Chapter 11

Chapter 11: You Know Too Much

Qian Qi planned to send Su Xing Le away, but when he heard she would spend the night on the mountain, he hesitated again and again, then chose to stay. He really didn’t feel safe about leaving Qian Qi alone. In his eyes, no matter how much of a menace she was, she was still a girl, and the mountain at night wasn’t safe.

Of course, the main reason was that the dorms were closed at this hour. Neither of them could get back in.

He crouched by the test field and stared at a single tiny sprout pushing up from a large plot of dirt. Curious, he asked: “What did you plant here?”

“Fire Qilin Lotus,” Qian Qi said as she mixed a compound fertilizer. She glanced at him and warned: “You should step back. Its roots have teeth and hit very hard. They can bite straight through your neck.”

Su Xing Le jumped back a few steps. Noticing the bandage around Qian Qi’s neck, he asked: “Did it bite you before?”

Qian Qi gave a chilly little laugh and said: “Yeah. It killed me.”

Su Xing Le fell silent. He didn’t believe her, but the way she said it made him swallow hard.

Qian Qi poured the fertilizer into the soil, then dropped a big chunk of bloody Magibeast meat, about two jin, around a kilo, beside the sprout.

He blinked and asked: “That’s it? You’re done?”

“Yup,” Qian Qi said. She opened the Light-Brain recorder and aimed it at the sprout to keep notes.

After a short while, Su Xing Le noticed the soil in the test field start to move on its own.

“What’s going on?” he whispered. He peeked from behind Qian Qi, acting out exactly what it means to be scared but still want a front-row seat.

Qian Qi narrowed her eyes and tightened her grip on the hoe.

In the camera, the earth heaved, then a few long, thin lotus roots punched out of the soil. They looked like black whips lashing the air. Each root had two rows of tiny sharp teeth on the skin. After feeling around, they suddenly wrapped the chunk of Magibeast meat and flung it into the air.

The tough, solid meat got shredded at once by the whipping roots. The small teeth opened and chomped like hungry animals. It felt like beggars starved for days had broken into a royal feast. After they stuffed themselves, they kept tossing the precious food around, showing off a wild, sick joy.

Cold bits of bloody meat splattered through the air. Su Xing Le sucked in a sharp breath.

Qian Qi’s face also went a bit pale, because the original girl’s death flooded back into her mind without warning.

That night, “Qian Qi” had carried sulfuric acid to melt the Fire Qilin Lotus. But the lotus’s roots were very developed, especially when it was mature. Roots buried under the ground could strangle two adults. When “Qian Qi” poured the acid, seven lotus roots shot up at once, teeth bared, and attacked.

She reacted fast, raised her hoe, and smashed at the roots. The surface of those roots was tougher than most E level Magiplants. She used everything she had to smash six of them. When she went for the seventh, a thicker root burst from underground and clamped down on her neck.

The pain drove “Qian Qi” mad. She broke the last two roots with the hoe, grabbed the Fire Qilin Fruit tight, and tried to go down the mountain for help. But she had already bled too much while fighting. She collapsed, and her blood kept flowing. In the end, she died.

Qian Qi rubbed her aching temple and thought: [If the original had read more and known Fire Qilin Lotus can have up to eight main roots, and guarded against that, she wouldn’t have died. And I wouldn’t have ended up in this stupid world.]

“Hey, they went back!” Su Xing Le cried.

Qian Qi looked up. The big roots had withdrawn into the soil after eating the meat. Soon, a few much thinner roots eased out. They picked at the scraps left behind and nibbled them, then pricked the ground with their tiny tips and greedily sucked up Magibeast blood from the soil. After they were full, they slipped back underground and went still.

Qian Qi took a spray bottle from her pocket and misted the area around the Fire Qilin Lotus sprout. Then she stepped into the test field.

Su Xing Le tensed and said in a rush: “Qian Qi, be careful!”

“It’s fine. I sprayed an inhibitor,” she said. Fire Qilin Lotus hates sodium bicarbonate. If you spray a special Sodium Bicarbonate Inhibitor, the roots won’t pop up.

She took out a ruler and measured the sprout. In just that short time, it had grown 1 centimeter. It was still growing.

It seemed Magibeast blood and meat could speed up Magiplant growth.

Qian Qi wrote down the data, then called up the System Panel. Following her earlier analysis of Fire Qilin Lotus, she began writing the related report on her Light-Brain.

Su Xing Le stole a look and blinked in surprise. He was a Magibeast Department student, so he sometimes wrote dissection reports. He couldn’t understand all her Magiplant data, but he could tell the structure was careful and neat. It didn’t look like something a poor student would write.

He leaned closer and whispered: “Qian Qi, are you secretly a top student?”

Qian Qi gave him a cool look and said: “You know too much.”

Su Xing Le straightened up and pretended to zip his lips shut.

Qian Qi checked the time. It was just past midnight. Using the Light-Brain screen as cover, she analyzed three more Magiplant seeds and recorded each planting method. When she finished most of the notes, she hoisted her hoe and returned to steady, hard work.

By early morning, when Li Shu Yun came up the mountain, Qian Qi and Su Xing Le were already gone.

Li Shu Yun stood by the test field and stared at the Fire Qilin Lotus inside. A tiny flower bud had already formed. Shock filled her pretty face.

Was this grown by Qian Qi?

Wasn’t that bud too healthy? Back then, it took Li Shu Yun seven full days plus a lot of potions and nutrient solution to get a bud to form. Even then, it was yellow and weak, about to wilt at any time.

But Qian Qi had done it in only two days. The bud looked great. Li Shu Yun could hardly digest the fact.

What exactly had she done?

She was supposed to be a poor student. Was this just dumb luck?

Thinking of Qian Qi’s confident look two days ago, Li Shu Yun hesitated, then took out a sealed bag and collected a bit of soil.

She also checked the nearby fertilizer bags and tried to guess what Qian Qi had used from how much was missing.

Sadly, Qian Qi was raising other Magiplants at the same time, so Li Shu Yun couldn’t get a clear answer.

A few days later, Qian Qi’s Fire Qilin Lotus matured.

Staring at the three plump, bright red Fire Qilin Fruits nestled in the center of the lotus, Qian Qi’s eyes filled with happy tears. Heaven rewards hard work. She had finally grown a Fire Qilin Lotus. Not only that, a plant that usually bears only one fruit now had three, and all looked amazing.

Qian Qi sprayed the inhibitor and stepped closer to take a good look. The moment she neared the Fire Qilin Lotus, a thick lotus root burst through the soil and struck straight at her.