Chapter 11
Chapter 11: You Know Too Much
Qian Qi originally planned to send Su Xing Le away.
But when he learned she was staying on the mountain overnight, he wavered…and in the end, decided to stay.
Partly because he didn’t trust her alone in the dark. In his eyes, Qian Qi might be a menace, but she was still a girl. Staying on Back Mountain alone at night wasn’t safe.
Mostly because the dorms were already locked, and neither of them could go back anyway.
Su Xing Le squatted beside the experimental plot, staring at the tiny sprout in the huge patch of soil. “What did you plant?”
“Fire Qilin Lotus,” Qian Qi said, mixing compound fertilizer nearby.
Then she added, dead serious, “Stand farther away. Its roots have teeth. The attack power is insane. It can bite your neck clean through.”
Su Xing Le leapt back two steps. His gaze snagged on the bandage around her neck. “Did it bite you?”
Qian Qi let out a low, eerie laugh. “Yeah. It bit me to death.”
Su Xing Le: …
He didn’t believe her. Not really.
He watched her dump fertilizer into the soil, then casually toss a bloody chunk of magic beast meat—about two jin, close to a kilo—right beside the sprout.
“That’s it?” he asked, baffled.
“Mm.” Qian Qi opened her lightbrain camera and started recording.
A minute later, Su Xing Le noticed the soil shifting.
“Uh… what’s happening?”
He swallowed hard, then instinctively edged behind Qian Qi while still craning his neck to peek. Terrified, but unable to stop looking.
Qian Qi narrowed her eyes and tightened her grip on the hoe.
On camera, the soil rippled—then several thin lotus roots burst out like black whips snapping free. Along their surface ran rows of tiny tooth-spikes. They groped in the air, searching, and then—bam—wrapped around the meat and flung it upward.
The heavy chunk was shredded midair. Root teeth opened and closed with wet, grinding snaps, chewing through flesh like starving beasts. Blood and scraps sprayed, cold and sharp, spattering the dirt.
Su Xing Le sucked in a breath so hard it hurt.
Qian Qi’s face went faintly gray.
Because the original owner’s death memories surged up like a wave—violent, sudden, and way too vivid.
That night, “Qian Qi” had brought sulfuric acid, intending to corrode the Fire Qilin Lotus.
But the plant’s roots were brutally developed. A mature Fire Qilin Lotus could have enough underground roots to strangle two adults. The moment “Qian Qi” poured the acid, seven lotus roots exploded out of the ground, tooth-spikes bared, and attacked.
“Qian Qi” reacted fast, swinging her hoe. She smashed at the roots again and again. But the roots’ outer defense was tougher than most E-rank magic plants. She struggled like mad and managed to break six of them.
Then, as she tried to deal with the seventh, an even thicker root surged up from beneath and sank its teeth into her neck.
The pain drove her into a frenzy. She smashed the last two roots apart, clutching the Fire Qilin Fruit as she tried to stumble down the mountain for help.
But she had already lost too much blood.
Her strength failed. She collapsed. The bleeding didn’t stop.
And in the end, she died.
Back in the present, Qian Qi rubbed her temple, which had started to ache.
Honestly, if the original owner had bothered to read a little more and learned a Fire Qilin Lotus had at most eight main roots, she could have stayed alert and survived.
Then Qian Qi wouldn’t have been stuck in this stupid world.
“Hey—look,” Su Xing Le whispered. “They went back.”
Qian Qi looked over. The big roots, having devoured the meat, slipped back into the soil.
But a moment later, smaller roots crept out—thinner, weaker. They pecked at the leftovers the bigger roots had missed, then pressed their sharp tips into the ground and greedily drank the magic beast blood that had soaked into the dirt.
When they were finished, they sank away too, leaving the surface still.
Qian Qi pulled out a spray bottle and misted the area around the sprout. Then she stepped into the plot.
Su Xing Le’s heart jumped. “Junior Qian! Careful!”
“It’s fine.” She held up the bottle. “I sprayed inhibitor.”
Fire Qilin Lotus hated sodium bicarbonate solution. With a special sodium bicarbonate inhibitor, the roots wouldn’t emerge.
Qian Qi took out a ruler and measured the sprout. In the short time they’d been watching, it had grown a full centimeter—and it still wasn’t done.
“So magic beast flesh and blood accelerates growth,” she murmured.
She recorded the numbers, then summoned the System panel and began writing a report based on her earlier analysis of the Fire Qilin Lotus.
Su Xing Le peeked over her shoulder and couldn’t hide his surprise.
He was a Magic Beast Department student, and he wrote dissection reports all the time. He didn’t understand Qian Qi’s magic plant data, but he could see the structure—clean, rigorous, professional. Not something a slacker should be able to produce.
“Junior Qian…” he said carefully. “Are you secretly a top student?”
Qian Qi glanced at him, eyes cool. “You know too much.”
Su Xing Le’s mouth snapped shut so fast it might’ve made a sound barrier.
Qian Qi checked the time. It was just past midnight. Using her lightbrain as cover, she analyzed three more magic plant seeds, recorded their planting methods, committed them to memory, and then hoisted her hoe again.
Back to work.
When Li Shu Yun came up the mountain the next morning, Qian Qi and Su Xing Le were already gone.
Li Shu Yun stopped at the plot and stared.
The Fire Qilin Lotus had already formed a small bud.
Her beautiful face froze, shock written plain across it.
Qian Qi did this?
The bud looked far too healthy.
Li Shu Yun had spent seven full days—using medicines and nutrient water—just to coax a bud out of her own Fire Qilin Lotus back then, and even that bud had been yellow and malnourished, ready to wither at any moment.
But Qian Qi had done it in two days.
Li Shu Yun couldn’t process it.
What did Qian Qi do?
She was supposed to be a slacker.
Was it pure luck?
After a long moment, Li Shu Yun took out a sealed bag and collected a soil sample. Then she examined the fertilizer bags nearby, trying to calculate what Qian Qi had used based on how much was missing.
But Qian Qi had been growing other magic plants too.
Li Shu Yun’s effort was doomed from the start.
Days later, Qian Qi’s Fire Qilin Lotus matured.
She stared at the center of the flower disk, where three plump, bright-red Fire Qilin Fruit had formed, and tears of excitement welled up.
Heaven really did reward hard work. She had grown it. Not only that—Fire Qilin Lotus normally produced one fruit, but hers had produced three, and they looked perfect.
Qian Qi sprayed inhibitor and stepped closer, eager to examine the Fire Qilin Fruit up close.
The moment she approached, a thick lotus root burst out of the soil and lunged straight for her.