Chapter 116
Su Jing stood in the center of the spiritual herb cluster. The layer of decaying leaves beneath her feet was slightly raised by the roots of the spiritual herbs. The pale red hemostatic grass had fine serrations on the edges of its leaves, and the back of the leaves was still covered with undried dew. With a light touch, it would roll off onto the decaying leaves.
The pale green aerosol grasses are denser, with white buds at the top like tiny stars adorning the blades. They sway gently in the breeze, releasing a faint, fresh grassy fragrance.
Little Jin darted merrily among the spiritual herbs, its short golden fur brushing against the blades. Every now and then, it would pick up a Qi-gathering herb and run to Su Jing, its black eyes sparkling as if it were seeking praise.
"With so many spiritual herbs, it would take too much time to dig them up manually; we need to use robots."
Su Jing reached out and patted Xiao Jin's head. Her fingertips brought up the "Space Device Call" interface on the communicator, and she selected five advanced mining robots that had been calibrated before—she deliberately switched their "mining mode" to "spiritual herb mining adaptation mode".
The alloy claw at the end of the robotic arm has been replaced with a soft silicone claw to avoid damaging the roots of the medicinal herbs during excavation.
As the command was issued, a pale blue spatial light membrane lit up at the edge of the herb cluster. Five silver-gray robots stepped out one after another, their tracks gently landing on the decaying leaves without damaging the surrounding herbs. Simultaneously, a message popped up on the display screen: "Herb excavation mode activated. Target: low-level herbs. Priority: intact root system > leaves > flower buds."
Su Jing gestured for the robots to "spread out," and the five robots immediately split into two groups: three robots were responsible for "digging," their soft silicone claws precisely gripping the soil around the roots of the spirit herb, gently lifting it up, and digging out the spirit herb completely along with a small amount of humus, avoiding breaking the roots.
The other two robots are responsible for "classification and temporary storage". After the excavation robot delivers the spiritual herbs, the scanner of the classification robot quickly scans the grass leaves and instantly distinguishes between hemostatic herbs and qi-gathering herbs. The hemostatic herbs are placed in the red plastic box on the side of the robot, while the qi-gathering herbs are placed in the green box, which is lined with moist moss to prevent the spiritual herbs from dehydrating and withering.
"Keep some mature spiritual herbs as seeds."
Su Jing walked to the sorting robot, picked out 10 Qi-gathering grasses with plump flower buds from the green box, and selected 10 hemostatic grasses with thick leaves from the red box. She put them into the silver seed box she carried with her. The moisturizing cotton inside the box could retain moisture and ensure the seed activity.
Little Jin came over and gently touched the seed box with its little paws. It seemed to understand that these should be kept. Instead of nibbling on the spiritual herbs as before, it squatted down next to the box, watching the few small flying insects that passed by warily, like a little guardian.
During the excavation process, the robot occasionally encountered spirit herbs with deep roots. One Qi-gathering herb was growing in a crack in a rock half-buried in decaying leaves. The silicone claw failed to pull it out on the first try, so the excavation robot immediately adjusted the angle of the robotic arm and switched the claw to "soil-loosening mode".
First, gently dig away the soil around the stone, then slowly dig out the spirit herb along with a small piece of stone. When it is handed over to the sorting robot, it even uses a small brush to sweep away the pebbles on the grass leaves. The movements are so delicate that they don't seem like those of a cold machine.
Seeing this, Su Jing couldn't help but adjust the robot's "spiritual herb protection level" to a higher parameter on the communicator to ensure that subsequent excavation would not damage more spiritual herbs.
As time passed, the spiritual herbs on the layer of decaying leaves gradually decreased, while the sorting robot's box became increasingly full.
Xiao Jin would occasionally run to Su Jing's side and bring her a few spiritual herbs that she hadn't noticed growing under the vines. Each time, Su Jing would take out a small piece of compressed biscuit crumbs to feed it. The favorability progress bar of "Xiao Jin" on the communicator also slowly increased from "30% intimacy" to "50% intimacy". Occasionally, a prompt would pop up saying, "The monster Xiao Jin has become dependent on you. You can try to guide it to participate in simple auxiliary work."
"It's been about an hour. Let's take a count."
Su Jing glanced at the time on the communicator and gestured for the robot to pause. The sorting robot immediately stopped working, and statistics popped up on the screen: [Hemostatic Grass: 80 plants (78 with intact roots, 2 with minor damage);]
Aeromonas: 120 plants (115 with intact root systems, 5 with minor damage);
A total of 200 plants were produced, meeting the expected target.
She checked several slightly damaged medicinal herbs, finding only minor creases on the edges of the leaves that wouldn't affect their future use or planting, before nodding in relief.
Next was storage. Su Jing focused her mind and sequentially stored the red and green boxes from the sorting robot into the "Medicinal Plant Storage Area" of her space.
The medicinal plant area within the space had already been divided into zones. Hemostatic herbs were automatically placed in the "Healing Herbs Zone," and Qi-Gathering herbs were placed in the "Cultivation Auxiliary Herbs Zone." The damp moss in the boxes was automatically replaced by the space's unique "constant temperature and humidity layer" to ensure the long-term preservation of the medicinal herbs. A system panel popped up with a notification: ["Duplicate medicinal herbs (200 plants) have been stored in the space. Status: Fresh. Can be used to refine Healing Pills/Qi-Gathering Pills, or to cultivate new seedlings."]
After putting away the robot, Su Jing patted the dirt off her hands and prepared to tidy up her backpack to continue exploring.
Suddenly, Xiao Jin ran to her feet, gently bit her trouser leg with its little paws, and pulled her towards the northwest of the herb patch. Its dark eyes held a clear expectation of "keep going," and its ears would occasionally turn in that direction, as if it had heard something.
Su Jing's heart skipped a beat. She remembered that the northwest direction of the spirit herb cluster on the map was marked as a "low-level monster activity area." Perhaps Little Gold had discovered a new clue—
She took a step forward, pulling along with Xiao Jin's grip, and the map on the communicator zoomed in on the northwest, where a small white dot could be seen moving slowly in the distance.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com