't damage the vine itself.
The robots responded in unison. The robotic arm of No. 3 switched to a soft brush with a brush head finer than a needle tip and carefully swept across the back of the leaf. The black adult insects were swept into the transparent tray that had been laid out in advance. No. 4 used micro tweezers to pick up the cocoon and gently pulled it out from the gap in the vine. Each movement was as slow as disassembling a precision instrument.
Su Jing activated her ice-type ability, her fingertips tinged with a faint white frost—this time she deliberately controlled the intensity of her ability, only allowing the frost to cover the surface of the vines infested with insects, without penetrating inside.
The moment the frost touched the vine, the black insects beneath were instantly frozen, their bodies stiffening in place, no longer feeding. She gently scraped the frozen area with her fingertips, and the insects, frozen into tiny ice pellets, fell into the tray. Only a very faint trace of frost remained on the vine's surface, melting away within seconds without causing any damage.
"Spraying some diluted aerosol grass solution can prevent subsequent pest infestations."
Su Jing took the spray bottle handed to her by No. 5 and sprayed it evenly onto the cleaned vines. The light green liquid adhered to the surface and was quickly absorbed. The vines trembled slightly, as if they were absorbing nutrients.
Little Jin wasn't idle. It burrowed into the gaps in the vines, sniffing around with its little nose. Whenever it found a hidden cocoon, it would chirp twice at Su Jing, and its little paws would gently part the vines that were covering it.
On one occasion, it even found a worm nest at the base of the vine that was bigger than a fist, containing dozens of larvae. If it hadn't discovered it, the larvae would have completely destroyed the wisteria spirit's root system after hatching.
Su Jing used her ice-type ability to freeze the entire insect nest, and then had Number 4 carefully remove it with tweezers to make sure that no larvae were missed.
The cleaning lasted about 40 minutes. The tray was filled with a thick layer of adult insects and cocoons, and the condition of the vines had improved significantly: the originally wilted petals gradually unfolded, and the pale purple color became bright again.
The leaves with holes stopped withering, and even a faint new green peeked through the edges; the vines trembled more vigorously, as if expressing joy.
Suddenly, the main vine of the wisteria demon slowly rose, and a drop of pale green liquid condensed at its tip—
The liquid was transparent, shimmering with tiny lights, and floated in front of Su Jing. It smelled of a rich, fresh herbal fragrance. The communicator immediately popped up a notification: [Sixth-tier Wisteria Demon Gift: Spirit Herb Acceleration Liquid (High-tier), Effects: Shortens the maturation period of low/medium-tier spirit herbs by 50%, increases the activity of high-tier spirit herbs, can be used directly in the space planting area].
"Is this a thank-you gift? Thank you."
Su Jing reached out and took the growth fluid. The moment the liquid landed in her palm, it automatically condensed into a pale green crystal bead without spilling.
The wisteria spirit's main vine gently touched the back of her hand, as if in response, and the new flower at the top fully bloomed, its pale purple petals shimmering in the light, full of vitality.
At this moment, the communicator popped up a golden notification again: [Tier 6 Wisteria Demon's Affinity: Stranger → Friendly, Current Number of Friendly Demons: 12 (Tier 1 Little Goldfish, Tier 2 Green Deer, Tier 3 Black Bear, Tier 1 Spirit Grass Rat, Tier 1 Grass Guardian Rabbit, Tier 4 Spirit Fox, Tier 5 Rock Sheep, Tier 1 Gray Rabbit Demon, Tier 2 Red-bellied Squirrel Demon, Tier 1 Hedgehog Demon, Tier 2 Grass Guardian Sparrow, Tier 6 Wisteria Demon), Overall Score Remains at 100 Points, Ranked 1st in the Dungeon].
Su Jing put away the growth liquid, thinking to herself: This bottle of growth liquid can be used on the seedlings of the thousand-year-old spiritual herbs in the space, which can accelerate their growth period, and ensure the subsequent refining of high-level pills.
She glanced at the countdown timer on the communicator [Remaining time: 26 hours and 15 minutes] and decided to stop searching for new monsters to increase her favorability with—12 monsters were already far beyond the mission requirements. Now, it was more important to protect the spiritual herbs and monster eggs in the space to avoid any accidents in the final stage.
"Xiao Jin, we should go back now. We need to guard the supplies carefully from now on."
Su Jing picked up Xiao Jin, and Xiao Jin nestled into her arms, rubbing against her palm, clearly tired as well.
The five robots organized their tools. Robots 1 and 2 pushed a tray full of cleaned insect carcasses (intended to be taken out of the vine area for deep burial to avoid secondary pollution), while robots 3 and 4 activated scanning mode, alerting to any movement around them. The group headed towards the direction of the previous Spirit Herb Valley.
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